Frogs' Legs for Dinner? (3 page)

“I can't leave. I'm baby-sitting Gerald,” Tina said. “It's my job to make sure he doesn't eat Dad's newspaper.”

Katie Lynn rolled her eyes. “Your little brother is so weird.”

“I know,” said Tina.

Katie Lynn laughed. “Well, bring him with you. Our kitchen can't get any weirder!”

“Okay,” said Tina.

She grabbed Gerald's hand, and the three of them ran to Katie Lynn's house. They went straight to the kitchen. Mrs. Cooke was cooking frogs' legs.

Katie Lynn suddenly wondered if Burt's legs were among them.

Where's Burt?

Katie Lynn told Grandma about the new cookie that Mr. Chesterfield wanted.

“It's very important to the apes, Grandma,” she added.

So Grandma got out her recipes. But nothing looked special to them. Some were too hard. Some were too plain. And some had stuff in them that Gerald was allergic to.

“He'll want to lick the spoons,” said
Tina. “And then he'll start itching all over.”

“Ooh la la!” said Mrs. Cooke. “The French Chef was right. These frogs' legs look delicious.”

“See you later, Katie Lynn,” said Tina.

“You and Gerald are both welcome to stay for dinner, Tina,” said Mrs. Cooke.

“Thank you, Mrs. Cooke, but we have to go home,” said Tina. “My mother says I eat over here too much.”

“You can't leave now,” whispered Katie Lynn. “We still haven't decided on a new kind of cookie.”

“Sorry,” Tina said. “Come on, Gerald.”

“Ribbet! Ribbet!” croaked Gerald. He hopped through the door behind her.

Katie Lynn and Grandma set the table.

Mr. Cooke came into the kitchen. He looked nervous.

Mrs. Cooke put a huge platter in the center of the table. “Ta-da!” she said. “Frogs' legs!
Bon appétit!
”

Just then, the front doorbell rang.

“I'll get it!” said Mr. Cooke. He jumped up from the table and ran out of the room.

Dad's never coming back tonight
, Katie Lynn thought.
He won't have to eat frogs' legs like the rest of us.

All of a sudden, Mr. Cooke reappeared at the door to the kitchen. Jonathan Wilbarger was right behind him. Jonathan looked as if he had been crying.

“Where's Burt?” Jonathan demanded. He was looking at the huge platter of frogs' legs on the table.

“I don't know what you're talking about, Jonathan,” said Mr. Cooke.

“Those are his legs!” Jonathan cried. He pointed
to two of the biggest legs on the platter. “That's what's left of Burt!” He looked at Mrs. Cooke. “I can't believe you cooked my pet frog! Burt was part of our family.”

“But I bought these frogs' legs at the market,” said Mrs. Cooke.

Jonathan walked over to the table and took the two big frogs' legs off the platter. “Don't worry, Burt,” he said. “I don't know where the rest of you is, but I'll always take care of your legs.”

Then he turned and left the kitchen.

Katie Lynn heard the front door slam.

For several minutes, no one said anything.

Then Mrs. Cooke stood up. “I'm not hungry anymore,” she said. She left the kitchen.

Grandma followed her out.

Katie Lynn looked at her father. “Now what do we do?” she asked.

“Come on. Let's go to Burger-Rama,” Mr. Cooke whispered. “We can pick up Tina and deliver the rest of Mr. Chesterfield's cookies on the way home.”

“Great idea, Dad!” Katie Lynn whispered back. She ran to the telephone and called Tina.

“Is it okay if Gerald comes with us?” Tina asked.

“Sure,” said Katie Lynn. “Dad's already read his newspaper today.”

Animal Cookies

Katie Lynn, Tina, and Gerald hurried into Chesterfield's Restaurant.

Mr. Chesterfield was standing at the cash register.

“Here are the rest of your cookies, Mr. Chesterfield,” said Katie Lynn.

“We checked them all for snails,” Tina added. “We didn't find any.”

Mr. Chesterfield gasped. “
Snails?
What? There are
snails
in my cookies?”

“No! No!” Katie Lynn said. She gave Tina a dirty look. Suddenly, she remembered what the French Chef had said about using your imagination. “We're, uh … baking animal cookies for the Zoo Benefit. Isn't that exciting?”

“I don't want any animals in my cookies!” Mr. Chesterfield cried.

Tina and Gerald giggled.

“We're not going to put animals
in
the cookies, Mr. Chesterfield! They'll just be
shaped
like animals!” said Katie Lynn.

“Oh,” said Mr. Chesterfield. “A cookie zoo! I get it! I love it!”

Katie Lynn and Tina grinned at each other.

“But the Zoo Benefit is Sunday afternoon, girls. And everybody in town is invited. So I'll need lots and lots of animal cookies,” said Mr. Chesterfield. “Do you think you can have them ready by then?”

“No problem,” said Katie Lynn. “We'll bake them tomorrow.”

When they got back home, Katie Lynn told Grandma about the animal cookies.

“We can use my regular sugar cookie recipe,” said Grandma. “It'll be perfect.”

“And we can twist the dough into all kinds of animal shapes,” said Katie Lynn.

“And we can use chocolate chips for the eyes and mouths,” said Tina.

“We can put different-colored icing on them, too,” Grandma suggested.

“Goody! Goody!” Gerald cried.

Grandma got out the icing recipe and put it on the counter.

“Tomorrow's Saturday,” said Katie Lynn. “We'll start baking bright and early so the cookies will be ready in time for the benefit on Sunday.”

When Katie Lynn got up the next morning, Tina and Gerald were in the kitchen with Grandma. Grandma had heated the oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Katie Lynn and Tina gathered the ingredients for the new cookie:

They thoroughly mixed the shortening, the sugar, the eggs, and the vanilla by hand.

Then they gradually added the flour, the baking powder, and the salt, and kept mixing until everything was blended.

They covered the dough with a dish
towel and put it in the refrigerator to chill.

After an hour, they used their hands to roll some of the dough into coils. They wound the coils up to look like snails.

Then they added chocolate chips for eyes.

To make a rabbit, they rolled out some of the dough with a rolling pin. Then they cut out two circles with the mouth of a drinking glass. They used one circle for a rabbit's head. They cut the other circle in half. They shaped the halves to make the rabbit's ears. They rolled up little pieces of
leftover dough to make the whiskers. They added chocolate chips for the eyes and nose.

Then they rolled up some of the dough into small balls. They flattened each ball slightly to make a frog's body. They took some of the leftover coils from the snails and bent them to make frog legs. They made smaller balls of dough, put chocolate chips in them, and stuck them on for eyes.
They made chocolate chip mouths.

They made as many kinds of animals as they could think of.

Then they put the animals on an ungreased baking sheet and baked them until they were golden brown—between seven and ten minutes.

After they finished several batches, Grandma said, “We'll cover them with wax paper, and we can put the icing on them tomorrow.”

Katie Lynn and Tina gave each other a high-five.

“We did it!” Katie Lynn cried. “The cookies are almost ready, and now nothing can go wrong!”

This Place Is a Zoo!