Look out Betty Crocker ???

Since my kids were young I've tried to instill the love of cooking/baking in them.
I would always let them help me whenever I would bake or even just help stir the macaroni for lunch.I'll admit I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my goodies. But I would let them create their own masterpieces however they like!

Miranda used to be a huge mamma's helper whenever I would bake. But recently she's limited her cooking to grilled cheese, Frozen pizza and the occasional brownie mix.

The other day she had to bring a dish that represented her family heritage. We have, Swedish, Scottish, German and English in our family. She researched a few recipes, but with only a couple hours before time to leave, she decided on English Toffee (not really sure if that came from England, but it worked)

I told her of a simple recipe I had that used soda crackers, butter and sugar. Couldn't be easier than that!
So I pulled out the recipe card and all the ingredients for her.

Batch #1
She started melting the butter in the pan and added the sugar - I reminded her to stir it constantly or it would burn.... she gave me an eye roll and said "I know mo-ther" then continued talking to her friend on the phone.

I stuck around despite her apparent lack of wanting me to help. She asked me to stir for a minute while she spread the crackers on the sheet. I took over the stirring and noticed that it wasn't getting very thick.

Me: Did you remember the sugar?
Miranda: Yes, I put in one cup.
Me: One of these cups? pointing to the measuring cup in the sugar canister
Miranda: yep
Me: The recipe calls for 1 CUP of sugar.... this measuring cup is 1/2 cup, you should have put in two scoops.
Miranda: whoops, sorry

I tried adding the additional sugar, but it was too late....

Batch #2
This time I watched her a little more closely. Everything went great.
She put it into the oven to bake and set the timer... 10 minutes
I had to leave to take Parker to class when there was just 5 minutes left on the timer.

Me: Miranda, when the timer goes off, just take out the pan, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and put it back into the oven. DO NOT LEAVE.... just watch for the chips to melt... it will not take very long. Then take them out, spread the chocolate and sprinkle with nuts.
Miranda: I got it!

I left to take Parker to class and not too long later I receive a text from Miranda saying she burned the toffee. I figured she was just giving me a hard time and didn't believe her, but when I got home... here is what her toffee looked like....Oh yeah... it was definitely burned.

When I asked what happened she said she stayed right there waiting for the chocolate to melt just like I said, but they never did. Before she knew it they were just burned.
Apparently I should have said wait for the chips to "soften" not "melt".
She was waiting for them to spread out and actually melt.

Batch #3
So the perfectionist in me took over... with only 45 minutes until Mutual I mixed up another batch and stuck it in the freezer to chill on time.
Miranda was grateful that she didn't have to make it again, but quite enjoyed the yummy end result as did everyone at mutual.Miranda has decided that she's just going to stick to grilled cheese. She's already feeling bad for her future family and hopes that I'll live nearby whenever she needs a baking rescue.

I'm not giving up yet.... I still have her home for a few more years.... there's hope yet for Miranda! Besides, I've had my fair share of mess-ups while learning to cook. My family will never let me forget when I was about 10 years old and I added 1 CUP of salt to the meatloaf instead of 1Tablespoon... whoops!

The next day for English she had to create a brochure explaining how to make something... she did hers on how to make Saltine Toffee....