Ebelskivers (or as Kari calls them "Appleskittles")

A friend of mine had posted on her blog her first attempt at making Ebelskivers. I thought that they looked like WAY too much work, so I brushed it off as a "No Way will I ever make those" food post. A while has passed and the more I have thought about them, the more I realized that I would really like to try them. There's just one problem - you need a special pan and the place I found the pan was at Williams-Sonoma. (Top end stuff.) Well, I waited and waited for them to go on sale. Finally, they got down to 60% off and, of course, I had a coupon. So, I did it -- I bought the pan. It got here on Monday and that night I made Ebelskivers. It is like a light puffy round (like a donut hole) pancake. Most people put a filling in them - jam, jellies, fruits. I tried jam and got a resounding "YUCK!" Then I made them plain with no filling and the kids LOVED them. They worked well dipping into syrup. Once you got the hang of turning them over in their little pancake "well" it wasn't hard at all. I doubled the batch and it made enough for Monday night and 2 mornings of breakfast. The last of them were eaten this morning and I was asked to make more while everyone is at school so they can have them every morning! I think I might just do that - I know I'll feel like a better mom feeding them warm Ebelskivers than pop tarts and cereal!

Ebelskivers
by the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen


2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
4 eggs, separated (you need both parts of the eggs)
2 cups milk
4 Tbs butter, melted (plus more for cooking)
Fillings: jam, peanut butter, ganache, chocolate chips, or fruit
Syrup, powdered sugar, or whipped cream for serving


In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the milk and the 4 Tbs of melted butter. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.


In another bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the whites into the batter in two additions.


Using the pastry brush, brush melted butter into each well of Ebelskiver pan. Set over medium heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 Tbs batter into each well. Put 1 tsp of the filling into the center of each pancake and then top with 1 more Tbs of batter. (We skipped the filling part and just put 2 Tbs of batter into each well.) Cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about another 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter and filling. Serve immediately with syrup or whipped cream. Makes about 40.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Here is probably the most delicious chocolate cake EVER! Sometimes we eat it with ice cream, but mostly we eat it just plain. It's even too good for frosting! I don't remember where I got this recipe, but I know it was from someone in Relief Society (maybe Dayna or Jolene). We served it at a Relief Society dinner with ice cream and homemade fudge sauce. It was sooo good!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
by Circleville Relief Society

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soda

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup milk

Add eggs, oil and milk to dry ingredients and beat well; then add,

1 cup boiling water

Mix then pour into a large greased sheet cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Oven Baked Pasta

I found this recipe on the blog My Kitchen Cafe. I changed a few things to make it more enjoyable for my family. (I added ground beef and used more cheese.) The family loved it and a few of them even got up to get seconds. That's always a plus!

Oven Baked Pasta (Originally Baked Ziti)
by My Kitchen Cafe adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1 lb ground meat
16 oz cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 lb pasta (preferably ziti or penne; I used bowtie since it's all I had)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely minced (about 5 teaspoons)
1 (28-oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-oz) can crushed tomatoes (my kids don't like chunks!)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil (if fresh is used, add it to the sauce at the end after it's taken off the heat)
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream (if you substitute it with whole milk, increase the cornstarch to 2 teaspoons and the cooking time by 1 to 2 minutes)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated or cut into 1/4-inch cubes (my family likes cheese so I added more)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, brown the ground meat; remove meat from pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup of the parmesan cheese together; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot over high heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through (the pasta will finish cooking in the oven.) Drain pasta and leave in colander. Do not wash the pot.

While the pasta is cooking, heat oil and garlic, in the skillet used to brown the meat, over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, basil and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Take it off the heat (this is where you would add the fresh basil) and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the browned ground meat.

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream and transfer mixture to the now empty pasta pot. Set the pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce mixture, and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

Transfer mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheeses over the top. Cover the baking dish with foil that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve.