How To Meet Your Hero, A Beginner's Guide

As I child, I didn't grow up watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. In my house, we watched DIY shows on PBS; This Old House and New Yankee Workshop, Victory Garden and Square Foot Gardening. My absolute favorites were the cooking shows! Julia Child and Justin Smith and even a young Martha Stewart. I loved learning how other people in other places in the world made food, at a young age I was fascinated by the relationship of food and culture.

Fast forward, I'm an anthropology student in college, and one afternoon I discover this quirky, FUNNY, informative, anthropologically and scientifically based cooking show on Food Network called "Good Eats". I'm instantaneously drawn in! Here's this guy in a retro bowling shirt, funky, nerdy glasses, explaining both the chemistry and culture behind the food we eat every day.That guy was Alton Brown, and over the years I've seen every single episode, and learned more about the "whys" of cooking than I ever thought possible. And this week The Gingerbuilders had the supreme fortune of seeing his stage show, The Edible Inevitable Show, in Dayton, Ohio... But more exciting than that, we briefly got to MEET him after the show!!!!!

Gingerbuilder Stephanie had a friend who happens to be a crew member for this current tour, and they MIGHT have indicated that there would be a certain time frame and location that we could, should we be so inclined, bump into Mr Brown after the show. And suddenly, things got REALLY real!

As we watched the show, I'll admit I was a little distracted by the thought that after all these years of being a fan, I might be about to MEET, as in IN PERSON, as in "reach out and poke him in the shoulder" close, Alton Brown!

After the show we headed outside and waited, and waited, and waited, in 6 degree weather. I was glovelessly gripping my copy of his cookbook I'm Just Here For More Food, knowing exactly which page I wanted autographed, wondering if I could be cool and just ask, or if I was going to dissolve into a giggling mess upon meeting him face to face.

And after what seemed like a frozen eternity... He walked out! And there he was, and I totally, mostly held it together and he asked if he could autograph anything and I flipped the book open to the recipe for pound cake (we use it A LOT) 

"Who can I make it out to?"

"The Gingerbuilders, please"

*starts writing, looks up questioning*

"It's one word"

*nods head in understanding*

"Thank you so much!"

"It's my pleasure"

What an incredible experience, meeting someone I consider "a hero" with my 2 best friends and fellow Gingerbuilders! 

Building An Original

The GingerBuilders have been slowly putting together a small "menu" of baked goods besides gingerbread houses that we'd like to start selling, so we've all been trying various recipes trying to find treats that will fit snuggly into our repertoire. There is a cookie recipe that I loved that I had tried a few years ago.

It's a delicious cookie, but I wanted to make it better. After adjusting some (ok most) of the ingredients

and some (ok ALL) of the quantities

 and a few mishaps... I think I finally have an original recipe that we can call our own! 

Good things are happening in our kitchens every day! Start tuned to see more!

To eat, or not to eat....The Great Gingerbread Debate.

It seems to be one of the more controversial topics amongst gingerbreaders... make it strong, or make it edible.

Personally, I'm of the mind that gingerbread houses should be both completely edible and completely delicious. They should smell like nutmeg and cinnamon and ginger. You should have to fight the temptation to break off a piece and surreptitiously pop it into your mouth. Edible on a technicality doesn't cut it for me.

But the competition circuit is a little different. I respect that it's different, and we'll play by the rules, but there is something so charming about a slightly lopsided, piled with icing and obnoxiously colored candy, spicy smelling gingerbread house.

Is it impressive that people can make such realistic creations using edible substances? Heck yeah it is! But is my 4 year old son going to want to eat a piece of salt dough held together with tylose? Probably not.

As a team, I'd say Ginger Builders strives to strike that perfect balance between beautiful and edible (see Stephanie's peppermint creation!) With the exception of a few elements in a few of our creations (wrought iron fencing made of dried pasta, for example) or creations have always been traditional gingerbread, perfectly edible, and perfectly charming.

So what do you think? Where do you stand on the Great Gingerbread Debate?

