We’re back from a Thanksgiving trip to the Smoky Mountains. Our cabin is on top of a great big mountain where skinny little roads insure driving down to town is never for the faint of heart. Hence I spent a lot of time cooking for my crowd of guys and my mom. We had what I will have to call the feast of bird and starches. In other words, everyone had the ONE DISH in mind that had to be a part of the Thanksgiving meal. I actually ran out of casserole dishes and had to improvise with skillets.
After a terrible drive home yesterday in the torrential rain, then unpacking and reorganizing our world, I wasn’t up for heavy cooking – it had to be “Brenner” – breakfast for dinner – and it had to be waffles. We make two kinds of waffles; one is a delicious fluffy concoction with yeast that has to proof overnight, I’ll share that recipe sometime. The other is a dense delicious waffle made with buttermilk and loaded with toasted pecans. The smell of toasting pecans can’t help but make you feel good, especially on a cold rainy night. Richard called while I was cooking and was actually offended that I was making waffles when he wasn’t home! And here’s bad news for him - his kitchen doesn’t have a waffle iron…better add it to the Christmas wish list! And if you don’t have one you should too, or dash out and get one because you’ll want to make these tonight!
Ingredients
1½ c flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 Tbsp melted butter
3/4 c buttermilk
3/4 c milk or half and half
1 egg
3/4 c chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Roughly chop pecans and toast for 6 minutes.
Mix dry ingredients, flour through soda, in a large mixing bowl.
Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients. Fold in pecans.
Cook in a waffle iron according to directions.
Makes 3 or 4 large waffles.
Serve with lots of butter and syrup!
