I'd Like to Thank My Peeps . . .

Meringue chick on a puff-pastry and coconut nest

Eating Your Words 2010 is drawing to a close! As I and my co-host Jennifer of Savor the Thyme announced earlier, we will be posting a round-up of all the entries within one week of the challenge deadline, followed by an announcement of the winner chosen by Andrew Zimmern to receive our fabulous prize of an Aunt Else's Aebleskiver pan. Quite frankly, I don't envy our guest judge's task as all of the entries so far have exceeded our expectations for creativity and playful spirit. This is going to be tough choice!

In the meantime, I wanted to offer an early 'thanks!' to Chef Zimmern and Chad Gillard of Aunt Else for their generosity toward making Eating Your Words a true can't-miss event. Most of all, many thanks to our entrants (including those of you who may still be working on your words) for your enthusiastic participation and support of our contest. It is so incredibly gratifying to find such happy camaraderie in the blogosphere, especially since some might consider connections through such a medium 'impersonal', simply because our exchanges do not occur face to face. Yet, what could be more personal than sharing with others a glimpse of the laugh-out-loud, fun-loving and creative individuals we all are?

So, to all of you who have entered, will enter or are eagerly anticipating the unveiling of the entries, thank you so very much for joining us in Eating Your Words!

Gratitude is Boundless

The 'thank yous' continue as I finally offer proper and long-overdue acknowledgment of several awards that fellow bloggers have been so kind to share with me and others in the past few months:

It has taken well into 2010 but I am sincerely thankful to Mariana at History of Greek Food for sharing her Blogger Appreciation '09 recognition. An author, sociologist and archaeologist, Mariana is a treasure trove of historical facts and cultural insights into Greek food traditions, and is a person whom I greatly admire. Hers was one of the very first blogs I started following when I began my own site and it continues to be a stellar model of how to share the richness of global culinary heritage.

This Happy 101 comes from Pearlyn of A Full-Timed Housefly - a perfect description of someone who knows that happiness starts with the simple joys of a delicious meal. Reading her blog is like sitting down at her family's dinner table in Singapore (which I would love to do someday). So, for some of the best examples of Asian home-cooking to be found on the web, please stop by at Pearlyn's!

I'm not worthy! But Liren of Kitchen Worthy still decided to share her Sunshine Award with me, for which I am pink with gratitude. With her scrumptious recipes and stunning photography, it's hard to believe that her blog is only three months old! From sweet to savory, American classics to global favorites, Liren offers something for every taste, so stop by to find something delicious for yourself.



Cheep Thrills

Given the marvelous food to be found in these blogs and that we'll soon see profound words writ deliciously in food, I thought it best to offer something light and airy. I drew inspiration from a piece that I wrote for Simple, Good and Tasty, a Minneapolis-based local and sustainable foods website founded by Lee Zukor, who gave me the amazing opportunity to become a part of SGandT as a contributing writer. Thank you, Lee, Shari and everyone at SGandT - I am so proud to be associated with such an outstanding team and organization!

So far, I've written four pieces for the website, including the most recent story about a small, local specialty-foods company that makes artisanal versions of the neon-colored marshmallow Peeps so ubiquitous during Easter. Unfortunately, a tight deadline and the shop's hours prevented me from picking up some of these confections for, er, research purposes, before the story was due and I ended up nursing a massive hankering for sugary chicks. What to do? Why, make my own . . . kind of.

Meringue Chicks

The peeps on everyone's lips are, of course, made of marshmallow, but I decided to go with another M-word: meringue. Seeing as how I've never made meringues before, I turned to online sources for guidance and found what I needed from Matt at Wrightfood and the Helpwithcooking.com website. I wanted to give my peeps the same soft yellow shade of real chicks but was a bit too timid with the food coloring, resulting in a more ecru hue. Still, I was quite pleased with the results, although my chicks look a bit like pointy-beaked ducklings. But hey, at least they're still in the avian class!

Just hatched

Makes approximately 3 dozen

Tools
Large round piping tip (size 1A/Wilton - I used Ateco/809)
Decorating bag

Ingredients
Whites from 2 eggs
pinch of cream of tartar
4 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Food coloring (optional)

To make: 

Separate egg whites and yolk, being careful not to get any yolk in the former. Set whites aside to bring to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 300°F

In a stainless steel mixing bowl, add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat until soft peaks form. Continue to whip the egg whites, adding the sugar one teaspoon at a time until all the sugar is used and stiff peaks form. Carefully fold in extract and food coloring, gently incorporating them into the meringue. Fill decorating bag with meringue and pipe out desired shape onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. (For a nice tutorial on piping out Peep-like shapes, check out this blog post for Saffron Meringue Chicks).

