The Great Shrove Tuesday Waffle-iron Debacle

It all started when someone on TV mentioned Shrove Tuesday yesterday.  While I've not usually been a part of any church that celebrates Lent and all the events leading up to it, I have learned that people eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.  Cliff loves pancakes, and I don't mind them once in a while.  What I really love is waffles!  

So this morning I decided to make waffles instead of pancakes, even though they are so much more trouble.  Now, when I was a kid and my mom made waffles, she just used pancake mix and made the batter like you would for pancakes.  My favorite Better Homes and Gardens recipe, though, is not quite as simple, and dirties up three bowls in the process of making the waffles.  You'll find my recipe HERE.  

Before mixing everything up, I located my waffle iron, which hasn't been used for at least a year.  When I opened it up I got a very strong odor of rancid cooking oil.  So I removed the waffle-iron parts, top and bottom, put them in hot soapy water, and scrubbed them like crazy.  I sniffed them, re-did them, and finally removed most of the rancid smell.  I figured I would toss the first waffle out for the chickens, just in case a trace of "rancid" remained.  

I heated up the waffle maker, and when the little light went off, letting me know it was hot enough, I spooned plenty of batter in.  As it cooked, the lovely smell of waffles wafted across the kitchen, and my stomach growled.  At just about the same time, I remembered something that I had neglected to do:  Although my waffle iron is supposed to be "non-stick", it never truly has been non-stick.  Before batter is placed in the thing, it's necessary to spray it with cooking spray; otherwise, the resulting waffled will stick like glue to top and bottom, and you end up scraping out the mess as nothing but crumbs.  I told Cliff, "We may end up having pancakes after all.  I forgot to spray the waffle iron, and this waffle will be ruined."  

He likes pancakes better anyway, so it was no big deal to him.  But man, my taste buds were set for waffles!  So when I opened the device and saw the my worst fears were realized, I removed the irons again, tossed them in the sink, and removed every last trace of the mess.  And then I started over, heating the iron, spraying it this time, and waiting.  That's the main thing I hate about waffles:  They take forever to get done!  

I persevered and conquered.  We had our waffles, and they were great.  It took me exactly one hour to finally get something edible, but when you only have waffles once every year or two, I suppose they are worth all the effort.