Fantastic waffles using my homemade pancake mix.

I'll be honest with you. I think that making waffles for more than four people is a pain.

It takes so long! And no matter how many you make, it's very hard to have leftovers for that chimerical "easy weekday breakfast" you read so much about in cheerful women's magazines --

 
-- you know, where the kids help themselves to tasty healthy foods you have prepared for them in advance.



I'll be even more honest with you. If you have a lot of kids, double the recipe for the Baking Mix (yes, using 20 cups of flour!) and scour the earth for the right size container, which then must be stored in the outside refrigerator because it won't fit inside. My recipe doesn't make enough to make it worthwhile for a really big family.

And even this recipe for waffles isn't going to keep more than six people in waffles with a few left over. So you are forewarned. You might stand a chance if you also serve sausage, bacon, poached eggs, and strawberries.

Have you found a waffle maker that can churn out the batches quickly? Please tell us what it is.

I looked and looked, and finally I found this one on eBay.




Supposedly it's the kind Williams-Sonoma used to have. Note the "used to".

Perhaps they too got fed up with having to wait for it to beep twice or thrice before the waffles are done? (By the way, its beep sounds like a sparrow on steriods.)

It isn't fast, but I happen to like regular, not Belgian, waffles, and I couldn't find one that made both for less than I paid for this one. I couldn't find anything I liked.




In general I think appliances are not made for large families. Why does my electric range have only one large burner? That stinks.





But waffles are fun, no doubt about it.

And if your gang is clamoring for them, and you are tired of buying humongous boxes of Eggos, because face it, they'd take up all your freezer space, they aren't that nutritious, and they cost a lot, I am giving you a tutorial here using my very own home made baking mix!





All my kids have to do is sort of wistfully mention that they would really love to have something, e. g. waffles, and I am more or less their slave. I have to do it. I scour the internet to find the right waffle iron --




(this is not it, as I say, but it does have a certain fun retro look, doesn't it?) as well as all the tips and hints for just the right crispy on the outside-moist on the inside waffley goodness.

So here you go. The fruits of my efforts, just for you!





Preheat the iron and LIGHTLY grease it. I use coconut oil. Be very sparing. The more grease on the iron, the less crispy your waffles will be, paradoxically. (This is the same reason you cut your baking mix with flour and starch -- it's very buttery, otherwise, and will stick and tear.)

Take your handy dandy baking mix, 4 1/2 cups, and add a cup of flour, 1/4 cup of cornstarch, and 1/4 cup of sugar.




Separate two or three eggs and put the whites in a bowl and the yokes in a well in the center of your mix. I use my hand-held blender to beat the whites. It doesn't do the best job, but it works.


 

Into the well with the yolks, put 3 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Stir them together and begin lightly incorporating the mix.

This is the part that is so hard to describe.

You want to fold in the mix so that at no point are you beating it, which will make your waffles (or pancakes) tough. You want to keep the part that's mixed very wet as you pull in all the mix gradually. Stop before you quite feel that you are done.





Now fold in those whites. Again, stop before you feel you are done.




Your mixture should be lumpy and light and batter-y. Note the wet edges. As you make your waffles (or pancakes) you will be giving it a stir each time you dip in your spoon, so allow for that.




May I point out the virtue of two tools that I find indispensable? One is that two-dimensional whisk, which mixes without getting stuff stuck in the "basket" of a normal whisk, and the other is this serving spoon I got as a wedding gift:





It is a small ladle that is just the right size for scooping out batter for waffles, pancakes, and tomato sauce for pizzas. I use it every day, just about!




Ladle your batter on the iron. Close and wait for EVER.




Transfer the waffles to a rack, briefly, to sort of dry out and crisp up, if you are not putting them right on a hungry baby bird's plate.




I'm not fussy about funky shapes. It's better to have too little batter than too much, which will result in a not crispy waffle, the bane of my existence, pretty much.





{Do you know that Nick started a Facebook group "Just say no to fake maple syrup"?}




We are unabashed real maple syrup aficionados.


