Waffles! or maybe not.

I've been thinking about writing a blog post about waffles for some time. I receive a waffle iron for my birthday back in September. I was excited about the idea of doing more than pancakes as a substitute for bread. Sometimes I would open the waffle iron to find a perfect waffle. With the next batch I would open the iron to find not my idea of a good waffle. See picture to the right.

I thought I, finally, came up with a really good waffle recipe, but I g

ot the notion to experiment with the effects of almond meal and flax seed meal on the recipe. This is where I learned to use almond meal or flax seed meal, not both, in a recipe. Also that flax seed meal doesn't need as much guar gum as almond meal. It was like peeking into a treasure box every time I opened the waffle iron was it going to be a crispy waffle or was it going to be a pile of not waffles.

So, although I went to bed Monday evening with good intentions of w

riting about waffles the next morning, I woke up to feeling not up to par. In the end I rested on Tuesday with the intent of writing today. When I woke up this morning all I could think about was all the things I had to do that didn't have anything to do with writing and how that this is my writer's group night and I'm not ready for it. So laundry or blogging or something anything thrown together for my writer's group, which is a bad thing to do, or grocery shopping, which I have put off for a little to long and I don't want to do because of the weather?

I got up determine to at least write to tell you that like most people I'm so busy on the Holiday season that there is no way I'm going to post until maybe the end of January. Then I remembered something Steve Martin said. He said something to the effect that if you want to get creative quit working. That was something he had done a few years back. He had decided to take a break and in the end he had written several plays and a book or two. I know he is right. My most creative thoughts come when I'm too busy to stop and write them down. With my hands deep into dish water I'll think of something I simply must write down. I'll dry my hands, go write it down, return to my dirty dishes, and plunging my hands into the water with the intend of finishing the job, only to think of something else I simply must write down.

So, while I think that I'm too busy to bother to write today or during the months of December and January, somewhere amid working on Lisa's school records, cleaning the house, tree trimming, and baking a Christmas pie my mind will be loaded with ideas for that next great novel I think I'll probably never finish. Or at least I'll write a blog post or two. So who knows maybe I won't post again this month, but then again maybe I won't be able to help myself and go on a blogging frenzy this month. After all, I thought I was only going to write a paragraph, now I have babbled off five.

For today, I'll leave you with two recipes, one is a good waffle recipe, the other is making the most of my not waffles.

Good waffles

makes 4

blend together:

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

¼ cup flax seed meal*

½ teaspoon guar gum*

¼ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

add in and mix well:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup water

To cook follow the manufactures directions of your waffle iron.

*You may use almond meal instead, just be sure to increase the guar gum from a 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon.

Flipped Flopped Waffles

(as in flip this flopped waffle into something edible)

Makes two patties

Whip well together:

1 egg

2 tablespoons of (your choice) milk

a dash of cinnamon

½ teaspoon vanilla

Break one waffle into little bits and add to egg mixture. The smaller the bits the better the patties work out. Mix until the waffle bits are well coated. Using a large spoon scoop half the batter onto a hot-greased griddle, then scoop the other half onto the griddle.. You may need to flatten and shape the patties a bit. Each side cooks up in about a minute, otherwise brown each side. Serve hot with syrup on top.

Ginger Cookies

It's Thanksgiving, for goodness sakes, don't keep the cookies from the kids. Jared is about a year old in these pictures. He decided he had to have cookies. Despite his best efforts he just couldn't reach them. After a lot of trying, and some pushing and pulling on me, I brought them down to his level.

It seems like cookies were the first thing I set my eyes on when I walked in the door of Grandma's warm and cozy home. Her home was always full of things that had been there forever or was homemade, especially the food.

Grandma couldn't have managed a Thanksgiving feast without a buffet. Otherwise, where would she keep the cookies, four kinds of pie, a cake, the three tiered tray full of things like green olives, black olives, sweet pickles, baby dills, and cream cheese stuffed celery.

Remember the Thanksgiving it snowed so much you could make a snowman in the front yard. I do and I did. In 1974, my cousin Debbie and I went out, and amid the kids throwing snowballs and pulling sleds, we built a pleasant, little four foot, very traditional snowman.

It's been so chilly I'm surprised we don't have snow on the ground, this year. Not that I want snow. Snow is pretty to look at, but I hate the cold and the way it can permeate to the bone. I do, however, have an answer to the cold, coffee and ginger cookies.

I wish they were ginger snaps, but I can't, yet, get that hard snap in my cookies. In this case I'm considering on increasing the fat and lowering the baking powder amounts.

I find their flavor a bit milder than ginger snaps and I will increase the ginger and molasses the next time I bake some. But here is what I did this time:

Ginger Cookies

Makes 3 dozen small cookies

Preheat oven to 375°

Grind 10 pieces of Reed's crystallized ginger chews in a mini chopper or food processor until it is the consistency of a meal. Place in mixing bowl, then mix in:

3/4 c. rice flour

½ c. millet flour

½ c. almond meal *

2 tsp. guar gum

½ tsp. baking power

½ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. ground ginger

½ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg (optional)

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. lemon zest

Add to this mixture:

1 egg

1Tbs. molasses

Cut in:

1 Tbs. Coconut oil*

2 Tbs. shortening

2 Tbs. smart balance light

Roll dough into small balls, place on greased cookie sheet, and flatten into cookie shapes.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until browned.

* I f you can't have nuts exchange the almond for flax seed meal and the coconut oil for shortening.