How To Make Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday I gave you a teaser about my gingerbread house adventure – you get the full story today!

A week ago (last Sunday – when I blogged about exercise) I took the subway out to Flushing to visit my (Bobby’s) aunt and uncle. Auntie Jo had offered a while ago to teach me how to make real gingerbread houses – the recipe was from her German housekeeper (I think she said it’s from 45 years ago). I jumped at the opportunity – Auntie Jo is so sweet and I love learning new things about baking.

When I got there we got breakfast (see this post for my New York bagel). Auntie Jo had made the dough the night before (you have to chill it) so when we got back, we started with the baking process. Here is the recipe (hand-typed from Auntie Jo’s recipe book):

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It says…

GINGERBREAD HOUSES (from Cookie Cookery)

Mix together until smooth:

  • 1 cup shortening (2 bars)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup molasses

Stir into above and mix well:

  • 1/2 cup hot water

Beat 2 eggs and stir into the sugar mix.

Sift together, adding slowly:

  • 5.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon

Place dough in containers and freeze or chill. Roll to 1/8 – 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out with a pointed knife following a cardboard patter: 2 each of front, side, and roof. Chimney is optional.

Warm oven to 350. Bake 10-15 minutes. Let cool. Put together with Royal Icing. Decorate.

ROYAL ICING

Add 2.5 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar and 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar to 2 egg whites.

Heat, stirring, in the top of a double boiler until warm and smooth. Remove from heat, beat in electric mixer at highest speed for 5-6 minutes, until icing stands in peaks. Cover bowl with damp towel and put into refrigerator. Can tint with food color, or may squeeze through a pastry tube with decorating tip.

Use to cement house together. When sides are secure, use to place ornament candies on house.

<—End Recipes—>

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This was the baking station: a beautiful recipe book (handmade), a cutting board, cardboard cutouts (for making the house shapes), flour, a rolling pin. The dough is in that metal bowl.

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First, you flour the cutting board. Then you roll out the dough (with a rolling pin) until it’s about 1/4 – 1/8 inches thick. Use the cardboard shapes to cut out the pieces for the house.

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Auntie Jo showed me how to scoop under the dough before cutting it out so that it comes off the cutting board more easily.

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I had fun cutting out the pieces! Mine were not as nicely shaped as Auntie Jo’s, but she has more practice than I do (I’ll keep trying).

Duke (Ellington) kept us company:

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(He didn’t get any gingerbread.)

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After we did the houses, we still had dough left, so we did some cutouts – that’s a carrot cookie cutter. It is so cute. The house pieces came out and we put them in the garage to cool:

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While they cooled, we took a break…

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…To eat cinnamon toast with butter and hot tea with milk and sugar.

me morris jo

Uncle Morris DJ’d and played us some lovely jazz music while we baked that afternoon.

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Then it was time to make the icing. We didn’t use a double boiler; we just boiled water in a pan and put the metal bowl with the icing batter inside.

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And we beat the icing in the mixer – beautiful. We used a pastry tube thing to squeeze the icing (like glue) and put the houses together.

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The roofs go on last. We actually ended up with an extra base, so I put a heart on it and gave it to Bobby.

After I put on the roofs, I packed up the houses and took them home to finish decorating (it was late). I just decorated them yesterday (Saturday), and this is how they came out:

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I used gummy bears and chocolate chips.

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I’m giving them to my coworkers and my cousin (in-law-to-be). I think they make great gifts – I’ll definitely be making them next year too.

Thank you Auntie Jo for teaching me! And to Uncle Morris for great company 🙂

I’m actually on my own now… Bobby is en route to Miami (should touch down in about 25 minutes) and I miss him. But I’ll see him on Wednesday. I’m still missing the cats, too.

Have you ever made gingerbread houses? Do you give baked goods as presents? What are your favorite things to make?

Baking and Making Gingerbread Houses

This week has been a little bit crazy; I’m glad to be sitting at home relaxing (finally).

