Melted plastic and rum cookies.

Every day should be a new day with a new lesson learned. I learned a new lesson today. Do not place Rubbermaid container tops on the stove and then turn the oven on. The top will melt. I know, I know, it doesn't seem logical to me either. Indirect heat will melt a flimsy piece of plastic? If I pay $7 for a 26 piece set of plastic, 375 degrees of indirect heat (for 40 minutes) shouldn't melt it, even if the box tells you not to place in oven or on stove. Perhaps if they had pictures with a red "X" over it, I would have understood. (deep sigh).

I also learned that melted plastic, once cooled, will pull up off of a stove in a nice, deformed pattern that is ready for the trash. Nothing ruined, but of course, 24 cents worth of plastic (okay 48 cents...it was two tops that melted).

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The baking began in earnest this weekend. Last week I made fudge. That’s not baking. This weekend I made muffins and almond crescent cookies. Except, I didn’t have any almond extract. I used rum extract instead. Do you think that will alter the taste? Yeah, probably. Do you think The Princess and I will care? Will it prevent us from eating them? No, probably not. It has to be a burnt, nasty mess for us to not at least taste them!

Fa la la la la – la la – la – la!

NOTE: the rum flavor made a great cookie. I cut the batch in half and ended up with 20 cookies. Next time I'll make the entire batch.

Books, books and more books

The Princess sure knows how to keep her mommie on her toes.

This morning I was driving her to school and she was telling me that her library book needed to be renewed. I told her that she was born into a family of readers and she should be able to read a "chapter book" in three weeks; that she should not have to renew it. I could read a book a week when I put my mind to it. She should be able to read one in three weeks.

"In fact for 2010 you are going to read 2 books a month,"I told her.

"Yes ma'am, you will have read 24 books by the end of December 2010."

She was very quiet in the backseat and I could see that her head was down. I took this as a sign of mommie victory. I smiled and continued the drive.

"Mommie?" she asked.

"Yes?" I answered.

"We're a reading family?"

"Yes we are."

"So I have to read 24 books in a year?"

"Yes."

"Did you know 24 X 2 = 48?"

"Yes." (The kid was throwing me off with math).

"So maybe you can read 48 books in a year."

"Huh?" I asked, stunned. What was she saying?

"If I read 24 books before you read 48 books, you take me to dinner and if you read 48 books before I read 24 books, I'll take you to dinner."

I looked in the rear view mirror. The smile on her face filled the back seat. She had challenged me to a duel! I know I said that I could read a book a week. That didn't mean that I wanted to. But what choice did I have now? I couldn't walk away from a 48 book challenge!

"Fine. That's a bet."

Apparently I'll be reading a lot in 2010. I have a bet to win.

I think The Princess stole my mommie manual and tricked me.