Homemade Waffles Recipe

September 28, 2016September 25, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These waffles are very easy to make at home; they are crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside.

Be sure to eat while fresh and hot.

See recipe:

INGREDIENTS: (serves 8)

2 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

¾ cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup vegetable oil

4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Separate the egg using an egg separator, over a large metal bowl. The egg white will go in this metal bowl, and the egg yolk will go into the blender.

In the blender, pour in the rest of the ingredients over the egg yolk, (except the egg whites): (milk, coconut milk, sugar, flour, whole wheat flour, oil, baking powder, salt, and vanilla). Pour the wet ingredients in first for easier blending. Blend until nice and combined and fluffy.

After you’ve already blended the wet ingredients (except for the egg white), go back to your large metal bowl with the two egg whites in it. Get a high speed hand mixer, and whip those egg whites for about one minute (depending how fast your whipper is), until you get soft, fluffy, white peaks.

Now, pour all the ingredients from the blender into the whipped egg white bowl. Scrape the blender to make sure you’ve got almost everything. Now, fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients. This is what will make your waffles nice and fluffy on the inside. Now you are ready to cook your waffles.

When your waffle iron is done preheating, open it up, and pour in your batter using a measuring cup. The amount of batter you’ll need depends on your waffle maker. The waffle maker will beep, and/or have a green light go on when the waffle is done cooking. But there’s not hurt in checking manually beforehand to see if the waffle is done.

Repeat this cooking process however many times it takes to finish your batter. If you will not be eating your waffles right away, but will probably eat it in 10 – 30 minutes after cooking (which is not necessarily recommended), preheat oven to 170 degrees, and line the rack with some parchment paper. Place your cooked waffles in this warm place until ready to eat.

If you do this, though, chances are that the waffles won’t be as crispy as they were right out of the waffle maker.

Serve with syrup, and/or fruit jam…

…or however you like eating waffles.

NOTE:

You can use a special egg separator like I do if you prefer that over doing it with the egg shell, which is harder. You can buy an egg separator here: At Amazon

Scroll down to see some step-by-step pictures.

RECOMMENDED WAFFLES IRON(S):

If you don’t have a waffle maker, and you are interested in buying one, see below:

I use a Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker, which is a really nice, large, deep waffle maker that makes great waffles, for $60.

I also use (behind the scenes) a Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker that works perfectly fine, too, for half the price as the Belgian Waffle maker. The difference? This $30 classic waffle maker is a lot smaller, and less deep, and so it holds less waffle batter. It also doesn’t BEEP when the waffle is done cooking.

I recommend the Belgian waffle maker if you don’t mind spending the money for it.

If you’re on a budget, however, and don’t have many mouths to feed, I’d personally recommend the Classic Waffle Maker.

See the links above.

whipped-egg-white — Egg whites after being whipped.

poured-waffle-batter — Waffle batter poured.

Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Burgers

September 26, 2016September 25, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

The bacon is fried first. Then, the mushrooms are sauteed in the bacon grease. Then, on the same bacon grease, beef patties are grilled in mustard and seasonings.

Piece it together with a great Mayo-Burger-Sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, cheddar cheese, and ketchup.

Recipe serves 4.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 4 burgers)

8 pieces of bacon (2 per burger)

1 lb. ground beef

2 large beefsteak/other large tomatoes

4 thick leaves of Romaine lettuce

4 thin slices cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons mustard

3 cups minced Mushrooms

Salt/pepper for taste

FOR BURGER SAUCE:

¼ cup mayonnaise

⅛ cup mustard

1 tablespoon sweet relish

1 teaspoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare your lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in thin slices. You should have about 10 – 12 slices of tomatoes. Place the lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese on a tray until further use.

Shape ground beef into patties. First, with your hands, divide the 1 lb. of beef into 4 equal balls. Break the meat up, with your hands, and then push each of the 4 balls down so that they are proper flatness.

