Anne McAlpine: March 28, 2019

Note: This column is written by Anne’s daughter, Allison Sladin, while Anne recovers from an injury.

Who doesn’t like treat day at their place of work, or anywhere for that matter? I am teaching Grade 4 at Bellmoore School in Binbrook and am a member of the Social Committee. One of the events that the Social Committee organizes is “treat day”. At the beginning of the year the Social Committee set up sign-up sheets for staff members to sign up for whichever month they wanted to bring in treats. For the first month, the Social Committee provided the treats. In other months, treats are provided by grade teams, division teams, or a group of people who signed up together.

With the treat days being so popular, the Social Committee decided to add themed treat days on the last Friday of every month. We had “Flavours of Fall” in October, “Winter Warm Up” in January, and “Death by Chocolate” in February to name a few. This month’s theme day is “Breakfast of Champions”. This week’s recipes are the treats that I will be sharing with my coworkers on Friday.

The waffles recipe I have been making for the last four or five years. Whenever my son, Dominic, gets into his waffle craze I am making them. I make a batch Sunday morning which gives Dominic a fresh waffle to eat and then a couple to have for breakfast the first few days of the school week. I pour a cup of the batter onto my waffle maker, wait for the magic light to go off, and poof the waffle is ready. The recipe makes 4 waffles, which I cut into 4 pieces and put into a large Ziploc bag for easy access in the mornings. I find that the best way to warm them up is in the toaster oven to keep the crunchy texture of the waffle. Of course, no waffle is complete without maple syrup. Dominic, being a maple syrup connoisseur, prefers amber maple syrup, but will make do with the regular in a pinch.

I have used a Crock Pot for every treat day I have helped with and this month will be no exception. Crock Pot apple cinnamon roll casserole is a wonderful way to fill the kitchen (or staffroom) with the cinnamon scent. I thought it would be nice to have cinnamon rolls, without the mess. This mess-free casserole uses cut up cinnamon rolls and chopped apples that are coated in a sweet egg custard in a slow cooker. Depending on how many people you are serving it would be wise to double the recipe as it does not last long.