My love of pancakes runs deep. If you’ve followed my other posts you know I love breakfast food, and apparently pancakes of all nationalities. I’ll just keep adding to the total.
Since they’re delicious, nothing to complain about here. This post contains affiliate links to items I use and love. If you purchase from one of my links I get a small percentage that goes to supporting This Homemade Home – at no additional cost to you. Win win. 😊
Ebelskiver Recipes
The recipe for Ebelskivers traditionally comes in two ways, those made with baking powder and those made with yeast.I’ve used a variety of recipes. Recently I tried this recipe a baking powder version from seriouseats.Com. I loved their whole site from recipes to techniques to the best cooking products to use. I’m not even being paid to say that 😊. But check it out, I think you’ll like what you see.The yeast Ebelskivers recipe is a little harder to set the batter, but you get a slightly higher rise in your pancake.
The Dutch pronounce æbleskiver as [ˈɛːpləˌskiːwɐ], the English language spelling is usually aebleskiver or ebelskiver (ee ble skeever). My daughter pronounces it evil skier – just because 😂.
The word æbleskiver literally means Apple slice, though there are no apples in Ebelskivers. I’m guessing it’s because it’s round like an apple. There’s my two cents.
Aebleskiver History
A fun little pancake, æbleskiver are solid like a pancake but light and fluffy like a popover.They are served often rolled in powdered sugar, with whipped topping, butter, maple syrup or fruit preserves. Usually as a set of three. Which I totally didn’t do, I filled that bowl right up!
As the story goes, a band vikings had gone to battle. After being hard hit and needing to regain their strength they retreated to eat and rest. Not having proper cooking wear they turned their hammered helmets upside down and cooked batter over a fire.
So the story goes.
They’re often served during the holidays as a special treat and for good reason, they are a bit time consuming, but delicious. To learn more, visit aebleskiver.com and Wikipedia.
The Best Aebleskiver Pan
Or ebelskivers pan (as the English would say). The best pan? Hands down cast iron. It’s heavy and distributes the heat evenly for a perfect crisp outside. The cast iron also provides a natural stick-resistant surface.
The first Ebelskiver pans going back 300 years ago, were made out of hammered copper. They didn’t cook as evenly, but are probably beautiful. So if you see one snatch it up because it’s rare and old.
The next best and more common, is the aluminum with non stick coating. I still have to coat quickly with a stick of butter for my Ebelskivers to turn easily.
As you can see this pan works well with gas stove tops. The key is to keep it cooking on medium – low. Otherwise it cooks too quickly to be able to turn and get a nice round, ball shaped pancake.
How to Cook Ebelskivers
One of my favorite experiences was to have the opportunity to watch my friend’s Danish grandma turning these little pancakes.There are a few tricks to the trade (which I am still perfecting), but this is seriously so fun I don’t mind.
First you need the ebelskiver pan, which has a set of 7 half spheres set in a circle.
I’ve found that my cookie dough scoop is the perfect size to fill each space. Almost to the top, but not overflowing.
A bamboo skewer or stick of some sort with a sharp end is the best for turning. My son helped take a few of these pictures where it required two hands for cooking – some are a bit blurry so I apologize.
You want to begin turning immediately after pouring the batter. The idea is to use the skewer to pull the cooked batter half way up to let the liquid batter run down into the pan.
Continue to pull the cooked portion up and let the liquid batter run down. Moving and turning the pancake until you finally turn it completely over and ends with a ball shaped pancake.
They aren’t all spherical, but I’m getting there. 😉 I don’t make these as an every day food, but they are fun to make and the kids get excited when I suggest them.
Non-Traditional Ebelskiver Toppings
I do like traditional Ebelskivers, but sometimes it’s fun to mix it up. My children love Nutella on top. I love Greek yogurt and honey. It also taste good with peanut butter and jam.
For more breakfast pancake ideas (because apparently that’s one of my favorite things to eat) also check out my healthy-kids-love-it Blueberry Blender Pancakes and
I was a grown woman before I heard the term Hootenanny. My husband with his southern roots had grown up eating it. Once I discovered it, hootenanny quickly became a favorite.
What is Hootenanny?
The Googled meaning of the word is different than what I expected. I fully expecting it to say ‘a southern pancake.’ But this is the official definition. noun
INFORMAL•US an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.
“we invited friends to a hootenanny in our backyard”
So my historical take on how this delicious oven pancake got its name?
People took it as a side for a potluck style meal during the party.
The first time I made this, I didn’t know about my husband’s childhood favorite – hootenanny. I found the recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook under, “Puffed Oven Pancakes” and decided to give it a try.
When I set it on the table my husband was extatic, I had made one of his favorite meals (by mistake 😅). I now only refer to it as hootenanny because let’s be honest, that’s much more exciting than puffed oven pancake.
