Lilikoi Waffle Desert

It's waffle week - sort of. Because I will be out of the country for the real waffle week (Sept 2-8, 2012) I've moved it up so I can celebrate before I leave.

For something new this year my mom and I made Lilikoi (passion fruit) syrup. She's growing lilikoi and had a bunch of ripe ones she needed to use. I found this really simple recipe from North West Hawaii Times:

Basic Lilikoi Syrup
6 cups sugar
4 cups water
4 cups lilikoi pulp
Boil sugar and water till syrupy. Add lilikoi pulp and simmer over low fire till seeds are apart. Strain and bottle. A delicious drink with a little lemon added to it or other juices combined with the lilikoi. (This recipe comes from the days before you could buy liliko`i juice everywhere. But it’s still useful because you can pour the syrup over shave iceor ice cream~RdC)
-from Kauai Cookbook, prepared by Kekaha Parent-Teachers’ Association, 1954

I had a bunch left over after my big waffle brunch so I brought it to dinner with my circus waffle maker and some leftover batter (easy stuff from pancake mix). So we had waffles with ice cream and lilikoi syrup. It was awesome.

I think it's our new favorite desert. Yum.

Waffle Week Sneak Peak

Tomorrow, August 24th is National Waffle Day - it's the anniversary of the first U.S. Waffle Iron patent.

So as a brief precursor to Waffle Week 2011 (Sept 4-10) here's a little something-something I've been working on:

 It's not quite done yet, and if I have time in the next couple weeks between rehearsals and preparations for my Waffle Brunch I hope to make Mr. Happy Waffle some friends.

Cherry Pinot Noir Waffle Syrup

It's Waffle Week. Yay!

This year I celebrated with a small waffle party with friends. I made a bunch of waffles and had people bring in toppings. I also decided to make a Cherry Pinot Noir Waffle Syrup from a recipe I found at MrBreakfast.com.

I used Pinot Evil Pinot Noir because it's got an awesome name, and I love their Pinot Grigot version.

I trippled the recipe because I wouldn't have used the extra cherries or Pinot Noir. I also was unable to find the star anise or it's substitute, anise seeds, on Maui, so I left it out.

I ended up simmering the batch a lot longer than the recipe called for. While this was probably necessary, I definitely simmered it for longer than I should have because it thickens a lot as it cools. Mine ended up more the consistancy of jam than syrup, but it was rather tasty, especially with the Cranberry Orange Waffles.

Turkey Pesto Waffle Sandwich

Tomorrow, August 24th, is National Waffle Day - YAY!!!

Two weeks from now is Waffle Week, so there's lots more waffle excitement to come. Consider this a preview of wonderful waffleness yet to come!

Tonight for dinner I made a Turkey Pesto Waffle Sandwich. It was awesome. To make such a culinary delight you take two frozen waffles, spread pesto on one and top with turkey and provolone (or your preference of cheese). Sandwich with the other waffle and butter the top of the sandwich. Heat butter in a frying pan and put the sandwich in buttered side up.



Press the sandwich with the back of a spatula and flip occasionally cooking until the cheese is melted and the waffles are golden.




Yum yum yum yum yum.

The sammich can also be made with ham and cheese and Dijon mustard.

Waffle Week

Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook and/or Twitter should know that I have declared this week "Waffle Week." It was a little last minute, brought on by Monday's Get Fuzzy so I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. Fortunately I bought a box of frozen waffles at Costco last week so at least I have waffles to eat. But a truly Crafty-Ass Chick would have found a waffle related crafting project to do in honor of Waffle Week. Oops.

So, instead of being crafty myself I will share a story of someone else's craftiness that involves two things I love: waffles and the University of Oregon.

Bill Bowerman was the track coach at the University of Oregon in the 1960's and coached the infamous Steve Prefontaine. Bill Bowerman also went on to co-found Nike with Phil Knight, a University of Oregon alum and former runner. Knight worked the business side while Bowerman experimented with Shoe design.



While coaching for Oregon he learned to cobble and custom made shoes for his runners. In order to create a lighter shoe Bowerman did some waffle inspired crafting.

Bowerman and his wife often ate waffles for breakfast - not an unusual or special event for them. Yet one morning, while thinking about his shoe designs and eating waffles, Bowerman had a flash of inspiration. He ran into the garage with the waffle iron and poured rubber on it. With that one idea Bill created Nike's now famous waffle soul. As it turned out, when place on a lightweight shoe, the waffle sole gripped running tracks better than the established ripple soul. It soon became a major success story.

So that is how waffles changed sports forever!

Hooray waffles!