Bacon Waffles for Dad
If you are looking for a special breakfast for Father’s Day, maybe dad would like some waffles. Even better, make him waffles with bacon inside them. Then serve your bacon waffles with extra bacon on the side!!!
For me, breakfast doesn’t get much better than waffles. Well, unless maybe you add bacon to the waffle batter.
Truth is, I don’t treat myself to waffles all that often, but if I am going to eat waffles, I go all out.
These are truly wonderful waffles. Light, crispy on the outside and studded with bacon. A drizzle of warm maple syrup and you are good to go.
So, if you are looking for a special treat for dad for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner or a snack… try these bacon waffles. You can thank me later.
Bacon Waffles
1 pound sliced bacon
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
1½ cups milk
¼ cup butter, melted
In a skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Drain; crumble and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat egg yolks, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients until smooth. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into batter. Add bacon. Before making each waffle, stir batter. Bake in a preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions until golden brown.
Sweet Potato Salad
I thought I would post one of my favorite salad recipes. We made it in class last night and everyone liked it a lot. This sweet potato salad is always a hit. It goes so well with grilled foods, too. I always make a double batch – it goes fast. The tricky part is not to overcook the sweet potatoes. They cook fast. Keep an eye on them and get the potatoes into cold water to stop the cooking once they are tender.
Sweet Potato Salad
3 large sweet potatoes
2 c. corn kernels, fresh off the cob preferred but frozen is O.K.
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 sweet onion, diced
1 c. sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
2-3 T. fresh parsley
1/3 c. oil
1 t. Dijon mustard
3 T. apple cider vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
½ c. roasted peanuts
You have several options in how to cook the sweet potatoes. I like to bake them whole in the microwave. I also like to cook the corn in the microwave. You can also cut the potatoes into large pieces and boil or steam until just tender. Corn can be boiled, grilled or steamed. No matter what method you choose to cook the veggies, place in ice water bath to cool down quickly after they are cooked. This will save you time and help the sweet potatoes to firm up. Once the vegetables have cooled down drain them and peel and cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Place potatoes and corn in a mixing bowl with remaining vegetables. Combine remaining ingredients, except peanuts, in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake well before pouring over the sweet potato mixture. Toss to blend and chill until ready to serve. Add nuts just before serving. Serves 6.
Garlic Scapes Hummus
Around here, garlic scapes are in season and being eaten a lot. I find myself cooking with them in everything I can. Everyone seems to be talking about scapes and looking for new ways to use them. There is even a word for it – scorpacciata.
Scorpacciata is an Italian word that means consuming large amounts of a particular local ingredient while it’s in season.
Scapes, if you didn’t know, are the tops of hard-neck variety garlic. They are cut off this time to year- to help the plants produce larger heads. They curl as they grow. You should be able to find them at your local farm market. They can be eaten raw or cooked. They can be a little woody when raw.
This time, I steamed the scapes, and added them to my hummus. The end result was really good. The scapes replaced the garlic cloves, adding their own personality to the dish. I switched the dish up a little more, by using avocado oil, instead of the traditional olive oil.
So here is one more recipe to use those lovely, seasonal garlic scapes.
Garlic Scapes Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans, drained- I used a one pint jar of home canned
½ c. chopped garlic scapes- 1 or 2 garlic scapes- steamed 5 minutes and chopped
¼ c. olive oil or avocado oil
2 T. lemon juice – about 1 lemon
2 T. tahini (sesame seed paste)
salt and hot pepper sauce to taste
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth. Adjust seasonings. Chill. Serve with pita bread, crackers or fresh vegetables. Also nice spread in a pita bread with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. Freezes well.
Cooking with Garlic Scapes
If you have never had garlic scapes, you don’t know what you are missing. Garlic scapes are the green shoots removed from hard-neck varieties of garlic. By removing the shoots, the bulbs will get bigger. So farmers and gardeners remove them. Garlic scapes curl as they grow, and are good served raw, or barely cooked. They are showing up at farm markets around here right now.
