The Boys Cook Dinner

"When did Mandy say Jolena was coming home?" Emil asked Billy as the boys stared at the empty kitchen.

No one was cutting vegetables at the sink. No yummy smells were drifting through the air. No beeps or buzzes or whirring sounds came from the appliances sitting on the countertops.

"I think it was Monday," Billy replied, "but I'm pretty sure she won't feel like cooking for a couple of days. She was pretty tired when she came home from last year's Doll Ski Team practice in South America."

Billy knew that Emil was missing Jolena––he missed Jolena, too––but they also missed her cooking. The dolls hadn't hadn't pretended to eat a really good, home-cooked meal since she had left, and they were missing it. All the dolls could cook, but no one could cook like Jolena! She often organized the other dolls so each one had a job to do. She would show them how to do their jobs correctly. Billy could remember Jolena in the kitchen, teaching and encouraging the other dolls, and would be very happy when she was home again.

"Well, it's our turn to cook," said Emil, turning to look at the refrigerator, which was the first place to start when trying to decide what to have for dinner. "What should we fix?"

"We need to be sure what we fix is good for us," Billy said. "We need something from each of the different food groups."

"Let's fix an extra food, too," Emil said, thinking about cookies or pudding.

"Let's see what's in the refrigerator," Billy said. The boys knew some easy dishes they could cook all by themselves. All they needed to do was see if what they needed was on hand.

There were lettuce, mushrooms, sprouts and other things for salad in the refrigerator. They found some frozen vegetables and cooked chicken in the freezer. There were some bottles and jars of sauces in the pantry. There is always rice. That suggested to them one of the easy things they knew how to fix. If they cooked some rice, heated up the vegetables and chicken with a sauce, made a salad and gave each doll a glass of milk, it would make a meal that would give them some of each of the kinds of foods they needed to be healthy.

After they decided what to cook, the boys got to work. First they helped each other tie cloth napkins around their waists to keep spills off of their clothes.

Then the boys washed the bottoms of their shoes and their hands before getting up on the countertop. (They know real children should not sit or stand on the countertops, but for some things the dolls have to because they are so small.)

Now they were ready to cook. They put water and rice into the big rice cooker.

Emil plugged in the rice cooker. He made sure his hands were dry. He was careful not to get his fingers too close to the electrical outlet, because he didn't want to get a shock.

Billy turned the rice cooker on and set it for the kind of rice they were using. Then the boys mixed the frozen vegetables and cooked chicken with a sauce from a bottle. 

They put it next to the microwave to cook later when the rice was done.

They made a salad with some lettuce, some sprouts and the other vegetables they had cut up.

They baked some cookies from some of Jolena's cookie dough that was in the freezer. They made sure that they had enough for each doll to have one cookie to pretend to eat. Usually that would be seven, but Jolena wasn't going to be eating one, so they baked only six cookies.

They put the vegetables and chicken into the microwave and set it for the time they knew it would take.

While the vegetables and chicken were heating up, they cleaned up after themselves. The other dolls would put their own plates into the dishwasher after they all pretended to eat. The boys could put a few things into the dishwasher now, but they had to wash some things by hand.

Then they washed the countertops, because they had been standing on them. Billy was just closing the dishwasher door when Charlotte came into the kitchen.

"How is it going?" Charlotte asked.

"We're all done now," Billy replied, "except for putting it on the table."

Charlotte looked around. "Where's Emil?" she asked.

Billy looked around, too. He was surprised not to see Emil standing next to him. "I don't know," he said. "He was just here. We were putting some things into the dishwasher."

Charlotte and Billy heard a thumping sound coming from the dishwasher.

When they opened it, there was Emil! 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Emil!" Billy cried. "I must have closed the door without looking to see if you were out!"

"It's OK, Billy," Emil said, as he climbed down. "I'm just glad you didn't turn it on! The dishes need washing, but I don't, and the water might have ruined my special glasses and my hearing aids!"

"Boys," Charlotte said, "please be careful. You should pull the tray out to load the dishes. Climbing inside could be very dangerous."

"Yes," Billy agreed, "I see that now, and I should have looked inside before closing the door!"

"Well," Charlotte said, "It's a good thing we were right here to let you out. You could have been stuck inside there for hours! The doors to dishwashers and refrigerators are hard to open from the inside. The people who make the appliances don't expect dolls to be in there and need to get out."

"I won't do that again!" Emil promised. Just then the rice cooker and the microwave both beeped. It was time to put everything on the table

.
"Let's call the others!" Emil said. "We can pretend to eat!"

