Truth is, I’m not the domesticated wife/mama who can whip up fancy dishes or bake up a storm and God knows, so He surrounded me with people who excel in either one or both.
To give you some perspective of how “well” I cook, here’s possibly my best dish so far, prepared together with Oska. Behold the stir fried beef noodles:
Over stirred broken noodles. In my defence, it tasted quite yummy. Uglily yummy.
There was also the ‘Crab in the bag’ dish which I really should not claim much credit for. My brother, the aspiring chef, did most of the work and I just replicated the second batch. Heck it! I need to claim a tad bit of credit or at least an A for effort, right?
So if I can’t cook or bake for nuts but want to impart some important life skills to Olive, what do I do? I outsource, of course!
My sister, who bakes like an artist, did a baking 101 session for Olive and I, and I am documenting it below for future reference.
Baking for Dummies: Sugar Cookies
Recipe:
3.5 cups of plain flour (450g)
1 cup sugar (200g)
1 egg
2 sticks of butter (or 1 block of butter; 227g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract*
*optional
Step 1: Give your teacher the cheekiest face so she will be lenient on you. Also, get mama to preheat the oven at 170°C.
Step 2: Beat butter and sugar together, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract until just combined. Add egg and mix until well combined.
Step 3: Mix in flour and knead the dough. Ask for help if you refuse to get your hands dirty, but get your hands dirty anyway.
Step 4: Roll the dough as evenly as you can. If this 17 months toddler can do it better than her mama, so can you!
Step 5: Use your cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the most dramatic way, just to show how good you are at cutting out shapes.
Step 6: Bake your cookies at 170°C. Leave out to cool for a bit. Coat them with icing and decorate them with your assortment of sprinkles and TA-DA!
Can you spot Olive’s naked bear? Hurray to Olive’s first bake and first cookie at 17 months small!
MS. ULB 