Chapter 28: Roberto Wears An Apron

Roberto concluded the picnic was his chance to begin a real relationship with Sophie. He was going to make every effort to win her over, including having fun with Carrie. While his parents were at their jobs, he collected the picnic supplies and the secret weapon from the basement. He made sure everything was clean, including the big flannel blanket, the cooler bag, and the ice chest.

At the supermarket, he purchased a sliced loaf of Bimbo soft wheat bread, chicken breasts, queso fresco (soft white cheese), a container of fresh mild salsa, bottles of Topos Sabores orange soda, strawberries, and the ingredients for cinnamon sugar cookies. He also bought breakfast foods for the coming week, and a bag of tortillas. Finally, he remembered to include a bag of ice cubes.

Back home he put the chicken on a low slow boil, just enough to cook it through. He mixed flour, eggs, baking powder, and shortening to the proper texture and distributed disks of dough on four cookie sheets, for the pre-heated oven. While they baked, Roberto drained off the chicken and set it aside. Mixing up a bowl of sugar and cinnamon, he waited for the cookies to cool down. With his fingers, he tore the cooked chicken into shreds, putting half into a covered bowl for tomorrow and half for tonight.

After a thorough hand washing, he picked up each cookie one by one and coated front and back with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Using colored sanding sugar crystals, he added red and green to the cookies as he stacked them on two serving plates: one plastic-covered for tomorrow, and one set out on the kitchen counter for tonight.

Finally, he crumbled up all the cheese, again in two dishes. Arriving home, his parents were drawn into the kitchen by the smells. “Dinner in twenty minutes; go wash up.”

He prepared three dishes, elongated ceramic bowls holding two tortillas wrapping chicken and cheese, the tortilla sides pinned together with toothpicks, and covered with more cheese. He loaded them into the oven for 10 minutes of baking, added the fresh salsa on top for five more minutes, and brought the three hot dishes to the table.

Dinner was already a success, and the cinnamon cookies just sealed the deal.