Yeast Waffles

You know how you just get a craving for something? Well I  was trying to think of what I wanted to make for dinner the other night and waffles with eggs crossed my mind. Then I remembered coming across a recipe for sourdough waffles and I thought that I could use my bread dough in the fridge as a base. After looking at various recipes, I finally decided to base my recipe on this recipe from Serious Eats.

Waffles
13 oz prepared bread dough
2 eggs
3 T butter, melted
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Whisk together eggs and half and half. Add in dough and butter. Whisk to combine. This step takes a while, basically you are trying to thin out the dough to the consistency of pancake batter. I found that I needed to add extra flour to get the right texture. Cook in waffle maker.

The batter. I didn't add sugar to this mix because my dough is a roasted garlic dough. So this is a savory waffle. The only thing I may have done differently was maybe add additional salt.

My dinner - maple syrup, fried eggs and bacon (oven baked, of course)

For breakfast the next day, I toasted the left overs and added more toppings. This one is maple syrup and speck (an Italian smoked pork product).

This one has homemade ranch and speck.

And, of course, also great with PB and jelly...

Ranch Meatloaf

I've always seen those commercials on TV about adding Ranch Dip to your meatloaf. Always sounded like a good idea, but why would I waste my dip mix? Not to worry now that I have a giant bag of mix! So I looked up the Hidden Valley Recipe and went to town.

Ranch Meatloaf
1 lb lean ground beef
2T Ranch Dip Mix (or 1 envelope)
1/2c bread crumbs
2T homemade mayo
Ketchup

Mix all ingredients except ketchup to combine. Place in loaf pan and top with ketchup cook at 350 degrees for 50 min or until the middle is 165 degrees. (The recipe called for 3/4lb of meat and I had 1lb, which is why I increased the cooking time. Also, my meat was still kinda frozen, also accounting for the increase in time from the original)

Some thoughts - I'm currently out of eggs and it was snowing all day yesterday, so I added mayo that I had made a few days ago (it has eggs in it) but if you had eggs, I would use that instead. Also, I think it's interesting that the picture on the website for the recipe had ketchup on it but there was no ketchup called for in the recipe, so I topped my meatloaf with it. You can if you want to, or not, up to you.

The recipe also suggests you let the meatloaf cool for 10 min before cutting into it.

Also makes a great open face sandwich for the next day!

Ranch Dip Mix

I love ranch. I pretty much dip everything I can in it. Over the years, I have experimented making it with different bases - cottage cheese (drained and whipped in the food processor), buttermilk, mayo, sour cream, yogurt...but never thought about making the mix from scratch, until now...

This all started one day when I had a hankering for ranch but none to be found. I have seen a few recipes floating around Pinterest for the dip mix and thought I would give it a try - only to find that I did not have one crucial ingredient - dried parsley. So I made a ranch-like dip that was ok for that moment, but I knew I could do better. So after a trip to the store, and a raiding of my spice cabinet, I made Ranch Dip Mix.

The recipe for this is based on this recipe from One Good Thing by Jillee. Of course, when I went to the store, it was a few days after I looked at the recipe and remembered the chives and parsley but forgot the dill weed. I had dill seed and used that instead. 

1/4 c black pepper

1 1/2 c parsley flakes

1/2 c freeze dried chives

1/2 c garlic salt

2 T kosher salt

1/4 c granulated garlic

1/4 c granulated onion

2 T dill seed

Mix all together and store in an air tight container.

To make dip, I usually use a 6oz container of plain greek yogurt, enough half and half to thin to the desired consistency and add 2 T of dip mix. I have found this mix to be a little salty, so adjust the seasoning to your liking. 

Put the dip in the fridge for a little while to thicken up and there it is!

You can use this mix anywhere you would use Ranch Dip mix...sooo yummy.

One Pot Pasta - Easy Weeknight Dinner

I heard of this concept from one of my RSS feeds - you put the pasta and sauce all in one pot and everything cooks together. Originally, this was a recipe from Martha Stewart and everyone has put their mark on it. The original Martha recipe used fresh tomatoes and basil, which is nice but you don't always have that. So in my investigation into this topic I found this recipe that uses canned tomatoes. Of course, I had to put my own spin on things - mainly because I thought of using this recipe when I came home from work and in a pasta mood. What I found in my pantry was Mexican style fire-roasted tomatoes. So I decided to do a Mexican take on this dish. I also had some of the Spiced Mexican Pulled Pork left over and thought that would make a nice addition to the originally vegetarian meal.

Some changes - I had spaghetti on hand, not linguine and decided to use the full pound of pasta in the package (who uses 12 oz of pasta anyway? really?) so I upped the liquid amount to 5 cups. Also I used chicken broth I had in the fridge from poaching chicken for my lunch salads. Instead of the fresh basil, I added a good sprinkling of Italian Seasoning. Also, since the tomatoes were "Mexican Style" and had jalapenos in them, I omitted the crushed red pepper.

After cooking at a simmer for 10 min, the pasta was not done. Also the liquid had not been absorbed. So at this point, I added the left over pork and let the mixture simmer, uncovered, until all the liquid was absorbed, probably another 10 min or so. When adjusting for seasoning, I added extra salt and sugar.

Lemme tell you - this was awesome!! You are using the starch from the pasta to your advantage and when the liquid cooks down, you get a creamy sauce without even adding cream or cheese. I had some left over mozzarella that I added at the end, but the dish didn't really need it. I might keep experimenting with this approach - the dish washing hater in me really enjoys that there are minimal dishes with this technique. Also, I have heard that Alton Brown liked to cook his pasta like rice and I like to cook my rice like pasta - this recipe reflects that approach.

Pork Tamale Buns

Still cooking out of Artisan Bread in 5 Min a Day. What's interesting is that there is not only bread recipes but also recipes that showcase the bread as well. Found a recipe that incorporates Mexican pulled pork into a cornmeal dough to make a tamale-like bun. Of course, I decided to make this recipe because I needed to make another batch of dough - they say you can skip washing your dough bucket by just making the next batch of dough in it, and anything that limits my dish washing is something I will do! At this point, I happened to be low on flour and not in a position to go to the store so was looking through the book for ideas based on what I had around. I came across a recipe for Broa, a Portuguese Cornbread. The recipe called for cornmeal and I had polenta, which is coarser than cornmeal. So I decided to try to make it finer in the food processor.

Before

After. I don't really know if I made it any finer, really. But it was a thought...

Here's the dough. You can see the specks of the cornmeal. Next it was on to making the pork filling.

The recipe called for making the pulled pork on the stove top. I think it would easily transfer to the crock pot and you could just set it all day. If you are interested in the recipe, leave a message with your email and I'll send it to you.

Now all pulled. Pretty tasty. The recipe makes waay more that you need for the buns (and I used all of the cornbread dough - 4 recipes - 16 buns). Was great in a taco. Lots of flavor, very Mexican but not spicy.

Now on to making the buns:

Take 1/4 of the dough and divide that into fourths. Pile in some of the pork and sauce, then pinch the dough around the filling.

Still am refusing to buy a pizza stone, so I put these into bread pans.

Here are the baked buns. Of course, they all fused together...

Here's a look at the inside of the bun. The idea was that these were to be like tamales with the corn meal bread. They were very tasty and it was nice to have the portion control, but I don't know if I would make the connection to a tamale. Froze 2 buns at a time and am looking forward to enjoying these over the next few months - or I was planning on using them as collateral in a food swapping event. We will see.