TWD: Molasses Spice Cookies

When I was about nine years old I remember helping my mom clean the kitchen after dinner. I was clearing the table while she swept the floor. At this point, my brother was seven and my sister was three so you can imagine what kind of a mess ended up under the table. Once she had swept the debris into a little neat pile my mom gathered it up into the dustpan and said to me, "you know there are people in the world who will never even see the crumbs that fell off the table during a meal and there are many others who have to eat these crumbs". I don't know why that stuck with me the way it did but I have never forgotten what she said and I almost always think about it when I sweep my own kitchen. It helps me to pause and put things in perspective. Yes, we have to plan carefully so that we can pay all of our bills every month and it will be quite some time before we can purchase a second car but we always have plenty of food and even if for some reason we could not purchase food we have wonderful family who would never ever hesitate to help us in any way we asked. With Thanksgiving around the corner I can't help but be overwhelmingly thankful for how lucky I am for all of the blessings in my life.


I love Thanksgiving because it really does allow for us to remember everything we are thankful for and to celebrate it with all the people we love. Breaking bread is one of the most universal and yet special things a group of people can do together. The Thanksgiving meal is especially wonderful because so much time and love goes into preparing it. This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was selected by Pamela of Cookies with Boys and it would be a fabulous addition to the dessert table for Thanksgiving Day! I don't know if I can easily explain how much I love these spicy, crunchy on the edges and chewy in the middle cookies. Well yes I can: I made a batch of these about a month ago and we ate every last one before I took one solitary picture. I made a half batch again last night so that I could snap a few shots and they have already disappeared again! They are so wonderful and so easy to make. Oh and they are really very pretty too thanks to the sparkly sugar crust. Make these, enjoy them, and be thankful!

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Ok, let me just say one thing I like is a cake that commits. If you are going to call yourself a chocolate cake, you better be darn chocolaty. If you are a coconut cake... be choc full of coconut. When I was planning my wedding I wanted a traditional almond flavored white wedding cake- not a white cake or a yellow cake- but a truly almond flavored cake. That being said- this cake commits. It is a ginger extravaganza! Three forms of ginger go into it: freshly chopped ginger, candied ginger, and ground ginger, making it the gingeriest cake I have ever tasted.


This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Heather of Sherry Trifle (you can find the recipe on her blog and also in Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan). Like I said before- this is one gingery cake! But it's also got melted chocolate and chopped chocolate in it and is topped with a very light ganache-like frosting of chocolate and coffee. The combination is pretty deadly! Like Dorie says in the book- this cake tastes like Christmas.

The first thing that I noticed when I read the recipe was how many ingredients the cake calls for-and I'll admit that part of me didn't want to buy three types of ginger, molasses, and buttermilk (things I rarely keep on hand) but I really like to try to stick to the recipe the first time I make it- so I dutifully went out and bought them all. I'm actually really glad I didn't omit or substitute anything because I think each ingredient was necessary to this cake- it just had such a well rounded flavor and beautiful crumb! So another success with Dorie! Oh and I really am going to make an effort to post more- because once a week is pretty lame, even for a pregnant woman!