Saturday, January 03, 2009

Oh bother! or lemon curd is nicer, even thinly spread

Well, our school's Christmas break is rapidly coming to an end and with early mornings looming near once again I decided to make waffles. You know--those delicious, slightly crispy breakfast cakes with butter melted into each individual square and topped with aromatic maple syrup. Mmmm...

What? We are out of syrup. It was on the list, but apparently the shopper did not go to the store where the best syrup deal is and consequently we are out. Which rather made me feel like the king in the A.A. Milne poem, The King's Breakfast, especially in the middle (or so) verse:

The King said,
"Bother!"
And then he said,
"Oh, deary me!"
The King sobbed, "Oh, deary me!"
And went back to bed.
"Nobody,"
He whimpered,
"Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little bit
Of butter for
My bread!"

I wanted to be crabby, but remembering what my dearest hubby has been telling the little people lately about how we CHOOSE to have bad attitudes, I thought it best to pull up my socks and be a big girl. (Bother!)

So, I set about digging through the fridge and came up with an option--lemon curd. Not just any lemon curd, I might add, but lemon curd made by a true English woman and gifted to me in celebration of The Saviour's birthday. (Which makes it extra yummy, don't you think?) My daughter added to the options by pulling out huckleberry jam from another dear friend, which prompted me to scrounge a bit more and find the blackberry from yet another friend. I don't can. I don't make jams. I barely like to bake. In fact, other than eating, there's not much that happens in the kitchen that I really enjoy. Maybe watering the plants... Anyway, all this antipathy toward kitchen duties makes me doubly appreciative of all such gifts and my three little jars from Esther, Patty and Susan (respectively) are like little pots of gold.

Little pots of yummy gold to top my waffles! The lemon curd was very nice on top of some gingerbread cookies I had, but my taste buds were eager to try it on that most northwest of northwest breakfasts, a huckleberry waffle.

For anyone interested, here's a scrumptious recipe for sourdough waffles:

2/3 cup warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
2-1/2 cups baking mix (my mom uses Bisquick; I use Jiffy)
1 cup milk
1 egg
We (my mom and I both) mix everything in the blender, then pour the appropriate amount into the waffle iron. I sprinkle frozen huckleberries into the batter before closing the lid. (Please be aware that this recipe makes waffle batter that grows, so it can pop the lid off your blender, if stored in said container.) Then top with butter and syrup.

Oh wait, not today. It was a difficult choice--each topping had its own merits. Huckleberry in double doses is definitely delicious. Blackberry added a bit of zingy bite. But I think the lemon curd was the luscious winner for me. Lemon and huckleberry are quite complementary (just like their respective colors on the color wheel. You knew I had to work art in here somewhere, right?).

Now, I'll have to find something to try the apple and tomato chutney on. Hmm, I don't think it's going to be huckleberry waffles. ;-)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you slide down the banisters when you discovered how nice it was?

larin said...

Alas, we have no banisters. May I slide down yours? ;-) --L