Våffeldagen: Day o' Waffles

International Waffle Day (March 25) originated in Sweden where it is called Våffeldagen. It occurs nine months to the day before Christmas - the day the Archangel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that she was pregnant. As the holiday progressed, it also began to commemorate the first day of spring. Waffles come into play because on March 25th the women of Sweden would set aside their winter tasks like chopping wood and knitting, and began their spring tasks... the most notable of which was preparing waffles.

Silly? Perhaps. But 1.) It's a WAFFLE HOLIDAY and 2.) it's really very fun to say.
How can one resist?


...Also, my mom bought a waffle-maker on black friday and demanded that I make her waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That was a while ago.



Buttermilk Waffles with Maple-Glazed Bananas

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, separated
1/2 stick of butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Canola oil for the waffle pan

2 tbsp butter
2 large bananas, cut into thick slices
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp rum

[Note: If you don't have buttermilk on hand, you can substitute by mixing 1.25 cups of milk at room temperature with 2 tablespoons white vinegar. Let sit for 10 minutes. Also, remember these banana slices need to be quite thick, since they sort of... melt when you cook them.]

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

In a large bowl, fully combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk and the egg yolks. Stir in butter and vanilla.

Brush the waffle iron lightly with oil and preheat it. Stir the wet into the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Stir them gently into the batter.

Spread a ladle or so of batter onto the waffle iron and bake until the waffle is done (approximately 3 to 5 minutes). Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven.

While the waffles are baking (?), heat up the 2 tablespoons of butter in a large pan. Add in the rum and let cook for a minute. Lay the banana slices flat across the bottom of the pan, and cook on each side for a minute. Remove bananas from pan. Add the maple syrup to the pan and continue heating the sauce until it thickens a little (couple of minutes). Pour on top of waffles and bananas. (I also added in some fresh banana slices).

Top with some freshly whipped cream and serve.

Makes 4-6 servings.

The Photographic Dictionary

kinetic ki⋅net⋅ic [ki-net-ik]
-- adjective
1. pertaining to motion.
2. caused by motion.
3. characterized by movement: Running and dancing are kinetic activities.

I love, love, love this idea.

The Photographic Dictionary is an elfin, but I hope rapidly expanding, dictionary that collects beautiful photographs taken by artists around the world and draws delicate parallels between the realms of words and imagery. Every image is assigned to a single word and definition. The nuances of personal experience in the photographs recreate new significance and beauty for a collection of words both common and forgotten.

The Dictionary is a massive collaborative effort, and they welcome new submissions. It's an exercise in recognizing our processes of meaning creation and appreciating the imprint of individual experience on how we come to understand signifiers.

My two favorite things. Words and photography.

Gravity.



Nap.



Birthday.


Ambiance.

Bratwurst With Sautéed Cabbage & Apples

Bratwurst Served With Sautéed Cabbage & Apples
(Original, fancier recipe found on Seven Spoons)

Ingredients:
1 small head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 Gala apple, thinly sliced
2 shallots, minced
1/2 a small yellow onion, chopped
2 slices of bacon or Canadian bacon, chopped
1 or 2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp of oil (if you use Canadian bacon. Do without for the fatty kind.)
2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup of water
salt & pepper to taste
Brats.

Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon until crisp, drain, and set aside. Add the shallots and onion to the pan and cook until the onions have softened (a couple of minutes). Add in the apple and continue to cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently. The apples should pick up some color and the onions should be translucent at this point.

Add in vinegar and sugar, and wait until sugar is dissolved.

Throw the cabbage in, and add the water. Stir until thoroughly combined with the onions, apples, and vinegar. Continue cooking until most of the liquid is evaporated and the cabbage is soft without being... mushy. Add the bacon back in and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up quick with a couple of grilled brats and a good Hefeweizen.
(and be warned, bratwurst takes forever to cook. Start grilling before you do anything else.)

Frosty Papaya Milk

Every time I mention that I'm hungry, one of my parents offers me a banana. And I always say no. I'm not sure exactly what the rationale is behind offering the banana, but the refusal is always simply because I don't like them. They're thick and dry, and leave your mouth feeling like it's covered in a coat of wax. It's like eating paste. Except... I love everything else banana. Banana cream pie, banana popsicles, banana ice cream, banana fosters, fried bananas, banana cupcakes, banana nut bread... banana looks like a made-up word. Banananana.

Anyway, the point of that was, I feel the same way about papayas.

Papayayaya.



