Again, we catered dinner for my parents. I palmed off this gingerbread house on them.
I’ve never made one before, but it seems pretty rock solid. It traveled better than I expected. Nobody said these things have to be decorated all in candy, so I made liberal use of pretzels in addition to the starlight mints and gum drops. I also left a batch of spritz cookies and a bunch of peppermint bark that I made earlier in the week. They’re pure butter, and pure sugar, respectively; what’s not to like?
We’re working our way through the leftover ham, heading into New Year’s Eve, for which we always roast a duck. Between the ham and cheese sandwiches, omelettes, split pea soup, linguini carbonara, pot pie and quiche, I think we’ve got the remaining pig covered.
I’m sick of orange sauce to go with the duck, so I think I’ll make apricot sauce instead this time. Leftover shredded duck goes really well with plum sauce, julienned carrots, and fresh ginger in crepes; it’s one of my favorite ways to use leftover duck. Of course, the carcass makes great stock. 😉
Although I missed out on wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, given all the pre-holiday preparations, I do want to wish everyone a Happy New Year’s.
Nice work on the gingerbread house. Sadly, not all such ventures went so well this holiday season: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/12/24/the-little-gingerbread-house-that-couldnt/
LOL! A gingerbread house kit? With a plastic base? Twenty to one the directions forgot to mention that the powdered sugar has to be whipped with egg white instead of stirred with water. There’s a huge difference between royal icing and sugar glaze!
I did reference a recipe from an old German cookbook for the gingerbread that added cardamom (not that unusual), but oddly enough, had no ginger. I baked the first sheet for the base as directed, but the cardamom was too strong, so when I baked the sheets I used to cut out the pieces I needed, I cut that in half, and added maybe half a teaspoon of ginger, which made all the difference. The upshot is that the house will taste great, but the base, not so much.
Live and learn. I think I’ll make next year’s gingerbread house a little more elaborate, and design something with dormer windows instead of a ski chalet look. Though I may suck at decorating, I’ve got the royal icing part down to the point where it could be used as spackle or grout, which, if you think about it, really is its purpose.
I have a feeling that he did far better than I could. lol
Yum!
Very nice on the gingerbread house! I’ve used the pretzels for roof shingles before, but never considered the log cabin effect! I like that a lot!
I love the pretzels!
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year, Rusty.
Wonder if the nitwits will react to this http://www.briankeene.com/?p=3265
Of course they will, PG. This is the type of thing they love to jump on as elitism. But they are not and never will be able to change reality. (except in their own heads of course )
Or Dagstine will claim to have this HUGE devoted readership that supports him in email.
LOL, Cuss. His other option is to sweep his Literary Bone(r) under the rug, and state that he’s only a hobbyist who “does quite well selling at flea markets, thank you very much.”
He’s got the distrubution part down, I tell you! Never mind that all he managed to sell were his used magazines, not his short story collection. He’s got connections, damn it! He can rent that booth for a 10% discount next summer . . . if the flea market returns.
For Auld Lang Syne, this link to some favorite Dagstine stupid and fail:
http://cussedness.xanga.com/606433606/the-sad-facts-of-the-matter/