Waffles? Panini? It’s a Wa-nini!

Last night a friend posted on Facebook that she made a grilled cheese sandwich in her waffle iron and it got me thinking… wouldn’t that be fantastic if you used waffles instead of bread!?! Then she, being the genius that she is, suggests adding ham and I couldn’t wait for morning to make this waffle-y concoction.
So this morning I busted out my waffle iron and got to work. As I started making those beautiful, golden, crispy waffles I quickly realized there was just no way I was going to be able to fit two waffle and those glorious fillings back in the waffle iron. For a moment I thought all was lost… yeah, sometimes I get a bit dramatic in the kitchen. So I started looking around trying to come up with a plan B and I saw my Grill press pan. YES! It’ll be just like making a Panini.. but with waffles!

I think this may be our new favorite way to have our waffles. The waffles stay crispy, gooey cheese, slightly salty ham.. it’s definitely scrumptious.  We also tried it with some warmed up marinara sauce that I had hanging  around the fridge and it was, I think, even better then with the syrup.

I use the waffle recipe from my trusty and well used Betty Crocker cookbook but you could use any waffle batter recipe you like. You could even use frozen waffles in a pinch.. but I think that homemade waffles are so much better and they really don’t take that much time to make.

The waffle recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook:

2 Eggs

2 C All Purpose Flour

4 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tbsp. Sugar (white or brown)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 3/4 C milk

1/2 C vegetable oil

Mix the eggs with an handheld mixer until frothy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix just until smooth.

Take one of your waffles and put on a slice of cheese, some ham, then another slice of cheese and then top with another waffle. We used Havarti cheese because that’s what we happened to have in the fridge but you could use any type of cheese you like. I think next time we’ll try some brie or fontina cheese. Now pop that bad boy in a griddle pan or just a regular skillet

It doesn’t take long, just a few minutes, to get that cheese all melted and gooey. While your waiting heat up your syrup or marinara sauce both are equally tasty. Remove it from the pan, cut it up, and enjoy! If you devour it like the cookie monster don’t worry… I understand.

Spilling The Beans

If you have kids then you know how hard it can be to get them to eat the good(for them) stuff. When the boy was little he ate just about everything and then one day for no reason  veggies became evil.  I tried begging, bargaining, pleading and the ever famous “because I said so” to no avail. There has to be a way to get some real food into a kid that doesn’t leave both mother and child on the verge of a temper tantrum.

Tiramisu Tickety-boo

When we were at the Chehalis Garlic Fest last month there was a booth from some bakery(can’t remember the name) selling many different flavors of quick bread and the one that caught my eye was, yeah that’s right, the tiramisu. So I came home and consulted The Google to see what kind of recipes were out there and do you know what I found? Tiramisu bread recipes everywhere!

Muffin Madness

Today was the first day of school for the boy so I decided to take advantage of having the house to myself and make some muffins. Muffins are a great breakfast for the harried mornings we have at the beginning of the school year as we get back into the swing of it. I also love the fact that muffins freeze so well and that’s great because right now there are 3 dozen muffins cooling on my kitchen counter… I may have gotten a little carried away.  With a teenager in the house, who is always hungry, nothing seems to last that long so I’m sure I’ll be digging out those muffin pans again pretty soon.

Needs More Garlic

On Sunday we headed out, with empty stomachs and adventurous taste buds, to the Chehalis Garlic Festival.  I really enjoy these sorts of festivals.. I love buying directly from the grower/producer. It’s great to be able to walk up to one of the garlic growers tables,  to see all the different varieties, ask questions that they were all more than willing to answer and even slice a clove so you could see and taste the difference for yourself.  The little beauty in the picture is Silver Rose garlic and is the variety the grower uses to make garlic infused olive oil that was probably one of  the best garlic olive oils I’ve ever had.

We went prepared, not just to buy garlic but to eat enormous quantities of garlic and let me tell you we were completely successful! Would you like some fries with your garlic?

Even with three of us we couldn’t polish off this monstrous pile of fries! We also had garlic sausage (YUM!) roasted garlic fudge (I know what your thinking but I promise it really is delicious), garlic peanut brittle and a bacon, garlic, dark chocolate caramel apple!

There are festivals like this going on all throughout the year, all accross the country and they are definetly worth seeking out.

I knead it.. Do you?

Today is Monday and at our house that means bread day! I love everything about making bread.. the kneading, the smell, the anticipation of that beautiful loaf coming out of the oven, and of course eating it. It is such a satisfying thing to take a few simple ingredients and transform them into something wonderful and I still get that 'hey look what I did!' feeling every time I take bread out of the oven.  I really do get this excited about bread and I'm very glad to say that I'm passing that excitement along to my son.