Chewy Gingersnap Cookies Recipe

Nothing says "the holidays are here" quite like homemade chewy gingersnap cookies.  Are they still considered gingersnaps if they are chewy?  Either way, these cookies have the perfect blend of spice and sweetness.  This recipe is a favorite of my husband's from his mom's repertoire.  We got the recipe from her, and these were easy, relatively quick to make, and so yummy!

Chewy Gingersnaps
3/4 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ginger
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
White sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream shortening, brown sugar, and molasses together.  Add the egg and mix together.  Next, add dry ingredients- flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.  Form dough into cookie balls, then roll in white sugar.  I like to put the sugar in a shallow bowl for this step.  Place cookie balls on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.  They will look a little underdone in between the cracks when you pull them out, but this is how they stay chewy.  Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool for another 5-10 minutes.

Molten Cake Neighbor Gifts

For our neighbor gifts this year, we decided to go with a fun treat that didn't necessarily have to be eaten right away.  Let's be honest, there's a huge overload of sugary treats this time of year, so why not give something that can be saved until all the festivities die down?  For this quick and easy gift, all you need is a box of cake mix, a recipe card, and a piece of festive ribbon.  I also added some cute Christmas cards that I was able to get on a deal last month.

I included the recipe for a family favorite-- single serving molten chocolate cake.  I would totally give you a printable for the recipe, but my computer did an auto-update before I had a chance to save the file.  Here's the recipe, though:

Single Serving Molten Chocolate Cake
 1/2 cup chocolate cake mix
1/3 cup water
Hot fudge
Chocolate or white chocolate chips
Whipped topping or ice cream
 
In a microwave safe, cereal size bowl, stir cake mix and water together for one minute.  Top with five generous teaspoons of hot fudge and sprinkle on some chocolate or white chocolate chips.  Microwave 95 seconds.  Top with ice cream or whipped topping.  

The best part about this recipe is that you can really do any variation you can think of with the chocolate chips and toppings.  Hot fudge is a must if you are going for the molten cake taste.  Since baking supplies are generally on sale this time of year, you should be able to make these for a pretty reasonable price.  I was able to get the cake mixes for about a dollar at Winco, but I think it's a really great gift for that cost.

Good luck to any last-minute gifters!  We were able to finish all our shopping today, and boy does it feel great.

Merry Christmas 2012

Here's our Christmas card this year.  We tried a few photos with both of the girls in the car, but it was a tight fit and there weren't any shots with both of them happy...  I saw the idea online somewhere a while ago and modified it for us, adding the polka dot background and saying.  We got them printed as 4"x6" photos, which is my biggest tip for saving money on cards and invitations, if you have the graphics programs you need to make the image.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an easy neighbor gift for all you last-minuters out there.  Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!

Ghosts of Christmas Projects Past

I feel like I ought to explain myself a little bit.  I have been less than dedicated to the blog for a while.  Between finishing our basement completely on our own, being pregnant with our third girl (due in March), and starting a fun new business with my mom(reveal soon), I have been totally occupied with other things. 

Also, it's not like I haven't been doing things, it's just that they never make it to the blog.  Funny how that goes.  I hope that once the basement is done I can get back to more of the fun stuff I usually get to do, instead of drywall, mud, and wiring.

So instead of sharing something totally new today, I am sharing some of my favorite Christmas projects from years past.

 Reindeer Welcome Sign

Felt Mitten and Stocking Advent Calendar

 Marshmallow Peppermint Pie

Winter Wreath Chandelier

Easy Dipped Oreos

Sweet Scallops and Christmas Bells Fabric Swatches

Sweet Scallops (Boy)

These are the rest of the fabric swatches that I got in my last order from Spoonflower.  It's always so fun to see how my designs print up.  The scallop fabric turned out particularly well, in my opinion.  I tried two different colorways this time around, boy and girl, thinking that they would make great baby prints, but they could definitely work for older kids and other projects.

Sweet Scallops (Girl)

I also finally got a print of my Christmas Bells fabric.  It turned out as expected, which is always a good thing.  I'm not sure what to do with it, besides make a holiday quilt.

I Heard the Bells

This morning, I finished the zippered pillow I was talking about on Tuesday, so I will be able to post a new tutorial for it next week.

I Heard the Bells Christmas Fabric

For the small-print bells fabric contest at Spoonflower, I designed this Christmas fabric.  I used lyrics from the song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".  I am anxious to see how this prints up, since I used my color swatch fabric to choose the colors, and they seem a lot different on my screen than they did on the fabric.

I love how the banners turned out, and the holly berries.   I'm excited to see how the voting on this contest goes.  If you'd like to vote in the contest, click here and follow the link on the right to the contest.  Voting ends next Wednesday, 12/21.  There are a lot of fun entries!

Felt Mitten and Stocking Advent Calendar

About mid-November, I decided I wanted to make an advent calendar that would be cute and also fun for my kids.  I started off with this idea, which morphed into more of this one, and finally ended up with my own sort of thing.

It took a little bit more time than I planned for, but once I started blanket-stitching the mittens and stockings, I knew it was going to look great.  All of the embellishments are hot-glued down, but I did do some detail stitching on some of them before I glued them down.  I didn't filled the mittens and stockings this year, since I don't think the twine would be able to hold that much weight.  I have each end tied to stocking holders, and the tray on top of my piano is holding the middle part.  Next year, I think I will put slips of paper in each mitten or stocking with either a treat for the day or a Christmas activity.

For the 25th, I did a star on a circle medallion thing.  It doesn't have a pocket, because the countdown is over at that point, but I thought it needed to be there.  I just pinned it to the twine with a straight pin.

Want to make your own?  Here's the pattern I made for my mittens and stockings.  Click on the photo, right-click to save, and then you can print it and cut the patterns out to do your own.  Just make sure that you print without scaling to get it the right size.

Any questions?  Leave a comment or send me an email.  Happy crafting!

Linked up: Tatertots & Jello