Strawberry Shortcake can't make sugar cookies. She just can't.

Sarah never wants to help me cook in the kitchen. And I can't really blame her.  Who wants to help their mom dump random ingredients into a crock pot at 2:00 pm? Or throw something from the freezer into the microwave to defrost at 5:30 pm?  Or frantically stir something on the stove top at 6:45 pm while tossing in some salt hoping that it will taste better?  Not me, that's for sure.

So I was a little shocked (and let's be honest here, a whole lot annoyed) when she opened up her Strawberry Shortcake cookbook on Wednesday night at 5:30 pm while I was in the throes of defrosting, sauteing, salting, etc. and declared that she was "going to make these cookies all by myself".

I did that big halfway-silent martyr sigh that I've perfected over the last ten years and asked her if we had all the ingredients hoping like crazy that we didn't.

But we did so she crammed beside me in our tiny kitchen and she got to work measuring and mixing.

She did a good job with minimal (okay, probably maximal) overseeing from me.  And then we got to the point in the recipe where it said to let the dough chill for two hours.

She was disappointed when I told her we were going to have to finish the cookies in the morning but there was no way we were finished them after dinner.  After dinner is when Mommy is done.  And rolling cookie dough is the last thing I wanted to be doing. I hate rolling cookie dough, remember?

The next morning we rolled the dough out and finished the recipe to the best of our ability.  I had to do most of the rolling and cutting the dough because dough is a huge pain!  I hate it, remember?

And here is young Betty Crocker right before she put the cookies into the oven.

After they came out of the over, she tasted one and declared that the sugar cookie dough tasted better than the actual cookie.  My mom had one and declared that they were wonderful.  (But that's what good Grandmothers do.  They eat bad cookies and tell their grand kids that they are brilliant.) I had one after dinner and declared that they were meh.  I put the rest of them away and they haven't been touched since.

I think perhaps it's time for me to get Sarah a real cookbook because Strawberry Shortcake just isn't getting the job done.


Edited to add:  We just ate dinner and Peter wanted his cookie for dessert.  It was his because he ate the one that had a chocolate chip "P" on top.  He declared his yummy and even ate a second one.  So, I guess maybe Strawberry can make a sugar cookie.  But I still think Sarah needs a new cookbook anyway.