Fun with Five Year Old

One of the things I am proudest and happiest about in my life is the magical, miraculous fact that I am the grandma of a beautiful, bright, funny, sparkling, talkative, amazing force of nature that is my five year old grand daughter.

I have had the delightful job of having her over for last two whole days... her Daddy works at a school too but his school ends two days later than hers does... and luckily my school is on break for a couple weeks before starting summer session. (Yes, the high needs kids do need to be in school through the summer... so I do not get the whole summer off.)

And it has been sooo much fun. Five year old girls are a vast store of enthusiasm, giggles and wisdom. Important things learned...

"Coconut is good." And sitting down with a bright little girl, talking about coconut, tasting coconut, looking at pictures of coconut palms on the internet is a blast. We did find a totally amazing coconut cookie recipe. (stolen from allrecipes.com)



Livie's Chewy Coconut Cookies (renamed in honor of the queen of the day)


Ingredients

* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.

These cookies are amazingly good... I sent them all home with her... I could have totally eaten the whole recipe all by myself.

Fact number two: Red flowers smell like ketchup. Solemnly related to me as we pushed our cart around and around the Home Depot (Dom Depot) yard and garden section. I cannot relate how exciting it is to watcg your grand daughter decode and read some words and turn to you with the sudden light of awareness and exclaim, "Home Depot! We are at Home Depot!"

Fact number three: It just is not a complete garden without a pumpkin, but it must just be one pumpkin.



So we bought and planted a pumpkin... as well as two tomatoes and some pretty purple Lobelia.



Livie and I had the best day... it is totally magical to see the world brand new through the eyes of a beloved little girl.

Bread recipe

Two cups water, as hot as it can get from the tap.
Two tablespoons olive oil
Two tablespoons honey
Two teaspoons salt.

Stir it all around, by now the water will have cooled enough so it shouldn't kill your...

One tablespoon of yeast

Stir it some more... and then let it sit about 15 minutes... it will foam up a little and smell really good and yeasty.

Then stir in (I use my wonderful old Kitchen Aid Mixmaster)...

Two cups of flour
Two cups of high gluten flour.

Let it mix on low (or knead it if you don't have a mixer) until it is all together in a nice cohesive lump... put in an oiled bowl and let rise until doubled. Punch it down and let it rise again.

Form into two loaves. I cut the dough in half and then sort of press it down flat and then roll it into a uniform cylinder. Put in greased loaf pans and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 375 until brown on top and when you tap the top it is hard and sounds hollow.

Very chewy, very crusty... Master says yum.