Rat Tail...The Nemesis

All the great ones have a nemesis... Superman, Batman, Liz Lemon... And US!
Before our very first competition, we were understandably nervous. We weren't sure what caliber of competitor we were up against. Upon arriving and dropping our MASTERPIECE off, we were able to scope out the competition a bit more and were instantly relieved. It's not that the other houses were bad... they were adorable, they were charming, they were cute. But not a'one of them had the detail, the intricacies, the magic that ours had. We assumed we were a "shoe in"... we assumed wrong.

While we placed 2nd in our very first competition, the piece that won 1st place was, how shall I say... underwhelming? The theme of the competition was "Winter Wonderland".  *WE* created a gorgeous, sparkling, sugary palace, compete with a covered bridge and a horse-drawn carriage. We named it "The Lustre of Mid-day on Objects Below". Rat Tail's submission was called "Alice in Winter Wonderland", a name that the judges found terribly clever. There were some impressive elements, a molded caterpillar with a hooka pipe on a mushroom, for example. But overall, it was sloppy, it was poorly executed... it was just ok.

The creator of said house was a young man who's name we never actually caught, but his one distinguishing characteristic was a 14"long rat tail. Yes. A rat tail. We were both thrilled at placing but baffled as to WHY we came in behind this less than spectacular submission.

Flash forward, one year. We are ready to submit our second piece to the same competition, certain that this year we NAILED IT. We had detail, we had whimsy, we had realism, we had molded marzipan for cryin' out loud!!!

We dropped off our piece and went to grab some breakfast and who do we see at the charming breakfast cafe we stopped in???? RAT TAIL!! Our old nemesis had RETURNED!
Thankfully, we received 1st place that year... But it didn't remove the sting of having come in behind something that looked like a terrible 6th grade diorama.

Next week takes us back to our usual competition, which of course, we are certain we're going to win. But in the back of all of our minds... we all wonder, will Rat Tail return to give us a run for our money???

My Journey With Gingerbread

My Journey With Gingerbread

I've always had different hobbies. From dollhouses to archeology, I've just always had interests that were a little different from most people I know. I was incredibly lucky that my parents always encouraged these unique hobbies though. In the 7th grade, they bought me a beautiful doll house kit (the doll house still proudly sits in my dining room to this day). They didn't talk me out of studying archaeology in college. And when I got the crazy idea one Christmas that I wanted to build a gingerbread house, rather than saying "maybe some other time" the bought me a book, The Encyclopedia of Gingerbread, and my dad even helped me create my very first template.

So a few years ago when my friend Stephanie mentioned that she wanted to learn how to make a gingerbread house I very enthusiastically agreed to help her learn! I remember being really impressed with the design she picked for her first house. There were lots of little accents and special touches she had wanted to add. It was so much fun having one of my best friends creating this delicious, little masterpiece with me! Even better was the next day when our friend Megan wanted to join in on the fun so we just went ahead and made another house. 

We're all incredibly humble, so after congratulating ourselves on our talent and creativity, we decided we couldn't wait another year to collaborate to build another house. So we made The February House which celebrated many of the forgotten, non-Christmasy winter holidays. There were a few more creations before we decided, after only a year of gingerbreading together, to submit a house to an ACTUAL gingerbread competition. We came in 2nd place at our very first competition with our beautiful "Luster of Midday on Objects Below". I was very pregnant, and very tired for the creation of "Luster", but Megan and Stephanie had learned so much, they really took the reigns for that project. I wasn't the teacher any longer... we were teammates. 

The truly incredible thing about our trio...each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. We each have a unique perspective. Megan has such an eye for detail and a steady hand that can bring that detail to life. Stephanie had this innate ability to visualize an entire project from start to finish. I'd like to think that I'm "the idea person" but I can't claim that exclusively... so let's just say I'm the comic relief ;-)

The three of us together have managed to work together remarkably well and still have so much fun together. I hope you all enjoy going on this journey with us.