Twix Bars

For a long as I can remember, my dad has had a thing for Twix Bars so when I came across this recipe for Homemade Twix Bars at Hoosier Homemade it was a no-brainer. Of course we're going to try these!  And my dad just might re-consider who wins for favorite daughter! 

(Oh yummy ... my tummy smiles just remembering them.)

So we gathered all the makin's and got to work. You can get the step-by-step for these from Liz here.

 My daughter has always loved baking and we've begun to move into some new cooking territory other than stirring up brownies and tossing the salad. One of her self-proclaimed specialties is pancakes and she regularly invents new concoctions using unusual ingredients or omitting ones that always seemed so necessary before. Like eggs. But her flapjack adventures generally turn out to be delicious. She has a certain gusto about her and that quality carries over to her cooking. When I mentioned that the graham crackers she was wailing on with the back of a soup ladle needed to be crushed very fine, she assured me in a low, confident, conspiratorial voice, "Oh, I don't think we'll need to worry about that."

So yea, they turned out to be pretty good. It's uncanny how much they really do taste like Twix Bars.

Am I now my dad's favorite daughter? Well, about that..... seems he didn't actually get to eat any of these. I'm not sure what happened to all of them.

You Could Have Knocked Me Over With A Soup Ladle

 Every now and then, in the middle of scrambling around through life, you get a glimpse of things. Maybe it's an "Ah Ha" moment when a certain truth becomes crystal clear. Maybe you see into someone's heart and finally understand what drives them. Maybe it's the solution to a problem or you realize you've come to actually enjoy messing around with the laundry (OK, that one's never happened to me but one never knows, life is full of surprises).

While my kid and I were whipping up the Twix Bars for my dad, I had a glimpse of my daughter. I was struck by how much she's grown.

 There was a day when she was on a chair at the counter just splashing around in the sink. I think of that as the pre-dishwashing stage. She was simply exploring the world above eye-level.

Then came the stage when she could actually have conversation and make observations about what we were cooking. No big revelations, but a unique way of looking at the world.

Next, she took over. "Can I try it by myself?"

One morning I came downstairs and she was making breakfast. Not cereal but rather some sort of omelet creation with cheese, granola, and a gas stove on high. It was a learning opportunity.

At each stage she got a bit taller on what we called the Helping Chair, until finally the Helping Chair just got in the way and we moved it out of the kitchen all together. Now she threatens to look me in the eye and make suggestions for improved Twix Bars. It was a glimpse into my daughter, a clearing of my vision. It's been a tough year, with some big new lessons to learn but she is growing. She is not only physically taller, but emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

And since this quick look into the funny, quirky adult that my funny quirky child will become, our conversations are different. Not so much the topics but the demeanor of our interaction has gotten, well ... taller.