We went out to a farm to pick berries this week. It was hot and dusty, but also a lot of fun. It was just me & the girls. The older took the task seriously and set to work. The younger started out intent to put berries in her bag, but once the first one made it into her mouth, the picking was all over for her...
Once we got all the delicious boysenberries & blueberries home, we got to work in the kitchen. First matter of business was making a boysenberry pie. Big girl was very eager to help with this. I just couldn't bring myself to correct her as she kept calling it a "poison berry pie." We got some help from
SimplyRecipes figuring out the portions for the berries & a pie crust recipe.
The pie was finished baking after she went to bed that night, so when she woke up the next morning, this is what she found. (we shared some with neighbors, please don't think hubby and I ate half of the pie ourselves!!)
The next day, we set out to finish off the boysenberries by making ice cream out of them. The girls helped me stir the custard base on the stovetop:
Baby girl was so eager to help, climbing up on big sister's stool, so we had to get her one of her own. We even set her up with her own saucepan (with water inside) and a ladle to stir with. That seemed to make her happy!
Sometimes cooking with my kids is challenging. It would be SO much faster (& cleaner) to do things on my own. Baking always takes me longer than I plan on it taking, so I often get grumpy and rushed to finish things. This day I made the mistake of not waiting long enough for the ice cream to cool in the fridge before putting it into the ice cream machine to churn. (We were too anxious to eat the ice cream, boo!) The result was runny ice cream that didn't set up well. It'll still taste fine, and once it's frozen, it won't be runny.
I'm not always great with the clean-up either (just ask my husband!). Later that morning, I was in another room, realizing that the baby was very quiet. So I came into the kitchen and found her sampling the ice cream leftover in the freezer bowl.
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| Totally enjoying herself! |
It's a good thing her shirt was already dark pink! Thank You Lord, for these precious times that I get to cook and create with my girls. They are so sweet and often remind me to slow, slow down & enjoy things. They are not in a hurry. So much I have to learn.
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