That’s when Mom would pull out the waffle iron and whisk together the flour, baking powder, butter, eggs and milk butter.

We ate them with a pat of butter and maple syrup brought back from Nana’s visits to see her family in Canada, and usually, with bananas or berries and bacon: basic comfort food.

In those days there were no chocolate or pumpkin waffles, no chili-infused maple syrup, no blueberry syrup, no cheddar waffles with jalapeños and tomatoes, no Caprese waffles with basil, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

You can make waffles like these for Mother’s and Father’s Day: Check out ideas at the end of this article.

The two recipes that follow both top waffles with the focus ingredient: cheesecake or key lime mousse. They can be served as a sweet breakfast, or as dessert waffles.

Check out the different types of waffles.
 
 
RECIPE #1: CHEESECAKE WAFFLES

This recipe, by Dorothy Kern of Crazy For Crust, was sent to us by Krusteaz.

It uses a Belgian waffle mix. (Note: That’s Belgian, not Belgium, waffle. The former use is analogous to American waffles, the latter to America waffles.)

What’s the difference between Belgian waffles and regular waffles?

 
Prep time is 10 minutes, total time is 30 minutes.
 
Ingredients For 4-5 Waffles

[1] Cheesecake waffles. [2] Buttermilk pancake mix (photos courtesy Krustaz). [3] Cinnamon roll waffles: add some cinnamon to the batter and top with royal icing. Here’s the recipe from A Whisk And Two Wands.

1. BEAT the cream with a hand or a stand mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

2. BEAT the cream cheese in a medium bowl until smooth. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. Fold the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture slowly, using a spatula.

3. PREPARE the waffle batter as directed on package, using 3 cups of waffle mix. Cook the waffles as directed.

4. SERVE topped with cheesecake mixture, garnished with berries or other fresh fruit. Serve the sauce on the side.

[3] Waffles with key lime mousse. We’d triple that scoop of mouse! (Photo courtesy Chef’s Choice.) [4] A size comparison of the larger Persian limes and Key limes (photo by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE). [5] Graham cracker crumbs (photo courtesy Keebler).

This recipe was sent to us by Chef’s Choice, which made them in their space-saving waffle maker, Chef’sChoice WafflePro M852, which makes two square waffles in three minutes or less.

You can make the mousse the day before.

Ingredients For The Key Lime Mousse

 
Ingredients For 18-20 Graham Cracker Waffles

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the mousse. Place the lime juice in a bowl and sprinkle in gelatin, stirring lightly. Let sit for 2 minutes.

2. HEAT the lime juice mixture over low heat until hot, but not boiling. Take the mixture off heat and set aside.

3. HEAT the sweetened condensed milk over medium heat and add the white chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted.

4. WHIP the heavy cream on high speed only until stiff, about two minutes. Add the lime juice mixture to whip cream and beat with an electric mixer until the ingredients are blended together.

5. ADD the white chocolate mixture to the whipped cream and beat until blended. Refrigerate mixture for four hours or overnight to stiffen.

6. PREPARE the waffles. Mix together the pancake mix, milk, brown sugar, honey, buttermilk, eggs and cinnamon in a bowl. Melt the butter and add to the mixture. Crush the graham crackers to crumb size and add to the mix. Blend with an electric mixture.

7. PLACE 1/4 cup of batter on the prepared waffle maker (or per manufacturer’s maker’s directions). Bake for 2-1/2 minutes on setting 4. SERVE immediately with a dollop of key lime mousse. Garnish with lime slices and graham cracker pieces.

 
TOP SWEET WAFFLES WITH:

For spring and summer, this honey-based cocktail can strike just the right tone: a light buzz.

We adapted it from the cocktail of the month, called Two Bees Walk Into A Bar, at Davio’s Italian Steakhouse in New York City.

It uses an easy-to-make honey simple syrup, infused with rosemary, that you can use in other drinks as well. A recipe for a Honey-Rosemary Martini is below.

RECIPE #1: HONEY & HONEY POLLEN COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Drink

 
For The Honey Rosemary Simple Syrup

________________

*If you’re concerned about raw eggs, get pasteurized raw eggs.
________________

Preparation

1. MAKE the simple syrup. Combine the water and honey in a small pot over medium heat and whisk until the honey dissolves. Add the rosemary and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until cool. Strain and discard the rosemary, and store the syrup in an airtight jar.

2. COMBINE the other ingredients (except ice and garnish) in cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Add the ice and shake for another 30 seconds.

3. STRAIN into an 8-ounce glass (the photo shows a large Martini glass). Sprinkle with bee pollen and serve.
 
BENEFITS OF BEE POLLEN

Bee pollen is made by bees as food for their young. It is considered one of nature’s most completely nourishing foods, containing nearly all nutrients required by humans, including approximately 40% protein.

For this reason, it is a valued nutritional supplement, but has also become fashionable as a garnish. Consider this a most nutritious cocktail.

[1] A honey of a cocktail, from Davio’s Manhattan. [2] Fresh rosemary (photo courtesy Burpee). [3] Bee pollen. Here’s more about it from Shape Magazine.

RECIPE #2: ROSEMARY-HONEY MARTINI

You can make a sweeter cocktail with a bit more simple syrup (proceed cautiously); or a less sweet cocktail by adding more vermouth.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. ADD 6 ice cubes to a cocktail shaker, followed by the other ingredients.

2. SHAKE vigorously and pour into a Martini glass. Garnish with fresh rosemary.

[1] Eclairs decorated by pastry great Johnny Iuzzini for Le Meridien hotels. [2] Decorated eclairs by Master Pastry Chef Michel Richard at Pomme Palais in New York Palace Hotel. [3] The Dsmile decorating pen makes it easy to decorate with designs or writing.

Yet, the elongated pastry with the shiny chocolate or caramel top can be even more exciting. Just look at the photos, to see what great pastry chefs do with them.

While it takes some skill to make attractive éclairs, its pretty easy to decorate ones you purchase. You’ll find the classic chocolate and caramel toppings, but may also find a rainbow of colors and flavors: coffee, currant (pink), dulce de leche, lemon, mango, matcha, pistachio, raspberry

You can make a DIY party of it. You can make it a Mother’s Day (or other celebration) event.

The history of the éclair is below.

DECORATIONS

 
FIXATIVES

Since the glaze (shiny icing) on top of the éclair will be set, you need a bit of something to adhere the decorations, plus utensils or squeeze bottles to dab them on.

 
You can give everyone the gift of a cake decorating pen (under $10), which makes it easy to write and decorate with icing. The icing also serves to affix other decorations.
 
ÉCLAIR HISTORY

An elongated, finger-shaped pastry made of pâte à choux (puff pastry), filled with whipped cream or custard and topped with a glacé icing (glaze), the éclair originated in France around the turn of the 19th century.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word “éclair” in the English language to the second half of the 19th century: 1861. In the U.S., the first printed recipe for éclairs appears even later, in the 1884 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, edited by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln (later editions were under the auspices of Fanny Farmer).

Many food historians speculate that éclairs were first made by Marie-Antoine Carême (1874-1833).

This brilliant man, cast out to make his own way at the age of 10 by his impoverished family, became the first “celebrity chef,” working for luminaries: Charles, Prince Talleyrand, the French ambassador to Britain; the future George IV of England; Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Baron James de Rothschild.

The elite clamored for invitations to dinners cooked by Carême.

He is considered to be the founder and architect of French haute cuisine; an innovator of cuisine, both visually (he studied architectural to create amazing presentations) and functionally (modern mayonnaise, for example). He also was an enormously popular cookbook author—an big achievement for a boy who had no education, yet taught himself to read and write.

We can only dream…and live vicariously by reading his biography.

We saw this photo on Tajín’s Facebook page, but couldn’t find a recipe.

Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to slice bell peppers and drop an egg inside each slice—along with some mildly spicy Tajín seasoning (it’s a cayenne, lime and salt blend).

We thought: What else can we make with a bell pepper rim?

Cooked Foods

 
Uncooked Foods

If the food isn’t cohesive enough to be mounded, make the slices taller; or trim a bit of the bottom of a half or whole pepper so it will stand.

 

ABOUT TAJÍN SEASONING

In Mexico, this spice blend of cayenne, lime and salt (photo #3) is used on just about anything, savory and sweet:

 
 
GOOD MELTING CHEESES

Good melting cheeses include, among others:

[2] Enjoy as is, or in the center of a yummy bowl of greens (photo © Hope Foods).

[3] Tajín seasoning: cayenne, lime and salt (photo © Tajín).

[1] Something different: a chili powder rim instead of salt. Or, mix the two. At Richard Sandoval restaurants.

[2] A cayenne rim (Tajin seasoning) on a guava Margarita at Dos Caminos restaurants.

[3] Smoked salt rims a classic Margarita from Noble Tequila.

 
 
DIFFERENT MARGARITA RIMS: BEYOND THE COARSE SALT

First, there’s no need to buy “Margarita salt”: It’s just kosher salt with a higher price. You can also use coarse sea salt.

But how about something other than coarse salt? The 70% of survey participants who want a salt rim might like a change of pace.

Here are some options that complement a Margarita.

You can use another rimmer that still maintains the spirit of the Margarita (and maybe attracts people who don’t want the extra salt).

Flavored salt. There’s flavored salt, of course, in scores of variations from bacon, chipotle, smoked salts (alderwood, chardonnay oak, hickory or mesquite-smoked).

Colored salt. You can get dramatic, with black lava or Cypress black salt, or red Hawaiian alaea salt. You can get pretty, with pink Himalayan salt.

Heat. You can add heat with ghost pepper, habanero, jalapeño, and sriracha-flavored salts.

Or just use “hot” spices from your kitchen for the rim: cayenne, Tajin seasoning (cayenne-based), chili powder or crushed chile flakes—straight or mixed with kosher salt.

If you think hot rims might be too intense, make the currently trending half-rim (photo #2).

Fruitiness. You can add fruitiness with lemon, lime and mango-flavored salts.

Herbaceousness. You can buy blends of salts and herbs, or mix your own. Or use straight minced cilantro, or other fresh herbs.

For starters, take a look at Seasalt.com.
 
 
MORE ABOUT MARGARITAS