Food and Fellowship

Fellow Unitarian Universalists (along with many other church goers) are familiar with the coffee hour fellowship that follows Sunday services. This informal gathering is probably more important to some than is the formal service. Zoom church makes this difficult, and even our masked in-person meetings are happening without the "after" part, as we forgo eating and drinking together in the name of public health. Our first Sunday service of the new year (a "Zoom only" affair) sought to rectify this missing piece with "Breakfast Church". Since this had to be strictly BYOB we found a fun recipe to try with thanks to the New York Times Cooking Page. Although we had previously made Dutch Baby with Bacon and Runny Camembert, the simple Dutch Baby was, well, simpler. With just a few basic ingredients, a blender and a hot oven we had a tasty breakfast treat in about a half an hour - and it looked really cool, too. We sprinkled the puffy pancake with some powdered sugar, and added a few teaspoons of apricot jelly. We shared stories and enjoyed our respective meals via our online gathering. Breakfast at Casa Hayesboh is, of course, always paired with fresh roasted, fairly traded, organic coffee. For Breakfast Church we also imbibed some mimosas.

Dutch Baby hot out of the oven!

Eggs Benedict for Father's Day

On the rare occasions that I eat breakfast out I look for Eggs Benedict on the menu. It is one of those things that I (for some reason) believed I could not make at home. I had never even bothered to look up the ingredients to Hollandaise sauce, never mind how easy it was to make. It was a package of Canadian bacon in a recent Crescent Ridge delivery that prompted me to see what I needed to do to make Eggs Benedict at home. Turns out the answer is "not much". We already had the eggs and English muffins and the only ingredients needed for Hollandaise sauce are egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper. I used this recipe from The Kitchn to make it. 

Father's Day breakfast was a big hit. We recommend adding a dash of hot sauce when serving.

Ricotta Pancakes

 When I saw this on a friend's page recently, I was intrigued:

I have been honing my approach to Deborah Madison's pancake recipe for close to two decades and had dedicated a page on my faculty web site to it before we began this blog. 

Ina Garten's recipe is at first notable for the very forward use of lemon and fig, but her approach is also different in the fundamentals: half of the liquid portion is ricotta and a fifth of the dry portion is corn starch. I was intrigued and decided to give this a try, in part because we had some ricotta on hand. 

The video itself does not provide enough detail to make this recipe work; when I tried to follow links associated with it, I was invited to download an app. Since I do not cook from my phone, I was at a bit of a loss, until the same friend who posted the video sent me the link to the full recipe -- from the app.

In fact, we had most of the ingredients except the figs and lemon on hand, but we had lemon juice. We also did not have buttermilk, but Deborah Madison teaches us that milk with a splash of lemon juice is a good substitute, after being allowed to rest for 10 minutes. Since I never drink buttermilk, I almost never buy it, always using this trick. In this case, I just used more than the usual lemon juice.

In place of figs, I chopped up a couple of small apples we had on hand, scattering them on top of the pancakes as in the video, rather than mixing them in the batter as I usually do. Incidentally, I usually do not peel apples before cooking with them -- it is easier to leave the skin on, and gives them an agreeable texture.

The batter had a distinctive texture -- almost spongy -- and the pancakes were as fluffy as they were delicious. I am glad that I did take time in the afternoon to buy some maple syrup at our local neighborhood farmstand. We had put it off for quite a while, and it was great to have the good stuff for these delicious, breakfast-for-dinner pancakes! 

I rarely find figs in the wild (or supermarket), though I did take care of a fig tree for a rich family in Baltimore during my landscaping days. When I next encounter them (hint to local friends who might know a source), I will revisit this recipe.

Image (complete with figs): Food Network

As Goddess is my witness I will never buy granola again!

