Sunday, December 09, 2007

Do you Hear What I Hear?

Sometimes I wish I blogged with audio. Geoff says it's possible, but I'll excuse him from making it a reality. Anyways... sometimes, like today, you just have to know that I am laughing. Laughing out loud. LOL. Even when I am despairing about life's trials and tribulations, it's likely I am laughing.

Would you like a delicious cookie recipe? This is Anne Z.'s Aunt Rosella's Ginger Cookies recipe, which is over 100 years old. My friend Belinda shared it with me.

Ginger Cookies
Combine: 3/4 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg and 5 tablespoons of molasses

In a separate bowl sift together: 2 cups of flour, 1.5 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Make teaspoon full balls of dough and roll in sugar, place on cookie sheet, then press down with a sugared glass bottom.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 9 to 10 minutes.


Do you read any mention of refrigerating the dough? Or rolling it and cutting out dear little gingerbread men? No. The answer is no, and if I ever was in the habit of following recipes I could have spared us this tragedy:


What you are seeing is cut dough that has been baked, melded together into a lava flow of ginger goodness, and then in a last ditch act of desperation cut again.

What the heck was I thinking?!



We like this one best, because it has a little Picasso heart cut-out. And by now, we were all laughing out loud. And sampling... mmmm ginger cookies are tasty. So, throw out my vision of us gathered around a clean kitchen, carols playing, candlelight flickering on the mantle, and us piping snow white icing on the gingerbread family. No cute buttons and bow ties. No curly locks and dear ginger grins.


The cookies are all gone. We had to eat hide the evidence of my fantasy gone wrong.

14 comments:

Helen said...

Funny...but the one thought i had when i witnessed your gingerbread dough was "It takes a village" It was a good fantasy gone right if you ask me!!
love aunt carol

http://afancifultwist.typepad.com said...

HI!! Came from Kimberly's! Happy gazillion posts!! Oh funny cookies monsters you all are!! Thanks for the recipe!!!

nikkipolani said...

Natalie, you've got me giggling! I just put together the dough for my gingerbreadmen this afternoon. It finally dawned on me (after making these cookies for the last decade or so) that I could halve the recipe and not be overrun with gingerbreadmen! A new concept!

pussman said...

these are very artistic gingerman!!
The taste is the most important thing.

Felicia said...

LOL Sounds like the kind of natural disaster I creature when I try to make cut out cookies :)

Tracy said...

Oh, I can't stopping laughing, and seeing your happy smiling face there too! Love the Picasso cookie! Sometimes accident turn out to be happy ones... ((HUGS))

Andylynne said...

Ginger man, or is that a ginger catapiller your holdig? What fun you must have had. If it had been my sisters, we'd be lauging just like you described. Thanks for making me smile. The recipe sounds like my aunt Joyces, I wonder if they were related :)

village mama said...

I love these photos. Love them! I'm currently working on a children's cookbook, and in my research have thumbed through many children's cookbooks. They all show beautiful looking end product. Bull shit. The cookies should look like yours. I may have to buy some of these photos from you. Seriously, they make me giggle in a deliriously happy way.

Here is the BEST, easiest, kid friendly gingerbread recipe I've come across to date:

http://www.readersdigest.ca/christmas/recipes_party/kids_cookie_party/easy_gingerbread_cookies.html

Anna Banana said...

I'm torn about leaving this warning about making these cookies. On the one hand, it's embarassing that I tried the recipe (using the recommended method of dropping them instead of cutting them) given your interesting results and failed miserably. They look like Salvador Dali's dripping clocks! On the other hand, there may be someone out there like me who can't resist trying a delicious sounding recipe. WARNING: Don't try this one at home!

PamKittyMorning said...

Hilarious!

Natalie said...

Anne, it's a tough call. Belinda made them and they were round, pretty and tasty. Granted I messed them up visually, but they tasted Good. Maybe we should try Village Mama's...

village mama said...

Hi again,

We are actually about to start rolling out this dough which we prepared last night. Will be posting pics later today.

I'd love to be included in the contest. Obviously, my favorite post is this gingerbread baking session. Thanks for including my name in the draw. Great to meet you via blog land Natalie!!

Tarie said...

I think the cookies look yummy! They seem nice and gooey - the way cookies are supposed to be. :9

village mama said...

Postcard from me to you:
http://mamasvillage.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-baking-session-1-postcard-to.html