I just ate my own weight in waffles.

Behold the waffle iron!

The best laid plans and all that…  It’s the pumpkin’s fault.  I had 3/4 of a can of leftover pumpkin in the fridge that I had to use up before it turned into a science experiment.  You know the kind of experiments I’m talking about…   Where a day in the not-so-distance future you think, Hey, I know!  I have leftover pumpkin that I can use for this recipe of cake/muffins/waffles and then you open the container and you have to swallow that little bit of mouth vomit when you’re met by green and white pillows of mouldy-mould.

Making waffles is an adventure at the best of times, but for me, first thing in the morning, it takes every single last little bit of my focus.  Turns out, I’m not so good at math first thing in the morning.  And seeing as I decided that I would double the batch of waffle batter to use up more of the pumpkin, I found myself having to do a lot of fractional math… first thing in the morning.

Doubling  1 3/4 cups of milk shouldn’t cause a person this much distress.

Okay… 1 and 3/4 doubled is…  nnnnnnnope, AIN’T gonna happen.  

I’ll try it this way:  1 doubled is 2.    YAY!  We have 2!   

3/4 doubled is 1.5.  We have 1.5.  

2 + 1.5 = 3.5 cups.  3.5 cups?  That sounds like a lot of milk.   Better double check.

1+1=2  

3/4 +3/4 = 1 1/2

2 + 3.5= 5.5?!?  What the???  Where did the 3.5 come from?  (Flour coated fingers rub my furrowed brow.)  AHHHHH!  First total.  We’re good.  3.5

***

4 teaspoons of baking powder


Which means it’s really 8 teaspoons.  That’s too many teaspoons – there’s no possible way I can keep track of 8 teaspoons. Time for conversions.


4 teaspoons is 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon.


Doubled = 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons!!

A recipe that should take about 5 minutes to whip together, takes me, first thing in the morning, when doing fractional math, at least 15 minutes.  (Note to self – write the double batch amount in the margin next time.)  But once the batter was mixed, we were good to go.  It seemed a little extra thick (must be all those ground pecans in the pumpkin pecan waffles), but waffle number one went on the waffle iron.  When the “I’m DONE” beep sounded, I pried the waffle from the iron’s grip.  I’m pretty sure that this single waffle weighed 12 lbs.  David ate that one.

“Wow.  This is a WAFFLE!!!”  He growled masculinely for effect.  “WAFFFLE!!!  No one mess with me today, I’m full of WAFFLE!!!”

I added a little more milk.  Maybe it should have been 5.5 cups of liquid.  I still had to smooth out the batter on the iron with an extra spoon, pat it down, convince it to be smaller.  After Rissa said she didn’t need a second waffle, I knew that these waffles might be the equivalent to Arctic Bannock.  I tried to the thin the batter out some more and continued to cook.  Eventually, I had a stack of waffles beside the iron, precariously perched … the Leaning Tower of Waffles as it were.

Moments before physics kicked in.

I turned my back to put something in the fridge and I heard a somewhat moist, heated thud.  Half the waffles had disappeared. What the?  DAMN IT!    I knew I should have moved them!  I looked beside the stove.  There in our extra plastic bag stash – easily a dozen suicidal waffles.

Their own weight was too much for them.  My haphazard placement of the stack could not have been countered – I’d begun my own elaborate Waffle Jenga game and had lost.  Thankfully they fell into the extra plastic bag stash – (the top bags, I quickly calculated, had been placed just the day before – thank God) , not on the floor and could be salvaged.  We now have 126 waffles in our freezer in aluminum foil covered batches of 3 so the next time I get the bright idea to make waffles first thing in the morning we have 42 opportunities to eat them.    Lesson Learned:  Make waffles the night before.