Stirring It Up!

by Diane Muldrow

  To: mooretimes2

  From: happyface

  happyface: hi mooretimes2!

  mooretimes2: wuzzup peichi? What’s the

  dish? LOL

  happyface: I had fun being a Chef Girl

  today! Thank u for asking me.

  mooretimes 2: We couldn’t have

  done Mission McElroy without u!!!!

  happyface: what did u have for

  dinner at Luigi’s?

  mooretimes2: major spaghetti and

  manicotti! Stuffed our faces!

  happyface : sounds really great! Hey do u

  want 2 come over to my house tomorrow? They

  are finished building the pool in our back

  yard! And there is water in it!!!!!!!

  mooretimes2: we are there!happyface: OK! I’ll call Shawn.

  mooretimes2: sry, GTG, mom sez go 2 bed.

  happyface: me 2. I’m glad we are getting to

  be better friends. See you 2morrow! Here’s a

  rose for you. @»--»---

  mooretimes2: cool! b-b

  Molly and Amanda hadn’t been at Peichi’s house since Peichi’s eighth birthday party. The house was huge, and old, and had stained-glass windows on the front door.

  “A friend with a pool!” said Molly after she rang Peichi’s bell. “Our summer is getting better and better!”

  “Hi-eeee!” said Peichi, opening the front door. She was wearing blue boy shorts with giant flowers on them, and a matching bikini top. Her hair was in one long braid down her back. “Come on in! Shawn just got here! I can’t wait to show you the pool!”

  Peichi led the twins downstairs through the game room and out a sliding glass door. The girls stepped out onto a pretty wooden deck. The oval pool seemed huge. Near the pool was a small table with an umbrella and four chairs.

  Shawn, wearing a white one-piece suit, was already swimming. “Hi!” she called.

  “Hi. Shawn! Wow, this is nice, Peichi!” said Molly. “I forgot how big your backyard is!”

  “It’s so pretty,” said Amanda.

  “It’s not even finished yet,” said Peichi. “Mom’s puffing flowers in. She says it’ll look even better in a few weeks. You should see the pool at night! We turned the lights on last night, and it like glowed! I can’t wait to have a pool party sleepover! My mom’s at the store, she’ll be back in a minute. Do you want something to drink? We have juice, Coke, orange soda...” Peichi stopped to take a breath.

  “Juice is fine,” said Amanda. “Molly wants orange soda, right, Molls?” Molly had already taken off the shorts she’d put on over her green glitter-fabric tankini. and was heading into the pool.

  “Sounds good, whatever!” said Molly as she jumped in.

  “I’m going to be your waitress!” giggled Peichi. “I’ll be right back!”

  Amanda peeled off her shorts and T-shirt. Like Peichi, she was wearing boy shorts and a matching top. It was pale yellow with gold-and-green sparkles.

  “Watch out! Here I come!” shouted Amanda, jumping in the pool.

  Just then, Mrs. Cheng opened the sliding glass door. “Hello, girls”, she said. “It’s nice to see you again. It sounds like you had an adventure yesterday.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Cheng!” cried all the girls.

  Mrs. Cheng looked like a model. She had big black sunglasses on, wide-leg jeans with a drawstring waist, a red-and-white striped T-shirt, and high cork wedgie sandals. Her shiny black hair was chin-length and parted in the middle.

  “I need to go back to work now,” said Mrs. Cheng. “But I’ve set out some mini-pizzas for you. Peichi can put them in the toaster oven if you get hungry. There are baby carrots, too. See you later!”

  “What is your mom’s job, Peichi?” asked Shawn when Peichi came out with the drinks and potato chips. She set them on the table, and everyone got out of the water for a snack.

  “Mom’s a graphic designer,” replied Peichi. “She has an office upstairs. Like, if someone is making a poster or a ketchup label or whatever, she decides what kind of lettering to use, and what little pictures to put on it. Stuff like that. She paints pictures, too. Mom’s a really good artist!”

  “That sounds neat,” said Shawn. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do when I grow up.”

  “I think I want to help people when I grow up,” said Molly.

  “Me too!” cried Peichi.