 

We consume no soda, no Eggos, and no Bagel bites. We save all those pennies and buy maple syrup instead.




As the extras cool, stack them up.




If you have any left over, squirrel them away. These are really, really good!





Thanks to Ann Kroeker's Food on Friday for the link!
Thanks to Julia at Hooked on Houses for the link!

A New Door For My Studio

I had an old fire door to my studio which I had painted purple (wish I had taken a picture of it). I liked the purple but the plastic looking door was really ugly and uninviting.

So I asked one of the dealers (as in antique dealer) in my building if she had a door. She gave me a lovely door that was painted a shocking pink (you would not want to see that).

I painted it black and am so happy with the result. It makes my studio more welcoming to visitors.

One wall of my little gallery space:

One of my recent pastels:

I'm currently working on a mosaic, as a beginner. I'm pasting the tesserae on mylar which covers the design. When done it is turned over into wet cement.

My tools (a hammer and hardie) for cutting marble:

I will post a picture of my mosaic when it is done. It is a long process and because one works in reverse it is hard to tell exactly how it will look.

Let me tell you one thing about order.

So last time when I talked about Order and Wonder, did you get a kind of anxiety attack, as if you thought I was saying that something like this



is what I had in mind?

Don't be silly. :)




Order means first things first. So... yes, of course, stuff like making sure the kids are fed and keeping things neat and tidy.

{Long ago we had a next-door neighbor who would come over (he was about the age of my parents) and first thing neaten up all the reading material on my coffee table, which was a lot -- magazines, mail, books, everything just thrown on there.

Since it wasn't like thisI thought it wasn't worth making look nice. (Not that I like that ugly thing.)

But he would make tidy stacks of all my stuff, and then sit down and chat with me. (He was a funny guy.)

You know what -- it made my living room look instantly better!}

Anyway, I was going to tell you a very important step towards getting Order and Wonder for your home and family.

You are probably already doing this, but maybe you haven't quite realized how important it is and will be in the future for your life together.

If there were one thing I would tell a young family --

one thing I would tell a family that was having trouble --

one thing I would tell a family on the brink of splitting up --

one thing I would tell a family that was worried about the teens --

one practical thing I would tell any family --


Make Sundays a day of rest.


 

And only the mother can really make this happen, week in and week out. Only the mother can make it possible for the crazy activities to stop, for the family to worship together, and for the family to sit down together for a meal. The father can want all these things, and ask for them, but if the mother doesn't make the practical effort, they won't happen.

And if the mother isn't enjoying herself, no one is.

Anyway, we don't have a blog called Like Father, Like Son. We're talking to YOU.

So yes, it's another thing you have to do! But it's the best thing.

Even if Dad has to work a shift on Sunday, even if the kids have soccer, even if there is so much laundry that if you missed this day you would never be found again under a mountain of dirty clothes, do something to make the day -- at some point-- a real day of the Lord.



Now, some Sundays that might mean a real old-fashioned Sunday dinner after Church with plenty of relaxation in the form of reading the paper, visiting with extended family, and playing games.




Some Sundays it might mean an early Mass with the day spent burning brush and enjoying the sunshine after a long winter.




Not to mention any families that might have spent a recent Sunday this way, and enjoyed every moment of it! {Note our two-toned house? One side a year, baby :) }


 

You might have roast beef; you might have leftovers. You might have friends over, you might be "just us." It might be brunch, it might be a late supper.

But you all sit down together, light a candle or two, and take a deep breath. (You might sit down on a blanket after a hike and have a picnic!)

Correct your children's manners during the week, and try not to do too much correcting at the Sunday meal!

Try to enjoy.





You might spend the whole afternoon visiting Grandma at assisted living or helping neighbors build their porch.



I don't care what you do. I don't care if you don't have nice china. I don't care if this has to happen at 7 am or 8 pm to happen at all. I don't care if it's just an hour out of the whole day.


 

The point is to make this day a day different from the others. And if you prayerfully do this, however modestly and humbly (well, of course you should do it humbly, but you know what I mean, I hope!), you will see God's blessings showering on you and your family.

