Ten
thirty PM Tuesday night and a bake sale in the morning. She tapped her fingers
on the counter top. What to make…what to
make? One of these days, she was going to let her forgetful son sink or
swim on his own. Why not tonight? The
thought replayed in her head. Why not?
Pam chewed her lip while she rattled glassware around in the cupboard. It would need to be an easy recipe, and she had just the thing. She
yanked down the bowls she needed and slammed the cabinet door.
Jeremy
straightened from the door frame. “Mom, I’m sorry you don’t remember, but I gave
you the flyer Wednesday after school.”
Pam
motioned for silence. “Wash your hands.”
“What?”
“Wash
your hands.” She pulled items from the pantry. “I still have an hour’s worth of
computer work to do before I can even think about going to bed. You want to
pull a bake sale out of your hat at the last minute, you can take care of it
yourself.”
“But—”
“Nope.”
She lined boxes, cans, and bags up on the counter and ran through her mental
recipe to make sure everything was laid out in order. Almond bark, rice cheks, cheerios,
A medium can of salted mixed nuts, a large bag of M&Ms, and a bag of dried cranberries. Thank goodness she’d
stocked up on everything during the Thanksgiving grocery sales last week. No late night
run to the store necessary. Pam pointed to the smaller bowl. “Put half the package of almond
bark in here, nuke it for sixty seconds, stir it, nuke it for another minute,
and stir it again. Repeat that until it’s melted.”
She
motioned to the other ingredients lined up on the counter. “Put four cups of
each of the cereals in the big bowl. Dump in the nuts, M&Ms, and the
cranberries. Once your coating is melted, dump it on the cereal, stir it all up, and spread it out on
some waxed paper.” Pam placed the roll of wax paper on the counter as well. “Cover
it with a second sheet, and I’ll help you bag it up in the morning.”
“But I
promised them cookies or brownies…not this stupid cereal stuff.”
“Jeremy
Archer, you are dangerously close to going to school empty handed in the
morning. Your choice.”
“Whatever,”
her son mumbled.
“Excuse
me?”
“Nothing.”
He washed his hands and looked at the line of ingredients. “How hard can it be?”
“Not
hard at all, just time consuming and I have no time to spare tonight. I’ll be
in the study.”
Pam
returned to the silence of her study, and the calm of the legal research she
loved so well. This case was a killer, but if she could dig out the details
Harrison needed to put on a good showing in court the fee would be so worth it.
Now where did I leave that notebook?
Pam spied the binder she needed on the shelf next to the printer. A folded piece of light
blue paper fluttered to the floor when she lifted it off the shelf. She bent to
pick it up and her heart dropped.
FRESHMAN BAKE SALE
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28TH.
“Oh,
Jeremy.” Her sigh filled the study. She retraced her steps to the kitchen and
stopped short in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
Her son
looked up from the bowl with a guilty expression and a full mouth. “This is really
good. Way better than brownies. Thanks for showing me how to make it. Sorry I
gripped.”
Pam
crossed the room and helped herself to a bite of the snack. She bumped him hip
to hip and laid the blue paper on the counter. “I found your flyer. Sorry I
didn’t remember.”
They
grinned at each other over the bowl and helped themselves to another handful of
the sweet and salty mix.
***Don’t read and run. Please take a few minutes to visit the page tabs to your right. Terri has an interview with Staci Stallings, featuring her book COWBOY. Staci has a real treat for us. The book is free this week on Amazon on Dec 4th and 5th. Karla welcomes Amanda Cabot to her page for a sneak peak at Amanda's upcoming release Waiting for Spring. Callie has a special devotion prepared for us by Naty Matos. Pam just posted a terrific recipe for gluten free cookies. I can testify to the fact that there is NOTHING missing from these except the gluten. Don't forget to check out our new COTT (Clash of the titles) page. And just so you know. The recipe in the post is a real one and it's just that simple and really good.***