Brinner | The Local Cook

Apple Spice Waffles with Apple Topping

January 2, 2010 By The Local Cook 7 Comments

Don’t you love weekends where you actually have time to make a real breakfast? Or maybe you’re one of those people who has time to make a real breakfast every morning. For me, it’s a special treat. And this waffle/topping combination from Simply in Season is just perfect for such a weekend.

By the way, I just bought a new recipe program called Living Cook. It will allow me to calculate nutrition information, so as we enter the new year, I hope you enjoy this new feature!

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Filed Under: recipe Tagged With: apples, Breakfast, brinner, Simply in Season, winter

Nutty Sweet Potato Waffles

December 21, 2009 By The Local Cook 4 Comments

waffle Ever have one of those days when everything goes wrong? This morning I woke up to discover that I had a flat tire. Why not just put the spare on? Well, because the spare was in use because a different tire went flat over the weekend. And for some reason my car has odd tires and it takes a couple of days for the new ones to come in. So I took a vacation day while DH went to get the tire fixed on his lunch hour.

Then, I went to make dinner tonight, only to discover I only had one cup of lentils left and the recipe (which you’ll see later this week when I get more lentils) called for two.

So, I asked DH to pick up some sausage on the way home, ’cause I was going to try the Nutty Sweet Potato Waffles from Simply in Season. Unfortunately my night didn’t improve. I’ll write the directions, with my actions, below.

Melt 1/2 C butter and set aside to cool. So far, so good. I luckily had enough butter. Interestingly, DH had bought butter that had 1/2 sticks instead of whole sticks. Weird. I was also reminded that I need to try making butter again one of these days.
Cook and mash 2 C of sweet potatoes, stir along with 6 eggs (beaten) and 2 C milk into the cooled butter. I pulled out my Betty Crocker and found out that in order to cook sweet potatoes, you need to poke them and stick them in the microwave for 8-10 minutes. I only had two sweet potatoes left so I hoped it would equal out to 2 cups. Meanwhile I got out the eggs–only to discover that I had exactly 6 left. Whew. So I beat those and added the milk. I went to get the sweet potatoes out of the microwave – I put set it for 5 minutes because our microwave is powerful and it worked out perfectly. They were nice and done. I stuck them in a bowl and got out the masher. Hmmm. That doesn’t look like 2 cups. I measure. Nope, it was only 1 1/2 cups. Never fear, I found a can of pumpkin and added 3/4 C of that.
Stir together 1 C whole wheat flour, 1 C rolled oats (finely ground in blender), 1 C pecans (finely ground), 2 T baking powder, 2 tsp salt. I got out my handy food processor and ground the rolled oats. That was actually kind of fun. Then I ground the pecans. Hmmm. I wonder if you can make pecan butter? The oil had made it into more of a finely ground pecan paste. Oh well.
Sift together into the sweet potato mixture. Mix until combined and bake in a hot waffle iron.

The verdict: The batter made 8 waffles as promised. They were VERY filling but so very, very tasty. I could taste the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin. I wanted to sprinkle some cinnamon and nutmeg and whipped cream on top but DH said he thought they were just fine. It took a bit of work to make these, but when I think that it didn’t contain any white flour, I’m pretty impressed. So these are a good brinner recipe, or breakfast when you have time to actually make a breakfast instead of dashing off to work.

Filed Under: Uncategorized, recipe Tagged With: Breakfast, brinner, pumpkin, Simply in Season, sweet potatoes

(Vegetable or) Fruit Oven Pancake

September 26, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Sometimes, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, you find yourself kind of hungry. Not super duper hungry (maybe because you went out for breakfast or had a late breakfast/lunch), but in the mood for a little something. And sometimes the weather is a bit cool, so you’re in your sweatpants just chilling with the dogs. Times like this call for brinner.

Brinner is breakfast for dinner, a time when you pull out the pancake or waffle recipes that are too time consuming for real breakfast in the morning because you’re too busy. But just perfect for late afternoons.

The Vegetable of Fruit Oven Pancake from Simply in Season is another extremely versatile recipe. For some reason it’s in the spring section (here’s a little secret: you can find variations in each of the seasons for the other seasons. So if it’s autumn, you’ll want to look at the spring and summer and winter recipes too).

Today, I was in the mood for an apple oven pancake.Â The recipes for fruit and vegetable are very similar.

They both start out with putting 1 T butter in a pie pan, and preheating it in the oven until the oven reaches 400 degrees.

The filling:

For a vegetable version: chop 2/3 C vegetables such as asparagus, leeks, broccoli, mushrooms, squash, whatever. You can also add fresh or dried herbs.

For a fruit version: thinly slice an apple or pear. When oven is preheated, prebake the apples on the bottom of the pie pan for 10 minutes (sprinkle a little cinnamon and brown sugar over top if desired).

Mix the batter. The base recipe is 3/4 C milk, 2/3 C flour, 2 eggs, 1/4 tsp salt. For the fruit version add 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon.Â You can mix this either in a blender or with a whisk, until smooth.

Pour the batter over the filling and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The topping: For the fruit version, you can sprinkle powdered sugar over top. For the vegetable version, use cheese.

The verdict: The husband is out of town, so you’ll have t take my word for it.Â I was planning to use some of the new local maple syrup I got at “our” farm . . . no need! Oh my word, it is so tasty and moist from the apples/butter/sugar. I don’t think I want to know the calorie count, although next week I’ll be including them with the recipes since the husband and I are going to get back on the diet wagon. Definitely a keeper!!!!