Blueberry Ebelskivers

Inspired by the ebelskiver pan N got for Christmas from J's mom:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/blueberry-filled-pancakes.html

Remade on:
01-19-2013 for John's birthday; used blueberries stuffed in raspberries as filling:

02-03-2013 for brunch w/the locals - tried a chocolate variety & salmon-dill

Simple Brownies

Brownies made from 100% cocoa chocolate:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/08/my-favorite-brownies/

We still like the cocoa brownies recipe best.

Shrimp & White Bean Salad

Quick weeknight meal:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-white-bean-salad-50400000125928/

We used spinach and arugula instead of chicories, dry thyme instead of fresh, and we skipped the zesting to make this meal more casual.  The shrimp was raw and fresh from Whole Foods.  The salad turned out great!

Orange mini muffins

From the O'Leary family cookbook:

 

Result:

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream

Made in Minnesota over Christmas vacation.  Fun use of beets.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/red-velvet-cupcakes-50400000123760/

Sweet Potato and Apple Latkes

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/health/sweet-potato-and-apple-latkes-recipes-for-health.html

These were a nice twist on latkes, but when we simply followed the recipe exactly as written, we ended up with something good, but perhaps a little too soft and crumbly for our liking. Putting them on a cookie sheet in the oven for 10-20 minutes didn't change things much, either. One observation was that we ended up with far fewer latkes than predicted by the recipe, which suggests that we should have made them smaller. Doing so may have led to firmer latkes.

Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping

We finally got around to using the pie pumpkin that was kicking around the fridge for about a month. We don't have a go-to pumpkin pie recipe, so tried a new one this time.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Pie-with-Brown-Sugar-Walnut-Topping-355849

The use of brown sugar and walnuts did lead to a pumpkin pie with a distinct flavor, but we found it a bit too sweet, particularly in the topping. Next time, we should use less sugar in both the filling and topping.

Remade on:
12-27-12using only 3/4 cup sugar for the entire pie

Papalote Hummus

We didn't have any lemon juice around, but were in possession of a whole jar of Papalote salsa.  Decided to make hummus based on it instead.

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
4 Tbsp tahini
4 Tbsp Papalote salsa
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 roasted garlic cloves
pinch of smoked paprika
salt

Prep:
Food process til smooth.