Made from scratch, by Elise

Elise has long been interested in chemistry. To her, this chiefly consists of mixing things--baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, you name it.

Lately, however, she's combined this hobby with two others: treats and rock climbing, so that at any point when I come into the kitchen I might find her perched busily on top of the counter, reaching for the marshmallows so she can add them to a milky, floury, sugary concoction in a bowl next to her. A sprinkle of Cheerio dust, a pinch of salt and a good mix later, and we have the makings for a cake! Dessert for tonight!

How does Elise create her confections? First, she thinks of a few key ingredients: oats, flour, sugar and milk are staples, as well as candy hearts left over from Valentine's Day, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Usually she likes to add some kind of fruit as well, and perhaps a drizzling of honey.

Then, she makes a recipe card out of construction paper and writes her ingredients and any other instructions. She notes common measurements she's seen me use, and writes down a baking temperature of 350, usually for about 12 minutes. For example:

Mini Cupcakes (spelling all hers)
1 cup shoger
1 cup flawer
1/4 millk
1 cup chopped up strawberries
a drisling fo Hony

And frosting, of course.

I believe when we actually made this recipe, we cut the sugar and flour down to 1/4 cup, and we added a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, marshmallows and maybe a little vanilla.

Here's another:

edible pond
food color
yogert blue
dip Bred in the yogert put karet cyons on the bred (karet cyons = carrot coins)

Elise has tucked these (and more!) away in my recipe box, and even at one point made her own recipe-writing desk out of a cardboard box. Kalina decorated the recipes, so they make a sweet little collection.

Fortunately for me, Elise, prepares all her recipes on her own, occasionally with help from Naomi or Kalina. Of course, I might need to reach eggs, help with spills, refill salt containers, find appropriately sized baking pans and measuring cups, put things into and pull things out of the oven (at 2-minute intervals so we can check to see if it's done), and myriad other insignificant tasks, but it's clearly Elise's project. I can just sit back and relax while dessert gets made! Elise has also been faithful about the other half of baking: cleanup. A couple reminders, and she's totally on it!

Really, the only tricky part it trying to figure out when the recipe is done baking, as many of Elise's creations fall into categories of their own (unleavened cupcakes, milk-cakes, strawberry-peanut butter fudgecakes, etc.). We seem to be successful every time, though, especially once the creations are cooled and drizzled with honey, sprinkled with more sugar or topped with frosting.

Elise added a box to her
scooter so she could deliver
treats to the neighbors. These
were standard chocolate chip
cookies made by Kalina that
were the best several of our
neighbors had ever eaten!

Of course, with Elise's generous nature, she's always willing to share. She made mini cupcakes for the kids up the street, and sent one home with Grandpa as well. So far, she's gotten rave reviews from everyone except Naomi, but we all know how picky Naomi is! Naomi even used to be afraid of ice cream, so of course she's only licking the frosting off a mini cupcake!

It's been wonderful seeing Elise put her kitchen knowledge to work, and without cookbooks, too! In fact, at the suggestion that she could flip through our kids' cookbook, she said she preferred to come up with her own. I don't blame her--after all, most of the cookbook recipes are a bit low on marshmallows.

Thanks, Elise, for being a treat to watch, as well as making us some lovely treats!

Also, we're out of sugar.