Lessons in the Kitchen

The kids cooked dinner last night.  Mostly.

I asked Joshua to head up a team to make waffle batter.  He is well prepared for such a task, having been a kitchen helper since he could stand on a chair.  He has about one year of experience making things on his own.  He can make pizza dough, bread dough (because it's really the same as pizza dough), cook bacon and pancakes on the griddle, and fry eggs.

The batter making process went smoothly and the kids even cleaned up after themselves as an added bonus.  I, however, was out of the kitchen so I didn't know all that actually went into the batter.  Neither did I know how much of everything went into the batter.

Come time to cook the waffles I noticed that the batter was a little too yellow, a little too thick, and a little scant.  I assumed that I had just forgotten how this particular recipe turns out.

The waffles cooked quickly and were a wonderfully crips golden brown.  They didn't seem to hold together like usual, but they looked great.

Then I tasted one.  It was rather salty.  In fact, it was salty enough and not quite as waffle-y as I expected from a tried and true recipe, that I began asking questions.

"How much flour did you put in?"

"Four cups."

"Okay, how much oil did you put in?"

"One cup."  (No one said waffles were healthy!)

"Okay, how much milk did you put in?"

"One cup."

"I think the recipe said 3 1/2 cups."

"No, it said three to one or two.  So we put in one."

"Okay...well, how much salt did you put in?"

"One and half teaspoons."

"Didn't the recipe say half of a teaspoon."

"Oh."

"Yeah..."

One third of the flour and three times the salt.  That's just how we roll sometimes.