On Sunday I spent the day with my aunt (well, aunt-to-be-after-I’m-married) baking. Auntie Jo and Uncle Morris picked me up in Flushing and took me to this great bagel shop where we had breakfast:

bagel whole wheat ham swiss

A whole wheat bagel with ham, swiss, and mustard. It was so good. I didn’t quite finish it but I did bring the leftovers home and had them later. Auntie Jo suggested it and she got the same!

I hate to do this to you, but I haven’t finished decorating the houses so I’m going to save the gingerbread post for tomorrow or later this week. But I do have a teaser:

gingerbread man

I made cookies too! Bobby and I saw gingerbread men in Central Park the other day (for $4.50; what a ripoff) so I made this guy for him. I also made a bunch of other cute little shapes, most of which have been eaten this week by me. I always make dessert for Bobby and then end up eating it myself.

Other things we’ve had this week are… Fried Rice (Bobby makes this; he’s much better than me at it):

fried rice healthy

And a salad (though salads have not been very satisfying to me lately… I always end up eating something else if I have one):

salad chicken

This one had organic rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, parmesan, and I think I used teriyaki sauce for dressing because I don’t have any dressing. We ordered everything from a delivery service called Fresh Direct, which is awesome. Kate and Simon recommended it.

I am missing my sweet cats right now.

cat couscous cats kabocha couscous cat kabocha

They are in New Jersey with my parents because Bobby and I are going to Miami this week to spend Christmas with his family. He leaves tomorrow and I’m joining them on Wednesday. I haven’t gotten to see his family for a while so I’m excited!

What are your holiday plans?

Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash with Broccoli and Raisins

Back when I first arrived in New Jersey (for new readers – I moved to New York city from California in November of 2009, but on the way I stayed in NJ with my parents for a few days) I hit up Whole Foods for some awesome prepared foods, like this butternut squash with baby spinach recipe:

Then the other day Sue sent me a link to the recipe on Wegmans’ site and I knew I had to try it. I didn’t really have many of the ingredients – I only had butternut squash, actually – but what I made was great. The original recipe had butternut squash, baby spinach, red onions, and dried cranberries (craisins). My recipe was…

Roasted Butternut Squash with Broccoli and Raisins

01 butternut squash broccoli

Ingredients (serves 3-4 as a side)

  • 1 butternut squash, chopped in 1-inch cubes (probably 2-3 pounds) (optionally peeled – I never peel squash though)
  • 1.5 cups of broccoli
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • a few shakes of garlic powder (to replace the onions I didn’t have)
  • handful of raisins ~ 1/4 cup (optionally chopped up – I chopped mine in small pieces)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
  2. Chop the squash and broccoli. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Spread them out on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 50 minutes.
  3. While the veggies are roasting, chop up the raisins and soak them in water. Drain them.
  4. Take the veggies out of the oven and mix in the raisins.
  5. Serve hot or room temperature. I put PARMESAN on mine.

Along with this I had a nice salad with organic rotisserie chicken on top. Delicious!

02 butternut squash broccoli

What’s your favorite squash recipe? I love ROASTING squash as well as steaming kabocha.

I love the addition of broccoli to this salad. It has so many health benefits (click through to see 42 science-backed ones!) not to mention it is delicious.

Review: The Long Room & Christmas In New York

I’m blogging two nights in a row… what am I, unemployed again? (I’m not; still loving the new job and keeping busy.)

First, I must say – I loved all of your comments on yesterday’s post (about chilling out re: exercise). Guess what – no exercise today either (does 4 blocks of walking count?). But it’s all good. I don’t need much to be happy.

This weekend was jam-packed with fun. On Saturday night my best friend from high school (she lives in NJ) came up to visit me and Bobby. She brought her boyfriend as well. Bobby and I took them to walk down 5th Avenue, which is gorgeous this time of year. We stopped at the Rockefeller center to see the tree…

12-14 me christine tree small

Oddly enough, I have a really similar picture of the two of us in the same pose (with a Christmas tree behind us) in Princeton from 2005 (I think). We love Christmas.

