Chicken and Waffles

We had a difficult day yesterday. Our German Shepherd Dog, Ceili (Deblyn's Irish Ceili) went to Heaven after 14 wonderful years with us. It was not unexpected, since she has had some health issues the past few months, but it is never easy to say good-bye to a beloved pet companion.
We cracked a nice bottle of  King Estate Winery Freedom Hill 2010 Pinot Noir in Ceili's honor last night and remembered all the funny stories about her. One of the stories was about how she loved to jump at the chickens just to see them run...and another story was how she ate waffles (even though she did not like bready- type food) just to take something away from Gretchen (who would eat anything).
It got me thinking about making waffles.
Now, I don't like thick, bready waffles and I have not had a lot of success with waffle batter. I like a light, crisp waffle that I can eat without any syrup. Yah, I'm wierd, I know.
So, I did a little research and found this great recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen
It was pretty interesting since it is an overnight yeast waffle batter and it originated with the Fanny Farmer Cookbook...which is my go-to cookbook for the basics! Kevin and I received the Fanny Farmer Cookbook and Fanny Farmer Baking Book as wedding gifts from Mark and Leslie Murphy back in 1980 when we got married...and I've used it frequently. So, I checked it and sure enough, the recipe was there!
So, I mixed the overnight ingredients of water, yeast, milk, butter, salt, sugar and flour together and let them sit for about 12 hours. I added the baking soda and eggs (from my chickens of course) in the morning and made....20 waffles in my Cuisinart Waffle Maker. Remember, there's only me and Kevin to actually EAT breakfast...
The Waffle Maker has a funny story- in 2009 we attended the family Christmas Eve party at my sister and brother in law's house, Darlyn and Jim Regan in San Clemente, CA. We drove down from Oregon and missed our white Christmas- but it worked out OK since it didn't start snowing until we got home! Then, it didn't stop snowing until May...but that's another story. So the deal is that everyone buys one gift and then we draw names, steal gifts- you all know how it goes if you've ever been to a  white elephant party! I ended up with the Waffle Maker since the one we got as a wedding gift broke in 1982.... and I hadn't made waffles since 1982.
Anyhow, back to the original story...we froze 16 of the waffles and ate two of them.
Incredible!

They were crisp, light, airy and not too sweet. Perfect.
The chickens were clamoring at the back door while we were eating breakfast, just pecking at the window and making a lot of bawking noises- so we decided to spread the wealth and give them some waffles.

I haven't laughed so hard in a while- they were scurrying around while Kevin tossed little bits of waffles all over the grass!
Then, it occurred to me that Chicken and Waffles is a classic Southern dish...hence, the name of this blog.
Here's the recipe- I followed it EXACTLY.
Essential Raised Waffles from Smitten Kitchen
I did pour a little too much into the waffle iron the first couple of times so some of it spilled, but otherwise, this makes a lot of delicious waffles!
We froze them on trays individually and packed them into freezer bags. Then, we can pop them in the toaster for a quick and delicious breakfast!
Enjoy!