  “Doing what?” asked Amanda, looking at her sister.

  “I don’t know,” said Molly. “But yesterday was so fun, helping the McElroys.”

  “I thought it was exciting,” said Shawn. “If was like we were working in a restaurant. We were doing a million things at once!”

  “The McElroys were so happy and surprised,” added Peichi. “It was so fun to watch their faces when they saw all the food!”

  “We were a good team yesterday” said Amanda, taking a handful of potato chips.

  “Well, we are the fabulous Chef Girls!” exclaimed Shawn.

  “It would be fun to do that again,” Molly told the girls. “I wish we could...maybe there’s someone else we could cook for. ”

  “I know!” said Amanda. “We’ve starred writing a cookbook. So why don’t we start our own club? A cooking club?”

  “You mean, like meet once a week to get together and cook?” asked Peichi.

  “Uh-huh, after our cooking class ends in a few weeks. Or maybe even start right away.”

  “That sounds like fun,” said Shawn. “And that way, we’ll keep writing down recipes for ‘Dish.”’

  “And my mom can help us with the design!” added Peichi. “She’d make the cover look really cool.”

  “Who would we be cooking for?” asked Shawn. “I mean, who would eat the food?”

  “Our families would, since our parents are so busy,” replied Molly. “I don’t know about you guys, but Amanda and I get pretty sick of take-out dinners all the time! That’s why we started cooking in the first place!”

  Shawn and Peichi laughed. They knew what the twins were talking about.

  “Maybe we could take turns-you know, cook for one of our families, then another,” suggested Shawn.

  “And if there is someone to help, then we’d cook for them instead,” added Peichi.

  “But you know, we never could have done all that cooking for Justin, um, I mean the McElroys. without Mom,” Amanda reminded Molly Her face was turning red because everyone laughed when she said “Justin.”

  “Oh, that’s true.” said Molly. “Hmmm. Well, we will get to be better and better cooks as we take our classes. And our parents won’t be so worried that we’re going to cut off our fingertips or burn down the house if they’re not around.”

  “What day should we meet?” asked Shawn.

  “How about Sunday?” suggested Peichi. “That way, if we do need one of our parents to help us, they’ll always be around.”

  “Right,” said Molly. “Our mom loves to be in the kitchen on the weekends anyway.”

  “And my dad does, too!” said Peichi.

  “We could have special guest chefs!” said Molly. “Like, Peichi, your dad could show us how to cook Chinese food!”

  “And my Grandma Ruthie could show us how to cook Southern food!” added Shawn. “When she comes to visit next time.”

  “Maybe we could even set up a video camera and film our own cooking shows!”

  “My dad has a tripod we could use!”

  “This is gonna be so great!”

  chapter 14

  Mollyand Amanda left Peichi’s house late in the afternoon. Mom would be home soon. For now, the twins had the garden to themselves.

  “These poor roses need water,” said Molly. She turned on the hose.

  “Hi!” called Nathan over the fence. “Hi! I’m Nathan!”

  “Hi. Nathan.” said the twins.

  “Mommy has a tummy ache,” he called.

  “Daddy has itchy mosquito bites, Mommy’s tummy hurts, what next?” joked Molly.

  Amanda ju
mped out of her chair. “Because she’s going to have her baby, that’s why!”

  “Oh! Right! Yipes!” said Molly. “Um, should we go over there?”

  “Yeah!” said Amanda. “Maybe she needs help or something!”

  “I hope not,” muttered Molly as they walked quickly through the kitchen and out the front door.

  Amanda ran up to the Brewsfer’s door and rang the doorbell.

  “Maybe we should just open the door?” Molly suggested.

  “Okay.” Amanda pushed the door open. “Hello. Mrs. Brewster? It’s Molly and Amanda.”

  Mrs. Brewster waddled into view. “Oh, hi, girls,” she said. She looked surprised and a little confused.

  “Sorry,” said the twins. They did “the twin thing” and turned beet red at the same time.

  “We were, uh, worried—” began Amanda.

  “Because Nathan is calling over the fence that you have a tummy ache!” interrupted Molly. “We thought you were having your baby right now by yourself!”