Things you have been anxious about will become peaceful. Together you will make calm decisions about things that have been troubling you.

I promise.

Tightwad Toile!

Would you like a tour of another room? I wanted to join Pretty Organized Palace's Toile party, so I thought you'd like to hear the whole story.This room surprises me by being very magical -- at least for decidedly un-magical people like us.

My decorating style tends towards waking up and finding out what yard sale things ended up in the room.The effect here is the result of some happy choices for two different girls and some hard thinking -- not to mention a lot of work undoing -- what else -- bad 70s karma.

Words cannot describe how badly "decorated" this room was when we first moved here. I wish -- O how I wish! -- we had taken a before picture!

We're talking Barbie pink walls. Bright lavender wall to wall carpet. Brown twin poster beds left by the owners. Bad. Very bad.

It was Deirdre who began the transformation, pulling up the carpet and starting her lobbying efforts. With a huge house -- thirteen big rooms!-- to bring up to some sort of livability, it was not high on my list to make the wishes of a twelve-year-old come true. I actually don't remember how old she was. She was young!

She shared this bedroom with Bridget, who was little more than a baby then. Deirdre desperately wanted a day bed with a trundle, but a quick look online made it clear that anything worth spending money on was way out of our budget, which was -- just about nothing.So, Mom had to get thinking while this determined little spitfire got to patching her walls and campaigning for nothing less than --

TOILE!

Now, we are talking quite a bit of wallpaper here, even with the interruptions of doors etc. Fortunately, a chair rail was in place, so we went with the wallpaper below the rail, keeping the effect without the expenditure. The wallpaper was the only thing we spent serious money on, and while I don't remember exactly, it was under $100.

We matched the wall and floor color to the white of the paper, and used a bright version of the green for the chair rail. Don't forget we had to liven up that fireplace!This bulletin board was here when we arrived-- it's very clever, actually, being molding and corkboard attached to the wall -- and Deirdre made it into a giant scrapbook:

I want to tell you that all the "styling" is the girls'. I hardly did anything in this room other than hang the paper, make the pillows and valences (formerly curtains), and figure out the bed (the Chief put it together).


These Calico critters came mostly from one lucky find on Ebay, and have been played with for ever.

I made this quilt for Bridget (each one of my kids got one).


Just about the only place other than the side of the road that has great decorating accents in my price range is Marshall's, and there Deirdre found these little cute toile things.

I figured out that putting together the headboards of the poster bed with hardware from the furniture store would give us a day bed.

The same store (Jordan's) sold trundles, and that worked perfectly for the two girls. (Alas, even the sturdy model we got didn't last more than about six years of hard use, but we still shove a mattress under there! Note that it failed just beyond the warranty period, grrr....)
Remember I told you my rooms all have 4 huge windows and at least 3 doors AND a fireplace? No spot for furniture! Deirdre was right -- a daybed was the only way to go!What I learned along the way is that a very tight budget can produce some really good ideas!

Now that Deirdre is off to college, it's Bridget's room, and we have worked to make it her own. You know, none of the older kids got this kind of treatment! :)The doll is another Ebay find. The wicker is from my favorite local antiques place, although it's not really antiques, it's more a sort of well presented junk shop! JUST my kind of thing! :)
A small amount of fabulous fabric goes far on throw pillows. The Three Little Pigs can make for some sophisticated art! (I did frame this page from an old book Rosie brought back from England --page, not book --, as well as some serendipitous pig greeting cards.)Bridget prefers the bed out in the room rather than against the wall, day bed style, and her pink (oh, but the right pink, which makes all the difference! For the love of all that is holy, get the right pink!) bedding works just right with the cream and green.

Add a little yellow and rescue her from candy-land :)
These valences were curtain panels in Bridget's interim room (the only small room in the house!). This works -- it has to! :)Even the scraps of fabric got a purpose in a patchwork pajama bag.Finding the Chief's old typewriter in Grandma's attic sent Bridget into writer's stratosphere.
This is a girl's haven! I don't know how it even happened!
Thanks also to The Gypsy's Corner Three or More Tuesday for another linky!