| Tooth Fairy Tales and Dino-cakes I�m not the perfect parent, just ask my kids. But I try, here�s proof. My 15 year old gave me this coy grin this morning with a laugh in his face as my 8 year old whined �The tooth fairy sucks!� She/He (clue me in, I don�t know fairy gender) had forgotten to do the dutiful exchange last night as he�d lost yet another tooth at school yesterday. I try to make them feel special whenever I can, but I had dropped the ball on that one. Our standard house rule is that if you loose a tooth, you pick the breakfast the next morning. And he wanted pancakes. Not just any pancakes, but dinosaur pancakes. Now if you ever had a dinosaur pancake you�d never want anything else. I, of course, had not. I suspect that he hadn�t either but was testing my parenting creativeness before 2 cups of coffee could filter into my bloodstream. �No problem, what kind of dinosaur would you like?� I asked, testing his child creativeness in return. Stegosaurus was the reptile of choice. �Can you draw a picture of one for me?� I asked, trying to sound like I wanted to simply make it very detailed, when really I couldn�t muster up what a stegosaurus looked like at all. Especially the breakfast pancake variety. So with a coloring book as my guide I attempted to create the perfect dinosaur pancakes while my boys got dressed for school. Hoping the colorful orange juice, the sweet pancake syrup, or any other distraction I could think of would keep them from watching me try this for the first time. As I poured carefully with a funnel in hand and created the perfect dino-cakes I had ever seen (and I had seen none prior to moments ago), my all-knowing teenager said they looked more like balloonosaurus cakes to him and took the first 2 that came off the griddle. But my 8 year old, Sean, had a very appreciative smile when he got his first, large, dino-cake, as he is the conniseur of such things. The food critics are in, and I was prepared, with a couple of blue berries for eyes and a little imagination, (it�s more like cloud gazing skills actually), he could see a stegosaurus just right. Hoooray for Mom! He ate the head first then went straight for his tail. Or was it the other way around? Now the baby�s turn came and he looked at it all very strangely, then simply pointed up to the boxes of cereal atop the refrigerator and gave the standard order a two year old gives. Uh uh uh!..... Which translates to �May I have some cereal instead please Mom? This thing you served me looks like it might bite back.� So I attempted to coax him into eating the dino-cake by cutting it up into bite sized pieces, which he viewed as animal torture. Noting the screaming that began and the look of shock on his face. Adding syrup over the dino-pieces didn�t work either, as my teenager quipped in with �Good one Mom, now it looks like it�s drowning in lava pit or something.� Did I mention he knows everything already? So I gave in to the Uh cereal demand and ate the Balloonosaurus myself. I was busy patting my own back anyhow, serving fresh juice, berries, light syrup, and whole-wheat pancakes, all disguised as a quick trip to Jurassic Park. Here�s the recipe, but the shaping is all in the wrist. Start easy, like Mickey Mouse shapes, or Rabbits. If you have even less patience than I do, start with Balloon or Beach Ball shapes (Round) and just decorate with fruits instead. Facial expressions are fun to make too. Raisins are good for that. Keep the griddle on a medium to low setting. Yummy Pancakes 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 egg 1 cup skim milk (Or to make a mix you can just add water to use powdered milk to equal 1 cup according to powdered milk package directions.) 1 Tbsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 banana, mashed � teaspoon vanilla if desired (My sister adds cinnamon too, but what does she know?) Make pancakes or waffles as usual. Top with 100% fruit spreads and/or sugar-free syrups... disguised in cutsie dispensers. They�ll never know. (Maybe that Tooth Fairy took the high-sugar, high-fat syrup we used to eat.) To make waffles fluffier � beat the eggs until fluffy, then add remaining ingredients. What I love about this recipe is you can make it ahead, without the liquids, and then just mix it in the morning. Who wants to seek out those measuring skills early in the morning anyhow? I use a very small funnel to pour lines and the batter simply fills in the middle itself. There are pancake cutouts you can purchase too. But if your kids have a little imagination or have done a little cloud gazing of their own, you�ll be a hit in no time. Next thing you know you�ll be shaping biscuits, sandwiches, toast, and carving fruits. Sorry, I�m getting carried away, but I have been rumored to have made a piece of breakfast sausage look just like JFK once. Too bad they didn�t have a clue who JFK was. Now here�s a lesson my mother taught me that has become extremely valuable in explaining the ways of the world to my kids. In other words, lying. Here goes, put this to memory. �Tooth fairies can�t fly if it rains at night.� See? Priceless. Written by Cindy Lineberry, January 2002. No not reproduce in any fashion without written permission from her. |