Sept 10, 2023

Dear Friends,

If you’ve stayed with us in our retreat, you probably realize we haven’t done very well in serving breakfast.  Typically, we might have some blueberry muffins, some dry cereal choices, and sometimes an additional item or two.  And always Keurig coffee, including decaf.

When something starts at near zero, any addition at all is a large percent.  So we have improved our breakfast offerings by 80% or more.  We bought a Cuisinart “Breakfast Express” waffle/ pancake/omelet maker!

Had to try it out the day it arrived, and that was my job.  Theoretically, it’s pretty simple to operate.  Open the waffle side, pour in the batter, close it, wait a few minutes, reopen, and take out the perfect waffle.

But there are complications, and my first waffle was a failure.  Practically burned . . . but Donna was kind enough to eat it anyway without criticism.  Per instructions, I set the temperature, pre-heated it till 6 beeps told me it was ready.  Poured in the batter, and closed the lid.  In contrast to the instructions, I forgot to flip it over.  After 4 or 5 minutes, I remembered to flip it over, which reset the timer.  After a few minutes, it beeped 3 times to let me know it was done.  I flipped it back and extracted a nicely burned waffle.  Buttered it, added syrup, and presented it to Donna.  O.K., just not the best.

Second try: Reduced the heat to 3, and soon as the batter was in, I remembered to flip it over right away. Beeped three times, and the waffle came out perfect.

So this morning, Sunday, my intent was to make Donna a couple waffles and an omelet for myself (2 eggs, salsa, deli turkey pieces).  First step was to again forget to flip Donna’s waffle after pouring, wait for the beeps, and take out an under-done waffle . . was still edible.  Second step was to spray a bit of Pam into the pancake/omelet side per instructions to season it, flip it over, add waffle batter to the waffle side, re-flip, wait for the 3 beeps, and take out an O.K. but not perfect waffle.  Main disaster was I got too much Pam in the omelet side.  Dripped out black onto the machine base and on the counter.  Continue on . . 6 beeps, pour the omelet mix in, count 20 seconds, flip it, wait for the 3 beeps, flip it back and take the omelet it out.  It was black because of the burned Pam.  And the omelet came out in pieces in stead of a nice solid omelet.  But it tasted good.

I’ll get it.  Before long, this thing will be pouring out perfect waffles, pancakes, and omelets on a regular basis.  Once that occurs, I’ll show our guests how to use this thing, and will keep pitchers of the batters and omelet mixes ready for use.  We have “Pearl Milling Company syrup” (i.e. the woke re-naming of Aunt Jemima syrup), and I’ll try to find some blueberry syrup too.  And then practice making Belgium waffles.  Yes sir, we’ll have the perfect breakfast operation going, and we think you’ll love it.

Call to action for this e-mail is of course come stay with us for a few days, get some serious sewing or quilting done, and try out our Cuisinart “Breakfast Express!”

Chip