My Favorite Reasons to Eat Hootenanny
It’s high in protein
Low in flour
Can easily be served sugar free
Can easily have 100% whole grain
It bakes in the oven so I can pop it in and get other things done while it’s baking.
If you want sugar you can always serve it with syrup. Which is how I serve it for my kids, but since too much sugar makes me sick I’ve started searching for great sugar free options that still taste good.
This is not so much a substitute for sugar as a different dish all together.
First top it with plain Greek yogurt (packed full of 5 strains of probiotics). Then sweeten it with honey and blueberries.
It tastes amazing!
It could be that I’ve been going without sugar for so long that it only taste good to me, but really it taste so good, it would taste good to the average sugar eater as well.
What a Sugar-free Diet Tastes Like
When you go off of sugar, food actually starts tasting better. Especially Vegitables, fruit and honey. By cutting out the highly processed sugar your taste buds adjusts and actually taste other foods better.
If you’ve already gone off of sugar, you’ll absolutely love this. If you’re thinking of taking the first step, this is a great dish to start with.
Hootenanny bakes in a large casserole dish – at least mine does – I’ve adjusted the recipe (details below) to make enough for a family of 6.
It gets all these beautiful, golden hills and valleys from the large amount of eggs. They’re is actually more egg than there is flower so making this sugar free, makes it a really great source of protein.
Sometimes I even add chia and flax seeds which are a great source of fiber, iron, calcium, fatty acids and antioxidants.
Without further adieu
Sugar Free Hootenanny
This will make two 8×11″ size casserole dish sizes. It is quite light and fluffy, my family of 6 leaves no left overs.
Hootenanny Ingredients for two 8×11″ Casseroles
2 Tbl butter
9 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups milk (you can use almonds milk, but it doesn’t rise as high)
1/2 tsp salt
Heat oven to 400 °
Butter the entire bottom of each casserole dish. Leave one TBS of butter in each dish and let melt in the oven while you mix the other ingredients.
Mix the rest of the ingredients with a hand held mixer until smooth.
Pull the hot casserole dishes out of the oven. Pour half the batter into the furst hot dish and the other half batter in the second dish.
Bake for 25 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.
Grilled cheese is an amazing food. Definitely in the top 10 of my favorite foods. The best part, they never have to get boring.
The classic combination of grilled cheese and tomatoe soup – is perfect, never gets old. Grilled cheese buzzfeed sites pump the internet full of ideas to make sure you have seen every single style known to man.
But the internet hasn’t seen anything like this… Yet! and it’s amazing. These grilled cheese sandwich recipes are to die for.
Double Grilled Cheese and Ranch
Sprinkle cheese and dry ranch mix (about a 1/4 tsp) on top.
Here is another shot with the same idea I just used regular bread and Greek Yogurt Dips Ranch Mix. The thick slices of cheese will give you more of a cheesy sandwich. The shredded cheese will melt up faster.
To get the double grilled cheese you can either put the cheese right on top while cooking, let it melt a bit then flip it.
Oorrr, put the cheese right on the grill and flip your sandwich onto the cheese immediately. Let it grill until the cheese inside is melted and the cheese outside is perfectly crisp.
Voila! You’ve got double grilled cheese and ranch perfection. The cheese outside hits your tongue immediately and adds an extra layer of crisp right before the soft cheesy center.
The dry ranch mix gives a subtle flavor upgrade that the 5 year old to 40 year old equally loved.
I’m counting this as a home run!
Gourmet Grilled Cheese Add-Ons
When it comes to comfort foods, grilled cheese is right up there. Here are a few more gourmet ideas to make your taste buds happy. If you are looking to change things up a bit, try this selection of creative grilled cheese recipes.
Grilled Cheese and Avocado
Avocados are an amazing super food. A great source of healthy fat and full of vitamins.
Avocadosare packed with vitamins C, E, K, and B-6, as well as riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and potassium. They also provide the fats you need such as lutein, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids. Not only that, avocadosare full ofhealthy, beneficialfats that help keepyoufull and satiated.
That must be why I love avocados so much – it makes me feel satisfied after eating and stops craving. When you give your body what it needs the cravings subside.
Grilled Cheese with Bacon
Bacon is the ultimate food right? Is there anything bacon can’t do? There is bacon ice cream, bacon sprinkled on donuts, chocolate covered bacon – check out my easy recipe, trust me you’ll love it.
And while you’re at it, you might as well try grilled cheese with bacon and avocado together. These two were meant to be…in a sandwich together. 😊
Grilled Cheese with Apricot Jam
I know what you are thinking, ‘she’s crazy!’ I thought it was too when I first heard about it. If you like to try new things, then you have to try this, it like nothing you’ve had before – unless you’ve had this exact sandwich before. Then I’ve got nothing new for ya.
