Eve’s favorite solitary place to be. Whenever she goes outside alone I know she’ll end up there. Then in the tub!
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Tag Archives: Eve
Watermelon Cookies
We bought a giant watermelon at the market the other day. Lex’s choice. Give that boy a watermelon and a spoon and he’s a happy camper! (Remind you of anyone, B?!) Eve, however, had other plans for the watermelon. “Let’s make watermelon cookies,” she said to me yesterday. She wanted to make them yesterday, but I said no because I had other things to make, and she wanted to make them today but we were out all day, so when I picked her up after school she asked if we could please come home and make watermelon cookies. She even wanted to skip Lego Club (a wild playtime her classmates do every Wednesday after school) so we could make cookies today. What could I say other than, “Ok, let’s make cookies!”
She wanted free range with the recipe, like we did with the Flower Rose Pie (almost this same time last year!). However, since these were to be cookies they would require a certain consistency to the batter, so she wrote her recipe (blue squiggles all over the back of a coloring sheet) and then agreed to also consider my recipe (lemon drop sugar cookies from KAF). Following the basic guideline from the KAF recipe we went to work. Here’s what the final recipe was:
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 c. sour cream
2 rather large slices of watermelon, rind removed
2 1/4 c. white wheat flour
1 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
Red food coloring (AmeriColor soft gel paste, or whatever you’ve got)
Cream sugar and butter in mixing bowl. Add sour cream and mix well. Pierce watermelon chucks well with a fork then add to bowl. Mix until somewhat smooth or until you get bored of mixing and want to move on. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Put many drops of food coloring in. Have fun with it! Mix well. Then let mom have a turn to scrape down the sides and mix again.
Preheat the oven to 375° Drop by very large cookie-scoop full onto a cookie sheet. We used parchment paper, as usual. Otherwise you’d probably want to grease those cookie sheets. Sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on top to resemble watermelon seeds. (I briefly considered lining them up in arcs, as watermelon seeds really are, but then let go of that madness and let Eve carry on with her sprinkling.)
Bake for about 18 minutes or until they are firmish. The recipe says to bake until a very light gold around the edges, but you can’t really see that in these pink cookies.
Cool on a cooling rack for awhile then cut in half to make them look like watermelon slices.
We put some thought into how to make a green rind around the edge, but couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t involve a lot of work on my part (fondant, separate cookie dough, etc.) or a trip to the store (gummy worms, fruit candies, etc.) So we settled for just the melon, hold the rind, and everyone was happy.
They actually taste ok. Cakey and not super sweet. Not super watermelony either though. Now I want to go back and make the original lemon drop cookie recipe too. I bet that would be yummy. :)
Happy creative baker
We put two chunks that size and larger into the batter. Mix it all about!
Add some flour. She likes this part and I don't often let her do it.
Eat some watermelon while you wait. (she wouldn't smile for me, but I got a nice shot of the curls instead!)
Lex heard me say "Watermelon" and came tearing in from the living room, big grin on his face! It's a good thing we bought a huge melon, otherwise there might not have been enough left for the cookies!
Sprinkle on some chocolate "seeds." Chocolated covered sunflower seeds would look good here too.
Enjoy! (I just noticed that this picture would have looked better if the cookies were flipped over, flat side up)
I have had several “slices of watermelon” this evening. These will not help at my weigh-in in the morning!
Good morning
iWhat?
A little girl that Eve likes to play with at the WW meetings showed up today with an iPad. Normally the two girls color quietly together, but today she played with the iPad while Eve colored in her notebook. In the car after the meeting Eve “read” me her “notes” that she took. They started with “Sarah was playing with her iPod…” When she stopped to take a breath I told her the device was an iPad, not iPod. Then I explained the iPad, iPhone, and iPod to her. In high level. What they look like and what they do. She called it an iPod and again and I asked if she could hear the difference between iPad and iPod (were were driving in the car, after all). She huffed and said, “I’m just going to call it a Kindle! That’s easier anyway.” :)
Yes, my kids are pretty gadget-unsavvy!
Eve’s new bike
That is the look of pure exhilaration! She doesn’t know how to slow down and stop, and seems to have no interest in learning, but she does a decent job ditching it in the grass and jumping off! :)
My dinner helper
Another one from Eve
It’s pouring outside today. Really coming down. As Eve and I were getting ready to leave for school I reminded her to wear her boots and raincoat. She sweetly reminded me to do the same. So we did. I have a great yellow raincoat that Mema bought me (so I would stop complaining about not having a raincoat!) and a fun pair of pink flowery boots that I liberated from Joyce’s old bedroom. Off we went, into the rain.
At school we stopped for Eve to use the bathroom. While she was in there I was checking out my rain look in the mirror. When she came out I said, “What do you think, Eve? Does this raincoat look good or goofy?” She rubbed the soft sleeve of the raincoat, put on her serious face, and replied, “I think it looks just perfect, for your age.”
Hahahaha… She is so funny. I laughed.
On a side note, her school had an ice cream social and raffle this weekend. I knew we would be attending so I dropped $10 on an “early raffle” form wherein you check off which raffle items you’d bid on and they do the bidding for you at the raffle. At the playground yesterday one of the parents asked if I was happy about my winnings. What?! I never win anything! I stopped by the school office today and turns out I had won movie theater tickets and collage football tickets! Sweet!! That was $10 well spent! :)
Who’s paying attention?
I left my computer on last night because I have lots of windows open and didn’t want to lose my places (birthday party planning in action!) When my computer is on it’s like a light and I am the moth. No matter where it is or where I am, I’m drawn to it. Hence the reason I normally leave it off when the kids are around.
However, this morning it’s on and I’m sitting at my desk, lost in the Internet. Eve is on the floor playing with a puzzle behind me. Just now I said, “I’m not doing a very good job paying attention to you this morning sweetie.” She replied with, “It’s ok, I’m not doing a good job paying attention to you either.” I guess we’re even then. :)
I’m going to attempt to disengage from the computer now and go exercise. Continuing to ignore my daughter. Sigh.
I actually ended up doing a series of Hulu exercise programs with Eve right by my side. It wasn’t the greatest workout ever, calorie-wise, but it was fun and we were together. Well worth it.
Flower love
We planted chocolate mint and freesia today. The chocolate mint (repotting, really, Lex and I bought the plants already growing at the Home Depot!) went into an old pot of dirt that had something else growing in it last year. I don’t remember what. For the freesia bulbs I dumped a bag of manure on the wood mulch where our tree came down last year. Then we tucked the little bulbs right in and poured a bottle of water on top. I’m a top-notch expert gardener, have you noticed?
Garden girl
Lex and I packed up and started to move on to something else. Eve sat there for awhile, patting the dirt. Then she said, “Aww… I love these flowers. [brief pause, more patting] I want to hug the cow poop.” How can you not laugh at that girl!?!
Moring hair salon
Eve’s Hair Salon was open this morning with one extremely patient patron.
Stylist Eve, hard at work.
Later, while Rosy showered and de-barretted her hair, Eve let me take a turn at it.
This is how I wanted to do it. I think the braids coming together with flower clips is adorable.
This is what Eve thought of my idea.
She wanted the three braids left apart. Since it's her hair I decided to let her make this decision. Aren't I a generous mom?! :)
Photography by Lex