Bacon Waffles -The Ultimate Breakfast

Everything tastes better with bacon. Amen. Waffles are great all the time. Amen. What happens when you combine the two? Absolute bliss. Bacon waffles are something I learned about from baker-extraordinaire, Gale Gand. When her Brunch book launched last year, I was fortunate enough to attend an intimate booksigning with her at the helm. I am not a baker. I am not a precision person. I like throwing a handful of this and a pinch of that into whatever I'm creating. Baking scares me. If the ingredients are not precise then the chemical magic will not happen. Too much pressure. I had seen Gale on TV and really wanted to see her in person, so I bought the book. What a delightful surprise this book has turned out to be. Every recipe works and every recipe is delicious! She is a girl after my own heart. Everything has butter and cream and fat and sugar in it. And, most importantly, she makes no apologies about it! Refreshing. Anyway, enough gushing....

Kathy's Bacon Waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp sugar

2 lg eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup milk

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

10 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (she calls for 6. I like 10 better)

Maple syrup, for serving

Heat a waffle iron.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, and melted butter. Stir the crumbled bacon into the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients all at once with a wooden spoon until just combined. Don't overmix the batter; it should be lumpy.

For each waffle, pour 1/2 to 1 cup of the batter (or the amount recommended by the waffle-iron maker) onto the waffle iron; bake as directed by the manufacturer. Serve hot off the griddle, with the maple syrup.

If my kids had their way, we would be serving these three times a week. This is love at first taste! Enjoy!

Famous Guacamole

I grew up as an Irish, Catholic kid from the oh-so-white suburbs of Boston. The likelihood of me ever coming in contact with an avocado, let alone making good guacamole, was slim to none. Fast forward 30 years and you'll find me reading an article about some guy named Rick Bayless. Do you know him? You should. He has revolutionized the American understanding of Mexican food. As with everything, I wanted to know more about him and his 'new' Mexican cuisine. Sadly, up to this point, I was not much of a Mexican food fan. Too greasy, too lumpy, just too fake everything. Fast forward another 5 years and you'll find me relocated to Chicago and eating in one of his restaurants. I bought one of Rick's cookbooks and started at the beginning. As mentioned above, avocados were a new thing to me, but his guacamole recipe looked easy enough (remember my motto, 'if you can read, you can cook'). A first try was successful. This encouraged me. I made a few modifications to accommodate my family's tastes and had what is now called our guacamole. (Sidebar...I had the great fortune of meeting Rick Bayless at a booksigning a few years ago. I believe that when you meet someone who is doing what God put them on this planet to do, you absolutely know it from the first moment. Rick Bayless is one of those people. If you ever have the opportunity to meet/see him - take it!)

Guacamole

1 tomato

1/2 onion (I use sweet onions - Rick uses red)

2 serrano chilies (I've used jalapeno also)

1/4 - 1/2 cup cilantro (Rick uses 10 sprigs)

3 avocados

juice of 1 lime

salt

Dice the tomato and squeeze the juice and seeds out of it (with your hands - this is def. a hands- on kind of recipe). Dice the onion. Dice the chilies. Chop the cilantro. Combine first four ingredients. Cut the avocados in half and scoop the flesh from the outer shells. Add the avocados to the tomato and onion mix. Using your hands, mash all ingredients together. Add the juice of the lime and stir together. Salt to taste. Serve with tortilla chips.

5 smiling faces and sets of thumbs up!

White Chocolate Strawberries

When I think of spring and summer foods, straw-berries are right at the top of my list of seasonal fruits to get excited about. What's not to love? Juicy, beautiful, sweet, cholesterol-fighting....wait, you didn't know? Through a strange turn of events, my daughter (who was 5 at the time) had a high cholesterol reading. The very first thing the doctor told me was to increase the intake of strawberries and raspberries. Okay. While the following strawberry recipe is probably not what he had in mind, I like to console myself with the fact that at the root of this amazing dessert is a strawberry...which lowers cholesterol.

This is an impressive surprise-of-a-dessert that can be prepared while your burgers are on the grill. No kidding! Perfect for more formal dinner parties too! The fine test cooks at Bon Appetit came up with this one. The flavors appeared a strange combination to me. Had this recipe been in say Martha Stewart Living, I wouldn’t have tried it. For some reason her recipes don’t work for mere mortals like me. But usually the cooks over at Bon Appetit do their thing and create some great dishes.

This seriously is a MUST-TRY recipe. I am not a huge fan of white-chocolate and the thought of adding citrus didn’t add any excitement for me. But, WOW, make some extras, because you won’t be able to stop eating these! I got 5 extremely happy smiling faces with this one!

White-Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries with Citrus Sugar

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp finely grated orange peel

1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel

6 oz high-quality white chocolate (I used Lindt), chopped

16 lg ripe strawberries

Line baking sheet with foil. Using fingertips, mix sugar and citrus peels in a small bowl until sugar is moist. Stir chocolate in small bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water.

Holding 1 strawberry by the stem end, dip 2/3 of berry into chocolate; shake excess back into bowl. Turn berry dipped end up and sprinkle with citrus sugar (actually, I just pressed one side of the strawberry into the sugar so as not to have to drop sugar all over the place). Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining berries, chocolate, and sugar. Chill until chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.

