Jeff poo-poo’ed the cherry pitter
Archive for July, 2009
Life’s the pits
July 20th, 2009Cooling bliss
July 19th, 2009Having milk delivered to our house every week is a good thing. Having a milkman who delivers Eskimo Pies even better.
Back at school
July 18th, 2009Mickey D’s
July 17th, 2009“What’s the holdup? It’s McDonald’s! The menu doesn’t change.” Jeff hates it when someone “gums up the works” having a conversation when ordering at the drive-through. I am that person.
I next-to-never go to McDonald’s, but Carter made a rare special request. There was a false start or two.
“What’s the fewest number of chicken nuggets I can order?”
“Six.”
But wait. The actual answer turns out to be “four”—when ordered with small fries and a drink. Best of all, the drink can be a kid’s shake. Who knew? Not me without asking. (I didn’t mention the second ”kid’s” shake was for me.)
Play-doh to the rescue
July 16th, 2009
Because of my cookie-baking phobia, the only cookie cutters in my kitchen cabinet are a set of heart-shaped ones, which I bought to make Jeff Valentine’s treats way, way back when during early dating years. Fortunately, on a party favor-buying sojourn to Target awhile back, I picked up a Play-doh baking set, complete with colorful plastic “cookie cutters.” The kit’s star cookie cutter saw live action when we made (day-after) Fourth of July cookies with Cousin Elyse. Today, when Carter and I made the second batch of dough, the flower, butterfly, and fluted circle made their kitchen debut.
Spreading the word
July 15th, 2009“bakingwithc” solves Twitter issue. Created Ning site “Baking with Carter.” Got Gmail account. Can’t forget about YouTube, etc. I need to start making a list and checking it twice
Guy tweets
July 14th, 2009I listened to Guy Kawasaki talk about Twitter for over an hour today and then realized to my horror that “Baking with Carter” is too long to be a Twitter name.
Let’s pretend
July 13th, 2009
Carter turned down the opportunity to make banana bread or bake the rest of the sugar-cookie dough in favor “baking” a Tinker Toy cake and cookies with me. He held up a piece of paper and told me that it was the recipe, which had “a half cup of sugar and some flour and vanilla” in it.
The results are why I didn’t buy him the Dave and Melissa’s “decorate a cake” toy. It just seems far better to me to have Carter seek out and turn over a plastic container that usually holds his balls, drape his blanket over it with the white side up for icing, and decorate it with Tinker Toy joints, with which he wanted to spell out” Happy Mothers’ Day, From Carter.” (This involved a few too many letters to approximate.) We settled for a big “M”—and purple sprinkles, Carter’s second favorite color.
The tray next to the cake holds “cookies” for Daddy. Wouldn’t want him to feel left out. In fact, in the end, Daddy got to blow out candles on the cake. 
Get your slurp-ade here
July 12th, 2009Carter went to see “Up!” with Jeff while I was at Day 1 of the Stanford Proefessional Publishing Course. Carter apparently chose lemonade before realizing a blueberry Slurpee was an option. So Jeff assured Carter that he could have a Slurpee next time, and they both informed me of this plan. (Keep in mind that when Jeff promises Carter something. No matter how trivial it might seem, It is Very Serious—never to be taken lightly, altered, or forgotten. So it’s best that I, too, know)
Slurp-ade, that’s what Carter termed the concoction we could make at home, during an extended bedtime Mommy-check. In fact, he decided, the slushy base could alternatively be cherry, raspberry, strawberry, or grapefruit. He picked a specific flavor Surpade he would make for every neighbor he knows by name (quite an honor). All would have a shot of lemonade on top. “And best of all, guess what, Mommy?”
“Sprinkles on top.” Who could ask for anything more?
