Posts Tagged ‘make it do’

Nothing says December like a plate of Ginger Snap Cookies.  They look and smell divine.  When they are cooking… your home is filled with the most wonderful smells of cinnamon, cloves and ginger.

Here’s my favorite recipe:

Calli’s Ginger Snaps

• 4 ½ cups sifted flour
• 4 tsp.  baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cloves
• 1 ½ cups butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• ½ cup molasses
• 2 eggs

Cream butter, sugar, molasses, and eggs.  Sift dry ingredients together.  Add flour mixture slowly into butter mixture until incorporated.  Do not over mix the flour.  Scoop and roll into balls.  Roll in sugar.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Options:

• Press a red hot on top before baking.
• Dip ½ of each cookie into melted white chocolate (wafers for dipping.)  Take care to only dip the top.
• White chocolate is also pretty when drizzled over the top.

The girls and I made Ginger Snaps today.  Rolled cookies are awesome for kids.

They LOVE to roll and roll.  Then they love to roll some more, this time in sugar.

My husband loves them with a red hot candy pressed in the center.  Aren’t they cute… and festive.

They are also delicious drizzled with white chocolate over the top.  Simply place the cooled cookies on a cooling rack over newspaper and drizzle with a spoon.  Better yet use a bottle used for candy like the one above.  Or you can simply dip the cookies half way in the white chocolate, being careful to only dip the top of the cookie.  Set the cookies on wax or parchment paper while they dry.

I use A’Peels Chocolate for projects like this.  It melts like a dream in the microwave and drizzles and dips beautifully.  You can buy A’Peels from a restaurant supply store or online.   A’Peels is great for dipping pretzels too.

Bag them up for gifts, but be sure to save a few for yourself of course.

Memories of my childhood Christmases are filled with wonder.  I think of big snow, a new doll, and a warmth in our hearts that had nothing to do with our wood burning stove.

We never had big Christmases.  My parents didn’t allow us to ask Santa for a long list of gifts.  My mother’s rule was, you can ask Santa for one big gift and two small gifts.  My mother taught us that it would be greedy to ask for more.  I remember one Christmas, when I was about my son’s age of 9, I realized my friends asked for and received a lot more from Santa than I did.  “Why was he unfair?”  I asked my mother.

My mom explained that our family received what we needed each Christmas, and although our Christmases were small, that each gift was special.  Each gift was thoughtfully chosen and given with love.  It didn’t matter what my friends received, it mattered that we had a spirit of gratitude and love on Christmas day.

Since I have had my own family, I have come to realize how right my mother was.  One year my husband and I both received large(r) Christmas bonuses. Feeling flush and festive, we purchased our children more gifts than usual.  The morning felt frenetic.  My kids tore open their gifts, and seemed overwhelmed by what they had received.  That Christmas just wasn’t the same.

A small Christmas doesn’t have to mean less.  When small is done with love, it can truly be sweet.