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia


Photo of cookies by Isabelle Acheson on Unsplash.
This story appears in the book Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the Book Baby Bookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

Sharing a Cookie

 Some of the dolls were doing their homework at the dining room table.

Jolena thought Billy and Emil looked unhappy. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"We're learning about fractions (FRAK-shuns) in school," Billy replied. "I just don't get it."

"I'm having trouble, too," Emil sighed. "I don't understand why we have fractions."

"I understand a half," Mariah said. "That's a fraction. A half is like when you share a cookie with a friend. One of you cuts the cookie into two pieces, and the other one gets to choose which piece to take."

"Yes," Jolena agreed. "That's so the doll who cuts the cookie will be careful to make both the same size, because otherwise the other doll will pick the larger piece. Two halves are two pieces of one cookie that are exactly the same size."

"I think that's a great idea!" Emil exclaimed. "It's fair that way. If the doll who cut the cookie got to pick which piece to take, the other doll would get the smaller piece for sure!"

Jolena thought for a moment. "Fractions help us tell how much of something to use," she said. "I know a little about fractions. I need to know that for cooking. Come into the kitchen, and I'll show you what I know. Maybe it will help you with your homework!"

Jolena led the other dolls into the kitchen, where she pulled out some measuring spoons and some measuring cups. Those are spoons and cups she uses to measure how much to use of something, so she can follow a recipe. Because the countertop had lots of spots, she placed the spoons and cups on the small cutting board. She was afraid that Emil might not see things as clearly as the other dolls, even with his special glasses, and Jolena wanted to make it easier for him to see them.

"These are measuring spoons," Jolena said, showing the other dolls the spoons. "Each one has a fraction on it except the one teaspoon measure."

The dolls all looked at the spoons. Three of the spoons each had two numbers on them. Jolena picked up the spoon that had "1/8" on it. "This is a one eighth teaspoon," she said. "That means you would have to fill it eight times to have as much as one teaspoon."

Then she picked up the spoon that had "1/4" on it. "This is one fourth teaspoon. You need four of this one to be one teaspoon, and this," Jolena said, picking up the spoon that had "1/2" on it, "is a half teaspoon. There are two of these in a teaspoon."
Billy picked it up and looked at it. Then he looked at the other dolls.

"I wonder why we don't we call it a 'one second' teaspoon," Billy said after he placed it carefully back on the cutting board.

"I don't know," Jolena replied. "Maybe it's because we use seconds for time."

"A one second teaspoon wouldn't last very long," Emil said, and they all laughed.

Jolena pointed to the largest spoon. "If the recipe says to add one teaspoon, I use this one, but if I need an eighth of a teaspoon of something, I use this one," Jolena explained, pointing to the smallest measuring spoon. 

"I have measuring cups in fractions, too. These blue cups are for dry things, like flour and sugar. They are 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and a whole cup. If you fill one of these to the top and no more, you will have an exact amount." 

"For measuring liquids, like water or milk," Jolena went on, "I use these glass measuring cups. You can see through them, so you can pour in a liquid until it reaches the amount you need. You can use the same cup for different amounts. The cup is marked with the same fractions as the set of blue cups, but it's all in one cup."
"I see the glass cup is bigger than the mark at the top," Emil said.
"Yes," Jolena agreed. "Liquids spill easily, so the cup has extra room in it, but you only fill it just to the line."

"The one eighth teaspoon is smaller than the one fourth teaspoon," Billy noticed, "but eight is a bigger number than four."

"I think," Mariah said, "it's because when you cut something into more parts, like eight, each part is smaller."

"That's right," Jolena agreed. "If you had to share a cookie with five friends, you would need to cut it into smaller pieces, if everyone were going to have a piece."

"So the "1" on each spoon means how many parts you get with it," Billy asked, "and the other number is how many parts are in the whole thing?"

Emil nodded. "I remember the number on the top, is the numerator (NOO-mer-ay-ter), but I've forgotten what the number on the bottom is called."
Billy couldn't remember, either.

"It's the denominator (dee-NAW-min-ay-ter)," Mariah said.

Jolena agreed. "Sometimes the number on top in the recipe is more than one. It might be three eighths (3/8), for instance. That means you use this spoon three times. That's usually for something you need in small amounts, like salt or baking powder."

"I wonder if you could save time," Mariah said, "if you used the one fourth (1/4) teaspoon measure once and the one eighth (1/8) teaspoon measure once. Wouldn't that be the same as three eighths (3/8)?"

