Ah, summer time.
Sure, there is nothing like playing and doing whatever you want to do. That is if you are not in 4H.
My kids are having fun and playing with friends. But they also have to get ready for the County Fair at the beginning of August. Or sooner if you took on a cooking project which my daughter did. So on July 5th she has to present three cookies she made herself from a recipe in the Cooking 101 manual.
So the family is going to be forced to sample the cookies she makes. By herself with no help from me.
I am there in the kitchen giving helpful hints as we go through each step.
Be quick with the non-stick spray and do not over load the pan with that stuff.
Turn on the mixer on after the beaters are firmly on the bottom of the bowl.
Keep the dog out of the kitchen at all costs during this cooking adventure.
It is ok to sample a few chocolate chips.
After sifting flour and mixing it with the baking soda and baking powder, we move on to the next step.
Cream together some other ingredients.
Egg, softened butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla
Time for the dry ingredients to be added.
The book says to put them on wire racks. I prefer using newspaper but I guess this way is better. By the time the second pan came out, we were able to sample the first batch. This was when I taught the fine art of picking the ugliest cookies for sampling.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 
sweet! i have a friend who’s daughter is in 4H – she gets out of more company meetings that way! my daughter is going to fly all the way across country to go to an all girls rock and roll camp. very exciting! and scary…
That sounds very cool to me. Can I go?
Those cookies are lookin’ mighty tasty! Might even inspire me to bake a batch……..
They were tasty. She makes another batch later this week.
Cookies look very tempting and I love that you wrote and photographed this shared experience with your daughter. My kids are grown and my granddaughter is just two but I am already thinking of the day we will bake cookies together.
There is nothing like getting pre-made cookies that can be placed on the pan with little hands.
Oh my gosh, I had no idea 4H was even still around. When I was a kid there was a 4H for boys where they got to raise animals, and a 4H for girls that was focused on homemaking skills… sexist now that I think about it.
I had a friend named Angela who lived in our rural community (but not on a farm — not sure why I feel compelled to write that!), and she was a real wild card… which was probably why I was drawn to her… like a moth to the flame. I’ll never forget the sewing sessions we did at the one room schoolhouse turned community centre, where we had our meetings. The kind hearted women who ran the club, brought their own sewing machines for us to use and Angela revved them in the most disrespectful way. Even as a kid, I couldn’t believe that the leader didn’t lose her cool.
I forget everything I learned about sewing but I’ll never forget the lessons I learned about patience and kindness, and as a grownup now dealing with friends of my kids who are sometimes lacking in manners and respect, it’s those 4H leaders that I try to emulate.
I suspect that leader was a secret rev’er herself. Most sewers I know can put the pedal to the metal, if you know what I mean.