Well, I can't believe it took a pandemic for me to make this simplest of recipes. I frankly was always in awe of people who made their own granola (or granilla as it is called in our house) but now I know my fascination was unwarranted. I don't know why I expected this would be some big kitchen-based project. We ran out of our store-bought granola this morning, so I did have some motivation to get on with this but honestly, it was so easy I'm embarrassed that I never made this myself before. It took less than 30 minutes to gather the ingredients (all of which were already in my pantry), mix them, and bake. I used this recipe from Cookie and Kate which calls for oats, sea salt, coconut or olive oil, nuts and/or seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey, vanilla extract and optional fruits or chocolate chips. I opted out of the last two, used honey rather than maple syrup, and used chopped walnuts. I also used the last of our blood-orange infused olive oil from L.O.V.E.  Good thing they have shipping to anywhere in the U.S. This is super tasty, and not too sweet. I think next time I will use a higher ratio of nuts though.

This can easily be made vegan by using maple syrup rather than honey.

Easy Oatmeal Pie

So glad I had all the ingredients for this already in my cupboard! The recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal comes from Organic Valley Co-Op and is super delicious! I followed the recipe as written except I used a 9.5 inch pie plate instead of a 9 inch baking dish. All the ingredients are mixed in one bowl - no sifting or mixing dry and wet ingredients separately - and then transferred to the baking dish. It baked for 45 minutes and then I let it sit for about 5 minutes. It was baked through and came out easily from the pie plate. We had it for breakfast on work-at-home day number nine, but it would also make a good dessert. Creamy and not-to-sweet James and I give this two thumbs up.

Two-ingredient cream cheese pancakes (aka "scrambled crepes")

James usually makes us waffles on the weekend, but this Saturday we decided that our big project would be cleaning up our yard after a wind storm blew a tree onto our backyard shed. A friend had posted this recipe on Facebook last week and since we had the two ingredients necessary (cream cheese and eggs) to make these pancakes I told James I would make this super-simple breakfast instead. I used about twice as much cream cheese than called for (4 ounces), but stuck with the same number of eggs (2). It still didn't really make much batter. I put the two ingredients into the blender and mixed them well, then poured the batter directly into my hot skillet. I attempted to make two pancakes to start, which only meant that I ended up with two "first pancakes". They looked more like scrambled eggs than pancakes. I made two more that wound up a bit more pancake shaped, and then that was it for the batter. I decided not to take pictures of this less-than-appetizing looking meal. If you click the link above you'll see what they were supposed to look like, but mine did not turn out in the crepe-like manner depicted at all. We each ate one "first pancake" and one "second pancake" topped with jam and powdered sugar. They weren't bad, but not worth making again. In the future I will either eat scrambled eggs or pancakes.

Two Skillet dishes from New York Times Cooking

The days between Christmas and New Year's Day are slow-paced for us, and generally a time to relax. We spent a few days at our near-the-beach house and took some time to try some new dishes. Normally when we are at the beach house we have waffles for breakfast, but since we were there for four days we didn't want them all four mornings. James made them for the first two, and then I was in charge of breakfast. I found this recipe for Dutch Baby with Bacon and Runny Camembert from the New York Times Cooking pages. I don't think we'd ever had Camembert cheese before, and apparently no one at the deli counter at our local grocery store had ever even heard of it. James googled it and discovered that it was a type of brie, so he started looking around where the brie was located. This method worked and he brought home a nice 8 oz. wheel, just like the recipe called for. I followed the recipe pretty closely, with the exception that I only used seven eggs instead of eight, since that was all I had. This was both visually appealing, and really tasty. It made enough for the both of the remaining breakfasts.

The second recipe I tried was an easy skillet dinner Cheesy Spicy Black Bean Bake. This was quick and only the skillet was needed, no additional pots, pans, or bowls.

Spicy pairs well with sparkling, so we enjoyed a bottle of Blancs de Noirs from Westport Rivers Winery with this.

Like having pudding for breakfast!

A few years ago, when I put oatmeal on a grocery list, James came home with steel cut oats instead. It wasn’t a big deal, but I was aware that steel cut oats took longer to prepare than regular oatmeal, so we would need to plan ahead for breakfasts that required their use. With this in mind I brought the steel cut oats to the beach house where meal preparation tends go at a more leisurely pace, and bought some regular oatmeal for our regular house. Last week when a recipe for Brown-Butter Chocolate Oatmeal (using steel cut oats, not oatmeal) showed up on my Facebook feed from the New York Times Cooking page I knew I’d found a perfect morning meal for Easter weekend.
The chocolate flavor comes from unsweetened powered cocoa, so this will only be as sweet as each diner likes using whatever sweetening agents they prefer. I used a bit of brown sugar and some sliced banana. James just used the brown sugar. We both liked our results.

I halved the recipe, and followed the suggestion to “substitute...milk...for up to half the water”.  This was thick and flavorful.

Monte Hayes-Boh

As we learned from The Great Monte Cristo Sandwich Incident of 1997, a certain decadent sandwich looms large in family lore. Discovered at a favorite watering hole when we met as college students, it has been an infrequent but important part of our history with food.

(NOTE: Many entries on this blog are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, simple, and/or healthy. This is not one of those entries, though some ingredients were locally sourced, and we would love to hear from any readers who make substitutions.)

This story begins on a rainy Saturday morning in our weekend home, trying to figure out how to have a good breakfast without leaving the house. (We failed on that count: after we committed to this plan I realized we had none of our usual Crescent Ridge milk, so it was off to the market for some Stonyfield. No regrets.)

Milk aside, Pam noticed a combination of ingredients on hand that led her straight to the Monte Cristo concept, but with waffles instead of bread. This breakfast is pretty straightforward, once the waffles are complete. To facilitate bringing all of the components together, Pam prepared a fruit/yogurt smoothie before I began the rest. Coffee, of course, had been prepared much earlier.

I had all of the other ingredients ready for assembly by the time the waffles were complete. I placed them on plates in a warm oven so that they everything would come together at optimal temperatures. Waffles are an area of continuous experimentation at Whaling House; these were very close to the gingerberry waffles I prepared in October, except that I left out the ginger and forgot the vanilla. 

Just before the second waffle was complete, I lightly fried some deli turkey in an indispensable cast-iron skillet and topped it with a couple of slices of cheese until it was melty and bubbly.

As soon as the second waffle was complete, I spread some local berry jelly on one of them.

The hot deli slices went right on top of that.

This tableau (which includes the smoothies Pam had just made and some fairly-traded, organically-grown, fresh roasted and brewed Nicaraguan coffee) was nice for a photo, but was also an extension of our prep area. With the second waffle in place, we sprinkled some powdered sugar on top, and then divided this enormous sandwich.

A close-up of my half of our invention:
The Monte Hayes-Boh

Gingerberry Waffles!

When our friends (and fellow foodies) Rob & Lisa were visiting Whaling House a couple weeks back, I mentioned that we would be having waffles in the morning. Without hesitation, Rob started channeling this donkey. We've been doing the same ever since. 

The waffles just keep getting better around here, after years of waffle failures. Although I posted the backstory and recent improvements in Whaling House Waffle Surprise (May 2016), I have done further tweaking of the recipe that warrants and update. Please read that post for the full context of this recipe, and then I invite you to proceed as I did this morning.

Preheat oven anywhere in 250-275 F range and put plates or platter on oven rack just before starting.

Dry ingredients -- in a medium bowl whisk or sift:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (King Arthur if you can get it)
1/2 cup Johnny Cake corn meal from Gray's Grist Mill (I used the generic term "corn meal" last year, though I don't know what happens when lesser corn meals are used. Treat yourself to Gray's if you can get it. I am lucky enough to get mine directly from the mill -- I recommend a visit!)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 t ground ginger (later amended: 1 t ginger plus other autumn spices, especially cardamom) 

Note on sifting: In my 2016 post, I extolled the virtues of sifting, and still aver that it will yield fluffier waffles. Using the Johnnycake meal, whisking leaves just a trace of crunchitty bits that I think gives these waffles character. But for real indulgence, sifting is probably best.)