The un-ugly chick of the flock

Turn down preheated oven to 275°F and place tray of meringues inside. Bake for 1 hour, then turn off oven and leave meringues inside as it cools. When ready, remove from oven and serve. Decorate chicks as you'd like - I used melted chocolate chips and a toothpick to make the eyes.

For the 'nest', I used some leftover puff pastry cut into 2 circles with a 3" biscuit cutter; using another cutter one size smaller, I cut out a ring from one of the circles and placed it on top of the other, forming a raised border. I then brushed pastry with the leftover egg yolk from the above recipe and sprinkled it with sweetened coconut flakes, then baked at 375°F for about 15 minutes.

Peep props for my peeps!

Of Confidence and Carbonara

Spaghetti alla carbonara with asparagus & lamb bacon

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."

-- Truman Capote

Fear of failure.

It is the hidden poison in the cook's psychological pantry. Like salt, mistaken for sugar, that takes a cake from delicious to disastrous, or high humidity that can leave graceful macarons flat-footed, the tiniest pinch of trepidation can ruin a perfectly fine recipe. Whereas confidence and fearlessness heighten the joy of cooking, fear of failure weighs it down like an anchor on a balloon. I should know.

When it comes to cooking, I showed enough promise in my early teen years that my mother entrusted some of the family dinner preparation to me. With only her rudimentary instructions and the natural confidence of youth, I quickly established my specialties: flavorful baked chicken, super-creamy scalloped potatoes and my crowning glory, spaghetti alla carbonara. I don't recall if it was Mama who showed me how to make this simple rich pasta, but it was my favorite recipe to show off my nascent culinary skills. Unfortunately, it was also the dish which taught me that self-confidence in cookery is as fragile as an eggshell; it is a lesson indelibly recorded in my memory.

[Play]

The scene: a small apartment kitchen - daytime.

The players: Four giggly teen girls, preparing a 'fancy' lunch for themselves, each busy with her own preparation but all the while chatting away. Girl TN is confident friends will be so impressed by her spaghetti alla carbonara.

The action: Girl TN neglects rule #1 of boiling pasta and dumps noodles into pot of cold water. Then she neglects rule #2 of boiling pasta and doesn't stir on occasion. Noodles settle to bottom, stick to each and burn. Girl TN attempts to salvage disaster but it is hopeless. Deeply embarrassed, she serves sticky noodles permeated with essence of char that no amount of bacon or parmesan cheese can mask. Cooking confidence crushed, Girl TN never makes spaghetti alla carbonara again.

[Stop. Rewind]

Battered and Deep-fried Pride

Next to plain buttered noodles, carbonara is perhaps the most simple pasta dish to make, yet I managed to screw up - in front of my peers, no less, whose opinions mattered most at that age. It didn't occur to me that this failure would make me doubt my aptitude in the kitchen for years and how that loss of confidence consequently affected my attitude toward new cooking experiences. But according to psychologist and author Jonathon Brown, my battered pride would set the stage for a timid approach to future culinary challenges. In a 1995 study on self-esteem and its effects on perceptions of failure and success, Brown observed that persons with low self-esteem (LSE) were much more negatively impacted by failure, leading them to become more cautious, risk averse and critical of their own competence (Psychology n.p.).

"Failure hurts LSE people more than HSE [high self-esteem] people . . . They may become more concerned with protecting the self from the pain of failure rather than risking success . . . Doubting their ability to successfully execute self-aggrandizing interpersonal behaviors [they] assume a public posture of modesty and conservatism." (Brown, 720)

(Image from www2.wabash.edu)

It sounds quite familiar: If a recipe calls for a difficult or unfamiliar technique, I quickly turn the page. While I oooh and aaah over another's perfect loaf of bread or a bowl of homemade ricotta, I'll demur when they encourage me to try making them myself. "I don't have your skill," I'll say. "Maybe one of these days . . . " But chances are that I never will. To me, failure has represented loss - of time, energy and resources - and injury to self-confidence and ego. I never considered it as a way to gain knowledge and experience, and to push my abilities until I could reach the next level.

