Monday, May 21, 2007

Things change


So good it's GUUUD, originally uploaded by toyfoto.



When I was a child and my mom baked she'd always pop the beaters out of of the hand mixer and give one to my sister and one to me.

Brownies, chocolate cake, cookie dough, pudding ... It didn't matter what confection came out of the oven, it was the batter that we all clammored to get.

That was then.

By the time we were teens, salmonella had reared it's ugly head and made spoon licking something only daddies were allowed to do, and only because they pretended they were washing them in the bathroom sink. With the door closed.

Since then food poisioning incidents seemed to have skyrocketed.

Every season there's a new culprit.

From improper handling to incomplete cooking to things that just shouldn't be in the foods we eat, such as man-made chemicals and heavy metals, food scares keep getting more horrific.

You can just see a time in the not-too distant future when the giant farm machine collapses on itself and we are all going to find ourselves tending kitchen gardens in our spare time.

The same way I don't imbibe, because some doctors would tell you a sip of something will cause fetal alchohol syndrome, Jed and I haven't let her lick the beater when raw eggs are used in the mixture. It's just one of the many precautions that have made their way into our paranoid psyches.

And how could you not be concerned: folks in the know are now saying spinach is still not safe from e-coli contamination ... and it's been hard to even figure out what remedy or measures would make it safer.

But the incredible, edible egg seems to have made a comeback.

I recently read about how the industry has really done a lot to make eggs safer, and it seemed reasonable. You really don't hear a lot about salmonella contamination and eggs anymore.

Of course, we'll probably still err on the side of caution, but once in a while you just have to hand over the spoon.

Some experiences are just too good to miss.

5 comments:

kimmyk said...

I still give my kids the beaters from the hand mixer, and the spoon and the bowl.

That's like denying them air. Ya gotta.

And uh...what's up with your dad in the bathroom with the beaters? Sounds like a game of Clue gone horribly wrong.

"IT WAS TOYFOTO'S DAD IN THE BATHROOM WITH THE BEATERS!"

Anonymous said...

I had completely forgot about such moments as a child, thanks for the reminder. There were four of us (Before my baby sister was born), so to reduce conflicts mother delegated on whose turn it was to “lick clean” the spoon, bowl, and each beater.

What a great photo, you have captured the moment perfectly.

the stefanie formerly known as stefanierj said...

Okay, where is the "enhance cuteness" function in photoshop? Because seriously, no one is that cute in real life.

Thanks for sharing this story.

toyfoto said...

It just so happens that all you need to do to enhance cuteness is hand the kid a chocolate-covered mixer blade.

Go figure!

Gail at Large said...

I always called first dibs on one of the mixers, no matter what it mixed. Well, except if it had raisins -- I had to draw the line SOMEWHERE.