Berries
1/2 to 1 cup frozen mixed berries -- Rinse to thaw in a small bowl, sieved and return to the bowl. Mash with a fork and then transfer to a measuring cup of at least 2 cups capacity.

Wet ingredients
2 eggs (we use organic Country Hen)
approx. 1-1/4 cup milk (we use delicious 1% Crescent Ridge)
1/4 C butter (Amish or regular), melted
1 T vanilla

Splash of Triple Sec (optional)

Beat two eggs in a small bowl.
Pour milk into measuring cup over the mashed berries until the combined liquids (and fruit bits) reach 2 cups. Add to eggs.
Add butter and vanilla; blend well.

Mix wet ingredients (with berries) into dry ingredients, scraping sides of bowl until all is wet. Do not over mix.

Optional
1 C fresh berries or strawberries, sliced if appropriate, mixed gently into batter

Following waffle-iron manufacturer's directions, heat waffle iron, spray with Pam cooking spray or brush with oil. Spoon spoon batter onto hot griddle, perhaps enough to cover 2/3 of the center of the iron. Technique improves over time.

Top with pure maple syrup -- we get ours from Hanson Farm -- and enjoy with good coffee!
This pairs beautifully with a good cup (or two) of fairly traded, organic coffee.

Waffle Hashbrowns

Genius, right? Those two words are probably enough to understand the breakfast miracle we experienced this morning, but I will elaborate just a bit. As I am wont to do.

Regular readers of this blog will know that we are quite fond of latkes, a recipe for which I posted back in 2012. This entry turns our blog into a vlog (web log --> video log), since a short video Pam shared with me a few days ago has all the key information. Just do what the delightful Justin Chapple does.

Source: Food & Wine

My elaboration:

We have a Waring Pro Belgian waffle maker, very similar to the one in the video. I sprayed it with Pam cooking spray, as I always do, because our instructions said we should, and in an earlier life we always had waffle problems. Rather than listening for the waffles, I just used the automatic dial. It runs 0 to 6, and I used 4.5 for the first hashwaffle. It turned out really well, but not as crispy as the video. So I went to 5 and then to 6. Potatoes have so much moisture that I could really have left them on a bit longer.

I used only the ingredients he suggested, though I might add a little minced onion and some herbs next time. I might also drain the potatoes just a bit.

When I make regular waffles, I put the batter in the middle, and it moves to the edges. Of course, that does not work in this case, so feel free to spread the potatoes around the whole iron surface before closing it. Experiment with quantities and doneness -- there are no wrong answers!

Birthday leftovers

Some thirty years ago James and I spent our wedding night at a hotel in Columbia, Maryland. The following morning we had breakfast at a restaurant on Main Street in Historic Ellicott City called Side Streets. The restaurant is long gone, but we have a lasting memory of the delicious first meal of our first full day of married life - an Eggs Benedict-esque repast made with crab meat in lieu of ham.

I was inspired by the leftovers of my birthday meal (Oysters à la Gino) to make something similar to our matrimonial breakfast for brunch on Memorial day. All of the oysters got eaten at dinner on Saturday, but there was a fair amount of crab and bacon filling leftover, which James baked in a tiny casserole dish. I spread some of this filling on each of two pieces on Naan bread and broiled for about a minute. Meanwhile I fried two eggs, and then placed one on top of each of the crab/bacon/Naan piles. I added some shredded Parmesan cheese and then broiled again for another minute or so until the cheese melted. Nothing wrong with this meal, except that I wish there were more!

Tea & Crumpets!

In addition to my coffee classes, I enjoy teaching a one-credit colloquium on tea and climate change each semester. It started as a one-semester idea, but the BSU Honors students keep hearing about it and asking that it be offered again. And I so much enjoy working with these delightful, curious students that I keep agreeing to do so.

