Maple Bourbon Pecans and More

This weekend was filled with good eating: homemade corn and potato chowder (made with central Ohio sweet corn and fingerling potatoes from Toad Hill Farm), which was a perfect soup to sample this weekend. The ingredients are light, making it an appropriate soup for summer's end, yet it was warm and comforting enough to be an antidote to Saturday's cool and rainy weather.

On Saturday I trekked up to Whole Foods (or "whole paycheck" as our neighbor calls it). On football Saturdays everyone else in Columbus is either at the OSU game or watching it at home on t.v., so it's the perfect time to do some food shopping on Sawmill Rd., Columbus's "Main Street U.S.A." with every chain store imaginable--worth avoiding not only because of all the big box stores, but also because it's always so jammed with traffic. Anyway, I checked out Whole Foods' nut roasting station, and ended up walking away with a little paper cone full of maple bourbon pecans. I love the challenge of planning an entire meal around one ingredient, and I was determined to do more than just gobble up these delicious nuggets on the drive home. I elected to make them a centerpiece for a Labor Day brunch and made them into maple bourbon pecan waffles! I selected a chocolate chip waffle recipe and substituted finely chopped pecans for the chocolate chips, then sprinkled some whole pecans on top of the maple syrup-drizzled waffles. The waffles were crunchy, nutty, bourbon-y and sweet...a great way to kick off Labor Day!

Ah, but today it was business and usual, and thus my dinner consisted of a bowl of Lucky Charms. Sigh. I love three-day weekends. And maple bourbon pecans.