drinking: hot toddies

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Toddies are just the thing when you’re under the weather. So say I. This is such a flexible beverage, you can use brandy, whiskey, scotch, bourbon… (or, I mean, you can use anything you want), any kind of tea or just hot water, any herbs or spices you want to toss in…a hot liquored up infusion of any sort I would say falls under this toddy umbrella. Toddy is such a cute word.

While it is flexible, mine generally tend to be something like this:

1-1.5 oz bourbon (often like the slightly sweeter bourbon over whiskey for this application, here Buffalo Trace)

1/4 lemon, juice of

cloves, allspice berries, cinnamon stick

1 Tbs honey

tea (lemon, chamomile, or something fruity, or whatever, here I’ve used Teavana’s Youthberry, a sweet white tea)

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Match Convivio mug, spoon, and Libeco Grainhall napkin on loan from Didriks.

Elaborate beverages cheer me up. Don’t they you? Get someone else to make one for you and it’s even better.

It just got distinctly colder here in Cambridge, so a toddy here and there is all the more welcome. They’re easy drinking, though, so they can sneak up on you…

on the menu: spelt waffles

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These might be my favorite waffles yet. Flavorful, good texture, froze well…good waffles. I’ve been playing around with spelt flour lately with great results. It has a light nutty flavor and substitutes well for all-purpose, so it’s easy to experiment.

I read about six recipes (here’s the closest) and then did this, with the approach of maintaining a 1:1 ratio of dry to liquid ingredients:

1 c spelt flour

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 c wheat flour

1/4 c almond meal

2 T bran flakes

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cake spice (nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, clove blend)

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 c yogurt (greek)

1/3 c coconut oil

1 c milk

1 mashed ripe banana

2 eggs

2 Tbs cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat and grease waffle iron (I preheated to a higher temp than I cooked, cooking finally at setting 3 of 7), mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, stir wet into dry and let batter thicken 2 minutes. I like a consistency like quite thick cake batter.

Add heaping 1/2 cup of batter to iron and cook until golden, repeat. Makes about 8 waffles.

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This recipe is receptive to substitutions.

Enjoy!

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