Blueberry Waffles

Waffles are for sunny mornings, or mornings I wish were sunny. Blueberries make waking up a little easier, and flaxseeds make me feel better about pouring maple syrup over everything. Omega-3s, y'all.

My breakfast simply isn't breakfast unless I have coffee. If I don't have coffee, it's naptime at precisely 2:00PM. My breakfast is a better breakfast if it has crispy-tender-fruity waffles.


Real. Maple. Syrup. It's the only way. If I'm going to pour liquid sugar over my breakfast treat, I want it to come from a tree.


Waffles can be easy. Flour, buttermilk, eggs, ground flaxseed (optional), sugar, baking soda, salt, blueberries, melted butter, and vanilla extract.


Dry ingredients get a gentle mixin' just to distribute everything.


I really love egg yolks. For realz. I just think they're really pretty. And the fresher the egg the prettier the yolk. Which reminds me that I need to go buy some farm-fresh eggs ASAP.


I also love the way milk and eggs mix together. Is that weird? I'm going with no, but I'm probably not the best gauge.
 
We're so close to having waffles! Gently mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Lumps are totally acceptable in this situation.


And the real star: blueberries. Just fold them in a bit. Heat your waffle iron and brush with a little vegetable oil. I like to use a 1/2 cup as a scoop. I took pictures of this step, but quite frankly I didn't like the looks of any of them. There's no big secret to this. Scoop the batter into the hot waffle iron and close the lid. Like really close it. I didn't have the top down all the way on my first couple of waffles and they came out a little soggy. So just make sure it's on there tight.


And a few minutes later you have a crispy waffle with a tender middle. The blueberries might make a little mess, but what's life or breakfast without a little mess?

And for that matter, what's a waffle without syrup and butter? It's a sad waffle, that's what it is. That waffle you see there? A happy waffle. A supremely happy waffle.

There may have been a time I would've been concerned that I give waffles feelings and share that with the world. To be clear, I've always ascribed human feelings/traits to inanimate objects and most especially food. That's not new. I just don't mind y'all knowing about it. The Internet lowers inhibitions, y'all!

Blueberry Waffles (amount may vary depending on your waffle maker ---I got 6 from mine)

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 tbs sugar
1-2 tbs ground flaxseed (optional)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 c buttermilk
1/2 c butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pint blueberries, rinsed and picked over
Vegetable oil, for brushing

• In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
• In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs just to break them up a bit. Stir in the buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in egg mixture. Gently stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until dry ingredients have been moistened by the egg mixture. The batter will be lumpy and that's just dandy. Gently fold in the blueberries.
• Heat your waffle maker according to its instructions. Brush with oil and pour in between 1/3 and 1/2 cups of batter. Don't overfill the waffle maker, so if you need to use less, use less. Firmly close the waffle maker and cook until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter until you have a mound of beautiful waffles. 
• Serve with pure maple syrup or a dusting of powdered sugar. Bacon is recommended.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

 I have a weakness. Weaknesses, plural, if we're being truthful. They include butter and brown sugar but are not limited to those. I'm not immune to flattery because I can be just the tiniest bit vain. But mostly it's the butter and sugar. See, it's that transitional time of year. When summer is lingering and fighting turning into fall. We've had days of rain now, which I'm welcoming with open arms. We've needed it. But sometimes rain just seems to make the days hotter. Instead of relieving the heat it just traps it, and it's like living in a giant sauna. Not this time. Yesterday, we had a cool breeze. In the afternoon. Y'all, I'm not sure the Lowcountry has ever seen a cool breeze on an August afternoon. It just isn't done.

Instagrammin': July Edition

I've been trying to do this post for two or three days. I'm still in Alabama but returning to my beloved home state tomorrow. I know this is mostly a food blog, but I do like to share other snippets of my life.

I saved this little froggy from the pool at my grandmother's on the 4th of July. He was about the size of a nickel.

Blueberry Poundcake

True story: I did not understand the Ryan Gosling obsession until I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love. That's probably because I was born without the gene that makes me obsess over The Notebook. In truth, I prefer the book to the movie because I think the ending is more poignant. Regardless, I look at pictures of Ryan Gosling from 2004...and I'm so not interested. Seven or eight years later and now we're talkin'. I think it's because he looks older and therefore more...sophisticated? Put-together? Eh, suffice it to say I'm much more willing to watch one of his movies now. Oh and Crazy, Stupid, Love won me over for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with him and everything to do with Emma Stone, Steve Carrell, and the girl who played the babysitter.

Flag Cake (Or Just a Damn Good Sheet Cake with Fruit)

 So...I know this looks a little late. The Fourth of July is over...by a week. Let's be real though, this wasn't getting to you in time to make it last week anyway. The thing is, you don't have to arrange the fruit in a flag shape. It just looks really cool when it is.

This cake, y'all, is bangin'. Moist, striking a balance between fluffy and dense. Like not an angel food cake but not a poundcake either. And my most favorite thing about a sheet cake- you don't have to take it out of the pan. Just cool it on a rack and frost that baby right in the pan. Boom.

Blueberry Crumble Pie

Pie is a labor of love. Clearly I love myself since that's exactly who I was making this pie for. And since I was making it for myself, I decided I would combine the things I love about pie and the things I love about a crumble or crisp. P.S. I tried to figure out the difference between a crisp and a crumble and they're pretty much the same. I assume a crisp is crispier and a crumble is crumblier because they pretty much have the same topping. This should probably be called Blueberry Crisp Pie but it doesn't flow as well as Blueberry Crumble Pie. So there ya go.

Blueberry Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

I am evidently on a breakfast kick. I do that sometimes, get really into certain foods for a while. Like the spinach smoothies I've been making for weeks (promise, you can't taste the spinach!). One time I went on a ham sandwich bender. And lately I've had a MAJOR sweet tooth. Maj.

Breakfast is my favorite meal by far. Well, brunch really is because when you can get shrimp and grits and muffins in the same meal I'm there with bells on. I tend to gravitate towards sweets when I'm eating a big breakfast...with a side of bacon or sausage. See, that's another thing I love about breakfast. You can get all the important foods: pig, dessert, fruit (sometimes), butter, and bread. At any rate, cinnamon rolls rank right up there with my preferred breakfast foods. Right under French toast.

Spiced Blueberry Muffins

It was an average Wednesday.  I was at gathering supplies for the weekend at The Pig, when a craving for blueberry muffins hit me like a ton of bricks.  Wham-o.  I hightailed it back to the produce section and got a pint of blueberries that looked purty.  I don't always ask for inspiration.  Sometimes it just comes over me.  In the aisles of Piggly Wiggly.  So be it.

I scoured cookbooks and recipes online for a muffin recipe that a) I had all the ingredients for---a ridiculous amount of recipes use sour cream, which I'm sure makes for a moist muffin but wasn't in my fridge and b) excited me just a bit.  I stumbled upon a cinnamon blueberry muffin recipe that seemed a little different. Cinnamon is one of my favorite spices.  I just think it warms you right up, even if it is 90º outside and you don't need actual warming.  It's a soul thing.  Cinnamon warms my soul.  It's a happy ingredient.  Then I remembered a recipe for blueberry buckle or cobbler or what-have-you that used coriander.  I haven't had much experience with coriander, but I do know it can be used in savory and sweet dishes.  I thought it was worth a shot in my muffins.