Watermelon cupcakes

My daughter did my blog post today:

We made cupcakes in our free time before I went to school.we used two eggs and a single serving cup of apple sauce instead of three eggs .they took 15    min.to cook .5min.in the tray to cool and a half hour to cool out of the tray .they tasted wonderful !

Two Tales to Tell

This week has been nuttier than I ever anticipated.

Funny things first. 

My only days off this week (and until Christmas if you want to get technical) were Tuesday and today. My daughter had a snow day Tuesday and she decided to play restaurant and make me lunch.

She presented me with a menu and very quickly informed me that I should not worry about what we *actually* had in the house because she had a plan.

I ordered the nachos supreme and the olives, with the chocolate surprise for dessert.

My daughter is nine and a half. This becomes important to understand what happens next.

She realized we had no tortilla chips for nachos so she used some fancy water crackers, sprinkled them with finely shredded mozzarella cheese and put them in the microwave on high for six minutes.

Meanwhile, she took my fancy chocolate bar and placed a piece of it into a small plastic bowl. She placed the bowl in a saucepan and turned on the burner to create her own version of a double boiler. Except she forgot the water. Once the plastic began to melt, the smell made her panic and she called me into the kitchen.

I turned the nachos off (four minutes in) and explained to her how her theory was off on the double boiler. The saucepan and the plastic bowl went into the trash.

I added salsa to the "nachos" and are them like a good mom. She did manage to melt the chocolate in the microwave, and added a touch of coconut milk to it, to make a delicious hot fudge sauce for ice cream.

She was heartbroken seeing only her failure.

"I just wanted to take what we have and make a great meal like you always do."

I told her she did. Because she did. And she made just as many good choices as bad. I enjoyed giving her freedom and independence in the kitchen. And I think she learned a lot.

And I did enjoy the meal. 

Now, the next challenge. I volunteered to make Christmas dinner for ten. I have no plan. I have no groceries. Must shop.

Ideas:

- dates stuffed with cream cheese

- vegetable mini pot pies

- spinach/dark greens salad with homemade berry vinegrette 

- roasted "popcorn" cauliflower

- cornbread

- Brussel sprouts

- some sort if sweet potato dish with apples? Pecans?

- homemade cranberry relish 

- homemade applesauce 

My stepmom is making a ham.

Her sister is making baked mac and cheese.

Chocolate covered strawberries

I had some strawberries in the fridge.

I have Ghiradelli 72% dark.

I have a child willing to assist.

We made chocolate covered strawberries. We had just started cutting and melting chocolate when the neighbor boy showed up on our doorstep with a valentine for our daughter.

He always wants to help. He is very good at measuring and following directions but every time I give him a knife, he cuts himself. He's going to be 8 in a few months.

I gave my daughter-- almost a year older than neighbor boy-- my chef's knife and she wielded that like a pro. The smaller knife she normally uses, I gave to neighbor boy.

They cut chocolate. They melted it in a Le Creuset tiny saucepan. We added fresh ground cinnamon. We dipped our strawberries and then seeing we had A LOT of chocolate left, we dipped AGAIN.

They are in the fridge now.