This semester I invited the students over for an informal gathering at Casa Hayes-Boh on Reading Day. Since I serve tea in class every time, I needed to do something different to make this occasion a little fancy, so I decided on crumpets ... not really knowing what they are. Crumpet is of course the elf name adopted by David Sedaris in The SantaLand Diaries, but that was not helping me as a cook!

Thanks to the Interwebs, I learned that they are something like a pancake and something like and English muffin. I also learned that they are best served fresh off the griddle, and I was fortunate to find a simple crumpet recipe on AllRecipes. (I'm ashamed to admit that I did not even check with Deborah Madison first!)

Because I had never even had a crumpet and would therefore not know how to correct any errors midstream, I followed the recipe to the letter. I even measured the temperature of the water and milk before stirring them into the flour mixture. As with all yeast-leavened recipes, this one calls for storing the dough in a warm place. Our house does not have any warm places between September and May, so I set the oven to 170F and then turned it off, simply to provide warm storage. It seemed to work very well.

Once the batter had risen -- though it was a bit thinner than I anticipated -- I gave it a good stir and then put it in the fridge until the tea was brewing. Next time I will go ahead and start the crumpets before the tea, because keeping them on a rack in a warm oven does seem to be just fine.

I did stray from the recipe in one way -- I had no crumpet rings! I thought that a reasonable substitute would be easy to find in our local grocery, but I was mistaken. So I ordered some online -- and experience my first failure of Amazon Prime. I guess I deserved that for no planning ahead and finding a local shop. So the cookie and biscuit tools I found made for some cute, if slightly untidy, cakes.

Thank goodness for our indispensable cast-iron griddle! 

The result? Scrumptious, spongy little cakes, perfect with local Trappist jams, no butter. Having neither our own cow nor a clue, I was not able to offer clotted cream.

Lots of Chocolate Flay-vor

Mmmm...chocolate

My big sister recently came for a visit. I had seen this recipe for Stuffed Mexican Hot Chocolate French Toast with Cinnamon Whipped Cream and Chocolate-Maple Ganache  show up on my Facebook feed just days before her arrival and determined that it would be the perfect sister activity for her stay. The recipe says it takes an hour to prepare, which may be true if only one person is working on it, but we had three very willing participants (my sister, my husband, and me) for this one. My sister prepared the ganache while I made the batter, and my husband whipped the cream and (natch) made the coffee - you will want plenty of black fair-trade, organic coffee to pair with this very rich breakfast. Anyway, we cut the prep time to about 25 minutes by having each of us working on a different part of the meal. We cooked some bacon to go with it so that we would also have a bit of protein with our victuals. This is a fun, dessert-for-breakfast, special-occasion, many-hands-make-light, work repast. 

While we were cooking my sister also informed me that my niece's beau loves Bobby Flay, to which James and I responded "who's that" and she answered that we were making one of his recipes. We do not watch the Food Network (or any other network for that matter).

Orange-Cinnamon Pancakes

Image:from a Shortbread Recipe on Saturday Evening Post.

Two things readers of this blog might know about me: I am passionate about pancakes, and even more passionate about Nicaragua. And for the past few years my annual visit to coffee lands has included CEN, a cloud-forest research station that is fascinating for its ecology projects, its beauty, and its breakfast! When we are lucky, the research in charge, thespian, physicist, ethnopharmacologist, and all-around genius Dr. Alan Bolt makes us pancakes.

I cannot possibly replicate his pancakes at home. First of all, I am not Alan. Second, I have no cinnamon trees nearby. But this morning I had success with a CEN-inspired adaptation of my usual pancake recipe. In place of a small amount of nutmeg, I used a lot of ground cinnamon -- probably two tablespoons. Instead of a mix of milk and yogurt totalling 1-1/2 cups, I used 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of orange juice. I increase the leaving agents (baking powder and baking soda) just a tad. I completely forgot sugar, and I used olive oil instead of melted butter.

