Pumpkin Walnut Waffles

Just a few facts,
1. I just wasn't feeling an egg dish on Sunday morning but I really am not a big fan of plain waffles or pancakes.
2. I had made some pumpkin cake donuts the week before so I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the refrigerator that just HAD to be used.
3. Whatever I made needed to be pumped up in the protein department. Especially, if we were having a bread product.

You put these three things together and you get pumpkin walnut waffles.

Pumpkin Walnut Waffles

Preheat waffle iron.

Mix together
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup ricotta cheese (you could use sour cream or buttermilk)
 3 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Sift together
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon each; ground cloves, ground ginger, ground allspice, and nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon 

Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If the batter is too thin sift in a little more bread flour. If it is too thick add a little more milk. You want this to be pancake batter consistency. Be careful not to over mix. You just want to incorporate them. Let the batter rest for 5 or 10 minutes. This lets the batter do its thing.

Ladle into the waffle maker. Cook until golden brown and yummy. Serve with warm maple syrup and roughly chopped walnuts.

JR was very complimentary of these waffles. He thought they were very fluffy and tasted like pumpkin bread. Which is what they really are so he nailed it. He wolfed down two of them before I finished my first one.

With it just being the two of us I had enough leftover for breakfast later in the week. I spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. JR will just have to pop them into the toaster and breakfast is served.

Stay groovy,
M

Spin Cycle - Hollywood Halloween Special

It is a well known fact around these parts that I'm a bit of an old house and cemetery nut. Here are a few of the posts where I mention cemeteries, here, here, and here, oh yeah and here, and lest we forget here. Oops, I forgot here. 

In fact, it is so well knows that when I was out in California last August Gretchen's first suggestion was to go to the Hollywood cemetery. I fell into her plans with ghoul glee.

This is a much fancier cemetery than I'm use to getting buried in. I'm pretty much use to wading through tall grass, climbing over fences and one I time I had to fend off a dog. You could say that I'm pretty much a  cemetery zombie aficionado.

The reason why this cemetery is so much better kept is probably due to who all is buried there. Hollywood leading ladies and gents. Plus a whole host of others. I bored to death fascinated Gretchen with my knowledge of why there were so many graves from around 1918-1919. 

Toto

I have to appreciate any cemetery that memorializes a dog. As a devotee of cemetery art I was impressed by Toto's stone.
 

Papa and Jr. Fairbanks

They have freaking swans! I'm lucky not to get bit by a snake at most of the cemeteries I frequent. Maybe I need to haunt visit a classier crowd of cemeteries. 

Head on over to Gretchen or Ginny's for other Halloween Spinners.

Stay groovy,
M

Suncadia Sunday

We decided to go for a little drive on Sunday. The weather was fantastic, we were at loose ends and the dog needed a walk. All great reasons to get out of the house. We are still kind of in awe of the fact that we can drive less than an hour an be somewhere fun. In Houston if you drive less than an hour you are still...IN Houston. 

Our plan was to do a little hiking, view/take pictures of the fall leaves (since we are so unused to seeing them) and pretty much lazing around. When I say "plan" I don't really mean a real plan, it was more like a "let's do anything except housework" plan. 

We drove up to the Cle Elum farmers market but didn't stop. Why didn't we stop when we are avid farmers market goers? Because their market is all of three stalls. It might be the time of year. Our farmers market has gotten smaller since we got here in September. It stands to reason since the season is winding down. I want to go back up to Cle Elum in the future to check out their old buildings. I can never get enough of old buildings.

We made our way up to Roslyn. Do any of you remember the TV show Northern Exposure? It was shot in Roslyn. Yes, the Brick tavern is still there. I hear their cemetery is amazing. We'll be heading up there again before the snow flies. As I've said in the past (maybe not to Y'all but definately out loud) I seek dead people. (name that movie reference)

We ended up back in Cle Elum at the Suncadia Resort. We had never been there before since it has only got started after we left the state almost 10 years ago. It is funny how things change but also stay the same. We'll have to explore that existential thought later. Suncadia is built on an old coal mine site. It is a very nice use for what was in the past a very ugly place. 

Let me give you a little tour. 

First thing when we drove in we saw this sign. It tickled our fancy that they were very specific about how fast you could drive. FYI, this is the fastest speed limit in the whole place. All the rest of the signs say 15 miles per hour.

We were looking for the lodge but what we came across was their winery and restaurant. We had to stop. It was a moral imperative. After inquiring as to whether Nessa could sit on the patio with us while partook of food and drink and getting a resounding YES! We stayed for a little late lunch.

This is the view for the patio. Golf course to mountains. I'll take it any day.

JR got all relaxed. Which isn't hard for him these days since he has embraced the retiree lifestyle with a bit more gusto than I would like. That beer in his hand was $3 dollars. Turns out during football season they specials on flatbread pizza (1/2 price) and libations.

So we ordered away. I ordered red wine, of course. Next time, I plan to order beer thus saving us $7. While the wine was good I just didn't think it was $7 better than the beer JR had. We also ordered two different flatbread pizzas, one was a heirloom tomato drizzled with balsamic vinegar. 

Declaration: Let it be known all across Princess Micheleland that all tomato pizzas will be drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

The other pizza was roasted vegetable with a white cream sauce. It was good but there was a fight brewing as to who was going to get the last pieces of the tomato. 

 The whole time that we were basking in the cool fall sunshine Nessa was resting at my feet. It was amazingly bucolic. So much so the JR has announced that we will be doing it again this weekend if the whether permits.

After our repast we went for a little walk. Along with the golf course Suncadia has miles of walking/biking trails. We decided on the art walk because a. it is short and b. it was supposed to take us to the elusive lodge. No lodge was found but we loved the walk. 

The fall foliage was in full color.

So we'll be heading up there again this Sunday for half priced food and beer. Then maybe we'll take Lacy and Josh (friends in Alaska but moving to Hawaii) up there for fun. 

How did you spend your weekend?

Stay groovy,
Michele