Enterprising True

Sky slept over at his friend Rawi's house and so True decided, as he often does on weekends, to make something in the kitchen.

He has a Betty Crocker cookbook for kids that Mako gave him. He has made all sorts of things out of it, including Fabulous French Toast "Stix" last weekend.

It's an updated edition of a tattered Betty Crocker cookbook that Anna and Nina had as kids. The cover has fallen off of the old one, though, and it is now very fragile.

The boys have pored over the old one for years, fantasizing about making the castle cake with "pink pillow mints" for crenelation and upside-down ice-cream cones for towers.

Anna remembers that Nina once made the "Fruit Basket Upset," a melange of fruit, whipped cream and marshmallows, which the cookbook says was "a favorite with our test panel."

Anna says she was most fascinated by the Bunny Salad, made of pears and cottage cheese with cinnamon "Red Hots" for noses.

In the old cookbook, there is a page with sketches and comments from Betty Crocker's "helpers." They say things like, "Mother showed me how to cut up parsley and put it on top of soup. It looks pretty there."

The boys decided that this one was True.

And this one was Sky.

Growing up, Anna says she always knew that this one should be her

... but that she really wanted to be this one.

True made "Good Ol' Gorp" out of the new cookbook, though he adjusted the recipe. He used only a quarter of the cereal called for and used Honey Nut Cheerios instead of plain Cheerios. He used the full amount of melted butter and the full amount of chocolate chips. He substituted Reeses peanut butter chips for peanuts and only put in a few raisins, which he later picked out.

The result was sweeter and heavier than most adult palates would appreciate.

But he pronounced it, "delicious!"

He's a good boy.