It all started when someone on TV mentioned Shrove Tuesday yesterday. While I've not usually been a part of any church that celebrates Lent and all the events leading up to it, I have learned that people eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Cliff loves pancakes, and I don't mind them once in a while. What I really love is waffles!
So this morning I decided to make waffles instead of pancakes, even though they are so much more trouble. Now, when I was a kid and my mom made waffles, she just used pancake mix and made the batter like you would for pancakes. My favorite Better Homes and Gardens recipe, though, is not quite as simple, and dirties up three bowls in the process of making the waffles. You'll find my recipe HERE.
Before mixing everything up, I located my waffle iron, which hasn't been used for at least a year. When I opened it up I got a very strong odor of rancid cooking oil. So I removed the waffle-iron parts, top and bottom, put them in hot soapy water, and scrubbed them like crazy. I sniffed them, re-did them, and finally removed most of the rancid smell. I figured I would toss the first waffle out for the chickens, just in case a trace of "rancid" remained.
I heated up the waffle maker, and when the little light went off, letting me know it was hot enough, I spooned plenty of batter in. As it cooked, the lovely smell of waffles wafted across the kitchen, and my stomach growled. At just about the same time, I remembered something that I had neglected to do: Although my waffle iron is supposed to be "non-stick", it never truly has been non-stick. Before batter is placed in the thing, it's necessary to spray it with cooking spray; otherwise, the resulting waffled will stick like glue to top and bottom, and you end up scraping out the mess as nothing but crumbs. I told Cliff, "We may end up having pancakes after all. I forgot to spray the waffle iron, and this waffle will be ruined."
He likes pancakes better anyway, so it was no big deal to him. But man, my taste buds were set for waffles! So when I opened the device and saw the my worst fears were realized, I removed the irons again, tossed them in the sink, and removed every last trace of the mess. And then I started over, heating the iron, spraying it this time, and waiting. That's the main thing I hate about waffles: They take forever to get done!
I persevered and conquered. We had our waffles, and they were great. It took me exactly one hour to finally get something edible, but when you only have waffles once every year or two, I suppose they are worth all the effort.
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Monday, March 03, 2014
Still hunkered down, but peeking forward in the forecast
In my last entry, I was sick of being house-bound. What we ended up doing was eating out all day and doing some window-shopping.
We split a meal at Big Biscuit in Blue Springs for breakfast (Country Benedict), then hit Bed, Bath and Beyond. Cliff enjoys small doses of that store. For the most part, we just look at the nifty kitchen tools you don't always find in other stores. I bought nothing. Next stop was Kohl's. Since Cliff hates that store, he stayed in the car and surfed Craigslist on the Ipad while I looked through Clearance racks for marked-down winter pajamas and a couple of other items. By the time we were done with those places, Sears was open. Cliff browsed the tools while I once again checked clearance racks.
Cliff stopped at Clark's Tool while I played on Facebook in the car; he found an item he'd been looking for; and by that time it was lunch time! We had gone a long time with no Whopper meal, so that's what we had. Eating out twice in one day is something we never do, but cabin fever will do strange things to a person.
Yesterday, with the high temperature in single digits, I fixed a roast in the crock pot. We don't have roast often, and this one really hit the spot (recipe here, but I wanted mashed potatoes so I didn't put the veggies in).
Right after Cliff's open-heart surgery, I was really strict about what we ate. While I have loosened up the rules considerably, I still try for a balance (ignore the eating out twice in one day, that doesn't happen normally). For instance, if we have bacon and eggs for breakfast, I try to have a dinner that contains very little cholesterol and salt. I also insist on having vegetables on the side, even when I really don't want them. Because I think we need vegetables. I usually serve them naked, by the way. As much as I love sauces on our green beans and butter on the beets, these days all I do is cook them, heat them up, whatever it takes. Yesterday morning I knew we would have beef for lunch, probably a bigger serving that we really should, so we had Cream of Wheat for breakfast. We'll have leftover roast today at noon; I was really wanting bacon and eggs this morning, but I settled for something that tastes sinful but isn't: Heart-healthy coffee cake, as found in Better Homes and Gardens!
We split a meal at Big Biscuit in Blue Springs for breakfast (Country Benedict), then hit Bed, Bath and Beyond. Cliff enjoys small doses of that store. For the most part, we just look at the nifty kitchen tools you don't always find in other stores. I bought nothing. Next stop was Kohl's. Since Cliff hates that store, he stayed in the car and surfed Craigslist on the Ipad while I looked through Clearance racks for marked-down winter pajamas and a couple of other items. By the time we were done with those places, Sears was open. Cliff browsed the tools while I once again checked clearance racks.
Cliff stopped at Clark's Tool while I played on Facebook in the car; he found an item he'd been looking for; and by that time it was lunch time! We had gone a long time with no Whopper meal, so that's what we had. Eating out twice in one day is something we never do, but cabin fever will do strange things to a person.
Yesterday, with the high temperature in single digits, I fixed a roast in the crock pot. We don't have roast often, and this one really hit the spot (recipe here, but I wanted mashed potatoes so I didn't put the veggies in).
Right after Cliff's open-heart surgery, I was really strict about what we ate. While I have loosened up the rules considerably, I still try for a balance (ignore the eating out twice in one day, that doesn't happen normally). For instance, if we have bacon and eggs for breakfast, I try to have a dinner that contains very little cholesterol and salt. I also insist on having vegetables on the side, even when I really don't want them. Because I think we need vegetables. I usually serve them naked, by the way. As much as I love sauces on our green beans and butter on the beets, these days all I do is cook them, heat them up, whatever it takes. Yesterday morning I knew we would have beef for lunch, probably a bigger serving that we really should, so we had Cream of Wheat for breakfast. We'll have leftover roast today at noon; I was really wanting bacon and eggs this morning, but I settled for something that tastes sinful but isn't: Heart-healthy coffee cake, as found in Better Homes and Gardens!
| HEART HEALTHY APPLE COFFEE CAKE | |
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp. salt 1 1/2 c. peeled, cored apple (2 large), finely chopped (Jonathan or Granny Smith) 1/4 c. frozen egg product, thawed 3/4 c. sugar 1/4 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped 1/4 c. applesauce 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tbsp. butter 1/4 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped
Spray a 9-inch round baking pan with nonstick spray; set aside. In a medium bowl combine 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl toss together the chopped apple and egg product. Stir in the 3/4 cup sugar, the first 1/4 cup nuts, and applesauce. Add flour mixture and stir just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.FOR TOPPING: Stir together the brown sugar, the remaining all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup chopped nuts. Sprinkle topping over batter in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm. 10 servings.
| |
Nutrition Facts (Heart-Healthy Apple Coffee Cake)
- 203 kcal cal.;
- 5 g Fat, total;
- 0 mg chol.;
- 1 g sat. fat;
- 37 g carb.;
- 2 g fiber;
- 4 g pro.;
- 207 mg sodium
- Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
I've had so many great books to read this winter but I am now rather bogged down reading The Monuments Men. It isn't an easy read; following several different people around Europe and remembering which one is which works my feeble brain pretty hard, but I do intend to finish it. I just can't sit and read a hundred pages at one sitting, as is my custom.
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