I had one of those pivotal mom experiences the other day with Camille. I tried to soak it all in, and take photos and videos of it, of course, because lately, the only way I can fall asleep is to scroll through old photos of her. We have a shared photo album on our phones, and every family member can see an uploaded photo of Camille. It’s way better than taking a photo, and then texting it to 10 people. Anyway, I usually end up with 1-2 days a week without any childcare. It’s good for me. I tend to be a workaholic. It’s good for Camille, too. In fact, when things get busy and I book her extra time at daycare, I notice she starts acting out and clinging to my leg from 5-6:30pm (while I’m trying to make dinner). I obviously try to sneak in some errands while we’re together on my days off, and I just can’t help it if we end up at the kitchen shop every week.
I’m one of those annoying first-time moms that has literally carried her everywhere since day one. If she wasn’t being carried on my hip, she was strapped into a shopping cart inches from my body. But now, at 19 months, I’m giving her some freedom. She holds my hand and walks around now. It’s kinda the best thing ever. Me and my little buddy, walking so dang slow (I’m a recovering fast walker now that I’m a mom). Camille is in many ways my total opposite–extremely extroverted, lover of new people, and she handles rejection and the word ’no’ very well. The unfortunate parts of me that she has inherited include frustration with electronics (throw it across the room when it doesn’t work) and extreme dexterity in the kitchen (you should see her help me bake!). Given her interest in helping me pour ingredients into a bowl and mix them up, I decided we would bake Christmas cookies together this year. However, I only own heart-shaped cookie cutters. I have many sizes of heart cookie cutters, but not a single snowflake, ginger person, or tree-shape. So, off to the kitchen shop we went to find cookie cutter for this Linzer cookie recipe.
We pulled into the store in her stroller, but thanks to piles of holiday gift items stacked all about the store, the stroller wouldn’t fit anywhere. I took a deep breath, and let her out of the stroller. Everything breakable was within her reach—glass dishes, espresso machines that cost more than my mortgage, even knives! I was scared. She was actually a little overwhelmed too, and clung to my side. I was relieved. We went to the cookie cutter tower and began digging through the shapes. She went a little wild when she realized she could pull them all out. Naturally, I spent the next 10 minutes spinning the tower around and around, trying to put the cutters back into their seasonal slots. Finally, I convinced her to hone in on the holiday cutters, and we picked a few out. We headed to the register to pay, and she spotted some sprinkles. Now, my kid does not know that sprinkles are things that you eat. (I know, I know, I’m working on the whole sugar thing, I swear!). Camille thinks sprinkles are maracas. I have all of them on the bottom shelf of the pantry, and she makes music with them all day long. She grabbed a few seasonal maracas to add to our pile. I obliged, and swore I would let her eat sprinkles! We were leaving the shop, and I was trying to persuade her to get back in the stroller, but she was not having it. All she wanted in the world was to carry the bag and walk beside me while I pushed the stroller. It was the cutest thing ever. She hiked the bag high on her shoulder, and she started walking with a mission. I’m telling you: cutest thing ever. I ran ahead of her, and turned around to take a quick video of it, and that’s when I realized everyone around us was was staring at her and smiling. It really was quite a sight. The moral of this story is this: I bought a bunch of Christmas cookie cutters, and then I still used hearts. But, I learned that I can trust Camille in a store full of breakable things, and she is an excellent bag-carrier. Oh, what a shopping buddy to have!
Linzer cookie recipe plan:
We made this Linzer cookie recipe together, and she had a great time. While she napped, I made the jam fillings. I pulled out all of the jams from my pantry: strawberry, blackberry, and peach. Then, I reached for matching booze to stir into all of them. The strawberry jam got a splash of Cointreau (orange liquor), the blackberry jam swam in Chambord (raspberry liquor), and the peach preserves soaked in Bourbon. You need a splash of liquid to thin-out the jams anyway, so why not make it even more flavorful? I should tell you that I made a few with just water so Camille could enjoy this Linzer cookie recipe, too. This mini Linzer cookie recipe is a great one to have on hand for the holidays. It’s cute for Valentine’s Day, too! In fact, it’s probably my favorite of my easy romantic desserts for two.
*I used ¼ cup strawberry jam with 2 teaspoons orange liquor, ¼ cup peach jam with 2 teaspoons of Bourbon, and ¼ cup of blackberry jam with Chambord.
