I’ve been making cookies since I was 8; my dad taught me how. The first time he showed me how to make them while I watched, the next time I mad them while he watched, and then the last time I made them while he read the newspaper in the living room. From then on it was up to me to make them without help or supervisiong. He used this technique to teach me how to make pretty much anything I learned how to cook.

I thought it was a pretty good way of doing it so I’ve used it on sissy. She’s 9 and is learning to make cookies on her own; she’s at the stage where she’s making them on her own while I sit with my feet up in the living room. Seems like a good deal to me but there’s one problem. The last time she made them she goofed – the recipe says 1 cup butter (2 sticks); we use Crisco sticks which are 1 cup each. Do you see the problem yet? LOL

She made cookies tonight; I could hear her brother’s in there harrasing her a bit so I went in to chase them out. She already had a pile of flour over the top of the butter/sugar mix but I instantly saw something looked wrong. So I scooped up a bite, dusted off the flour and popped almost pure Crisco in my mouth; oh boy did I gag! So I scooped up another bite and let sissy taste; “iiiiiiiick”! So I asked her to tell me what she added and how much; as she went down the list I had her show me on the measuring cup what she did — when we got to the butter I pulled a stick out of the cupboard and had her read the amount of the stick. Her voice lowered noticeably as she read it aloud and she instantly remembered the last time she made cookies; she knew exactly what she had to do to fix it.

I returned to the living room, my laptop, and the work I was doing. She’s an excellent cookie baker and I was confident she’d get it right this time. She just brought the cookie dough in to me; the first thing I asked her was — “how do they taste”? LOL mmmmmmmm was all she said and she was right! I just told her that it was a good thing they have no school tomorrow ’cause she’s going to be up for a while baking cookies!