January 14, 2009

“Little Cooker” and the Cold

Last week, Lil C and I spent our afternoons (and many evenings) watching The Food Network. She calls herself the "little cooker" and I am strongly encouraging her in this interest since it may limit the time I have to be in the kitchen in the very near future. Plus, if she gets her own cooking show someday, she can buy me a beach house to thank me for all the patience I've shown in the kitchen over the years.

I imagine her starring in a show as a little ninja chef. Kicking recipe butts and taking names. Plus, she's really anxious to get her hands on my knives so it fits. Yesterday was not her best day in the kitchen, however.

One of the shows we watched last week was "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee." Lil C liked her show so much that she kept asking me when it was going to be back on. I don't think she bonded with Sandra Lee so much as she just liked that the first episode we watched was all desserts. Since last week, she's been bugging me endlessly about making one of them so we decided to tackle what seemed like the easiest (the wine dumped over frozen yogurt recipe doesn't count because she couldn't eat it).

So, we went to the store yesterday and searched endlessly for phyllo dough. I can't imagine many people come looking for it because it was like going on a treasure hunt trying to find it. The recipe is called "Chocolate Mocha Phyllo Cups" and it looked super easy on TV.

We came home, washed our hands, and got to work. Phyllo dough is delicate so I peeled each of the three layers we needed off and put them in front of her. I sprayed them with cooking spray and let Lil C sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. When it was time to cut them up and delicately place them in the cupcake holders, Lil C was a little antsy, and I spent my time doing damage control. We put them in the oven and got to work on the pudding.

Meanwhile, Big I confiscated her computer and closed out my recipe page. I knew they had to be in the oven for a couple minutes but I was going to check the details after I got them in. Needless to say, I couldn't find the page again soon enough so the kitchen's sweet cinnamon smell soon became a burnt nightmare and I knew the first batch was done for.

Lil C was busy stirring the chocolate pudding when I removed the burnt phyllo cups from the oven. It was as I was dumping the last one into the trash can and subsequently burning the skin right off my hands, when Lil C started sneezing. . . right into the pudding bowl.

Big I clutched her stomach and sort of groaned. I did the same and the pudding was dumped down the sink. So much for that.

I checked the pantry closet and found a package of vanilla pudding and changed the plan. "Let's make vanilla berry phyllo cups," I said.

This time, I did the cups and the pudding on the other side of the kitchen. It was obvious Lil C was breaking out quickly with a cold and I wasn't going to toss two desserts in one day. One is already a crime. She did help decorate the cups since she promised not to breathe while doing so, and after we washed her hands again for about 10 minutes straight.

With no additional "ingredients" this batch turned out perfectly. Plus, we created our very own recipe and they were absolutely delicious.