The dolls looked at the measuring spoons.
"The 1/4 teaspoon measure looks like twice as much as the 1/8 teaspoon measure," Emil pointed out.
"Hmmmm," said Jolena. "Now that you mention it, there are four of the 1/4 teaspoons in each whole teaspoon, but there are eight of the 1/8 teaspoons in a whole teaspoon, so the 1/4 teaspoon measure would be the same as two of the 1/8 teaspoon measures. I think you're right, Mariah!" 

Then Jolena thought about it.

"If I had to put down the 1/8 teaspoon measure," Jolena said, "and then had to go find the 1/4 teaspoon measure in the measuring-spoon box, I don't think I would be saving any time."

"My head is starting to spin," Billy said. "I'm getting confused."

Just then, Mandy came into the room with a basket of costumes from the last photo shoot. She was planning to fold them, so they could be put away.

"Maybe Mandy can explain it better," Mariah said. "She's good at explaining things."
All the dolls looked at Mandy.

Mandy put down the laundry basket, seeing all the dolls looking at her. "What?" she asked.

"We're trying to explain fractions to the boys," Jolena said. "Maybe you can help."
"I'll try," Mandy said, putting down the basket with the costumes. "Go get the Legos, Billy! I'll use them to show you how to understand fractions."

Billy left and came back with the big box of Legos. Mandy went through the Legos until she found what she was looking for.

Mandy held out a piece that had eight little bumps on it. "Lets say," she said, "these little bumps are how many parts you can divide the piece into. How many bumps does this one have?" she asked.

The dolls counted the bumps. "Eight!" they all said together.
Mandy put the piece with eight bumps down on the floor.
"How about this one?" Mandy asked, holding out a smaller piece.

The dolls all looked. "Four!" they all said together. Mandy nodded and put the piece down on the floor.
"Now this one?" Mandy took out an even smaller piece.

"How many bumps does this one have?" Mandy asked.
"Two," they all said.

"Now," Mandy said, "let's use these for denominators."

"That's the number that's on the bottom," Billy said.
"Right!" Mandy agreed. Then she took a piece with just one bump. "Now let's say this piece with one bump is the numerator," she went on. She placed it above the piece with eight bumps. "What do we have?"

The dolls all looked. They thought. They used their little imaginary brains.
"That's my 1/8 teaspoon!" Jolena cried suddenly, and Mandy nodded.

"OK," Mandy went on, taking away the piece with one bump and replacing it with a piece with four bumps. She put it next to the piece with eight bumps. "Now what do we have?"

"Four eighths?" Emil asked. "There are four bumps in the numerator," he said, pointing to the smaller piece, "and eight bumps in the denominator."

"That's right," Mandy agreed.
"You know," Billy began, "it looks like half to me."

"Why do you say that," Mandy asked.
"Well," Billy began, "the smaller piece looks like half the size of the larger piece."

Mandy picked up the smaller piece and fastened it to the larger piece. 

Then she put it down again. "You're right," she said, "because four eighths (4/8) is the same as one half (1/2). Can you make one half with these other two?"

The dolls looked through the pieces on the floor. They put several down on top of the other two pieces.

They talked about it together. Finally, they came up with these, and Mandy said they were right.

"So how do you know that four eighths is the same as one half?" Billy asked.
Mandy asked if anyone knew the answer. Then she waited.
Finally, Mariah said, "I think when you put the smaller piece on top of the larger piece, and you can still see the same number of bumps as are on the smaller piece, it's one half, like if we cut a cookie in half."

"That's right," Mandy agreed."Now, you should be able to put these pieces together and make all kinds of fractions out of them."
"This is fun," Emil said. 
The dolls played with the Legos until they had made as many fractions out of them as they could with the Legos they had.

"I think we need more Legos," Billy said.
While the dolls helped Mandy fold the clothes in the laundry basket, they talked about how they could use fractions.

Emil said, "A football game has a first half and a second half."
"I would need a fourth of a yard of fabric for a dress," Mariah said.
"I can do a half twist on my skis," Jolena said. "When I do, I land facing backwards."
"I needed three fourths of a ball of yarn for the sweater Billy is folding," Mandy said.
"If we cut that cookie into enough equal pieces for each of us to have one," Billy suggested, "we would each have one fifth of the cookie.
"If...," Mariah pointed out, "...if we could cut the cookie into five pieces that are all the same size."
"I think a half twist would be easier," Jolena said with a sigh.


Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Message to young readers: Remember that these are dolls. It is not good for real children to get up on tables or countertops, especially wearing shoes.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

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Copyright © 2019, 2024 by Peggy Stuart