Many years ago, my amazing big brother married into a family that all ate cheese sandwiches with apricot jam in the middle. I resisted for years, until one day I thought, “Here’s this whole group of people who think it taste good, there’s got to be something to it.”
…. It was good!
Apricot Jam cheese sandwiches taste nothing like grilled cheese, it’s a whole new experience. Go in with that mind set and you’ll like it.
Grill the sandwich first, then open it up and put some jam in the middle.
Which Cheeses are the Best for Grilled Cheese?
These were Google‘s top pick when asked, cheeses for the best grilled cheese sandwich. So if you’re wanting to up it a notch for a fancy grilled cheese sandwich style, you may want to try one of these. Feta, goat cheese, havarti, Swiss, Cheddar, Muenster, Provolone and American – all this according to Thrillest.com.
I was a bit surprised to find that my favorite cheese upgrade was not listed – Pepper Jack. If you like a bit of spice you will love this cheese grilled with a few slices of crispy bacon.
I usually just go with plain old Cheddar, because you can’t go wrong there. If I’m not cooking for kids and I have Pepper Jack, it’s the go to. Which isn’t often because my super power, among other things, is to raise little humans into adults and they always need to eat…and they like Cheddar.
I hope you enjoy these grilled cheese sandwich twists, especially grilled cheese and ranch – I think you’ll love it.
Let me know how it goes. Please comment and subscribe for more awesome how – to.
A quick and easy dinner that kids and parents will love, with a fresh salad so tasty it’s sure to get your pickiest eaters eating leafy greens.
My daughter’s eyes lit up when she came in the kitchen and saw what was for dinner. That’s always a nice feeling. 😊
Prep the Bread for Pizza
To make the pizza boats, line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Place French bread sliced length wise on top.
Spread with butter and then sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. I wanted to simmer the spice and flavor into the spaghetti sauce, but I was too busy making farm house benches 😂 and had to get dinner on the table quick.
Adding the spices to the butter worked great! The butter also helps add flavor and keeps the bread from absorbing too much liquid and getting soggy.
I know you can’t see it in this picture, but it has butter… and spices… Great picture huh?
Special Pizza Boat Sauce
Then add the sauce. Yes I used spaghetti sauce from a can, because I was in a hurry and it still tasted great. 😊My Kids begged for more – if that isn’t a testiment to my cooking choices I don’t know what is.
Add Cheese to Pizza Boats
Sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese. I used about two cups for both boats.
Decorate Boats with Pepperoni
Dot with pepperoni and cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted. You can cook it till it gets bubbly and slightly browned edges, but I didn’t want the French bread to get hard.
This way the bread was perfect and the cheese was melted enough to stay on the bread.
Pepperoni tip:
to keep your pepperoni longer place in the freezer. You can add it to pizzas still frozen. To separate bend the slices gently back and forth until they loosen.
Pair Pizza Boats with the Perfect Side
I paired it with a salad made with lettuce, tomatoes, chopped green onions, toasted tortilla chips and crumbled Queso Oaxaca and a homemade dressing that my husband loves.
Queso Oaxaca is a Mexican cheese that tastes great as a highlight to dishes when it’s crumbled up. It was my first time using it and I was a bit nervous my family wouldn’t eat it, but they actually loved it and ate it even more! So yay for Queso! 😊
Green onion tip :
after you use your green onions from the store, simply place the bulbs in fresh water in the window sill. Replace the water with fresh water every few days.
The onions will grow 3-4 more times giving you fresh onions and saving you a run to the store.
Add chicken to this salad and you’ve got a great meal. I found that my family still really loves it, even when I don’t have time to cook the chicken, which helps when I’m in a pinch.
It needs together quick and everyone loves it. Yay for easy dinner night. Now back to painting 😅
Pizza Boat Recipe
Loaf of French bread – sliced length wise
2 TBS butter
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup spaghetti sauce
2 cups Mozzarella cheese
22 pepperoni slices
Tortilla Salad Recipe
Dressing
1/4 conola or olive oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 TBS Sugar
2 tsps Accent or Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Salad
1 head Romain lettuce chopped
3-4 toasted tortillas (400° 3 min on each side) break up in bite size pieces
1 Chicken breast- cooked and chopped
1 bunch Green onions chopped
Optional (pretty much I throw in whatever I want ☺️)
Cherry tomatoes – sliced
Queso Oaxaca – crumbled
Even the chicken can be optional.
This is a great travel salad when going to a function. I keep the tortillas crispy, broken up in a separate bag and the dressing is in a lidded container. Then mix it all together right before people eat.
This salad can be as in depth or easy as you want, if you have the crispy tortilla bites people almost don’t notice the chicken missing. 😂
This is probably the easiest mermaid cake around, though the frosting tip makes it look difficult. I kind of felt like I had cheated when I was done. 😂 But it really was pretty simple.
