Notes to Self: Creative Food Prep

If your two-year-old ever wants you to make a cake in the shape of a specific musical instrument, this can be done. First, put on your thinking cap and draw a picture (or find one on the web). Be sure you have fancy icing tools and plenty of time. Oh, and don't expect to get much sleep the night before the party. But it will be worth all the effort and sleep deprivation when you see sheer joy on your three-year-old's face as she realizes that you pulled off her dream cake.

Never use colored icing spray (like spray paint for cakes). Disgusting. Smells like machine oil...surely that's not good to ingest. If you choose to try it again anyway, be prepared to scrape the toxic icing off and throw it in the trash.

If you decide to make apples into super cute hearts for a classroom of preschoolers to have for Valentine snack, acknowledge your own creative idea and then move on to something easier. If you choose to do it again anyway, don't start at 10PM.

And next time you choose to cut flour tortillas into hearts, wear industrial-strength cooking gloves or something similarly protective. Surely Martha Stewart makes said product. Your hands will thank you.

But the next time you decide to make a pizza in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day, go right ahead (assuming you were making pizza from scratch anyway). Your three-year-old will love making it into a happy face heart which she can then name "Mr. Daddy Pizza." (And come on, what a creative use of asparagus! Good idea, Ava! She's a child after my own heart.)