Waffles ala Liam

One of the things I love about the holidays is having time to spend at home with my kids and being able to cook with them in the morning.  It's a core belief of mine that every child should know how to cook at least breakfast and dinner by the time they enter high school.  The benefits are numerous.

• You spend good time with the kids
• They will tend to be more healthy because they know how to cook good food
• They will know how to feed themselves on a budget, thus will become less risk-adverse because they know the bottom isn't that bad.  You might as well start a company, because if you fail and have to eat on $10/week, you can still eat well. 
• They will always have a built-in stress relieving hobby.

I'm sure there are other advantages.

So, I cook waffles with my son, Liam.  While I cook, I babble on about how to make the waffles.  Sometimes he'll lose attention and wander off, and that's fine.

Cooking with Liam is kind of tough.  His hands aren't skilled enough to measure properly.  He's not strong enough to mash bananas or mix thick doughs.  Cooking breakfast with Liam is what drove me to perfect the "not-a-recipe pancakes" from last episode.  Waffles are basically the same recipe as pancakes, except waffles can stand more gluten, so I can let Liam mix it and still get a good product.

This requires a waffle maker.  I have this one. http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-WMR-CA-Round-Classic-Waffle/dp/B00006JKZN/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1293993974&sr=8-3 GoodWill usually has at least one, making this a great breakfast for someone on a tight budget. 

Waffles ala Liam
Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose white flour
• 2 over-ripe bananas (optional)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/4 cup coarse-grind whole grain corn meal
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 2 cups milk, spit into 1 and 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs cinammon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• Salt

Preparation
Prepare the corn meal like in the last post.  1/4 cup corn meal to 1 cup milk, in a microwave-safe container.  Microwave at high for 3 minutes, stir and microwave for another minute.  Add some milk at the end to cool and loosen.

Heat the waffle iron.  I set mine on 4, your mileage may vary.

Directions
Stir the wet and dry ingredients separately.
In the big bowl, add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.  Add chocolate chips after everything else is combined.  In the medium-sized bowl, add the eggs, oil, sugar, salt, vanilla, bananas and milk.
Slowly beat in the corn meal.  Go real slow so you don't cook the eggs.
Pour the wet onto the dry and mix.  Try not to mix too much, but it's okay to be more vigorous than with muffins or pancakes.  Actually, a little gluten makes for a crisper waffle, so put a little muscle in it.
Dollop out onto the waffle iron.  It'll take some experimenting to get the right amount, but this should be enough batter to allow for some throw-aways.
Cook until the light turns green!