Swedish Pancakes with Rhubarb Compote

What a perfect morning to kick-off to the long weekend. I kind of forgot how much I love rhubarb. Tangy and sweet, rhubarb might actually be one of my favorite fruits. Or is it a vegetable because it doesn't have seeds on the inside? Just a sec, let me consult Google...

{cue elevator music}

It's a vegetable. Unless you live in the United States... apparently the US courts can mess with science and declare it a fruit. Don't even get me started on that.

Parker and I ate some (ok, a lot) of the compote out of the bowl with a spoon while I finished cooking the crepes. I worked two pans today! I seriously feel like I can take on anything now that I have mastered the two-pan crepe technique. Bring it on.

I found breakfast to be particularily photogenic this morning. Or maybe it was the idyllic morning that translated to the photos- the three of us at the breakfast table on a long weekend, a second cup of coffee, the sun peeking through the clouds. Either way, I'm very pleased with life at the moment.

PS There was also barbequed bacon. Oh yes.

SWEDISH PANCAKES WITH RHUBARB COMPOTE

Serves 4

An Amy Original

Rhubarb compote can be spread on toast, stirred into yogurt, spooned onto pork chops... you'll find lots of uses and excuses to make it, trust me.

• 1 recipe Swedish Pancakes
• 1 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb, fresh or frozen (don't even bother thawing if using frozen)
• scant 1/4 cup sugar
• splash vanilla extract

While cooking the crepes add all other ingredients to a small pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and lower heat to a simmer until rhubarb is soft, stirring occasionally. Mash to desired consistency. Continue to simmer until thickened.

My Grandma's Pancakes

Swedish pancakes, crepes, Grandpa's pancakes. It doesn't matter what you call them so long as you call them breakfast sometime very soon. It's a long weekend coming up. Perfect for spending a little extra time making something special for breakfast.

As kids we would go up to my Grandparents house on the lake almost every weekend. Us kids- my brother, cousins, and I- would get up early on Saturday and go with Grandpa on his morning walk to the "treat store" (when the grand kids weren't there I'm pretty sure he just called it the store where he got the newspaper). If you weren't up by the time Grandpa left for his walk you were left behind. We would get home and have some "crepes" that Grandma had started making at the butt-crack of dawn in order to feed the hordes.

I use quotations on "crepes" because these are not your dainty French crepes that are not to brown when cooking. These are big, spotty Swedish pancakes. Only Grandma is Estonian. They're not pancakes- those are fluffy and you put maple syrup on them- so we just called them crepes. We would get home from the treat store with our candy that we were not to eat until after breakfast and sit down to stuff our faces with crepes.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why we had to wait to eat our candy. Now that I think about it, the crepes probably weren't much better on the healthy scale. We always ate them with strawberries and whipped cream or applesauce with cinnamon sugar. When I was a bit older I also started to eat them with lemon juice (from a bottle but now I'm a snob and use fresh) and sugar. The crunch of the sugar with the tartness of the lemon is my favourite. Jam is good too. Or you could eat them like Grandma- standing at the counter after everyone had finished eating, holding a crepe smeared with lingonberry jam in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I wish I could say that this is Grandma's recipe, but she doesn't have a recipe. She's been making crepes so long that she just mixes stuff together, tastes the result, and tweaks it if needed. Perhaps one day I'll get there, but even recipes I know off by heart I still look up just to be sure. So I cobbled together a recipe from a bunch of different recipes for Swedish pancakes online. These are very close to Grandma's. If you're really good you can work two pans at once in order to crank them out faster like Grandma used to.

PS I wish I had taken made the crepe in the lead photo look nicer, like the one below. Or used a smaller plate at least. But I am digging the breakfast table setting so I went with that one. I guess I don't do my best food styling at 7:30 am. My apologies. 

One Year Ago: Mystery Box Dinner and The Reveal

Two Years Ago: Bulgar Salad + Three Corn Cornbread

Three Years Ago: n/a

GRANDMA'S CREPES

Serves 8 (2 crepes per person, although members of my family have been known to eat 5 in one sitting)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, divided (to grease the pan)

Toppings:

• Applesauce and cinnamon
• Jam
• Berries- thawed from frozen are good, then you get some nice berry juice
• Lemon and sugar

Heat an 8 to 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Whisk together milk and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour, sugar, salt and whisk until mostly smooth.

Once pan is heated add a small pat of butter and spread around the pan to coat. Add a soup ladle of batter while turning pan so that batter coats it evenly. You'll get a feel for how much batter to add for the next one on this first crepe- you don't want your crepe too thin or too thick. Even if they're not perfect, they'll be rolled up so don't sweat it. Flip once the crepe is golden on the bottom, about 45 seconds to a minute. Cook until browned on second side.

Transfer to a plate, stacking subsequent crepes on top. If crepes cool before eaten, warm one at a time (i.e. the one you're about to eat) in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread desired filling all over the crepe or just down the middle- everyone has their preference- and roll up.

Ham, Cheese, and Spinach Strata

What do you do when you have a couple of slices of ham, half a loaf of week old bread, and a couple ends of cheese lurking in your fridge? You make strata! Or I do anyways.

You can hide all kinds of good stuff in here. I mixed some pumpkin puree into the batter and you really can't tell it is there. For spinach haters the spinach can be left out of course, but please try it with the spinach- you won't really taste it and it adds so much nutrition and colour.

Any bread, except white sandwich bread, will do, but I had a loaf of Seeduction bread from Whole Foods that my Grannie brought when she visited last week (no Whole Foods here, unfortunately). This bread is a showstopper- it's deeply brown and crusty with lots of different seeds. If you can find a loaf like that, all the better. This is the only way Tyler will eat bread like this- he doesn't like his bread with "stuff" in it.

Strata, bread pudding, call it what you want, either way it is delicious. The best strata ever is my Papa's (now my uncle's since Papa passed away). It is reserved for once a year at Easter, not only because it contains just bread, cheese, eggs, and possibly cream (read: no vegetables) but because it is something to look forward to once a year. If we made it all the time it wouldn't be special anymore, right?

HAM, CHEESE, AND SPINACH STRATA

Serves 4

• 1/2 loaf crusty bread (stale is better), cut into bite-sized cubes
• 1/2 300g box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and excess moisture squeezed out
• 1 cup diced ham
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper to season

Toss together cubed bread, spinach, ham, and cheese in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture into bowl with bread and stir to coat all bread cubes with batter. Let stand while oven heats.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a casserole dish with cooking spray. When oven is heated, pour bread mixture into prepared dish. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until top is browned and crusty.

Potato Vegetable Cakes

Parker is a year old today! We are having his birthday party on Saturday and I have a (hopefully) delicious dairy-free chocolate cake planned. I'll let you know how it turned out.

My newest discovery in the kitchen is quinoa flour. Other than in the baby food post, I haven't talked about quinoa, have I? It's very healthy and a source of protein- read all about it on Wikipedia. I only care about all that stuff if it tastes good. And it is really delicious. It's nutty, and you can use it in place of rice as a side dish, in a salad, or now as I've discovered as a flour substitute.

I read a post about zucchini bread made with quinoa flour at Goodlife Eats and I was intrigued as I am trying to find different sources of protein for Parker as he is off beef and pork for the time being as part of the dairy allergy thing. I had a recipe for these potato and vegetable pancakes sitting on my counter for the last week, but I thought I could make them healthier. First off, they used Egg Beaters and packaged hashed brown potatoes. I prefer to use non-packaged food whenever possible; cracking some eggs and shredding some potatoes isn't a big deal. I added more vegetables to the original recipe, and then experimented with quinoa flour in place of the white flour called for.

As I said above, I'm not going to use something if it doesn't taste good, BUT if it tastes just as good and is way healthier, why wouldn't you make the change? Quinoa flour is going to be a staple here. I wouldn't substitute for it in baking, as baking has to be so exact, but for things like these vegetable cakes it's a no brainer. It really easy to make. I just put some quinoa in my Magic Bullet and whirred away. You could also try a blender, spice grinder, or food processor. I wouldn't recommend a mortar and pestle, however. This was my first thought, but after three minutes of grinding and no flour to show for it, I ditched that idea. Unless you are sitting outside your hut while your husband hunts for dinner and you have nothing better to do, use an electric option.