Frosty Papaya Milk

Ingredients:
1 perfectly ripe papaya, scooped and sliced
3 cups of milk
2 cups of ice
1 tbsp of honey

Blend and enjoy on a spring day.

Broccoli Soup with Lemon-Chive Cream

Found an OG version of this recipe on Food&Wine, and then a way more awesome version on Orangette a couple weeks ago. Which means it was fate, and I'm not one to say no to the Moirae. This soup and I were meant to be.


Ingredients:

For the soup:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium leeks, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ pounds of broccoli, trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 quart of chicken or veggie stock, plus 1 cup of water
1 rind (about 2 inches square) from a piece of Parmesan cheese
salt to taste


For the sour cream:
1 cup sour cream
2 scallions, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
¼ cup minced chives
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp pressed or minced garlic


In a small stockpot, warm the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and onion and cook until soft or the onions are translucent (approximately 10 minutes). Stir occasionally. Add in the garlic and cook for an additional minute.

Add in the broccoli, stock, water, Parmesan rind, and stir. Season with salt to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the broccoli is tender (approximately 20 minutes).

While the broccoli is making itself nice and tender, prepare the cream. In a small bowl, stir together all of the above listed ingredients. Taste and adjust as necessary. Cover and place back in the fridge until ready to serve.

To finish the soup, remove the Parmesan rind. Using a blender and working in small batches, purée until very smooth. (A blender should never be more than one-third full of steaming hot liquids. For reasons that should be clear, or will become immediately clear after your soup jumps up 10 inches after you hit that little "on" switch, and you wonder if you were born this stupid or if college had something to do with it.)

Return the soup to the pot, and stir in a few dollops of the cream mixture. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary (I also stirred in a little heavy cream). If needed, warm the soup over low heat.

Serve the soup with a spoonful or two of the remaining cream on top. Serves 6-8.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
found on Smitten Kitchen
From Retro Desserts

Ingredients:
1.25 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups sugar (the cookies end up pretty sweet, so maybe a little bit less)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1.25 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

Preheat to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using either a food processor or an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Keeping the mixer on at low speed, cream in the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together.

Take two rounded teaspoons of batter at a time and place on baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

I burnt my second batch a little (look, it's hard to tell, the cookies are brown already), but I actually preferred them a little overdone. They're less sweet and more Oreo-like.

Chewy Tortilla Chips & Guacamole

Have you ever considered chewy tortilla chips? I recently went with a friend to try out a restaurant called Malo (not malo at all) in Silverlake. Besides boasting a tequila bar with 150 tequilas and spicy cucumber martinis, they've got a whole set of really delicious (okay, one was delicious, the others were really delicious-sounding) salsas and, more importantly, chewy tortilla chips. I knew immediately that I was going to love these. It's like those fresh homemade tortilla chips that they serve at real Mexican restaurants, only this wasn't a real Mexican restaurant and these chips were so much more than chips. They were piping hot and salty, crunchy in parts and chewy in others, and the perfect balance to a cool and spicy seasonal salsa. The food was quite good, but frankly, I didn't have much time for it.
More chips, please.

So the point is, I went home and of course tried to recreate these the next day. And found, to my surprise, that homemade tortilla chips are every bit as easy as one would guess. This is rarely my experience in cooking adventures and misadventures.

Ingredients for Chewy Chips:
10-12 white corn tortillas
2 cups of oil
salt and cumin for seasoning
a twist of lime

Cut a stack of tortillas into 8 wedges round. In a large heavy saucepan, heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil over medium high. You can check whether or not the oil is hot enough by dipping a piece of the tortilla in the pan: it's ready when the oil begins to bubble around the tortilla. Be careful to keep an eye on your oil and make sure you get to it before it gets to you. Once it begins to pop... you lose, and it hurts.

Add the tortilla wedges in the oil in batches without overcrowding them. Cook until desired crunchiness (or chewiness) and drain on paper towel. Add seasoning, and serve while hot with a cool side of salsa or guacamole [recipe to follow].


Ingredients for Guacamole:
2 avocados, peeled and pitted
1 large roma tomato, seeded and diced
2 tsp cilantro, chopped
1/2 a small white onion, chopped
1 tsp of lemon or lime juice (fresh is best, but the the stuff that comes in those weird squeeze bottles that are supposed to look like a lemon and a lime, respectively, works just fine too)
salt and pepper to taste

Mash the avocados in a bowl with a fork until a little before desired chunkiness (Adding the other ingredients and the lime juice smooths it other a little more). Add everything else in and season to taste. Try not to eat the whole bowl.