Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

     I’ve wanted to bake a pan pizza in a cast iron skillet for some time and decided it was high time I did so.  Seeing as I am the only one who was going to eat this massive amount of dough, I decided to also waffle a calzone and compare the two.  Bypass a potential waffling?  Nooooo.

I got some pre-made dough from Whole Foods (sorry Trader Joe’s, but this one is better) and brought it to room temperature.  I split the dough in half and formed two pizza circle thingys.  Half went into a very cute corn meal and garlic olive oiled cast iron skillet and was topped with more garlic olive oil, roasted garlic (yeah..I like garlic), Thai-basil, tomatoes, pine nuts and an asiago/fontina cheese blend.  Baked at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes, it was near perfect—near perfect only because I should have made the dough a bit more thin, however, the bottom was sensationally crunchy and the corn meal really added a nice somethin’-somethin’ to it.  Will do this again.

The Calzaffle also worked out.  I formed my future tummy companion, sprinkled it with corn meal and and oh so lovingly placed it in the waffle iron. I pressed the lid down rather firmly, but not so much so as to spew it’s guts about.  Approximately 10 minutes later, it was ready.  It was crunchy on the outside and oh-so-melty on the inside.  I especially enjoyed the waffle divots as they were perfect oil or sauce receptacles. Even better was that the next day I sprinkled cheese on top and reheated it in the oven—wow…that was good…divots of cheeeese.

Conclusion:  I do not prefer one over the other; perhaps it’s simply mood dependent.  I was able to put more goodies on the pizza as opposed to in the calzone, but the divot aspect is very alluring.  They are individuals and I accept them as such; I love you pizzas.

On a side note, today I drive to Port Townsend to see one of my two best friends from Jr. High. We were in a rather gruesome motorcycle accident together when we were 14 (entirely my fault) and sadly lost touch after that.  I am SO SO SO excited. Will miss our third, Kelly, however; one day we will all get together again…hey, maybe we should all meet in Hawaii!  Yay travel, and Yay I get to drive a MINI, towards the ocean, through a forest, in nice cool air, in about an hour….Love.

     My Friday afternoon priority: Hamburger….. and an expensive one. From Higgins. Yup. ($14!)

When it arrived, my mouth opened a little with salivatory awe; it was beautiful!   I eagerly sank my teeth into the toasted hearth-baked roll and through the thick, juicy, flavorful burger.  Very nom.   BUT, a few bites in I realize something’s missing.  No fries.  Bummer!  I am told they do not have deep fryers and I absolutely appreciate that, so deciding it was all about the burger anyway, I promptly got back to the cow-chewing.  But….I miss the fries.  I try to focus fully on the burger, not the things it comes with (or doesn’t in this case), but… fries.  Want fries. Fries…friesfriesfriesfriesfries. I start to obsess a little. 

I finished half of the burger and decided to bring the other half home.  I realized in the contemplative moment between signing the credit slip and whisking meal remnants from my person, that no matter how good a burger is, the burger experience as a whole is entirely dependent on what it comes with.  Perhaps this is just conditioning, but nonetheless, it’s a distinct sensation.  It’s like wearing one really nice sock and the other foot is bare and sitting in snow…or… something like that. Kinda. Hmmm. Maybe it’s more like, ah crap I don’t know.  It’s like something that needs something else to be a complete thingy…but not so much like peanut butter needing jelly…or…whatever…

So how do I turn this into a waffle worthy post?  Well, I take the burger half I brought home and waffle up a potato cake.  I found some at Trader Joe’s (surprise) that I have been saving for a special occasion and here it is.  They are divine: greasy, crispy and dare I say, better than the fast food variety.  Mouth, tummy and mind satisfied, but still, fries would have been better with the freshly cooked cow’wich.

One Year Ago:  Waffled Cinnamon Rolls

Madness! I cannot be stopped.

     Life is plugging along.  Things are falling into place.  Life is lightening up…I am grateful for the love surrounding me…in all ways. Words could never ever express…

I have kinda been living on wine and cheese lately.  Not good—or is it?  Bottom line is that I kept my promise to both Mr. Asparagus and myself and waffled!  I did not waffle on waffling!

I’ve had trouble eating lately so…welllll….my favorite veggie burgers are Dr. Praeger’s California Burgers so decided to give them a spin in the waffle iron.  Well, not a spin really…whatever.  They have Tex-Mex too, but not my favorite, to be honest.  I’ve wanted to waffle a burger for some time, and this was a perfect occasion…plus these burgers, waffled or not, are my utmost favorite because they are very moist and vegetably..  They make great meatballs too!

So I first prepared a base of Ezekiel sprouted wheat bread, broiled with Earth Balance butter, a little salt and Toby’s Tofu Seasoning (best!):

Then I put a defrosted veggie burger in the waffle iron for about 10 minutes:

Put that puppy on top of the bread, added a little Manchego (or not)…and voila…nummy num num!

I ate!  Tummy, mind and heart happy….

….and umm…mmmmmmmm.