This article contains affiliate links, which means no additional cost for you, but I get a small commission. These links are provided for your convenience.
How to Make Teal Frostine
I made teal frosting by mixing WiltonRoyal blue and Kelly green food coloring. They cost a bit more than liquid coloring, but you get a richer color and they last forever if you take care of them.
I made a Buttercream Frosting recipe from Two Sisters Crafting. It tasted great and was easy to make. I also got compliments on the taste so it’s a winner.
To get the color add a bit of one color then the next until you get the hue you are looking for.
Food coloring tip: use a toothpick to get the color and use a fresh toothpick every time. This helps avoid getting any frosting in the container. If food of any kind gets in the container it makes the food coloring go rancid.
How to Make Frosting Look Like a Mermaid Lagoon
For the rose shaped seaweed, use a Wilton 1M tip as seen above. Then at the top edge make an “S” shape. Do that around the entire cake.
Come back and fill in any gaps with a little dab of frosting from the 1M tip. It will look like a 3D star.
How to Make Candy Corral and Plants
Using Haribo Sour Streamers cut into plant shapes. You can see how I trimmed the blue strips off center that way I had two sizes that I alternated around the cake. For the bottom of the plant trim to a point or make a tree limb look. Then from the top cut and remove triangle like shapes. Twist the branches for a plant like look.
For the orange corral I cut it into the thirds rolled out into a column and held it in place with frosting. I didn’t feel like making white frosting and hadn’t thought to reserve some. I hid the dark frosting by putting it against the cake and then you couldn’t tell.
How to make Ombre Frosting
The cake has kind of an ombre effect. I did that by having a lighter teal and adding a half cup to the bag then mixing in more color adding another half cup, until all the frosting was in the bag.
How to Make Berry Layered Cake
The party was so exciting I didn’t get a very good shot of the inside of the cake. It was layered Berry cake with vanilla cake.
To do this
Cut the batter in half. Cook your vanilla layers first. These layers will be much thinner. Cook for around 11-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
With the remaining batter add
1 cup blended berry mixture,
1/4 cup flour (fold in gently to keep batter soft)
Divide into 2 sections and bake for 11 – 15 minutes, depending on your oven at 350°.
Finishing Touch
Add the mermaids of your choice. This is also why I felt like I cheated, it was Sooo easy and yet the little 5 year olds were going nuts over it.
There you go. I hope this was helpful. See you next time 😊
Tasty, quick to the table and full of good-for-you vegetables. Bistro Chicken makes a long day taste delicious.
I discovered this recipe years ago in a Kraft foods magazine. It quickly became a favorite and is so easy to make it became part of the permanent dinner rotation.
Specialty Ingredients
This recipe does require a few things I don’t always have on hand like bacon and fresh mushrooms. Everything else I usually have in the house. It is easy to make, but I usually have to plan ahead.
Easy Bistro Chicken
2 tsp. vegetable oil
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 med. Onion, chopped
1 can (15 Oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup Italian dressing
3 Tbsp. tomatoe paste
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 slices bacon, crumbled
Heat oil in large skillet on med – high heat. Add mushrooms and onions; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes (with liquid), dressing and tomato paste.
Add chicken; cover. Reduce heat to med-low. Simmer 12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. I’ve found it tastes best simmering longer, as long as the heat is low, the chicken becomes even more tender.
Sprinkle with cheese and bacon; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve over rice if desired.
Makes 4 servings – I usually double it because the leftovers are also amazing – amazing that I don’t have to cook the next day. 😉 (and they’re also amazing).
I served the Bistro Chicken with a side of sautéed summer squash and zucchini, (recipe found here) and a fresh loaf of bread.
Tips to make this meal even faster
Bread Tip: buy frozen bread and set it out to rise in the pan in the morning. Then put it into bake when you start the entrée. Your family will love you.
Chicken Tip: set chicken in a bowl in the fridge to defrost the same time you set out the bread to rise. You’ll be eating a half hour after getting home.
Bacon Tip: cook the whole package of bacon when you buy it. Put it in the freezer and pull out just the amount you need when cooking.
Tomatoe Paste Tip: most recipes don’t call for a whole can of tomatoe paste. Place the rest in a zip lock bag, flattened out. With the blunt edge of a butter knife section into roughly 1 Tbsp sections then put in the freezer for next time.
Saving tip for leftover tomatoe paste
Mmmmm.
Sautéing the mushrooms and onions is the secret to a great dish.
For the most tender chicken it’s important to cover and reduce the heat to med – low as it cooks.
Mozzarella and bacon are the final touch.
Searve over rice with a side of sautéed summer squash and fresh bread.
What is your go to meal, easy and tastes delicious?
Hi, I’m Natalie. I’m a mother of four, an artist, and a DIYer that loves to reuse, recycle, and refurbish. I like power tools and teaching others how to save money while improving their home.
Recent Comments