A simple request from my daughter: “Mom, can we go watch the sunrise tomorrow morning.”
Sunday morning, my time to write, my time to enjoy the quiet around the house, my time to do my weekly work planning, and my time to ‘catch up’ on things I didn’t get done – so I said, “We’ll see.”
After a few minutes thought, I figured that it was time for us to do this again. Last time, we scrambled to catch the sunrise because the clouds at our usual sunrise spot obscured the Golden Gate Bridge and the sunrise, so we had to quickly regroup and head to a spot at the base of the bridge so we’d be under the clouds.
This time around, we had pretty clear skies, and very little crowds. So, coffee and hot chocolate in hand, the wind blowing, we watched the pastel colored sky become brighter as the sun came up in the west, reflecting on the water and casting a shadow on the San Francisco skyline. We then drove down to Fort Baker for another beautiful view of the early morning sky, the bridge, and skyline of San Francisco.
I never got the moment to do the writing and other work I had hoped to catch up on, which is what I felt that I had to do. But, after we returned home and Greg was readying a huge stack of buttermilk waffles for breakfast, I realized that time spent with Nicole was exactly what I needed to accomplish on Sunday morning.
During breakfast, we described our morning adventure with the rest of the family, and then decided that we should cap off the day with an all-family sunset. Unfortunately, by that time of the day, everyone was running errands and finishing up Sunday projects, that we didn’t make it up to our favorite spot overlooking the beach.
Instead, we settled into our Sunday evening dinner and readied ourselves for the week. I’m glad I took the time to share an early morning moment with Nicole.
Here is our favorite post-sunrise Sunday morning breakfast.
Buttermilk Waffles
Traditional buttermilk waffles can be transformed with different flavors. Fold 2 very ripe mashed bananas and 1/2 cup chopped nuts into the batter, or sprinkle the batter with cinnamon sugar before closing the waffle iron for a sweet and spicy crust.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 large eggs, separated, room temperature
- 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, melted, plus more for waffle iron
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
Preheat waffle iron. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, buttermilk, butter and vanilla bean scrapings. Pour into the dry mixture, and whisk just until combines.
In the clean medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold the whites into the batter.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Using a pastry brush, brush the waffle iron lightly with melted butter. Ladle about 1/3 cup of the batter into each section of the waffle grid; spread the batter almost to the edges. Close the lid, and bake 3 to 5 minutes, until no steam emerges from the waffle iron.
Repeat with the remaining batter, keeping the finished waffles on a heat-proof plate in the oven.
serve hot.
Serves 4-6
