Recipes Discovered

Sweet Potato Waffle Recipe

Blueberry Syrup Recipe

Since my family was visiting today, Seth and I took everyone to the Waffle Shoppe for breakfast. Their waffles are some of the best I’ve had, and it reminded me of my horrendous waffle iron at home. I tried replicating Sarabeth’s Pumpkin Waffles with said iron, and needless to say, it wasn’t a complete success. I have also tried the make sweet potato waffles with my waffle iron. I am a pretty big fan of sweet potatoes, so when I saw a recipe for sweet potato waffles in the Mayo Clinic cookbook, I decided to try the waffle iron again. The recipe is more complicated than the pumpkin waffles because of whisking the egg white and incorporating that separately. It makes the batter lighter though, which I think make a fluffier waffle. Unfortunately, not matter how much oil or cooking spray I added to my waffle iron, the waffle stuck and torn in half when I tried getting it out. The waffle pieces were good though. I liked the flavor combination of the corn meal with the flours and the hint of spiciness from the cinnamon and nutmeg. The best part of the waffle was the blueberry syrup though, which was simply blueberries, lemon, honey, and molasses. It paired really well with the waffle and the leftover syrup was great on oatmeal the next morning.

Sweet Potato Waffle Recipe

Blueberry Syrup Recipe

Homemade Manicotti Recipe

A couple years ago, I order manicotti at a local Italian restaurant, and was surprised by what I got. Instead of ricotta cheese stuffed into a pasta shell, this was fresh crepes, filled with cheese, spinach, and garlic. It was wonderful, and I always said I was going to try to make it someday. I came across a recipe for crepes the other day, which made me think of the manicotti and how good it was. This is the recipe I put together to recreate it.

I started with the sauce, keeping it simple and fresh. First, I sauteed onions and garlic until they were soft, and then added crushed tomatoes. To that, I added oregano, basil, a bay leaf, salt, and a pinch of sugar. I let it simmer while I made the crepes, about a half hour. This could be made days in advance though and kept refrigerated.

Next, I mixed together the batter for the crepes. I used a mixture of all-purpose and whole wheat flour, just to add a little more flavor and texture. To the flours, I added salt, eggs, milk, and melted butter, and whisked until the batter was smooth. Crepe batter is very thin, similar to heavy cream, so be sure to add enough milk to get the consistency right. It’s also best to let the batter set for about a half hour before making the crepes to let the flour absorb all the moisture.>> Read more

Update: New and Improved Recipe

Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage Recipe

Spinach Salad with Apples and Red Onion Recipe

As much as I love to cook, sometimes I don’t like to think about what I am cooking. Enter Rachael Ray. Now I know some people can’t stand her while others think she is the best thing ever, but I will say that usually, she has pretty decent recipes. What I really like about her is that she doesn’t just prepare a recipe, she prepares a complete meal that works together. The flavors compliment each other, and it’s well balanced. For dinner the other night, Seth and I had pasta with pumpkin and sausage along with a spinach salad with apples and red onion. All the ingredients worked together, and, best of all, I didn’t have to think about what I was cooking.

First, the salad, which is really simple. The dressing it simply olive oil, vinegar, grain mustard, honey, salt, and pepper. After whisking it together, I poured it over spinach leaves topped with sliced apples and red onions. >> Read more

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing Recipe

With the days getting shorted and winter inevitably around the corner, I can’t help reminiscing about the past summer. I made a lot of dishes, many of them posted here, but one recipe stands out as being the one that everyone ask me about the most. It’s an incredibly simple salad, essentially just spinach and strawberries, but it’s a definitely crowd please. Some people dismiss it at first because of the spinach, but the first taste of the fresh strawberries and the sweet and tangy dressing converts almost everyone. So here it is, my recipe for strawberry spinach salad with poppy seed dressing.

To make the dressing, I add sugar, vinegar, and paprika in a blender and mix it before slowly streaming in the oil. After the oil is incorporated, I blend for another minute and then pour the mixture into a small bowl and adding poppy seeds and sesame seeds. I usually refrigerate the dressing for at least an hour so it thickens up a little. Sometimes I even make it the day before. It keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator for leftover salad as well.

The salad is simply spinach and fresh strawberries topped with sliced almonds. I like baby spinach because it’s a little more tender. Also, if strawberries aren’t in season, I’ve also used drained mandarin oranges in place of the strawberries. It’s a very easy salad to make, but everyone loves it. So as the cold weather creeps in, I hope this recipe reminds you of summer and makes you a little warmer.

Black Bean Burger with Chipotle Ketchup

I recently got a new Mayo Clinic cookbookthat had a recipe for black bean burgers. Since I really enjoyed the black bean burgers I made a few months ago, I though it would be fun to try a new recipe to compare them. The Mayo Clinic recipe was a lot more complex, but it had a lot different ingredients to add flavor. Plus, included in the recipe was chipotle ketchup, which sounded really good.

I made the ketchup first by combining fresh tomatoes, sweet onion, garlic, tomato paste, vinegar, a chipotle chili, cumin, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Chipotle chilis are smoked jalpenos, and the adobe sauce is a sweet vinegar sauce the chilis marinate in. They are a fairly spicy, so I like to scrape as many seeds out of the chili as I can, so the heat doesn’t overwhelm the dish. I let the ketchup simmer for 15 minutes until it was thick enough to qualify as ketchup, and then I removed it from the heat and let it cool. >> Read more