COOKIES AND GRANDKIDS

Friday morning when Friend Janice and I were at an estate sale, younger son Patrick sent me a text message asking me if I were busy Saturday. My immediate response? No. Not until 4. Playing handbells in church at 5. He answered back - Do you want to hang with the kids while I'm at work, Lori wants to take a class. I don't ever babysit; I "hang out" with the kids. That's so much more fun! 

I thought we might take them to the KC's Train Day Celebration 2019 at a nearby park with a community center that houses an ice skating rink and has a small train you can ride around the park. They had lots of fun activities planned (face painting, Jump House, etc). The only problem was storms were forecasted for the whole day. Well, almost the whole day. My weather app showed it would not be raining between 10 and 12 so I told the kids we would go then. (It opened at 10.)

The time went by quickly as they were playing with our older son Jeffrey's Western Town that hubby Wayne brought in from the garage to see if Jeffrey wanted us to bring it to them when we visit this summer.  Grandson Tyler spied the box as soon as he walked into the family room and before I knew it  was attempting to bring it up the stairs to play with it in the living room.

Granddaughter Madison asked if we could make some cookies because they always have so much fun baking with me. I told her we could after we got back from the train ride and that satisfied her. (Madison is 8 -1/2 and Tyler is 7.) 

Tyler was reading a book to me when I noticed it was 10. It was cloudy and sure enough not raining but I could hear thunder. We have so many trees around us, that it is hard to see the sky from the living room. I didn't think they would be open and told the kids so. Madison immediately said then we could make the cookies. 

It's not easy to share the responsibilities when trying to mix up and bake cookies with two kids who each want to do everything. The solution? Madison would do the measuring and Tyler would add them to the mixing bowl and operate the stand mixer (Tyler is very observant and a fast learning.) I took lots of pictures of the afternoon so hope you enjoy them all.

The recipe I quickly found was simply called Cookie Mixes in a Jar (Tasteful Treasures from the Horse and Buggy Country of Conewango Valley, New York). I wanted one that I felt they would be able to do everything. The recipe was intended to give as a gift, but the directions included what was necessary to add to actually make them. I told Madison we would double the recipe since it didn't seem like the recipe was going to make very many cookies. (That also gave me an opportunity to have a math lesson or two. 😍)  I forgot to double the eggs, but alert Madison asked me if we didn't need another egg. 

I am going to share the recipe as it is in the cookbook. You can fill a jar and give it as a gift or do as we did and make them and even double the recipe as we did.

You can see from the pictures, we took a few liberties with the final product because "you have to decorate the cookies"  and Madison wanted to add color to the cookie dough. I gave her a small amount of the dough in a bowl and she did the rest. She even used the cookie scoop and measured out each amount. When we realized we needed to spray the cookie sheets because the baked cookies wanted to stick to the sheet, she remembered and reminded me to spray the cookie sheet. (I can tell she is going to be a good cook.) Oh! I almost forgot. I didn't have any white chocolate chips so I used butterscotch. Tyler doesn't eat peanut butter so that's why I didn't use peanut butter chips. I think they would have tasted good, also.

COOKIE MIXES IN A JAR

1/3   cup sugar
1/2   cup oats
1/2   cup chocolate chips
1/2   cup brown sugar
3/4   cup flour
1/4   teaspoon soda
1/3   cup Rice Krispies
1/2   cup white chocolate chips
(1     egg)
(1/4  cup butter,softened)

Layer in jar in order listed (except egg and butter). When ready to bake, add 1 egg and 1/4 cup butter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes.

Here are the pictures I took of them ...

Measuring out the brown sugar. I put a plate under the measuring cup to catch spills.

Tyler dumped in the brown sugar with the white sugar and butter that we beat together til smooth. As I said, he quickly learned to lower the mixer, lock it, and then turn it on. He wanted to beat it at a higher number, too, but I vetoed that request.

Madison learned the correct way to use the knife to get rid of the excess flour when mixing the oats, flour, and soda.

 Tyler was very intent when stirring the dry ingredients.

 Madison insisted on cracking and adding the egg all by herself.

 I didn't intend for them to add the chips to the dry ingredients but they worked quickly. I had them wait before adding the butterscotch  chips though.

Done. Everything added.

While Tyler busied himself with scooping out the dough, Madison filled up my empty flour canister jar.

 He managed to get the first sheet filled while Madison continued to fill the canister jar.

Making her blue cookies.

 even bluer. I think she liked squeezing out the color. I finally had to tell her she had added enough.

I told you she did everything without any instructions from me.

All finished and so pleased with her effort. I couldn't have done any better.

First pan... Let cool a minute before removing. We also cooked them the full 12 minutes.

 Now for the colored icing.. a little green and a little yellow. Okay, a lot of green and a lot of yellow.

 and then the icing...

 Had to add some sprinkles and also some chopped up chocolate candies. I said no to marshmallows (so Tyler just put the top back on the container while eating one).

Madison's blue cookies. Even though they didn't ask, I think they would have made some red if I had allowed it.























One other time when we made cookies, we took some over to the young men who lived next door. So before we even started, Madison told me we could take some to our neighbors. We made up two plates to take to neighbors. (They were quite surprised and very pleased.)

It was a fun day and I know many memories were made unfortunately all not good as Tyler accidentally touched the cookie sheet while the cookies were cooling a minutes and got a blister on a finger. Then in her excitement as we were leaving one neighbors' house and headed for the second one, Madison started running as she rounded their steep driveway onto the sidewalk and slipped on the wet pavement skinning her elbow and hand. I'm glad she wasn't hurt more; it really scared me. I gave her lots of tender loving care and she handled it well even though I knew she was shaken. I checked in with them yesterday morning to see how they were and they said they were "Good".  Looks like rain for this evening and maybe even Tuesday evening. Tyler has a baseball game tonight and Madison has a softball game Tuesday night. If their games get cancelled, they will have more days to heal before Thursday when Tyler plays and Friday when Madison plays. Four nights a week for five weeks for ballgames, but I'm loving it!