Gingerbread Cookies to Make with Kids - or for Yourself
life is hard; food doesn't have to be #74 [vol2, 12.1]
After recipe is a personal update.
While gingerbread is a quintessential Christmas cookie, it’s not exactly a delectable choice. Cute yes, chewy no. Until this recipe.
It’s the taste expected from gingerbread but the texture is chewy like the perfect brownie. Cut them in squares or be fancy and use cookie cutters.
If you make them you won’t be able to stop eating them. You’ve been warned. Take them to a Christmas party and everyone will want the recipe. I took them to the park yesterday and everyone asked. And this recipe is super-easy-no-fuss.
Ingredients
1.5 c sugar
2 sticks butter, soft
1 egg, room temp preferred
1/3 c molasses
3 c all purpose flour, I prefer unbleached
1 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon, rounded
2 t ginger, rounded
1/4 t each: cloves, nutmeg and salt
optional: grate 1T fresh ginger to make it extra ginger-y.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350*. Combine sugar and butter and mix until creamy. Add molasses and egg and mix until combined. Measure out all the spices and add them at once then add flour one cup at a time.
Press dough into 15x10” pan (ungreased and no parchment needed). I suppose another size or shape would work but texture and cook time will be different.
The pressing is the part that would be fun for kids. The texture at this point is like play doh.
Optional: sprinkle with decorator’s sugar or Sugar in the Raw.
Bake 17-20 minutes, depending on your oven and the metal of your pan. Much like brownies this recipe is forgiving but I much prefer under baking. Cool and cut with a plastic knife for perfect squares. Or use cookie cutters for shapes.
Want icing? Mix 1c confectioners sugar with up to 1/4c milk. Stir in enough milk to make a smooth but not too runny. Adjust with more sugar if needed. Snip a tiny corner of a plastic bag to pretend to be a professional baker and draw designs on your cookies.
Whatever you do, don’t ruin the gingerbread man by adding raisins as buttons or eyes.
Personal Update: 2 Things
1/ Thank you to those who ordered from Beautycounter in November! I hit my goal. A friend asked, “What does hitting that goal mean?” It means an extra cash bonus. The goal is only achievable for me in November because of the biggest sale of the year. I didn’t think it would be possible until I crunched numbers on Monday morning, when Beautycounter extended the Black Friday sale.
2/ My husband accepted a lead pastor position in Louisville, KY - at the church he grew up in and where his parents have been 40+ years. It’s quite the story. Below I’ve pasted details we shared with our ministry partners.
Grateful,
Julie
In summer of 2020 I asked Dad to take me to Salyersville (my maiden name is Salyer). I wanted to visit cemeteries; so much family history is within. After that day, I realized 200 years of BOTH sides of his family were from those hills. Once back in my hometown, Mom said, “I want to take you to the historical museum here.” I realized 200 years of BOTH sides of her family was from that place.
Back in Arkansas, I told my husband, “I belong in Kentucky. Your job no longer ties us to Arkansas. Besides the kids’ school, what keeps us here?” (Um, 20+ years of friendships!) I shared how I never thought I would want to live in Kentucky again but my heart’s desire was strong to figure out how to move back.
We began to pray. While I was sure we would move I didn’t know where in Kentucky; he wasn’t sure a move was right.
My husband wrote the following to our ministry partners. I’ve bolded parts if you just wanna skim.
John: We are excited to tell you that Sunday morning, November 21st I was voted in as the new pastor of Valley View Church in Louisville, Kentucky! You can watch the initial announcement from Valley View here. Read the church announcement on this page of their site, where they shared more information about our family. Watch my first sermon here (I start at 31:00).
AND NOW FOR MORE OF THE BACK STORY...
I was sitting in church in Little Rock on June 20th of this year. It was in the middle of the sermon when I had this moment of being overwhelmed with gratitude for a church that cares so much about God’s Word, that faithfully teaches God’s Word, and cares deeply about teaching the Bible to children.
That immediately turned into a deep gratitude for being able to serve with ministries like FamilyLife and Seeds Family Worship that also care about helping kids know God’s Word and love God.
