Awffles

Since it's a holiday today and since we're out of necessary ingredients for most breakfasts, Derrick suggested we make waffles this morning. He pulled out the waffle iron and set it up in its usual spot while I made batter. After the batter was made, and our starving-to-death child occupied with a handful of frozen blueberries, I sprayed the waffle iron (and of course, everything near it) with Pam and started a waffle. Derrick was annoyed I'd sprayed his clean spice grinder with Pam, so he moved it next to the sink and washed it, and then went back to getting Sylvia's lunch ready.

A few minutes later, the first waffle was done--and none too soon, since the blueberries were no longer sufficient to placate my daughter. So, I carefully tried to open the waffle iron. And it didn't open. So I not so carefully lifted the whole waffle iron by the handle. Still didn't open. Realizing my Pam-job hadn't been sufficient, I pulled out a fork, tried to loosen the edges in hopes that would free the waffle, and finally gave up and pulled the whole thing in half and started prying off the waffle in pieces.

Sylvia didn't mind--taste is more important to her and, as I might have mentioned before, she was STARVING! We've faced this situation before--where the waffle just sticks to the waffle iron and there's no way to remove it other than slow, careful scraping, so I heated up a skillet to start making pancakes (not Derrick's favorite. In fact, probably something that's only slightly better than cereal in his opinion). Derrick volunteered to finish cleaning off the Awfful (as Sylvia was calling it) so I could make the pancakes, commenting "at least this isn't the worst thing that could happen."

To which I said, "yeah, at least this isn't something that'll ruin the waffle maker so we can never make waffles again."

I didn't want to spend all morning cooking pancakes, so I pulled out another cast iron skillet and rinsed it, and in the process knocked over the lid of the spice grinder, which broke into two pieces when it hit the floor. Derrick put it back together with some epoxy and rubber bands, and then, since he hadn't given up on waffles, went back to cleaning the waffle iron. A few minutes later it was apparently his turn to be clumsy. He dropped the still-warm waffle iron from three inches into the sink, breaking the plastic piece that holds the cover over the heating plate.

Unless anyone knows of heat-resistant epoxy or has the necessary equipment for attaching a new handle and cover to our old waffle iron, it appears our waffle iron has made its last Awffle.