Kenly has always enjoyed everything about the kitchen. She wants to know what everything is. She wants to smell the spices. She wants to crack the eggs. She wants to be a hands-on participant, actively involved, in the Brand kitchen. Who are we to squelch that enthusiasm and curiosity, especially if it means that we might have a night off in about 10 years, right?
Kenly and I made some chocolate cupcakes the other day in order to use the remaining icing that was left from her birthday. I'm really bad with proportions, so we had enough blue cream cheese icing to cover another cake when all was said and done. Since it keeps forever, we let some time pass so it would seem new again.
Kenly helped every step of the way. I managed to help cook, take some pictures, and keep her from falling off the chair. I think I deserve a Wonder Woman cape.
I love, love, love that fat dimple on her elbow. I've been trying to capture it forever, and I didn't even mean to when I was taking this shot.
Enjoying the fruits of her labor.
I'd say she she gives her product a good endorsement, would you?
Just this past weekend, we passed most of a soggy Sunday cooking away as a family. We started by ridding the kitchen of four overripe
baybanas (bananas). We made two different varieties of of banana bread. I'm not a fan of nuts, so we made a straight-forward batch of bread for me. Adam made his batch a bit more flavorful with toasted pecans and a healthy dose of clove and cinnamon. Once again,
Kenly didn't want to miss a thing. She loved the finished product as well.
Since we've been home bound these days because of potty training, we've been trying to incorporate a few crafts to keep
Kenly from going crazy or from begging to watch the television all day. So, I saw this idea
here and we decided to give it a shot. I'd like to say that our finished product was too cute for words, but I can't tell a lie. Our owls are a bit homely, but we are please to have them flying above the play area.
We've also been practicing with a glue stick by doing simple collages with pieces of construction paper. We might get brave and move toward magazine clippings before too long. She really does understand how to use the glue stick even though she's holding it upside down in this photo. The fact that this glue stick goes on purple helps her to understand where the paper scraps should go.
We've been cooking up some fun here in the Brand household.
The little girl loves to add sprinkles to anything that will stand still. 
We gave these cookies to Adam's co-workers and our neighbors. We also took a few to our family Christmas celebration. It's a good thing we didn't eat them all.
The spice-flour combination was beautiful.
After making the batter and chilling it for the appropriate amount of time, we floured the kitchen table to make our cooking cutting experience more pleasant.
Kenly started out trying to cut out the cookies all by herself. When she found that I had to help her apply pressure, she decided to take on a job she could do all by herself.
She loved peeling all the extras off and rolling them into a ball of dough we could use a bit later.
If flour explosions are indicative of the fun we had, then you can see we had a blast.
She is my little hostess in training. She's too adorable for words.
Adam loves this picture. He thinks the caption should say, "Oh no. I left of the secret ingredient."
When we finished baking, Kenly wanted to show off all her cookies. Here is our snowman cookie.
The snowman again.
Don't forget the Christmas tree.
And who can forget the gingerbread man?
Kenly licked this cookie just after I took the picture. She had already eaten her share, but she knew I couldn't put it back in the pile if she licked it. Too smart for her own good.
The cookies were a huge hit, and the dip was a perfect accent. My friend Denise gave the dip recipe, so without further ado, here it is for you.
Kenly really enjoys stirring the batter all by herself.
She decided to be brave and tackle the mixer all by herself. She had a grand time until the beaters hit the side of the bowl. The noise they made on contact nearly caused her to jump off the chair she was standing on.
After we mixed the batter, we divided it into two bowls. We dyed one bowl yellow and the other orange. Kenly really enjoyed watching the batter change colors.
Kenly put all the Halloween cupcake papers in the muffin tin. She didn't want any help.
With a little help, Kenly layered the batter colors. Yellow first.
Once the cupcakes baked and cooled, we iced the cupcakes. Don't worry. Kenly only iced her cupcake. 
The end product was cute and delicious. Thankfully Adam takes most of our baking to work with him, so we didn't partake of too much of the yummy goodness.
Next year Kenly and I are going to tackle a huge baking project out of a Halloween cookbook that Mops sent in the mail. We have to keep those creative juices flowing.
Enjoying the fruits of her labor.
I'd say she she gives her product a good endorsement, would you?
Just this past weekend, we passed most of a soggy Sunday cooking away as a family. We started by ridding the kitchen of four overripe baybanas (bananas). We made two different varieties of of banana bread. I'm not a fan of nuts, so we made a straight-forward batch of bread for me. Adam made his batch a bit more flavorful with toasted pecans and a healthy dose of clove and cinnamon. Once again, Kenly didn't want to miss a thing. She loved the finished product as well.
Since we've been home bound these days because of potty training, we've been trying to incorporate a few crafts to keep Kenly from going crazy or from begging to watch the television all day. So, I saw this idea here and we decided to give it a shot. I'd like to say that our finished product was too cute for words, but I can't tell a lie. Our owls are a bit homely, but we are please to have them flying above the play area. 
We've also been practicing with a glue stick by doing simple collages with pieces of construction paper. We might get brave and move toward magazine clippings before too long. She really does understand how to use the glue stick even though she's holding it upside down in this photo. The fact that this glue stick goes on purple helps her to understand where the paper scraps should go.
We've been cooking up some fun here in the Brand household.