Then I read a post by Mardi of Eat.Live.Travel.Write, in which she recounted her recent travails with macaron-making. Involving five batches, three recipes and a tower of Tupperware filled with failed attempts, Mardi's two-week ordeal finally culminated in pretty pastel-hued confections. But it was her perseverance, not these sweet little rounds, that held my admiration. Where I would have likely cut my losses after the first fail, she continued to try - tweaking a step here, changing the technique there - until she found success. For Mardi, each shortfall was an opportunity to learn; more importantly, a failed mac was just a flattened bit of meringue, not a metaphor for competence.

Cooking Up Confidence

So enough of the self-pity and the tremulousness: I once made crappy carbonara and now it's time to get over it. I refuse to be a LSE person, just two letters short of being a 'loser'. As a first step in rehabilitating my self-esteem, I made spaghetti alla carbonara for the first time in nearly twenty-two years - and it wasn't terrible.

In fact, it was so not terrible that I decided to make it my very first submission to Beet 'n' Squash You, the monthly cooking challenge hosted by two incredible food bloggers - Mel of GourmetFury and Leela of SheSimmers. The entries to their battles have been nothing short of phenomenal, so I'm not sure how mine will stand against others.

But as Julia Child once said, "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you've got to have a 'What the hell!' attitude."

References
"Help, I've Failed and I Can't Get Up!" Psychology Today website. Sept. 1, 1995 n.p.
Brown, Jonathon and Keith A. Dutton. "The Thrill of Victory, the Complexity of Defeat." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 68, no 4. 1995: 712-22.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Asparagus and Lamb Bacon

Spring is a time for renewal, so what better way to refresh one's confidence than to primp a classic dish with a little bit of printemps and enter it in this month's Battle Asparagus? Although the vegetable is the focus of the challenge, my entry is definitely an ensemble piece, as the sauce's creamy texture from whole eggs and grated cheese is countered by the tender crunch of blanched asparagus and from crispy lamb bacon. Oh, yes - lamb bacon . . . do I really need to describe it? It's lamb, it's bacon and it's divine. I procured mine from Bar 5 Meat and Poultry at the Minneapolis Farmers' Market, but if you can't find any nearby, consider this simple method for home curing.

It's all about the sauce, so if you already have a favorite carbonara recipe, by all means stick to it. The asparagus and lamb bacon are really just another twist on the popular addition of green peas and smoky bacon to classic carbonara. Otherwise, here's how I prepared my dish:

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 oz spaghetti
4 oz lamb bacon, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 large eggs (2 is sufficient to coat the noodles, but use 3 if you like it a bit more 'saucy')
1/2 cup Grana Padano, grated (coarse or fine, your choice), plus more for finished plate
Salt and 1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup asparagus, blanched and cut into 1.5" pieces

Important: With the exception of the blanched asparagus, do not prepare any of the other ingredients ahead of time. Heat from just-cooked bacon and pasta help to 'cook' the raw egg sauce, so they are best utilized immediately after they are done.

To make

1. In a fry pan or skillet over low to medium heat, fry bacon until just beginning to get crispy and fat is rendered. Turn off heat and add garlic, stirring well to mix with bacon;
2. As bacon is cooking, make spaghetti according to package direction or your preference;
3. While noodles are cooking, prepare carbonara sauce: in a large bowl (enough to hold the pasta), beat eggs very well so that yolk and whites are completely mixed. Add pepper.
4. Whisk 1/4 cup Grana Padano into beaten eggs and mix well, then add remainder and mix again.
5. When spaghetti is done, do not drain! Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water, then immediately add hot noodles directly from the pot to the bowl of egg mixture.
6. Toss spaghetti in the sauce, making sure all strands are well-coated. The hot noodles help to 'cook' the raw egg sauce. If sauce seems too thick or 'dry', add reserved pasta water a few tablespoons at a time until desired consistency.
7. Add lamb bacon with garlic, including as much of the rendered fat as preferred, and toss well; then add asparagus and toss to mix.
8. Let carbonara sit for a minute or two, allowing the sauce to thicken a bit, then serve. Buon appetito!

Please join us for Eating Your Words 2010 - just let your food do the talking and Andrew Zimmern may choose you as the winner of a fabulous aebleskiver pan from Aunt Else's Aebleskiver!

