Swedish Pancakes

Growing up in my house, my dad never made the traditional cakey pancake for breakfast. Instead, ours were more like crepes and were tiny. I never learned to like the American pancake as I do the Swedish one. Because the batter is runny, it is necessary to use a pan to shape the pancakes, a plett pan. The cast-iron pan works beautifully after it has been well-seasoned. The cream and milk can be substituted with non-dairy alternatives. I've sucessfully made these with soy milk. Serve these with berry jams, fruit, or maple syrup. I imagine that they can also make cute desserts when rolled with fillings like crepes and held together with toothpicks.

Swedish Pancakes

1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons butter, melted
pinch of salt

Begin heating the pan on medium heat.

Beat together 1/2 cup of milk and the eggs until slightly frothy. Add flour and beat until well-mixed and no lumps remain. Add remaining milk and cream and salt. Beat until mixed. Add melted butter (make sure the butter isn't too hot, or it will cook the egg in the batter).

By the time the batter is ready, the pan should be heated. You'll know it's ready when a droplet of water bubbles and evaporates when dropped on the pan. Spoon batter into each pancake divet and cook until the edges are browned and the surface of the pancake is starting to solidify. Flip pancakes with small spatula or butter knife and heat through for a minute or so.

When finished, place pancakes on a plate and continue with the rest of the batter. Serve with fresh fruit, berry jams, or maple syrup. Serves 4.

Spinach Papardelle with Tuscan Kale

Our farmer's market has many food items besides produce, including a fresh pasta stand. I love spinach pasta and wide noodles, so for me, spinach papardelle is a dream! This is a creation using the leftovers in the fridge plus a couple of items from the farmer's market.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped fennel bulb
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 bunch Tuscan (black) kale
parmesan cheese
1 pound fresh spinach papardelle

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add chopped garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add fennel and pepper and cook for 5 or so minutes until tender.

Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for the pasta and wash and slice the kale.

Add kale to skillet, cover and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package instructions.

Add pasta to skillet, mix and top with parmesan.

Caprese Salad

Very simple and very yummy! A good balsamic vinegar "makes" this salad.

1 tomato, sliced
1/2 log of mozzarella, sliced
handful of sliced basil
drizzle of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Layer slices of mozzarella and tomato around the perimeter of a plate until filled and top with basil, vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Meal Planning

Each Sunday, we make a list of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for the week so we can do our first shop at the farmer's market at 10am, followed by shopping at Trader Joe's and Safeway. We then stop at the natural grocer for anything that remains. As a guideline for weekly meal-planning, we've come up with these categories for dinners:

Sunday: Pizza (to use the week's leftovers)
Monday: Pasta (fresh from the farmer's market, can be raviolis or other pastas)
Tuesday: Fish with veggie and grains
Wednesday: Beans
Thursday: International/Experimental
Friday: International/Experimental

We re-arrange these as time and appetite permit. We tend not to plan for the entire week to leave room for leftovers or for the occasional night out. Besides pizzas, we find that good leftover base dishes include risottos, frittatas, and stir-frys. Hope this helps someone out there!

Brussel Sprouts a la Polonaise

Usually, when we prepare quick vegetarian dinners, we tend to stick to one-pot meals which contain all the nutrition in one preparation. However, on fish nights (usually once a week for us), we make either one large fillet for the two of us or two smaller fillets. We accompany the fish with a vegetable and a starch (carb). These brussel sprouts are quick to prepare and contain vegetable and some starch.

Brussel Sprouts a la Polonaise
The amounts can vary depending on appetite and taste.

1 bag of brussel sprouts
2 slices of bread
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to boil in a large saucepan. Clean brussel sprouts by cutting off ends and any loose leaves. Drop the sprouts in the boiling water and boil until they turn brighter green. Add the baking soda. The sprouts should turn a bright emerald color. Continue to boil until tender. Drain.

Whirl bread in a food processor to make bread crumbs. Heat butter in skillet and add bread crumbs. Fry until toasted.

Serve brussel sprouts hot topped with bread crumbs.

A slice of Salmon en Croute

This is a very delicious recipe which serves many people at a holiday gathering. The recipe can be found here

Herbed Salmon with Garlic Broccoli and Pilaf

We bought Steelhead Salmon from a local fish market. This fish is smaller than other commerical salmon you may find and is not as steaky. We pan-fried it in olive oil with an assortment of Italian herbs. The sides are broccoli sauteed in olive oil and garlic and a pilaf. For the pilaf, we cooked onion in a couple of tablespoons of butter until translucent. We then added the rice and cooked until the rice turned a lighter shade of white. Then we added two parts of veggie broth and cooked the rice for 15 minutes.

Chana Masala and Cabbage-Tomato Curry

A selection of recipes made this yummy dinner. The best Chana Masala recipe I have tried yet can be found here. This site has many wonderful Indian recipes which actually taste authentic. Indian food is my weakness, meaning that I love it, and I also can't cook it. But the Chana Masala recipe really is no-fail.

The Cabbage-Tomato curry I took from Heaven's Banquet, another one of my favorites.

With these two dishes, we had yogurt and mango chutney to round it out.

Amaretti

Amaretti
Originally uploaded by fidlerflute.

It's been a long time since I've posted, partially because of the holidays and also because I started a private, personal blog. Back to business!

I made these cookies as a gift for my husband's parents. We packed them with a pound of coffee and sent them off to Ohio. The recipe can be found here