Ginger cookies are a favorite of ours. This one is easily our favorite recipe for gingerbread men. We discovered the recipe in 2011 while studying Germany and this was one of the recipes we continue to make.
While they are very good plain, they are fun to decorate. It is best to decorate the day you plan to eat the cookies.
It has not snowed much this winter, so we have not had much chance to play in the snow. Andrea decided it was the perfect day to make snowball cookies when it started to snow for a short while today.
The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts (or pecans). We adapted our recipe to use chocolate chips in place of some of the nuts because that is Andrea’s favorite way.
While these are great cookies, they do not stay fresh long. Plan to enjoy them in a day or two, or enjoy them with your favorite hot winter drink.
While these are not exactly like the potatoes at my favorite food vendor at the fair, they are inspired by them. Serve them with sausage or grilled beef.
This is a sweet, but not overly sweet shortcake. It makes a great base for strawberries or other favorite berries. While we often use whipped cream with this, vanilla ice cream also works well.
I learned how to make elephant ears in high school cooking class. But I never made them again until after we went to the fair in 2009.
The kids all wanted elephant ears and we were on a tight budget. I told them that we could make elephant ears at home. So we researched recipes and made them.
We often make them after the fair now.
This is a family favorite recipe. It is a very adaptable. Add cheese to the gravy if desired, adjust the amount of onions, use different seasonings if you wish. We usually enjoy it as written.
Use your favorite biscuit recipe, but we prefer it with large buttermilk biscuits. Since this is a heavy meal, a simple fruit salad served alongside is wonderful.
When we were overseas, we could not find graham crackers. We found a lot of other really good cookies and crackers, but sometimes I just wanted a graham cracker to dunk in milk or a good base for a s’more.
Cutting into long thin rectangles, and then baking the crackers until crisp, we often used these for when the children were teething. As they grew older, we cut them into small animal shapes for “animal crackers”. They also enjoyed these cut into large hearts and stars with shaped cut out from the middle.
The recipe makes a lot, but if stored in a cool dry place, they last for weeks. Unless your family enjoys them as much as mine, then the crackers only last a short while.
One of the first recipes that Andrea “invented” on her own. She wanted chocolate chip cookies and Audrey wanted peanut butter, so she experimented and came up with these.
This is a soft bread that is easy to make. It makes great toast or grilled cheese.
I do not remember ever having biscuits and gravy growing up. However, my parents would make us “Shmooey on Toast”. It is the same idea as creamed chipped beef on toast–S.O.S. as soldiers called it according to my dad– but without the chipped beef. A little research and I learned if you use a chopped hard boiled egg, it is called Eggs à la Goldenrod.
I asked Dad where the name “Shmooey” came from. He said that shmooey sounded a lot better than “S.O.S”. With a little more research, I discovered why my parents swapped names for us kids. I agree… shmooey is a lot more kid friendly!
Following is the recipe we always followed for Shmooey, along with some variations.
