WAFFLES
4 eggs

1 stick butter melted
2 cups flour
1 TBLS baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 quart buttermilk

Sift flour with salt and baking powder or stir thoroughly together. Beat the eggs. Cool the melted butter and add. Add about half the buttermilk. Mix in the dry ingredients. Continue adding buttermilk to make a thin batter. You will probably use the entire quart. You can let this mixture sit for a few minutes before making the waffles.

Pam the waffle iron. Heat. With a ladle pour batter into the middle of the waffle iron. When you close the lid it will force the batter to the edges. Remove the waffles when done - they will come away easily. Make another batch. And another. This recipe makes a lot of waffles. They are best served right away but can be kept warm in the oven.

This is my old Sunbeam waffle iron - maybe from the 1950's. My Mom says it was my grandmother's. The handle is broken so I open and close it with a chopstick. I do say a prayer or two that the cloth wrapped fraying wires don't lead to sacrifice by waffle. I take the risk though, lured by deliciousness and by those perfect, light, best-ever waffles.

Onions and Potatoes: How to Curse in Yiddish

If you have never heard anyone curse in Yiddish, run right out and and find someone's Bubbe. Ask her to teach you her favorite Yiddish curses. In no time you will be laughing so hard you will be crying.

Yiddish curses aren't straightforward gut wrenching attacks. They are fanciful and humorous with complicated back stories. They serve the same benefit as the expletives that let so-and-so know just where you think they should stick whatever. The difference is that Yiddish curses make you feel better and the object of your curse feel bad but in the end you all end up laughing. Now isn't that an improvement over how cursing is currently practiced?

So why you ask is Yiddish cursing in a food blog? You'll see in a minute. My Mom the quintessential Bubbe taught me this curse. If someone will help me with the technology, I'll try to record her. These curses are meant to be heard, not read.

Vox vi ah Tzibelle, mit Kop in dreard, mit Fees in Luft.

Nah, vox vi ah Potate, in Ganzen in dreard.

May you grow like an onion with your head in the ground and your feet in the air.

NO! May you grow like a potato, completely underground.

Thank you Bubbe. You taught me to be fearless about cooking and the right way to curse.

Stuffing Recipe and How to Save a Tofurkey

Thanksgiving 2009

Lots to be thankful for this year. We had 12 for Thanksgiving dinner and two more getting ready to be born. Next year at this time we'll have high chairs and turkey/tofurkey puree.

I've already posted (November 23, 2007) my favorite cranberry sauce recipe (1 package fresh cranberries, 1 orange, small can frozen OJ concentrate thawed, 1 cup sugar). Cuisinart the cranberries then the whole orange. Mix with the OJ and the sugar. Refrigerate. Best made a day ahead. We enjoyed it so much we decided to make it more often during the year.

For the family legacy here is how to make stuffing:

Fresh breadcrumbs (from fresh or leftover white/whole wheat/corn bread) - about a bread's worth.

1 large onion chopped

4 stalks celery chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 can sliced water chestnuts

salt, pepper, sage or herb mix

sherry or white wine

olive oil and butter - about 1/4 cup each

Saute onion, celery, and mushrooms in olive oil/butter mixture. When soft, add water chestnuts and saute for a few minutes more. Season generously with salt, pepper, sage, or savory herb mix. Stir in breadcrumbs. Pour in about 1/2 cup sherry or white wine. Stuff the turkey in the chest and neck cavity. If vegetarians are coming for dinner, save several cups of stuffing for the Tofurkey.

How to prepare a Tofurkey

The Tofurkey people are geniuses! Tofurkey is a fantastic product name especially at Thanksgiving time. The picture on the box looks delicious. Don't be fooled! What you get when you open the package is an extruded gluey pale ball stuffed in a tough plastic wrapper with metal fasteners on each end. It looks like a hot dog that ate a really bad diet. In short it looks disgusting.

But - it can be saved. Here's how:

1. Butter. If your guests are vegetarians but not vegans or are Kosher and can have dairy with the meal, you are in luck. Use butter, lots of butter. If not, olive oil is good too.

2. Salt, pepper, and herbs

3. Stuffing

Take the Tofurkey out of its casing. Good luck. You either have to cut off the end of the Tofurkey or go to the tool box and get metal cutters. Butter (or oil) the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch casserole. Cover the bottom with stuffing and place the Tofurkey in the middle. Surround the Tofurkey with carrots and onion slices. Pour some of the Tofurkey gravy that comes in the package over everything. Dot with butter or sprinkle with olive oil. Generously season with herbs (I used Penzey's Bavarian Mix a fabulous present from our St. Louis branch of the family), salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake (next to the turkey) at 350 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Take the aluminum foil off the Tofurkey but keep the stuffing covered. Put more gravy on the top. Bake 15 minutes more to brown...sort of... Slice the Tofurkey - it looks quite good sliced with its spiral filling. Put the slices down one side of an oval platter and the baked stuffing and vegetables on the other side. Heat and serve the remaining Tofurkey gravy.

Here's the proof. One of the guests said, "Did they change the Tofurkey? Last time it wasn't this good. This was the best Tofurkey I ever had."

Hope your guests will say this too.

Happy Thanksgiving.