Grandma

MARLENE'S ART AND MORE BLOG
For: April 17, 2009

When I was trying to come up with a great subject for my log I noticed there was a lot of talk about our Grandmother’s in the groups I belong to. That decided my subject. Most of us have memories of our grandmother’s I know I do. She lived in a different town so I didn’t see her often but we would travel to see her, what I thought was a long ride, which was only about 1 to 2 hours. Sometimes her and my grandfather would come to visit us, my grandpa always had candy in his pocket for us, but this is about grandma. Grandma lived on a farm and me being a city girl always loved the adventure of the farm. There was so many fun things to see and do that I could not experience at my own home.


One of the things I would do with my grandmother was to visit her garden with her. We would sit on the bench next to the house (yes, her house was painted her favorite color, pink) and with a big silver bowl in between us we would snap beans, or shell peas, sometimes we would shuck corn in preparation for the feast of a dinner she would prepare for us. All the while we would visit about important things like how I was enjoying summer vacation, or how I did in school. She could look very stern, but had a heart of gold and a very dry sense of humor.

Once during the Summer we were allowed to spend a whole week at Grandma’s just playing and enjoying life on the farm. These were special days and my favorite Summer memories are there. There was a big old hollow tree with great climbing branches that became our “Tarzan Tree” and an irrigation ditch we had to jump over to get to it. Sometimes we’d make it and sometimes not. She had a huge rug loom we could work on and a piano that I could play.

For breakfast on at least one morning she would make us Abelskivers. My Grandma was Danish and these were a favorite Danish breakfast. They were an apple filled, round, pancake. They were made in a special pan, cast iron with 7 round indents. She would tell us they were time consuming to make so if she made them we had to eat a whole pan. I laugh now because when I was little they seemed so big and it was hard to eat them all, but yummy. Grandma cooked on a wood stove and I swear her pan was bigger than mine. Abelskivers have become an Easter tradition at our house and I would like to share the recipe with you all. If you do not have or cannot find an abelskiver pan (at most kitchen stores) you can just cook like pancakes and serve
the apple on the side.

ABELSKIVERS

1) I make my own chunky applesauce to use for the filling, any applesauce will work. You can also use finely chopped apple, or jam of your choice.

2) 3 eggs sparated
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Shortning or oil

Have filling ready. Preheat pan to medium.Separate eggs into two large bowls.
Beat the egg yolks and add the buttermilk. combine the dry ingredients and add gradually to the yolk mixture, beating well after each addition.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold them into the other mixture.
Melt 1/4 teaspoon shortning or oil in each cup of an abelskiver pan. fill each cup to just below the top with batter, place a small dab of filling in center of each abelskiver and cover with batter. When ebelskiver is brown and loosens from the pan turn over by rotating pancake and cook the other side. I use a small metal skewer to rotate mine, you can use a wooden skewer also. To use skewer just put point into the edge of the pancake and rotate it up and over. Keep rotating until pancake is brown all the way around.
Serve with butter, maple syrup, jam, or sprinkle with lemon juice and dust with powdered sugar. Makes 2 dozen Abelskivers