Ginger Cookies

I remember when I first had these, Molly gave them to us one year when I was about 11 on a plate full of Christmas cookies. She made hers bigger than I make mine and they were harder but I loved the flavor, so I asked for the recipe. I make Ginger cookies most often when we are traveling and they need to be good at a later date. They travel, freeze and store great. Keeping their chewiness and flavor for quite awhile.

Ginger Cookies


1 1/4 cup oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses, any strength is fine

Cream these together until they are well mixed and fluffy.

4 cups flour ( I use mostly whole wheat)
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves

Add 2 cups of the flour and all the spices to the previous ingredients, mix them well and then add the next 2 cups of flour. Mix dough until all ingredients have been well incorporated.

Refrigerate dough for 1 hour, a little more or less is just fine. (If you don't refrigerate the dough you will have a flatter cookie (like those in the picture above))

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll teaspoons full of dough into balls. Then roll them in granulated sugar before placing balls two inches apart on cookie sheet.
Bake for 5-7 minutes or until browned and beginning to set. I like to over bake them just a little. Doughy ginger cookies just don't seem as good as doughy chocolate chip cookies. Almost burnt ginger cookies can be quite tasty, so if you are going to go one way or the other I recommend over done.
Enjoy warm cookies with a fresh cup of coffee or a cold glass of milk.
~Anna

New Look # 2

Once more we have added to our

 mouth bling and now we have three sets of braces in this house. It doesn't seem like you can see them in their mouths very well in the pictures but Margaret is indeed sporting top and bottom sets of braces and Beatrice has them on her top teeth. Harrison actually has added to his as well and has them on the bottom row, too. I didn't think to take a picture of him for this post.

          Since Margaret got both sets on, on the same day her poor mouth hurt quite a bit more than Harrison and Beatrice's did when theirs were put on. She has recovered well and they are all eating about normal. Although every once in awhile I remember they do have braces when I suggest carrot sticks and whole apples for snacks. Those really aren't the best choices. I made apple sauce this week so they could eat more apples, easier. Having the girls with braces is helping Harrison with his tooth brushing. I think it is getting done more regularly now.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was kind of the main baker growing up and I did a lot of baking to keep up with our family's ravenous appetites, especially Peter's. He often needed a sweet treat when he returned from an afternoon spent cross country skiing. In northern Minnesota you can burn a lot of calories doing that. Items with chocolate were his favorites, all of ours really. So this recipe was adjusted years ago to fit our family of eight and I have continued to adjust it as my baking style changes, like adding whole wheat to it for the last ten years. So here you go, my
Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

2 cups butter
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dry milk
2 cups brown sugar ( I often fill a 2 c. measuring cup 1/3 full with minced dates and then put the brown sugar over top of this to add a little more nutrients to the cookies)
4 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Place this all in a large mixing bowl and then beat together until thoroughly creamed and mixture is fluffy. Then add:

1 cup oatmeal
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix this well and add:

2 cups white flour
12 ounces of chocolate chips

Mix this well.
Drop onto greased cookie sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart and bake at 375* for 7-10 minutes, until they are nicely browned and set.

When they have cooled a little, remove from cookie sheet.
♪This recipe makes a lot, I am not really into counting cookies but I think it might make about 8 dozen. Enough to last a few days or more around here.
♫ I sometimes make the dough the night before and bake these for breakfast. I figure with a glass of milk and some fruit on the side they are a fairly balanced diet. When I do that I also sometimes use oil for 1 cup of the butter. It is cheaper and depending on what health food group you are listening to it might be better for you. Once I have it mixed up I cover the bowl and store it in the fridge until I am ready to put them onto their cookie sheets for baking.
Happy Baking!
~Anna

A Book Review; J.R.R. Tolkien by Mark Horne

This book is a brief biography of the life and times of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. I chose to read this book because I have never been very into The Hobbit or any of J.R.R. Tolkien's books but yet I am impressed that his books have been so widely read and so popular for many years. I wanted to know the man behind the books. I now want to read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The book spent a fair amount of time explaining different parts of the trilogy and where in his life he was at when he wrote it. Mr. Tolkien was part of reading and book circles most of his adult life  and received much encouragement from the men in these groups to pursue his creative writing. It was neat to know that the books began as stories he wrote for his children each Christmas, year after year. Although this book did tell about J.R.R. Tolkien it did it in a very factual way, rather than in a story form. Not bad, but not as entertaining as it could be.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”