Please Popover for a Pop-Up

Well . . . the last you heard from me I was going to make popovers. To be honest (and since I have photos, there's no point in lying . . .), they did not 'pop over' as much as 'pop up'. I only make popovers a few times a year and sometimes they are huge, billowy puffs that are cookbook perfect, and other times they just rise up and never get that great hollow center. Last night was a doughy center night.

The good news is that they were still quite delish! The outsides were crunchy and the insides were okay - in fact the inside part would have been great had we not expected that dough to be on the outside (I'm picturing it kind of like the soldiers in one of those black and white World War II movies - instead of staying safely in the trenches (i.e., the center of the popover) that dough should have taken a risk and gone "over the top"). Anyway, these were served with strawberry butter and were soon history.

Lots of cookbooks have popover recipes and they seem to be much the same so I won't include one here. If you don't have a cookbook that includes popovers, I can recommend the Neiman Marcus Cookbook. It has lots of wonderful recipes, including one for their famous popovers and strawberry butter. (Strawberry butter is simple - whip one half-cup butter until fluffy, beat in one-third cup strawberry preserves.)

You'll find all the favorites from the Neiman Marcus restaurants, but one word of caution, you'll never look at the menu in the same way once you've been behind the curtain! That chicken salad that tastes so light and yummy? It's made with mayo AND heavy cream (gasp). Not all the recipes are decadent and there are lots that your family will love, even on busy weeknights: summer tomato soup, chicken and white bean chili, grilled chicken club w/ brie and apple-onion compote, Northpark chopped salad w/ cilantro-lime dressing, pickled green tomatoes, and so on.

So, if you're looking for a fun bread to accompany an entree salad or soup, try your hand at popovers. And if you're looking for a new cookbook that's an interesting read and has great recipes, consider the Neiman Marcus cookbook - you'll love it even if you've never visited one of their stores.