Unplugged #8: Kitchen

In this little apartment, the kitchen plays a huge roll. It's the hood fan above the stove that shushes Bella to sleep each night, the dishes in the sink that occupy her when she doesn't want to be put down, and the every day cooking that she assures us we couldn't possibly do without her. So of course, this week's theme of kitchen at Unplug Your Kids sounded wonderful for us!

First of all, I want to point out the wonderful interview at Chocolate & Zucchini on how the blind cook. It is so fascinating and inspiring, and makes me realize my unorganized life style would probably cause many fires, spills, burns and bumps in the kitchen. (Notice my "busy" countertops and open cabinets in the photos below.)

We tried many things in the kitchen this week, but let's just say that we managed to make our usual bread, and I even cooked up some more apple sauce, but the family kitchen project was more like a kitchen snafu.

When I get the munchies, sometimes the only thing that will kick my sweet tooth is cookie dough. Dave personally hates dough, but I can sit down and eat a whole bowl if the mood strikes. So I make dough, he makes cookies, all is well with the world.

I started with this recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, my favorite! I subbed out the eggs with apple sauce so I wouldn't feel guilty for eating raw eggs while wearing a very grabby Bella. (Please pretend not to notice that I stay in my PJs all day when I've worked a night shift the night before...)






When all was mixed and doughy, I snuggled up with Bella and my bowl of yummy and left the rest to Dave, expecting the scrumptious smell of fresh cookies to permeate our apartment. However within a few minutes I started smelling burgers. Dave assured me that he used a clean pan and that the smell could have been from dinner, so I pushed snooze on the alarms going off in my head. But when I smelled burning just moments later, I had to check it out. As I peered in at the cookies, (sorry, I accidentally deleted the photo of them cooking!) I realized that the pan in use was in fact the broiler pan, the one dotted with handy little holes to allow the grease to fall through.

Apparently, cookies do not broil well. Little stalactites of dough were forming in each hole, occasionally releasing miniature cookie fireballs. We did our best to salvage the cookies with some tinfoil protecting the oven, but our attempts were in vain. Indeed, after much inspection, we decided meatballs had last been cooked on this tray, and the two flavors were not meant to coexist in one mouthful. There is a reason no one cooks burger cookies.

And here's our second kitchen goof up for the week: Whole wheat bread that we set to rise during our afternoon bath, but then decided that a nap sounded more appealing after a warm bath, so the bread over rose and has a splat-top.



And a peek into the normal messy status of our kitchen, in case anyone needs a little reminder that messy is normal. :O)