When cooked, the flavor mellows a lot. I love to steam garlic scapes for about 5 minutes, then just eat like fresh green beans, with butter and salt. I steamed a bunch of scapes the other day- then chopped them up and added to potato salad. So tasty!!
They have a rich, garlic flavor that is all the sweeter because of the short time they are around. Enjoy them when you can- they will be gone soon.
I sometimes use scapes in place of basil, in my pesto recipe, or combine them with parsley in a garlic scapes-parsley pesto. You can also combine the garlic scapes with cottage cheese in the blender- add a little lemon juice and hot sauce for a tasty dip. Here are some more recipes for cooking with garlic scapes.
Garlic Scapes Potato Salad
4-5 garlic scapes
2 lbs. red skinned potatoes*
½ cup minced sweet pepper
½ c. olive oil
½ c. apple cider vinegar
2 T. sugar
2 T. chopped parsley
2 t. fresh dill weed
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Steam the scapes for 5 minutes. Cool a little, and cut into ¾ -inch slices. You should end up with about 1½ of sliced scapes when done. Place in a medium bowl. Cook potatoes until tender. I baked mine in a microwave until tender and then cut into cubes. Baking them is also a nice way to cook the potatoes. You can also opt to cut into cubes first and boil the potatoes. Whatever method to cook the potatoes is fine with me. Take the potatoes, while still warm, and place in the bowl with the scapes. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small bowl and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour over warm potato mix, tossing to coat evenly. Adjust seasonings. Chill and serve. Serves 6-8.
* You can really use any potato you like.
Garlic Scape Pesto Sauce
1 c. chopped scapes – you can also use half scapes, half parsley
1/4 c. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
1/2 c. pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pecans or walnuts
1 c. fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Combine all ingredients, except the cheese, in a blender and mix until smooth. Stir in the cheese and toss over hot, cooked pasta or use as a sauce on meat and poultry. Sauce will keep a few days in the fridge and makes about 1 1/2 cups, enough for 1 lb. of cooked pasta.
Lebanese Garlic Sauce
1/2 c. chopped garlic scapes
1 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups olive oil
In the container of a blender, combine the garlic scapes, lemon juice and salt. Blend at medium speed until smooth. Continue blending while pouring olive oil into the blender in a thin stream. The mixture should become thick and white almost like mayo. Store refrigerated in a glass container. Nice on hot pasta, cooked rice or grains or brushed on meats while cooking. It also is a great salad dressing.
Garlic Scapes with Broccoli
1 c. chopped garlic scapes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 bunch broccoli, cut into florets, steamed 5 minutes, cooled
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Place garlic scapes in a food processor with the salt and blend into a paste. Add olive oil, vinegar, and mustard. Pulse until smooth. Place garlic scapes mixture in a bowl and add the broccoli. Stir to coat. Chill for 3 hours to marinate, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving. Tastes even better the next day!!!
Candied Bacon
This candied bacon only has three ingredients- bacon, maple syrup and chopped nuts. The combination in sublime. Salty, sweet, smoky all in one crunchy bite. Friends and family love it!! This might be fun to make for Dad for Fathers’ Day.
The bacon is baked, then coated with maple syrup and chopped nuts. It is returned to the oven, where it bakes until the bacon is crisp and the coating it toasted, almost caramelized. It gets crisper once it cools down.
You can make a spicier version by sprinkling with a little cayenne pepper or adding hot sauce to the maple syrup.
Candied Bacon
1 lb bacon
3/4 c – 1 c maple syrup
3/4 c – 1 c crushed pecans (or any nuts you like! I like to leave some
larger pieces and then mix in some more finely ground)
Preheat oven to 350. Put bacon in baking pan and bake about halfway through (about 5-7 minutes or so). Drain most of the grease and allow to cool slightly. Coat each piece in syrup, roll in nuts and put back on pan. You may need more nuts as you go along, though it’s up to you how much to cover them. Bake another 7-9 minutes, until desired crispness. If you do like crisper bacon, just be sure to move the cooked bacon quickly off the baking sheet onto parchment paper, since the syrup will harden. Allow longer cooking times with thicker bacon.
