Void Thoughts

It’s been a week since school closed and summer break started for my kids. Summer break, or any break for that matter, means a whole lot of baking in our kitchen. 

Akku and Kanna love to help me bake cookies and brownies, well, for their own selfish reasons, namely, eat the baked goodies and the cookie dough in between. But I love baking with them for my own selfish reasons: they help me through the process and it’s a great way to spend time together.

Yesterday, we decided to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I wasn’t too keen on baking this time as my shoulder had been hurting since the afternoon. So, I told the kids they’d have to do the heavy lifting and make the dough. They eagerly agreed.

But, as usual, when it was time to get things done, I ended up doing most of it. I think the control freak in me gets on high alert and takes over. However, I did let them read the instructions to me, measure the ingredients into the bowl, and do the initial mixing.

And so, I can only blame Kanna for mixing up teaspoon with tablespoon. Yes, I heard him say tablespoon and didn’t think it was right to add one tablespoon of salt, so I asked him again. He confirmed it was a tablespoon before I gave the go-ahead. Our cookie dough contained one tablespoon of salt and one tablespoon of baking soda.

We realized our mistake later. It was supposed to be one tsp, misunderstood by the 14-year-old as a tbsp.

The baked cookies looked delicious, but I could taste the baking soda so much in the cookie just by the whiff of it that I couldn’t even finish the small bite I tried to taste.

I was disappointed at the wasted effort, but on another look at the whole thing, my kids will never mix up teaspoons with tablespoons again. That’s solid learning, isn’t it? 

Now that this batch of cookies served its purpose, we are planning to make another batch today, a fresh batch with new lessons.