Footlong Gingerbread Folk

In a magazine recently I saw how a family had some giant gingerbread people on display in their kitchen. The gingerbread folk were bought from a bakery, the article said.

I decided to try and make some myself this morning. Not quite as large as the ones in the magazine - but larger than I've ever made before.

I didn't have a large cookie cutter - so I just found an image online of a gingerbread man (GBM), enlarged it and printed it. Then I cut out the GBM and then traced around it on the dough. You can't tell real well the true length b/c of how I positioned the ruler but they are almost an inch shy of a foot. So I call them "Footlong Gingerbread Folk".

I just used a standard GBM recipe for the dough - and cooked them a little longer than the recipe stated.

I love putting "hair" on my gingerbread folk - this posting describes how you can make the hair.

This was just a trial run on the Footlong Folk - for the real ones we'll plan on icing them and decorating them up a bit more. The kids love making these...the girl (and mom!) love eating them. The boy just came and asked if I could make some "white" Footlong Folk b/c he doesn't like the gingerbread taste.

For more kitchen tips - check out Tammy's Recipes.

A Trip to the World Food Store - Finally!

Seems like it's been too long since we were last at the world food store, but finally on Friday we had an opportunity to make a quick trip.

As soon as you step foot into the store the thing that strikes you most, is the smell. Sometimes it's not as bad as others - but on Friday it was really nasty. I think it's just a combination of totally different foods from lots of countries and a lot of frozen food/fish/seafood/meat.

It's not really possible to pick up much if you are in there for only a 1/2 hr or so like we were. We bought a couple of old favorites - some chocolate bars from England and some Yan Yan and some "floppy bread" as I call it or "flesh bread" as the kids call it. I also bought a variety of apples someone recommended as being "wonderful" and a few other items. We did buy some WONDERFUL cheese from Ireland. I could have eaten the whole block myself. In one sitting.

Just Out of Curiosity ...

How many baby teeth do you think could fit inside a Hefty OneZip Gallon Size storage bag?

Last night the "tooth fairy" visited ds and found a tooth under his pillow. But in order to make sure the tooth didn't get lost, ds put it in a bag. A Hefty OneZip Gallon Size storage bag to be exact. I'm sure about a million baby teeth could fit inside that one bag that was holding ONE tiny tooth.

I'm rather careful with my onezip storage bags - these are generally the only plastic storage bags that I consider worthy of rinsing out and using again if need be. I'd say this is definitely one storage bag that will not be reused.

The boy gave a rather squeamish, detailed report of how he yanked out his tooth...let's just say it started with "first I TWISTED it."

If There Ever Was a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree - This Is IT!!

Today the kids were very excited to begin putting up our tree. We popped some popcorn and made some hot chocolate and listened to some festive music on the radio.

If there ever was a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" - this is it! It's homely - but well loved.

About 4 years ago I was out at a garage sale and came across this vintage beauty. In the original box it was shipped in! I love vintage items and the tree was inexpensive - so it seemed like a good deal. I'm thinking it's from the 50's or 60's. The "trunk" of the tree looks very similar to a broom handle. The branches look and feel like the old baby bottle brushes or an old wire rounding brush - very wiry and bristley (the kind of thing you would not want your hair to get tangled around).

The tree came with the original instructions (thankfully) and is very easy to put together. If the kids were a bit taller they could probably do it all themselves.

I'm not good at decorating trees. I usually do the lights and the garland and let the kids have at it - with some supervision and advice. It probably wouldn't look much better if I had a more active role in decorating or even if I decorated it all by myself. This way if the tree looks like a 9 yr old and a 6 yr old decorated it - I can say it was :)

I decided that we did not have to put all the decorations on this year - which is fine being that it is a very small tree. We did put on all the special ornaments - the plethora of handmade ornaments and the ornaments that the kids got from mom and dad each year in their stocking.

Works for Me Wednesday - Storytelling

My kids, like most, enjoy having books read aloud. We read a lot.

But sometimes the kids want something a bit different - they want something a bit more "personal". Thus began "The George Chronicles", (very) loosely based on my grandfather named George, who was in the Canadian Air Force many moons ago.

The boy especially likes the George Stories - b/c he loves anything with a hint of military-ness.

It seems like I had not told a George Story in about a year - when this week the boy started begging for one. And he wanted it to be a paratrooper George Story. Finally today we lay down on the bed (b/c a made up story requires one to be very comfy - you can even close your eyes - just be careful not to fall asleep!) and the story began.

I was only part way through the story when the boy interrupted me. Not uncommon by any means, he is very active in the story - filling in details, correcting me if need be (like when I kept talking about Doug - one of George's buddies - and the boy piped up that well Doug shouldn't be there b/c he was dead...apparently he died in one of the stories I told a yr or so ago). But this time he interrupted me and said "You are the best storyteller I ever have heard"!

So - what Works for Me? Storytelling. Why? It can happen anywhere. Waiting in line. Waiting in the doctor's office. Snuggled up in bed as a wee one is falling asleep. It encourages imagination - and sets an example for young future storytellers. You can personalize it with little Jimmy's name, little Jimmy as the hero etc. A good way to keep the little ones close at hand and out of mischief while YOU are sick in bed and can't do much other than talk (like I said you can even do it with your eyes closed).

I know when I was a little girl, I loved having my mom come into our room in the evening to tell us stories...some were true stories of when she was a little girl...some were made up stories...some a bit scary - but all very fun.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips - head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.

Cinnamon Apple Buns

The other day when I was fixing cinnamon buns, I decided to add some diced apples to "liven" things up a bit.

They were wonderful!

I did everything the same way as when I make traditional cinnamon buns - but before I rolled up the dough I added some finely chopped apple.

I froze the ones pictured above - and they were just as good reheated a week later. And actually they seemed to hold together better after having been frozen.

Over the River and Through the Woods

We literally went over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house this weekend.

We had a pleasant Thanksgiving with family and a relaxing/leisurely visit.

The highlights for the kids (other than spending time with family) was:

For the girl - catching a frog down at the creek. Unfortunately she brought the frog home to grandma's and left it on the back porch. Unfortunately b/c there was a cat on the back porch. The next time the girl went looking for froggy - he was gone. And the cat was grinning :)

For the boy - doing a little BB gun shooting with his dad. He was quite proud to report to me that he hit a can on the fence, 5 times in a row! Dad didn't do quite so well.

On Sunday morning the children awoke to the first real snow of the season. I figured there would be no snow back home when we arrived - but I was mistaken. Our little hamlet had even more snow than they did out at grandma's.

I brought my camera, planning on taking some interesting photos. Unfortunately the camera was usually upstairs and I was downstairs - out of sight out of mind.

I did manage to take a couple of photos of the kids with 2 of their cousins, before we left on Sunday. And I did take a photo of an interesting family heirloom...