The upper utensil is a Rosette iron. It is dipped in batter, and then the working end is lowered into hot grease and it makes a wonderful cookie-like dessert. I'm sure more than one country has their own name for this but we just called them Rosette irons. The second item is a simple tea strainer. I've used these until adulthood when loose leaf tea was no longer mainstream. We steeped the tea in a pot and then poured it through the wire strainer into a tea pot. The last item is an egg beater

A lot of years ago, I was at a household auction ( one of my favorite things to do!) and there was an ebelskiver pan and krumkaka baker and a rosette iron with several "attachments" and I bought them all for maybe $2.50. I didn't know from beans about ebelskivers but asked my Danish friend how to make them....she said you just mix up pancake batter, grease the pan, fill about 2/3 full of batter and when ready, flip them with a knitting needle...Oh yes and you might want to put some apple sauce in the middle before you flip them... Yeah! Right! I tried it once...made a mess and stuck it away in the "seldom used items" cupboard. So this morning, reading these postings, I began to drool....looked at Chef Arne's video and drooled more and thought piece of cake! I had an appoint ment at 11 and then needed to run some errands.....and all the time I am thinking "ebelskivers....ebelskivers...ebelskivrs....MMMM! So when I got home I decided to make a small batch for lunch. I used 1/2 of julie's recipe... What I discovered.....I need more practise!!!! Mixed up a batch....looked thick so I added a little more buttermilk. Heated the pan, put a dab of butter into each hole and began to fill them with batter....but before I got the 4th one filled the butter in the empty holes had bagun to burn and smoke....wiped it out added more and added the batter but by then the first that I poured were beginning to get vry brown on the edges, so I gave them a 1/2 turn, a la Chef Arne, and then completed the turn....they were a little dark on the undersice but not toobad.....turned the fire down....I waited, turned them again...perfect round balls by the way....turned again and the undersides were really beginning to burn....I stuck a skewer into the middle and it came out moist....but they were burning on the outside....so I left them as much longer as I thought I dared and put them on a plate....put a glop of my apple pie jam next to them and proceeded to cut into one lushous puff... And Voila! I had invented something new! Molten lava ebelskivers!...Filled with runny uncooked batter! So back to the pan. I decided that the batter was still too thick, that the pan was too hot and that I had filled the cups too full. So I thinned the batter some more, added the butter very quickly and poured the pans about 2/3 full......they took longer to get done enough to turn, bur finally they were cooked enough to hold a shape and I did that little 1/2 turn thingdy....and they spilled liquid batter into the cup....so I waited a bit and completed the turn...but there was not enough batter....and what I ended up with was little sort of dough cups, slightly blackened on the outside. I think I'll go watch Chef Arne once more. Linda C

Almond horns, made with almond paste. They are sooo delicious, I only make them once a year because we always manage to eat them up within a day or two. 1 box Almond Paste, grated (I use Odense, I think it's 7 ounces) 3/4 cup confectionary sugar 1 large egg (room temperature), separated 1 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour 1 cup thinly sliced almonds, slightly crushed 4 oz bittersweet chocolate DIRECTIONS Line cookie sheet with parchment or foil. In a food processor or with a mixer combine Almond Paste and sugar. Mix until the texture of fine crumbs. Add egg white and flour, reserving yolk. Mix until dough becomes a smooth paste, it will be slightly sticky. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. With floured hands roll dough into a 12 inch log. Divide into 12 equal pieces and roll into balls. Roll balls between palms into 3 inch logs, slightly tapered at ends. Spread almonds on a plate. Beat reserved egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of water. Dampen log with beaten yolk. Roll each log in almonds until coated, bending into crescents. Place crescents 2 inches apart on cookie sheet and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until light golden in color. Cool sheet on wire rack for 5 minutes, and loosen crescents with a spatula. Slide parchment off of sheet and back onto wire rack to finish cooling cookies. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Dip cookie ends into melted chocolate. Place back on parchment until chocolate is dry. Layer 'Almond Horns' between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container.

Heh.. np... I get frustrated too when those junk drawers come time to clean, but I generally tend to start laughing at myself when I think of the money I make in a garage sale and then think of the fun I also have going to other people's garage sales and they must be having the same fun... so.. I remind myself of that each time and I keep a couple boxes in the garage all the time and as I find thing I just want to "get rid of".. those boxes fill up and when they are full.. garage sale time! I have a rule, for large items, "want something, sell something" and when I wanted a kayak.. I sold an item.. when I wanted something else, I sold something else. It keeps the budget good and the clutter down, for the most part. That being said, we always need a garage sale every few years ;) R