Le Dernier Bouquet? Callie helping……….
When I get especially homesick for Paris, which is often, I find myself wandering around trying to think in French. Today was one of those days………….. My French is terrible – as my daughter reminds me constantly, but I am happy to delude myself into thinking I can string together the few words I need to make it work in my own little head, if not to the boucher ………. Until I get around to continuing my formal French education with Mme. Moreau, I’ll just keep trying and trying – so please forgive all my errors.
this is my favorite : Fleurs sign from my 8 week long walking tour of Paris last Summer
Every day I step out into my yard and survey the offerings, especially in the flower department. Over the last several weeks as the season progresses, I have been singing in my head, “where have all the flowers gone?” or “ou sont passes toutes les fleurs?” (that’s right, right Christin?)
Well, we made it to the end of August. I’m not one for usually wishing for this time to come. Last year at this time I was enjoying weather perfection at our home on Cape Cod. The skies were blue, the air was lovely and we had a few weeks of pre-Autumn bliss that is usually so classic in New England in late August. But, not this year.
The heat and humidity this Summer have been beyond dreadful and I have spent many a day going in and out the door to try, at least, to spend some time outside enjoying………. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can deal with it. I do remember my Mom standing in our kitchen when I was a kid and beads of sweat would be running down her face as we didn’t have A/C for some period of time – I think of her now when I’m soaking……..
Well anyway, this morning as I began to contemplate that it was indeed the last day of August and did a quick review of the bouquets that I did get to do while my gardens were producing – and jeez it seems like ages ago already – I decided that I wanted to try to do a bouquet with what is left in my garden, you know challenge myself before today’s forecast rain began. Just as I started, it began to drizzle, then light rain, and I spent the better part of the next hour or so walking around my yard with an umbrella, starting on the patio and then moving into the kitchen to play around at one of my favorite endeavors, trying my hand at arranging.
So, I came about with the one shown above, not before Callie decided to get into the act and I had to shoo her away two or three times as I played on.
Then, before I knew it, it was past my usual breakfast time and I decided to experiment with some gluten free waffles. Not only did I find that I was ready for some very light spices as it’s cooler and hopefully changing weather patterns but, I had the great Auguste Escoffier in mind as I was working along, with his great creation of Pêches Melba – I had what it takes – great white peaches from Melick’s and some organic raspberries and so to work I went. The word for waffles in French is Gaufres – sounds too much like gophers to me so I will stick with the english here.
Gluten-Free Lightly-Spiced Waffles with Peaches and Raspberries – loosely adapted from Ellie Krieger – makes 7-8 full size waffles
1 3/4 cups gluten free flour – such as King Arthur Flour
1 tablespoon organic ground flax seed
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
10 fine rasps of a very small piece of star anise
1 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup fat free plain greek yogurt
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 perfectly ripe white peaches, sliced, skin on or off
1/2 pint fresh organic raspberries
maple syrup for pouring over
room temperature sweet butter
- Preheat waffle maker on medium-high. Spray lightly with canola oil spray. Warm maple syrup for pouring on the stove in a small pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, flax seed, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
- In a 2 cup pyrex cup, whisk together the milk, yogurt, egg, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, whisking until you have a fairly thin batter about the consistency of thick cream – do not use all of the wet ingredients unless you need them. Reserve extra for successive batches, if needed – I had about 1/4 liquid in reserve after my first batch.
- Using a one cup dry measuring cup or a ladle, pour batter into the pre-heated waffle iron, filling each square about 3/4 full. Cook until the waffle maker “dings” or if yours doesn’t, check after 3-4 minutes. I like my waffles on the well-done side, not burnt but with a nice crisp edge.
- Remove waffles from iron and arrange on serving plate. Arrange peach slices in a circle and top with fresh raspberries in center. Garnish with a sprig of fresh Lemon Verbena or Mint. Top with a dab of sweet butter if desired, pour warm syrup over and serve at once.
Enjoy!
Here are my bouquets from this Summer so far:
We all know Summer isn’t officially over until September 22 this year – so there are several weeks of hopefully much nicer weather to come before it starts to get chilly. You can rest assured that I will look at these pics many times during the upcoming Winter – to remind myself of all the fun I had fooling around in the yard. And, maybe I’ll make a few more batches of these waffles, too!
Happy Labor Day Weekend to all!
Not giving up yet:
