Intermission

So, it turns out I suck at even a tiny little project. It's been 4 weeks since the last waffle, and I'm about to add another 3 weeks to that, because reasons. If all goes to plan, I shall return to my kitchen at the beginning of July, whereupon I plan to persue waffles across America* with renewed vigour. Maybe even vengeance. If you fancy trying out something new in the meantime, how about making one of these amazing Next Level Waffles? @camannwordsmith sent me the link ages ago, and while I've not been brave enough to attempt these, I'm sure you suffer no such fear! If you do make any of them, let me know how you got on? Thankies. Hope everyone's well and waffled up.

/PSA


* Oooooh, see what I did there?

Week 7: Churro Waffles

Sorry about last week, Team Waffle! The gingerbread waffles WILL be a thing, but last weekend kinda fell through the cracks and I never found it again.

However! Today, Waffles Across America Totally. Happened. @JadeSnake had this great idea of a #WaffleHangout, so, this morning, we hooked up on Skype and made churro waffles - me here in London at 8am, Jade and @SemiEvolved at midnight in San Francisco. Making a note here: HUGE. SUCCESS.

Here's the recipe, via our amazing friend Thera. You should make these. They're incredibly sweet, because, let's face it, you dunking them in melted butter and then rolling them in cinnamon and sugar, but believe me when I say that they are very, very tasty indeed without this last part, too.

Alas, I forgot to grease my so-called non-stick waffle iron, and the waffles promptly came apart when I tried to pry them out, so there's no pictures this week. Let's all assume they looked exactly like this. Yes. Let's. Ahem.

Week 6: Waffles and Chicken, you say? YUM, I say!

Welcome to week 6 of Waffles Across America, wherein I overcome my fear of putting foods together that do not go together. Not where I'm from, anyway! The recipe comes courtesy of fellow seamonkey @joshacagan, everyone's favourite Elvis Costello lookalike and writer of the awesome Learning Town, which YOU WILL WATCH RIGHT NOW if you haven't done so already. Also if you have done so already. Because.

Disclaimer: I didn't have much time this weekend, so there was no way I was going to attempt southern fried chicken. So I bought some. "From scratch" is not in my vocabulary.

Son of Disclaimer: There is no buttermilk powder in my local supermarket, and as I don't yet know enough to be able to confidently substitute wet and dry ingredients without blowing up my house, I went looking for a random buttermilk recipe online. Found a likely candidate on www.chefkoch.de and used half measures, as below. They were awesome.

To the kitchen!

Ingredients
Southern Fried Chicken. Buy you some, or make it as per the original recipe (which sounds amazing, by the way, and I will totally attempt to make the chicken, one day #soon.)

For the waffles:
- 62.5g butter (at room temperature)
- 25g sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- 125g flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 100ml buttermilk

Method
1. Cook chicken as per the instructions on the packaging (or as per the recipe above, which recommends an overnight marinade in spices and buttermilk. Are you drooling yet?)
2. Mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, eggs and buttermilk. Make sure that butter isn't too cold or you'll be mixing until your arm falls off. I had the hardest time re-attaching mine.
3. Mix flour and baking powder and add to the wet goods. The mixture will have the consistency of  thick, runny honey.
4. Cook them waffles!

Result
A thousand words:

Chicken, meet waffle. Waffle, chicken.

The waffles are quite chewy and only taste nice when warm. But then, oh my, are they tasy. I liked the syrup with the chicken, and the syrup with the waffles, but I didn't quite like the chicken with the waffle. This may well be because a) store-bought sfc and b) different waffle recipe.

I think I have to eat this in its natural habitat. Looks like you need to make good on your promise and take me to that waffle place in L.A., Josh! If I ever make it back there...

Next time, we're making gingerbread waffles. GINGERBREAD WAFFLES, y'all. I have examined this phrase and find it good.

I aten't ded!

ALRIGHT, #TEAMWAFFLE!? I'm sorry I've been afk (away from kitchen) - too much to deal with at work and two weekends away, is my excuse. However! I have time tomorrow, so I'll be making chicken and waffles as per the recommendation of the ever-awesome @joshacagan! (And pretty much every #teamwaffle member in the States. They're a bit...weird over there.)

I'm very excited about this. This is the recipe, if you want to waffle along!

Full disclosure: I will NOT be making the southern friend chicken from scratch, because I'm a coward. I don't want to screw it up, plus I don't even know if I like chicken and waffles, so, for this trial run, I've bought some read-made southern friend chicken drumsticks that I'll only have to pop in the oven. Yes, I know. I promise, if I like this as much as I think I will, I shall attempt the chicken next.

