Ben's Day Wednesday

S.O.S. – Something Old-School

Posted on by Liz

Ben’s request this week was for waffles. Where that came from, I don’t know, but Phil upped the ante with chipped beef. There was some breakfast-for-dinner escalation, and plans threatened to spiral out of control, so I locked in waffles with creamed chipped beef. Done.

Phil’s mom makes delicious overnight yeast waffles, and I vaguely remembered Phil’s sister, Mary, going through a chipped beef on toast phase, so I consulted our 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking (Rombauer and Becker) for creamed chipped beef. Elevated by waffles, and a chipped beef upgrade, we traveled back in time this week for some old-school comfort.

Now is as good a time as any to confess that though I love chipped beef, I really have no idea where (or if!) it is found in the grocery store, and the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving didn’t seem like the ideal time to lolly-gag through Wegmans, searching.

We ended up with something that I am certain is not traditional for the dish, mostly because it costs an arm and a leg, but Ben spied it in the deli aisle last month and was rejected on his request to use it as sandwich meat, so I threw it in the shopping cart as a fancy stand-in for dried beef. It comes in paper thin slices, and has a name I can’t pronounce, but I’m guessing it is Italian.

Grandma’s Overnight Yeast Waffles

2 cups milk

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon yeast

1/3 cup oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3 cups flour

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Dissolve yeast in water. Add milk, oil, salt, sugar and flour. Beat until smooth with rotary beater. Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight or all day. When ready to bake, stir in remaining ingredients (egg, baking soda and baking powder). Bake in waffle iron.

I was a little nervous about having something with milk in it rest at room temperature overnight, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! The waffles were delicious!

This is a rotary beater.
Our waffle iron came over on the  Mayflower. Like it?
Darn tootin’! It works like a charm! We can’t guarantee results if your waffle iron is less than 75 years old.

Creamed Chipped Beef

(Inspired by Joy of Cooking, Rombauer and Becker, 1975.)

3 tablespoons minced onion

3 tablespoons minced green pepper

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

4 ounces bresaola (dry-cured beef), finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1/4 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons dry sherry

Melt butter over medium heat and sauté onion and green pepper until onions are golden. Sprinkle with flour and stir, cooking for a minute. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Add the beef and simmer until a thick gravy forms. Season with parsley, paprika and sherry. Do not add any salt, as dried beef is very salty. Serve over Grandma’s Overnight Yeast Waffles, and eat with your pinky in the air. (If you have a chipped beef source, serve this on toast, preferably in a mess hall.)

Getting his game face on.
Green pepper and onion? In you go.
Happy chef.
Chipped beef, we’ve got your number.
Ben had four waffles. I don’t mean 4 quarters. I mean 4 waffles, all with chipped beef gravy. In the event that you aren’t into calculating a meal using π, let me save you some time. He ate a lot.

We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for more Ben’s Day Wednesday mayhem as our holiday unfolds.