Cooking Gifts

Look at all this loot! These are just some of the great gifts I got this Christmas to cook with in the New Year.  Since I haven't done much cooking since the week before Christmas, let's have a look at the gadgets and vessels I'll use to make tasty and healthy dishes in 2013.

Look at these beautiful painted measuring cups and spoons!  I also got regular plastic measuring cups and spoons for everyday use, but these are so pretty.

Fun for special baking occasions.

I'm very excited to try this potato ricer for mashed potatoes and gnocchi.

I got some lovely Le Creuset bakewear and some little red ramekins.

Plus some espresso cups and a nice wooden cutting board.

And a seasoned cast iron pan, which I've never had before but look forward to using forever.  

And a mandoline.  I can finally julienne things properly with this!

Plus a lovely gift basket of Indian spices and recipes.  

And some very interesting books:  Rick Bayless' Authentic Mexican and Fifty Shades of Chicken.

If you need any gift ideas for someone who loves to cook, any of these are sure to be well received. I'm very spoiled and lucky.

Blueberry Waffles

For Christmas our good friends gave us a fancy waffle iron.  

It is probably more waffle iron than we need, but it is a very nice one.  

I mixed up some waffle batter from a boxed mix (PC Blue Menu Whole Grain pancake and waffle mix). 

 I had to add 2 eggs, 1 1/3 cup of milk and 2 tbsp oil to the mix.  I also added about 1/2 a cup of frozen wild blueberries.

I mixed it with a fork and used the measure that came with the waffle iron to pour the batter into the preheated machine.  

Then closed the lid and waited until the waffle iron binged.  I set the dial to 4 as instructed.  

The first waffle did not turn out.  It stuck to the top and bottom and the uncooked insides were a real pain to scrape out of the waffle iron.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't.

For the second waffle, I used more non-stick spray and it turned out fine.  It was still a little less crispy than we'd like so for the next one I turned the dial to 5 and left it for a few seconds after the bing.  It was nice and crispy.

Served with grade B maple syrup and some applewood-smoked bacon I cooked in the oven, which was also a touch underdone but tasted delicious.

Food lessons learned:

• One batch of mix makes 4 waffles unless you mess the first one up
• Be sure to use enough cooking spray in the waffle iron
• Crank up the heat setting for more well done waffles
• Plain/buttermilk waffle mix tastes better than whole grain

Photography lessons learned:

• Take pictures of mistakes too!
• Try not to get my shadow in the shot (but how?)
• Make these pictures smaller. They are huge and take ages to upload