delicious waffles

Spring is finally in the air here in the Northeast. It was an epic weekend as far as weather goes, and also for the waffles we made.

Recently, I purchased some lavender honey. I have thought about making something with it for awhile, but was not sure what to do with the sweetly scented nectar so it just sat on the shelf. I came across a recipe marrying lavender and lemon and thought I could also include some raspberries, blueberries and strawberries as well. A recipe was building. Here's what I came up with:

Lemon Waffles with Mixed Berry Compote and Lavender Whipped Cream.

The flavors were so subtle, yet delicious and spring-like. Here are the details:

Use any home made waffle recipe. I use the one in the red and white checked Betty Crocker cookbook. It has you separate the egg yolks, whip up the egg whites and fold in for extra fluffy waffles. The only variation is I add a tsp of good vanilla, and 1 1/2 tsp of lemon extract.

For the lavender whipped cream I heated the honey because it had crystallized a bit. I let it cool , then whipped heavy cream in a cold bowl in high adding about 2 tbsp sugar and 1 or 2 tbsp of the lavender honey. You definitely should taste as you go. Keep in fridge until ready to use.

For the berry compote I added 1/2 cup each: blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries with 2 tbsp sugar and 1/4 cup water and simmered until berries were soft.

To serve: make waffle and plate, spoon compote, add berries and use some fresh maple syrup, slightly heated. Then add whipped cream and eat. DELICIOUS!

Serve with champagne topped with splash of ST. Germain liqueur.

cookies and snow

HOORAY!!!! We finally got our snow day today. So far about 8 inches of fluffy white stuff has fallen with more on the way. I love that feeling when you open your eyes in the morning knowing, that while it is Wednesday, for all purposes it is a Saturday! We started our day off with fresh roasted coffee-yum! Then moved on to cap'n crunch french toast. From there we played rounds of wii resort and then the kids went outside to play in the snow. While outside, I decided to mix up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. They sounded soooo delicious. A little dough for me, a little cookies for the kiddos. Well, searching frantically in my pantry, I could not locate ANY brown sugar. After deciding not to make some OTHER cookie, I decided to google "substitutes for brown sugar". You gotta love google. Sure enough, the recipe to "make" brown sugar was revealed. It is approximately for dark brown sugar one cup of granulated white sugar mixed with just under a 1/4 cup molasses. It was delicious....and fresh....and made the most delicious choc chip cookies EVER!!!!!

cucumber margaritas/tortilla press/photographer in Fairfield County CT

It all started with this tortilla press. Living in CT, it has been difficut to find good mexican food so when we received a Williams-Sonoma gift certificate, we decided to get a press. It arrived Friday so last night hubby and I decided to stay in and make a handcrafted mexican meal with fresh, white corn tortillas hand pressed, fresh salsas and guacomole, carne asada beef and cucumber margaritas. OMG-was this ever tasty!!!!! The carne asada recipe was perfect and the salsas were fantastic......some of the best mexican food we've had in a LOOOONG time. I will try to post the recipes, but meanwhile here is the important one:

Spicy Cucumber Margarita
serves 1

1/4 cucumber chopped coarsely
slice of jalapeno, seeds included
2 oz Don Julio reposado tequilla
1.5 oz Grand Mariner
juice of one lime +lime wedge for garnish
splash of simple syrup (recipe below)
cilantro sprig for garnish

In a shaker muddle the cuke and the jalapeno with splash of simple syrup using a muddler or the back of a spoon. Add tequilla, grand mariner, lime. Fill with ice and shake. Pour into a salted tumbler. Garnish with lime and cilantro. Enjoy!

Simple Syrup

1 Cup sugar
1 Cup water

In a sauce pan mix sugar and water together, heat until sugar disolves. Let cool before adding to beverage. Simple Syrup will keep in the fridge up to two weeks in an air tight container. Skinny Variation: Use splenda brand sweetner instead of sugar. Only the splenda with maltodextrin. NOT the splenda for baking. The blue and pink stuff does not taste nearly as good as the splenda brand sweetner.

curry soup

It's that time of year again when homemade soup sounds sooo good. I had a sick one home so there was time to make soup. I did cheat a little with the CurrySimple sauce, but oh, this soup was goooood-and SPICY!!! Serves four.

You need:

2 boneless chicken thighs cut into one inch chunks

2 boneless chicken breasts cut into one inch chunks

1 tbsp olive oil

2tsp curry powder

2tsp cardamom

2tsp ground coriander

3 cups chicken broth

carrots cut into 1/4 inch rounds

medium red onion, coarsely chopped

red bell pepper, chopped

pineapple, chopped (optional)

curry simple base (see picture)

cilantro

2 limes

Peel carrots and par boil until firm, but slightly soft. Slice into 1/4 inch rounds set aside. Chop onions and bell pepper coarsely. Set aside. Cut up chicken, and salt and pepper. Heat oil in simmer pan or large pot over medium heat. Add chicken and cook about 5 mins until chicken is brown turning to get all sides. Then add the spices and saute another minute until fragrant. Add chicken broth, carrots, onion, bell pepper, pineapple and the CurrySimple. Simmer about 20 mins. Finish with fresh lime juice and serve with limes and cilantro for garnish. Be careful, it's spic-Y!!!!