For those who don't know - and I can't imagine why in the hell you'd be reading this if you didn't - I have two girls: Audrey (The Monkey), age 9 and Lillian (The Poker) age 11. I have to confess that it has often worried me that perhaps my children have special talents that they'll never discover because I never exposed them to it. What if Audrey is a naturally gifted bagpipes player, or Lilly is super good at Austrailian Rules Football, or that weird hockey game Indian people play with sticks? We'll never know will we? I won't say this kept me up at night but I will admit it was something to mentally knock around at 3am while I was lying in bed worrying about other stuff. It's okay. I was up anyhow - what's one more thing...?
That's why when Audrey started talking about karate I felt awful. She's been begging for karate classes for two years now, but around here practice is 3x a week and folks, that's just not happening. So when she switched her focus to tennis with it's one-practice-and-one-game-per-week schedule, I was delighted. Well, let's be clear - I was happy for her and Mr. Stone, because this will be his territory. Tennis and I parted ways in the August 1990 'we'll-go-inside-after-we-volly-it-ten-times-without-missing' incident. If you are curious about the details, Mr. Stone will be more than happy to recount the tale. I, however, do not speak of it.
Audrey is thrilled about the prospect of tennis. I suspect that her excitement, much like her interest in karate, has more to do with the costume than the activity per se. I also suspect that her 6 degree temperature comfort zone (between 69-75 degrees) and lack of overall coordination and fitness are going to cause her some problems on the court this summer. Time will tell. What I do know is she looks damn cute in a tennis skirt.
So The Monkey has her summer activity all mapped out, but Lillian has yet to find her niche. She claims tennis will be 'bad for her knees'. Truth is her arthritis would probably be fine, she's just old enough to realize that it's gonna be hot and they're gonna make her run around in it. Thank you. No.
So last night she said she had a plan for what she'd like to do this summer.
Lilly: 'Mommy can you teach me to cook some stuff. Like more than just scrambled eggs?'
Huh. Not a terrible idea. Maybe I can convince her she wants to start doing the laundry...
Anyway, I told her that was a fantastic idea and that since there were about 8 weeks of summer that she should make a list of things she wants to learn to make and we'd take one per week. I realized too late that I think she really just wants to take a cake decorating class. Her first items were essentially cake decorating skills, of which I have none, so we had to refocus. (Brianna I may be sending her your way for lessons!) However, soon the ideas started popping and this is what she came up with (spelling is not our forte')
I'm not a scrapbooker or a journaler by nature. I rationalize that its the self-indulgent nature of the activities that offends me, but mostly I'm simply too lazy and disorganized for such an activity. My children are going to have to recreate their childhoods largely with the twenty or so out-of-focus photos I remembered to print and whatever snippets of stories that my addled brain can retain to recount to them in later years.
So when this cooking thing came up I figured this might be a chance for me to actually document a few things for them. Which explains why I am writing this silly blog. My plan is to share the recipe and what happens when you let an 11 year-old loose in your kitchen. I might even take pictures. I said might. I'm really bad about that. We'll see. Anyhow, if you can't read the list (and I rearranged the order a bit) this is what we have on tap:
Week 1: Ice Cream
Week 2: Meatballs
Week 3: Strawberry Salad (with chicken, feta and carmalized walnuts)
Week 4: Fondue
Week 5: Lasagna
Week 6: Naan
Week 7: Butter Chicken
Week 8: Sugar flowers/cake decorating stuff
I'll keep you posted on how it goes. If anyone has a super good ice cream recipe please feel free to let me know. I have one but I'm not wedded to it. Lilly's favorite flavor is oreo cookie so I think we'll just make vanilla unless someone has something awesome and wangy.
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