Rewind ... back 40+ years ...

This is actually part two of two posts from Teri's. Yup, had to write two posts to tell the story -- the never ending saga ...

I think I just went back in time 40+ years!! When Marley asked if she could go ask a neighbor for eggs, it took me back to a time when neighbors were truly neighbors. You could arrive on someone’s doorstep with a measuring cup or a question and be met with a helpful hand.

Today was one of those days. She and her friend, Meredith, decided that they wanted to make a cake – at first, from scratch. I was trying to coax Rudy into taking a bottle so my attention was quite divided. And since the two girls were going to be picked up to go to dinner within about 1-1/2 hours, I was pretty certain they could not achieve that goal.

Then it was cooks – but Marley thought perhaps she could make some substitutes along the way and I assured her that the outcome would be less than her desire if she did that.

Then it was back to a cake … actually, it was cookies first .. then a cake … then brownies. Does that sound like a math problem again?? Back to the cookies – they got everything out except for vanilla – Marley thought she could do without the vanilla this time.

“Nana, what is Crisco?” Okay, how do I explain Crisco? “Do you know what shortening is?” “Oh, yeah. We have some of that.” Okay, so now they are set … except … they have no eggs! Now they have a problem. Meredith assured her that they could not leave out the eggs. So, let’s go the neighbors. After all, they borrow lots of stuff from us. So, off they go to borrow eggs. It takes a few minutes and I find out they had to go to three neighbors to get two eggs. Math again! Gets better. I heard an “uh-oh” … one egg is on the floor and another one precariously close to the edge of the counter. They have to have two eggs. So, now what do they do? They only have one!

Marley suggested that they go to Melissa’s house but she’s around the corner. They were going to ride their bikes but Meredith nixed that idea. (She had carried a bag along for the eggs although had insisted that she had good enough balance she could carry them back!) However, she really didn’t want to ride a bike so they cut through someone’s yard to get there. (Better not tell Mom!) Oh, I forgot to tell you – the cake / cookies turned to brownies because when they looked for flour in the pantry – there was not enough to think about either.

The brownies were made – they look great even though I haven’t tried them yet. Meredith reminded me of the cake they baked for 4 minutes not to long ago – they misread the instructions and thought it said 3-5 minutes instead of 35 minutes. They let it cool for about 3 minutes and tried to ice it!

I haven’t had the heart to tell the girls that after I told Teri of their saga today, she said, “Didn’t they know that there were eggs in the refrigerator in the garage?” Oh, well .. another day, another memory!!!