See you tomorrow!

Damnation and woe

There will be no new recipe this weekend because I must deal with Life, which is being a jerk. Normal service to resume...SOON.

Week 5: Alton Brown's Luft-Waffles (yeah, I know...)

Everything was so late today I don't have time to write up Week 5, wherein I cooked some incredible waffles, which made me happy.

If you're waffling along, here's the recipe, which @burnumd was kind enough to write out for me. I'll report tomorrow. One thing you might want to know up front: This produces a BAZILLION waffles.

Alton Brown's Luft-Waffles:
Dry goods:
all-purpose flour 270g (2 cups)
baking powder 5g (1tsp)
baking soda 3g (1/2tsp)
salt 6g (1tsp)

Wet goods:
unsalted butter 57g (4tbs), melted and cooled slightly
eggs 150g (3 large), beaten
buttermilk 454g (2 cups), at room temp
sugar 42g (3tbs)

Sift all dry goods (or pulse for 5s in a food processor)
Whisk the melted butter and the eggs together
Whisk the rest of the liquid goods (yes, that includes sugar) into the butter and egg mixture.
Add the liquid goods to the dry goods and mix just until batter comes together. DO NOT MIX SMOOTH.
Set the batter aside to rest for 5 minutes (or refrigerate for up to 1 hour)

Then you cook them. Forever. Alton says "Yields six 8-inch round waffles" but his iron must be about an inch deeper than mine. I made 18 (18!) 4x5 waffles.

Anyway, they were amazing. More tomorrow. Also: pictures!

ETA: I've not done anything with this post because I had some bad news on Monday and my heart's not in it. But I can at least show you the pictures!

1. Line up All The Things

2. Mix until you think it's "just" come together... Yeah, I know.

3. Set aside for 5 mins...and science happens!

4. Use SMALL spoonfuls for your first attempt.

ARE YOU DROOLING YET?

I hope you've hired a small army to eat them all.

Week 5 shopping list

After last week's...er, shall we say mixed results, I've decided to try a recipe that doesn't involve yeast in any shape or form. Thus, we will be making a recipe of Alton Brown's, as recommended by @burnumd and @AngerMonkey!

If you want to waffle along, you will need:

Dry goods:
all-purpose flour 270g (2 cups)
baking powder 5g (1tsp)
baking soda 3g (1/2tsp)
salt 6g (1tsp)

Wet goods:
unsalted butter 57g (4tbs) melted and cooled slightly
eggs 150g (3 large)
beaten buttermilk 454g (2 cups), at room temp
sugar 42g (3tbs)

How awesome are these measurements? THIS awesome!

See you all on Sunday.

Week 4: How not to make Gauffres the Liege

Welcome to Week 4 of Waffles Across America, wherein I aimed too high and promptly ruined a perfectly good batch of ingredients. Let me start by saying this:

If you don't have a stand mixer and you suffer from RSI in your wrists, a bad back or carpal tunnel syndrome: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. Trust me.

Now, where was I. Oh yes! Ruining waffles. So, the recipe was recommended by my friend @Origamislayer, who deserves all the blame, of course, but also many kudos. Because, let's face it: Those waffles right there look amazing. And the ingredients are all good, so on the day they're done right, I bet they are tasty as anything. Alas, today was not that day.

To the kitchen!

Ingredients
6 tablespoons warm milk (no hotter than 110°F)
1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/2 cups (230 grams) bread flour, sifted
1 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 medium egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup (4 oz/ 113g) unsalted butter, at slightly cooler than room temperature
140 grams turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar if you choose

Notes: The closest to 'turbinado or pearl sugar' I could get was demerara. Also, I didn't know whether to use white or brown bread flour, so I went with white. I used semi-skimmed milk because I had it in the house. Not sure if that was one of my many mistakes?

I bet that cow is judging me.

Method
I followed the recipe to the letter; thusly:

Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk; then add the yeast. Make sure that the milk is not too hot, lest it kill the yeast instead of promoting its growth. Place a plate or some kind of cover on top of the bowl with the milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside for about five minutes. When you check on it, the yeast should have bubbled up, looking light brown and spongy. 

I heated the milk for exactly ten seconds in the microwave and tested the temperature with my pinky. It felt lukewarm. I figured that was the intention. Stirred in the sugar, then the yeast, which basically clumped immediately. I stirred the stuff like a berserker until it looked smooth and set it aside. When I looked at it 5 minutes later, it had indeed bubbled and turned brown. Alas! When I poured it into the dry ingredients, half the milk came out on its own, and the yeast was a great big blob of stuff. Big mistake when you don't have a mixer.

Meanwhile, mix the sifted bread flour with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the yeast mixture; then add the whole egg and egg yolk. Mix on medium speed until it is fully combined. The dough will be yellow and stiff, yielding only slightly to a poke. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for about thirty minutes.

"Mix on medium speed," ha! Oh how I wish I had a stand mixer. I kneaded and kneaded and pushed and squished until my wrists started screaming insults at me and I had to stop. Despite the fact the dough was far from yellow, I thought I'd not done too badly, considering:

Old Man Willow in the house.

Beat in the butter piece by piece; you do not have to wait for the prior piece to be fully incorporated before adding the next. When the dough has incorporated about half of the butter, the mixture will be like a very thick, somewhat broken-up paste. If you keep engaging the mixer on medium-high speed, the dough will eventually become a cohesive whole, looking smoother and more feeling more elastic. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
Kneading very gently, incorporate the sugar crystals just enough to get them evenly distributed. Work quickly so as not to soften the buttery dough too much.
Divide the dough into a dozen equal pieces, gently forming them into balls.

This nearly broke me. Working 114g of butter into the toughest dough I've ever made was damn hard. I don't think I'll get much use out of my hands tomorrow. But! I somehow succeeded in getting it all in and making balls. Hurrr. Balls. They looked nothing like the ones on the website...

Not like they should look at all.

...because, I reckon, I forgot to do this: Place the balls of dough on a cutting board in a warmish place for fifteen minutes or so.

And then I cooked the buggers. The first batch burned into crisp, black discs of awful - all that sugar! - and went straight to the bin. The second lot came out slightly less blackened and looking like waffles. Cooking time: 3 minutes (down from 4).

Look! Waffles.

I'd like to finish on this here high note, but in the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you a few things about these waffles:

 - They're way too sweet. I wonder if it's down to the type of sugar I used. Must find pearl sugar for the next round. The sugar on the outside, whilst providing that Belgian glaze, is too crunchy. Also it burns black real quick.
- They didn't turn solid in the waffle iron - they were done, but they fell apart when I tried to lift them out.
- Conversely, as soon as they cooled down a bit they turned into an approximation of Dwarf Bread. But they still crumbled really easily! Hey, Chemistry? What am I doing wrong?
- They're not soft, they're hard, like shortbread biscuits. #sadmouth

Thus. If anyone needs some sticky, rock-hard throwing weapons that dissolve in mid-flight, I have just the thing!

Also good for masonry.

So there you have it. They're edible, but nothing like Gauffres the Liege, and not something you'd write home about. Unless you're me.

I know the yeast thing went wrong. Also, next time I'm using the right sugar, whole milk, AND A STAND MIXER. With a dough hook. If anyone who reads this has spotted any other obvious mistakes in my approach, will you let me know? Ta. :)

Next week, I will find something easier. Maybe cornmeal waffles. Or potato waffles. Or something with almond milk, because the very concept is intriguing to me.

Week 4 Shopping List

I'm nervous, but I think it's time for something much more difficult, but potentially amazing. This weekend, I will attempt to make an approximation of these waffles right here. Recommended by @origamislayer, who shall be blamed if my kitchen explodes.

Shopping list
milk
granulated sugar
instant yeast
bread flour
cinnamon
vanilla extract
salt
2 eggs
unsalted butter
140 grams turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar if you choose

Re: the latter: Tesco doesn't stock either, so unless I get time to shop around tomorrow, I will be using brown sugar instead.

Prep time looks to be about an hour, which affords me many opportunities to screw up. But I say unto my inner coward: EXCELSIOR. Mid snow, and icing sugar.

Waffle along?

Week 3: Waffle Pizza. Holy shit.

Welcome to the great Easter Weekend Waffle-Pizza Crossover! This week, we were all over America. Witness the second coming of the recipe: @zulahni in Seattle thought it, @aliceandstuff in Brooklyn found it, @KaylaCagan in L.A. forwarded it to me, and the original poster was @Bourbonnatrix in Ontario, Canada. Is this awesome, Y/Y? I have the best friends. THE BEST FRIENDS.

