Tag Archives: cheese

Wah, So Full of Waffles

Now that Thanksgiving is over, is this a familiar sight in your fridge? I love leftovers. It means a few less meals to prepare over the week, and more time to do other things like showing my daughter how to play Mario Bros. Eating the same thing for a few meals is fine, but I prefer some variety.

Leftover garlic and herb boursin cheese mashed potatoes and creamy cheesy bacon brussels sprouts

For a while now, I’ve seen recipes for making leftover waffles. I happen to have a double waffle maker which gets used maybe once a year. It’s a great waffle maker, but we just don’t have the time to make waffles. And it happens to be Black Friday, but I refuse to do battle out on the roads and in the stores. Instead, I decided to experiment with my waffle maker, which turned out to be a mashing success. Haha get it? Mashing success….. Ok anyways.

I took inspiration from a Serious Eats waffled mashed potatoes recipe.

I mixed together two eggs, oil, and milk.

Then I mixed in leftover mashed potatoes and my creamy cheesy bacon brussels sprouts. I chopped up the brussels sprouts into smaller pieces first.

This recipe should work with other leftovers too. If you don’t have cheesy bacon brussels sprouts, try using other leftovers like chopped up green beans, corn, chopped up ham, etc. OOOOR another good idea. Use candied mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry chutney, toasted nuts, etc to make a sweet leftover waffle. Mmmm.

In a separate bowl, I mixed together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Then I gently folded the flour mixture into the wet mixture.

While I was making the batter, I preheated the waffle maker. My waffle maker has an adjustable temperature dial that goes from 1-6, so I set my dial to 4. I sprayed some nonstick cooking spray onto both sides of the iron. Then I plopped about 1/3 cup of the batter onto each section of the waffle maker. My waffle maker will beep at me when the waffles are ready, so I didn’t have to worry about setting a timer. It took about 6 minutes for my waffles to cook. Depending on the waffle maker you are using, you may have to adjust the cooking time.

Waaaaah! Waffles that are not sweet! This is one of the best looking leftover dishes I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, it also tasted really good. Golden brown and crispy on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside.

I dressed my waffle up with a slice of leftover roasted beef tenderloin and red wine and shallot sauce. I will have to post the recipe for the beef tenderloin soon, it was really freaking good.

Thanksgiving Leftover Waffles
Ingredients
(Makes 4 waffles)
– 2 cups mashed potatoes
– 2 cups cheesy bacon brussels sprouts
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbs oil
– 1/3 cup milk
– 1/2 cup flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/4 tsp baking soda
– salt and pepper

Directions
– Preheat your waffle maker. I turned the temperature to medium high. Spray both sides of the iron with nonstick spray.
– Chop up the cheesy bacon brussels sprouts or whatever leftovers you have into smaller pieces.
– Mix the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl. Add the mashed potatoes and cheesy bacon brussels sprouts.
– In a separate small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.
– Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture.
– Once the waffle maker is preheated, pour about 1/3 cup of the batter onto each section of the iron. My waffle maker automatically beeps once the waffle is cooked. If you do not have this nifty option, it took about 5-6 minutes to cook. You may need to adjust the cooking time depending on your waffle maker.

Ooh Aah, Squash It To Me

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I was again suckered by the pretty display of squash at Wegmans. Here is my delicata squash and acorn squash. These little guys are about 1 lb each, and of course baby vegetables are so much cuter than adult vegetables. I’m going to take such good care of you cutie pies!!

I am still in my squash stuffing craze, and I wanted to make a lighter filling this time. I first gave the squash a good scrub because their skins are thin and edible. I cut them in half, scooped out the seeds, and seasoned them with an onion and garlic spice mix. Put them flesh side down on a pan into the 400ºF oven. These two squash are small, so it only took about 30 minutes to roast. The smell of the pungent, savory spices and the sweet, nutty squash was really good.

While the squash roasted, I got the filling ready. Here are a little over 2 dozen medium shrimp. I happened to have frozen raw shrimp, but obviously precooked shrimp will cut down on prep and cooking time. I dropped the shrimp into boiling water for a little over a minute, and pulled them out once they turned pink.

I put them in ice water to stop the cooking process. Tough and rubbery shrimp are no good.

Here are the chopped up shrimp, 8 oz of lump crab meat, and about 8 oz of diced up ham. I wanted to use bacon, but I already had ham that needed to be eaten. If you want only seafood, try cooked scallops and fish with the crab and shrimp.

