Cookin' right along

Madison has gotten into a cooking rhythm lately. She has always been very skittish about the stove (perhaps as a result of realizing that if one's body wacks into corners and walls with regularity, it's best to stay away from the stove). But lately, at the age of 9 1/2, she has started to cook, for real, from recipes, without me except for, you know, putting things on and off the big Stove Monster.

She is going about it recipe by recipe, trying to master each one, before moving on to the next one. She finds the recipe, reads it carefully, and goes about making the dish (usually dessert) s-l-o-w-l-y. The current rage is these peppermint patty candy things. Just at this moment she is melting chocolate in a double boiler to dip the mint candies in.

We did have a moment about 10 days ago when she was holding a hot metal bowl (using pot holders) and she held it out to Ella and said, "Here, Ella, will you do me a favor and hold this?" I saw, and in time, I shouted "NNNNOOOOOOOO!" She was startled, of course, and realized why I shouted. She has a very vivid imagination, so I could see it all over her face: The image of ten burned fingers had she actually given Ella the bowl. She was terribly, terribly upset. I didn't need to talk about it at all. I just told her what a good thing it was that this had happened, a PERFECT thing, because the lesson was totally learned without anything bad actually happening.

After a few minutes, she was able to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Anyway, a very funny thing that Madison has adopted while cooking is a smiling adamance about calling ounces "ozzes" because of its abbreviation. Also, she calls pounds "libs."