Tuesday Night Fun Cooking! brinner edition

Y'all know what "brinner" is, right? (My spellchecker does not know; it keeps changing "brinner" to "bringer"!) Brinner is when you make breakfast for dinner. We love breakfast food chez Madtown Mama, and I thought the kids would have fun with this. I wasn't wrong.

As soon as Anya suggested Brinner for TNFC, I knew right away we should make waffles, and not just any waffles, either, but the "Rich Buttermilk Waffles" from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (we have the older edition). Not only are waffles DELICIOUS, but this particular recipe requires some skills I want the kids to learn, such as separating eggs, whipping up egg whites, and careful measuring.

I have found that it helps to gather your ingredients before getting started, especially when you're cooking with kids.

First we measured the dry ingredients. Both Daniel and Anya tend to be Very Precise about measuring and leveling off flour, baking soda, and the like. It was hard to be patient.

Daniel gives the dry ingredients a stir.

 Separating the eggs was fun, but also caused a bit of anxiety. The recipe calls for two eggs. Daniel's separated fine...

...but Anya's gave her a bit of trouble. You can't see it in the picture below, but the yolk broke and got into the white, which means the white couldn't be used for beating into a fluff. I got impatient (my biggest flaw is impatience, I think), she got upset, but we calmed down and tried again. The second go was much better, and we ended up with an extra egg in the waffle batter, which isn't such a bad thing, really.

They had fun whipping up the egg whites, too; if you follow me on IG you can see a couple short videos of that, including one where Daniel wonders if running the beaters backwards will "unbeat" the egg.

Once the batter was mixed and ready, I sent the kids down for their screen time while I cooked sausage, sliced fruit, and whipped some cream. You can't have waffles without whipped cream and fruit, didn't you know?

Stack of waffles with toasted walnuts, real maple syrup, fresh fruit, whipped cream and sausage on the side.

Rich Buttermilk Waffles (from How to Cook Everything, first edition, by Mark Bittman

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I subbed 1/2 cup whole wheat for part of it)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 T sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 and 3/4 cups buttermilk (or 1 and 1/2 cups yogurt or sour cream thinned with 1/4 cup milk)
• 2 eggs, separated
• 4 T butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (Bittman says this is optional; we opted in)

1. Combine the dry ingredients.
2. Mix together buttermilk (or yogurt/sour cream) and egg yolks, then stir in butter and vanilla.
3. Stir wet and dry ingredients together without over mixing.
4. Beat egg whites with a whisk or mixer until they hold soft peaks, then fold into the batter.
5. Cook in waffle iron one ladleful at a time. They'll keep warm in a 225-degree oven.

Pros: Waffles are fun! They're fun to make and fun to eat. Having breakfast for dinner feels special sometimes. They are also easy to make and relatively quick.

Cons: There were no vegetables with this meal. Somehow, salad just didn't seem like a good fit. Meh. It's not the end of the world. Still, I've got a big bag of spinach to have with tomorrow's dinner to make up for it.

Next time: Would I do anything differently? I don't think so! This brinner was pretty tasty if I do say so. I suppose if I wanted to sneak in vegetables, I could make a spinach omelette with a smaller serving of waffles on the side. Or dessert waffles...mmm, now that sounds like a fun thing to try!