baked german apple pancake

among the 11th Annual Webby Awards Honorees is this "social-networking site for people passionate about food" called BakeSpace. i thought i'd check them out and was browsing in the recipes section when i came across this recipe for S. Katz's Classic Baked German Apple Pancake. never seen anything like this before. it looks like a good one to try!

the GBVC

what's the GBVC, you might ask? it's The Great Big Vegetable Challenge, which the creative Mum of Freddie embarked on to turn him from a vegetable-phobic boy to a vegetable-loving king. they are eating their way through an A-Z tour of vegetables. what a neat idea! interested in joining them in their adventures...?

meals matter...meal planning made simple online

tonight i went online determined to download a menu planner to help me get organized with my meal planning so that i can start cooking healthy home-cooked meals more consistently and regularly. and i came across Meals Matter, which features free meal planning tools online...search recipes, contribute recipes, organize your personal cookbook online, find nutrition information, obtain personal nutrition planning information, etc. hosted by the Dairy Council of California, information is available in English and Spanish. i just signed up tonight. will evaluate later.

perfectly cooked eggs

this past week, i've been helping to prepare an Agape Feast for our church and one of my tasks was to boil eggs. i have this "recipe" for hard-cooked eggs that i used. it's from the cookbook 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles.

Hard-Cooked Eggs
Makes: 8 perfectly cooked eggs; serves: 4 to 8

Everyone knows how to boil an egg, but as a food stylist, I learned (by asking my assistant to cook the eggs) that not everyone knows how to hard-cook an egg without getting the green ring around the yolk that indicates an overcooked egg.

8 eggs

1 Place the eggs in a 2-quart saucepan and add water to 1 inch above the eggs. Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Boil 2 minutes.

2 Remove from heat and let stand 15 minutes. Pour off hot water and add cold water to cover. Let cool; peel the eggs.

Variation: Easter eggs: Add food coloring and distilled white vinegar to the water before cooking the eggs.

[post edit/Apr 22 - was browsing the How to... links on Coconut & Lime and saw her post on How to Boil Perfect Eggs. her method is very similar to this one by Carol Gelles and promises to produce "hard boiled eggs with nearly centered yolks with no green edge." great for making deviled eggs.]

pecan meringue cookies

i made a batch of Elise's Pecan Meringue Cookies last night, and this is the outcome. they are not as pretty as Elise's, but they don't taste too bad. even my husband, who isn't a fan of meringue, tried them and said they were good!

the cookies on the lower tray in the oven, however, turned out a little chewy in the middle. my post baking research tells me that my oven was probably too hot. my mistake was leaving the oven on for about 2 minutes after i had put the cookies in. i waited until the thermostat returned to 300 degrees before shutting it off.

also, my cookies look gritty and i'm not sure if it's a result of the pecans being ground too fine in my blender or that the sugar was not completely dissolved. [post edit/Apr 5 - i've conferred with Elise about the grittiness of the cookies and she agrees that the pecans should never have been pulverized in the blender; best to crush into small pieces. the meringue will probably hold up better, too.] in any case, this calls for another attempt to see if i can make them look more like the fluffy clouds i always think meringues should look like. i used a handheld mixer and it whipped up the egg whites nicely, but maybe i need to whip them a little longer...

the reader of Elise's Pavlova post who shared this recipe called these "Easter cookies" and they are supposed to be hollow when you bite into them, a good reminder of the empty tomb of Jesus on Easter Sunday after the resurrection!