Waffles for Breakfast

For the longest time, my younger daughter, Alex, has been requesting that I buy a waffle maker. I wanted to but the last house helper we had was a walking disaster who managed to destroy a two-week-old blender and a stand mixer. I’m sure you’ll understand my trepidation over buying more kitchen appliances. Well, we let the house helper go and I finally bought a waffle maker. Last Sunday, we had waffles and bacon for breakfast.

This is not a recipe entry although, sometime soon, I will post a waffle recipe when I get the right proportion of ingredients for the waffle batter. The photo above was supposed to be accompanied by a photo of the waffle maker itself because this is supposed to be a review/feedback about whether or not a waffle maker is indeed a useful/convenient item to have in a modern kitchen. But there is no photo of the waffle maker for this entry.

See, I was so excited to use the waffle maker that I miscalculated how full the waffle plates should be before closing the lid. Why didn’t I read the instruction manual, you may wonder. It’s not that I don’t do manuals. I do, actually. Most of the time, anyway. But the instruction manual that came with the waffle maker was for a sandwich maker. In short, the instructions there were meant for toasting bread with filling. Dry, cooked bread. Nothing about batter or anything of pouring consistency.

So, totally clueless about how full they ought to be, I filled the waffle plates almost to the brim and the batter seeped through the back and sides of the waffle maker, quite happily and freely I’m sure, during cooking. Breakfast was great, no doubt, but I spent twice as much time cleaning the waffle maker than making the waffles and cooking the bacon. The batter got into small grooves with screws inside and I had to use cotton swabs, toothpicks, and tissue paper to get rid of the mess. I just lost any interest in taking photos.

Of course, I’m not saying that the waffle maker is totally useless and/or more of an inconvenience than a convenience. I mean, it was my first time to use it and I never had a waffle maker before. So, maybe, next time, without overfilling the waffle plates, things will turn out just fine and I will experience the ease of use and less work-intensive cooking an unspoken promise that comes with small kitchen appliances. Next time I make some waffles and the only cleaning I have to do is to wipe the waffle plates, the entry will include a photo of the waffle maker.