I love anything ginger related. I like fresh ginger in marinades, adore the chewiness of crystallized ginger, enjoy a sip of ginger ale now and again, have to sample a bite of the pink pickled ginger when we get sushi, frequently carry around a tin of Ginger Altoids and have even been known to come out of the shower ginger-scented . The flavor of ginger, to me, is essentially an autumnal and wintry scent. Reminscent of spicy smells emanating from the oven, I love it in everything from my favorite Christmas ham recipe, to my favorite holiday cookie recipe, which I’m sharing with you below! I’ve augmented the recipe this year to make it a bit healthier, with a return to more natural sugars and whole wheat flour as the [... To read more, click here ...]
Friends, family, loyal blog readers, I have a confession to make. I have joined a covert organization. An organization known to get a rise out of it’s members. An organization known to appreciate the sweet life. An organization that eats dessert first. I receive a mission (aka, recipe) once a month and, along with the other members, complete it to the tee, keep it mum (MUM I TELL YOU!), and post our results on the same day. It rocks my world. I am a Daring Baker. This was my first Daring Baker challenge this month and I was so excited when I saw the recipe – Perfect Party Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook “Baking: From My Home to Yours”with a meringue-style Buttercream frosting (recipe below). Since Lloyd’s birthday is on [... To read more, click here ...]
Most people don’t know what to think about this cookie. It isn’t frosted, it isn’t shaped, it doesn’t have chocolate chips . . . but for me, it wouldn’t be Christmas without them. Pfefferniuss (pronounced Feffer-noose) are a traditional German spiced cookie that my family makes every year. I remember rolling this out and making it when I was too little to use a real metal butter knife, I was instead given a small plastic knife to make these little cookies. I probably teethed on them, and my children and grandchildren will make them much as my mother and grandmother and her mother before her makes these without fail every year. I even gave them away as our favor at our wedding almost two years ago as it was during [... To read more, click here ...]
This past weekend my sister and I embarked on our annual trek through our family cookbooks. Bags of flour were opened, and emptied, various sugars covered the floor, sinks were temporarily dyed the colors of the rainbow with food coloring, three types of nuts were roasted and chopped, candy canes were bashed, and chocolate was melted, and melted and melted. We made two types of fudge, Chocolate Crunch bars, dough for Pfefferniusse, made preparations for making my grandma’s truffles . . . the list goes on and on! We have more work to do this weekend (coconut pecan and peanut butter truffles for sure!) but wanted to share my new favorite recipe with you in the interim. I have a FANTASTIC gingersnap cookie that I normally make during this time [... To read more, click here ...]
Welcome to the Heartland! Reformed Urbanites, we are enjoying new life on a small family farm/homestead in the Midwest. Join us as we garden, cook, read and enjoy our boys; becoming better stewards of the Earth while raising our family.
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