Thus! Let's make to the kitchen. Once again, I had to modify the ingredients slightly - for example, I had no cooked, chopped bacon. I know, outrage, etc. The waffles still work but I strongly recommend you do not repeat my mistake. Use the bacon. Use it well.

I tried with the half measures again, which was difficult because we're talking things like 1/6 cup of olive oil? How much is that? Nobody knows. So I used a splash (TM). Your mileage may vary.

Ingredients (for four 4x5 inch waffles. Full measures here)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 heaped tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp basil
1/2 tsp garlic seasoning
pinch of salt
generous pinch of black pepper

100ml milk
1 egg
generous splash of olive oil
1 tsp sundried tomato pesto

These measures need tweaking, because, while the pizza tasted awesome, the waffles themselves could've been better. I suggest you make the full measures as per the original recipe. And don't forget your bacon!

Method
Step 1: Mix all dry ingredients, set aside.
Step 2: Whisk wet ingredients, then pour into dry ones and mix.
Step 3: Add pesto (and bacon), mix again.
Step 4: Cook em, baby!
Step 5: Top the warm waffles with your favourite pizza toppings and shove 'em in the oven/ under a grill/ whatever to melt the cheese.
Step 5: PROFIT.

Pizzaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

And there you have it, friends. One Waffle Pizza, feat. pizza sauce, ham, salami and cheese. It was amazing.

Result
Simplicity of recipe: 9 out of 10, because I had to guess some of the measures.
Sweet or savory: Savory.
Texture: Chewy. Bit too tough - I reckon I needed more olive oil.
Taste: AWESOME. The waffles could've been less bland. Maybe a bit more salt and pepper next time? Also, bacon.

Next week, I will learn to take better photos. Also, there will be waffles.

Week 2: Just like mother used to make 'em

Welcome to Nostalgia Sunday on Waffles Across America! Today, we're in Germany, thanks to my mum, who found this recipe in her collection. I'm gonna jump the gun and tell you right now, these are amazing. For me, anyway. To work!

Sidenote: I decided to make only half the batter - I do, after all, live alone and I'm trying very hard not to put on too much weight. It totally worked, and made six 5' x 4.5' waffles. Turns out I can eat 4 when I've not had lunch, so I have 2 left for breakfast tomorrow. Pretty much perfect.

Ingredients (full measures here)
70g butter
25g sugar
1/2 generous tbsp vanilla sugar
1 small pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g flour
50-100ml buttermilk (I ended up using about 200ml)

We talked about vanilla sugar last week on Twitter. A lot of people make it themselves, and I'm told it's amazing. I use Vanillin Zucker, because I can.

Smuggled goods.

Method
1. The recipe says, have the butter at room temperature, so it's soft (but see below!), and mix it together with the sugar and vanilla sugar.
2. Add the salt, then the eggs. Stir like a boss until it's a nice, smooth mixture.
3. Add the flour and baking powder and mix again, then add the buttermilk until you have a lovely, thick-but-runny cake mixture.
4. Leave that to rest for about an hour. If your batter is too thick after that, add more buttermilk until it's runny again, but not too thin!
5. Bake 'em, baby!

Notes
Room temperature, shroom temperature. I reckon you want to melt that butter and let it cool, because if your butter's too hard, this happens:

Room temperature, my backside.

I used about 100ml of buttermilk in the first instance. The mixture was drippy but not as thin as last week's, look:

See how it's running off the stirry bits (what the HECK are they called???)
so slowly, the drops are sitting on top of the mixture? That's how thick it was.

When I came back after an hour, I thought it was too thick and added a bit more buttermilk. And a bit more. Aaaand a bit more. I hate imprecise recipes as much as the next amateur cook, but this is a trial and error kind of thing, I guess. Like I said, I used about 200ml, and it worked. Just keep adding it bit by bit until you think it's right.

I cooked the first batch for 3.30 minutes but they ended up slightly undercooked. 4 minutes seemed to be just right. Note that these do not turn brown! They're meant to be pale. They're also as far from crunchy as you'd expect - again, this is on purpose. Where I come from, waffles are pretty much pancakes made in a waffle iron. I've examined the last sentence and cannot find a single thing wrong with it.

I haven't quite got the hang of exactly how much
batter to pour into the iron. These had holes. I didn't care.

These waffles are amazing with icing sugar. For science, I've also tried them with golden syrup, and with raspberry puree and confirm that those, too, were very tasty. Whatever you put on them, you must have at least one sweet topping. These were made for sweet things.

