A Fun Day

I had a fun day today. I wasn't overly productive in anything and got a few thing accomplished that I wanted to, but none the less, I had fun and that is what counts.

My nearly two and a half year old nephew was up today for the day, as he is every Friday. What made today fun, was he and I made gingerbread men. I've never made gingerbread before so I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I searched allrecipies.com and found several recipies for gingerbread; not knowing which would be best, I picked one and printed it off.

"D" (my nephew) seemed to have fun and helped make the cookies. I would measure out the ingredients and he would dump them into the bowl and stir. Mind you, I would also stir to make sure everything was mixed well. Once we got everything mixed, we attempted to roll out some of the dough and use his little gingerbread man cookie cutter I got for him today. We ran into a problem...the dough was too sticky. The recipe said to add a little more flour (no more than 1/2 cup more), so I did. Only problem was, it didn't help.

I was getting frustrated because D's mom and dad (his dad is my brother) were coming to get him about an hour from that point, and I had wanted to get them made and cooled so he could take some with him. I tried several times (with D helping to roll it out and cut the cookies with his "gooey uh-er" as he called it. That part was fine, but trying to pull away the excess dough or get it off the counter was impossible. It was still too sticky. I did manage to get some odd shaped gingerbread men onto the cookie sheet and bake those ones (only 6). They didn't turn out too badly, though we rolled the dough a little too thin so it was more crispy around the edges and on a couple they were the tiniest bit burnt. So, I knew not to cut them so thin next time.

Well, I had read on a couple of other recipies for the gingerbread men (on the allrecipies.com site) that the dough should be refrigerated for a little while to make it not so sticky and easier to roll out, etc. I put the batch into the fridge and let it cool.

My parents and I went out for supper and we got back around 7:30ish so I decided that I would attempt to make the cookies. I floured the counter and rolling pin a bit to prevent sticking, got the dough out of the fridge and proceeded to roll it and cut out the cookies. Wow! It actually worked! So, believe me when I tell you that if you have not made these things, make sure you chill the dough for a couple of hours first!! I have about another 6 cookies at least to make...maybe 12 and then I'm completely done with that for today.

I figured I would save out some for D and let him know those were the ones he helped me make and he could take them home. I also thought if they tasted good that I would take some to the kids in the Sunday School class I help teach. Might be a nice little treat for them, that is if they like gingerbread...anyway, I didn't want to take them if they were gross, so naturally, like all good cooks, I sampled :o). Mmmmmmm! It was good! So, I think I will take enough in for the class tomorrow and leave whatever is left here.

So, as I finish up with this adventure I am thinking I need to get a start on my Colonial America paper that is due on Tuesday. I guess that will be the rest of my excitement for what is left of today.

Hope you had a Christ filled day, and that you will have one tomorrow as well! God bless.