okay, perfect #12 : On gathering and Holiday Leftover Waffle Sandwiches!!!!
Because stuffing as a waffle is my favorite thing...My palette might be fussy sometimes, but I can't say no to a sage-y waffle with jellied cranberry.
When I set out to open the Courageous Cooking School at La Pitchoune, I was driven by a deep desire to initiate gathering, conviviality, and an opportunity to experience warm (and sometimes playful, but not always obsequious) hospitality. I *felt* this deep need in my bones, to create something I would personally love to engage with. An opportunity to play in a kitchen, with limited stakes, and with new and old friends alike.
What I *didn’t* know is that I would be creating a place where people would return, over and over. (Anna, in episode five of our show has been to FOUR cooking schools with us. One in Italy, one in Vermont, and Twice at La Peetch).
I had zero clue that I would become deeply connected to my clients, and we’d become friends after the years of sharing the kitchen together.
I didn’t know that I would be texting with LouAnn (Anna’s mama, who is mentioned in episode 5, too) while she was in the hospital fighting her life from COVID.
I didn't know I’d have the opportunity to build a relationship with Billy Cross, and learn such deep history about the LGBTQ+ underground community, and how much it was shaped by Billy and his husband Michael James’ work on Slow Food. (As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am feeling extra tender after the Club Q shootings. A place I have spent AMPLE time in during my years when I lived in Colorado.)
I didn’t know that I was creating a playful, silly, jovial five day ‘Cooking Camp’ experience for adults to reconnect to that joy and playfulness in a ‘more mature’ fashion than say…Kids Sleepaway Summer Camp. I mean, that’s in essence the core of it. And since I was a Summer Camp kid, I can attest I UGLY CRIED at every last campfire, so it’s no surprise I often UGLY CRY when guests leave La Peetch.
(I saw a fan of the show on social media say they ‘Makenna cried watching episode five’. I have decided Makenna Cry™ is a thing.)
Episode five of La Pitchoune: Cooking in France is much more than ‘people return to Bramafam to honor Simone Beck and Julia Child’. It’s about belonging, it’s about love, and it’s about the complexity that are relationships, friendships, and collaborations. It’s about grief, and loss and returning ‘home’ without the people you love.
And it’s still very much about food. And belonging.
I hope you love(d) it as much as I do. I think it’s my favorite. But I say that almost every week.
Since it’s the day after US thanksgiving, I wanted to offer an approach, more than a recipe. Because leftover stuffing is always begging to be made into a waffle. And if you don’t have a waffle maker? You can just make it in a hot pan.
THIS IS NOT AN ELEGANT RECIPE.
I REPEAT! This isn’t some elegant leftovers recipe.
BUT it is a recipe or a take on a fritter/waffle that is magic to learn. And you know what? *shrugs* I am not only a person who makes elegant food, or even ‘exciting food’. I also like creative uses for leftovers, and gleefully eat Taco Bell Nachos. What about you? I’d love to know in the comments what’s some seemingly contradictory things about your palette.
So without further adieu….
Holiday Leftovers Waffle Sandwich OF JOY AND GLEE™ or LWS
(May LWS become as ubiquitous as the BLT…Someday. Or least in my world)
Tools:
A waffle maker
A couple bowls
Ingredient NEEDS to make the waffles happen:
At least 2 cups leftover stuffing or dressing (it takes about a cup of stuffing/dressing for ONE waffle), so for two waffle to make a sandwich you need…TWO.
1 egg for every 2 cups of stuffing/dressing
Some turkey stock, gravy, or canned broth/stock
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