A Baking Marathon with My Girls
Last Sunday my younger daughter and I descended on my older daughter's house to bake Christmas goodies. It was a rainy, drab day: perfect weather for kitchen fun! We had chosen five recipes, including two old favorites and three new recipes to try.
The fudge was mixed first, and then the cream cheese mints, both of which involved stirring on the stove top, so the little one couldn't help much at the beginning. While the fudge cooled in the fridge, we formed the mints; my granddaughter was skilled at that, having practiced on Play-Doh for months.
both of which lend themselves to having a toddler help measure and dump ingredients into the mixer bowl. She loves to do that part!
Uncle J. showed up after a while and helped keep the 3-year-old occupied with books and hide-and-seek (very noisily, I must say) when she wasn't helping mix and measure.
In the course of the afternoon you can be sure the mixer bowl was washed several times, as were the measuring cups and spoons. While we were forming the candy cane cookies, I realized I had better leave that to the younger generations and go tackle the impressive mess in the kitchen, which had expanded far beyond the mixing and measuring tools. By the time the fourth mess was cleaned up, we decided we could manage without making the spritz cookies after all! Besides, the German chocolate topping for the fudge still had to be made, and we all had worn ourselves out. (Except the toddler, who was still going strong.) But we had a grand time!