The day before Thanksgiving, 2011. My darling 12 year old son, Sean, decided to creat some brownies to go with our feast tomorrow. He asked me NOT to help so, I didn’t, figuring he was old enough to follow simple instructions on  box of mix. He comes in, thirty minutes later and asks for help so I get off the computer and go see what he needs.

 As I enter the kitchen, it is painfully obvious to me that he did not follow the directions as well as he should. The mixing bowl is half full of a brown soup, sprinkled with yellow globs of…. something. My 8 year old is happily mixing the liquid and grins at me with a “Guess we’re making diarrhea soup huh mom?”  I looked at Sean and asked “Did you follow the directions?” “Yes mom, I put in two cups of water and…” “WHAT?” I yelled “CUPS? Good God did you even LOOK at the directions?? Two TABLESPOONS!” I grabbed the Tablespoon and the cup measuring items and placed the spo0on into the measuring cup. His face fell in disbelief “Oh my God, I’m so stupid” He said as I sighed “No baby, you just need to learn to FOLLOW the directions instead of rushing. Now you’ll cook these and if they turn out ok, I’ll be surprised”

Baked and out of the oven, it looks like a cake that fell, completely. Sean said it tasted fine to him and I suggested we could use it for desert with some ice cream on top. Who knows, it could be the start of a wonderful Thanksgiving treat!