Prepare burger sauce by combining the mayonnaise, ⅛ cup mustard, relish, and lemon juice in a small bowl.

Mince the mushrooms finely. Put them in a medium bowl for future use.

Place a cast iron griddle over a grill and heat it up. Or, alternatively, you can use a flat metal skillet/griddle over your stove top. Once sufficiently heated, cut your bacon pieces in half, so that you have 16 halves, and place on heated skillet. Sizzle until just cooked through. Remove bacon from griddle, and place in a bowl, and insulate it with aluminum foil. Do not turn off griddle, and leave the bacon grease hot.
Get your mushrooms ready. Dump them on top of hot bacon grease, and saute until mushrooms are very brown. Place them back in their original bowl, and insulate with aluminum foil. Do not turn off the griddle.

Now for the patties. Squirt the 1 tablespoon of mustard on the patties, and preferably smear around with a brush. Then place the thick burger patties on the hot griddle–yes the same uncleaned one you used to cook the bacon and mushrooms on.

Sprinkle patties with salt and more mustard, and let cook on one side for two minutes or so.

After the two minutes are up, flip the patties over, sprinkle the cooked sides with salt, and place a piece of cheese on each patty.

Finish cooking on this side for another couple minutes. After the minute is up, place patties and their cheese on top on a large heat-proof plate, and cover with aluminum foil.

Now it’s time to put together the burger. This part is easy.

First, place the bottom burger bun on a serving plate. Then smear the mayo burger sauce over the top. Then place on 1-2 tomato slices. Then 2 halves of bacon. Then one of the cooked patties goes on top, and on top of the patty goes the additional 2 halves of bacon. On top of the bacon goes the sauteed mushrooms. Then on goes the piece of Romaine lettuce, and finally, on goes the last burger bun!

Repeat 3x for a total of 4 delicious Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Burgers!

A couple pictures: (if you want to see all step by step pictures, check out my original post on mushroom cheddar bacon burgers on instructables)

mcb-building-burger — …put everything together.

Apple Blueberry Layer Pie

September 24, 2016September 22, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.2 Comments

This Apple Blueberry Layer pie I made for a PI Day contest a while ago, so I engraved the Pi symbol engraved on the top of the crust. The Blueberries are layered on-top of the apples so as to show through the symbol Pi because of its great contrast to the Pie crust.

But apart from PI day, this is an very delicious twist on your everyday Apple Pie.

See recipe below:

Ingredients: (makes one largish regular pie)

2 frozen pie crusts (or homemade)

2 cups of frozen blueberries

3 Granny Smith Apples

3 McIntosh Apples

2 teaspoons cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

½ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup flour

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sugar for garnish

1 egg white

NOTE:

It would be best to have a deep-dish pie pan for this recipe.

DIRECTIONS:

Place a room-temperature unbaked pie crust onto a pie pan, as shown. Leave the second pie crust on the counter to reach room temperature while you prepare the pie.

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Peel, core, and slice the apples, or use a very handy machine to do it for you. Toss the ‘peeledcoredsliced’ apples and lemon juice in a large bowl. Cut large pieces with a knife until all pieces are evenly sized.

Throw the flour-spice-sugar mixture over the apples, and toss to coat the apples completely.

Throw the apple mixture into the pie crust-filled pan.

Prepare the two cups of frozen blueberries by placing them in a colander and rinse thoroughly. Pat dry with paper towels. Even if you have fresh blueberries, you could also do this to wash them.

Evenly layer these blueberries over the top of the apples.

Now you may preheat the oven to 425 degrees. (Fahrenheit)

Place the other room temperature pie crust over the top neatly, and, using a fork, press across the circumference of the pie pan, pressing the top pie crust into the bottom crust.

Optional: Using a stencil, or your own brain, carefully cut the Pi symbol (rather largely) out of the top pi crust. You can use the cut-out crust as extra decoration on the top of the pie crust if you want to.

Beat an egg white until a bit fluffy. Spread this lightly over the top of the finished pie crust. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar.

