CORNY WAFFLE VALENTINES

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 

Waffle iron

Corn Meal                                                           Buttermilk or non-dairy milk & cider vinegar

Brown Rice Flour  or All Purpose Flour             Maple syrup

Baking Powder                                                    2 eggs

Baking Soda                                                        Butter or margarine (I use Earth Balance)

Salt                                                                       Lemon juice
Filling of choice: lemon whipped cream, berries, sorbet

2 mixing bowls.  Big one for dry ingredients, small one for the wet.

Measure out a cup of corn meal, a cup of flour (either Brown Rice Flour for gluten-free or All Purpose Flour otherwise), 2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. salt. 

Whisk together thoroughly.  Now for the wet ingredients...so I get my small bowl...

and add 2 cups of buttermilk or 2 cups of a non dairy substitute and 2 t. cider vinegar if you're making them non-dairy.

!/4 cup maple syrup for the sweetener.

Now for separating eggs.  If it's a get-out-the-door-in-5-minutes kinda morning, then I skip this step and just crack two eggs into the wet ingredients.  But it's a special occasion and I want to really go all out, so I'm separating the egg yolks from the whites.  This egg separator makes it really easy.  The most important thing about separating egg is not to get any yolk into the whites or the whites won't stiffen into peaks.  

Add the yolks and 6 tablespoons of butter to the wet ingredients and whisk it real good.

Time to beat the egg whites.  Why do we do this?  Well for the extra air it gives us with using so much cornmeal and especially if using Brown Rice flour as well.  Since gluten-free flours don't rise like AP flour, remember corn meal is also a gluten-free grain, then aerating the egg whites is another method of leavening.  

The egg whites will start like this, then end up like...

this.  Stiff peaks, but not dried out.

We're gettin' close so this is where I fire up the waffle iron.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and give it a quick whisk...don't over mix.  

Fold in the egg whites.  Make sure not to work them over too much, we want to keep that fluffiness.  

A tablespoon or two of lemon juice.  Gently mix in.

Scoop enough batter so it comes to within a quarter of an inch of the edge on the first or second setting. one: for more soft, two: for more crunching.  This batter browns quickly on anything past two.  While it cooks I  think about fillings for the boys' waffle sandwiches...today whipped cream and strawberries and raspberry sorbet...  

Waffles are done!  Now for a woman's touch, because my house needs it.

  

First I cut them into quarters, then take out the little top center bit to make hearts.

Then with sliced strawberries and...

fresh whipped cream I layer whipped cream first (so the berries will stick) then the berries, whipped cream berries.  This morning I whipped a cup of heavy cream adding about three spoonfuls of sugar and a couple teaspoons of lemon juice before before whipping.   Orange juice would be fun to try instead of the lemon since orange goes so well with strawberry.  Ah, next time.

And for those who want a dairy-free option, add a scoop of your favorite berry sorbet for ice cream sandwiches!  It makes breakfast so special for the kids...

and mom and dad, too!

CORNY WAFFLE VALENTINES

(gluten-free option)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup     cornmeal

1 cup     brown rice or all purpose flour

2 t.         baking powder

1/2 t.      baking soda

1/2 t.       salt

2 c.        buttermilk or non-dairy milk with 2 t. cider vinegar

1/4 c.      maple syrup

6 T.        butter or margarine, melted

2             eggs, separated

1 T.        lemon juice

METHOD

1.  Measure out dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl.  Thoroughly whisk together and set aside.

2.  Separate egg yolks from whites.  Whip whites just until stiff peaks form.

3.  Preheat waffle iron on first or second setting.  Melt butter.

4.  Measure out buttermilk, syrup, butter and lemon juice.  Whisk together.  Whisk in egg yolks.  Then pour wet ingredients over dry and mix just until dry ingredients have all been incorporated.  Do not over mix.

5.  Fold in egg whites until just combined.

6.  Spoon enough batter onto the waffle iron to cover 3/4 of the iron.  Cook according to waffle iron's instructions.

7.  Split waffles into fourths and cut out a bit of the top center to form a heart.  Fill with sorbet or whipped cream and berries.

Night Before Valentine's Poem

T'was the night before Valentine's day and all through the house...

the family was sick /  sleeping / and / or sitting next to mom whispering "can I watch an episode of batman", "can I play video games on your computer" , "there needs to be a picture of you--can I take your picture?" , "I want to write something on the blog can I write a column?" !!! 

I in my fuzzy pink socks--pa was in bed snoring since late afternoon--had just settled down to the couch thinking, "tomorrow is Valentines day...I had had big plans! (Martha Stewart valentines, favorite candy bars...other things I have forgotten)...starting a tradition...everything prepared three days in advance...

--Just in case you were feeling like a bad mom tonight

Dinner was every-man-for-himself (not totally excluding afore-shown valentine sweethearts) and I thought, "I will try to get up at 5 or maybe six-thirty, tomorrow morning and clean the kitchen and do heart shaped waffles."   I miss those corn waffles.  Those maple-syrup sweetened corny waffles...

And if I do not...Do not breathe a word of it to anyone!  

