in the morning, i'm making waffles...

this past saturday morning, nathan and i had no where to be early, so after sleeping in, i had a hankerin' for some waffles. we love lazy saturday mornings with homemade waffles, and it had been too long since we had last made them. so, i whipped out my handy dandy cookbook and got to work.

now don't get me wrong, i love a good eggo with peanut butter, but if i'm getting out the waffle iron, the only way i roll is homemade!

the recipe i use is a loose interpretation of the better homes & garden's new cookbook one.

yes, i write in my cookbooks and leave future me notes. its a good thing too, because everytime i see them i'm like, 'o, yeah!'

of course, its pink

you know me, all about some le creuset. this piece was a christmas present from my aunt...everyone needs a good batter bowl!!

so here we go. first, i mix about 7/8 cup of whole wheat flour with 1 tablespoon demerara sugar (or brown sugar), 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt. to that, this time, i added 1 tbsp flax seed

and about 1/4 bag of walnuts

in a separate bowl, i mixed 1 egg with 7/8 cup milk, 1/4 cup of oil and a big splash of vanilla. 

then, i make a little well in the center of the dry mix and pour the wet stuff in all at once.

and stir, preferably with a big pink spatula :)

finally, into the waffle iron it goes.

and thats it! these were super hearty and kept us full for quite a while! also, this recipe only made 4, but i think you could think it out to get 6. the original recipe is for 12, and i half it, but i think its too thick. perfect for us though!

while i was making waffles, nathan ran out to starbucks to get us some drinks to go with. we chose to have some quad shots, 1 pump sugar free vanilla, whole milk lattes.yum!

this was my waffle...i like them with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some whipped cream

after such a yummy breakfast, we headed out to piedmont park to hit up the local green market and enjoy some sunshine. 

check out this shot of the city- isn't it beautiful? i love this view

nathan's sister sarah gave us a call and happened to be in the area, so she came over and met us and her and nathan joined a pick up game of ultimate frisbee. i lounged under a tree (it was HOT) and snapped some pics.

its days like this one that make me love the city and love living here.

starbucks

i am a huge coffee fan. pretty much everyone knows that. one of my favorite simple pleasures is a good mug of freshly brewed coffee, topped with some good thick whipped cream. ahh. so good.

tonight, nathan and i ventured to our favorite date spot (well, one of them anyways)- Starbucks! we often frequent here for date nights (partly because we have gift card money and of course because we just like their drinks). tonight, we took with us books to read while we sat and enjoyed our drinks of choice (for nathan, an early grey tea latte, and for me, a decaf pour over coffee in a for here mug with of course, whipped cream). while nathan read lewis' the great divorce, i dove into the latest starbucks book- onward, by howard schultz.  i hope to share my thoughts on it more as i read more about it, but needless to say, it is quite interesting. as i was sitting in this starbucks store, i couldnt help but notice the very things he was talking about. the book is about how he came back to being the the ceo of the company in 2007, and the struggles and changes starbucks has survived over the last several years. i invite you read it and join me in a discussion about some of the things he mentions.

i will say, as a customer, it impresses me that the ceo of such a large company cares about things like the smells that permeate the stores- to the point that he even formed an aroma task force! from the consistency of the brewed coffee to the different business practices he encourages, mr. schultz really cares.  i think thats pretty cool. so check it out- i'll be posting some more thoughts on it as i get into it!