Daring Bakers: Grahams

Do you prefer your graham crackers chocolate dipped, or plain?

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

The one in which I use my waffle maker

It's been at least a week since I hit a dinner "home run". I say that because while my children might count grocery store pasta with Rao's sauce and baby carrots as a great meal, to me it was merely sustenance on a busy night.

A and I are coming up on our 14th wedding anniversary. Through 14 years , 2 children, 2 houses, 2 states, 3 goldfish and 1 dog, we've held onto almost all of our wedding gifts. Some I use daily, like my silverware, and my knives. Some hold sentimental meaning, like the chafing dish from my late godmother. Others are comic relief, both used and unused (I'm thinking of you leopard print bowl and crab-shaped platter.) Like many couples, A and I were blessed with a waffle maker as one of our wedding gifts. Once upon a time, I routinely used it, cranking out Belgian beauties on weekend mornings. Then it went to the basement. And it had been there, likely more than a year.

I've been following the waffleizer on twitter. Bread pudding was interesting, s'mores, tempting. But when he made Indian bread in the waffle maker, I was sold. So I made alloo parantha for dinner, and I topped it with the cilantro chutney. In the middle, I added some Indian spiced lentils. I heated some peanut oil, added a bit of garam masala, and simmered the lentils until they were tender. Before serving, I mixed in some more of the onion mixture from the bread filling ( I tripled that recipe), and some spinach sauteed in ginger infused canola oil.

TWD: Not Scherben and Chocolate Oat Almost Candy Bars

Last week, I almost made a stop a Gourmet Garden, seeking out the fried won tons. You know, camera angles can lie, and I'm still convinced that I might have fooled you into thinking that I made the scherben. But I didn't lie, and I didn't make them.
So when the almost-candy cookies didn't get my oven lit, I fought on. I baked them, subbing walnuts for my dreaded peanuts. They weren't bad, although, surprisingly, J immediately found the raisins hidden in the fudge. After deciding that I'd prefer my chocolate and my oatmeal cookies as separate events, I stashed the rest in the freezer.

TWD: Tarte Tatin

I first learned to make this at a cooking class almost a decade ago, and it became one of my standards. I knew the recipe by heart, I knew the dish would turn out perfectly. I almost always had the ingredients in the house. But I fell away from tart tatin, for no good reason. I'm glad that TWD brought it back. The apples caramelized on low heat. The remainder of my Daring Bakers Puff Pastry stretched over top. I scraped the remaining caramel from the side of the plate. Please don't tell my scale, or my orthodontist.

I don't have a picture, as my camera is headed for repair just in the nick of warranty.

A little leftover

Wasted food drives me nuts. I hate to throw it out, which is why we now have thousands of worms living in the laundry room. I really loved our Christmas sweet potatoes, as they even used the skins.

With all sorts of little nibbles left over from New Year's Eve, this was our Sunday lunch:

Zingerman's baugette grilled brie with basil and roasted peppers. Yum!