The buttermilk waffle in its natural environment.

Result
Simplicity of recipe: 10 out of 10. There really is nothing you can do wrong here. Nothing. (Except use cold butter.)
Sweet or savory: Sweet. 
Texture: Soft and chewy. They're so soft you can roll them up like a pancake. Awesome.
Taste: 25 out of 10. They taste like my childhood. And like pancakes, only better.

And there we are! Week 2: Huge success. *happy dance*

Next week, we're making pizza waffles. Because, PIZZA WAFFLES OMG.

Week 2 Shopping List

This Sunday, WAA heads to Germany so that I can try and re-live my childhood! My mum cannot remember which recipe we used to make, but she found this one in one of her books, so it will be tried and, hopefully, found to be amazing. Also, it has buttermilk, which is incredibly exciting! If you'd like to waffle along, here's the shopping list:

125g butter
50g sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
1tsp baking powder
250g flour
100-200ml buttermilk, and
1 tbsp...oh dear Lord...Vanillezucker.

Now, I import this from Germany; i.e. when I go home, I bring back some.* I realise this isn't an option for most of you... Lemme google that. Right. So, it seems you can make vanilla sugar? Only takes 3-4 weeks!!! HELPFUL.

Some places, you can buy it as Vanillin Sugar. Or, I guess, you could just use a tablespoon of vanilla extract?

Dammit. Maybe this isn't great for waffling along. Tell me if you know of a substitute I could point people at?

This is a same-day recipe but plan to let the batter rest for an hour before cooking it. Method (and results!) on Sunday. See you then?!

* ETA: I have vanilla sugar. Lots of. I just felt bad in case anyone wanted to waffle along and I'm using an ingredient you can't buy easily.

Week 1: Now we're cooking!

Welcome to Week 1 of Waffles Across America! This week, I made these puppies. If you don't fancy clicking, here's the recipe (and my substitutions, if any):

Ingredients
2 cups (230 grams) flour (I used all-purpose)
2 cups (460 g) milk (I used semi-skimmed)
8 tbsp (115 g) melted, and cooled, butter
1/2 tsp instant yeast (I used this stuff)
1 tbsp sugar (I used a HUGELY heaped tablespoon of granulated sugar. Plus what my mum calls "one spoonful for the cook.":)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Method
On Saturday night, I mixed all the dry ingredients, including the yeast, then added the milk, cooled melted butter and vanilla extract. It comes out a very thin, light-brown mixture. I covered it, and went to bed.

See? Nothing sticking to the stirry bits. Very thin.

Leave out over night. Won't go off, I promise.

Sunday morning. GET UP, GET UP, WAFFLES!!! The yeast had done its job - look at this bubbly batter:

Beauty and the Yeast.

Now to separate eggs! ...oh man, I'd forgotten how I sucked at separating eggs. After I'd picked out the bits of shell from everywhere, I whisked the whites LIKE A BOSS.

Those are WHIPPED, baby.

Stirred in the yokes, then the whites. The mixture turned all airy and fluffy from science. And then! I baked the things. The first batch went in for 4 minutes and came out looking like this:

Look at these beauties. Just look at them.

They're not evenly browned because I had a minor disagreement with the cooking spray. But they were amazing. Especially with strawberries and vanilla icecream.

Not pictured: The strawberry sauce I bucketed over these
prior to consumption.

Success! I have achieved edible, rather tasty waffles. And my house smelled of cinnamon the entire day. You should make these, #TeamWaffle. They're really nice.

Result
Simplicity of recipe: 8 out of 10. Having to prepare them the night before means you can't just throw this together at the spur of a moment. Also, I hate separating eggs.
Sweet or savory: Sweet. 
Texture: They came out almost too fluffy. It was like eating tasty air. I'd use  a little less milk and only one egg white if I made them again.
Taste: 10 out of 10. They taste like waffles, with a hint of cinnamon. 

Thank you so much, Brian, for recommending this recipe! We're off to a great start.

Next week
Something with buttermilk! Because BUTTERMILK! I've not had buttermilk in about 20 years? 25? This is an outrage.

Do you like waffles?

This Sunday, I will be making a recipe recommended by @thefoodgeek. Whoooo!

Wanna waffle along? Here's the recipe.

And whilst we're waiting for the weekend, here's an amazing #wafflesacrossamerica video @camannwordsmith made. Look at this beautiful thing. Just look at it.


Send me your recipes! If you want to.