One Year Ago: Moroccan Chicken and Eggplant

POTATO AND VEGETABLE CAKES

Makes 10 servings, 1 serving = 2 cakes

These can be frozen easily by layering them between waxed paper. Parker likes these plain, but I like them with a topping- salsa, tomato sauce, pesto, or ranch dressing would all be good. The veggies can be changed up to use whatever you have lurking in the crisper, and the spices can also be swapped out to suit your taste; curried potato cakes would be good, southwest spices would work, etc. A food processor makes quick work of shredding the veggies.

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 4 eggs
• 2 medium potatoes, grated
• 1/2 large zucchini, grated
• 1/4 head cauliflower, grated
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

To make quinoa flour, place quinoa in a Magic Bullet, blender, spice grinder, or food processor and pulse until ground to a flour consistency. 

Set a large non stick pan to preheat over medium high heat. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add eggs, vegetables, salt and pepper to season, mix together well, ensuring there are no dry flour streaks and all vegetables are coated.

Drizzle pan with a little olive oil. Pack batter into a 1/4 cup dry measure and drop into pan. Press lightly with back of measuring cup to spread batter- you don't want them too thick. Repeat with as many as will fit in pan without touching. Cook to golden brown on both sides. Cool on baking rack if not eating right away.

Panini Bar

Click on the photo to enlarge and actually be able to read the writing

Taco bar, baked potato bar, pizza bar, etc, all great if you have people coming over last minute or just want something easy to make for a crowd. But how about panini bar! You just have to prep the ingredients and then everybody gets to put whatever they want on their sandwich*. If you don't have a panini press you can do them in a pan on the stove instead and call it "gourmet grilled cheese".

Full disclosure: I did this in February and just got around to writing about it now. Sorry.

*My dad used to do this with pasta too- give everybody a list of ingredients, then they check off what they want and you toss everything together in a pan for a custom pasta dish.

One Year Ago: Bran Flax Muffins

Mushroom, Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Quiche

Dang, it's been almost 2 months since my last post. It's not that I haven't been cooking- that would be akin to not breathing- but I haven't made anything worth sharing. For some reason everything has been turning out just okay.

I had really high hopes for brownies from Fat Witch Brownies, considering people (in Internet land, not people I know) have said they're the best brownies ever. They aren't even in my top 10 best brownies ever. I made two versions from the book and neither was very chocolaty. Call me crazy, but if I'm going to indulge in a brownie I'd like it to have full on chocolate flavour. I did however make some great pecan bars from the book, so not all is lost. I will be keeping that recipe once the book goes back to the library.

So, the aforementioned quiche. My cousin and her boyfriend, who are awesome and love food and I'm so glad they're back from BC cause I missed them, came for lunch yesterday and kicked me out of my cooking rut. This quiche was awesome. The combo of goat cheese, onions, and mushrooms is delicious, but really anything can go in quiche. Want to make a man-quiche (cause quiche is kinda girly, right?)- add some sausage. Make it Mediterranean inspired with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, roasted red peppers. Or, leave out the crust and make it a frittata.

One Year Ago: Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

Stuffed Pasta Shells

Dinner Party Menu

Easy Cheesecake

MUSHROOM, CARAMELIZED ONION AND GOAT CHEESE QUICHE

Serves 4

The pastry recipe will make two crusts, so you can either make two quiches or freeze the half the dough for another use. The key to rolling out pie dough successfully is keep it moving- do a couple rolls, then give it a quarter turn. If it starts to stick dust with a little flour. If it rips when at any point, just press it back together- you're only going to see the edge of it once the filling is in anyway.

