funny and cute

From an LOTR doujinshi (thanks leviosa8!): The elves depicted as typical Japanese salaryman working in a typical Japanese office...Rivendell Brewery. XD;

As I was scrolling through the flist my eye stopped at the word "Omphaloskepsis." It was the title of what turned out to be a really cute fic about Ibu Shinji and his sisters (He has sisters?? Or is this one of those fandom things??). In any case, I laughed when I first clicked on it because the author had learned of the word (and was inspired to write the fic) from the same place, Merriam Webster's Word of the Day (which was actually omphalos, but omphaloskepsis was mentioned because its related).

waffles heaven...or is it purgatory?

I've been craving some good waffles lately. A while back while I was perusing the aisles at the local health food store and spied some real maple syrup. It called to me, so I grabbed a random box of frozen waffles to go with it...The maple syrup was divine (Coombs Family Farms Grade B Organic 100% Maple Syrup--I do love the hearty, robust maple flavor of the Grade B versus the lighter stuff. Yum!) but the waffles were like cardboard. I was able to eat the crap only because I slathered it with syrup and the goodness of the syrup barely edged out the badness of the cardboard. I've run out of the crap, so I now I need to find some good waffles to go with my good syrup. I turned to the Internet, naturally, and the first thing that popped up in my search was Real Simple's Best Frozen Waffles feature! The results:

Best Frozen Original Waffles: The Winner
Van’s Belgian

Best Frozen Original Waffles: The Runner-Up
Whole Foods 365 Organic Homestyle

Best Frozen Multigrain Waffles: The Winner
Lifestream FlaxPlus

Best Frozen Multigrain Waffles: The Runner-Up
Van’s Gourmet Multigrain

Best Frozen Blueberry Waffles: The Winner
Nature’s Path Optimum Power

Best Frozen Blueberry Waffles: The Runner-Up
Kashi GoLean Blueberry

I am pretty sure I can find at least some of these at the natural food store the next time I go (which might be today because the craving is powerful). Real Simple also had a related feature about alternative ways to serve waffles. Love the "egg, spinach, and Swiss cheese" and "red onion, black olives, and Feta" ideas. XDXD

Anyone tried any of these waffles? Any recs? I know that nothing beats made-from-scratch, but I refuse to buy a specialized piece of kitchen equipment on general "don't want to clutter the house any more than it already is" principles (but also because I suck so badly at cooking). I do eventually want to try making pancakes (which I also adore and only requires a pan instead of a "pancake maker"), but right now I am dreaming of waffles and waffles only.