Click here for details

Deadline is Wednesday, March 31

Eating You Words 2010 Challenge: The Judge!

It had to be done.

As you know, Jennifer at Savor The Thyme and I are very pleased to offer a fantastic no-kitchen-should-be-without-one prize for this year's Eating Your Words challenge - a beautiful æbleskiver pan, courtesy of Aunt Else's Æbleskiver. However, this means that there must be one winner, which in turn means that someone has to choose said winner. While you may rest assured that my co-host Jennifer is the picture of unimpeachable integrity, I, on the other hand, am easily bribed with pancakes.

So, we felt it best to ask another person to be our guest judge - someone who could objectively evaluate and appreciate the creativity we were certain to see in the contest entries. Someone whose own approach to food is famously all about adventure, enthusiasm and a sense of fun. Someone who is a respected chef and food writer, and is the co-creator and host of one of the most popular food shows on television. Someone whom I wasn't terribly confident would notice our humble little event . . . until he actually said 'Yes'.

It's Andrew Zimmern!

Watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern in the Philippines!

How excited are we about Chef Zimmern's participation? Hmmm, let's see: our guest judge for Eating Your Words 2010 is also slated to be a guest judge on Bravo's Top Chef Masters, Season Two . . .  We. Are. Excited.

Jennifer and I hope that you will join us for this lively challenge and the chance to be chosen by Andrew Zimmern as the winner of a lovely Aunt Else's Æbleskiver pan. And to our global blogger friends: international entries are totally eligible!

To help stir your imagination and provide a spark of inspiration, take a look at some of last year's entries:

'Mangia' from Cassi at Foodie with Little Thyme

'Rainbow' & 'Spring' Hot Cocoa from Natasha at 5 Star Foodie

'Why So Blue' from Heather at Girlichef

'Because a Can can Can-Can' from Greg at Sippity Sup

To see more, please check out Eating Your Words 2009 Roundup Part I and Part II.

It's that easy and that fun! So, what are you waiting for? Head into the kitchen and let your food do the talking . . .

To enter:

1. 'Write, spell or draw' using food or drink, and create a blog post about it until midnight on Wednesday, March 31st. We will accept any previous blog posts you may already have where you've created a 'written'-inspired dish or drink.

2. Blog about your creation, including photos, and add a link back to Savor the Thyme (http://savorthethyme.blogspot.com) and Tangled Noodle (http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com). If you'd like, feel free to grab the badge below and place it in your post!

3. Send an e-mail titled 'Eating Your Words 2010'  with the following information to eatingyourwords10@cox.net:

• Your name
• The name of your blog
• The name of your dish or drink
• The link to your blog entry and a photograph of the dish or drink
• Entries must be received by midnight March 31, 2010

You can still participate even if you don't have a blog at all. Simply e-mail the above information minus the blog details and we'll include it in the round up.

4. Please keep it clean! Appropriate humor is always welcome.

International entries are eligible for the prize!

If you're on Twitter, please feel free to tweet about the challenge using the hashtag #eatingyourwords.

All entries must be received by midnight, March 31st. Depending on the number of entries we receive, Jennifer and I will choose finalists, from which we will ask Chef Zimmern to pick the winning entry. A round-up of all entries and the announcement of a winner will be posted within one week of the deadline.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Sweet Spuds

Freshly-dug potatoes . . . or are they?

As much as I'd like to think that our Eating Your Words 2010 challenge is the most important event of this month, the honor rightly belongs to that most festive of spring holidays, St. Patrick's Day.

Having been officially recognized on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar for nearly 400 years, the feast day of Ireland's patron saint does have a few years on our humble little contest as well as a slightly larger following. So, in honor of the upcoming celebration on March 17th, I am heading across the Atlantic Ocean to join the merry group of bloggers who will be virtually marching in the Paddy's Day Food Parade, led by none other than the Grand Mistress herself, The Daily Spud.

One of the most unique hallmarks of St. Patrick's Day (aside from the boundless consumption of Guinness, whether it's in a pint glass or a chocolate cupcake) is its ability to transform individuals of different national and cultural backgrounds into one people: the Irishforaday. Once a year, this rather amorphous group gathers to engage in certain accepted rituals, such as wearing of the green, drinking of the Guinness and eating of the corned beef and cabbage. The scholarly and sober might see in these activities an example of Collective Effervescence:

"These rites are highly emotional collective experiences . . . which overcome the divisions among individuals and subgroups. They forge a collective identity that sustains members of society during periods of dispersion into routine (profane) activities."

from Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, WH Swatos (ed.)

