Recipes and Memories
Earlier this week I was recruited to handle the tea and coffee desserts at hubby's church. I have a committee meeting there after the service anyway, so I was planning to go. So I will be cooking and baking treats for about 40 people for Sunday morning.
Typically they have cake, cookies, cupcakes, and occasionally a fruit or cheese tray. I wanted something different. So I sat back and began thinking and my eyes fell on a cookbook called Seasoned with Love. This was a fundraiser cookbook for the daycare my girls were in in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As I flipped through the pages I was taken back to those days.
Miss Nancy's Early Learning Center was a wonderful place. There was never any issues on my end, but they had a couple with my younger daughter, Rachel, from time to time. Rachel has always been sort of a free spirit who functions in sort of a distorted reality. I don't consider that a bad thing, for it makes her tender, artistic, brave, and so much more.
Miss Nancy's was where we really discovered that. Our first "issue" was when she had to be disciplined for kissing too much. She kissed everybody, whether they wanted her to or not. It was difficult for her to understand that this was inappropriate because she felt she was expressing her affection--which on the surface is a good thing. But she was only 2, and in the daycare world where there are germs everywhere, kissing was not allowed. Fortunately she is now, at 24, still very affectionate, she just conveys her love better.
The best story on Rachel and Miss Nancy's was when they called me at work and wanted to know why my 4 year old was a racist.
About that time, her older sister Ryan, who is still a bit of a brainiac, was studying genetics. She was 7 or 8. She fully comprehended the idea of genes defining our physical traits and we talked often about it. Our talk was about eye color, hair color, height, and so on. Also at that time, we were learning about "stranger danger"; I was a single parent and felt it was crucial to prepare my girls for the evils that lay wait in the world. We set up passwords for people who were allowed to pick them up, talked about who a stranger is and who a friend is, and that even friends weren't allowed to pick them up unless they had the password.
So when the daycare called and asked about our family and racism I was dumbfounded. We lived just outside a North Carolina Marine Base and the girls had always had friends of every race and culture. Aparantly though, Rachel had pitched a fit when a woman tried to pick up her child and attempted to get staff to call the police to prevent the woman from taking the child. Aparantly Rachel had said the woman could not possibly be the child's mother because they "didn't match".
The child was black and his black father had always picked him? up in the past. On this day, his very white mother came to pick him up early. Rachel, having never seen this woman and it not being the regular time for pickups was concerned about stranger danger. Moreover, since her sister and I had been discussing how two brown eyed people make a brown eyed baby (and yes I know there are exceptions but we're talking second grade here), Rachel extrapolated that two brownskinned people would have to be the parents of a brown boy. Ergo the white woman could not possibly be his mother.
Raising gifted children is a treasure and a curse.
So here along with that memory is one of the recipes Im going to use on Sunday.
Microwave Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake
1 can cherry pie filling
12 oz chocolate chips
Devils food cake mix, mixed as directed
In a microwave bundt pan, cover the bottom with the chocolate chips. Cover the chips with the pie filling, then spoon the prepared cake mix over the pie filling. Microwave on high for about 13 minutes or until sides begin to pull away. Let stand in microwave an additional 5 minutes, then invert on a plate. Can be served warm or cold.
A couple of additional notes: Don't spray or greas the pan. If you don't have a microwave bundt pan (shame on you) then you may be able to use a bowl with a glass turned upside down. But you should really get a bundt pan.
I assume this can be made in a conventional oven as well, but I've never tried it. Be sure and let me know what you think, as this is one of my creations and one of my contributions to the Miss Nancy's cookbook.
Now back to work for me. I have poo to analyze and skulls to identify.
Typically they have cake, cookies, cupcakes, and occasionally a fruit or cheese tray. I wanted something different. So I sat back and began thinking and my eyes fell on a cookbook called Seasoned with Love. This was a fundraiser cookbook for the daycare my girls were in in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As I flipped through the pages I was taken back to those days.
Miss Nancy's Early Learning Center was a wonderful place. There was never any issues on my end, but they had a couple with my younger daughter, Rachel, from time to time. Rachel has always been sort of a free spirit who functions in sort of a distorted reality. I don't consider that a bad thing, for it makes her tender, artistic, brave, and so much more.
Miss Nancy's was where we really discovered that. Our first "issue" was when she had to be disciplined for kissing too much. She kissed everybody, whether they wanted her to or not. It was difficult for her to understand that this was inappropriate because she felt she was expressing her affection--which on the surface is a good thing. But she was only 2, and in the daycare world where there are germs everywhere, kissing was not allowed. Fortunately she is now, at 24, still very affectionate, she just conveys her love better.
The best story on Rachel and Miss Nancy's was when they called me at work and wanted to know why my 4 year old was a racist.
About that time, her older sister Ryan, who is still a bit of a brainiac, was studying genetics. She was 7 or 8. She fully comprehended the idea of genes defining our physical traits and we talked often about it. Our talk was about eye color, hair color, height, and so on. Also at that time, we were learning about "stranger danger"; I was a single parent and felt it was crucial to prepare my girls for the evils that lay wait in the world. We set up passwords for people who were allowed to pick them up, talked about who a stranger is and who a friend is, and that even friends weren't allowed to pick them up unless they had the password.
So when the daycare called and asked about our family and racism I was dumbfounded. We lived just outside a North Carolina Marine Base and the girls had always had friends of every race and culture. Aparantly though, Rachel had pitched a fit when a woman tried to pick up her child and attempted to get staff to call the police to prevent the woman from taking the child. Aparantly Rachel had said the woman could not possibly be the child's mother because they "didn't match".
The child was black and his black father had always picked him? up in the past. On this day, his very white mother came to pick him up early. Rachel, having never seen this woman and it not being the regular time for pickups was concerned about stranger danger. Moreover, since her sister and I had been discussing how two brown eyed people make a brown eyed baby (and yes I know there are exceptions but we're talking second grade here), Rachel extrapolated that two brownskinned people would have to be the parents of a brown boy. Ergo the white woman could not possibly be his mother.
Raising gifted children is a treasure and a curse.
So here along with that memory is one of the recipes Im going to use on Sunday.
Microwave Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake
1 can cherry pie filling
12 oz chocolate chips
Devils food cake mix, mixed as directed
In a microwave bundt pan, cover the bottom with the chocolate chips. Cover the chips with the pie filling, then spoon the prepared cake mix over the pie filling. Microwave on high for about 13 minutes or until sides begin to pull away. Let stand in microwave an additional 5 minutes, then invert on a plate. Can be served warm or cold.
A couple of additional notes: Don't spray or greas the pan. If you don't have a microwave bundt pan (shame on you) then you may be able to use a bowl with a glass turned upside down. But you should really get a bundt pan.
I assume this can be made in a conventional oven as well, but I've never tried it. Be sure and let me know what you think, as this is one of my creations and one of my contributions to the Miss Nancy's cookbook.
Now back to work for me. I have poo to analyze and skulls to identify.
LOL Ty so much for posting this. As I sit here winding down from work this gave me a great giggle.
from a fellow Nancy...!
That was so cute
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