Place pie in preheated oven (425) and bake for around 40 minutes, or until crust is golden, and fruit mixture is boiling.

Remove from oven, take a nice picture, and serve. Or, as I prefer, cool in fridge completely before serving.

NOTE:

Having the pie crust defrosted completely to room temperature is important. If it is not at room temperature, it is going to be alot harder to place in the pie pan, because it will crack all over the place.

Usually with recipes, you’ll see instructions at the very beginning to preheat your oven. But with a long recipe, like this, I find it is about half an hour or so to prep, so your oven will just be wasting energy. Because of this, you’ll only need to preheat your oven in this recipe 10 – 15 minutes before you’re ready to bake. It preheats at 425 degrees. See directions.

SOME OTHER PICTURES:

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These cookies are healthy for being cookies, and make a great snack anytime of the day. They are quick and easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup butter, softened

1/4 cup Coconut Oil, softened

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 t. molasses

2 t. Vanilla

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

3 1/2 cups quick oats

1 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a stand mixer, beat first 5 ingredients until creamy and smooth.

Then add egg, and mix until well combined.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir until well combined.

Add the oats. Stir until combined.

Add and stir in chocolate chips.

Place shaped cookies on ungreased baking sheets, approximately 1 inch of space in between cookie balls.

Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire rack before serving.

spooning-out-oatmeal-choc-cookies — Spoon out cookies…

oatmeal-choc-cookies-laid-out — …onto an ungreased baking sheet

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar

September 19, 2016September 17, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

This is an easy way to give friends a gift: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar.

Combine only the dry ingredients, and then tell your friends how to finish the cookies in their own kitchen on a slip of paper you tie onto the jar.

INGREDIENTS:

(Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies, approx., 1 JAR)

(NOTE: you’ll need a jar larger than a quart to be able to fit everything in. Probably twice the size would work)

½ cup flour

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

Sprinkle of nutmeg

1 ½ cups quick oatmeal

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cups chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Fill Jar with Oats

In a medium small bowl, combine first five ingredients on list: (flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking soda).

Pour mixture neatly over oatmeal. Be sure while you’re adding ingredients to jar not to shake it, or the layers will be muddled.

In same bowl, combine the two sugars together. Then pour over as third layer in jar.

Pour the chocolate chips into jar. Secure sealed lid.

On card stock, preferably, write instructions to attach to jar so that your friends/family will know how to use the cookie mix jar in their kitchen:

RECIPE TO ATTACH:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix egg, butter, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add cookie jar mix.

3. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10-11 minutes.

Punch a hole in your card stock, and string ribbon through it, and tie it to jar. You are done with your gift.

How to Make Egg Salad

September 17, 2016September 16, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

Egg salad is the perfect snack, lunch, or breakfast. It can be eaten multiple ways: in sandwiches, with crackers, in wraps, or just by itself. On top of that, it is flavorful, and full of protein. And, it is very easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

(serves 6)

10 eggs (approx. 1 week old)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:

First, take your raw eggs, and place them in a large saucepan with water filled up about two inches. Bring quickly to a boil, and then remove pan from heat, and let the eggs finish cooking in the hot water for about another 15 minutes.

For more details see: How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs, which is a recipe I found helpful, or see this helpful instructable: Easy Hard Boiled Eggs.

When eggs are almost done through their rest/cook time, create an ice-bath in a large bowl.

When eggs are done cooking, dunk them immediately into the ice bath.

From the ice bowl, pick them out to peel them.

After the eggs have been peeled, place each into a wire egg-cutter, and cut one way, then flip egg around, and cut perpendicularly to your last cut. This will make your egg nicely diced.

Once your eggs have been nicely diced, throw all of them into a large bowl.

Throw in the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix thoroughly until combined.

Now you have a nice bowl of flavorful, protein-packed egg salad. This can be put in lettuce wraps, in between two pieces of bread as a sandwich, eaten with crackers, or just consumed completely by itself.