While the above is referring to Émile Durkheim's theory of religion, I think it has appropriate application to the Irishforaday as 'divisions among individuals' dissipate, if only for 24 hours, to 'forge a collective identity' that transcends the 'dispersion' of people. How else to explain that St. Patrick's Day is celebrated with similar activities in such disparate locales, from Oslo, Norway to Buenos Aires, Argentina to Tokyo, Japan? Perhaps it is because we recognize, on some primal level, that beneath our individual national, cultural or ethnic identities, we all love a rip-roaring good time.

Although there are no widespread festivities on St. Patrick's Day in the Philippines, I have always enjoyed participating in this holiday - so much so that last year, I proclaimed my affinity with the people of Eire and listed the various ways in which our island nations were nearly identical. A huge part of that rapport has been my friendship with Daily Spud.

We started our blogs around the same time and I had just signed up on Foodbuzz when I spotted among the list of new members that singular anthropomorphic tuber that many have come to know and love so well. Though we have yet to meet in person, it's certain that Spud and I would get along as famously face-to-face as we do blog-to-blog. In the aforementioned post from last year, I noted that "the preponderance of potatoes in Ireland is matched only by the copiousness of coconuts in the Philippines", so what better way to celebrate both St. Patrick's Day and a dear friendship than with a little sweet something incorporating both the 'tater and the coconut?

I do believe it was Spud who first sent me a link to Irish Potato Candy, a confection unique to the Philadelphia area and most popular (naturally) during St. Patrick's Day. Shaped to look like miniature tubers, they are made with coconut, confectioner's sugar and milk or cream; alas, there is not a speck of spud in them. To find this magic combination, I had to range a bit further into the New England states, where I came across Rhode Island Potato Coconut Candy and Maine Needhams, two similar sweets that are reminiscent of Hershey's Mounds candy bar. More importantly, their recipes incorporate both potatoes and coconut!

Coconut-Tater Truffles

Although there are quite a few recipes for potato-coconut candies, I finally settled on this one from a lovely blog called The Cookie Shop. Except for adding some Merry's Irish Cream liqueur, I followed the recipe closely and instead exercised my imagination with its presentation, borrowing from the whimsical Oh Ryan's Irish Potatoes of Philadelphia to make Coconut Faux-tatoes, as well as the more traditional chocolate-enrobed Coconut-Tater Truffles.

To my friend The Daily Spud: this spud's for you!

Spud-shaped sweet? Priceless.

Coconut Faux-tatoes
Click here for the complete recipe at The Cookie Shop!

Making these candies couldn't have been more easy, although it was a little too easy to pinch a piece here and take a taste there - the yield was therefore a wee bit smaller than it might've been.  I also wanted to add some zing by splashing the mixture with Irish whiskey, but we were all out (Mr. Noodle has been duly chastised for letting the Jameson's run dry). Thankfully, a bottle of Merry's Irish Cream liqueur chilling in the 'fridge contributed the additional spirit.

Yields 30 pieces (more, if you can keep from nibbling throughout the process)

Ingredients

Cold plain mashed potatoes
Confectioner's (powdered) sugar, divided
Flaked coconut*
2-3 Tablespoons Irish Cream liqueur
Cocoa powder

To make: Combine mashed potatoes with a 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar and whisk well. As the potato and sugar mix, a very cool thing happens: it liquefies! Add liqueur, mix well, then add remaining sugar 1/2 cup at a time until a soft, dough-like consistency is achieved. Add flaked coconut, half amount at a time, and mix to combine well in the 'dough'.

*Note: The original recipe called for unsweetened coconut and for good reason - this candy is S-W-E-E-T! I only had sweetened flaked coconut but next time, I will definitely go with the recommendation or even use freshly grated coconut.

To prepare:

Spoon cocoa powder (mix with a bit of superfine/caster sugar for a lighter hue) in a small bowl. Pinch a grape-sized piece of candy mixture and roll between your palms, shaping into a potato-esque form. Lightly roll candy in the cocoa powder, brushing off excess. Repeat.