Here's one I prepared earlier

I'm working this weekend in order to get on top of the to-do pile in preparation of HecticMonday and TerribleTuesday ahead of DeadlineWednesday. So I didn't think I'd get time to make waffles, until yesterday afternoon, which went like this:

Twitter: Hey, Sus, look at all these people discussing #waffles and making waffle plans!
Sus: Dude, I'm working. Stop distracting me.
Twitter: Ooooh, look, D and J are eating #waffles in San Francisco! Awww, how sweet!
Sus: I said... *blink* You know what, fine. FINE.

So I unpacked the brand new waffle iron and read the instructions. (That's right, boys. Always read the instructions. All of them.)










Look at this beautiful thing.


In the absence of a recipe collection, I decided to make the really easy-looking recipe for "Traditional Waffles" that came with the iron. This was a mistake.

I will post the recipe here as A WARNING FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS of waffle makers. Don't try this at home, kids. These are awful.

Ahem.

++++++++++++++++++

Traditional Waffles according to Andrew James, Artisinal Kitchen Implements
3 free range eggs
170ml semi-skimmed milk
230g self raising flour
30g sugar [Ed.: This should've been a dead give-away. That's nowhere near enough sugar.]
100g butter

Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. Whisk 3 eggs, add melted butter, sugar and milk. Carefully fold in the flour. Cook for around 4-5 minutes.

++++++++++++++++++

So, I made the batter, I poured, I cooked, and I achieved waffles. YAY! They totally looked the part, too.

Don't be fooled. These only looked like #waffles to give you a false sense of security. They tasted of nothing and stale bread. They were also very tough (maybe that was my fault for using regular flour) and they certainly weren't at all sweet. Maybe folks who aren't German don't take "traditional" to mean "sweet enough that you don't need extra sugar" but I do, and these were just gross.

In summary:

Simplicity of recipe: 10 out of 10. Doesn't get any easier, does it? OR DOES IT?
Sweet or savory: Neither. Just plain bland.
Texture: That of old bread.
Taste: Nothing with a hint of stale bread.

Let this be a warning. Don't make these. Anyway!

Next week: I don't know yet, but I have 12 recipes already, whooooo! So we'll be making something tasty. Excelsior! Have a great Sunday, everyone.

Wherein I attempt to explain myself and make a request

Hey, you! If you're here, you were kind enough to click a link I tweeted or facebooked or shouted about, and I thank you for doing so. Now to explain what the hell I'm doing here without using All The Words. Thus:

Remember when @JadeSnake declared I should visit everyone on #TeamWaffle and it would be, like, WAFFLES ACROSS AMERICA!? And when @aliceandstuff said she'd like to come along and film a documentary? And how we got so excited, we spent a few minutes wondering if we could kickstart that and what the rewards should be? And how it turned out that we can't actually get enough time off work...?

In the aftermath of #JCCC3 and the huge boost of DO, AND DON'T STOP TO TALK YOURSELF OUT OF IT, I have decided that I'm in need of a project, and I'm pleased to report that I have conceived of one. It's silly and self-indulgent, and probably very definitely unhealthy, but it's going to be fun for me, if not for anybody else. To wit:

I want to make waffles, every Sunday from now until JCCC4.

And what I'd like most of all is to make different waffles every week. Which means I need...48 recipes. *gulp* And this is where you come in: Would you let me have your favourite waffle recipe? I'd like to collect recipes from all over America (and the rest of the world!) and try to make them. I'm not a great cook, so there will be many false starts. I will diligently report my findings on this here blog. I'm hoping to achieve two things by doing this:

1. I'll spend some more in the kitchen. I really want to be a better cook, and this would mean I have no excuse not to try.

2. I'll be writing a little bit again. As you can see from this here word salad, I badly need the practice.

I don't know if I can even sustain a weekly waffle habit, but I want to try. Will you help? Hit me with your recipes! You could post them here in the comments if you want, or you could DM me on Twitter (@SusLikesTurtles) for my email address, or tweet me a link? If we're friends on facebook, message me? It would be really helpful to include where you live, because I have this idea that I'd like to create an interactive Waffle Map Of The World (not that I have even the slightest idea of how to do that) that links waffle recipes to locations...or something.

Enough with the words. Thank you so, so much for indulging me.

Yay, #waffles!
Sus

PS: Please post or link or email your favourite waffle recipe! In return, when next we meet, I will make you waffles. I promise! *

* Unless the next time I see you is on a boat...