Strawberry-Wild Rice Waffles

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you! For several reasons, most of which are fairly personal and nostalgic, likely reasons you won't really care about that much. The reasons you should care about, however, are these:

(1) THESE WAFFLES ARE DELICIOUS.

(2) The combination of crunchy wild rice, sweet little jam-like pockets of ooey-gooey strawberry deliciousness, and an all-around lovely, subtly-spiced waffle recipe is just perfect for summer. They'd be best eaten outside, ideally on an enormous deck, surrounded by a forest, sun shining amply through the trees, the fog having rolled away before sunrise. And you are in Aptos, of course.

(3) The recipe makes a bunch, could easily be doubled to make an even bigger bunch, and they freeze and reheat in the toaster perfectly. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they taste even BETTER toasted because the wild rice crisps up a second time, giving the waffles what I can only describe as a wonderfully nutty quality. (Or as what I imagine "nutty" to be, at any rate, as the last time I had a nut I ended up spending my evening in an ambulance and then at HCMC with an IV of Benadryl++ in my arm. So I didn't exactly have a chance to savor the nuttiness that time.)

But you didn't really think I was going to leave you with only the relevant-to-everyone reasons, did you? Oh please. Blogs are for irrelevant ramblings, right?

Which brings me to...

(4) As a child, I was a preposterously picky eater. This is now amusing, since I eat almost anything*, and cook almost anything, and in fact love cooking, and eating, and devote a good deal of my time to documenting such cooking and eating. (Thanks for playing!) At any rate, one of the handful of foods I consistently ate as a child was Eggo waffles. I LOVED Eggos. Especially the blueberry or strawberry ones. With a sick (but delicious) amount of butter and Aunt Jemima syrup on top. And probably a banana. I used to buy various organic versions of frozen waffles trying to fill the void that the absence of Eggos from my life created, but they just aren't the same. In fact, I think they're kind of gross and they never crisp up well. So anyway, at the risk of totally putting you off ever making these, I have to share with an embarrassing amount of glee that these have a flavor profile that is uncannily reminiscent of strawberry Eggos. YES. SHUT. UP. HOMEMADE EGGOS.

(5) Finally, when my husband and I were first deciding that we were in love and whatever, we took a mini-break up to the north shore. While we did not stay at the Blue Fin Bay Inn, we did have breakfast there one morning. I got a cinnamon-wild rice waffle and it was like the best waffle I'd ever had - even better than the Eggos of my youth. I was relatively new to Minnesota at the time and thought I'd run into wild rice waffles and pancakes everywhere after that little trip. Alas, they're not everywhere, and I go out to breakfast a lot, so I would know. So after seven years of fruitless searching, I took matters into my own hands and, with the help of the google machine, made a variation that I think is even more awesome.

You should give them a go. They will make you think of all kinds of good things, like childhood breakfasts and falling in love as you humbly gaze at Lake Superior. (Ah, shucks...)

Strawberry-Wild Rice Waffles

Adapted from this random B&B website

Yield: 8 waffles (or two 2X2 waffles on my waffle iron anyway); about 4 servings

1/2 cup all-purpose

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1 3/4 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup fresh strawberries, halved and sliced

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, wild rice, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until combined. Gently stir in strawberries.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, eggs and melted butter. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients and stir until combined. (This batter can be made several hours ahead and refrigerated. If it thickens up too much, just add milk or water, one tablespoon at a time, until you get yourself a manageable consistency.)

Ladle batter onto preheated greased waffle iron. Cook waffles until browned and slightly crisp. Ready waffles may be kept in 200-degree oven while the rest are cooked. Serve hot with maple syrup and more butter.

These can be frozen like so: Allow to cool fully on rack. Wrap individual waffles in parchment paper or aluminum foil, place in freezer bag. Reheat in toaster as you would an Eggo.

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* I still don't like horseradish, mustard, wasabi, goat cheese, lamb, Italian (a/k/a flat-leaf) parsley, turnips, pepperoncinis, or, quite generally, condiments. And what's the deal with buffalo wings? Or anything buffalo'd, for that matter. Ugh.