Ebelskivers!!!

Many, many moons ago, I worked at a restaurant that was well known for their Ebelskivers.  Ebelskivers are round Danish pancakes cooked in a special pan to make them round.  The recipe used at this restaurant was the best I have ever had and every once in a while I get a hankering for them.  A couple of weekends ago, such a time arose and I set about getting them prepped for a weekend breakfast.  This was the first time I was making this specific recipe for Kevin.  He had been hearing about them for years and just figured he was going to miss out on them since the restaurant is now closed.  Now that I have made them, I think they will be on the menu more often as they were enjoyed by all.

Now I just need to get my hands on the strawberry freezer jam recipe we used too and my life will be complete!

Fun on a Sunday

A recent Sunday morning found us enjoying some books.

And copying something we saw Murray doing on Sesame Street.  We're not sure where the boom part came from, but it's pretty fun to watch.

Uncle David Makes One Sweet Pie

Last year I had five winter squash plants.  I ended up with almost 30 buttercup squash that I needed to figure out what to do with.  I chopped up and froze a few pounds and canned the rest.  Instead of pureeing the flesh and then canning it, I cut it in to cubes and then canned it in some water.  This helps the squash get hot enough throughout the jar for food safety reasons.

I have been making soup with the canned squash for the most part, but experimented with muffins and a pie recently.  I am using it in place of pumpkin.  The muffins turned out really moist and less dense than their pumpkin counterparts.

In making a pie with homemade canned squash, I was concerned about it being too runny so I took extra care to get rid of as much liquid as possible.  Using the same technique as with the muffins, I drained the squash through a sieve and let it hang for about 30 minutes.  I then put the squash through the finest blade of my food mill.  A one quart jar of cubed squash made the same amount of puree as one can of pumpkin (15 ounces).  I then made the pie as I normally would.  The recipe I like to make uses maple syrup instead of sugar and heavy cream instead of sweetened condensed milk.  This makes for a much lighter and less sweet pie, which I really like.

The squash variety that I grew was Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash.  This is a buttercup squash with dark orange flesh and a sweet flavor.  I will be growing it again this year because it is quite prolific and tastes wonderful.  This seed has been selected by the Podoll family of Prairie Road Organic Seed for the exact traits I mention here and they have done a wonderful job.  If you are not sure which type of winter squash to grow this year, this should be it!  You can get their seed directly from them as of this year.  Help support a small farmer.

Swimming

We signed Ella up for swim classes again this year, not terribly excited about what she might get out of it after last years experience, but we have been very pleasantly surprised.  Ella takes a class for 1-3 year old children.  I can't even imagine having to be a teacher for that varying of an age range.  Last year there wasn't much in the form of actual teaching, but it was a nice time for her to be in the pool with only 9 other kids and their parents.  This year, her teacher is very hands on and works on specific skills which are being followed.

This is a daddy and me experience since I am not a huge fan of the water and they appear to be having a great time.  I heard that she even kicked, paddled after a ball and jumped off the side from a sitting position last week.  Pretty exciting!!

The Cat That Won't

We had the most beautiful weekend here and spent a fair amount of time outdoors and in shorts.  Ella even broke out her new sun hat which is still a little big for her.

Anyhow, we were in and out of the house a fair amount with the seed starting, sidewalk chalking and driveway laps.  At some point (possibly not even this weekend) we ended up with a new pet in the form of a little white mouse.  Sophia (our cat) is not the welcoming kind but eventually warmed up to the new arrival around midnight on Sunday night which is when we discovered our new addition.  The little, beady-eyed bugger was getting playfully batted around our bedroom and bathroom.  This was of course much to its chagrin and my own.  Not the most fun thing to get woken up to just as you drifted off.  We had to gently remind this visitor that it did not have a bed in our house and that even though our cat was not doing her job, it was not welcome here.  Note to self, our cat is not a cat at all.  Roe's I need to borrow Jada for a while.  At least I could count on her to perform her natural born duty.

Transplant Season Has Begun

What a treat it was to be able to start our first transplants in shorts with the garage open this year.  It was in the mid 60's and absolutely beautiful so we opened up a couple of beers, put on some Ruthie Foster and started making soil blocks to start onions, leeks and thyme.  Basically, we build our own mix from a recipe provided by Eliot Coleman from a book I am using as one of my instruction manuals.  The nature of this mix makes the block be able to hold itself together as the seedling grows, it prevents root circling and there is no root shock when the plants go in the ground.  We'll see how it goes!

Setting up the transplant rack

There are two 48" shop lights per shelf with one warm and one cool bulb in each fixture.  There is a heat mat on the second shelf with a thermostat to help with germination.  Hopefully we will have a real greenhouse in the near future.

Mixing the mix

Assembly line

Sowing seeds with my little helper

MEEEEEEAT!!

I need to keep reminding myself that someone is full on in mimic mode and watch what is said around this certain someone.  During dinner one evening, meat was presented to Ella accompanied by someone saying "MEEEEEEAT!!" in an effort get her excited to eat it.  Could have been me, could have been the cat.  We'll never know.  Nonetheless, whenever meat is handed across the high chair tray these days, it is received with excitement and "MEEEEEEAT!!".

Mmmmmm, pulled pork!

Yellowteen

Once upon a time, not too many years ago, a lovely little lady named Madeline came in to my life.  She is a bundle of fun and very special to me.  That comes from being the spitting image of her mother with her dad's "energy" I think.  When she started counting, somehow thirteen became tookie.  It was the funniest blooming thing and we all would get a good giggle out of it every time she said it.

There is a new counting queen in my life and she goes by Ella.  One to ten was where she started, but she didn't stop there.  Her favorite numbers are eighteen, nineteen and yellowteen????  Where the heck did yellowteen come from and how does one display that in numeric form?  Must come from the same place tookie does.  :)