The Return of Inspiration!

It turns out that I was right. . . Robert really does inspire me to cook. He came home this evening, and I spent pretty much all day trying to figure out what to make for dinner. It was hard though because for every meal that I thought of making, I was lacking one ingredient. And I refused to go to the store because when I woke up this morning it was five degrees below zero. I didn't even let Gabrielle go to school. Finally, I gave up and decided that we would just have breakfast for dinner. When I told Robert this on the phone, he said "Sounds great! We can have waffles." Sure everybody likes waffles, but then that got me thinking. . . We could just have waffles, or we could have Chicken and Waffles!!!! Yes, I know it sounds super bizarre, and to be honest, I was a little apprehensive. I saw an episode about it on Food Network (of course), but I've never had them. And the combination just sounds so weird. But apparently it's a pretty big thing, especially in New York and California, so I guess I've been missing out. Well, after a bit of snooping around on the internet, I decided to take my Chicken and Waffles one step further. . . the result: Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffles. The Sweet Potato Waffles is an Alton Brown recipe (FN again) but I had to make a little variation because I didn't have any fresh sweet potatoes. Luckily, I had a can of sweet potatoes hiding in the back. Suffice it to say that I tend to keep a VERY well stocked pantry. In the end, dinner ended up being delicious. Everyone chowed down. . . the girls especially loved the waffles. And they were actually really good. The chicken, sweet potatoe waffle, and maple syrup combination turned out to be surprisingly tasty, and if I ever go to California I will be sure to stop in at Roscoe's, or maybe I'll stick a little closer to home and visit Melba's in Harlem (which was the restaurant featured on the FN). In the meantime, I think I may just top one of those waffles off with ice cream, and call it dessert :-)

For those of you interested in the recipe for the Sweet Potato Waffles, you can find it here. Like I said, I didn't have any fresh sweet potatoes, so I used a standard sized can of sweet potatoes that I rinsed and drained before mashing. And because I didn't want my waffles to be lumpy, I actually blended the sweet potatoes together with the milk, butter, and sugar. They seem like a lot of work, but they are definately worth it for a special Sunday breakfast, or in my case, a special dinner.