I wish I could bottle the scents that have infused the air inside my kitchen since I started baking this morning. It smells like Christmas...and I hope it lingers like glitter in the air.
I make gingerbread men for all my piano students every year, and I added a few whimsical stars for friends... but this was no easy task this time around. The first batch burned. I even had them in the oven for less time than the recipe calls for, just in case. The second batch was undercooked ( I was so afraid I was going to burn them again), and as I took the poor critters off the cookie sheets, many of them lost their heads and some legs and arms were unintentionally amputated. Sigh. I thought I had this mastered after 15 or so years of making these little guys. I am truly culinarily challenged.
But I persevered. I listened to Wintersong, and I whipped up a new batch that finally turned out the way I wanted them to....and now I am going to flop on the couch and watch Little Women before I make my way to a friend's house for dinner.
It's been an almost perfect rainy Sunday.
It sounds like my kind of sunday. I love the smells of the holiday and this is quite possibly my favorite cd of the season.
ReplyDeleteI can smell them...what a fabulous and delicious way to spend a Sunday! Wintersong is just beautiful.
ReplyDeletethese are the cutest little things ever. and what a perfect sunday, burnt gingerbread and lopped off heads and all. and little women. well. perfect. for me today it was cary grant in the bishop's wife and mexican food, but now? now i'm thinking cinnamon toast. perhap i will cut the bread in the shapes of stars. :)
ReplyDeletexoxo
Debi
okay....seriously....
ReplyDeleteunintentionally amputated made me laugh right out loud....
and now i want to make some....well, really i just want to have that smell in my house, too.
I love Ginger cookies ~ and yours are so beautiful Jaime! I always seem to burn one batch too. Why is that? I'm clearly no Martha Stewart! :)
ReplyDeleteSarah McLachlan Wintersong is playing as I type. She's my favorite.
xo Catherine
I love gingerbread men - yum.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful cookies! Yum! I can almost smell them.
ReplyDeleteI can smell the delicious fragrance wafting from your kitchen right here. Merry Xmas and happy baking.
ReplyDeleteIt might not be you Jaime. It may be your oven. I know this because I spent years working with an extremely tempermental oven. Cookies could only be baked one sheet at a time (sigh) and chocolate cakes were a no-no because they'd dry out just as the second I'd be pulling them from the oven. You are not culinarily challegned, it's oven issues. Beautiful photo by the way.
ReplyDeleteCan't think of a better way to spend a rainy day. The cookies look great..so sweet (no pun intended)!
ReplyDeleteFirst time here.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY!
Beautiful.
I know exactly what you mean... every year I try to make my mom's Eggnog Cookies, and I've ended up with weird chewy pockmarked things almost every time. No idea what I'm doing wrong! But those cookies look beautiful, and I hope the holiday feeling does linger for you. =)
ReplyDeleteGood for you persevering and getting a good batch!! I had to do the same yesterday with nuts. What a colossal waste of money when I burned the first batch of candied walnuts! those things are $16.00 a bag... so I too watched the second batch like a hawk. How dare those recipes tell me to bake nuts for 15 minutes at 350.... alarm bells went off when I read it .... why don't I ALWAYS listen to my own alarms?
ReplyDeleteFinally got the perfect batch to go on top of my perfect poached pear on my salad.... mmmmm.... that's all I wanted them for. lol... But, darn it.... I want them right.
Today.... sugar cookies.... and you can bet I'll be eyeballing them! My kitchen smells great too......lots of baking going on to pack up and send to my sis in her annual Christmas package. She doesn't do much in the baking department...
it does sound like the perfect rainy Sunday. I always loved making gingerbread soldiers with my dad growing up. he had special fancy molds. there's nothing that smells more like Christmas than the baking of gingerbread..
ReplyDeletewhat a special treat for your students.
sweet :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely treat for your students. I can almost smell them! I have a copper gingerbread cookie mold. I've never used it, but I love to see it on my stove every time I'm in the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI made a double batch of pumpkin raisin cookies on Monday (my most favorite cookie ever) and am thinking making mint cookies this weekend. I do love the smell of cookies baking.
How wonderful - how you. You spend a rainy Sunday doing things for others. You spend it with things not going well. And, instead of feeling frustrated, you count your blessings and keep on giving. Oh, I do love you, my friend!
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