Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2024
It feels like such a long time since I have had the inclination and mental energy to write anything!
Well, here we are almost 24 hours into another orbit around the sun. I am not sure where my blogging journey will take me in the next 12 months, 12 days even! I found it quite difficult to write about food and all the trivial things I normally write about in light of the current world events. Now, that’s not to say that the world was not a terrible place before the beginning of October 2023, but in the World that ‘emerged’ following that date, I just felt, at that time, sharing what I had eaten that morning for breakfast or eating for dinner seemed…pointless.
I know that’s not necessarily true, but it’s just how I felt at the time. I had wondered how I could put being able to write with relative freedoms, having access to multiple sources of information, too good use. I wondered how I could be, like so many of my past and present colleagues and acquaintances on social media, a platform for sharing facts and knowledge. I’ve explored other ways to also make a difference. That has so far involved being both compassionate and curious at the same time. It does involve giving people time and space to talk or write their lived experiences and the impact on them. It does also involve being clear and firm about when a line is crossed, understanding what a is basic human right. I have despaired at the various versions of humanity that have been presented to us in the past few months. It is of course no different to what has been happening for centuries on this planet but now we get to see it in real time in full technicolour gory.
And having said all of that, you still get to know what I had for breakfast for the first day of January 2024.
Waffles…
I finally put my impulse buy waffle maker to use and made 15 banana waffles. Seems excessive but most of them have been frozen down and are now in the freezer for breakfast across the week. I ought to call them ‘gratitude’ waffles because at every step I realise just how lucky I am to be able to blithefully make these. I have all the ingredients in the cupboard, I have electricity to run the appliances I need, I have running water to clean up my cooking equipment. I have a table in a room that I can sit in that is warm and safe. I can eat without fear, knowing that there is plenty more to consume whether I am feeling hungry or not. It is just a waffle, but it is one that speaks of immense privilege as far as I am concerned.
If you want to know how to make them, I put the recipe details and the link below.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch cinnamon
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 bananas, mashed
Instructions
- Preheat waffle iron
- Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk in milk, egg, vanilla and mashed bananas and mix until just incorporated (you don’t want to over-mix).
- Pour batter onto greased waffle iron and cook until golden. Serve warm.
Reference: https://lilluna.com/banana-waffles/