French Sorrel
Sorrel is also known as French sorrel and garden sorrel. It’s a member of the dock family and its less cultivated relatives can be harvested in most any field. The sorrel grown in herb gardens produces larger leaves, and is milder in flavor, than its wild cousins. French sorrel produces large, pointed leaves on 6″ stems. When in flower, the plant sends up flower stalks that can reach more than 3′ in height.
Sorrel is a hardy perennial and will produce tasty leaves for many years, once established. It prefers full sun and well-drained soil. The leaves have a sour, almost lemony flavor that is used in dishes like sorrel soup. The lemony/sour flavor makes sorrel a natural match for seafood.
Young leaves can also be served raw in salads. To encourage new, tender growth sorrel can be cut back to the soil line. New leaves will start to grow soon after cutting back. Young sorrel leaves can be added to soups and sauces, egg or pasta dishes. Because sorrel leaves are high in oxalic acid, they should be eaten in moderation. Or, the leaves can be blanched and rinsed to reduce the oxalic acid.
Sorrel can be started from seed, either indoors or directly sown in the garden. You can also buy plants at garden centers that carry herbs. It can be hard to find plants in some areas.
When I was a kid, my Busha (Polish grandmother) would make sorrel soup from wild sorrel. I remember harvesting the tiny leaves in a field. She needed a brown paper grocery bag full for a batch of soup. You can imagine how delighted I was to discover that there was a domestic version I could grow at home- with much larger leaves.
Here are some of my favorite recipes using sorrel.
Sorrel Soup
2 medium onions, chopped
2 T. oil
2 lbs. potatoes. Peeled and cubed
1 rib celery, sliced
1 qt. chicken or vegetable stock
1 qt. milk
1/3 –1/2 c. flour
1 lb. Sorrel leaves, washed and spun dry, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
In soup pot sauté onions in oil until tender. Add vegetables, stock and 3 cups of the milk. Simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. In a container with a tight fitting lid place the flour with the remaining milk and shake until mixture is smooth. Pour into hot soup and simmer 3-4 minutes. Use more or less flour depending on how thick you like your soup. Toss in sorrel, adjust seasonings and serve. Garnish with snipped chives, if desired. Serves 6-8.
Sorrel Pesto
1 c. tightly-packed sorrel leaves
½ c. olive oil
3 – 4 cloves garlic
salt to taste
½ c. pine nuts, sunflower kernels, pecans or walnuts, toasted preferred
1 c. fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Hot sauced to taste
Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth. Adjust seasonings. Use with chicken or fish. Sorrel Pesto is also good on potatoes, or tossed in a spinach salad with some wine vinegar. Great on grilled vegetables, too!
Sorrel Sauce
½ c. mayo
½ c. sour cream or Greek yogurt
½ c. fresh chopped sorrel leaves
2 T. minced green onion
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
2 t. fresh lemon or lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
dash red hot pepper sauce
This sauce is good with fish and chicken or on baked potatoes. You can also use it as a dip with veggies.
Peach Scones
I’ve really been in the mood to make scones lately. Since I had some beautiful peaches, I decided to use them in the batter.
They worked out even better than I had hoped. I added cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into the dough, for a little extra flavor. Nicely complimented the sweetness of the peaches.
These are wonderful for breakfast, brunch or with tea or coffee. They would also make a nice base for shortcake. I could see them with berries and whipped cream for a perfect summer dessert.
I used a 2 oz. cookie scoop and got 25 scones. You could make them bigger, just increase the baking time a couple of minutes. I also placed only one baking sheet in the oven at a time. You could put both in at once, but reverse the rack you have them on- half way through baking- so they bake more evenly. Also, if both trays are in the oven at once, increase baking time a couple of minutes.