FAMILY FIELDTRIP

Have you ever heard of local, organic produce coops?  I recently signed up for a "small box" of the weekly assorted organic fruits and vegetables from Abundant Harvest.  On Saturday mornings, we pack the fam in the car and head on down to a local nursery...

where the truck drops off small and large boxes of organic produce from farms nearby in the bakersfield area.  There's my Knight, hooded and all, taking our empty box to the truck...

and returning with our box of good health!  I love that the boys (and I) are learning what's in season.  

Here's what's in season this week: broccoli, parsley, sage, rosemary, potatoes, arugula, shallots, sweet potatoes, radishes, spinach, apples!  Other than the amazing FLAVOR of fresh of the truck organic 

produce, WHY ORGANIC??

This week, our Abundant Harvest Flyer's "Fresh Facts" provided the answer to this very question... "Eighty five percent of your immune function and thus your ability to thrive healthily comes from the microbes in your gut--ga-jillions of 'em working away in symbiotic harmony the way they were designed to digest your food and make ALL the nutrients available to fuel your life."  Most of the conventional produce aisle is coated with a fungicide to stop decay.  Since fungicides kill microbes that cause decay, what do you think they are doing to the microbes in your gut that you're counted on for support??

Of course, you can take matters into your own hands.  But for $22 a week, I recommend looking in your local area for a similar program.  

MAN, FIRE, FOOD...HEAVEN

Nearly three weeks have whooshed by and the Joshua Tree camping excursion is a misty memory now.  Of course, yesterday evening is a bit misty, too.  Time, however, can not diminish the memory of warm succulent cherry tomatoes bursting on the tongue, the spicy andouille sausages, sweet baby bell peppers and flavor-soaked mushrooms that my knight and I enjoyed from an iron skillet saute invented out of necessity: the necessity of needing to use what we brought so we didn't have to lug  it home!  There's nothing like cooking in an iron skillet over an open fire.  And no, the boys wouldn't eat it.  

First, you need an open sky...

a fire, grate and an iron skillet.  Ours is pretty well seasoned. (* Iron skillets are not washed, but oiled and put in your oven at 500 degrees for cleaning.  The skillet then begins to be seasoned through repeated cooking, oiling and heating which adds to the flavor)

Mushrooms first--they have a lot of moisture and require a lot of time to get that moisture evaporated--and, of course the stray s'more angling for some heat.  Most people wouldn't hear of s'moring until the evening, but not our brood.  

Carrots and sausages next.  Carrots because they are the hardest thing we are using today (need more time than say a bell pepper to soften).  

See the carrots looking softer and glazed, the sausage showing the signs of being well on its way, the mushrooms looking moist and browned a bit...see that?  Now it's time for the jalapenos and mini bell peppers.

Last, but certainly not least, are the organic cherry tomatoes!  We added our veg in stages of hardness.  Our deceptively moist mushrooms went first, though.  Otherwise, those items that are hardest and therefore require more time would go in first, while our tomatoes, the softest, would go in last.  If they all went in at the same time, the tomatoes would disintegrate before the carrots ever got soft.  Thus timing. 

 Then for a large pinch of my Knight's very convenient seasoning mix (sea salt, cracked pepper and red pepper flakes).

Now let it cook.  Moving things around with your fire forks because this will make you feel like your really roughing it (or because, like us, you forgot to bring a spoon of any kind).

Then my Knight, with his resourceful instincts, will rig up some way to get that skillet off the grill and over to...

ummmmhhh...somewhere...how 'bout like a rock. (*note to self: bring hot pads to campsite)

Now for the feast!  And after feasting...

MUST GO CLIMB ROCK!

CAMPFIRE COOKERY: SMORES

Ah Joshua Tree.  My knight, who is a camping afficianado, took us all out to Joshua Tree National Park for an overnighter to celebrate Soda's birthday.  We stayed at White Tank--a boys paradise.  It has rocks... 

Big Rocks.  

White Tank is so named because of the beautiful jumbo boulders of white tank granite that surround the campsite.  White tank granite is made of three kinds of rock.  Which brings me serendipitously to the traditional American camping treat known as the s'more which are also a composite of three things: graham crackers, chocolate and...

Roasted MARSHMALLOWS!

To begin...

Grab a fire fork or iron hanger thats been untwisted and straightened out.  To clean it off from it's previous user's marshmallows just 

Stick in the fire.

Clean.  Now for marshmallows...

2 seems good.  It seems balanced...not too many, not too few...

And in over the fire.  Now there are two camps when it comes to cooking s'mores.  Those who like to let it hang over the flame for just a second before strategically...

catching it on fire and burning it.  Very nearly to a crisp.  But those roasters who are in this "catch-it-on-fire" camp enjoy the crisp outside, goey inside, note of char in their roasted marshmallow...not to mention sharing a pyro streak.  I do usually fall into this camp.  But for the sake of this post and all of you who may not care for char and marshmallow pyrotechnics... I will also demonstrate the other camp...

The "perfectly-golden-marshmallow" camp.  Those in this camp have...

patience...perseverance...self-will to overcome the temptation of catching it on fire.

Ah...perfection.  (if I were in this camp, of course)

I've got my set up ready...chocolate, graham crackers...

Sandwich marshmallows between bottom graham cracker and chocolate and top graham cracker and...

gently remove the firework.

Et Voila!  

Which s'more camp do you fall into?? Are you a golden roaster or burn, baby, burn roaster?  Let me know in the "post comment" box!