Gingerbread day! It’s basically a holiday that we celebrate
multiple times a year.
A lot of planning
and forethought goes into the day. Like any holiday, you make grocery lists, shop,
make to-do lists, prepare and anticipate. And like other holidays, you do all
this in the midst of other life events, work, social engagements, family
obligations, etc.
As the day approaches,
and the real work starts, you look forward to spending time with your family
(my gingerbread family).
What is unique
about our team, or family if you’d rather, is the assignment of roles.
With most holidays, as the years pass,
certain people get assigned certain roles (the cranberry sauce, the green bean
casserole, the pumpkin pie). That’s not really how we work. Sure, Stephanie
stores the bulk of our supplies and tools (she has the most room).
But, we try to take turns designing and
baking and hosting.
(I get out of
hosting mostly because my apartment is small, unorganized and not child friendly).
This time, I suggested we do the Easter
Bunny’s house as our spring house.
Erin
offered to host and bake the house. She wanted to calculate the PPH (Price Per
House). I had found these adorable Linzer cookie cutters,
so I offered to make
little gingerbread decorations for the “yard.” Stephanie, who moved recently,
was on snacks (probably the most important job).
Fast forward to the night before Gingerbread day (and the
end of Family Conference week at work for me): I’m exhausted from the work week and
REALLY don’t want to make an entire batch of gingerbread dough. I don’t have
any shortening and I’m way too lazy to go the store a whole 2 miles away. I
start thinking of ways around it, even texting Erin to see if she’ll have some extra
dough (Ha! actual dough, not money). I’m sitting on my loveseat, making my list
for Gingerbread day when the idea hits me. What if I make actual Linzer
cookies!? But I can make them with gingerbread spices instead of boring regular
butter cookies (actually, the original is delicious, too). Energized by this amazing idea, I get to work
creating spicy Linzer cookie dough. I sub out some sugar for molasses to give
it extra gingerbread flavor. I’m careful to record my actual measurements,
instead of cooking with reckless abandon like I normally do. The result is
mouthwatering and melts in your mouth good.
It also spurned an addition to my old saying. Necessity is the mother of invention, but laziness is its cousin.
Begin gingerbread day
at Erin’s: she “effortlessly” assembles the house, minus the roof, before I
even get there. Steph had class in the morning, so she joined us a little later
(with cheeses!). My morning got a slow
start due the lovely Ohio springtime pollen count. The cookies are quickly approved by Erin and
our official taste testers, George and Victoria. I fell in love with these pearls and sixlets,
and I knew we had to use them on the house. Erin
applied the icing to the roof while I dotted it with the pearls. We
stood back for a second to admire our brilliance (one of these days, I’ll get
the hang of modesty). We mixed up some spring green icing and added grass to
our landscape. Erin designed a lovely path across the lawn.
What about the wine? Isn’t here usually wine
at these things? Not to worry. Let me take this opportunity to introduce
you to the Gingerbread Boy: Take as much or as little coffee as you want, add a
good amount of milk (or creamer) and add at least a shot of Gingerbread Kaluah.
Serve hot or over ice. Yum!
I put on some gloves to dye gum paste for the carrots. I
figured the Easter Bunny had to have carrots. George asked why I was wearing
gloves. When I explained that I had to wear the gloves to work with the food
coloring, he decided to put on gloves himself so he could “touch things.” Stephanie
arrived
and we took a cheese and cookie break. Getting back to work, we created
a mail box for the Easter bunny and started decorating the Easter egg shaped
cookies. Funnily enough, we had no plan for the eggs. Sure, they were cute and
delicious, and George got to help, but where are they going to go? Then I had
another “Aha!”moment. What if Easter eggs are actually grown in a garden in the
Easter Bunny’s back yard? Boom! We love it. We had a little problem with a
melting egg (patience is a virtue), but I think it’s safe to say that the
Easter egg garden is adorable.
I hope you agree!
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Much Love and Happy Easter! ~Megan