Peach Scones
3 cups flour
½ c. sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
½ t. salt
10 T. cold butter (1 stick plus two tablespoons)
¾ c. half and half or milk
1 egg
1½ t. vanilla
1½ c. peeled, chopped peaches – about 3-4 peaches
Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
About 2-3 T. half and half
1 t. vanilla
Preheat oven to 425. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, or use silicone liners. In a bowl, place the dry ingredients and stir to mix. Cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and stir in half and half, vanilla and egg. Stir to make a soft dough. Fold in peaches. Use ice cream scoop to make scones, placing scoops of dough onto baking sheets. Bake until browned – 14-16 minutes. Cool on a rack. Make glaze and dip tops of scones in glaze or drizzle it over them. Makes 22-25 depending on size.
Cherry and Blueberry Clafoutis
So what is clafoutis? Clafoutis is a sort of pancake, sort of custard, sort of quiche. It is a lovely dessert for fresh fruit, for sure.
You can serve clafoutis plain, or topped with powdered sugar or whipped cream. On a hot day, I like to serve it with a scoop of ice cream.
Clafoutis is really simple to make, too. You start by putting the fruit in a prepared pan. The batter is made in a blender, and takes just a couple of minutes to prepare. You pour the batter over the fruit- and bake.
I used cherries and blueberries in this one, but you can use all sorts of fruits- peaches, plums, raspberries…..
Most people enjoy it as a dessert, but it is also nice with that morning cup of coffee.
I used a combination I thought would make a nice dessert for summer.
Cherry and Blueberry Clafoutis
2 c. pitted cherries, I cut them in half, but you can leave whole
1 c. blueberries
3 eggs
1 c. sugar
3 T. melted butter
½ c. flour
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
pinch of salt
1 c. half and half
powdered sugar, optional
Grease a 9×9-inch baking dish or pie pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cherries and blueberries in the prepared pan. In blender, combine eggs, sugar, butter, flour, flavorings and salt.* Blend until smooth. Add half and half and blend again until smooth. Pour batter over the cherries and blueberries. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until clafoutis is browned around edges and puffed up. Allow to cool and dust with powdered sugar, if you like. It will deflate as it cools. Serves 6.
* You can whisk the ingredients together by hand, if you prefer.
Peach Skin Vodka
This is really a story about how I was raised. My mother and father both grew up in a time when people didn’t waste things. Both of them knew hard times growing up. I try to be like them in that way. I hate throwing out something that might serve some purpose.
While making a peach preserves and peach ice cream the other day, I was left with a pile of peach skins. I could toss them in the compost pile, but I knew they had a lot of flavor in them. I decided to make peach liqueur with them instead.
I just put the peach skins in a Mason jar- I had about 2 cups – and covered them with 3 cups of vodka. I put the lid on the jar and set it in a cabinet. In a few weeks, I’ll strain it out, then pour the mixture through coffee filters to get out anything that will make it cloudy. Could not be easier. I’ll have lovely peach flavored vodka that I can leave as is, or sweeten if I prefer. I could also have used brandy. You can add a cinnamon stick or vanilla bean to the jar for additional flavor.
Thinking this will make a great ingredient for a cocktail in the near future.
So the lesson here is just to think twice before tossing. Sometimes, what might seem like something of little or no value, could have another purpose.
Shrimp Salad with Couscous and Dill
Couscous is one of those foods that is as much fun to say as it is to eat. Couscous is just very tiny pasta. To cook it, you pour boiling water or stock over it- and give the couscous a few minutes to absorb the water. So easy, and nice on a hot day, when you don’t want to do a lot of cooking.
For this salad I combined the couscous with shrimp, some fresh dill and a light dressing. I had some sunflower sprouts, so I added them to the top- just for fun. I also served my salad on a bed of fresh salad greens.
Couscous Salad with Shrimp and Dill
½ c. olive oil
¼ c. fresh lemon juice
1 clove minced garlic
1 t. celery seed
2 c. couscous, about 10 oz.
2 ¼ c. boiling water or vegetable broth
1 lb. peeled cooked shrimp 1 c. diced sweet red pepper
½ c. chopped green onions
2 T. fresh dill weed or 2 t. dried
Whisk first 4 ingredients together for dressing. Place couscous in heat proof bowl and pour over the boiling water. Let stand until water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add remaining ingredients, stirring to mix well. Pour over dressing and toss to coat. Chill at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. 6 Servings.