I mixed the seafood and ham with mayo and a blend of 4 cheeses. I seasoned with more of the onion garlic spice mix, and added salt, pepper, dried onion, garlic powder, dried dill, dried parsley. I didn’t measure the amount of spices and herbs, but start with a little, and add more if needed.

Here are the squash ready for stuffing.

I filled the squash up with a nice big heaping pile of the filling, and then topped them with more cheese. Put it back into the 400°F oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese melted.

I had some extra filling left, so I put it in a little ramekin, topped with cheese, and put it in the oven with the squash.

Ready for my mouth!

Seafood Stuffed Squash
Ingredients
– 1 small acorn squash (around 1 lb)
– 1 small delicata squash (around 1 lb)
– 8 oz ham
– 8 oz lump crab meat
– around 2 dozen medium shrimp (raw or cooked)
– 1/2 cup mayo
– 1 cup shredded cheese
– more cheese for topping
– seasoning (I used an onion garlic spice mix, along with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried onion, dried dill, and dried parsley)

Directions
– Scrub, halve, and deseed the squash. Drizzle with oil, season and put flesh side down on a pan. Roast at 400°F for about 30 minutes or until the flesh is easily pierced by a fork.
– If the shrimp is raw, cook it in boiling water for about a minute until it turns pink. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process. Chop the shrimp up.
– Chop up the ham.
– Mix the shrimp, crab meat, ham, mayo, cheese, and seasoning.
– When the squash is done roasting, fill them up with the mixture and top with more cheese. Put them back into the oven for about 15 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Bigger IS Better

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Bite sized savory bundles of gooey cheese and meat contained in a juicy little fungus cup. Great for appetizers, or eat like 10 of them to make it a meal. They are quite popular, so I usually get a large family pack of mushrooms to stuff. One day, while I was about to pick up a container of little guys, it finally hit me. Instead of going through the trouble of preparing a ton of little mushrooms, I could just get several large portobello mushrooms. Obviously. Of course, these would not work well for your cocktail party, but for a quick and easy meal, BAM. So genius. I like mushrooms stuffed with all sorts of fillings, but my usual go to filling is sausage and cheese.

I picked up 4 portobello mushrooms at the grocery store. I washed them and pulled their stems off. Save those stems and mince them up because they are going into the filling. That red mat they are sitting on is a silicone baking mat on top of the cookie sheet. My friend Luci introduced them to me a few years back, and I really like them. They are nonstick and can be used in temperatures up to 480°F. Unlike aluminum foil or parchment paper, which only have a one time use, these mats can be used thousands of times.

I happened to have some leftover cheese filling from another dish I made last week. If I remember correctly, it was about half a block of cream cheese, a cup of shredded cheese, a small onion minced, and minced shallots and garlic. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with those leftovers, so this worked out well.

I have here a 1 lb sausage roll.

I mixed the sausage, cream cheese filling, and minced mushroom stems up and filled the mushroom caps. The sausage is pretty solid after being squashed into that little roll, so I used my fists to beat it up. There is no need for additional salt since the sausage is already heavily seasoned, and the cheese is salty too. Oh yeah, if you don’t have cream cheese, don’t worry about it. I actually usually don’t add cream cheese, but I happened to have that mixture leftover, so I threw it all in.

You can add some chopped spinach if you want to feel healthier. You should also sprinkle more cheese or put a slice of cheese on top so it melts into a golden crust (highly recommended!) I was in a hurry and didn’t feel like digging around the fridge for more cheese.

Pop the cookie sheet into the oven at 350ºF for about 35-40 minutes, or until the sausage is cooked through.

Cheesy, meaty, slightly creamy really good stuff. It’s so good already, but I really wish I took the extra few minutes to get a slice of provolone, cheddar, or monterey jack to melt on top. Please do it, you won’t regret it!!

Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Ingredients
– 4 portobello mushrooms
– 1 sausage roll (1 lb)
– 1 small onion
– 4 oz cream cheese (half a block)
– 1 cup shredded cheese
– a few cloves of garlic
– 1 shallot
– more cheese for topping

Directions
– Wash the mushrooms and remove the stems. Mince the stems up and place in a mixing bowl.
– Mince up the onion, garlic, and shallots. Add them to the mushrooms.
– Mix in the cream cheese, sausage, and shredded cheese. Fill the mushroom with the mixture. Top the mixture with more shredded cheese or slices of cheese.
– Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes, or until the sausage is cooked through.

Sew Sweet and Salty

Tag Archives: cheese

Wah, So Full of Waffles

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