Crazy in the Kitchen

For a few days Tessie has been wanting to bake cookies. I said we would but it has continued to be put off. Today I forced to put off my list and tell Tes it was cookie baking time. Since Christian was napping, I also decided to make ice cream, finish picking up, and put dinner together at the same time. Make hay while the sun shines, and all that jazz.

The cookie making went pretty smoothly, and aside from eating half the dough, Tes and I did a great job. Christian was still sleeping when the first batch went in the oven so I decided to start on the ice cream. The trouble with this ice cream was the variety. I love salted caramel ice cream, and being on my DIY kick, I thought "how hard can that be?" As it turns out, never having made caramel before, it was pretty hard.

 To to further complicate matters, Christian woke up just as I was at the "continuously stir until all caramel is dissolved" stage, and my caramel was still a big lump on a spoon.  I sent Tessie in to play with her brother, stirred the caramel with one hand, took cookies out of the oven with the other, called "I'll be right there!" to Christian, and greeted Nick as he walked in the door.  He look concerned for a moment, but being rather used to arriving to find me in a crazy state, he simply asked how my day was.  Christian was quickly becoming unsatisfied with his sister-instead-of mom fake out, but luckily my caramel finally dissolved.  I spent the next twenty minutes running from Christian's room to the kitchen.  Stir, bring a snack, stir, help Christian sit up, stir, stir, and stir.  By the time my custard portion of the recipe was complete, so were the cookies and the chicken for dinner.  I mixed the ice cream ingredients together, stuck it in the fridge, and sat down with my kids for a few minutes before I put dinner on the table.

The thing about tonight that stood out from other crazy adventures I get myself into was simple.  I was laughing at myself the whole time.  I was completely happy, and having a great time.  The crazy parts did not, in any way, overshadow the yummy, wonderful parts.  The part when Tessie took twenty minutes to lick the batter off the beater.  The part when I learned how to make caramel.  And definitely the part when my family sat down to dinner with no TV.  My cookies were delicious, the family loved dinner, and I'm about to sit down with a glass of wine and a bowl of salted caramel ice cream.  All in all, I'd have to say my afternoon of crazy in the kitchen turned out to be rather beautiful, as long as you're not looking at my kitchen right now.