That's kids today for you - heathens.
So, this weekend I decided to try and do more conventional things with Izzy. I had originally planned to do some outside stuff, but as per usual, rain was forecast for the entire weekend. As a result, I had selected 'baking' in order to keep Izzy entertained.
Pic.No.1 The rain started early on Saturday - you can see the dark clouds brewing in the distance
Although Saturday morning was dry to start with, the dark clouds soon opened, and by 10am the rain was torrential. Izzy and I sat in the kitchen, glumly staring at the droplets bouncing off the windows.
I turned to her, "Izzy are you ok playing down here whilst I go upstairs for a shower?" I asked.
"Yeh," she replied before adding, "can we do baking when you come back down?"
"Sure thing kiddo," I said before heading up the stairs.
Twenty minutes later, I was just getting dressed, when I heard frantic crying and sobbing, punctuated with loud bangs, coming from outside.
'Pesky neighbours,' I thought to myself and continued getting ready.
Eventually I made my way back down the stairs ....... only to find the kitchen empty ...... and I suddenly realised that the loud banging was Izzy trying to get in the back door. A quick look at the catch, and it became apparent that she had locked herself out of the house.
I opened the door and there stood Izzy, looking like a drowned rat and sobbing uncontrollably.
"Bloody hell, Iz. What on earth are you doing out there?" I asked incredulously.
"I...... I.......I went outside ........ to...... to ........ see how wet I ..... I ..... I ..... would get, and the door locked and I ...... I...... I ..... couldn't get back in," she heaved as a droplet gathered on the end of her nose and then fell silently to the floor.
God knows what the neighbours' thought - probably that I was an proponent of draconian punishment methods.
Vid.No.1 Look, this is the rain that Izzy was trapped in (11 secs)
Luckily, after I had calmed her down and dried her off, her mood perked up again, and she started jumping up and down and asking if we could do baking.
"Of course we can," I said because I am like Mother Theresa but with more teeth.
"What are we cooking?" Izzy demanded.
"Flapjacks," I replied (or Granola Bars if you live in America / Canada).
After a disastrous attempt at cooking a few weeks ago (suffice to say that I didn't have any scales so I had had to guess the weight of the ingredients), this time I was well prepared. I had purchased all the ingredients and a set of scales.
"Let's go," I said, handing Izzy her chef's gear.
Vid.No.2 Izzy explains the process behind cooking flapjacks (1:10 secs)
To my shock (I tend to avoid going into the kitchen unless I am retrieving chilled wine from the fridge), the baking seemed to go according to plan. That is, when the flapjacks were eventually ready to go in the oven, they actually resembled what they were supposed to be. That never normally happens when I do cooking.
After 30 minutes in the oven, the beeper sounded to signify that the flapjacks were ready. And it was at this point that things started to go awry. I removed them from the oven and put the dish down in front of Izzy.
She stared at the flapjacks in a perplexed fashion; "Mama, they have gone really fat," she observed.
At that point it dawned on me that self-raising flour should not be used to make flapjacks.
Aw crap.
I decided to brazen it out; "they look lovely!" I gushed, "shall we try them?"
Izzy nodded with uncertainty as I cut the flapjacks into squares.
Pic.No.2 Flapjacks gone wrong. Who knew about the self-raising flour?
We took bites of our culinary creation, and after chewing the same mouthful for several minutes, Izzy delivered her verdict; "ummmm delicious," she grinned.
I had to outwardly agree because of the effort she had put in, but let me tell you; masticating one's way through a 4" thick flapjack should be an endurance sport. That oaty concoction sure knew how to put up some resistance.
But hey, it kept Izzy busy before the time came for me to drop her off at a birthday party for one of her school chums.
And that left me free to enjoy the balmy summer weather ................... not.
Pic.No.3 Aah, there is nothing so sweet as a long summer's day
So dahlink, what have you been up to this weekend?
Tell me what you think by leaving me a comment otherwise you will stand on a hedgehog in bare feet
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