Best served immediately (that's not so hard, is it?) but may be stored in an airtight container.

Coconut-Tater Truffles

Ingredients
Potato-coconut candy mix
3.5 oz dark chocolate (I used 72% cacao)

A bi-cultural confection!

Prepare the above candy mixture, roll out small ball-shaped pieces and place on a waxpaper-lined tray or plate. Refrigerate for a few minutes while you temper the chocolate:

1. Break dark chocolate into equal-sized pieces and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 40 seconds, then stir the pieces.
2. Microwave for another 20 seconds, then stir chocolate again. Repeat 20-second heating, stirring after each, until only a few solid pieces remain. Remove from the microwave and stir well until the remaining chocolate fully melts.

Remove potato-coconut candies from the refrigerator and one by one, dip into tempered chocolate, working quickly as the chocolate may begin to harden. Place dipped candies back on waxpaper-lined tray and chill until chocolate shell is firm.

Store in an airtight container and keep chilled until ready to serve.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And please check back for more exciting news about the Eating Your Words 2010 Challenge. 

Please join in the fun for a chance to win an Aunt Else's Aebleskiver pan!

Eating You Words 2010 Challenge: The Prize!

Another surprise . . . Egg-leskivers

Are you on the edge of your seat yet? Has the wait to learn the prize for Eating Your Words 2010 been a persistent flame, raising the anticipation to a boiling point, until you're just about ready to explode with excitement?

Well, simmer down because the time has come for me and Jennifer of Savor the Thyme to make the announcement . . .

But first, I must say that the encouraging comments we've received so far have been wonderful, and proving that the language of food is global, many responses have come from Europe, Australia, Asia and South America. Too often, Jennifer and I have read of the disappointment expressed by non-US bloggers that they are not eligible for contest prizes, although, to their amazing credit, they still participate with as much enthusiasm as if they were. This time, we want to put the prize within reach of everyone, so we are thrilled to announce that Eating Your Words 2010 is open to ALL participants! We'll ship the prize to the winner, whether he or she is in Manila, Philippines or Manila, Arkansas (yes, there is such a place).

Oh, yes - the prize . . .

While you might have been perfectly satisfied with the admiration of your fellow bloggers and accolades from the general public, it's always nice to get something a little more tangible. So, how about a very tangible, six-and-a-half pounds of solid, Minnesota-forged cast iron?

With great pleasure, Jennifer and I announce that the prize for Eating Your Words 2010 is a gorgeous aebleskiver pan, courtesy of Aunt Else's Aebleskiver! This heirloom quality piece of cookware is made right here in Minneapolis and was specially designed for the company, based on an original pan owned by its namesake and passed down through generations of her family.

It is no secret that I am a devoted fan of Aunt Else's Aebleskiver; last summer, I was thrilled to receive my very own pande from Chad Gillard, president of the company. I also had an opportunity to watch him and two of his co-founders, Sarah Engwall and Lisa Timek, demonstrate its use and was enthralled by how deftly they turned simple batter into fluffy, perfect little spheres of edible delight. The story behind Aunt Else's Aebleskiver is also a tale of how the closeness of family and the deep ties of friendship compose a solid foundation for a successful business. If you'd like to learn more about Chad, Sarah, Lisa and the company they are working hard to build, read their story at Full Circles: Aunt Else's Aebleskiver.

Lest you think that this cookware is just another pretty pan, I'm happy to show off its 'talent'. The pan's versatility is limited only by the scope of your imagination in creating batters and fillings. There's the classic aebleskiver, the traditional Danish pancake ball filled with apple slices and dusted with powdered sugar:

You could fill them with jams, jellies and sauces, or else cook them up plain and then top with your favorites . . .

. . . . or roll them in cinnamon sugar and serve with a demitasse of rich cocoa.

Many aebleskiver batter recipes are very similar to standard pancake batters - that is, depending on what you're idea of a 'standard pancake' is! In other countries with similar pans, such as Thailand's kanom krok, or Indian paniyaram, the mixture is often made with rice flour, giving the end result a soft yet slightly chewier texture. Here's my take on a Danish-Asian fusion pancake ball, embraced by sweet cocojam [click on photo for recipes].

But who's to say that only a batter can be cooked up in an aebleskiver pan? Not me! One morning, I had a hankering for eggs and when I spotted my pan, a light turned on in the attic:

Egg-leskivers!

