Classic Belgian Waffles

This is the second waffle recipe I have posted. I made the first recipe and Corey liked it. But I just kept thinking I should look for others to mix it up a little. I decided to search for Belgian waffles. They seemed like a popular choice. I found a couple recipes that didn't seem too difficult. Although they both claimed to be "classic" Belgian waffles, they were slightly different in ingredients.

I decided to try the recipe from foodnetwork.com. It comes from Emeril. Everything it called for I had on hand, well sort of. I don't keep cake flour but the substitution for it is, take your one cup measuring cup, put 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in, then fill the rest of the way with all purpose flour.

This is a three bowl recipe, and as much as I hate doing dishes I was gonna make these this morning. They actually came together pretty quickly. The smell was like an angel food cake. They even had a different look to them then plain waffles. Finally time to taste them. Since I'm not a breakfast eater, especially at 5 am, this job was left up to Corey. He took the first bite and said they were good, but just waffles. I was a little upset. I dirtied three bowls, the mixer, a whisk and a spatula for just waffles. I said, aren't they lighter and airier then other waffles. He took another bite, he seemed to be savoring this bite, not just a quick chew and swallow. Then another bite, to which he said, these are different, much better, please make my waffles this way from now on.

So I guess the time and extra dishes were worth it. Happy Anniversary and Valentines Day, glad you enjoyed your meal.

Classic Belgian Waffles

2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 cups milk
non-stick cooking spray

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturers instructions. In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a second bowl use a wooden spoon to beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and eggs have turned a pale yellow. Add the vanilla extract, melted butter and milk to the yolks and whisk to combine. Combine the egg/milk mixture with the flour mixture and whisk until blended. Do not over mix. In a third bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter. Do not over mix. Coat waffle iron with non-stick spray and pour enough batter in the iron to just cover the grid. Close and cook 2 to 3 minutes.

*I cut this recipe in half.
*I separated the eggs and started beating the whites while I was working on the other ingredients. By time I got to the folding in part of the recipe, they were ready.
*I just served with a little maple syrup. But several of the suggestions were to serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

I'm sure by now pretty much everyone knows about Pinterest.com so I won't bore you with the details of it. When I first started hearing people talk about it I just ignored it, thinking it wouldn't be something I would be interested in. When I did decide to check it out I thought it looked like a mess. But then one day I came to my blog and checked my weekly stats. There it was Pinterest.com. My curiosity got the best of me and I clicked it to see why it was on my stats. Someone had "pinned" one of my photos to their board. Then I noticed it had been "repinned" by someone else.

So now I was a little more interested. I guess it was starting to click with me, pin something that catches my eye, someone sees it and repins, and so on. I could look for recipes by seeing photos of the finished item. Although it seemed a mess it was an fairly organized mess. I could search food and see a variety for foods without trying to do random keyword/ingredient searches.

I don't go there everyday but I do check it out a couple times a week. While scrolling through the food pages I found a few that seemed like things Corey and I would like. This recipe is one of them. It comes from RachaelRaymag.com.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a shallow dish, combine cheese with paprika and parsley, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake until fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

**I'm not a fish eater so this meal was for Corey. He hated it and told me to never make it again. He said the Parmesan didn't go well with the fish. All the other comments I saw said it was good. So I guess it's one of those thing either you love it or hate it. If you make it I hope you enjoy it more then Corey did.

Gelatin flavored Cookies

I have tried a recipe before using a bagged cookie mix, adding cherry gelatin and chocolate chips to make chocolate covered cherry cookies. So I was thinking, I could used pretty much whatever flavor gelatin I wanted to make a flavored cookie.

I got several bags of cookie mix a few months ago on sale and on a triple coupon week. I used the oatmeal and chocolate chip bags, but still had a couple bags of sugar cookies in the pantry. I knew I had a couple boxes of gelatin in the cabinet but couldn't remember what flavors. The first box was strawberry banana. I turned the sugar cookies into strawberry banana cookies, and they tasted pretty good.

Fast forward a few days. My Foreman grill arrived and in the recipe booklet it gave instructions for cookies. Of course I had to give it a try. Back to the pantry for that last bag of sugar cookie mix. Open the cabinet to see if there was any more gelatin pushed behind my baking ingredients. One small box of raspberry gelatin, just what I needed.

I turned on the grill and started making the batter. Instead of small cookies, I make a big cookie and cut it. So I was thinking I would do the same thing with the grill. I gently sprayed the baking plate and the upper plate. Poured in the batter and waited. It didn't turn out pretty, guess I didn't get quite enough spray on the upper plate. But it tasted good.

It did overflow a little but not too bad. Since it could only be spread to the sides of the pan and not as flat as I usually spread it was a little thicker then normal. It looked like a little cake but I knew it was a cookie so we were calling it a cakie, cake plus cookie.

Gelatin flavored cookies

1 bag Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 small package sugar free gelatin (you pick the flavor)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Drop on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees about 8 to 10 minutes.

