Maple Biscuits- Valentine’s Day Breakfast

Valentine’s Day is a stay at home holiday around here. We’re not dress up and go out to a fancy restaurant kind of people anyway, and the thought of trudging out on Valentine’s Day when the restaurants are all packed and the menu prices are sky high is frankly quite unappealing. Besides, I like to cook and Tim likes to eat what I cook… so it’s a win win for everyone. But that doesn’t mean I spend all day preparing a five course meal. Just the opposite in fact. Our Valentine’s Day meal is usually a simple affair. It’s more about favorite foods than fancy foods. This approach means that the Valentine’s Day meal really can last all day. I’m talking breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Okay, maybe lunch is only a sandwich cut into a heart shape or soup with a cute note taped to the lid, but it still counts in my book. Valentine’s Day breakfast is the real deal though. Homemade biscuits, crispy bacon, fluffy eggs, and fresh melon!
The best part of this Valentine’s day breakfast is how little time it took to make something that tastes sooo good. I probably only spent a total of 25 minutes on this meal and that includes the five to ten minutes it took me to dig out my heart shaped cookie cutters from the box I stashed them in last year.

First I made these simple maple biscuits. They would have tasted just as scrumptious round or square, but to make them Valentine’s Day appropriate I used a heart shaped cookie cutter.
I always use the same recipe for “Basic Rolled Biscuits” from my tattered and stained copy of the Joy of Cooking. Depending on how I want the biscuits to taste, or what I am serving them with, I add or change the ingredients as needed. This time I was going for a slightly sweet flavor so I substituted out a 1/4 cup of milk for the same amount of maple syrup. The syrup gave the dough a faint brownish hue and when I pulled them out of the oven they had deepened to the most gorgeous golden brown color.
You can certainly eat these sweet feathery biscuits on their own. I couldn’t resist the aroma of maple mixed with butter and I bit into one straight out of the oven, burning the tips of my fingers in the process. As I took a bite the soft, buttery dough melted in my mouth and the complex sweetness that only comes from real maple syrup made my taste buds step up and take notice. I could have easily consumed them all this way, leaning against the counter and licking my scorched fingers, but since this was supposed to be a meal for two I somehow summoned up enough self control to resist scarfing down the entire batch. Instead I sliced the biscuits in half and layered them with a few slabs of crispy bacon and a spoonful of scrambled eggs.
I topped them with the second half of the biscuit and there you have it- a Valentine’s Day breakfast sandwich!
We ate ours with heart shaped melon and fresh OJ…mmmm.

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Buckwheat Waffles with Maple Orange Sauce

Did you know that January is National Citrus Month? Hmm…maybe this explains why I’ve been a kind of citrus maniac lately. Clementines, grapefruits, navel oranges, blood oranges, key limes, lemons – I can’t seem to get enough citrusy goodness. Even though I just found out about national citrus month a few days ago, somehow I think my body must have already known. So in honor of this very fruity month, and since I’ve already posted several citrus recipes this month, including a delicious salad with both sections of grapefruit and a grapefruit vinaigrette, as well as these amazing key lime cupcakes, I thought I would continue the trend with what else…more citrus!
I am one of those people who always buys the fruit that’s on sale at the grocery store. You know, from the display that you practically run into when you first enter the store. I figure if it’s on sale that must mean it’s in season somewhere, and besides – it’s cheap. This week navel oranges from California were on sale. A huge bag for just $2.99! I jumped all over that deal. There are sooo many recipes you can make with a bag of oranges. I thought about making chicken or pork with an orange sauce, or maybe a fresh salsa with orange, mango and jalapeño. In the end I decided on waffles with an orange maple sauce because, well… because I really like waffles. Do I need a better reason?
Okay, maybe I did have one other reason. Lately I’ve been been coming across quite a few recipes that use buckwheat flour. Of course I’ve heard of this flour before, but I am ashamed to admit that I have never used it- until now. As with any new ingredient I turned to the trusty Internet for a bit of research and what I found out surprised me. Despite the name, Buckwheat is not actually wheat. In fact it’s not even a grain. It is the seed of a flowering fruit closely related to rhubarb that’s ground into a flour and commonly used in things like noodles, pancakes, and porridge.
Besides being a great alternative for those on gluten-free diets, buckwheat also has some amazing health benefits. It is high in fiber and B vitamins, includes 8 amino acids (almost making it a complete protein) and doesn’t have the tendency to raise glucose levels like so many other carbohydrates. Finally there is the taste. Many of the websites I came across described the flavor as nutty or bold, one even called it an acquired taste. While I would agree that it has a bit of a nut-like flavor, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it bold or unpleasant in anyway. In fact, I thought the buckwheat flour added a very pleasant and mild earthy flavor that complimented the slightly sweet orange sauce quite nicely. The buckwheat waffles ended up being a great way to celebrate national citrus month and I can’t wait to try more recipes using this awesome wheat free, super healthy flour.

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