Sourdough Waffles on President's Day

I made my famous sourdough waffles this morning for breakfast and against orders from my bathroom scale, I ate one. Topped with a stick (ok, maybe a slice) of butter, and 100% maple syrup. OMG it was GOOD! Once you have had a sourdough waffle, the regular ones just aren't up to snuff. You have to make the starter first. Okay, I am going to give you the recipe that your family will never let you forget! (Mine never has - my starter went bad a few years ago and I kept getting the whining and the puppy dog looks until I started a new starter). The starter recipe is as follows:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar (optional)
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active-dry yeast
2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
I got this from this website http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/SourdoughStarter.htm
Just a note - you need to use bottled water. Mix the ingredients in a glass or ceramic bowl (not metal) with a wooden spoon. Cover the container with a dish cloth and let it sit in a warm (70 to 80 degrees F.), draft-free place. NOTE: Temperatures hotter than 100 degrees F. or so will kill the yeast.

The dish cloth will let wild yeasts pass through into the batter. The mixture should bubble as it ferments (this will foam up quite a bit.

Let it sit out from 2 to 5 days, stirring it once a day. The starter is ready when it develops a pleasant sour smell and looks bubbly.

The night before you want your waffles (do this every time):
Add 1 cup flour and 1 cup warm water to the starter to activate the batter.

The next morning:
Before you add any of the following ingredients, take about a cup of batter out of the mix and store it in a glass container (I use an old, sterilized pasta sauce jar) and put it in the fridge. This will be your starter for next time.

Add to the remaining batter:
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 - 2 tablespoons sour cream (if you don't have this, you can add 1 T milk)
1 egg
1 T sugar
1 T melted butter

Mix this up with your wooden spoon and poor it into a waffle iron! If you prefer pancakes, you might want to thin the batter a little with milk or butter ;). Enjoy!

Tomato Pie

Okay, this recipe should really be made only with tomatoes from the tomato stand by the side of the road. You know, the one you pass because you can buy tomatoes at the grocery store. DO NOT PASS THE TOMATO STAND! Because, I am sorry to Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, Gelson's and even Trader Joes - your tomatoes do not compare! But, unfortunately for me, I have to wait until June for my stand to open up again. So I do make this recipe with tomatoes from "the other stores" during this time of the year. First off, you need about 6 - 8 tomatoes and you slice them thinly and put them on paper towels to get all the liquid out of them. Put the paper towels on top of as well as below the tomatoes and change them a couple of times to get all the liquid out. You will need frozen puff pastry, fresh (if you can get it at the stand, do) basil (you can use dried but fresh is better), powdered garlic, salt, white pepper, shredded jack cheese, grated parmesan cheese (the kind that is finely grated - you can get it at Trader Joes or you can use the Kraft kind) and olive oil. I am not giving you amounts because it is one of those things you have to do by looking at it. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED - you cannot fail at this recipe! Okay, so get a 10 inch pie plate (I know you have one, even if you never use it!) and spray it with cooking spray. Roll out the puff pastry as the package directs and put it in the pie plate, trimming the edges and making holes in the bottom so the crust doesn't shrink. Layer the tomatoes two layers thick, then sprinkle with a SMALL amount of salt, TONS of garlic, EVEN MORE basil and a little white pepper. Then repeat until the pie plate is full. In a bowl, mix about 8 ounces shredded jack cheese, and about the same amount of grated parmesan. Moisten it with olive oil until it sticks together in your hand when you close your fist. My original recipe called for mayonaise (and you can use it if you want to) but I changed it for a more heart healthy recipe (aren't you impressed?) Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the top bubbles and the bottom is brown. You can also use a frozen pie crust if you prefer but there is something so buttery and good about puff pastry! Enjoy!

My Favorite Holiday Recipe

Okay, here goes. I have alot of favorite recipes because I am a baker a Christmastime. Every year I have a Holiday party with my closest friends and their husbands and I bake for weeks and weeks (don't worry, I freeze everthing to keep the mold off!) and then everyone eats until they are as full as they can be. Probably the most asked for recipe is my brownie recipe. I have to say (she said modestly) that they are the best I have ever eaten. So you can try them and let me know if I am right! I must warn you, make the frosting. It is the key to their greatness. One of my friends calls me every month when mother nature visits and begs for these brownies. They are POWERFUL!
Karen's Brownie Recipe
Preheat oven to 350.
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Stir ingredients together by hand until mixed.
Grease a 13X9 pan. Cook for 30 minutes or until brownies pull away from side of the pan. DO NOT OVERBAKE! These are gooey brownies, not cakey brownies.
Let cool and then frost.
Frosting
Sift one package powdered sugar (about 4 cups). Melt 1 stick butter in saucepan, add 4 tablespoons cocoa powder and 1/3 cup whole milk (no substitutes). Heat until mixture is free of lumps and extremely hot, almost to a boil. Remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and stir. Mixture will be liquid enough to pour over brownies and spread with a knife. Let cool until frosting hardens. Enjoy!

Past My Bedtime

Normally I would be in dreamland by now (it is 10 pm and counting) but my son looked at me sweetly (after seeing that I went to the vegetable stand) and said innocently "Why'd you get so many onions?" and then "Those onion rings you made us would be really good as snacks at Grandma's tomorrow." I said "Maybe tomorrow." He told me there wasn't enough time and that he would really appreciate it if I made them tonight. Which wouldn't have been so bad except that it is 1000 degrees in the kitchen and the stupid things have to soak in buttermilk for at least an hour. So think of me (if you are still awake) at 11 pm when I start to make homemade onion strings. I know Tina loves them so maybe I'll save her some (if Jon lets me). They are so good they even taste good cold. You have to slice the onions really thin so that they aren't big clunky things, they are really like shoelaces after you deep fry them (okay, that didn't come out right - I really don't deep fry shoelaces as a rule but you get the idea). Okay, I have officially hit the 1-hour-in-the-buttermilk mark so I gotta go fry. I'll probably wake up with zits for my trouble.