Quick Tip #9 ~ Prep Ingredients for Unskilled Cooks

When baking or cooking with children or the elderly it is helpful to prepare as much as possible before hand.  It saves time, frustration on everyone's part and is less mess.  Depending on the project at hand and the experience you want to give quite a bit can be prepared ahead.  Here is an example from a recent experience with Elizabeth's elderly grandmother.

We wanted to let her enjoy baking her father's soft sugar cookies.  She can not follow a recipe any longer and it is very hard for her to even follow verbal
instructions and measure out ingredients. So Elizabeth measured everything out earlier in the day.

Eggs & Buttermilk--measured and stored in canning jars in the fridge.

Dry Ingredients.

Ingredients to be creamed--ready in the mixing bowl.

When Grandma arrived to bake she helped pour the measured ingredients into the mixer. Then she was sat at the table and dropped the cookies onto the trays.  She also took them off the trays and enjoyed one warm with a cup of tea.

By prepping ahead of time there was less stress both on Grandma and Elizabeth making the time together not only more productive, but more fun.