Well it’s now December 2011 and I’ve gathered the gumption to start one of the bigger projects on my list. I’ve been planning it all year so it’s not like I just abandoned it, but now is the time to DO rather than SAY. And I’m a big proponent for the old adage ‘actions speak louder than words’. I know the saying doesn’t really have anything to do with what I’m trying to get at but it has ‘actions’ and ‘words’ in it so whatever.
Well here it is then; I’m launching a website.
If I were fifteen, I might liken it to Rookie Mag, but I’m about a decade older (yikes!) so I’ll try not to divulge my desire to relive my teenage years too much. Really, it’s just a portfolio of what I can do. That is, a showcase of all the hobbies I’m not really that good at. The blog will live on and since I really do want to make something of this little chunk of the internet, I will update it at least weekly, pinky swear.
Also, who cares about the blog! What I’m most excited about is the monthly interviews I will be conducting. I’ll be drinking mimosas and drunkenly questioning fashion-, music-, and art-minded people that I think are totally rad. December’s interview is with one Miss Tammy Leung, personal assistant to Jeanne Beker, Editorial & Production Assistant at Fashion Television Magazine, and all around babe.
We will be launching BEFORE Christmas if I can get my act together and if my slave labourer of a web designer can find the time between studying for his exams and being nagged by yours truly.
In the meantime, here is my recipe for the best soft ginger cookies in the world (because baking is another one of those hobbies I'm just sort of okay at and also I don't think I've ever shared a recipe on my blog before and also because it IS Christmas time so why wouldn't you want ginger cookies?):
----------
The Best Big Soft Ginger Cookies (adapted from here)
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsps ground ginger
- 2 tsps fresh grated ginger
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 tsps ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tsps white sugar to dust
1) Keep in mind that the spice blend can totally be adjusted. I like more spice. You can use less but I probably wouldn’t use less than half of the amounts listed above.
2) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
3) Sift together the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Do this in a small bowl because you will just be dumping it into the large bowl you are using in the next step. But don’t dump it yet! Wait until I tell you to.
4) cream together the butter, which you have softened and cut up into little cubes, with the cup of sugar. I use a fork for this part because I don't have those fancy contraptions that cream things together for you. Anyway, try to get it super creamy and fluffy and a really pretty pale yellow.
5) Then add the egg, orange juice, fresh ginger, and molasses. I switch from fork to wire whisk at this point. This part is also kind of weird and off-putting because it smells real bad when the orange juice and molasses mix. Power through it because the results are delectable.
6) NOW you gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. I usually add it in three parts.
7) Grab a hunk of dough and roll it into a walnut-sized ball but don't make it too smooth! You want those nice cracks that form when they bake, like in the picture.
8) Lightly roll this ball in the additional sugar and plop it on your baking sheet. The last time I made these cookies, I pressed them down ever so slightly but next time I think I will just let them sit in ball form because maybe that will make them extra fluffy, who knows.
9) Bake them for 8 minutes. EXACTLY 8. Well, maybe for less than 8 if you like but NEVER more. You're cookies will be hard and that’s gross.
10) When you take your cookies out of the oven, let them chill on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.
11) Enjoy these cookies on their own, with milk, as an ice cream sandwich, topped with Fluff marshmallow and drizzled in chocolate, deep fried, crumbled into a crust for pumpkin pie, cut up into chunks and added to vanilla pudding, filled with icing and rolled in chocolate chips, and any other which way you like!
