I'm not sure that I would go so far as to say that Dan and Mariam aren't morning people. Actually, under the right circumstances, they both like the early a.m. hours just fine, as far as I can tell. In fact, Mariam is well known for being up before six a.m. and wanting to make phone calls to her grandmother in San Francisco. She is very, very lucky that Nana is up by 4:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time pretty much every day of the week because Mariam knows her number by heart. I think that the morning time dilemma at our house is not so much about getting two feet on the floor as it is about feeling rushed to get out of the house and to a particular destination on time. This has been more of an issue (for both Dan and Mariam) this year than ever before, since they both have to be at school early most days of the week.
I learned pretty early on in the school year that promising pancakes to my grumpy and sleepy-eyed little family could get them out of bed with a bit less fuss and I embraced this reality with my whole heart. We started buying maple syrup by the half-gallon. I can now rattle off a pretty good pancake recipe without referencing written materials of any kind and better yet, I can mix them up before I've had my first cup of morning tea and still get it right. But there are 180-odd school days in a year (more for Dan) and by about February pancakes were losing their novelty in the fight to keep mornings pleasant at our house.
Enter the illustrious waffle. Waffles are somehow a higher value breakfast item at our house than the humble pancake, presumably because there is special equipment involved. I'm not really sure about the logic; I just know that they work. The call of "first waffle!" through the house has been stunningly effective not only at getting little feet pitter-pattering in my direction but of rousing the sleep-deprived medical student as well. Of course, we are only a couple of short weeks from the finish line, and everyone is pretty tired, so I will readily admit that this morning when I said "first waffle!" Mariam pulled the covers over her head, rolled over and said "second waffle."
The recipe I've been using lately is from Mark Bittman's amazingly good book, How to Cook Everything. If you own only one cookbook, this would be a solid choice. Love it. Use it all the time. We use the basic waffle recipe, because it's quick, but he's got a couple of others that are more involved and would probably be mind-blowing.
Basic Waffles from How to Cook Everything:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together and then everything together. You know how it goes.
