Play grounds

Thank heavens for play grounds. When I babysit my grandchildren, I usually like to take them to the park to play. They love being outdoors and playing on the slides, swing set, climbing around the play sets, or playing in the sand.

After rubbing sun screen on them, I unleash them to play. It is amazing how quickly the time goes by when we are in the park! They spend a lot of time in the sand with all the trucks, cars, shovels and pails. Then they play on the swings or go down the slides.

If we can’t go to the park – my back yard is where they play. There are a few riding toys on the basketball court. They have access to a swing set or to the riding toys. They also can play in the little plastic play houses or the small slide.

In between they can draw with the chalk or blow bubbles, or collect acorns and pine cones. If they get tired, they can go and lie down on my rope hammock and relax.

Being outside is healthy and fun for both my grandchildren and me. Besides it does make the time go by faster.

Margarita Cupcakes

Fine…I did what I was supposed to do in the Kitchen. The Chef had everything portioned and set out. She asked me to mix the cupcakes and bake them because she had to bring some of the pastries down to the Deli and pick up a food order.

I did what I was told and everything was running smoothly…so I thought. Then I used the correct sized ice cream scooper to drop the cupcake batter into the sprayed cupcake liners. On the first scoop, the spring flew out of the scooper and I was left with the batter. I couldn’t find any of the same sized scoopers, so I did the best that I could. All the cupcakes were supposed to look uniformed. Since one cannot rotate cupcakes or cakes because the batter will fall…I just paid more attention until they were baked. When the cupcakes were done, I pulled them out of the oven, and I didn’t burn them…I bet you thought that I was going to say I burned them? But I didn’t.

The whole time I was worried about what the Chef would say…all that time I was struggling with my own acronym –IBF – and I don’t need to tell you, you can figure it out yourself.

When the Chef came back and saw the cupcakes and the cookies that I had backed she said, “They look great!”

Yay…all’s well in my world!

I Hate Those Damn Commercial Ovens!

I like to do the baking at my daughter’s catering kitchen because it leaves me in a ‘sweet mood.’ But I hate her commercial ovens!

No matter what I do, I have to make sure the oven is set to a lower than normal temperature. If I don’t pay total attention to whatever I’m baking, it burns or gets way too brown for my daughter, the Chef.

I have to rotate the sheet pans, constantly. If I’m baking cookies – I rotate the trays every four minutes, and then freak out if the cookies on the outside look browner then the other cookies. My daughter’s tip is that whenever I think the cookies need to bake one minute more – that’s when I need to pull them out of the oven because they will still bake on the hot sheet tray.

Her other tip – if you smell the cookies while they are in the oven, they are burnt! Great advice but what if you have a stuffed nose?

Like I said – I like to bake but I hate to be the one who burns the cookies, or scones, or whatever else I’m in charge of at the moment.

Yet, I am good at rotating the sheet trays. And the fear of burning and the fear of the Chef  –  keeps me focused and on my toes!