Lesson Three - Waffles, Pot Roast, Scalloped Potatoes and Lavender Devils Food Cake

Originally we had planned to make steak. I had let the girls decide what they wanted to learn to cook. I also have them bring home what they cook to their families. Steak was going to be a little pricey and there’s not really anything to learn about preparing steak. I went ahead and did some shopping and bought a big roast and items for scalloped potatoes and a hundred bucks later, I got what I needed.

I picked up Logan, Macy and Lily… we started the evening with playing “In a Pickle” which was kind of a weird game, but when shopping for games, I decided to make them food related. Sounded like a good idea at the time.

We got up the next morning and I forgot all about what we’d eat for breakfast. When waffles were mentioned, I thought, well heck, you all can learn how to make those too. I dug out my waffle maker, pulled out good ole Betty Crocker to “Crispy Waffle” recipe and away we went.

As you can see in this picture they look super excited, don’t they? I think they were still asleep or they were hoping that Queen Grandma-ma Purple Plum was going to wait on the three princesses.

The first waffle wasn’t a full circle because the last time I poured batter in the waffle maker, it oozed out the sides and all over the counter. Wasn’t going to make that mistake again, but guess I got a little chintzy with the batter and let me tell you, the princesses let me know about it.

“Gramma, we want it to be completely round.”

“Yes ma’am, let me try that again!”

They each ate two waffles. Princess Dragonfly hadn't been exposed to powdered sugar because she was surprised that it was sweet (unlike flour) and thought the waffle made that white stuff sweet. I thought that was adorable. I told her if she ground up regular granulated sugar, it’d come out looking just like flour… as she had figured.

We worked on our time table and decided we wanted everything to be finished at 4:30, so I’d have enough time to drive them home where they would serve their families. Since they wanted dessert, I had all the ingredients for Lavender Devils Food Cake and we began with that.

Each one worked on their part. Princess Dragonfly was in charge of measuring all the ingredients and adding them to either Princess Frost’s mixer (for the batter) or to Princess Flame’s pan where she was cooking the filling for said cake.

After the cake was in the oven, they prepped the meat with seasoning. We modified Betty Crocker’s recipe for roast by rubbing the meat with seasoning, adding one cup of beef boullion to the prepared meat, sealing it with foil and popping it in the oven at 300 degrees for four hours.

As the meat cooked, they peeled potatoes, cooked up the sauce, assembled and topped the potatoes with cheese. We crammed those into the oven to come out the same time as the roast.

They began decorating the cake. I thought it’d be easier if the icing was left out after they prepared it so it’d be more spreadable, but it was so spreadable that it nearly ran off the cake. The filling needed to be thicker too, but we hurriedly spread everything on and shoved it in the icebox… err… refrigerator, where it needed to set for two hours.

I found boxes to put all their food in, packed things up and headed out the door. We dropped Lily off first and before I got back home, I was told the roast was delicious! After I dropped Logan and Macy off, I heard later from their mom that the little stinkers didn’t even save any meat for their mom.

Here's their meat and potatoes:

I guess it was a success.

Next lesson was going to be Surprise Inside Cake, but due to the time required, we had to make a change… Pup Cupcakes instead.