**On the Foreman, mix ingredients. Drop in heated baking plate of grill. Cook 6 to 8 minutes on medium.
**If you want a big style cookie, separate into two portions. Spread first half in baking plate. Remove and repeat with second half.


**Warning**The following picture isn't pretty (but it was tasty).

Waffles

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Things have been a little crazy around here. Hopefully things will get better soon and I can get back to trying new recipes. Anyway, I have been participating in a program called Swagbucks**. I earn the points and redeem them for Amazon gift cards. I finally saved up enough to replace my George Foreman grill. I got the one with the waffle plates. The first morning I just used some pancake batter from the day before to make Corey a waffle. He said it was alright but I should look at other recipes.

So of course I searched online for waffle recipes. I just needed the basic recipe. I figure I can add stuff to it if I could just find a good base. I found a pretty simple recipe that called for ingredients that I already had on hand. The following day he loved the waffles.

Waffle batter

1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 beaten egg yolks
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites beaten stiffly

Mix all the dry ingredients. Combine yolks and milk. Stir into dry ingredients. Stir in oil and mix. Gently fold in beaten egg whites, do not over mix.

**This recipe made enough batter to last me all week. I just store it in a bowl with a lid in the fridge and stir before each use.

**If you have never heard of Swagbucks and would like any information, I would be glad to help, goldengirl971@yahoo.com. If you are interested in sighing up and would like to use my referral link, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/MDGILL5671

Oster sucks

I know this post isn't about a recipe or food, but about some products. This story begins two years ago. For Christmas in 2009 my parents got me an Oster electric cheese grater for Christmas. The place for the cheese was so small you had to cut the cheese way down to even fit it in. Then when you press the cheese against the shredding barrel the motor wasn't powerful enough to even cut the cheese. So I call Oster they sent a new one to me. Tried it, same thing. I gave up and got a Presto Salad Shooter Pro, LOVE IT!

Christmas 2010 rolls around, I need a microwave. So my parents got us one as our gift. You guessed it an Oster. You guessed it again PIECE OF CRAP. It worked about eight months and then just quit. Everything seemed fine, then one day Corey pushed the start button and it died.

I emailed them and complained about their products (graters and microwave). They sent me a number for the microwave division since they are taken care of in a separate department, fine whatever. They also apologized about the two graters. At this point the graters have become a discontinued item. I would assume since they suck they probably had a million complaints. Anyway, they offer to send me any item from their web page up to $40. I pick an electric skillet. It arrives and it seems really nice. Not as nice as I thought. After only three or four uses the non stick coating over the heating element bubbled and is coming off.

Back to the microwave, I pushed it away because I knew they would ask us to send it back. With our financial situation at the time, I knew that would be impossible. Well, even though our situation hasn't changed, I decided to call and see what I would have to do. Since it was purchased in 2010 they couldn't help me, I would have to pay for any repairs. Even though I have sent several emails to them about various issues, she said they couldn't prove I have contacted them so there was nothing she could do for me.

So just take this post as a warning. If you buy an Oster product be sure you are ready to deal with their customer service, probably more then once. As for me, I WILL NEVER BUY AN OSTER PRODUCT AGAIN.

Apple Crisp

Last year for Corey's Thanksgiving carry in at work he asked me to make a dessert. I found this recipe online somewhere. It is super simple. I hadn't made it for home, so I hadn't tried it. A couple days ago I made it for a dessert. We ate it warm from the oven. It was so good. I used red delicious, that is what I had on hand. Corey asked me to make peach crisp next time. Hopefully it will be as good as the apple crisp was.

Apple Crisp

Filling
5 or 6 medium apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch slices. (about 7 1/2 cups)
3 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Topping
1 1/3 cups flour
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick butter, softened
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prep apples. Add sugar and cinnamon, toss to coat apples. In separate bowl mix all topping ingredients. Using a fork mix until well combined. Spread over top of apples in a 9 inch square pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

**I just washed and used my hands for mixing the topping.

Bolognese Sauce

I know it's been a while since I posted. I just sort of fell back into cooking cheap, quick meals. I found this in a magazine and just ripped the page out, so can't remember which one it was in. I have had it on my menu, but just kept pushing it to the back. Today I finally pulled it out and made it. It was good. Corey and I both really liked it. It will be on the menu again in the future.

Bolognese Sauce

1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 Lb lean ground beef
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup whole milk
1 cup white wine
2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook, stirring until vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to high, add beef and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour in milk and wine and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook at a lively simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to slow cooker, stir in tomatoes, cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove cover, stir and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, about 30 minutes longer.

**The cans of tomatoes I had on hand were 35 ounces each, so I used more two ribs celery and two carrots. It was good but next time I will be sure to get the right size cans.
**This recipe makes a lot of sauce. Since there is just two of us, next time I will cut the recipe in half. Of course I have enough that I am going to vacuum pack the rest into two servings. Yes, there really is that much left.