Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Surprise Me's

When my twin sister and I were little, we were skinny…very skinny. In fact, we were called names like, "skinny twinnies" and "twigs". I hated my ankles and my skinny wrists (later, discovered that that was a trademark of my dad's side of the family). The funny thing was that we loved to eat - snack, especially.

When we were about 8 years old, we'd have what we called, "surprise me's". Surprise Me's were all day affairs where one of us went into the kitchen and invented (created) a recipe from scratch for the other to taste. The ingredients were whatever we could find. For instance, hot sauce, mayo and ketchup with strips of bologna was one Surprise Me. Another would be chocolate chips, with apples, with peanut butter and crumbled graham crackers. There were some pretty nasty Surprise Me's as well. When we had experienced the Surprise Me, then it was the other's turn to go into the kitchen. One time, being desperate for ice cream and there was none in the house, one of us created an ice cream wanna be Surprise Me. It had milk, vanilla flavoring (a bit too much) and sugar on ice and stirred together. Not bad!

I now know that our love for cooking and creating came from those adventures. The more adventurous we were, the more recipes we tried. By 8 years old, we were making stuff from scratch that only the most experienced cooks would dare try.

One day, we decided to make divinity fudge. We got to the part of the recipe where we were suppose to soft boil the fudge. Well, the flame was a bit high so instead of it soft boiling, it crystalized and then burnt. It stunk up the whole house! Our mom came in to see the mess and instead of her telling us that it was okay…better luck next time, she told us that the sugar that we used and the other ingredients costed a lot of money…money that we didn’t have to burn. She told us that we had to eat it, burnt and all. It was a lot of burnt sugar to consume so we got milk, vanilla flavor and ice and stuck the burnt crystals in with it and drank it down. It was NASTY!!!! But, a few days later, we had eaten it all. I have never attempted to make or taste divinity since then.

21 comments:

Julie D said...

Ooooh, divinity. I used to love that stuff when I was a kid.

So do you still ever make "surprise me's" with Little Boo?

Bri said...

This is great. That last bit is especially good. Just stopped by to say hello and thanks for stopping by my blog with your encouragement.

Unknown said...

I never could eat divinity and my mom made it all the time when i was kiddo-how totally sweet you and your sis had surprise me's!

I did get your email and THANK YOU-I have not been online much if at all will respond soon

Debz said...

I feel bad but I'm laughing at the same time. Why is that?

I love the idea of Surprise Me's. Makes me wish so much that I had a sister. :(

Marie Reed said...

I have a hard time seeing my kids waste food. It makes me cringe when they just dump out their milk in the sink just because they only drank half a glass. It's too bad that parents don't have money to burn and that you've haven't had divinity since you were 8 because of it!

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

Sounds vile....but fun!!

Hallie :)

Unknown said...

@Julie - not yet. Baby Boo is a meat eater. She wakes up and the first thing she asks for besides Sponge Bob is meat. Bologna, hot dog, you name it, she wants it. The Surprise Me's will have to come a bit later.

@Marie - I don't know if I can even bring myself to taste divinity after that. The divinity picture in the recipe book looked so good!

Multiple personalities.. said...

I have to admit, divinity is something I'd be nervous to attempt. But I love your story! Very cute! It's nice to meet you via SITS!

Spirit Jump said...

I remember those days! Totally did the same thing and it was so much fun. Wish I enjoyed creating kitchen master pieces as much these days!

Stopping by from SITS to say "hi" & invite you to our Jewelry Giveaway.

We are a small charity made of men/women/kids who send cards to those battling cancer in hopes of lifting their spirits.

Stop by & get in on this weeks giveaway and maybe even join us:)

www.spiritjump.org

Unknown said...

How funny!

Sheryl said...

I hate seeing food go to waste on purpose, but there are time when it can't be helped. You didn't mean to burn it.

Did that stop your Surprise Mes, I sure hope not - what fun.

MIITB said...

I have never heard of divinity, and I think I'll go ahead and take a pass :)

Stopping by from SITS

Momto5 RachelJoy Photography said...

what a fun story! i love those surprise me's I cant wait to have kids old enough to suprise me on some dinner!! LOL

Buckeroomama said...

I'd be very nervous if Josh were to make me a Surprise Me, so maybe we'll save that for later. Knowing him, I can trust that he'd be very creative, but I'm just not that confident that I can put on a "happy" and "wow, how fabulous!" face when I taste it. LOL!

Justine said...

Okay, this was a really cute story until you burned the fudge and your MOM MADE YOU EAT IT. I'm sorry girl, but that is just sick. It would have been one thing to scold you for making a mess, wasting the ingredients, etc. But was making you EAT IT really necessary???

Justine :o )

My weight loss journey said...

Your post reminds me of my own inventions...I didn't have a twin but I had a dining set that inspired me to go to the kitchen and mix things up...like Italian dressing, black olives and mustard for one. I used to sneak these things out of the kitchen and bring them to my bedroom to use with the ingredients with the dishes from my dining set.

I can also remember taking frozen vegetables and pretending to cook them with mud and other outdoor delights in an outdoor oven pit that a friend had. We never had fire..we just pretended to cook.

Thanks for the story and the memories too!

Anonymous said...

What a fun idea! Especially if it turns out to be edible!

Joyce said...

A "sweet" story to share! You managed to be creative and ate it all. I loved it. Have a golden day! xoxo

Life of a Stepmama said...

Congrats on your upcoming wedding!! I compltely understand the comfy look!! Stay in touch, I like your blog!

Ina in Alaska said...

I love the term "Surprise Me's"! Your post reminded me of an old show on the Food Network called Door Knock Dinners and the host would appear at a random home with a pro chef and they would cook up something from whatever was on hand. You twins could have had a great little show there!! Except for the Divinity.... :) PS Happy Champagne Thursday!!

twin2 said...

Okay...I'm the other half of the surprise me fame. You have to understand that we grew up on watching the Galloping Gourmet. We were always amazed to see the finished dish. Our favorite part was watching the people in the audience have a taste. What my sis didn't share was our taste for inedible things too. We had a grape vine growing in the backyard. The grapes were tiny, tiny and too sour to eat. (Wine grapes) Well, we figured out a way to squirt out the meat of the grape once we realized that eating the grape skins made our lips itch. We also grubbed onslightly green walnuts from our neighbor friend's tree. Sometimes our surprise me's would consisted of fork dogs, which were hot dogs on a fork flame broiled over a gas burner. Laslty, we made crcker stackers. Creasker stackers were crackers and peanut butter layered about 2 inches high. Of course the fun of it all was trying to take a bite. Oh...two more...I just remembered. Our mom used to decorate cakeds and practiced making flowers out of sugar. Somehow we would sneak underneath the bed and get into her cake decorating kit to eat the sugar flowers. When Mom went through her diet craze and had these little candy-looking squares called Ayds. As nasty as they were we would sneak in the cabinet and munch out. That could be why we were so skinny growing up. We were stunting our growth. Yes, havig a twin sis and a partner in crime was awesome!

Twin2

 

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