Product Review: Nordic Ware Waffled Pancake Pan

So one day I was gushing over gadgets in the latest Williams-Sonoma catalog to Coco. As a result, I got a very nice Christmas gift selected from said collection:


Oh, it looks like a sweet little pan, but let me tell you this - it's the Devil dressed in Teflon. At least for the first batch of Paffles.

I love trying new recipes - so I was happy one came attached with the pan for Buttermilk Paffles. See:


This particular recipe had a tip that I loved - to keep your paffles warm between batches, place the cooked paffles on a wire rack over a cookie sheet in your 200 degree oven. Duh! This way they don't get soggy - now pay it forward, folks.

Like many pancake and waffle recipes, this one calls for you to whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and fold them last into the batter. This really is a crucial step for bangin' pancakes and waffles. I want to take this opportunity to pay homage to my stand mixer. Who the hell wants to do that by hand?


Thank you, Kitchen Aid. That picture just doesn't do you justice.

Back to the pan. It is designed to make little paffles, like silver-dollar pancakes. You are to use approximately two tablespoons of batter per well. This was like rocket science to me for some reason. I simply had to overfill those little bastards.


Then you are to flip the paffle, and gently press it back into the well. Yeah, right. I know a learning curve is to be expected, but that first batch was a bitch. And made me have very low self-esteem.


Finally, I made it through all the batter (I only made a half-batch). I like to think you can see improvement from the first batch to the last. If you disagree, keep it to yourself.


Many people, The Boy included, might say, "Well who cares what it looks like. How does it taste?


Good enough!

Little Beach

Children are funny. And not just hysterically funny, which they are, but really strangely funny too. At least I sometimes find the toddler strangely funny, with his changeable obsessions (currently all things Backyardigans ), fickle palate (won't eat the same thing on successive days), and sudden fears (the dark and the beach). My mother says these are phases, as in, "Oh I wouldn't worry about it - he's just going through a phase." I'm not worried about any of it, although at times these "phases" can be trying, as in "trying my patience".

But as I mentioned previously, quality parenting requires loads of patience. It also occasionally requires outsmarting your child. So while I may be frustrated over the toddler's reticence in going to the beach, it is much more fruitful to circumvent the current fear. In other words, trick him. Since I want to go to the beach, we will go to the beach. Little Beach.

Little Beach is what some in this area call the Redneck Riviera. It is on the bay and lined with mangroves. The water is calm at Little Beach and each beachgoer has something of their own private area since access is limited to the inlets between mangrove stands. It is more mucky than sandy, but not as mucky as a lake. The toddler loves it there and we recently had a chance to take a family daytrip to enjoy each other and the beautiful weather.

The toddler jumps right in . . .

splashes darling hubby . . .

kicks around in his floaty . . .

skips rocks . . .

and takes in the view.

We left our mark for the day, which by now is washed away.

I got my day at the beach.

Mission accomplished.

Peanut Butter Banana Waffles

Wow. That's a nice stripe you've got there. How did you manage that?

Oh yes, that. Well, some people live dangerously by riding motorcycles, or going skydiving. But me? All I need to do is use an appliance or the Wusthofs. In this case, the rotisserie attachment on the new grill. Stupid new grill.

I see. Can I ask you another question?

What's that?

What have you got against bananas?

Um, I can see how one might believe I have something against bananas, but what I've really got is a finicky toddler. He requires a lot of variety, the little tyrant, so if I don't feel like picking up his banana slack, then I just have to get creative.

I've been enjoying vegan blogs lately. I feel like vegans get really creative in the kitchen. So I went poking around a nice vegan blog and found a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Waffles.

Oh, no, those sound terrible.

I know, right!

First, I must put the pesky toddler into action so he helps me assemble the ingredients. (I am not a vegan, so whatever vegan ingredients that were listed that I didn't have, I simply replaced with a non-vegan substitute I had on hand.)

In the dry corner: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, and one pinch of cinnamon.

In the wet corner: ripe bananas, 1/4 cup organic peanut butter, 2 tbsp cream cheese, 2 tbsp canola oil, 1 cup organic milk, 1 heavy tsp pure vanilla.