After we saw the beautiful Christmas tree at Rockefeller, we got stuck in people-traffic because everyone was watching this light show (the snowflakes light up and dance to holiday music).

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Eventually we made it to 44th and 6th Ave to go to Virgil’s Barbecue… but actually Christine doesn’t like BBQ (whoops!). Luckily there was a nice restaurant next door called The Long Room, which is so new that it doesn’t even have a website yet (!). It’s a nice Irish pub/bar and it’s reasonably inexpensive (for New York).

03 menu

The menu looked great. I ordered the “Cast Iron Roasted Chicken” – with cauliflower mash and haricots verts (18.95). Bobby, Christine, and Devin all ordered beers (Guinness – it’s an Irish restaurant) and I got a diet coke.

04 chicken

My meal was amazing. The “cauliflower mash” is mashed potatoes with some cauliflower mushed in; the green beans (haricots verts) were wonderfully seasoned and oiled; and the chicken was amazingly tender. I finished just about all of it (Bobby stole a few bites). Bobby (and Christine) ordered the Fish and Chips ($14.95 I think)…

05 fish chips

Really good. He poured vinegar all over the “chips” (fries) so I didn’t like them, but the fish was great. Devin got a Buffalo chicken pizza (13.95 maybe?) and I think his was probably the best dish (no picture).

08 maggie bobby 07 christine devon

I would definitely go back here. I want that pizza! We had a really awesome time. Christine and I get along; Bobby and Devin get along – they are another perfect double date couple.

06 couples

Can’t wait to see them again – probably for New Year’s, if not earlier.

Do you like to go on double dates? Bobby and I have been doing lots of couples outings recently (like Josie’s West with Kate and Simon) and I am absolutely loving it.

Exercise Routines & Exercise Videos

Since moving to New York, my exercise has been cut down a lot. Take a look at this week‘s exercise routines:

Week of 06 Dec – 12 Dec:

Sunday – sadie nardini’s power half hour exercise video; walking
Monday – 5 minutes yoga in the morning; 20 minutes yoga @ night
Tuesday – 5 minutes yoga in the morning ( =( wish i had done more this day)
Wednesday – 2 mile walk home
Thursday – 25 minutes yoga in the morning
Friday – yogadownload’s “weight loss yoga #2″ (20 minutes; this was an exercise video, not just a podcast)
Saturday – meaghan townsend’s cardio yoga exercise video (20 minutes; exercise tv); walking around @ night (1-2 miles?)

That is an average of about 20 minutes of very relaxed exercise each day. But I feel great! I wish I was walking more, but I do think I’ve found a great balance. I should have known – sometimes less is more 🙂

I found this great exercise video yesterday (and I did it again today): Meaghan Townsend’s Cardio Yoga (exercisetv.tv).

cardio yoga

Bobby did it with me yesterday (Saturday) morning. It is great – it’s the flowy, dancey, motion-filled yoga that I love. This is the best video since…

Tom Morley’s Cardio Yoga. I discovered this way back in the fall of ’08. The first time I wrote about him was on September 9th, 2008 – back before I had any commenters and before I knew how to make real post titles. Since then I have done Tom’s yoga videos many many times. I still highly recommend him, but I can never find his “Cardio Yoga”. I can only ever find “Buns and Thighs Yoga”. Sigh.

You don’t have to kill yourself to be in shape. I disagree with many fitness professionals in this respect. I think that taking the stairs, parking far away, being mindful, and taking some deep breaths are way more important than getting in an hour of sweaty cardio. Work exercise into your life – don’t work your life around your exercise routines. Life is short, so chill out and enjoy it.

P.S. If you think that you’ll gain weight by chilling out, think again. Exercise can increase your appetite and make you ravenous – which makes it easy to overeat.

Stay tuned for…

  • Baking experiments starring some NY family members (this was so fun!)
  • More Macro Vegetarian Reviews
  • New York bagels
  • A Holiday Challenge (this won’t be for a week or two)
  • Restaurant review (The Long Room on44th between6th and 7th aves) & a night out with friends

Have a lovely lovely week! Don’t forget to relax.