Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles -- a #recipe and a cover reveal from @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Waffles, pancakes, and French toast are breakfast staples, especially in diners, though we don’t often make them at home. During this weekend’s extreme cold spell – as I write this Monday afternoon, temps in my NW corner of Montana have not been above zero since last Thursday afternoon, though we’re hoping for Tuesday, and Friday’s overnight low of 36 below zero (F) is a new record – I had an urge for a hearty old favorite: blueberry oatmeal waffles, a recipe I adapted years ago from the oatmeal pancake recipe in the classic, Laurel’s Kitchen.

Laurel’s Kitchen was one of the first serious vegetarian cookbooks, published in 1976 when I was A Teenage Bookseller. You can see how well-used my 1978 paperback version is! Part of its appeal was – and still is – the nutritional information provided alongside cooking methods and recipes. It gives detailed information on how to combine grains and beans for a complete protein, how long to soak and cook various types of beans, and much more, for healthy eating.

I admit, some of the recipes are a little bland. Some recipes include herbs and spices, but more often than not, I’ve added them – as I added the cinnamon here. (I suspect later editions are a little spicier.) Some whole grain baking can be a little dense, though the blueberries I added to this recipe lighten it nicely. I used 2% milk; I haven’t tried using soy or nut milks, but am sure it’s an easy switch.  

Whole grains are warming, and they don't trigger a hypoglycemic spike the way refined flours do---the main reason I don't eat regular waffles or pancakes unless I can get a scrambled egg on the side! 

Whether you use this batter for waffles or pancakes, I think you’ll find it just right. And you don’t need to wait for stupid-cold temperatures to find out!

Now, today's recipe has nothing to do with the cover of my next Spice Shop mystery, but the official reveal is today on Dru's Book Musings. Scroll down for a look and the cover copy! To Err is Cumin, 8th in the series, is coming July 16, 2024. (Preorder links below -- audio links to come.)

Blueberry Oatmeal Waffles or Pancakes

(Adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition) 

1 cup + two tablespoons milk

1 cup rolled oats

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries (thawed if frozen)

Butter and syrup for serving. 

In a medium bowl, stir together the milk and oats. Allow to sit at least 5 minutes.

Combine oil and eggs and add to oats, mixing well. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in berries.

Heat your waffle iron. Pour or spoon mixture onto waffle plate, using about 1/4 of the mixture. Cook until done. Makes 4 waffles. 

For pancakes: Heat your griddle or cast iron pan. Use about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Turn when bubbles form on top and edges begin to dry. Makes 10-12 four inch pancakes.

Serve immediately. Extras warm up nicely. 

                                                            TO ERR IS CUMIN

A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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