Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Waffles

Winter in Chico means lots of Meyer lemons. Many people have trees that are heavy with fruit right now and we are lucky to be the recipient of these tangy sweet citrus jewels. Meyer lemons are thought to be a cross between a Eureka lemon and a mandarin orange and have a very distinctive smell. Ali says they remind her of visiting Grs. Marie & Bill. We had a tree when I was growing up and the fruit lasts on the tree all year and makes delicious lemon aid in the summer.

Lemon poppy seed is not a new combination, but I was pleased with the results when I incorporated the tried & true flavor combination into waffles.

Lemon Poppy Seed Whole Wheat Waffles with Blueberry Syrup

Juice and grated rind of one Meyer lemon (reserve a quarter of both juice & rind)

1 extra large egg separated

4 T butter

7 fluid ounces milk

1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup poppy seeds

1 scant tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Grate the rind of one Meyer lemon. Juice the lemon, set a quarter of the juice & rind aside for use in syrup.

Separate the egg and beat the white to form stiff but not dry peaks.

Melt butter in separate small bowl or 2 cup glass measuring cup, add milk and warm in microwave. (Melting butter & warming milk can be done on the stove.)

Using hand mixer, beat egg yolk into butter & milk. Gradually add lemon juice as you continue to beat. This seems to keep milk mixture from curdling.

In medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients and grated lemon peel. Add milk mixture and stir to just blend. Fold in egg white. Cook on heated waffle iron.

Serve with blueberry syrup and plain yogurt if desired.

Blueberry Syrup

1 ½ cup frozen or fresh blueberries

½ cup sugar

A quarter of the juice & rind reserved from the waffle recipe

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat gradually to boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar. Turn to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Syrup will be runny.

Cookie Riffs....

A few years ago I found a cookie recipe in Real Simple (I think...) that had one dough for 8 different cookies! It was amazing! With variations on one dough - most made after the dough was completely made - I was able to create a number of vastly different cookies. That recipe made a shortbread style cookie - it was delicious, but I wanted to try the same thing with a chewy style cookie.

With that in mind, I made some substitutions to the ginger molasses cookie in the post below. The result is a soft chewy sugar cookie - a bit like a crisp cherry chew, but a bit more fluffy. I'm not a crisp cherry chew fan, but the dough was just the base.
Here are the modifications:
- Omit spices, except salt
- Add 2 tsp Vanilla
- Use Corn Syrup instead of Molasses (& perhaps a bit less)
- Do not roll dough in sugar

Here's what I've made so far...
After making the dough, I divided it in half and added 1/2 c cocoa powder to half the dough. This worked b/c I think I didn't use quite enough flour (I used a scale rather than scoop and level). If you use the scoop and level, you may want to use slightly less cocoa powder or use less flour. You want the dough to be fairly stiff and able to pull together a bit in the mixer when being mixed.

Peppermint Puffs
- I made these with both the chocolate and vanilla dough. Crush candy canes and roll balls of dough in candy cane, bake on parchment or foil per directions. Allow to cool completely before moving, but may slide parchment of pan after cooling 2 minutes.

Chocolate Cherry Surprise
- Shape each ball of dough around a maraschino cherry (use maraschino, not candied). Roll balls in powdered sugar and bake as usual. These were a BIG hit with me and Isla - very pretty and very tasty, if you like maraschino cherries.

Guess Who's Back!?!

Hi Familia,
I've been bit with the recipe blogging bug again...and based on that exchange of e-mails that I've yet to read, some of you are too!

Here are some fun substitutions I've been using on my soy/dairy & nut free diet.

- Coconut yogurt - a little sweeter than regular, but an excellent substituation
- Palm Oil Shortening - in my opinion better than Crisco, b/c there is no weird flavor
- Oatmeal in Place of Nuts - you can toast, grind, and basically use oatmeal to replace nuts in all sorts of recipes - especially baked goods.

Here's my favorite holiday cookie recipe:
Chewy Ginger Cookies
(based on BHG Giant Ginger Cookies, but there recipe makes 25 cookies, this version makes 50)
- 4 1/2 C AP Flour (use the scoop & level method, not a scale - the dough will not be dry enough if you use precisely weighed flour)
- 4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cloves
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 C shortening
- 2 C sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 C molasses
- 3/4 C coarse sugar or granulated sugar

- Set oven at 350 degrees
- Whisk dry ingredients
- Cream sugar and shortening, add in eggs and molasses
- Stir / beat in dry ingredients
- Roll cookies into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar - different sizes of sugar create different crunchiness and aesthetic.
- Place balls on parchment paper
- Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes until cookies are puffed. Cookies will seem under done, but do not over cook or cookies will not be chewy.
- Cool 2 minutes on the sheet and then transfer to rack
(You can play with the spices & make these molasses cookies with less ginger, or add candied ginger for even more awesome ginger-ness.)

Here's another -
Stained Glass Cookies
(Inspired from BHG, but I use the sugar cookie recipe from KAF but omitted the spices.)
Cutout cookies using linzer tort with center of cookie removed. Place cookies on tinfoil on baking sheet.
Crush hard candies and place crushed candy in center of cookie cut out. Bake as usual and allow to cool on tinfoil until candy is hard in the center and gently remove from tinfoil.
Candy will be rock hard at first, but after being boxed for a day it will soften slightly.
Sugar Cookies aren't my thing, but this was still pretty tasty.

New Cooking Blog

Hi everyone,
My friend Shannon recommended this blog.
It looks really neat!
For the Love of Cooking

First Fall Baking: Zwetschgenkuchen

Hi everyone! As the record-breaking heat of Summer 2010 winds down, I finally can use my oven again. Hurray! My inaugural baking project used up a batch of plums that came from Erica's CSA share. These plums were fairly tart and not very juicy so my thoughts turned to baking. I used Grandma Marie's recipe and it came out fabulous. Not too sweet, very reminiscent of childhood. My only change was to use slices rather than whole halves because I was worried I would run out of plums. I made two cakes: one we ate right up and the other went in the freezer.

YUM!
Anyone else doing baking lately?

One Small clue

Bob's Red Mill, Steel Cut Oats

Name this Cooking Utensil - A Contest!

Greeting all and happy September! First of all let me apologize for not posting any salads for Ali's wonderful "Salad Days" project. Who knows, maybe I'll get some up by winter time.

So, what's this contest!? Last month, when I was up in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, about to begin a service trip (I was the cook) I was presented with a gift.

What you see in the photo above is my gift. It is a cooking implement, made of wood and made by the person who gave it to me. I took it in on the trip and it works VERY well!!

The challenge is to answer one or both of these questions. There will be a separate prize for each correct answer, as well as any other prizes that I feel like giving out!

• What is it used for?
• What is it called?

All of you were notified by email today, so the contest has officially begun. Please submit your entries to me via email. Deadline for entries is MIDNIGHT on Saturday September 18th.

Good Luck & Lots of Love, Didi