The results: light, delicious pancakes. CEN's reputation for pancake mastery is still intact, but this was a fine way to start our snow day!

Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins

Well, we're finally back in the game for 2017. We had a rough start to the new year and mostly were trying to keep our heads above water in January, so scouring recipe books/sites fell to the back burner (so to speak). This weekend we finally had some breathing room and took the time to get back to cooking and blogging. The recipe for Jordan Marsh's Blueberry Muffins showed up on my Facebook feed on Saturday morning. As luck would have it, James had recently bought some blueberries and they were just waiting to be used. I've made blueberry muffins many times before, so I checked the recipe to see what was special about these. The magic comes from crushing some of the berries and adding the juice to the batter, which gives them a moister texture. They really are good. Also, importantly, I discovered the New York Times Cooking app for my iPad. It is superior to using my browser and going to the New York Times cooking page online because it does not constantly close while I am cooking. 

Flaming Flapjacks!

To be honest, the flapjacks themselves were never on fire. But flames were involved in their preparation.

Readers of this blog will know that pancakes are important in Casa Hayes-Boh. We have written about several pancake variations over the years, all based on my version of the Deborah Madison pancake recipe that has appeared on my web site since long before this blog (or any blog, for that matter).

On Friday mornings during the academic year, I am usually out of the house quite early for Project EarthView, leaving time only for the traditional Hayes-Boh weekday breakfast (one local egg, English muffin, yogurt, exquisite coffee), if that. But I have a very rare free Friday morning (because of a special program I'm doing in the afternoon), I decided to do pancakes, and to do something special with them.

So I prepared the batter as usual (using a bit of half-and-half in lieu of yogurt, and then added some apples. Simply slicing up the apples works fine, but lately I have enjoyed cooking the apples first. And by "cooking" I mean chopping them up, frying them in a bit of butter and cinnamon. When they have just started to crisp a bit, I pour whiskey or rum (in this case, Scotch) into the pan and lighti a match -- amateur flambe! Having only two hands, I did not manage to get a good photo of this, but there is a bit of orange flame visible in the left side of the pan.

I am not sure if the flame makes any difference, but the whiskey flavor certainly does!

In this case, I had more batter than we had appetite, so I carefully stored the batter in a glass jar for a weekend treat.

French Toast Variation

Today's post is a recipe of my own creation.

Most weekdays James and I have the same breakfast: one egg, an English muffin, a container of yogurt, and a glass of orange juice (every once in a while we take a walk on the wild side and mix it up with a smoothie in lieu of the yogurt and juice). On the weekends we are more likely to have something that takes more time to make (and eat).Today, being Sunday of a three-day weekend, we had a little bit of leisure this morning to make something special. Pancakes and waffles were out since I'd used the last of the flour making biscuits two days before (stay tuned for recipe) and since we'd been traveling recently, and had not yet fully restocked the pantry we did not have a lot of ingredients. I found half a loaf of whole wheat bread in the freezer though, and we did have some eggs, so I decided to make French Toast (and to experiment a bit with ingredients) so I made some additions to the egg/milk batter. I started by adding ground cinnamon and nutmeg (but that was really not new), and I had also noticed that I had a small container of "pumpkin spice" vinegar in the cupboard, so I added a dash of that as well. I also put in a dollop of sour cream and whisked everything well, then soaked the bread slices. I am still adjusting to using the electric stove at our beach house, but I seem to be doing better. I cooked these on a medium high heat for what appears to have been an appropriate amount of time (but I couldn't say now what that was) as the French Toast came out neither burnt, nor soggy. It also had a a nice little puffiness to it. Topped with maple syrup it was a tasty treat for the first cool morning of the season.

Whaling House Waffle Surprise

Spoiler alert: The surprise is simply an improvement in a traditional waffle recipe.