• 1 pie crust- store bought or using this recipe
• 2 onions, sliced thinly
• 250 g mushrooms, sliced
• butter and olive oil for cooking
• 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. If using homemade dough, roll out to larger than pie plate and line pie plate with dough. Cut off excess leaving about 1/2 inch overhand. Fold overhang in and press with a fork to make a nice edge. Refrigerate until filling is ready.

Melt some butter and olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add onions, season with salt and pepper, and cover for 5 minutes. Remove lid and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden brown, about 15 minutes- don't let them get crispy. Set onions aside. Add a little more butter and olive oil to the pan and turn up heat to medium high. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, saute until golden brown. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together eggs, yolks, milk, and season with salt and pepper. Remove crust from fridge and place onions, mushrooms, and goat cheese in bottom. Pour over eggs. Bake 30-35 minutes in lower middle of oven, until filling is just set. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Clean Out the Fridge and Pantry Week

First off, sorry there's no food photo. I forgot to take a photo of today's recipe until it was already on our plates and it didn't photograph very well then. Instead, this is a funny picture of our dog because everybody likes funny animal photos, right?

Last week we decided to only buy produce and a few staples (milk, eggs, cheese) at the grocery store and use up what we have in the pantry, fridge and freezer for our weeknight meals. We normally spend spend about $120 on average a week on groceries (there's only 2 of us!), last week we spent $50 and we've still eaten well. I think we will do this again this week I still have lots of beans, rice, etc in the cupboard. Only I do want to buy some ricotta cheese because I have a craving for it. Here's what we ate this week on our budget menu:

Monday: Mushroom and Butternut Squash Risotto
*Arborio rice from the pantry, then I sauteed mushrooms and squash in a pan until cooked, made risotto (I don't follow a recipe anymore, but I started out making risotto according to Jamie Oliver's recipe) and stirred in the squash and mushrooms before serving

Tuesday: Whole Wheat Fettuccine and Italian Meatballs
*Pasta and sauce out of the pantry, PC meatballs we had in the freezer

Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie
*Chicken breasts from the freezer, and the rest is produce and fridge staples (recipe tomorrow)

Thursday: Chorizo, Cheddar, Squash and Leek Bread Pudding
*I found some sausage in the freezer, and I've been keeping the stale ends of bread in a Ziploc bag in the freezer for a couple of weeks for a time when I wanted to make bread pudding. Recipe below.

Friday: Prosciutto, Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Pizza
*We already had all the ingredients in the fridge except for the mozzarella, but was on sale at the store

One Year Ago: Easy Drop Biscuits

CHORIZO, CHEDDAR, SQUASH AND LEEK BREAD PUDDING
Serves 2 but recipe is easily doubled, tripled, etc
If you love Thanksgiving stuffing as much as I do (really, who doesn't love stuffing?) then you'll love this- it's like making a meal of stuffing. Almost any meat and veg can be used in this dish- use whatever you have on hand.

• 1/2 small butternut squash, cut into 1-inch dice
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• butter
• 2 cups day old bread, cut into bite sized pieces- Italian or French loaf rather than sandwich bread is best
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 uncooked Chorizo sausage, casing removed
• 1 leek, white and light green parts only, washed well and chopped into half moons
• 1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly butter a casserole dish. Toss squash with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, roast until squash is cooked through and browned, about 20 minutes. Scrape into prepared dish. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together eggs, milk, thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Add bread, stirring to coat. Leave to let bread absorb the egg mixture 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a saute pan over med-high head, cook sausage until no longer pink and it is a bit crisped, breaking sausage into small pieces with a spatula as it cooks. Scrape into casserole dish, leaving any liquid in the pan. In same pan over medium heat, saute leeks until they are softened but not browned. Add to sausage. Pour bread mixture and 1/2 cup of cheese into casserole dish and stir everything together. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 20 minutes covered with foil. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

Ham, Swiss and Asparagus Crepes

Two posts today! Aren't you all lucky! I made this for lunch when my Grannie came to visit a few months ago. Remember how hot it was in May? We had a perfect afternoon sitting out on the desk under the gazebo for a few hours. This recipe is perfect for a light lunch or brunch. We also had a simple baby spinach salad on the side- just baby spinach tossed with a quick lemon vinaigrette.

