I should know better than to allow a just-showered boy anywhere near chocolate. But he wanted so badly to help. And it involved using a hand-held grater, the single most cool kitchen utensil ever invented, in his mind, so how could I possibly say no?
Oh, chocolate, chocolate, everywhere! On his sleeve, on his chin, cheek and ear, and all over the counter and stove.
I was making pies last Saturday night for my family's belated Thanksgiving get-together. One of them was a layered chocolate pie - a recipe described as "Super quick, easy".
Mistake #1 was allowing AJ to lick out the mixing bowl. That's where most of the mess came from. Though how he got it on his sleeve near his elbow has me baffled.
Then he saw me working on the pie's final step - dusting it with grated semi-sweet chocolate. Just last week I'd allowed him to help grate some lemon zest. And he'd managed to do that without skinning his knuckles, so I figured this would be harmless enough. Certainly less messy than licking the bowl. Mistake #2. (Though his intense concentration provided such an adorable photo opp.)
Granted, he grated and sprinkled a tad more chocolate than was necessary, but who's ever going to complain about a pie having too much chocolate?
At last I convinced him he'd grated enough. AJ handed me the grater and remaining chocolate chocolate chunk and stepped away. And that's when I discovered for all the chocolate he'd grated over the pie, he'd missed with almost an equal amount.
In all fairness, AJ's mess was nowhere near as bad as the one I created the year I dumped an unbaked pecan pie down the front of our oven and cupboards.
Also worth noting, of the three pies I brought to Thanksgiving: pecan, pumpkin and chocolate, the chocolate pie was by far the most popular.
It must have been AJ's magic touch.
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