Happy new year to all (and one year to us!)

Wow, The Salty Pear is a year old. How odd and exciting and fun to think that our little experiment and reminder to ourselves to write down our recipes has become something shared and beautiful and fun for our friends, family and everyone else. And it's lasted fifty-two months of photographs, picked up from the pharmacy, four apartments and three broken bodums, while keeping two cooks thoroughly happy and sated. We wish a happy new year to all! And resolve to keep cooking and posting, eating and reading, and not the least of all, enjoying it all.

We didn't manage to get much posted last month. Not that our holiday season kept us from the kitchen--- we managed to make chocolate barks, tarts, cookies, a roasted bird, nuts and all kinds of Christmas and Yalda treats. Not to mention all the scrumptious Canadiana winter snacks and the Persian pomegranites being in season--- so yummy. Maybe even more exciting, the promise of a present: there is a gorgeous little chrome, hand-crank pasta maker in our kitchen, tried and tested on New Years Eve. Expect a plethora of pasta recipes to follow shortly. But for starters, a wonderful, airy breakfast to start fresh in January.


Buttermilk Waffles and Strawberries (best served with Mimosas and Maple syrup)

Dry ingredients

1 1/2 C All-purpose or C & P flour
1 tbsp baking powder
a pinch of fine salt

Wet ingredients

1 1/4 C buttermilk (add a 1/4 C of yogurt and a tsp of vinegar into 1C of 2% milk if unavailable)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, whites separated and set aside
2 tbsp butter, melted
a pint of strawberries, sliced for garnish

Start by preheating your waffle iron (if you don't have one you're missing out -- ours only cost like ten bucks, just skip the next bad movie you were going to see in a theatre and treat yourself). Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and set aside. Whisk melted butter, vanilla and egg yolks into buttermilk, or substitute dairy concoction. Form a well in the dry ingredients, and gently stir in wet ingredients with a fork. Be careful not to over mix, or you'll end up with an unaerated batter. Now, whisk your egg whites until they form stiff, erect peaks. If you have an egg beater or electric beater or whatever, go for it. Just make sure the whites are stiff. Then, quickly with as few turns as possible, fold the whites into the batter. Cook immediately, the iron should stop spewing steam to let you know they're done. Remove and serve when golden brown, topped with strawberries and syrup. Reenact a new years toast with OJ and bubbly, for fun. Enjoy and best in 2011.