Cookie Story

Kevin has been into cooking lately. He wanted to make some cookies Sunday afternoon so I gave him the recipe and stood by while he made them. I've been trying to teach him abbreviations on recipes so this recipe only had c's, t's, or T's instead of the measurements being spelled out. He was doing pretty well until he carried the full flour canister back to the other side of the kitchen and dropped it. It shattered and, because it was full, flour was everywhere in the kitchen as well as small pieces of sharp canister. What a mess! I cleaned that up and let him keep making the cookies. But that also meant I wasn't watching what he was doing. When he was done I tasted the cookie dough and almost gagged. It was way, way salty. He had put 1/4 cup salt in instead of 1/4 teaspoon. And he had tasted it before me and said it was good. I guess the kid needs some help with his palate. I made him taste it again and he realized what I was talking about. So we started over and I watched him more carefully this time. The whole process of mixing up a batch of cookies took almost an hour when I could have done it in 5-10 minutes. It was a patience tester but kind of a funny story, too. I know my mom probably went through similar situations when she was teaching me to cook, even though I don't remember them. I appreciate her patience with me. His cookies did turn out fine in the end and I think he learned to read recipes more carefully. I should have taken pictures but it didn't cross my mind at the time.