Christmas Traditions; Chocolate Waffle Cones!

You all seemed to really appreciate and relate to the question I received from the anonymous reader (my last post). I loved reading your own opinions on the subject. Interestingly I had never really thought about it before, but I'm glad the question was proposed! Again, your comments never cease to amaze me.

Chocolate Dipped Waffle Cones

Every year my mom and I make waffle cones for family and friends. We usually provide gift certificates to the local ice cream shop with the cones, or sometimes (ok, once) I make ice cream for people. I learned this skill while working at a local ice cream shop, called Graeter's Ice Cream, in high school. It's so fun, but it does take practice. On Tuesday night my mom and I made our first batch of waffles for the holiday season.

You must start with one of these; a Waffle Cone Maker!
This is Cuisine Art, but there are many companies that make them.

Here is what the inside looks like. Can you tell we've been doing this for almost 5 years? It looks pretty worn down, that's for sure.

You've got to have two things (other than the obvious equipment and ingredients) when making waffle cones: wine and spandex winter gloves

Why gloves? Because these things are hot as HECK when you take them out of the machine and fold them! They don't warn you in the instruction guide, but what the heck else are we supposed to use? We always wash them in the washing machine prior to touching the cones.

Why wine? I don't know, it's fun.
My mom is known for her awful photography skills. Check out the up close picture of me, with the awful lighting.

Here is the general recipe from the instruction manual. Notice, it calls for white flour......

Problem number one: We forgot to turn the machine on the proper setting before we put the first ladle of batter down. When we lifted the handle it was all gooey and stuck to the machine. Oops.

Problem number two: I accidently used whole wheat flour.
I know what you're thinking, "she wanted to make them healthier!" But in reality I didn't even grab the whole wheat on purpose! I've taken enough food science classes to know that this is one of those instances where whole wheat flour can not be substituted. They wouldn't fold around the cone molder properly, so we made flat "waffle cookies".

Then of course we re-made the batter and tried again.

Ladle about 1/4 cup onto the machine (once it's nice and hot).

Press down and wait for the light to shine, which means "ready!".

Fold the cones around the plastic cone shape.

And set out to dry!

Melt the dipping chocolate.

Dip the dry cones.

Drool time!
These turned out awesome, as always. haha. But seriously, you need a waffle cone maker, especially if you own an ice cream maker. It makes sense, right?

5 RANDOM Things I've Learned This Year
(Continued from past posts)

I love pumpkin puree

I can actually survive without 7 cups of coffee per day (I'm down to 3-4 now!). These aren't Starbuck's coffees, so close those mouths. These are Maxwell house, so less caffeine.

Nick and I need a new mattress, BAD! I'm thinking Tempur-Pedic.

Telling friends and family that they should not eat something because it may have bad consequences, doesn't work. I need to keep my work life and private life separate.

I could live off of $1000/month, if I had to. This is what I was earning at school the past two years, until now....kind of cool, huh?!

Life Update

Work has been picking up tremendously, which is nice, but I've been super busy, especially with the holidays mixed in. Nick's 6 month anniversary from quitting nicotene is on Friday! I am going to surprise him with Chipotle tonight (since he works on Friday nights). Also, stay tuned for a post coming up with my second NBC4 news segment! On Friday I'll be on again, talking about "maintaining your weight through the holidays". How exciting!

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.