Sweet or Savory Yeasted Waffle Sandwiches

“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.” 

― Robert Burns, The Works of Robert Burns

The cover story in yesterday's Parade magazine was all about the winner of the 2013 Armed Forces Chef of the year competition, Senior Chief Derrick Davenport.  As a side bar, there was a "By The Numbers" section that showed what the US Armed Forces consumed in 2012.  Guess what was glaringly missing from that list of milk, bacon, ground beef, and soy sauce?  Eggs!  Fresh eggs aren't commonly found in a war zone.  I knew that already, thanks to my spouse and my brother.

One night my spouse said to me "could we have eggs for breakfast?"  Of course I'm indulging the guy--he's going to be eating powdered eggs, if he's lucky, for a long stretch so I'm happy to fix over easy eggs for him while I can.  But what to serve with the eggs?  If you've checked the breakfast section of the recipe index up there ---------------->  to your right, you'll know I am a waffle fan.  I like how I can easily make up the batter at my convenience and then take Simon for a walk.  When I'm back, I fire up the waffle iron, keep the first few rounds of waffles warm in the oven, and then sit down to eat with my family.

The quote above, and the reason for this post, came about because I ran out of baking powder.  I can handle running out of all purpose flour (I've got whole wheat, bread, and cake flours as well), running out of pumpkin (I've also roasted and put up butternut, acorn or mystery winter squash in the freezer), running out of honey (what about molasses, maple syrup, or sugar?), or running out of spinach (kale, swiss chard, turnip or mustard greens?).  But not baking powder.  I NEED that stuff!

Without baking powder, I needed to use something else to give that "lift", so I grabbed my jar of yeast and fired up the computer.  I found a recipe at the King Arthur flour website.  Since you only need to let it sit an hour, it fits in with my usual waffle M.O. and I went for it.

But sometimes your plan goes awry, or agley, and your end result is not as expected.  Which is where my creativity kicked in.  The waffles turned out kinda flat.  Instead of despairing over a failed fluffy waffle recipe*, because life is too short to despair over still perfectly edible food, I seized the opportunity to make some waffle sandwiches.  Enter the well-stocked pantry:  I grabbed some cheeses, some put up peach preserves, some 'too runny for sandwiches' blueberry jam, and some leftover chopped meat and veg from a pizza you'll be seeing soon.

Ode to a Pizza Stone and Better Than TJs Roasted Garlic Herb Dough

The title of this post has been kickin' around in my head for a while.  I started making pizzas after I became a stay-at-home-mom because the price of delivery pizza was more than our budget could handle, yet my spouse loved his Friday Night Pizza Nights.  Having the right tool for the job is important to him, in work and at home, so when we decided to take the plunge on pizza-making-at-home supplies he did some research.  That's how he rolls.  My records only go back to 2000, but I think we purchased our stone and pizza peel in 1999 from the King Arthur flour website. (I get nothing from putting this link here, King Arthur Flour doesn't know me or know I'm writing this, I'm just sharing where I think we bought the tools because they are good quality and continue to serve me well.)  These tools crossed an ocean, spent a few years making pizzas in Hawaii, crossed back and spent a few more years working on the East coast, then traveled overland to the midwest.  The stone broke some time ago in Virginia and is blackened with age.  Like a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, this stone works faithfully for me week after week.  It is not pretty, except to me.

Somewhere along the way I stopped making pizzas at home because it was cheaper than delivery, and started making pizzas at home because they were better than delivery.  Any time you start with fresh, local ingredients (from your garden, the farmer's market, or your CSA farm share) your end result is going to be tasty (Ok, almost any time.  Spectacular failures are shared on my FB page since they won't be appearing here.  Ever.).  Any time you make pizza exactly the way you want it, with the crust, sauce, toppings, and cheeses of your choice, the end result will satisfy your belly and your soul.  And when your soul is satisfied, you don't need to keep eating.  I've found my family and I eat more moderate portions when our meals nourish our souls as well as our bellies.

My kids tell me that an ode is a lyrical poem, so I quickly threw together one for you:

O, sooty stone 
Your faithfulness delights
O'er the miles you doth roam
Effecting my family's Friday Night Pizza Nights
On your cracked and scarred surface
Farm fresh vegetables find their purpose
Others may not see your beauty
Yet you are radiant to me


Let's have a recipe, shall we?  This is my take on Trader Joes Garlic Herb dough.  I used my own roasted garlic and used half whole wheat and half unbleached all purpose flour, so it's not an exact copycat recipe.  I think it's better. I make my dough a few days before Pizza Night, because older dough doesn't fight me like fresh stuff does.  It keeps easily 3 days in the fridge.  If you know it will be longer, you can freeze the dough and move it to the fridge to thaw the day before you want to use it.

I'm not sharing a sauce/topping suggestion for this pizza dough.  I'd got some ideas for sauces and toppings in my Pizza Primer post, you're free to look around and get inspired.  Here's what I did with mine, which I will share next week have shared right here.

Maple Teriyaki Salmon Sushi w/ Apple and Carrot (Quick Take)

Sushi and summer rolls are a great way to take a small amount of leftover protein, some farm fresh veggies, and a carb like rice or rice noodles to make a quick, interestingly packaged snack or appetizer.  My family loves to eat something so visually appealing and it comes together super quickly if your pantry is stocked.

We eat rice a lot, so I always make a full pot in my 3 cup version of this rice cooker (the 3 cup size is great for our family, therefore 95% of my rice cooking needs.  It makes no sense to me to buy a giant rice cooker for the handful of times a year I need to cook more than for us).  We never finish the pot, however, so I wrap up the extra rice in single serving patties and save it in the freezer.  That way, I nearly always have cooked rice on hand.  With leftover rice, this rolls up fast and easy.  Get it?  Rolls up?  Back to the sushi, Kirsten.

I had a bit of salmon left over from this dip, and carrots, but right now I'm waiting for the CSA season to start and I had no cucumber or kohlrabi for crunch.  I like a bit of crunch to my sushi, don't you?  Looking through the crisper, I decided to try apple slices.  Why not?  I admit the thought crossed my mind that, if it worked, this could be a candidate for Laura at Sprint 2 the Table's weekly Strange But Good party.  I'd baked the salmon very plainly, with only a bit of Pampered Chef dill mix as seasoning.  That left it a blank canvas, so I mixed up a maple-teriyaki dressing which paired nicely with all 3 elements.