I'm ginger! (Well, more auburn...)

[vilakins]

From redstarrobot, my first Christmas meme.

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

What Holiday Food Are You?

This is cool; I love gingerbread, and all related things like lebkuchen and pfeffernuesse. I also actually saw my first gingerbread house in the weekend, being raffled for a children's charity. I'm not sure I could eat anything so pretty.

Comments

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I was, too! And I love gingerbread.

Damn it. Now I'm hungry.

Gingerbread houses are fairly popular here, but I'm not sure I've ever actually seen anybody eat one.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Damn it. Now I'm hungry.

Yeah, me too. I have pfeffernuesse, but I now want to go out in search of seasonal lebkuchen and spekulaas.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously thinking about going to the store and looking for something gingerbready. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And I think I will! I wanted to pick up something I left at the vet's this week, and I can go to the gourmet supermarket on the way back. They're sure to have some of those yummy European goodies.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I went out and got some gingerbread cake mix, but it came out kind of dry, sadly. I knew I shouldn't have bothered paying attention to the high-altitude directions. Things always come out fine when I don't use them.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Bum. I was too lazy to go out in the end, but hey, tomorrow's Saturday. I want to go to the pet store next to the gourmet place anyway; I'm going to reward Jasmin and Ashley for starting to get on with each other and play by buying them a tunnel (collapsible nylon thing; cats love them, and there was one at Ashley's foster home).

I have however knitted the inside of a bracelet which I hope to post this weekend.

[crycraven.livejournal.com]

You made me want a gingerbread latte! x

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Now you've made me want one! The local Starbucks has gone though, and anyway they don't do that many wintry drinks here.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Much too pretty to eat. I'm a mince pie, so no qualms there.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Really? I didn't realise they had mince pies in the US (and almost all quizzes are for there) or even knew what they were. I do like those, and the ones at my coffee shop have unintended Stars of David on them. [now wants one of those]

BTW, since I bought some non-breakable sea-themed decorations (shells, fish, starfish) I may put up the tree after all and celebrate summer. I'll see how the kittens react to it before putting anything on it. :-P

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

They do have mince pies, although they're all large-pie-sized, and just as much a Thanksgiving thing much of the time.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ours are little, about the diameter of cupcakes. And now I want one.

I'm glad that the mice pies at the local coffee place are back to being called that instead of "Christmas tarts". Everyone here knows it's minced fruit, not meat. :-)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

A summer tree sounds a good idea. If you are allowed to put it up will you be posting pics?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I will! I shall try the tree today, and if they don't savage it, I'll put on the new decorations.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I was Gingerbread too and though I'll eat it it is not a must have for me, I'd rather be a mince pie.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And I love those too!

[thetisonline.livejournal.com]

I'm gingerbread too! But I'm anything but sweet!

Did you see the gingerbread Tardis?
http://community.livejournal.com/crafty_tardis/50028.html

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's wonderful! And it even has a little light!

[thetisonline.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great. I'm so tempted to make one.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of my childhood. It was a tradition that we'd all make a gingerbread house together at Christmas.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Did you eat it, or just have it as decoration? :-)

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Both. We would also make gingerbread men and eat those right away =)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love those. The local baker makes them. [wants some but is too lazy to go there]

[acanthaster.livejournal.com]

Ha! I got, "You Are a Fruitcake. People pretend you're sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!" HIGHLY accurate, although sometimes I wonder if they actually know how weird I am or, in fact, just have the mistaken impression that I'm sweet and precious.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Actually I love fruitcake, because the ones you get here are delicious: rich, moist, and yummy. I gather American ones are none of those things. :-P

[acanthaster.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I've actually ever eaten fruitcake! I think American ones usually have candied fruits, which I think are yucky. Do yours have those?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Nope, and no wonder they're not nice. Ours have dried fruit and sometimes peel, soaked in brandy at least overnight till soft. They are divine, especially when they're topped with marzipan and icing. I stopped making one (complete with home-made marzipan) because I used to eat too much.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone eats a gingerbread house. A lot of the time the dough is deliberately made with proportionally more flour than normal and cooked harder, so it will be more sturdy, but that makes it pretty tasteless (I tried a few broken bits when I made one according to a recipe).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

OK, that makes sense. I know there's a dough Germans use for glazed decorations, and those things last ages.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* Gingerbread actually has several variations- there's a thick, almost spice cake kind that's cut into squares (not often made, I think), then there are cookies with fairly stiff batter that can be cut out into shapes (gingerbread men, etc), and there are gingersnaps, which are quite different, thinner and crinkly instead of smooth (not sure if they qualify- they taste much different MUCH more ginger- I used to love them, very sharp, clean taste.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We have these three kinds, and I LIKE THEM ALL!

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*grin* I bet you'd love lemon wafers then- they're small, round and flat, and a beautiful pale creamy yellow. Wonderful for dunking with tea or coffee or with ice cream or...

Oh, and anise cookies! Oh, I loved them. And, and... peppermint twists! They were made with the dough half pink and half white, and you could make them into 'candy canes'.

And pfefferneuse! And peanut butter oatmeal...and...sugar cookie cutouts with raspberry jam between pairs & powdered sugar on top... Stop, stop, I'm gaining weight just thinking about them.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I already have pfeffernuesse! (Yum.) Rge lemon wafers and peanut butter oatmeal sound very good. Americans bake and give cookies at Christmas, don't they? That's not a custom here, but I usually live a little and buy Dutch and German spicy things like pfeffernuesse and lebkuchen. ;-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I used to mix up dough for at least six different kinds of cookies the day before, and then spend the next day baking, and then spend most of the evening packing them in tins to give to family. The more delicate ones only went to family who were nearby, but I mailed an awful lot of cookies!

I'd make gingerbread and the peanut butter oatmeal and the linzer tortes every year, but varied on the rest.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm glad we don't have to do anything like that!

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

If I *had* to do it, I would have hated it, but as it was, it was fun. And nothing tastes as nice as home-baked cookies.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I gather from you and mistraltoes that it's an expected tradition. I do like baking and if it had been one I took part on from childhood, I'd doubtless feel differently, but hearing about the enormous numbers of cookies baked just makes me glad I'm not expected to do it. It's a nice idea though.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I was the only one I knew who did it and I wasn't a little kid when I started it. It really is an 'individual tradition'. In some parts of the country maybe it's more common, but people were *astonished* that I did it.

It does actually save time to do a whole lot at once.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

See, I got the impression it was a major tradition, just because two people I knew did it. :-P

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's kind of an 'urban legend tradition'. :^)

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

It's an old-fashioned tradition, and not usually done on such a large scale, when it's done at all--people might do one or two batches and give a plate to the next-door neighbors, or the kids' piano teacher. Probably more a part of the idealized childhood Christmas of my generation, rather than an actual widely observed practice. As entropy_house says, an urban legend tradition. :D

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Although, now I think about it, there are at least two or three people on my flist who mention baking and mailing cookies each year, so it does happen.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And have you started yet? Your cookies always sound so delicious and inventive. Are they traditional family recipes, or ones you found for yourself?

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

The girls just finished packing up last night. I didn't do much except answer questions. I'll try to post about it later tonight.

The recipes are a combination of old family ones, things we found in cookbooks, and a few we made up ourselves. I'm glad they sound good, thanks!-- I expect that's because we try to have a wide variety of flavors.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, gingerbread :0)

I'll be making another gingerbread house this year. And eating it ;0)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! Will you post photos?