Part of My World

If you are a parent of a toddler who is always on the run, and you are reading this blog, you are probably on break. Either your kiddo is napping or its your spouse's turn to watch over that precious little tyke. Either way, I am happy for you. I know how overwhelming it can be to keep your house your sanity intact and chores all at the same time.

I don't know about you, but for me, cooking is therapeutic. It becomes a challenge only when my toddler never stop shadowing all the time. I somehow managed to become a kitchen ninja with a baby below eye level, I must keep an excellent reflex and be extra cautious in the kitchen to avoid tripping with knife in my hand.

Sometimes I lose my grip. It could be frustrating that my baby is always in my way. It is impossible to finish dinner on time. and that just freaks me out! She wont leave me alone even when I put the cartoons or puppet shows and her toys laying everywhere. She is always in the kitchen when I am in the kitchen. Until one time, I decided to stop and observe.

I knelt down to look at her eyes. She looked back at me with a sly smile, then walked towards me and gave me a hug. Then I understood this is the age for milestones of learning and discovery. She opens and closes the kitchen cabinets not to annoy me, but because she saw me doing so. On that moment I reminded myself, I'm not only his mother,but I am also her first teacher. I took her in my arms and showed what was in the mixer and how it works.

I held her hand as we both pressed the pulse button of the food processor.

I showed what was cooking on the stove and said we don't touch it. It's hot.

I opened the dishwasher and let her pick up a couple of spoons with her tiny hands and showed where to put them away.

Then I sat with her as we watched the chicken tenderloins cook to golden brown. I watched her. There I saw so much curiosity and questions in her eyes, but I know she was learning on her own and I was there to supervise making sure she was safe in the process of consuming such discoveries.

I do not expect my daughter to work in the kitchen. She is going to pick the destiny of her own. I was only there to teach the best of my knowledge.

However, this simple act is a small process of building a relationship with her. There will always be dirty dishes, dirty kitchen, clutter in the living room because this a house and we live in it! But i will take every chance to let her know I will always be there every step of her way. It starts by letting her take part of what I do.

Tried and Tested: Alton Brown's Sugar Cookies

The halls are all decked with boughs of holly here at Castle Lemon. The Christmas preparation will not be complete without the sweet smell of freshly baked sugar cookies filling the house comfort and joy.
I admit, I have failed many times in making the perfect cookies. I won't say I have perfected the art of frosting but, I am getting there. It is only a matter of time and more practice to get a hang of it. So far this is what I have accomplished.

With these cookies, I used Alton Brown's Sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. I made a little modifications by adding some flavors.

I mixed some raspberry puree with my red frosting. That way, I had a jump start with color and added red food coloring until it reached my desired hue. I noticed the color gets darker when it dries. To be honest, the raspberry taste was too subtle. Perhaps, I should have experimented by adding some raspberry flavoring?

However, with my blue frosting, I added peppermint extract. I thought it tasted good,

Frosting could be a little tricky. The consistency of royal icing for flooding and outlining should be right. Get easy on adding water to the icing mixture when thinning.

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