Scenes from a Sunday Morning: Popovers
by Jennifer Cooper, posted on December 11th, 2011 in Cooking, Parenting
Last weekend, our 9-year-old cooked breakfast all by herself. She’s been cooking for a while now, but up until this point, it’s always been highly organized/initiated by me.
I had told her a story about how when I was her age, I had a Winnie-the-Pooh cookbook that featured a recipe for popovers. I made a batch and found them to be deliciously light and airy. And the best part was that each housed a secret chamber you could fill with butter, honey or jam. She thought they sounded fantastic.
“Could I make them?!”
“I don’t see why not.”
We went out to the kitchen and grabbed a cookbook. Our girl opened it up and found the recipe. I faded out of the process almost completely. I stood to the side of the kitchen as she read the recipe, gathered the ingredients, mixed everything up and put it in the oven (that bit was the only time I had to help).
Along the way, she would turn to me and ask a question. My response was either, “What do you think?” or “What does it say to do next?”
We went on like this. She’d turn to me for answers. I’d tell her to seek the answers for herself.
In that moment, I thought about parenting and the quest to find just the right mix—when to push, when to pull; when to correct, when to let it slide. We read countless books, search websites, agonize over every decision looking, searching for the perfect recipe. The truth is, there is no perfect recipe.
Kind of like these popovers. The cookbook said to leave them in for 40 minutes. But it was far too long. They came out hard, and not even close to golden brown. We ate them enthusiastically, but noted next time, we’d have to make adjustments.
This morning, my daughter made popovers again.
“How long should we leave them in the oven today mama?”
“Hmmm, I don’t know. What do you think?”
“25 minutes?”
“Let’s try it and see.”
Perfection.
wendy Says:
Jennifer Cooper Reply:
December 15th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
We should have E do a tutorial! They’re so yummy.
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