I'm No Martha Stewart, But I Get By

So Lola has been sick all week. She was feeling better on Wednesday, and REALLY wanted to go to school. I was wavering about whether or not to let her, but her cough was still bad, her fever had JUST gone away, and she still had that pale waif look. So I said no.

What does one do when one has a semi-sick child who wants to be more active than I want her to be? Make something sugary of course! Maybe not the most responsible idea I've ever had, but she was so disappointed about having to stay home again that I decided to delve into her new cook book. She got this at the school book sale recently, and we had not yet made anything from it:



So she made a selection, and we luckily had most of the ingredients. We ran to the store to get the rest, and then tried our hands at this:



I learned some things. I learned that milk, sugar, and cornstarch are extremely sticky when combined. I learned that Elizabeth LOVES electric mixers. This recipe did not require me to use mine, and she had a melt down because she wanted to use it so badly. I learned that Tallulah knows how to move our step stool across the kitchen to exactly where she shouldn't be, climb up on top of it, and try to spill sticky liquid on her sister's head. And that she's getting heavier and I can't quite sling her around like I used to.

If you can't tell from the photo, the recipe includes a little ark of mini-marshmallows stretched over the top of the glass. I didn't have a way to string the mallows over the glass. And since I am indeed not Martha Stewart, I didn't spend much time mulling it over. We opted for the ring around the top of the parfait instead. Here's what we got:



Pretty fun, no? My kids were perplexed about my need to photograph their dessert before they could dive in. Overall, the whole project was easy and enjoyable. Next time, I must remember to stash Tallulah someplace so I don't have to baby-wrangle while simultaneously stirring the heating milk to prevent it from sticking to the pot.

Hosed down the girls; now I just need to get the sticky film off of my kitchen floor.

Wasn't this little diversion fun and food-crafty of me?

And Laura, don't worry, I am not crossing over to the other side...