December 2012
…YOU CAN’T CATCH ME, I’M THE GINGERBREAD MAN!”
I rarely bake sweet goods, likely because – 1) my palate naturally gravitates to savoury; 2) inevitably, with me, it turns out to be a hugely messy event and 3) I have a hard time following rules generally, and in particular the precise rules (recipes) required for successful cake, cookie and any other kind of sweet baking. When I cook I like to pull out the thoughtful guideline prepared by someone knowledgeable in these things, usually in the form of a cook book, and for the most part one of my favourite chef ‘Jamie Oliver’s’ books, and then add or take away ingredients on a whim or as needed to cover-up mistakes as I go. This approach to cooking is much easier accommodated using herb & spices I find.
Notwithstanding my aversion to baking sweet stuff, I make an effort now and again when there’s good reason, and what better than an afternoon’s holiday season entertainment for ‘Little Sister’ (Sallee) and I. So we donned our aprons, lined up the required ingredients and having completed all the pre-prep organization, we finally read the recipe. Minor glitch, as always with baking, the recipe was in fact a 2-stage jobbie, requiring the cookie dough to sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours after making it, before finally creating and baking a small army of Gingerbread Men.
Fortunately ‘The Sound of Music’ was close to hand to fill the void, and so as we watched and waited for the dough to do its thing (whatever that is) and ‘Little Sister’ teased ‘Big Sister’ about her “leaky eyes” during a number of the movies scenes (starting with the Captain’s response when he hears his kids singing ‘The hills are alive with the Sound of Music’ for the first time, and ultimately joins in…sniff, sniff!)…sorry I digress, but the point is…, it really was starting to feel a lot like Christmas!
A few images below of my beautiful and talented ‘Little Sister’, who diligently followed the recipe, while I diligently documented the exercise for posterity (it may be the last batch to come out of Chez Gale’s kitchen!).