(Now that I've done these waffles once, the next time I would use plain organic yogurt in place of the cream cheese, and probably an egg instead of the canola oil. And I don't know why Blogger sometimes makes my pictures sideways but I don't know enough to fix it!)

So, a wet vs. dry? I take it that this means more than one bowl this time.

Yes - and look what I find when I get out the mixing bowl for the dry ingredients:

Oy - that toddler! Now he really had better get to work. Here he is getting ready to mix the dry ingredients:

Moving on to the wet ingredients in the stand mixer:

He loves to watch that mixer go!

Time to slowly introduce the dry ingredients to the wet:

And then we mixed until smooth. We preheated the waffle iron and sprayed non-stick butter flavored spray before adding a heavy 1/2 cup of the batter.

It took 3 - 4 minutes per waffle for them to cook - keep a close eye on them! And you must remember to spray with non-stick spray in between each waffle or you will have a disaster on your hands.

But - if you are a good waffle monitor and conscientious non-stick spray user, you should get 5 or 6 waffles to eat with warm syrup and sliced banana.

Yum!

The Haircut

I promised some peeps I would post pictures of the toddler's new haircut. It is much shorter than usual. Darling hubby was surprised and wouldn't commit to liking it, but I adore it. It is so cute; I feel like "all those beautiful curls" were detracting from his adorable, little round face.

The pictures come from our day at a captivating and enormous park on the water in a neighboring county. (Click to enlarge.)

How to Go Through Four Turkey Dogs in 15 Minutes

I used to love the hotdog sandwiches my mother would make for me and my sister growing up. She would boil the hotdog, slice it lengthwise (being sure not to slice entirely through the hotdog so it would open like a book), lay it on toasted bread and then dress it with ketchup and mustard. It really was a delight, and I thought an ingenious way to marry the desire for a hotdog with the lack of a bun.

Hey. The title of this post is "How to Go Through Four Turkey Dogs in 15 Minutes", not "How to Wax Nostalgic About Some Crummy Hotdog Sandwiches my Mom Used to Make". Sheesh, I'm getting there, will you give me a break?

Anyway, I suddenly remebered these sandwiches right when I needed one. The toddler had been clamoring for a sandwich (with mustard!) - but while there was bread, there were no other sandwich fixings. Hm, except maybe, let me see . . . oh yes, turkey dogs! Memory is tricky like that. I don't even remember the last time I had a hotdog sandwich.

But Mr. Italics is right - this post is about how to go through four turkey dogs in 15 minutes. So let's get it on.

Step 1: Own a dog.

Excuse me. There is not even the suggestion of a dog in your profile. A reef tank, yes. Dog, no. OMG, must I divulge everything all at once? Some things need to be exposed slowly, like a flower opening in the spring.

That's right, own a dog. The first turkey dog I cooked was much, much too hot to give to the toddler straightaway. It needed to cool. So I sliced it lengthwise as described above, and placed it on a plate to rest. My mistake was in exiting the kitchen, for when I returned the dog was there but the turkey dog was not.

Step 2: Overcook the turkey dog.

It may seem difficult to overcook a turkey dog, but it can be done. Especially if you decide to be lazy and nuke the second dog because you don't want to wait for the water to boil. But you are so lazy, you just hit "Add Minute" on the microwave and then get distracted so that the turkey dog cooks for the entire minute and winds up turning itself inside out. There is no way the toddler is going to eat that.

Step 3: Have a toddler.

I could easily make Step 3 the same as Step 1, "Own a dog" but that would be a cop-out. The dog didn't drop the turkey dog and then immediately gobble it up. The toddler dropped the turkey dog, and the dog, being an opportunistic sort of animal, immediately gobbled it up. Dog 2, Toddler 0.

Step 4: Monitor closely all steps in this process to the point where you nearly hold the sandwich for the toddler to eat.

Believe it or not, the toddler did in fact successfully eat his first turkey dog sandwich. He loved it, and nodded his head vigorously in affirmation.

Thanks, Mom.