Tracey Turner - The Girls Book 3: Even More Ways To Be The Best At Everything

The publisher and author disclaim any liability for accidents or injuries that may occur as a result of the information given in this book.

To be the best at everything, youll need to use your best common sense at all times, particularly when heat or sharp objects are involved, and follow safety precautions and advice from responsible adults. Always wear appropriate safety gear, stay within the law and local rules, and be considerate of other people.

Demonstrate your amazing chef skills by making and flipping a pancake. Heres how ...

You Will Need:

125 g plain flour 300 ml milk an egg olive oil a tasty topping a fantastic flipping technique

WHAT YOU DO

Add the flour and milk to a mixing bowl.

Crack the egg and pour this into the bowl. Mix the ingredients together until the mixture (called batter) is smooth and has no lumps.

Pour about a teaspoonful of oil into a frying pan and heat. Ask for help from an adult with this bit, as the oil needs to get quite hot. Tilt the pan and move it in a circular motion so a thin layer of oil spreads out and covers the bottom of the pan. Turn down the heat to a medium setting.

Add two dessertspoonfuls of the batter mixture to the frying pan and tip the pan so that the mixture covers the base.

After about a minutes cooking time, check to see if the underside is cooked lift the pan from the heat and give it a shake. If the pancake comes away from the bottom of the pan, its time to flip.

Take the pan off the heat and tilt it away from you so that the pancake starts to slide (you might need to use both hands to hold the handle).

Now quickly pull the pan back towards you and upwards at the same time. Hopefully your pancake will flip up and over. Watch it as it does and be ready to move the pan up or down so that the pancake lands flat and not while its twisting. If youre lucky, the pancake will flip 180, ready to return to the heat and cook on the other side. If youre not lucky, itll fall on the floor or stick to the ceiling.

Practice makes perfect. This mixture makes about a dozen or so pancakes, so you should manage to get it right by the time youre on to your second batch. When you do manage it, give yourself a huge round of applause.

SCOFFING

The best part of pancake-making is eating them. Here are some delicious toppings to add to your pancakes:

Sweet toppings: a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar; maple syrup and ice cream; chocolate sauce; pured fruit (raspberries work especially well).

Savoury toppings: sauted mushrooms, leeks or tomatoes; baked beans; grated cheese.

A dog can be a girls best friend, but your canine pal grows up a bit faster than you. Here are some ways of calculating the age of a dog in human terms.

A well-known method says that one dog year is equal to seven human years. Except that at one, a dog is more like a teenager, and almost fully grown unlike a seven-year-old human.

A more accurate method, for breeds of dog that have an average lifespan of about 12 years, is to start with the age of 15 for the dogs first year, add ten years for its second, and then add five for each year of the dogs life after that.

Top Tip. For breeds of dog with a longer or shorter lifespan than 12 years, youll need to adjust the formula slightly. Use a 15, 10, 3 formula for a longer-lived dog (such as toy poodles, or miniature dachshunds), or a 15, 10, 7 formula for a dog with a shorter lifespan (such as Irish Wolf Hounds and Great Danes).

Everyone loves pulling crackers at Christmas and groaning at the corny jokes. Theyre easy to make, and the best bit is that you get to choose what goes inside. Heres how to make one ...

You Will Need:

wrapping paper scissors two toilet roll tubes cracker snaps (available from most craft shops) glue or sticky tape ribbon goodies to go inside the crackers (see page 12)

WHAT YOU DO

Cut out a rectangle of wrapping paper its length should be equal to two and a half times the length of your toilet roll, and it should be wide enough to go around it one and a half times. Place the rectangle on a flat surface, patterned-side down.

Cut one of the toilet roll tubes in half. Place the two halves either side of the whole roll with a 5 cm gap between them along one of the long edges of the wrapping paper, as shown. Place the cracker snap on the paper beside them.

Roll the wrapping paper around the tubes and neatly glue or tape the join.

Carefully pinch the paper between one end of the tube and the half tube. Tie it with ribbon.

Put your goodies inside the open end of the cracker. Make sure your goodies arent too heavy.

CRACKING CONTENTS

a slip of paper with a terrible joke on it (see opposite)

a paper crown

small pens, pencils or erasers

sample-size sachets of shampoo, bubble bath or moisturiser the kind that come free in magazines

hair bands or clips