Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Apparently, the course designers base their work on the movies & merchandising: Anyone who's read the books would NOT eat anything Hagrid cooked/baked. LOL

BTW, my kids are not culinary wunderkind, but they have made stew and scones, et c for themselves (with knife work & stove/oven carefully supervised) since they were in single digits. My younger boy (12 yrs old) is a fussy eater & cooks for himself when he doesn't like what the rest of the family is served. (He has to pony up for his groceries & parents have veto power over menu selection.) Saves a lot of tension at the table.

Hey imalittlechile- Thanks for the link- sounds promising!

This sounds like SO MUCH FUN. What a cool way to spend a Saturday. I am a Harry Potter fanatic and am definitely in need of a cooking lesson or two. What a great class to bring in a younger crowd. The food looks pretty tasty, too!

Thanks for mentioning us!
TeriN- my mother uses her cast iron pan on her black ceramic stove top & it works great!
We are very excited about our 9-hole cast iron pan! We are curently putting the finishing touches on it with a local foundry here In Minneapolis. We're hoping Mr. Aebleskiver will have them available on his site too!
So glad to see so many families still enjoying aebleskiver!

Ha, duh. How did I miss that? Thanks, Nikki! Looking forward to your future posts.

I got one for Christmas but haven't broken it out yet. Does anyone have a good basic recipe to start? I don't want to resort to that mix at Williams Sonoma.

My mom is Danish and we use this pan all the time. It's pronounced aye-ble-skew-uh

(sort of)

My Grandfather was Danish - and I remember many many summer mornings sitting across the breakfast table from him trying to see who could eat more! My poor Grandmother would be making Aebelskiver for hours!

When my girls were little these were their favorite breakfast treat - always, like at Grandmother's, with bowls of powdered sugar, and wonderful homemade jams and apple butter to scoop up in them.

My DH loves them - I don't make them too often - but they are always a warm and wonderful reminder of my childhood. Thank you for the memories. I shall have to try some savory ones one of these days. Grandmother and Grandfather will roll in their graves - but perhaps she'd have loved them.

I love that more articles are being written on Yucatecán cuisine. It is an underrated style that features a blend of Mayan, Spanish and Caribbean, particulary Cuban flavors. Mérida is the food center of Yucatán and the cooks here use either Cochinita Pibil or Pollo Pibil for their Panuchos, although most braised, flavorful third category cut meats with will suffice.

For this recipe, I suggest a few changes:

The Beans: They must be black beans! Patricia Quintana has a great recipe for Yucatecán-Style Sieved Black Beans flavored with white onion, habanero and fresh epazote. Epazote is a great herb that rids the beans of their gaseousness and provides excellent flavor - It should always be used fresh and can be found in big city farmer's markets.

The Tortillas: Probably the most noticable flavor difference that will elevate Panuchos to new heights will be had if you use masa, or fresh corn dough (sold in latin markets, and some popular supermarkets as "Masa Harina"). Patricia Quintana also has a great recipe for corn tortillas. Please avoid the store bought corn tortillas - they taste nothing like the real thing.

The Pickled Red Onions: A few tablespoons of light brown sugar and a few allspice berries will add great flavor. Toast these along with the cumin seeds and make sure the oregano you use is Mexican oregano. There is no need to grind these spices. Simply bring everything except the onions to a boil then pour over the onions and let cool to room temperature before eating. They will keep for at least 2 months.

The Fat: Use pork lard instead of oil to fry the Panuchos - you won't regret it!

Banana!

Blackberries!

Oranges.

I like virtually all fruit, so I can't pick.

But my favorite fruit-related thing is the signs in the grocery store this time of year advertising "Personal-sized watermelons." I always have to wonder . . . You hear those stories.