CourtneyOlson.com

I don’t know why I needed Alton Brown to tell me this was a good idea.  Alton Brown is obviously full of many good ideas but this one just seemed so obvious.

No matter, anyway.  I went out and bought a waffle iron not so long ago.

Wait.  Lie.  I stayed in and found a waffle iron on Amazon.com not so long ago.

Anyway.  Waffle iron.  Did you know that it’s very hard to find a waffle recipe that makes one perfect waffle?  Dang near impossible.

I used to make pancake batter a lot, and rather than make a bunch of pancakes I wouldn’t be able to finish, I’d use some of the batter and keep the rest in the fridge.  It worked okay but the second day pancakes were never quite as good.

This is what I’d have done with my waffles if not for Alton Brown.

Did you know that you can just make all the waffles at once?  And then put leftovers in individual ziplock bags? And FREEZE THEM?

I don’t buy frozen convenience waffles.  Especially Eggos. A) They taste like cardboard and B) have you ever looked at the list of ingredients?  If I wanted a breakfast of chemicals I’d pull the cleaner from underneath the kitchen sink and pour it over some granola.  No.  I don’t do frozen waffles.

But when you make them yourself and you know exactly what’s in them? It’s brilliant.  Take one out of the freezer and pop it in the toaster and I SWEAR TO YOU, they’re even better than eating them fresh off the waffle iron.  Crispy and delicious and perfect.

The two waffle recipes I love are both on the Food Network website:

Simple Waffles from Scratch.
Alton’s Basic Waffles.

To be honest, I like the first recipe better.  The waffles get a little crisper and I like my waffles to have the tiniest bit of crunch to them.  Alton’s has buttermilk (I haven’t done the half and half with whole wheat flour yet. I’ve done full non-bleached regular flour. But that might be a game changer) and they are just the tiniest bit spongier.  Still delicious. Probably depends on your waffle preference.

Anyway, the frozen waffle thing I totally got from Alton Brown even though when I declared the most awesome find of all time on Twitter when I found out everyone was like, “Um, duh.”

So… how do you like your waffles?

So, I love spinach.  So ridiculously much.

One of the best ways to do spinach is over low heat with a tiny drop of olive oil, a tiny bit of garlic (minced or powdered, although if you’re going to mince fresh garlic, have somewhere else to use it too – it’s strong) and a splash of balsamic vinegar right at the end.  Slightly wilted, sweet deliciousness.

I do that often enough – last night I threw it in some scrambled egg muffins.

Whoa delicious.

And for the record, I’m giving you that scrambled egg muffin recipe because that’s what I worked from – however, I think the egg/milk/cheese ratio is really the only thing you need to stick to.  The other yummy stuff you add?  All up to you.