  “Really?” said Mrs. Brewster. She chuckled and walked slowly toward the twins. “My smart little Nathan. Well, he’s right, I am going to have my baby! I just called my husband, and we’re off to the hospital soon. It’s a little sooner than we expected, and I was just trying to reach a baby-sitter.”

  “Oh, we can watch Nathan!” said Molly. “He can stay at our house and have dinner with us.”

  “Right,” added Amanda. “He can sleep over. too. It’s not a problem at all.”

  Mrs. Brewster’s face relaxed. “Oh,” she said, “thank you so much. One less thing for me to deal with right now! Sam and I will bring him over when we’re ready to leave.”

  “Okay,” said the twins. They turned and walked outside.

  “See you soon!” said Mrs. Brewsfer.

  “Yipes,” said Molly as they walked back into the house. “It must be so weird to know you’re going to have a baby!”

  “I’m just glad she isn’t having it right now,” said Amanda. “We’d have to, like, call 911 and be those hero kids you’re always seeing on the news.”

  “I’m not ready to help deliver babies,” said Molly with a laugh. “Let’s stick to cooking to help people! Looks like it’s time for Operation Feed the Brewsters!”

  “Nathan, do you like potatoes?” asked Molly. The family was seated at the table in the garden, waiting for Dad to finish grilling the chicken.

  “Where’s my mommy and daddy?” asked Nathan sadly. He’d been at the Moore’s for an hour. and was ready to go home.

  “Your mommy is having her baby, remember?” said Amanda.

  “Yeah, Nathan! Just think, soon you’ll have a baby brother or a baby sister!” Matthew told him.

  Nathan began to cry. “Don’t want one,” he sniffled. “Want Mommy. I’m hungry.”

  “Good!” said Mom, carrying out a bowl of crisp roasted potatoes and a green salad. “Because dinner’s ready, and we’re going to feed you until you’re a roly-poly!” That made Nathan giggle. Soon he was so busy eating that he forgot to miss his mommy.

  “So guess what?” said Molly to Mom and Dad when Dad brought over the platter of chicken.

  “I give up!” said Dad. He always said that. It was his little joke left over from when the twins and Matthew were little and used to say. “Guess what?” all the time.

  “The Chef Girls are going to have a cooking club.” announced Amanda. “With Shawn and Peichi. Every Sunday, we’ll get together to cook!”

  “Who’s gonna eat the rat poison, I mean food?” asked Matthew.

  “You will!” said Molly “We’ll make you be the guinea pig.”

  “Anyway, before we were so rudely interrupted.” continued Amanda, “tomorrow we’ll make something for Nathan and Mr. Brewster.” Nathan looked up when he heard his name. He smiled at Amanda and held out a piece of potato for her.

  “That’s a nice idea,” said Mom. “But remember, I won’t be here to help you. I can’t take another day off so soon.”

  “That’s okay, Mom,” Molly assured her. “We’re going to make some pesto, that’s easy. We’ll throw in a box of pasta for Mr. Brewster to cook. We can make a salad. And that cobbler was no big deal to make. It’ll be easy!”

  “Hold it!” said Dad with a laugh. “Did you all decide together on what you’d make?”

  The twins looked at each other. “No,” they said.

  “You’re not the kings of the club,” said Matthew. “Or, you know, the queens.”

  “Save it, Matthew,” said Dad.

  “You’ll need to buy groceries each week,” Mom reminded the girls. “How will you pay for them?”

  “Um, right,” said Amanda. “We didn’t talk about that yet either, but between the four of us, we can pay for it out of our allowance. If some of us don’t have money, we just can’t cook, that’s all. But we could still meet to work on our cookbook.”

  “You could pay dues each week,” said Dad. “And that would go toward your food.”

  “That’s a good idea, Dad,” Molly said.

  “And with a pool of money, we’ll always know how much we have to spend!” Amanda added.

  Mr. Brewsfer called the Moores late that night to report that Mrs. Brewster was fine. She’d had a beautiful baby girl, named Charlotte.

  “Congratulations! That’s wonderful!” Mrs. Moore told him. “Nathan missed you, but he did so well tonight. He’s been asleep a long time. He’ll be glad to see you tomorrow.”

