The story starts out like many, girl meets boy, boy moves hundreds of miles away, girl decides to impress boy by joining a live streaming platform one lonely Christmas night. First, and most importantly, she needs a username, something cool that says "I'm interesting, come hang".
Truth be told, I hadn't had a screen name in years. I wasn't a gamer and hadn't had a handle that wasn't just my name in years. So I took some time and tried to figure out something that felt like me.
I was working at a restaurant at the time as a jack of all trades, my primary position was serving and bartending but I also filled in as a manager as needed and baked the desserts for the chef. I really loved it. I made a few staple desserts, the bread and housemade raviolis but also got to make my own dessert specials as I desired. We had gotten in a big bag of local huckleberries and I was pumped. I decided to run a honey semolina cake with a huckleberry coulis and fresh whipped cream.
I set to work making the cake and cooked down the berries into a syrup and then made a life altering mistake, a butterfly effect worthy choice that has persisted for 8 years now. I put the hot syrup in a blender and did NOT give it a large enough steam vent. I essentially made a huckleberry pressure bomb in the kitchen. Huckleberry sauce went everywhere, literally floor to ceiling covered in hot sticky purple goo. I ended up also splattered in the hot sauce, the chef rushed back in and just started laughing at me. He delighted in asking if I needed help tending to the burns as I had a substantial amount of sauce on my boobs. Such a perv.
I cleaned myself, the floor, wall and ceiling up as best I could but there were purple stains everywhere. Then the rest of the line cooks showed up and the chef regaled in retelling the story of the explosion. I was stuck with the nickname of Huckleberry Tits for hours until the dishwasher came to my rescue by somehow making an even more stupid mistake. He managed to get his thumb trapped in a large star piping tip just as I was about to head out for the night.
The chef asked me ever so sweetly if I could play nurse and extract his thumb from its spiky metal collar- without ruining the piping tip of course. I sat the dishwasher down and using some needle-nose pliers typically reserved for pulling pin bones from fish, carefully bent the tines back one by one until we could pull it off his thumb. I then graduated from Huckleberry Tits to "Nurse Huckleberry", the moniker lasted for maybe a day in that restaurant.
Fast forward to a couple weeks later, and I have decided that Nurse_Huckleberry will be my new online identity (I later removed the underscore, but it still haunts me to this day). I made a cute offline image of a classic pinup nurse holding a tray with a bowl full of huckleberries and started what unbeknownst to me would be a life changing streaming career.
Let me know if you liked this longer style blog post! I'm excited to add to the lore and share stories with you all!
Cheers,
Nurse Huckleberry
It may not surprise you that one of my all time favorite actors is the Canadian comedian, Mike Myers. So to celebrate his birthday I crafted a Shrek inspired Birthday cake. Donkey's waffles, packed with caramelized onions, layered with bacon and onion jam and drizzled with maple syrup. A delightfully sweet and savory treat that will make love to the tastebuds of onion lovers. Sha-wing!
Oniony, Waffly, Layery Cake
Makes 8-10 mini waffles, 4-5 large waffles
1 med sweet onion
2 c GF flour of choice
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 melted and cooled butter or olive oil
1 3/4 c milk of choice
2 eggs
butter pats and maple syrup
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Thinly slice onion then slowly saute over medium heat with a little olive oil for 25-30 minutes stirring occasionally. Cook until they become super soft, deep golden and very fragrant. You can't rush it, they will burn if it's too hot.
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Meanwhile, prep the batter. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together. Make a well in the center and add in butter/oil, egg and milk. Mix until almost completely smooth. Let stand for 10 minutes. Heat and oil your waffle iron.
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Once the onions have caramelized, stir them into your batter. Cook waffles following recommended instructions for your waffle maker. Meanwhile you can prep the onion jam (see recipe below).
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To assemble, brush waffles with butter and layer with onion jam (about 1/4 c per layer for mini waffles). Drizzle stack with maple syrup and garnish with a pat of butter and some finishing salt.
Optional: Pairs great with a light salad- arugula, chevre and lemon vinaigrette maybe?
Onion and Bacon Jam
Makes ~1 cup
3 slices bacon
1 med sweet onion diced
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup water
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Cook the bacon over medium heat in the same pan you caramelize the onions in. Once the fat has mostly rendered, set the bacon aside and start to cook down the diced onion in the bacon fat until very soft and caramelized.
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Dice bacon to match the size of onions and add back into the pan with sugar and water stirring well. Simmer over low heat, stirring frequently until there is no liquid left in the bottom of the pan and it sticks together.
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Spreads best while warm.
Optional:A squeeze of lemon can help brighten the jam's flavor and an herb like thyme or rosemary will deepen the flavors. This recipe can also be made vegetarian, simply omit the bacon and saute onions a generous amount of olive oil.
I hope you enjoy this super savory onion cake!
Cheers!
Nurse Huckleberry