When our artisan friend Dave realized that whaling would be the theme of our weekend getaway, he made us this spiffy whale. Meanwhile, his brother Paul -- who lives nearby -- painted it mint-chocolate-chip, a combo that Pam had always longed for in a house. This photo predates the #whalinghouse solar panels.

When figuring out how to divide equipment between our main kitchen and the galley of our smaller weekend place, Pam wisely suggested that the waffle iron belonged in the weekend kitchen, since that is when we tend to make waffles. 

Just a few years ago we finally got a waffle iron that allows us to make good waffles consistently. Once the electricity had been upgraded, we made the move, and indeed we have waffles a bit more often now.

We keep the weekend larder stocked with all of the Hayes-Boh essentials for baking and basic cookery, but not in large quantities. And so it was this morning that I started preparing the batter before I realized that there was not enough flour for a batch. If nothing else, we are resourceful, so I decided to take a risk on two substitutions: baking powder for baking soda and corn meal for part of the white flour.

The basic recipe from Deborah Madison was thus modified more or less as follows:

2 eggs, beaten (she calls for three, which I think makes waffles that are too eggy)

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups milk (Madison calls for milk or buttermilk; I put about 1/4 cup of plain yogurt, vanilla yogurt, or sour cream in the measuring cup and then fill up the rest of the way. This morning it was sour cream.)

1 Tsp oil

*optional: 1/4 cup mashed blueberries (see below)

1-1/2 cups white flour

1/2 cup fine-ground corn meal

2 t baking powder (instead of 1 t powder and 1/2 t baking soda)

1/4 t salt

dash of nutmeg

2 Tsp organic sugar (Madison does not call for this, but I could not see any reason not to include it.)

*optional: 1 cup whole blueberries, rinsed and drained

I mixed the dry and wet ingredients thoroughly in separate bowls and then combined them without overmixing. I let the batter sit and rise slightly while I heated the waffle iron. I then used cooking spray for each round and transferred each waffle to a plate in the warm (250F) oven.

The result was by far the best waffles I have made -- they slide easily off the iron and were a bit extra fluffy and delicious!

Even More Better

UPDATE February 19, 2017

This morning we had blueberries on hand, which I was going to add in the usual way -- about a cup to the batter just after it was combined. But Pam -- who already gets credit for remembering this post about corn meal -- suggested that I mash some of the blueberries, as she had recently done for Jordan Marsh muffins. So in addition to the cup of whole blueberries, I used a fork to mash about 1/4 cup, and put it in the liquid mix before combining. I just whisked the skins and pulp together into the egg-milk mixture. 

All bacon weekend

Over the weekend we had our first snowstorm of the season here in New England. James and I decided to ride it out at "Whaling House" where we would be able to have a cozy fire (actually two!) and a hot tub. We brought a package of bacon with us and planned our meals accordingly. 

Of course no snow storm would be complete without a comforting casserole, and no casserole is more comforting than good ol' mac and cheese. We picked this recipe for Macaroni and Cheese with Caramelized Onion and Bacon from allrecipes.com. I am not sure who did the math on the recipe site to determine that prep time would only be 20 minutes. Adding up the number of minutes of stirring, cooking and simmering time in each step comes out to more than that. Add to that the actual time you need to chop, cut, and wait for water to boil, and it was over an hour of prep work. This was with both of us working on it. The error made amount of prep time was offset by the fact that the top of the recipe also says there is an hour of cook time, but the final step calls for only 30 minutes in the oven. Perhaps the recipe authors are thinking differently than I do about how prep and cook time break down. In any case, this turned out quite good and we enjoyed the leftovers the following day for lunch. There is yet more in the freezer to be eaten another day.

The casserole only called for four slices of bacon, so there was still plenty more in the package for breakfast. Instead of plain old bacon and eggs though I prepared this recipe from allrecipes.com for French Egg and Bacon Sandwiches. Much easier and quicker than the casserole.