Ginger Cookie Surprise!

What's the surprise? That they taste good!

I am not a practiced baker. I turn on the oven to bake something sweet maybe once every 6 months. I have been on fire the past couple weeks though (nesting?), and I hope to keep it up. Baking ingredients per use are pretty cheap and tasty baked goods from the store are pretty expensive, and I can't seem to leave the store without buying something sweet.

I set out today to make some chewy ginger cookies, as I've been craving those puppies like a mofo. I'd already been to the store, so I sought out a recipe from ye olde blogosphere with ingredients that I had on hand. Once the batter was combined, I tasted it, and it was horrible. Too spicy, not sweet enough, and no depth of flavor. Tinkering with baking is NOT something in my typical practice, but something had to be done. The result? A DELIGHT. Who'd have guessed.

Normally I'd link to the source recipe, but I won't even go there because it was so bad. So here is my adaptation. They come out a little crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle.

Ginger Softies
3/4 c. softened unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1 large egg
1/4 c. molasses
1/3 c. applesauce
2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
Additional white sugar, for rolling raw cookies.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add egg, molasses, and applesauce, and beat until well mixed.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa powder, cloves, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients gradually, scraping sides of bowl. Dough will be very sticky. Chill at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350.

Scoop measured tablespoon of dough and shape into ball. Roll ball in granulated sugar. Leaving a lot of space between cookies, place cookies on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, and chill for 10 minutes before moving directly into the oven.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

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You're A Mean One, Mrs. Stilljes

Ever since MJ was about six months old, friends, aquaintences, co-workers, and strangers in the grocery store have been telling us that she is the spitting image of Cindy Lou Who. I wish I'd thought of this when Mommyshorts was having her Baby Celebrity Lookalike contest. Not that she could POSSIBLY hold a candle to Stay-Puft.

Yet, despite my spawn's resemblance to one of the most beloved symbols of the innocence of Christmas, Momma's more Grinch than she is a Who.

Ever since I can remember, I didn't believe in Santa. Family legend has it that I informed my preschool class, you know at age 4, that there was no such thing as Santa. I'm not even sure where I got that from; my parents certainly weren't telling me not to believe. I'm pretty sure my sister, a mere year and a half my senior, still believed. Maybe an older cousin or something.

I still loved Christmas though-- not believing in Santa didn't mean that I was some hollowed-eyed, black-clad Satan worshiper from age 4. I loved our family holiday traditions. My mother is Swedish, and we had a seriously altered St. Lucia Day tradition that we celebrate on Christmas morning: my sister served everyone cinnamon rolls in bed. I loved Christmas Eve candle light church services, carols, luminaries. I didn't anticipate the sound of hooves on my roof, but our family traditions marked the holidays as a very special time of year.

There's a lot of discussion in the mom listserv world this time of year about how to talk about Santa with your kids. Here's how it seems to play out: One person expresses doubt about buying into the Santa shabang because they don't like lying to their kids, and 15 people say that you're robbing your child of all that is precious and fleeting if you don't teach them that some dude is going to break into your house and leave you presents.

That shit is uncanny.

I don't know. I can't do it. I can't teach my daughter to believe in something that I just never did for as long as I can remember. I want to find a way of giving her the option to believe if she wants to, without preaching to her that Santa is Fact. That just doesn't feel true to me. I don't want to rob her of some quintessential childhood experience, but at the same time, I don't believe that kids born into families of different faith backgrounds are missing an essential part of childhood. So why do I doubt a decision to skip Santa so? Shouldn't I just own it?

I guess the rub is that we're not religious. So what exactly are we celebrating, and why? I'm definitely not going to skip Christmas entirely, but what does it mean for a family that doesn't celebrate the religious OR secular components of the holiday? This post stopped being fun, didn't it.

So are we the worst parents ever or what?