Breakfeast Euphoria Has Been Attained!

Look what I made this morning...

Yes, they WERE as good as they look!

They were SO tasty and SO easy. And the secret, apparently, is putting a little floater of butter in the bottom of each tin so that it gets the outside all crispy and mouthwatering.

All that was missing was a little strawberry butter, but regular butter worked fine.

And a special shoutout to the Tea Room at Needless Markup for being the inspiration that made this all possible.

Recipe I used:

Teatime Perfect Popovers  Epicurious | January 2009

by Sara Perry

The Tea Deck: 50 Ways to Prepare, Serve, and Enjoy

Yield: Makes 6 popovers

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 6 pieces

2 large eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature

1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

preparation

Preheat the oven to 400° F for 20 minutes. Place 1 piece of butter in the bottom of each cup of a six-cup popover tin (or six 1/2-cup custard cups). Place the popover pan on a baking sheet.

In a smaller bowl, lightly whisk the eggs until they change color. Whisk in the milk.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt until well blended. Gently whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until only small lumps are left, and set aside.

Place the popover tin and baking sheet in the oven for 4 minutes. At 3 minutes, give the batter a light whisk. Using an oven mitt, remove the hot tin from the oven and immediately divide the batter among the prepared cups. Bake for 25 minutes without opening the oven door. The popovers will be puffy, with crisp brown crusts and hollow, moist interiors. Serve immediately.

It's a Spring Thing

Yowza it's been awhile....pardon the delay, loyal readers (if there are any left to witness the thaw).  Plenty of action in Iowa City lately, once the snow disappeared and the grass came back and the trees started blooming and the birds started singing - it's a magical, muddy time of year.  And we've been busy mowing, tilling and planting The Garden! It's about 6 weeks in now, and there's stuff out there that is actually recognizable as food! It's so exciting to go out and see plants that look just like the picture on the seed packet. Anyway, to catch this flog up to speed, here's a montage of the springy things that I've been staring at lately - and appreciating, as a former coastal desert dweller.

From my rides and walks around my fair city in bloom:

The bulb-ous blooms are mostly dead now, but it was shocking how plentiful and colorful they were in March and April

Is that grass green or what??

And now...out to the garden in Bison Town, USA (Solon, IA, about 20 mins from our house and land we've borrowed from a bison farm)

These are our most successful crop (thus far) - garlics we planted back in the Fall, 30 in all! Mmmm stinky

I dug these two gorgeous beds up myself last weekend...and now they are filled with Spinach, Arugula, Lettuce, Carrot, Broccoli, Romanesco, and Broccoli Raab. Hopefully our early start will mean early and happy leafy greens before it gets too hot.

Look Ma, it's Spinach! The first seeds to look like something edible...

The rest of our mighty plot, tilled and ready to go...We still have about 18 different seeds to plant, Corn is next I think...and someday, DINNER

And....a preview of my truly WILD weekend in Northern Iowa/Southern Minnesota, which I shall flog shortly: