tooting my own cream horns

I made a special treat for book group last week. At our monthly meetings, we take turns bringing refreshments, only we don’t call them refreshments; the term we use is “delicacy.” It sounds more lovely—more literary—to put it that way. But it also makes me feel more than a wee bit of pressure to make something fancy, something out of the ordinary, or at least something…well…delicate. You just don’t bring snickerdoodles to book group. Or at least no one ever has.


Thus the impetus to make these cream horns which my friend Tara insisted were “easy yet totally impressive.” And guess what? Tara was right. They took a while to construct, but they were simple enough that even a klutz like me could pull them off. And the book group ladies raved about them. I was reminded of my multi-layered Jell-o rant (and subsequent apology, please don’t read the first without reading the second) and I felt duly chagrinned. I can honestly say that there’s nothing wrong with a small culinary triumph once in a while. I was proud of myself, especially since I made the horns while simultaneously attempting to put Nora down for a nap, a process that involved no less than 21 trips between the kitchen and her room, trying to convince Nora that she did indeed want to stay in bed by herself, to which she would sweetly reply ‘kay Mom and stay just long enough to give me time to close her door, walk back into the kitchen, wash my hands and begin rolling strips of dough into a cone shape and then I would hear the bedroom door pop open and she’d come trotting out into the hall, and her entrance into the kitchen would be followed by me washing my hands (again) since they were now greasy and then walking her back to her room and telling her to get back into bed (‘k mom) and then.… well, you get the idea.

Don’t ask me why I thought I could multitask two such delicate projects or why it took me 21 failures with Nora to finally give up and send her downstairs to watch TV with her brother. I’m a bit obtuse sometimes. Maybe I was making dunce cones and I just didn’t know it.