Quest For Waffles

Last month I was in our apartment when there was a knock on the door. When I opened it a lady from the management company was standing there. As it's nearly never good to have the apartment managers come to your door I was immediately worried. Turns out though that they had been having some sort of contest and we won! The prize? A one hundred dollar gift card to Target. Wow! What an answer to prayer. We have no idea what the contest was or how we got entered but we'll take the blessing anyway. Providentially, a new Super Target was soon to open right down the street from us and as our grocery bill is probably our biggest expense, we waited for the Super Target to open so we could spend the gift card on groceries.

Now the Super Target is open and we, as a family, trekked on over to check it out. We decided that part of the money should be spent buying something fun, so we bought a waffle iron!!! Woohoo! We eat frozen waffles a lot and now we can make our own.

On to the real reason for this post. Of course now that I have a new kitchen toy I have been experimenting with it and brewing up ideas in my head about what I could use the waffle iron for. The one thing that always sticks in my head is a certain waffle I had about 9 years ago; Marie will almost undoubtedly relate. We lived in Monterey, CA while in the military back then and except the terrible weather, it was a really fabulous place to live...to bad it's in California. Anyway, there was a certain open mall there that had a Starbucks, a Gap and this cute little cart that sold the most delicious hot waffles you've ever tasted. They were warm and yummy on the inside and crispy and sweet on the outside. Del and I would get them in a paper wrapping and walk around the outside mall holding hands and being young and in love. Doesn't that sound romantic?

Well, now the best it gets (not that I'm complaining) is a walk around the apartment complex; we get to hold hands but it's generally in between the swinging of little ones. We can even walk alone after the kids go to bed if my parents are here! Still, that waffle. I can't even remember the name of the company that sold them. So, today I decided to find it come hell or high water. Isn't it amazing what you can find on the internet?! It turns out my yummy waffles are called Liege waffles, because they originated in the city of Liege, Belgium. I'm not sure that my waffles tasted exactly like the yumminess that I remember from Monterey, but it's pretty darn close. Close enough for me. I'm so happy! Picture me on cloud nine. It's amazing how food recalls moments, and emotions and smells can draw out past happiness. This is a really good one for me. I think of young love and mature agape all at the same time. I almost want to cry.

Me and Del in Korea, August 2000.