There's not much to it: prepare your favorite omelette recipe, decreasing the amount of milk by about half (if you use it, like I do) to allow the eggleskivers to hold their shape. Instead of oil, I put a small bit of butter in each well and then pour the omelette mixture immediately, before the butter starts to brown too much. Add fillings such as cheese, ham or sausages (these will also help the 'skivers hold their round form), and continue to cook as you would regular aebleskiver.

If you had this pan, what sorts of 'skivers would you make?

During the Eating Your Words 2010 challenge, Aunt Else's Aebleskiver is offering a 10% discount for any purchases made at their store. So if you can't wait to get a pan of your own, please head over to www.AuntElse.com, check out their wonderful products and enter the code "EYW" during checkout to receive your discount!

We all know that food engages the five physical senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste; now, we can add a sixth sense - fun! Jennifer and I hope that you will join us for Eating Your Words 2010 - just let your food do the talking . . .

To enter:

1. 'Write, spell or draw' using food or drink, and create a blog post about it by midnight on Wednesday, March 31st. We will accept any previous blog posts.

2. Blog about your creation, including photos, and add a link back to Savor the Thyme (http://savorthethyme.blogspot.com) and Tangled Noodle (http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com). If you'd like, feel free to grab the badge below and place it in your post!

3. Send an e-mail titled 'Eating Your Words 2010'  with the following information to eatingyourwords10@cox.net:

• Your name
• The name of your blog
• The name of your dish or drink
• The link to your blog entry and a photograph of the dish or drink
• Entries must be received by midnight March 31, 2010

You can still participate even if you don't have a blog at all. Simply e-mail the above information minus the blog details and we'll include it in the round up.

4. Please keep it clean! Appropriate humor is always welcome.

Please stay tuned for more exciting announcements about Eating Your Words 2010!
Update: Such a great prize deserves a great judge. Who better than the man whose adventures in eating around the globe is one of the most popular food shows on television? Our special guest judge is
Chef Andrew Zimmern!

Eating Your Words: 2010 Edition!

Do your waffles whisper to you? Or does the arugula like to argue? A great dish can speak for itself, so why not let it do all the talking!

It is with great pleasure that I am joining Jennifer of Savor The Thyme to announce the return of Eating Your Words. Last year, we had a great response to our inaugural challenge, resulting in some marvelously edible messages that you can view here:

Eating Your Words Roundup, Part I

Eating Your Words Roundup, Part II

If these entries have you feeling inspired (if not hungry!) then head into the kitchen and let your food do the talking. To enter, use fruits, vegetables, noodles, milk coffee or just about any food and beverage to spell out a message, then take a photo, write a post and e-mail us about it. 

This year, we will choose at least one winner whose creative foodstuff speaks loud and clear to us! As for the prize, there is the awe and admiration of an adoring public . . . but we do have something else in the works. For now, we're going to keep you in a state of suspense, so stay tuned for the prize announcement!

The details:

1. 'Write, spell or draw' using food or drink, and create a blog post about it from now (the date of this post) until midnight on Wednesday, March 31st. We will accept any previous blog posts you may already have where you've created a 'written'-inspired dish or drink.

2. Blog about your creation, including photos, and add a link back to Savor the Thyme (http://savorthethyme.blogspot.com) and Tangled Noodle (http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com). If you'd like, feel free to grab the badge below and place it in your post!

3. Send an e-mail titled 'Eating Your Words 2010'  with the following information to eatingyourwords10@cox.net:

• Your name
• The name of your blog
• The name of your dish or drink
• The link to your blog entry and a photograph of the dish or drink
• Entries must be received by midnight March 31, 2010

You can still participate even if you don't have a blog at all. Simply e-mail the above information minus the blog details and we'll include it in the round up.

4. Please keep it clean! Appropriate humor is always welcome.

All entries will be posted on both blogs in the first week of April. 

Now, start creating!

Piped Butter Cookies
(from A Baker's Videoblog)

To get us started, here's a little something I baked up today: Piped Butter Cookies! The recipe comes from the blog A Baker's Videoblog and yields crispy, buttery delights. There's a video tutorial showing how to pipe out the cookie dough - simple enough, unless you happen to be missing the appropriate-sized piping tip, like me. I'll spare you the expletive-laden details and just say that I managed well enough. 

Click here for the complete recipe.