Great Gingerbread Men, Even Better Chewy Ginger cookies!!

I hunted down this recipe because Jayden really wanted to make gingerbread men.  Of course when the cutters were brought out, they wanted gingerbread elephants, dinosaurs, monkeys, airplanes, and trains more, but a good time was had by all.  We intended to share at least some of them...  But even though they were crunchy and not our usual cookie choice...we just kept seeking out that spicy orangey flavor and before we knew it they were gone!
They were so good crunchy I wondered how good they would taste if I left them thicker...  And I felt a little guilty eating the best ones leaving Jay to eat the more crunchy small ones when he got home from work.  (I didn't realize he would crave them like I did!) So I got up a little early the next morning.  With some of the leftover dough I used my cookie scoop and made a dozen ginger cookies to send with him to work.  I cooked them until JUST before they looked done and then left them on the pan for a few minutes... WOW.  We DEFINITELY didn't share that dozen.  In fact, after eating two right out ot the oven, I put the rest in Jay's lunch box to get them away from me!  Then I stole one more in the 5 minutes before he left!  I never thought I would replace my favorite soft ginger cookie recipe...until now!

So here goes!

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
2 tablespoons molasses
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Just typical cookie directions... Cream butter and sugar then add other wet ingredients and mix well.  Then mix in the dry ingredients.  Refridgerate for at least several hours or overnight if you are making gingerbread men.  You don't have to refridgerate them to make the ginger cookies, but they do stay a little taller if you do.  If you are going to roll the dough one tip that worked great for me is to roll it between two pieces of waxed paper.  I've never done that before and it worked so well!  Great gingerbread men!  Then bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  (ours were only crunchy because we put huge cookies on the same pan with tiny ones, so many of them were really crunchy by the time the big ones were done.)  Remember if you do ginger cookies to pull them out when they are still puffy and look just moist in the middle.  (About 9-10 minutes.  Right when the first ones fall or even JUST before.)  The ones that ended up best were the ones that I was afraid were underdone so I left them on the pan to continue cooking.  They stayed really chewy and good!

Grandma Christiansen’s Fudge

4 cups sugar
½ cup margarine
1 can evaporated milk
2 8 oz Hershey chocolate bars

1 large jar marshmallow cream

12 oz chocolate chips


Boil sugar, margarine, and evaporated milk together for 7-8 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into 9x13 pan and cool in fridge. Optional: add chopped walnuts.

Creamy Jello Jigglers

I have these fun jello molds that are shaped like jelly beans..."jello beans"  I haven't made them in years but I made them several times for easter in all of the jello-y colors of the rainbow and they were so much fun!  Once I used this recipe to make pastel jello beans.  Very yummy :).

2 1/2 cups boiling water
4 pkgs (3 oz) gelatin, any flavor
1 cup cold milk
1 small box instant vanilla pudding

Stir boiling water into gelatin in lg bowl till dissolved.  Cool 30 minutes at room temperature.  Prepare molds.  Pour milk into med bowl and beat in pudding mix.  Quickly pour into cooled gelatin.  Stir with whisk until well blended.  Pour mixture into cup with spout and fill molds immediately.  Refridgerate till firm.

Halloween jello worms

I know we are a little early for halloween, but I wanted to make sure this got into my collection because it was such a fun recipe.  Definitely worth the effort.

Jello “blood” Worms


Make at least a day ahead of time, very time consuming

100 flexible straws (place flexible side down in the container)
An empty cleaned quart milk or orange juice carton to hold straws (the taller the better, the straws will fill to the height of the container)
1 6 oz box raspberry or grape jello (LARGE BOX)
3 packets unflavored jello
3 cups boiling water
¾ cup whipping cream
12-15 drops green food coloring
Wax paper

Combine gelatins in bowl and add boiling water. Mix till completely dissolved. Chill till lukewarm about 20 min
Meanwhile gently pull straws to extend to full length. Place in container flexible side down and wrap loosely with rubber band to hold them together Blend cream and food coloring with jello mixture and pour into container filling straws Chill until firm 8 hours or cover and chill up to 2 days

Pull out straws or tear away paper carton from the straws. Pull straws apart. Run hot tap water for about 2 seconds over 3-4 straws at a time.
Starting at the empty end push worms from straws with a rolling pin or use your fingers
Lay worms on wax paper lined baking sheet. Cover and chill at least one hour before serving or up to 2 days.

I doubled the recipe and used a half gallon carton.  Then I used half for each of two parties we planned.  Getting the worms out of the straws is difficult at first, but you get the hang of it.  It does take time though, so plan ahead.  They ended up being a fun addition to our halloween last year!

Christmas Wreath Cookies

These are a simple, rice krispy treat like cookie, but they were one of my favorites to both make and eat all through childhood.

1/2 cup margarine
30 large marshmallows
3 1/2 cups corn flakes
green food coloring
red hots

Just melt together margarine and marshmallows, stir in food coloring and then pour over corn flakes and stir together.  Then just spoon messy spoonfuls onto wax paper and place your red hots to make your "wreaths".  More recently, I have formed the whole batch into one or two larger wreaths instead of a bunch of little ones.

Note: it takes a LOT of food coloring to make these REALLY green...I often settle for a more pastel green, but when we were kids, I remember them always being really bright.