RECIPE FOR LEMON WAFFLES (AND A POEM ABOUT WAFFLES…AND WRITING)
serves 4
4 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with the honey. Blend in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter, beating well. Blend in the milk and flour alternately. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter. Bake in prepared waffle iron until golden brown.
This batter can also be used to make lovely, light pancakes.
One of the poems from GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING—A Novel in Poems (Knopf), which is based on my journals as a teen, is about one of my favorite breakfast foods, waffles…and writing:
WAITING FOR WAFFLES
The T.V. talks in the other room,
the ironing board stands, hands on hips,
in the middle of Great Aunt Ida’s kitchen
and I sit on the burgundy booth in my p.j.s as
Great Aunt Ida makes waffles.
I love pouring batter onto the waffle iron.
It’s like writing poems–
from puddles to patterns.
If I stare at the black light
willing it to warm to red,
it takes forever.
Just like writing. Sometimes I have to
not write
in order to write.
So I slide around
the vinyl booth seat
to look out her second story window
at the birds.
I am waiting
for waffles.
Words about writing for poetry:
Poetry is my clearing in the woods. I rake the leaves, drag in an old log to sit on, plant violets. Readers may not see the same things I see there, or think the same things I was thinking when I wrote the poem, but they are welcome to sit on my log and smell my violets. ~ April Halprin Wayland