Our 10-year-old, Moira, has been been teaching herself to bake. A headstrong child, Mo has decided to do this with as little intervention from my wife, Marcy, and me as possible.

A couple of weekends ago, she pulled out a chocolate chip cookie recipe, assembled all the ingredients and set about to put it all together. Once in a while, she'd run upstairs and ask Marcy the baker queen a question about technique, but otherwise this was her show.

Once the dough was mixed, she scooped out little lumps onto the baking sheet, then put it in the oven. Ten minutes later, the buzzer buzzed. Soon after, Mo came into the room where Marcy and I were, disappointment dripping from her face. She said her lumps of cookie dough flattened out and ran together.

Marcy went down to take a look and discovered a large slick of chocolate chip goop, oozing all over the cookie sheet.

They started troubleshooting the recipe, step by step, until they discovered that Moira had used only one cup of flour instead of the two called for in the instructions.

Determined not to repeat her mistake, she was at it again this past weekend. She measured, mixed, scooped and baked. The buzzer buzzed and out of the oven came - more goop.

Marcy's first post-mortem question was, of course, "How much flour did you use?"

"Two scoops," Moira said. "Two scoops, or two cups?" Marcy probed.

Moira showed the "scoop" to Marcy. It was a half-cup measure.

It was a learning moment. I'm sure that one of the next weekends will find Moira back in the kitchen. And I bet she gets it right this time. And even if she doesn't, we'll eat the goop. Just like we did the other two times.

(Photo by Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis)