My Word with Douglas E. Welch » Photos

Food: Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles

dewelch — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:58:26 +0000

One of my favorite waffle recipes. I made these for breakfast this morning

These Cornmeal Buttermilk Waffles puff up nicely and have a great crispy crunch.

Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles
Adapted slightly from Gourmet

Yield: About 16 waffles

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stoneground
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil plus additional oil for brushing waffle iron

Accompaniment: pure maple syrup

Into a large bowl sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Repeat sifting 2 more times.

In another large bowl whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and oil. Add flour mixture all at once and whisk just until combined.

Preheat a waffle iron and preheat oven to 200 °F.

Brush waffle iron lightly with additional oil. Spoon batter into waffle iron, using 1/4 cup batter for each 4-inch-square standard waffle and spreading batter evenly, and cook according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer waffle to a baking sheet and keep warm, uncovered, in middle of oven. Make more waffles with remaining batter in same manner, brushing waffle iron with mire oil before adding each batch.

Serve waffles with syrup.

Food: Buttermilk Cornmeal Waffles is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Food: Sally Lunn’s Buns (and bread), Bath, UK

dewelch — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:40:12 +0000

I noticed this recipe for Sally Lunn Bread from favfamilyrecipes.com pass through my Google+ stream today. It quickly reminded me of our trip to the UK back in 2010. We spent 2 days in Bath and had lunch at Sally Lunn’s. The food was very good, especially the buns. I can’t wait to try this one out here at home.

Here is a photo of my wife, Rosanne, outside the Sally Lunn shop, just before we headed in for lunch.

Click for a larger image

We really loved Bath and want to return there as soon as we can, hopefully with more time to explore more of the city and area. We took a 1/2 day out of town to visit Stonehenge and didn’t really have as much time as we wanted to explore. At least the fairly long drive to Stonehenge gave us a chance to see the surrounding countryside.

You can see all our pictures from Bath and Stonehenge in these two Flickr picture sets.

Click to see Bath Day 1 slideshow on Flickr

Click to see Bath Day 2 slideshow on Flickr

Food: Sally Lunn’s Buns (and bread), Bath, UK is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Food: Vanilla extract after one day

dewelch — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:39:17 +0000

This is my homemade vanilla extract after just 1 day of steeping. Wow! This is going to be sooooooooo good!

Food: Vanilla extract after one day is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Food: Vanilla Extract Beginnings

dewelch — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:11:18 +0000

I had purchased some vanilla beans from Amazon.com in preparation for making vanilla extract, but darned if I had \ever gotten around to actually making it. One issue was finding a suitable jar to steep the beans and alcohol, but recently a jar of peaches presented the perfect container. It is wide mouthed enough to allow easy access when I need to add new beans and alcohol in the future, but not so large that I would make so much that I would never use it all.

Click for larger images

Since this jar is clear, I will keep it in a cool dark location so that sunlight doesn’t spoil the mix, but once I start drawing on this batch, I will move it to smaller, dark plastic or glass containers to keep in the kitchen.

So, how do you make vanilla extract? It couldn’t be simpler!

Take vanilla beans and steep them in vodka or other neutral grain spirits like Everclear. For this batch, I picked up a 1/2 gallon of inexpensive vodka I found on sale over the holidays. The alcohol will pull out all the vanilla goodness and turn a dark brown. The process takes a few months to work, but you will be rewarded with pure vanilla extract whenever you want to use it for your baked goods. This batch will come in handy for my next batch of cookie baking, for sure.

As you use the vanilla extract, you can top up the jar with more alcohol and let it steep some more. You will eventually will way to replace the beans as well, but you will be surprised how much flavor they contain.

Food: Vanilla Extract Beginnings is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Photo: The Dickens Game

dewelch — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:06:23 +0000

A friend in the UK sent us this wonderful gift for Christmas. They were part of our Podcaster’s Christmas Carol, saw this on the High Street and thought it would be perfect for us.

Photo: The Dickens Game is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Photo: The Queen

dewelch — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:48:53 +0000

Post arrived the other day with this picture of The Queen attached. I love getting mail from outside the US. It always reminds me to expand my world view.

Photo: The Queen is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Photo: Eggnog Pancakes

dewelch — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:07:25 +0000

Special treat this morning, using the leftover eggnog from our celebrations. I used this recipe – Eggnog Pancakes from Cassie Craves. Some of them ended up a bit gooey in the middle, but I think this was because I was being careful not to burn them. Give them a few more minutes than a normal pancake, just to make sure they cook all the way through.

Photo: Eggnog Pancakes is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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