Most-Requested Recipe: Corn Salad

Corn. What is not to love about corn? Think of all the people you've met in your life. Can you think of any who do not like corn (actually, one of my sisters claims not to like corn but she's never had this salad). I do not make special kids' meals. If you come to my house you will not find hot dogs for the kids and real food for the adults. I believe that if you give your kids real food from the beginning, they will know no other way (how else would it be that little Indian kids are eating spicy curries from the get-go and thinking it's just nifty?). My kids fight each other for the last of the pesto and rejoice right alongside me when Vidalia onion season begins. Having said this, there are certain children who make me nervous when they come to my house. I know that unless I am serving white rice (almost never happens) or cheese pizza (happens sometime), they will be suspicious and angst-ridden from the beginning. Corn, however, is usually a language we can both speak.

Mexican Corn Salad was named Mexican Corn Salad by the testers at Food & Wine Magazine. We simply call it Corn Salad and we call on it frequently. The occasion has been rare that I have served this for friends and they have not asked for the recipe. This recipe has been modified over and over again according to what was at hand.

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp minced red onion (I have substituted sweet onions time and time again here...and have added way more than 1 tbsp)

2 tbsp fresh lime juice (have used lemon juice when lime wasn’t available)

8 small ears of corn, husked (I have used frozen corn during the winter months. Kernels are not are firm, but the flavor is still good)

vegetable oil, for brushing

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp pure ancho chile powder (have substituted cayenne pepper)

4 oz cotilja or ricotta salata cheese crumbled (have used feta and queso fresca also)

salt and freshly ground pepper

Light a grill. In a large bowl, toss the garlic and onion with the lime juice and let stand for 10 minutes.

Brush the corn with oil and grill over moderate heat until charred and just tender, about 10 minutes. (If using frozen corn, cook in a skillet or frying pan - without any oil - for about 10 minutes, until charred and popping) Transfer to a work surface and cut the kernels off the cobs. TIP: If you have a bundt cake pan, you can stick the ear of corn in the part that sticks up in the middle and use it as a holder while the rest of the pan is the catcher of the corn.

Whisk the mayonnaise and chile powder into the garlic, onion and lime juice. Add the cheese and corn to the bowl and toss. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

This dish pairs well with everything from grilled scallops to burgers, lobster, steak, almost anything you can think of. Five happy, smiling sets of thumbs up on this one! Enjoy!

Last-Minute Roasted Red Pepper Chicken

Ah, the lowly chicken. I had read somewhere that chicken used to be an uncommon delicacy. It wasn’t even that long ago. When I was growing up beef was the preferred meat. (I’m 44, btw) Beef was the cheap, versatile choice of housewives nationwide. Medical schools everywhere have shrines to the mighty cow that spurred a whole new genre of medical practice....Cardiologists! In the 70’s (1970’s that is) people started to make the connection between beef and cholesterol and heart disease. ‘We need a healthier, yet still affordable protein source!’ was the cry throughout the land. Someone, somewhere pointed a finger at the chicken and we haven’t looked back since. There you go, I am a history buff as well. While we here at Liz’s kitchen eat lots and lots of chicken, I cannot say that I am someone who has ever uttered the words ‘oh, I LOVE chicken’. I really don’t love chicken. I love to see what I can do to it to make it delicious though.

I recently resurrected a long-lost-friend of a book called ‘Fresh & Fast’ by Marie Simmons. Marie is not a flashy Food Network star so you may not have heard of her. She is a good, solid cook and cookbook author who can be considered a go-to in a clutch situation. Here was the scenario... I had boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Period. It was 4:00 on a Tuesday night. Period. No thoughts on what to cook for dinner. What follows is the recipe that came together easily with stuff I had on hand....

Chicken Breasts Over-Roasted with Bell Peppers (I have modified it to fit a family of 6)

3 lg red bell peppers, halved, seeds, stem and ribs removed, cut into 1/2-inch stripes

4 garlic cloves, chopped (she calls for them to be crushed)

1 sweet onion, sliced thin (I added the onion because I like the flavor...you can use whatever kind of onion you have on hand or just leave it out altogether)

2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

5 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp dried thyme (she also says you can use fresh rosemary - 2tsp)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the peppers, garlic and onions in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish or roasting pan. Drizzle with the oil and toss to coat. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the peppers begin to brown.

Meanwhile, rinse the chicken and pat dry. Season with the rosemary or thyme, salt and a grinding of pepper. Remove the baking dish from the oven; stir the peppers, garlic and onions; add the chicken and spoon some of the peppers on the top.

Continue to roast, until the chicken is cooked through (meat thermometer should read 165 degrees F) and the peppers are browned and tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

TIP: At this point, I poured off the juices from the pan and mixed them with 1 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup of water while stirring over a high heat (takes about 30 seconds) until thick. I poured this gravy sparingly over the chicken when serving it.

This chicken has great flavor! I served brown rice and a green salad as a side. Oh yeah, don’t forget the bread. We eat bread with everything! Enjoy!

5 sets of thumbs up!