And in the morning, I'm making Waffles!

Brittney's Nanny bought us a waffle iron for Christmas, which was a really great gift, because I love to bake, and Brittney loves waffles, so she gets more bang for her buck. But before we get into the discussion about waffles I have a little history lesson for you.  By the way, the title is Donkey from Shrek (in case you didn't know).     It might be hard to tell from the picture, but that is a Black & Decker waffle iron, so Nanny really scored big because she got me a power tool to cook with.  But here's the history lesson (or my interpretation, rather).  Black & Decker used to make some awesome power tools.  If you find something from this manufacturer that just says Black & Decker without the little logo and it looks really old, it's probably a great tool.  However, they took a turn for the worst and started making complete crap somewhere along the way.  Don't get me wrong, for the typical homeowner who uses a cordless drill to hang a picture frame once a year they are great, and affordable.  But for those of us who make a living with our power tools we need something a little more heavy duty.  So Black & Decker finally admitted to themselves that they totally suck, and no contractor is going to buy their tools anymore so they made up a new brand name and started selling the same old quality, just painted yellow.  They introduced DeWALT to the world!  And we love DeWALT.  They don't break when you drop them from a 8' tall ladder, I know, I did it just yesterday, literally. So contractors love DeWALT. The only crappy thing is I don't think they are American made, so if you're into buying American you'll want to stick with craftsman or porter cable.

History lesson is over!

I chose not to break out the yellow spray paint, but I felt the need to at least go with a name change.  With that out of the way I could finally begin making waffles.  I won't bore you with the details....they're waffles for crying out loud, but here are some pictures of my results, and as always, UGLY!

1st Waffle Ever on my new waffle iron.

Second waffle, getting better.

So they all pretty much sucked today, but I think I figured out what to do...ignore the freakin instructions and follow my instincts.  They will be better next time.

Just Read It, do I really have to come up with a clever, catchy title every stinkin time?????

So those of you who follow my blog religiously, all 8 of you (not really even 8 cuz I know my wife has at least three accounts and all are following me, but whatever), I thought you might be interested to know I made cake balls a couple weeks ago.  I have some pictures....

Batter

Ok, so they're not balls, they're cubes.

And that's all I have to say about that!

Ok, maybe I have a few more things to say.  First, they are freaking amazing.  I'm not going to bore you with the recipe because you can find it anywhere, and frankly I don't even remember.  Mine were far from beautiful.....duh, this is the ugly cheesecake!  I don't do pretty.  Not to say I don't try sometimes, it just never works.  That's why I love the word rustic....take this bench for example.

Last year for Christmas my wife asked for a dining table.  So I ask her what she wants...and she shows me a picture of a table on restoration hardware's website of a "rustic" table made from reclaimed 100-yr old pine.  So I thought to myself, if they can take some crap that's 100 years old and make it look like that, why can't I take some lumber that's brand new and do the same thing.  So I made her a table, then while I was at it, I made this bench too.  Now she has a dining table that is roughly 8' long and almost 4' wide with a bench to match.  It's rustic....and restoration hardware was charging way more than a grand for their version...granted if you calculated my time, that's about what this one cost me.  However, last winter, time was something I had a lot of...not so much money though. So here is an example where ugly is beautiful.