  Early the next morning while Mom and Dad were getting ready for work, Mr. Brewster came by to pick up Nathan.

  “When is Mrs. Brewster coming home?” asked Molly.

  “Tomorrow,” he said. “I’m taking Nathan over to the hospital now to meet Charlotte and see Mommy, and we’ll come back later for a nap. I know I could use one! See you later!”

  “Bye-bye!” said Nathan, waving.

  “Bye,” said the twins. Amanda closed the door and turned to Molly. “Time for a conference call,” she said, dialing Shawn’s number. She and Molly loved playing with all the cool features on the phone.

  “Remember, girls, the phone is not a toy.” joked Molly as she imitated Dad’s deep voice.

  “Hello? Jordan residence,” answered Shawn.

  “Hi. Shawn! It’s us. Hold on, we’re gonna get Peichi in on this call.” Soon the twins had Peichi on the line, too, and they told Shawn and Peichi the news about Charlotte.

  “Mr. Brewster will be home later,” said Molly. “So he’ll be there when we’re finished cooking.”

  “And it’ll be a surprise!” added Amanda.

  The friends decided to meet at the Moores house to do the cooking. And all agreed to pay dues each week for the food.

  “I’m bringing some cucumbers,” said Shawn. “We have too many, and they’ll go bad soon.”

  “Okay,” said Amanda. “Well, then, we could make the cucumber-and-dill soup that we made in class.”

  When Peichi arrived, she’d brought fresh basil from her mom’s herb garden, and lettuce. “Dad bought lettuce last night,” she explained. “He forgot that we already had some, so he said I could take this.”

  “Okay,” said Molly. “That’s less stuff we have to buy, then.”

  “Don’t forget that we should buy some carrots for Nathan,” Amanda reminded the girls. “He likes to eat vegetables.”

  The girls decided to make pesto with Mrs. Cheng’s basil, along with the cucumber soup, a small green salad, and the cobbler. As the girls talked, Amanda wrote down the things they would need to buy. “This dinner won’t cost us much at all,” she said. “Ready to go to the store, Chef Girls?”

  “Ready,” replied Shawn.

  “Yeah, let’s go!” said Peichi. She turned to Shawn. “I can’t wait to make the cucumber soup! It looked so easy in class! What should we do first? I guess we should make the soup first so we can chill it...”

  Molly and Amanda smiled at each other as Peichi went on and on. An amazing summer was opening up before the
m. Old and new friends were around them, and every day brought exciting, unpredictable happenings.

  Boredom had taken a vacation.

  Cooking tips From the chef Girls!

  The Chef Girls are looking out for you! Here are some things you should know if you want to cook. (Remember to ask your parents if can use knives and the stove!)

  1. Tie back long hair so that it won’t get into the food or in the way as you work.

  2. Don’t wear loose-fitting clothing that could drag in the food or on the stove burners.

  3. Never cook in bare feet or open-toed shoes. Something sharp or hot could drop on your feet.

  4. Always wash your hands before you handle food.

  5. Read through the recipe before you start. Cather your ingredients together and measure them before you begin.

  6. Turn pot handles in so that they won’t get knocked off the stove.

  7. Use wooden spoons to stir hot liquids. Metal spoons can become very hot.

  8. When cutting or peeling food, cut away from your hands.

  9. Cut food on a cutting board, not the countertop.

  10. Hand someone a knife with the knifepoint pointing to the floor.

  11. Clean up as you go. It’s safer and neater.

  12. Always use a dry pot holder to remove something hot from the oven. You could get burned with a wet one, since wet ones retain heat.

  13. Make sure that any spills on the floor are cleaned up right away, so that you don’t slip and fall.

  14. Don’t put knives in clean-up water. You could reach into the water and cut yourself.

  15. Use a wire rack to cool hot baking dishes. to avoid scorch marks on the countertop

  An Important Message From the Chef Girls!

  Some foods can carry bacteria, such as salmonella, that can make you sick.

  To avoid salmonella, always cook poultry, ground beef, and eggs thoroughly before eating. Don’t eat or drink foods containing raw eggs.