My Sunday dinner planning involves shopping the night before (that is about as far in advance that I can plan something like a dinner.) Usually, it is Trader Joe's although that can be challenging since they close at 9. Target to the rescue with their new "Fresh Grocery" section. I need to go anyway to pickup 104 photo prints for my seven year old's project. The week before I was also in Target but in that case, I cruised the aisles looking for dinner inspiration (a can of tuna caught my eye so we had tuna melts.) This time I had a plan.
I am a very practical cook. Pancake mix, just add water, I'm in. Waffle mix, add eggs, oil AND water, I can handle that. Quick call to home to check on the egg status and expiration date. Pick up some syrup and turkey bacon and we are in business.
Sunday morning I enlist the help of my seven year old sous chef and the preparations begin. The goal is have everything ready so that after church, I get to cooking. Egg, oil, water and mix measured and ready. Then I pull out the GRILL. I like the GRILL; my wife hates it (maybe because I took it on vacation with us or maybe because it is hard to clean??) The GRILL is a gift from my in-laws. I can cook several pancakes, grilled cheeses, bacon slices etc. at once on the GRILL. What is not to love about that? Have you ever tried to cook pancakes for a family of six in a frying pan. It takes forever (half are eating, half are waiting and, most importantly the cook (me) misses most of the dinner); but, not on the GRILL. There is one little problem though, the GRILL sits at an angle so all the fat will run off into a catch basin. Well the first time I tried scrambled eggs-you can guess what happened, straight to the catch basin. The GRILL doesn't differentiate between fat and uncooked scramble eggs. So, I take some of my other daughter's gum packets placing them under two legs to level the GRILL; practical, right? Now, I pull out the heart-shaped waffle iron from the other in-laws (I am lucky guy with two sets of in-laws). And we are all set.
Come home from church, add water, oil, eggs, enlist my wife to prepare some eggs (scrambled) and off we go. Turkey bacon and pancakes on the GRILL, heart shaped waffles cooking and I noticed some peaches in the pantry, a little fruit to go with everything else. (Of course, I include the peaches just like "planned".) The kids bring home a couple of friends from church who must have heard about the breakfast for lunch/dinner since one shows up with whipped cream for the waffles.
Everything moves along pretty well until I put the scrambled egg mixture on the GRILL. Yes, the gum packets were in place; however, they are apparently a little higher than the last ones the I used. Instead of the eggs flowing into the catch basin, they flowed over the opposite lip of the pan, onto the counter top eventually dripping to the floor. A situation officially declared "Gross" by my daughter.
So I change my technique; a little egg mixture at a time so that it mostly cooks before it hits the rim of pan. By now the troops with friends are getting hungry so I call everyone to dinner, serve up the waffles, pause for the blessing of the food and the feast begins - except for me who is cooking the eggs a little bit at a time on the GRILL.
The dinner (we are definately past the lunch hour by now) is a hit with all. Even the turkey bacon, which my son informs me is less healthy than regular bacon, is quickly gone. Eventually, I am able to join at the table although the GRILL (and surrounging area) is a "bit" of a mess.
After dinner, everyone helps clean up. The kitchen looks pretty good except for one area. "Honey," she says, "the GRILL is yours to clean up."
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