You don't have to make the crepes from scratch; you can purchase crepes at the grocery store but I can't attest to the quality. Homemade crepes are not as tricky as you think, I swear! Here's a short how-to video. Give it a try. The first few attempts may not be pretty, but they'll still taste good anyway, and you'll get the hang of it in no time! Maybe I'm weird, but I think making crepes is fun.

The recipe below is from a cooking class that I took my dad to for his birthday. We had a fantastic day cooking and eating at Log Cabin Heaven in Elora a couple of years ago. The lessons were private and hands on at Ontario's only private B&B. We chose in advance what type of cuisine we wanted to cook- we did French in the morning and Greek in the afternoon. I could go on and on about this place and the great time we had.

Any leftover crepes can be filled with lemon juice and sugar, Nutella, or berries for dessert (or breakfast, or a snack), I've even used crepes for ham and cheese "sandwiches" for lunch at work. They can also be frozen between waxed paper which makes it easy to just take out 1 or 2 whenever you like.

CREPES

Makes 12-16 crepes
Recipe courtesy of Log Cabin Heaven

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• pinch salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

Whisk together all ingredients in a bowl, or mix in a food processor, until just combined. Transfer to something with a spout for easy pouring. Let batter rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Heat a crepe pan or small skillet over medium-low heat. Using a paper towel lightly dipped in canola oil, lightly oil pan. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of batter (depending on how big your pan is) into the pan, turning pan to spread batter around evenly at the same time. Cook until edges of crepe start to get a little crispy and top of crepe looks set. Flip and cook other side of crepe for 30 seconds. Turn onto a plate to cool while you cook the next crepe, then transfer the cooled crepe to a square of waxed paper. Continue cooking and stacking crepes on new sheets of waxed paper until all batter is used up and you'll be an expert!

HAM, SWISS, AND ASPARAGUS CREPES 

• 3 to 4 crepes per person
• sliced Swiss cheese
• sliced ham
• 3 asparagus spears per crepe, washed and trimmed of tough ends
• Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on a crepe. Top with cheese, ham, asparagus, with asparagus tips peeking out of one end for a pretty presentation. Roll up crepe, place in a large glass baking dish. Continue filling and rolling crepes, placing in baking dish in a single layer. Cover with foil and bake until warmed through, 15-20 minutes.

Breakfast Club Sandwiches

I'm back on the bacon train! I've been off bacon since I first became pregnant because it made me feel sick, even just the thought of it. Slowly but surely over the last month, however, I've been becoming friends with bacon again. As a result of my temporary bacon aversion, I haven't made weekend breakfasts for a while. I saw Ricardo Larrivee make these sandwiches on his show this past week (side note: does he play for the other team or is he just French? Talk amongst yourselves) and I've been thinking about it ever since, so made this on this holiday morning and it was fantastic. Tyler high-fived me, so I take it the breakfast club sandwich gets the husband stamp of approval as well.

BREAKFAST CLUB SANDWICH

Adapted from Ricardo and Friends on The Food Network

Serves 2 (recipe is very easily multiplied to serve more)

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 slices bacon
• 6 slices sandwich bread
• Mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip if you live in my house)
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 2 leaves Romaine lettuce

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly beat eggs, milk, salt, pepper in a small baking dish. Put bacon on a baking sheet or broiler pan. Bake eggs and bacon in oven until bacon is crisp and golden and eggs are set- about 10 minutes for the bacon and about 5 minutes more for the eggs. Remove bacon to drain on paper towels. Cut eggs in half and fold each half over itself (like you would an omelet).

While bacon and eggs are cooking, toast bread. Spread one side of 4 of the slices with mayo, spread both sides of the remaining bread with mayo (this is your middle piece of the club sandwich).

To assemble each sandwich, place egg on the mayo side of a slice of toast, top with double-mayo toast, top that with 2 slices of bacon, tomato, lettuce. Top sandwich with another slice of toast. Slice in half or quarters diagonally to serve.