Whole Wheat Waffles

One of the many perks of working in book publishing is the copious amounts of books acquired during the year. If I wasn't a hoarder before, I definitely am now. Every single book I see that I might someday read or someone I might know might enjoy it, I take it. Because of this, my desk shelf looks like a hurricane hit it. Although--last week I re-organized it so it looks much better! Of course my favorite books right now are cookbooks. Heidi Swanson's Near & Far is definitely one of my favorites to date. All of her recipes are so visually stunning, and usually involve unique ingredients inspired by her travels. If I were to write a cookbook someday (haha!), it would definitely strive to be similar to her style!

These whole wheat waffles were so incredible. I loved how they were light and fluffy and not too dense like other waffles I've had. Blackberries are my favorite fruit topping on pancakes and waffles, so this was such a yummy breakfast to make on Sunday morning!

We've continued to have crazy warm weather here this past week, and on Sunday it was up in the high 60s! For mid-December, this was literally record-breaking. Spotted in the city while walking by the Christmas tree stands, were children without jackets, people in tank tops, and some in shorts (!!!).  I am not complaining one bit though, because I have actually been able to sport bare legs and light jackets and who knows maybe I'll get tan? If NY wants to hold off its snowstorms until after New Year's, I think she could still get in two full months of cold weather which is plenty of time to meet the winter weather quota.

Keep this up, NY, and this Texan might not ever leave!

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Whole Wheat Waffles (makes approx. 10 square waffles)

adapted from Heidi Swanson's Near & Far

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tbl. melted butter
• 2 eggs

Directions: Whisk together the flours, oats, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, and eggs. When waffle maker is hot, combine the wet and dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Dollop batter onto waffle maker, and cook until golden and crisp. Transfer to a warm oven (200 degrees F) while the rest are cooking to keep warm. Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup!

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Pearled Spelt Mushroom Risotto

I had never heard of spelt until I recently saw it in a few of the British food blogs I follow. According to the back of the box, it is a very ancient grain that has been around since the Bronze Age. The Romans called it "the marching grain" because it was so jam-packed with energy and sustains you for a long time. All I know is it makes a wonderful substitute for rice in risotto, or as the box called "speltotto". There is also spelt flour to make spelt breads and waffles with. Who knew!?!

If this does gain more popularity in the US, can we all attribute me with the credit? Cool, thanks.

This week has seemed slow mostly because our holiday party was on a Monday (!?!). Even though it ended promptly at 8:30 PM on the dot and the DJ stopped playing We Are Family to tell us to all go home, it still did not feel like a Monday, but more like a Thursday, which has thrown me off everyday since. I danced my socks off though and ate a ton of biscuits and red wine so I guess I can say it was a success?

Other exciting things happening round here is the storefronts on 5th Ave are completely all decked out with their Christmas decor. Saks Fifth Avenue was my favorite, although a little on the creepy side (like a holiday party gone wrong or something). The sidewalk trees are strung with lights and there are lots of Christmas tree stands all along the sidewalks. I love seeing how festive the city becomes!!

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Creamy Mushroom Speltotto (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:

• 1 8-oz. package of mushrooms, sliced thick
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 shallots, diced small
• 1 tbl butter
• 1 tbl olive oil
• 1 ½  cups spelt
• 1 ½ cups Chicken broth
• ½ cup dry white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh herbs for topping

Directions: Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add half of olive oil and half of the butter. Once oils are hot, add sliced mushrooms to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes until browned. Remove from pan into a bowl. 

In same pan, add  remaining oil and butter and add diced shallots. Cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously, and add the garlic. Continue stirring until cooked. Add spelt to pan, and stir to coat with oils and toast it for a few minutes. 

Next, add white wine to deglaze pan. Add a little bit of the chicken broth, just until the spelt is fully covered. Let simmer and reduce, then add more chicken broth, just until spelt is covered once again. Repeat until all liquid is absorbed and spelt is al dente. Add mushrooms back into pan, and garnish with herbs.

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Oreo Ricotta Cream Cheese Cheesecakes

Cheesecake used to be my one and only. It was my favorite dessert of all time, and as a kid everywhere I would go I wanted all of the cheesecake. I blame my Nana (Dad's mom) who also loved it. She would always have strawberry cheesecake ice cream in her freezer when I'd come visit, and we would eat a scoop or two with whipped cream and cherries on top, before I left. It was AWESOME!

I'd like to think I passed my cheesecake-loving-self on to my little sister, who is now is just as obsessed with cheesecake as I was. Now, I've kind of moved on to other desserts, but when I showed her a picture on Pinterest of an Oreo cheesecake her eyes were as big as the heart-eye emoji. I knew we had to make them together before she left! We both agreed the reason we love cheesecake so much is simply because it contains cheese.

With oreo as the crust, this recipe is fairly easy to make. We cheated and bought knock-off oreos because the ones at the deli were outrageously expensive, and because of that they were a little bit thicker than normal oreos, so the ratio of cheesecake filling to crust might be different if you actually used Oreos. Also, my food processor died halfway through pulsing the cream cheese, so our batter was slightly more chunky than it should have been. I say this so there is no pressure to completely pulse yours thoroughly. They still turned out really good, and no chunks were visible.

Tonight I have my work ugly sweater holiday party, and from past stories I've been told, it is sure to be an outrageously huge, lavish, boozy and interesting affair. I made my own ugly sweater last night complete with all of the 3D objects: bows, tinsel, and ornaments, which were all hot glued to a cheap sweater. Hopefully I'm not the only one actually dressing up!

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Oreo Ricotta Cream Cheese Cheesecakes (makes approx. 18)

Ingredients:

• 17-19 oreos (plus more for snacking)
• 2 tbl. flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbl. butter, softened
• 1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened and diced into cubes
• 1 15-oz. container ricotta
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. Using a food processor, pulse ricotta until smooth, about 15-20 seconds. Add softened cream cheese and butter, and continue to pulse until there are no more chunks. Add flour, sugar, and salt, and pulse more until smooth. Next, add the eggs and vanilla, and pulse until blended with the rest of the ingredients.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Fill each one with an oreo, and then spoon the cheesecake mixture on top. Fill almost until the top, as these don't rise that much. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to continue cooling and to allow the cheesecake to set, about 30 minutes. Top with oreo crumbles or a fruity jam, or eat it plain!

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