Large family cooking, or rather, large-family cooking

Note the hyphen. Only one of us routinely cooks here in our large-family dwelling, and that would be yours truly.

Often I wish that I could find time to write the large-family cookbook, but one that did not require frozen breaded chicken patties (or patties of any kind, really), cream of mushroom/chicken/celery soup, refrigerated puff pastry, or industrial sized bags of frozen mixed vegetables ("vegetable medley").

However, being the mother of a large family, I don't have the time. It will be for some other crunchy Catholic mom to do it. When she's only got four at home and the oldest one does all the laundry, har har har.

Tonight I made Waffles for A Large Family, which is sort of like Music for Flag Day or Symphony for a Dead Princess; it's an undertaking and a very definite thing of its own. I post the recipe now, just as soon as I can waddle into the kitchen and get it, which gives me a chance to toss in those frozen gourmet onion rings that Superguy got me because he's the best ever.

This is the Joy of Cooking recipe, slightly adapted for those of us who refuse to separate eggs unless goaded, multiplied by three.

5 1/4 Cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

9 eggs

6 tablespoons oil

4 1/2 cups milk

Yeah, melted butter would have tasted better. And yes, the eggs being separated would have added delectable lightness and airiness to the batter. But I'm not hauling out the old hand mixer just for Friday night dinner, no thank you very much.

Have I mentioned that we buy eggs four dozen at a time?

By the way, the photo is just for effect. That's not, obviously, what I used for the Waffles for a Large Family. I think this was a photo of a triple batch of Vindaloo. But I can't remember, since the lids are on. Let's just say it was Vindaloo.