Store in fridge when not consuming.

Healthier Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

September 15, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.1 Comment

If you enjoy chocolate chip cookies, but feel guilty every time you eat one–this might be the recipe to lighten your heart and decrease your pure sugar and white gluten intake a bit.

Half the flour you’ll be using is “White Whole Wheat Flour”, a great substitute in baking for those not minding a slightly denser crumb, but not willing to go completely off gluten; let’s be honest–a completely gluten free dessert doesn’t taste quite as good.

Also, there is a bit of coconut flour for those who have it.

Of course, the rest of the flour will be all-purpose flour.

When it comes to sugar, instead of using brown cane sugar, you’ll be choosing from either coconut sugar, or turbinado sugar–or a mixture of both. A smaller amount will be white cane sugar, though.

See recipe below:

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons canola oil

¾ cup of coconut sugar, or turbinado sugar, or a mixture of both

⅓ cup white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix together flours, baking soda, and salt.

In a stand mixer, beat together sugars and melted butter until incorporated.

Put in the vanilla extract, egg, and egg yolk, and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

On low speed, gradually mix in the flour mixture, and then the chocolate chips, until everything is incorporated.

Place by tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet, and bake in preheated oven for 15 or more minutes, until edges are a bit browned.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before consuming.

Store in Ziploc plastic bags when not consuming.

Instructables: Share What You Make

September 14, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

I decided to do a post on this awesome website called ‘Instructables.‘

Instructables is a great DIY website where anybody can post step-by-step instructions on how to make anything imaginable.

If you like woodworking, puzzles, crocheting, sewing, baking, cooking, writing, crafting, costumes, etc., you can use instructables to ‘share what you make,’ in easy to follow posts with step-by-step pictures and instructions.

I have used instructables to post many of my own recipes, and all the pictures I have in my previous posts actually use pictures that I took for my recipes on Instructables.

Instructables is an awesome way to share your ideas easily and clearly with other people around the web.

Better yet, Instructables has many contests each month, each relating to something different. Instructables just last month created 10 insructable contests, which it regularly does every month of every years. This gives creators a perfect chance to enter their instructable creations for a chance to win something amazing–and the prizes are usually fantastic.

Be sure to check out Instructables here. You can also check out my profile on instructables.

The Best M&M Chocolate Brownies

September 13, 2016September 13, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These brownies have a great texture. Not too cakey and not too doughy, with chocolate chips folded in the batter, finally topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with M&M’s, these brownies are a perfect blend. They are also splendid for large parties or gatherings, and great for the family.

INGREDIENTS:

(for a 9×13 baking pan):

1 cup butter, melted

⅓ cup oil<\p>

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup baking cocoa

½ cup melted chocolate

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

NOTE: it is also great if you substitute a bit of sugar for brown sugar…

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare a 9×13 inch glass baking dish by placing a long piece of aluminum foil into the pan as a sling for pulling the brownies out later, and grease with cooking spray.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan, on low, melt butter and chocolate, stirring as it melts to prevent burning. Remove from heat after melting.

Stir in oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking cocoa, and salt) in a medium bowl.

Pour into wet ingredient mixture in saucepan (off the heat) and stir until smooth and no flour streaks remain.

Optional, but more delicious: Fold about 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips into the batter.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs, or none at all.

Cool for at least another 25 minutes.

Remove using foil sling, and place on flat working surface.

Ice with a ganache recipe of your own. I used this recipe: Chocolate Ganache Recipe.

Before the icing is hardened, sprinkle M&Ms on top.

To store: place in shallow plastic containers. Do not stack brownies on top of each other.

To see all step by step pictures, go to this recipe on instructables.

…brief overview:

…melt in saucepan…

Add the rest of the wet ingredients…

Stir the dry ingredients together…

Combine the dry with the wet ingredients:

…and bake in preheated oven:

See full recipe above for all details.