That turned into a deep gratitude for the church I grew up in, Valley View. I had been praying for Valley View to find a new pastor for almost a year at that point. The previous pastor left on good terms and the church was in a good place, but the search team had not been able to find a replacement.
So there I was, sitting in gratitude and joy of the moment, and a distinct phrase came to mind, “Go there and do that.” Go to Valley View, take all the things you’ve been trying to do to reach the world, and go “there” (VV) and do “that,” teaching the gospel and ministering in one place, focused on one community.
I have never had any interest in being a pastor, so I was as shocked by the thought as anyone else, but I was also shocked by how quickly my mindset changed. It was an immediate, “Ok Lord, if this is what you have for us, then we will go!” I decided to sit on the thought for a week and see what would happen. Each day that week the excitement for the possibility just continued to grow. Each day I could see how God had been preparing us for this moment through all our ministry experiences.
After a week of this desire growing, I sat down and shared with Julie. She too had never thought we would work in a church, so I had no idea how she would react. She didn’t cry, but she did laugh and kind of sat in shock and disbelief. And then she prayed. She reached out to a few friends who were pastors’ wives to discuss it with them, and two days later she came to me and said, “Ok, I think the Lord is in this.”
The next step was to talk with my parents, who are still active in the church, because if they weren’t supportive, I wasn’t going to move forward. When I called them, they were excited, and Dad shared, “John, your name has come to mind many times over the last year, but I didn’t want it to come from me, I wanted it to come from the Holy Spirit.” I thought this was so wise, because before June 20th I doubt I would have been open to the idea. So from there I scrambled to put together a resume and submitted it two days later. The timing was crazy, because the search team had just re-launched the search process, re-posting the job description that same day, and my resume was the first the search team received. That was July 1st, and we’ve been in the interview process since.
There were many points along the way where I thought, “What is going on Lord? Why is this taking so long? Is this really what you have for us?” But I just kept hearing, “Trust the process. Trust the process. It is this way for a reason.” This was confirmed for me when I met with a pastor friend, a good friend and accountability partner in Little Rock to talk with him about it all. He had just gone through the same thing, and crazy enough, he was hired as pastor of a church just thirty minutes from Valley View. He shared a very wise thing with me when he said, “John, you have to remember that you are not applying for a job. You and Valley View are both trying to discern if God is in this and if this is the right place for you and if you are the right pastor for them. That’s why it’s critical that you be yourself and be as honest as possible and be relaxed and trust the process.” So wise and well said. That changed my perspective and helped me to wait on God and watch Him direct and move, that and knowing so many were praying for us and the church.
Near the end of October the church called and said they wanted us to come to Louisville for an interview. We met Friday and Saturday and spent much time getting to know the members of the search team. Julie and I went home from that just amazed by how well it went. We really could not have imagined it going any better. It went so well that I was hoping to hear something sooner rather than later. No news Saturday. Then no news Sunday. By Monday morning I was beginning to wonder, “What is going on?” I went on a bike ride to busy myself and burn off some nervousness. It was in the middle of that ride, while I was praying and asking God to calm my heart, that the word “sealed” came to mind. I had this overwhelming peace that it was decided and that once again I needed to ‘trust the process.’ Then a call came on Tuesday… to tell me they needed to push their meeting to Wednesday.
Then on Wednesday, November 3rd, a week after my forty-eighth birthday, the search team chairman called to offer the position and our response was an immediate yes. I came to town to meet the staff before they announced my name to the church on November 14th. I preached November 21st, and the church voted to affirm the recommendation of the Pastor Search Team, and it’s been a whirlwind since!
Again, we can’t thank you enough for your investment in us all these years: your generosity, your wisdom, your friendships, your prayers, your encouragement. God has used you in so many ways through so many phases of ministry.
Many people have asked what this will look like since we have a senior in high school. We’ve felt it important for John Isaac to finish his last school year in a familiar place. Julie and the kids will stay in Little Rock until after graduation. I will commute to Louisville and stay with my parents.