Post-Call Valentine’s Day Waffles

Growing up, Valentine’s Day was always one of my favorite holidays. I don’t remember how, or when, or why the tradition started, but every year from the time I was in elementary school up through my junior high years, I had a big sleepover with all my closest girlfriends. My parents sacrificed a night of sleep (my father still talks about the night he learned that there is actually no sleep at a sleepover) so that 20 of my closest friends could spend the night in sleeping bags, giggling so loudly from the downstairs living room that my parents could hear us all night long all the way upstairs in their bedroom. We would play Twister and watch movies and eat heart-shaped cupcakes baked by my mother, and even to this day, friends that I lost touch with ten years ago suddenly sent me messages on Facebook yesterday saying that they still associate Valentine’s Day with my annual sleepovers. Even in high school, my friends and I would always make cards and cookies to distribute around, or buy candy-grams for each other. My freshman year of college, Valentine’s Day meant spending the evening curled up under a blanket with my closest friend at that point, watching girly movies and sharing a big bowl of popcorn.

For me, Valentine’s Day has always meant far more about loving friends than romantic love. Maybe that’s why I never understood the whole miserable, bitter “Single’s Awareness Day” attitude – whether or not I was attached, I’ve always loved taking the time out to tell my friends how much I love them and spending time with them if possible.

I think this is why it didn’t bother me that Husband was on call all day yesterday, and I didn’t see him at all on Valentine’s Day. In fact, it upset everyone else far more than it upset me – people seemed to place such importance on what we would be doing for our first Valentine’s Day as newlyweds and were so disappointed to discover that we weren’t going to be together – and were downright upset when I said that I didn’t really mind. By this point, he’s been on call through my birthday, our 1 month anniversary, our 3 month anniversary, New Years Eve, will be on call on our 1 year anniversary, and will miss so much more once he moves away… so really, what’s Valentine’s Day in the grand scheme of things? I spent the majority of my day in lab, sneaking away for a few hours to catch Confessions of a Shoapholic with two friends, which really made it the ideal Valentine’s Day for me – time with two friends that I adore, and rarely get to see (the whole ten hours in lab with proteins that don’t cooperate was kind of less than ideal, though).

Even though I wouldn’t be seeing him, I still wanted to try to do something for my husband. With Husband’s $250,000 medical school debt, we don’t really do gifts for each other for birthdays or Hanukkah, so gifts for Valentine’s Day were certainly out of the question (making payments on his 8% loan serves as all our gifts to each other for these occasions… and to think, before I got married, I had zero debt whatsoever!). So, I put on my Crafty Cap and decided to get work. I’ve mentioned before that Husband is doing his intern year in medicine, but I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that afterward, he’ll be going into radiology. And thus, I decided to embroider him a little card to pack with his lunch… with a chest x-ray. What more could a future radiologist need? Apparently, it was quite the hit amongst all the residents in the ICU last night (Husband’s only complaint was why is he in normal clothes – shouldn’t he be in a white coat?) Of course, he said that now he can’t wait to see what I put together for next year, so I’m already accepting suggestions for radiology-themed Valentine’s gifts for 2010. FYI, embroidering a rib cage is slightly more complicated than one might think. I suggest not trying to do it freehanded.

(Erm, excuse the fact that the feet were cut off accidentally and taped back together. 4am paper cutter malfunction.)

This morning, I headed to the lab early to time the loading of my protein on the column with when he would be coming home from call, and made him chocolate waffles. I have a great Belgian waffle recipe that I will share in the future, but since Husband LOVES chocolate, I decided to spice things up and try making an all-chocolate version for a change. Apparently, they were a big hit (I passed on them, since I’m not a chocolate person myself).

Chocolate Fudge Waffles
Makes 2 Waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1/6 cup butter
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk (I use fat-free)
• 1/4 cup sour cream (I use fat-free)

Directions:

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter over low heat.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, and cocoa powder.
4. In a large bowl, beat together egg, milk, sour cream, and vanilla by hand. Gradually stir in flour mixture and melted chocolate and butter. Stir until smooth.
5. Grease/oil/spray waffle iron per directions for individual iron. Pour enough batter to fill 2/3 of the waffle iron (half of batter). Push batter out to the edges with a spoon. Cook until crisp on edges and a dark rich brown (I have a Waring-Pro Belgian waffle maker with 6 heat settings; I cooked mine at setting 4).
6. My husband topped his with maple syrup, but if I had one, I would have opted for whipped cream. Or a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Or maybe some vanilla ice cream…