If you liked this recipe, perhaps you’ll like some of my others. Check them out on the main page, or see all my recipes at my profile on instructables.

One Pot Burrito Bowl

September 12, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

This One Pot Burrito Bowl is not only delicious, it’s also fantastically fast to make; If you get your act up, you can make this burrito bowl in one pot in less than half an hour.

And, in one pot, in less than half an hour, you can make enough dinner to serve a considerably large family.

And, if you don’t have enough people to serve this to, it makes perfect leftovers for the next day.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground beef

½ cup salsa

1 can black beans, or re fried beans, or a mixture of both

2 tablespoons taco seasoning

1 cup long grain rice, cooked ahead of time

1 large onion

1 cup monterey jack, shredded

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon oil

1 yellow bell pepper

¼ teaspoon chili powder

Garnish

chopped fresh tomatoes

sour cream

DIRECTIONS:

Mince both onion and bell pepper finely.

Heat oil in a large deep pan until hot.

Add in the onion and bell pepper to pan, and saute until very brown. Remove from pan to a small bowl.

Add the ground beef to the same pan that you had the vegetables in, and stir and break up with a spatula until meat is cooked and brown. Drain the meat juices that are shown above.

Before you add everything, if you don’t want super chunky tomatoes from the can, you can easily use an immersion blender to blend it up some. (mine basically became tomato sauce).

Then add canned tomatoes, black beans, salsa, taco seasoning, and chili powder, and previously cooked rice.

(for how to cook rice, see here: How to Cook Rice)

Stir all the ingredients until well combined.

You are now sort of done with it. Just one more thing:

For Garnishes, you can cut up some cilantro, and sprinkle that with a generous helping of your shredded cheese over the steaming top of your Burrito Bowl.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out my recipe on instructables, as well.

Perfect Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

September 11, 2016September 13, 2016 Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These Cinnamon Rolls are good any time of day–especially breakfast. Better still, you can make this recipe for cream cheese frosting, and slather it over the tops.

Ingredients: (Serves 12)

Dough:

⅔ cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, melted

3 cups flour

3 tps. instant yeast

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. salt

¼ cup water

1 egg

Filling:

¾ cups brown sugar

1 Tbs. cinnamon

6-7 Tbs. Butter, softened

Cream Cheese Icing:

Recipe from allrecipes

NOTE: Of course, you can substitute buttermilk with milk, and butter with margarine if you prefer.

DIRECTIONS:

Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.

1. Place butter and buttermilk in a microwavable dish, and microwave 2 times–each time being a thirty seconds–taking the dish out and stirring in between. At the end of this process, the butter should be melted.

2. In a mixing bowl, like a kitchen aid, combine 2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Mix in water, egg, and buttermilk-butter mixture until combined. Remove paddle attachment and attach a dough hook, to knead the dough. Or, if you prefer to knead by hand, place dough onto thoroughly floured surface. Carefully and gradually incorporate flour until dough is stretchy and smooth. Place on a floured surface, and knead for a few minutes.

3. Grease the mixing bowl, and place dough back in, cover it with a towel, and let it rise for ten minutes. Meanwhile, combine brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl, and make sure your butter is at room temperature. (you can put your butter in the microwave to soften it.)

4. Turn dough out on floured surface and roll out a large rectangle, about 12×9 inches. Spread softened butter generously over the top of the rolled out dough until thick and evenly distributed. (a wide bendy plastic knife works well for this). Using your hands, sprinkle all the sugar out on the dough evenly.

5. Roll the dough up tightly into a log and pinch ends to seal. Then place cut-side up on the greased glass baking pan. Cover with a towel and let rolls rise for 30 minutes. Half way through rising period, you should preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

6. Bake rolls in oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown, and sugar mixture in the middle is boiling. Take out of oven. When just warm, and ready to serve, drizzle cream cheese icing over individual rolls, and serve.

Thanks for checking out this recipe.

See below for some step by step pictures: