Gingerbread Waffles

In December, my friend Cherie hosted a Chaos Cooking event. The idea is that everyone comes bearing ingredients, and cooks. It's kind of a demented potluck.

Since Cherie owns a waffle iron, I decided to make peanut butter waffles, with grape jelly and bananas to top:


I was inspired, and asked for a waffle iron as a holiday gift:

For my first homemade waffles, I decided to keep the holiday going and make this recipe for gingerbread waffles.

Waffles are very similar to a quickbread recipe - wet ingredients (butter or other fat, eggs, milk or other liquid, andin this case, some molasses) added to dry ingredients (flour, leavening, spices):

Ready to go:

The leftovers, ready to make like Eggo and go in the freezer for weekday breakfast!

Chocolate Ginger Banana Bread

I don't know why I didn't think to combine these three of my favorite things before - chocolate, ginger and bananas:

But a friend shared a quickbread recipe for just that. All mixed up and ready to go:

It didn't last 24 hours. And I didn't share!

Pumpkin Muffins

I like to make muffins and freeze them for a quick breakfast hot from the microwave. If they last that long, that is:

These pumpkin muffins, like all good fall flavors, start with a good dash of cinnamon and other spices. I particularly like to add a bit of clove and nutmeg:

Muffins are (usually) quickbreads, made with an oil or (applesauce as a substitute) but this recipe called for butter, creamed with sugar. yum!

Once the eggs and dry ingredients were mixed in, the final step was chopped pecans and golden raisins:

Straight into the oven:

Whole Wheat Cheddar Biscuits

I love cheese:

So I added some to a biscuit recipe, instead of using all butter for the fat:

Ready to bake:

And melted, ready to serve:

Popovers

A rainy night and leftover soup compelled me to make popovers:

I used a new to me recipe that involved a blender. I used my immersion blender, and a larger than usual container:

This batter rests for 15 minutes, then off to the oven. done!

Buttermilk Banana Bread

I am forever cursed with bananas too brown for me to enjoy. Not that I mind.

This time I added pecans and used some buttermilk:

Next time, a little more green on the ends - or baked. I don't mind:

Dinner: Biscuit Dogs

Last week, we had a few days of 90 degree heat, and I had some buttermilk in the fridge. As soon as it broke and I could turn on the oven, I used that buttermilk to make buttermilk biscuit dogs:

Irish Soda Bread Muffins

I didn't just make Irish Soda Bread this year:

I made some in muffin form for breakfast. Win!

Irish Soda Bread

I love Irish Soda Bread any time of year, although come spring, I always make some for St. Patrick's day(and neglect to write about it in a timely fashion):

Soda Bread is leavened chemically, and American style has raisins and fennel or caraway seeds. This particular version called for fennel:

I used yogurt for some tang as the liquid once I mixed my dry ingredients:

The thick batter that resulted made a chewy, tasty bread:

Blueberry Banana Pecan Muffins

Blueberry muffins. I can't ever resist:

I also added some mashed banana to this recipe - any variant on a banana bread is fine by me:

The resulting batter looked...curdled, if I'm being charitable:

The resulting muffins, though, made for a delicious breakfast!

Pumpkin Corn Muffins

This is another magazine recipe:
I can't resist fall issues of any magazine that involves food, really. What else would I do with all of my pumpkin?

This is a quickbread, which means a three step recipe - 1. prepare dry ingredients:

2. Prepare wet ingredients. 3. Add wet ingredients to dry:

And then pour into prepared tins (or pan, if you follow the recipe more closely than I did) and bake!

Whole Wheat Corn Muffins

The quickest treat I make with any regularity is probably muffins. Here, my dry ingredients - flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal and leavening:

Pour in the wet ingredients (milk, butter and eggs):

and twenty minutes later, muffins!

Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread

I took a break from pie in order to make a portable pumpkin treat to bring along with me when I visited my parents - Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread, recipe courtesy of the Serious Eats blog:

It starts like a recular quickbread, but then the secret ingredient is added - Olive Oil!

And, of course, pumpkin. This is some of the pumpkin I cooked down and pureed at home:

The final step is stirring in nuts and raisins, if you like, after you've added your flour and leavening:

Three loaves ready for the oven:

And ready to eat!

Cheddar Biscuits

Cheese, specifically, sharp cheddar and freshly grated parmesan:

Cheese, added to a biscuit base of flour, cornmeal and leavening cut with butter:

The result: Cheddar Biscuits:

I made these from the recipe above, though I skipped the scallions as I didn't have any in the fridge. A drop biscuit method made the savory treats a nice, quick addition to dinner.