Little Nuggets of Joy

So far this summer has been much busier than I thought it would be. I left my job right before I got married and thought I would be twiddling my thumbs most of the time before I start graduate school, but I've been traveling quite a bit, entertaining friends, and surprisingly, keeping pretty busy (and I've managed to get sick for about a week and a half as well). That's not to say I couldn't squeeze in more blog posts; I've certainly been cooking a lot and I have quite a few reviews to post, but I know once I settle into my new life as a graduate student come mid-August I will be more frequent in my posting. So I wanted to take this time to share with you all a neat pan the A-man and I received.

Getting married has meant my kitchen supply has grown immensely. I've received some pretty awesome tools, including this one: an ebelskever:

It's basically a pan that you can use to make filled pancakes. And on a lazy Sunday morning served with a side of bacon, it's pretty awesome. We filled ours with with a strawberry-rhubarb compote (strawberries and rhubarb cooked with a bit of agave) and a vanilla pudding (take 3 cups of almond milk, 1/2 cup agave, and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of corn starch, whisk together and bring to a boil. let simmer for five minutes stirring constantly until thick, take off heat and then add one teaspoon vanilla extract).


The recipe we used for the pancakes is one adapted from the recipe that came with the pan. We made it gluten free and dairy free of course. It makes a lot, and the process of making these takes some patience, but it's a lot of fun if you enjoy these types of things.

Filled Pancakes (gluten-free, dairy-free)
serves 4-6

2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used 1 cup superfine brown rice flour, 1 cup montina flour blend -- my new favorite)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs agave, or sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
4 tbs earth balance buttery spread melted, plus more for pan

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the agave, egg yolks, milk and melted "butter." Add the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined. Then, using an electric mixer beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (about two minutes) and fold into the batter.

In the pan, put small pats of butter in each well, add 1 tablespoon of batter, then 1 teaspoon of your filling, and cover with one more tablespoon of batter. Wait a minute or so and turn with chopsticks or wooden skewers.

A great video on the ebelskever technique can be found here.

Enjoy with maple syrup. They're even good cold the next day as I just discovered. And of course Henry's a big fan.

Photo Phriday: A Wedding Slideshow

My completely awesome photographers Kjeld and Melissa Mahoney put together a slide show from the wedding day that can be found by pressing play below:

Liz & Allen - A Bradley Estate Wedding from kjeld mahoney on Vimeo.

It's got a great soundtrack and even some video in it: enjoy!

A total recap of the wedding will be done within a few weeks once I receive all the photos from the day.

Happy Weekend!

I'm Baaaaaack: Maui Post #1

Welp, it's been about a month since I last wrote a post on my dear blog. I've missed it -- a lot, and the blogging community. And I will be back to normal blogging shortly.

Married life has been great: it's hard to believe that this is the longest amount of time that the A-man and I have had together consecutively. I know I'm being spoiled because another deployment and separation is looming come September.

But let's focus on the positive: we had an amazing honeymoon in Maui. We stayed at one of the Westin resorts in Kaanapali and as a wedding gift my sister and brother-in-law hired a Westin chef to come into our suite and cook us dinner one evening!!! How darn cool is that? I'll give a little recap of the dinner:

While the chef was prepping the food, we lounged on our patio:

Then our highly talented and very friendly chef worked some magic:

First course was a tuna sashimi dish that was amazing and so fresh. Those are crispy fried potatoes on top. Mine was made sans soy sauce.

Next up were two perfectly cooked scallops and a great salad (lettuce wrapped in a thin piece of cucumber: very pretty):

The main course was a piece of white fish that was delicious with a side of lightly sauteed veggies:


And lastly we had the best. dessert. ever. Now I'm a big chocolate person, so that's where I usually go with dessert, but this was amazing: a pineapple sorbet with lavender served in a almond bowl (made with sliced almonds and corn syrup). It was gooooood:

Inspired by our dessert I recently made my own version of pineapple sorbet that I will share soon on the blog.

A big thank you to my dear sis and bro in law for arranging this great evening. It was easily one of the highlights of our honeymoon -- and gluten-free and dairy-free of course.

I have a few more posts from Maui that I want to write about : dinner at Mama's Fish House, The Feast at LeLe and a trip to a goat farm. So on that note, I'll leave you with a photo of the awesome goats we got to hang out with in Maui:

If you look closely the middle goat is biting the ear of the goat on her right. Silly goats.