Our Fun Family

Taking cooking classes at Young Chefs Academy has really paid off! Grace spent the last 2 days working on cookies with Gram. Yesterday, she and Gram made cookie dough, today it was time to actually do some real baking. It is amazing what a 3 year old can do given the right instruction, a few good tools and a lot of faith. I can't think of a more simple joy than watching and waiting for fresh baked cookies. I never have been particularly good at waiting, hopefully Grace will learn to have a bit more patience than I do. "Scoop, lift, flip!" Grace has been watching me make pancakes, well, for years now and that is what I have always told her a spatula is for, and how to use one. I wonder how many cookies Grace flipped before Gram convinced her that a gentle slide would do just fine. This week we dive headlong into the college football season with the first tailgate party of the year. I am sure my little sous chef will be busy by my side. Stay tuned for pics after the game.

This series of pictures is from back in December, but they are some of my favorites that I never got around to posting on the website. I like the second picture the best because it looks like Grace is actually reading the Tollhouse recipe on the back of the bag. Grace has always been a great little sous chef in the kitchen. From the time she was just a few days old, she liked to hang out on the kitchen cabinet and watch us cook. Long before Santa Claus brought her kitchen, her favorite toys were cups, kitchen spoons and strainers from the kitchen. Ask Gram what Grace's favorite place is in her kitchen and its a safe bet she will say the Tupperware drawer, or the wash stand which is home to the flour, sugar and sifter at Gram's house. I can't help but wonder if any of this will make an impression on her later in life. Are there flat cakes with lumpy icing in our near future? Or "mistake" cookies, where she used salt instead of sugar? Somehow I am pretty sure of i...