Anecdotes, Antidotes, and Anodes

The Best Gingerbread Cookies Evah

These are BY FAR the best of the best of the best Gingerbread Cookies you will ever eat. Not to mention, the easiest you will ever make !

Preheat oven to 350-375 degrees depending on your oven.

Find your cookie cutters, preferably in the shape of gingerbread men and women, but any shape will do.

Gammy's Gingerbread Cookies
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup molasses  (dark corn syrup can be substituted, but not as good)
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup (2 sticks) BUTTER  NO substitutes It must be BUTTER because it's BETTER !

4 cups flour  (King Arthur brand is the best. )
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt, if using unsalted BUTTER

Put first 6 ingredients in medium-sized, heavy saucepan
Cook & stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and it bubbles just a little
Remove from heat
Add BUTTER
Stir until melted

Put flour, soda, & salt in large mixing bowl
Add "syrup" mixture to dry ingredients
Mix well. Use mixer unless you want a really good workout for your arms.

Divide dough in half and place in plastic bags
Refrigerate overnight
(Dough can be refrigerated up to a week.)
Roll out on a floured board, about 1/4" thick
Cut into shapes and place on cookie sheet ( I love Pampered Chef stoneware)
Bake 7-9 minutes - longer if you like your men crunchy
Remove from cookie sheet and while still warm, brush with thin glaze

Glaze:
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. hot water
1 tsp. vanilla

Stir until sugar dissolves and brush onto warm cookies

Decorate. Or not. Be very quiet when you touch the cookies.

Scope them out and decide which cookie you want.

 

Break the head off the Gingerbread Man.

 

And then realize you're being watched. 

Remember. It's very important to wear a strawberry-juice-stained shirt when eating these scrumptious cookies.

Serve warm with cold milk.  (I love to dunk drown my men in milk.)

Like (Grand) Mother...Like (Grand) Daughter !

And now, the rest of the story...

The top photo is from my oldest daughter's senior photo collage taken 'several' years ago.

The bottom photo is of her grandmother. (My mom)  A photo that was just found this summer. 

The poses are similarly, eerily, uncanny.  And, the fact that both settings are outside amongst the trees and shrubs  !

And no, I promise you. She had never seen that photo of her grandmother until this past September.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETHEART !

 And congratulations on your new job at Pike Place Market tossing fish !

 
 

Daddy's on the Computer

 

 

When a nineteen-month old baby grabs your finger and leads your to the computer screen saying, "See Daddy See Daddy," it tugs at a Gammy's heart strings almost too hard.

This one will tug a little, too !
 

 

Char-wee !

Caption Char-wee's Photos:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

 
 
 
 

Pink or Blue...Girl or Boy...?

R-R-R-R-R-i-i-i-i-n-n-n-n-g-g-g-g!

*Gammy runs to phone from outside !*

*Gammy misses the call !

R-R-R-R-R-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-g-g-g-g-g!

(Thank goodness for cell phones. )

Gammy: (wheezing and out of breath) Huh-low.

Little Miss P: Hi Gammy. We f.i.n.a.l.l.y. found out what we're having.

Gammy:  You did ?!?!?!

Little Miss P: Yup. We're having a baby brother !

Gammy: You are ?!?!?!?!Oh, I'm so excited.

Little Miss P:  I saw the baby kicking.

Gammy: You did ?!?!?!?!

Little Miss P: I love you, Gammy.

Gammy: I love you, too. What are you going to name your little brother?

Little Miss P:  Bye, Gammy.

to be continued...

Happy Anniversary

Thanks for the memories...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girl in Hyacinth Blue

This little project did start with a paint brush, but somewhere during the process the paint brush was discarded.

Somewhere on that label it clearly said "poster" paint, but evidently Little MIss P decided this was a bottle of "finger" paints.

 

The process is a delicate one, and just the precise amount of paint must be used. 
Wonder if this is how Vermeer got his start?

 

Another important rule while painting is to make sure Mommy and Daddy are not home.

 

It was amazing how much paint was in the little bitty bottle.  She could have painted a room in the house with it.

 

The forefingers are especially important in this type of painting.

 

The artist took a few seconds to pose for the camera while creating her masterpiece.

 

The "paper-towel" technique was the next step.  (As in a WHOLE roll of paper towels.)

 

Finger painting is hard work. Maybe tomorrow she'll find a bottle of pink finger paint.

And Now...The Rest of the Story...I Promise

Once upon a time, someone posted a story about a fishing expedition and promised to show the fish. 

Well, to coin a phrase from Mel Fisher, "Today's the day !"

This was the view for the two fisherman as they successfully drowned several worms.

There's a fish there. I promise. Can you see it?

The catfish must be dredged in cornmeal dirt-sand-pebbles before removing from the hook.

It's important to take someone fishing with you who will remove the fish from the hook while you pose for the camera.

Ouch ! 

We believe in catch-and-release.  So, Mr. Catfish was returned to the waters of the lake at Gateway Canyons.

Have a swimmingly wonderful day...

And Now...The Rest of the Story

Well, not yet !  Yes, there is a fish as mentioned in the previous post.  And yes, for those of you who asked, that was the place where I met Bill.  Some of you are very observant.

There will be two posts to follow soon...one about the fish and the other about Bill.

But for now, just a lot of jibberish about why it's been so long since a post appeared here.

This will be short and sweet. 

There are four adults, five kids, and two dogs living in this house.  As for the adults, they are considered adults because of their chronological age, but don't necessarily qualify as adults according to their behavorial age.

The kids' ages are thirteen, seven, four, two, and one.

The one-year old started it !

When he up-chucked, we just thought it was one of those typical one-year old throw ups that one-year olds tend to do.

But, when Pops didn't roll out of bed at 5:00 the next morning, that was the first sign that the one-year old, Char-wee,  had shared his virus.  Please understand, Pops is never sick.  I've only seen him sick twice since we've been married. (You might remember the post about catching a virus from Hair-wee and Weesey-Cup when the two of us were so sick we fed them Luden's cough drops because neither of us was able to stand up and could fix them anything to eat.)

Next in line was Ellie.  I held her hair back so it didn't get soaked with whatever she'd had for dinner the night before.  Graphic, I know. But you must be able to get the full effect.

At this point, we started placing bets on who would be next.

Well, it was Hair-wee.

Then his mom.

It was just a matter of time for the remaining four.

Next was Maddie.

Ashley and I tied for next place.

At the time of this writing, Weesey-Cup has not been sick.

Needless to say, this post has been written from the floor in our bathroom. As soon and I can find my way out of here, I promise to show you the fish and tell you about Bill.

It is my hope that you read this post holding your breath.  Otherwise, don't blame me if you spend the next 24 hours hanging onto the cold porcelain.

Dear Mom and Dad...

Dear Mom (who is with ReeseyCup and Chah-Wee at our house in GJ) and Dad (who is in Iraq for the third time)...thank you for trusting us with your oldest, "Hair-Wee."
We are taking really good care of him.
There is no need to worry.
We promise.

Sincerely,

Pops and Gammy