For mother’s day my thoughtful husband offered to make me waffles for breakfast. I jumped all over that gift. I told him ahead of time, though, that I intended to float them in butter and drown them in real maple syrup.

Why this explanation? Because at our house we have strong differences of opinion around food and I didn’t want any eye-rolling or denigrating comments from the cook over my personal tastes. Rich goes for frugal and quantity and I go for quality, period.

So my hubbie will bring home a bottle of the house brand “maple syrup” found on sale for $1.79 and I order online pure Grade B maple syrup from Vermont for about $13 for 32 fluid ounces. (Sometimes I find my favorite brand on sale at our natural foods store—it’s maybe $3 off the online cost, and then I also save on shipping.)

The staggering difference in prices I’m willing to pay for REAL food has fueled some major “discussions” around quality over quantity. Rich sees me as foolish, I see him as foolish. I care about eating REAL food; he cares more about the prices of food. “My brand is affordable and tastes like maple syrup—so to me it IS maple syrup. What’s the difference?” he asks. I try to explain that his syrup is imitation-maple-flavored high fructose corn syrup. It’s not real food. Falls on deaf ears.

Well, I get where he’s coming from. We both come from Depression-era parents who didn’t have two spare nickels to rub together. Thus we grew up in extreme frugality. So I can see where I come off as foolish. But if my long-range goal is good health and vigor, then maybe I’m not so foolish. We are what we eat, right?

Anyway, back to the maple syrup debate. I went to the website of my favorite brand (it’s the favorite of the folks at America’s Test Kitchen, also)—Coombs Family Farms Organic Maple Syrup (www.coombsfamilyfarms.com). This stuff is harvested by people that’ve been doing this for 7 generations. Real people, providing real food, in a sustainable and responsible way! I wanted to see what they say about the grocery store cheapy brands:

“Consumers are confused about the differences between real maple syrup and fake table syrup according to a recent survey of pure maple consumers (Pan Atlantic SMS Group: Survey of Pure Maple Syrup Users, August 2009). The survey reports that even the majority of people who do know the difference between real maple syrup and fake table syrup are unaware of how little real maple syrup is contained in table syrup brands. Most believe brands like Aunt Jemima’s and Mrs. Butterworth’s contain on average 28.3% pure maple. In fact, the average table syrup typically contains 0% maple syrup. People are eating 100% high fructose corn syrup.”

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I’ve talked a lot about why high fructose corn syrup is so bad for the body, so I won’t bother you with that again. But are you aware of how good pure maple syrup is for you? It’s REAL food from REAL trees. The health benefits of pure maple abound. Besides being high on taste, this all natural sweetener is

• low on the glycemic index
• HIGH in manganese
• HIGH in riboflavin
• a good source of zinc
• a good source of magnesium
• a good source of calcium
• a good source of potassium
• free of additives and preservatives

But the very important caveat here is that your maple must be 100% pure and/or organically certified for you to enjoy these health benefits. Finally, pure maple atop pancakes, oatmeal, and yogurt is a motivator to not skip breakfast. “And that’s another health benefit,” say the folks at Coombs Family Farms.

Now I know that our Cook’n readers likely already knew all this; I guess I just needed to vent. And I thought, in the off-chance some of you deal with this quality-versus-price food issue as well, maybe you’d be comforted to know you’re not the only one out there.

So thanks for listening. And to show my appreciation for your patience, I’ll conclude with a really delicious recipe for a twist on the proverbial Rice Krispies treats from the Coombs Family Recipe section of their website. (You ought to go there—they have lots of delicious maple-related recipes.) Oh, and by the way, my husband is awesome and I probably shouldn’t air our dirty laundry; the waffles were AWESOME too.

NOTE: I tend to add more maple syrup than the recipe calls for because I LOVE the Coombs Family syrup so much. And also, it’s fantastic swirled into tapioca pudding, or used to flavor whipped cream!

CINNAMON-MAPLE RICE KRISPIE TREATS

½ cup (8 tablespoons) butter

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

1 10-oz bag marshmallows

6 cups Rice Krispies

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in maple syrup and cinnamon, blend well.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted.  Remove from heat and add Rice Krispies and fold it into the marshmallow mixture until it’s all thoroughly coated.  Press the treats into a buttered 8 ½ ×11 pan. Let them cool and set for at least an hour or so. Cut into squares and serve.

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