Start heating your waffle iron—for a basic model like ours, just plug it into the wall.
Measure the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a big bowl and stir with a fork.
Put the buttermilk, beaten eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl and stir to blend well.
Add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and whisk everything together until it starts to look like a batter rather than some wet and dry things in disagreement. Add the melted butter/oil and keep whisking until things are blended. It is okay to have some tiny lumps.
By now, the waffle iron should be nicely heated. Open the iron. Dab a bit of paper towel or lint-free cloth into the extra little bit of cooking oil and swipe it lightly over the surfaces of the waffle iron. (I do this even with our nonstick iron.) Pour in some batter—I use about 1/2 to 2/3 cup for each waffle. Close the iron and cook until the waffles are a nice golden brown—you may have to practice this depending on the way your waffle iron communicates with you. Open the iron, remove the waffle and either serve it to someone immediately or let it cool on a rack. (If you make the full recipe, you will have multiple racks strewn around the kitchen.)
Repeat until you’ve used all the batter. Finally, eat! We usually cook and cook and cook waffles and then sit down and eat the final ones (with perhaps some this-doesn’t-count-as-eating snacking during the process).