Cookie Chaos

Last night I decided to make peanut blossom cookies. You know what they are: peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s Kiss on top.

They are not my favorite cookie, but they are quite tasty. Truthfully, I’m planning on giving most of the 4 dozen I got out of the batch away. The children’s librarian at our local library has told Ane in the past that she really likes any treat with peanut butter in it, and since I have the memory of a proverbial elephant, she’ll be getting some cookies tonight after storytime.

Ane wanted to help, but she also was busy watching Star Wars: Episode I on TV and playing/fighting with Tad, so I got the cookies mixed in peace and promised her that she could help me place the Kisses on top. With these cookies, that has to be done right away before the cookie cools, so that it is soft enough to hold the Kiss on top when it does cool off.

So, the first batch came out, and I showed Ane how to put the Kiss on, with an intrigued Tad also observing in the kitchen. I handed Ane a Kiss, warned her that the cookie sheet was hot, and as she started to place the Kiss on she jerked her hand, and ended up burning her finger on the cookie sheet. She began screaming, and I hustled her off to the bathroom to soak it in cold water.

She did raise a blister on her finger, poor kid. I know it hurt like crazy. I hate burns – they drive me batty. I left Ane in the bathroom with the Webmaster tending to her finger.

I came back into the kitchen to find Tad carefully placing a Kiss on top of a cookie and pressing it down very precisely. I stopped dead in my tracks, as the Webmaster came into the kitchen to ask me something. Tad saw us, threw up his hands in celebration and said, “Ta-da! I do cookie!”

And he had done it PERFECTLY. Our jaws hit the floor. I had no idea that he was watching me that closely – and I’m shocked that he didn’t eat the Kiss rather than putting it on the cookie.

Oh, and he picked up “Ta-da!” from Wall-E. I think they watched it once a day this last weekend.

I let him do two more cookies, which he didn’t place nearly as well, but it’s okay. He loved every second of it.

Ane helped me put Kisses on later trays – very gingerly and carefully avoiding any contact whatsover with the cookie sheets – and I left one cookie Kiss-less and split it between the kids before they brushed their teeth. It got a big thumbs-up from both of them.

I gave Ane an ice pack and a dose of children’s ibuprofen when she went to bed. I also reassured her that all cooks hurt themselves at one time or another, like on Iron Chef. That only made her feel a little better. I know that she’ll be much more aware of the potential of burning from this point onward.

Tad, on the other hand, has such a high pain threshold that a slight burn is nothing. I once caught his leg on a cookie sheet when he was a baby – he yelped, and I checked him, but when I didn’t see anything, I figured it hadn’t touched him. It wasn’t until later that I noticed that it was higher up on his leg than I had been looking, but he hadn’t made another peep about it. I felt so bad. But that was my first inkling that he had a high tolerance for pain – which is why the first time he broke a bone, the only thing that really made me sure he needed medical attention was the swelling and his clinging to me, because he wasn’t screaming in pain. And he has a real interest in kitchen activities – stirring, kneading, anything that involves food. He will enjoy learning to cook, I think.

Anyway, we have cookies now. They were made with love, triumph, and a few tears. Who wants one?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 2:49 am and is filed under Children.
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