Catching Up

My favorite fall/winter treat: soft and chewy molasses spice cookies. Once upon a time, these could be scored only at Halloween, from the little old woman who lived across the street from the city pool. Breaking all current rules of trick-or-treater conduct, and devilishly flouting the safety rules, the hoards of children would pile into the old woman's house for the reward of freshly baked molasses cookies. Nothing ever quite equalled them, but a few decades can do wonders to blur the lines of memory, and stumbling upon a fabulous recipe didn't hurt, either. Meant to be eaten by the stack, book in lap, curled in your favorite chair... yum.

The parade of snowmen begins today. Sort of a virtual 'countdown to Christmas', I'll be popping one of these little dudes up here daily. Today was supposed to be the snowman Gaylen sent me last year, but with the food theme today, the cupcake snowman butted in line, though the other snowman does look awfully much like a stack of marshmallows. Oh, help. I am back to behaving on WW,after a reckless three days of eating chocolates, lo-mien, pumpkin pie, and those cookies.

Here's a parting shot of another food-related item. The most fabulous sock yarn colorway ever. Kind of makes you hungry for those gooey Brach's Neapolitan candies, right? This is one of the yarns vying for my attention next, after I finish Rob and Red's socks. I'm considering knee-socks.

But that's crazy-talk. Or is it?

The cookie recipe:
cream together 1 1/2 sticks softened butter with 1/2 c. dark brown and 1/2 c. white sugar. Add 1/3 cup molasses, 1 egg, and 1 tsp. vanilla and mix well.

Separately, blend all the dry ingredients together: 2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. ground ginger, 3/4 tsp. ground cloves, and 1/4 tsp. allspice, and 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour. Mix into molasses mixture until the dough is on the 'firmer' side of cookie dough. I usually end up using an extra 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour, but this varies with the weather. Drop by cookie scoop onto a parchment-lined sheet and chill dough balls at least two hours. Before baking, roll dough balls in more white sugar. Bake on parchment paper at 375 for approx. ten minutes, or until the edges of cookie appear 'done', but the middles are still slightly underbaked-looking. Let them cool on pan for a few minutes before attempting to move them to a cooling rack (or your mouth). Enjoy.