Popovers

I love popovers. They are soooo easy, tasty and far more interesting than any roll ever could be.  The only bummer is you need a special pan but it is worth the investment and hassle.

I used a recipe out of the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook,but I think pretty much all popover recipes are the same for the most part.

I usually make these for a special occasion, but after being reminded how delicious and easy they are I think I'll bring them into the regular rotation.

Sunomono

I love to order sunomono when we go out to Japanese, but it when I see the $3.50+ price on the menu I always think to myself I should make this at home.  In truth, I've tried a number of times.  My mother-in-law makes it all the time and has casually rattled off the recipe to me a number of times but I could never replicate it accurately - did I mention she is Japanese so I think its in her blood. :)

I got these great Japanese cucumbers from Amazon Fresh the other day and they inspired me to give it another try.  I found this recipe for sunomono and followed it exactly except I didn't use any daikon.  It turned out great!

Beet Salad

My friend Ripley makes this amazing beet salad. He gave me the recipe but it took me four, yes four, times to finally make it work. The problem was getting the beets to cook through. His recipe said to bake them, but boiling them is best I later learned and it takes 45-60 minutes to really get them soft depending on the size.

Here is the Barefoot Contessa version of this salad. She calls for canned beets (bleh!!), please use fresh ones. You can use any color beet but I find the red ones a bit strong but the color is really nice in the salad - ideally you'd use a mix of colors. You can also add feta or goat cheese and I had this salad at Pasta & Co. the other day with blue cheese and walnuts which was also good. I also put orange wedges in this salad too which is a nice variety of color and texture.

Sticky Buns

I decided to tackle the Sticky Buns recipe in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook for Easter at the Pannoni's. They turned out great but they were A TON of work. It called for Danish Pastry and I was excited to try my hand at it, but it took pretty much all day to make - not much active time but 8 hours of total time.

I am glad I tried making them, but really doubt I will make them ever again.