Fall baking...

I am so ready to bake! I have been craving all things warm and wintery which tells me more than the leaves changing colors ever will. It is time to hunker down and get ready for the long cold winter. The news people interviewed a local ski area rep and based on their record keeping of snowfall by October we are in for an above average year. The Almanac calls for a colder than normal winter so if you put it together....I better stock up on oatmeal and canned goods. Oh, and baking supplies.

I called my niece today. She was baking! Budge is 10 and quite proud of her role as the "family baker". I have one of those too and got to tell her all about how her cousin Toad will make me cookies at the drop of a hint. I got to tell her how it makes a moms heart glad to smell the yummy goodness that fills the house. Mmmm.....


Budge was asking me how to make the frosting. She needed to frost these cupcakes and while she knew her mom would smell them, she still wanted it to be a surprise. Could I stay on the phone with her and walk her through making it. Heck yeah I could! I started explaining how making frosting was going to be fun because she was in for a shock when she saw how little liquid would go into the powdered sugar, and that it actually makes frosting.


Then she said something that blew me away...especially for 10 years old. She said "Auntie, that is what I just love about baking. It is almost like a miracle! So many times you put things together and just think 'how the heck did that happen?' like it's a miracle or sumpin!"

And then I get really sad that we don't live closer. This is my same niece who will call me (starting at 8 years old!!) and tell me she has her knitting in her hands and can I tell her exactly how to bind off. The trade off is that I can call her and tell her that I need to hear a little "Aran Boat Song" or "Red Haired Boy"....and she will do her best on her fiddle. A girl of many talents that one.