April Fool’s Cookies
A few weeks ago I warned readers of this blog, who are also parents, to be very careful with the traditions they establish in their homes because you set up expectations for future years. It’s April Fool’s Day, and not only was I supposed to come up with funny, but not mean pranks for the kids, but I also had a request to bake these spicy peanut butter cookies for the third year running.
The first year I baked these cookies, I used them to prank the girls after school. The recipe is a basic, very good, peanut butter cookie recipe to which I add about a tablespoon of cayenne pepper. Both of the girls were fooled and got a good laugh. I even managed to prank one of Louisa’s friends who had come over after school.
Last year Annie requested that I make them again so that she could bring them to school and prank her friends at lunch. In the meantime, I decided to take this opportunity to prank Annie as well. As soon as she arrived home from school, I told her the principal had called and she was in trouble for passing out very spicy cookies at the lunch table and we’d have to go into school right away and meet with him. This elicited a not so funny reaction and I very quickly revealed the joke as Annie was too upset to keep it going.
This year Annie once again asked me to bake them so she could bring them in to school. I also put a couple into Louisa’s lunchbox just because we all like the cookies despite the heat. She gave one to a teacher at lunchtime and was able to get a good reaction from him, and he proceeded to give a piece to another teacher.
I guess the moral of the story is to beware if someone offers you a peanut butter cookie on April Fool’s Day!
Quote of the Week – March 30, 2011 – Nigella Lawson
“The trouble with much modern cooking is not that the food it produces isn’t good, but that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure.”
- Nigella Lawson in “How to Be a Domestic Goddess”
Vote for Me!
My gift to you today. A picture of last night's dinner - teriyaki chicken and soba noodles. It was really good (well maybe not the peas in Louisa's opinion).
Think about it, friends and readers – do I ever ask more of you than feedback in a comment post every once in a while? I didn’t think so. That’s why I hope I’m not intruding too much on your President’s Day weekend festivities by asking you to vote for the photos I’ve entered in a photography contest on a local website. It’s not really about the gift certificate. What I want is for you, my loyal readers, to show me that you CARE. Of course, if you hate the photos I’ve entered into the contest and it goes against your conscience to vote for them, I’ll understand, sigh. But if you love me, er, I mean my photos, you can vote for them every day until the contest is over.
You’ll find my entries if you click on this link.
Now you may go back to your regularly scheduled holiday festivities.
Now