Tis the season for Cookies and Books!

  Hello there, everyone! 

 

Just for fun, I thought I'd share my recent artsy cookie baking endeavors.  A week ago, I made and decorated these Hanukkah cookies below, for a Temple book club Hanukkah party.  (More about the book club and books in a little bit.)

Then, this week I baked my annual batch of gingerbread cookies, using my husband's family recipe.  I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread, but I do like making these every year.  (Though it took me way too long this year.  Maybe it's because I really don't know anything about cookie-decorating; I just make it up as I go along and hope it works.)  Anyhow, I made a wonderful big mess in the process, and I hope you like the results!   

So about the book club...  I'm actually in TWO book clubs; I've been in one for about 20 years, and joined the Temple group after I retired.  So I've read lots of books I might never have discovered or chosen on my own - some I've liked, and some... not so much.  And I've met some terrific women through both groups.  Both book clubs take a little reading hiatus in December, opting for food instead of books, and also take a meeting break in the summer.  I use that time to read books waiting by my bed that I've picked up along the way.  (Yup, I actually read actual books!  There's something tactile about books that I love.  I have no desire to use an e-reader.)

I want to mention a few books that have made big impressions on me in recent months.  In one group, we recently read West With the Night by Beryl Markham, and in the other group we are now reading (though I've already finished it) An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine.   I'm a big fan of books that are told with a unique voice; both of these books fit that description.  One is non-fiction, and the other is fiction, but I give highest recommendations to both.  They are non-typical, and really special.

Meanwhile, I've independently read a couple of those books on the night table that were NOT book club picks.  I was especially intrigued by The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.  A little dark and creepy, but I'm a fan of Hoffman's magic realism, and I enjoy books that are a little bizarre!   And this is definitely on that list...  

 A few others from recent months that I really enjoyed reading for my clubs:  The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh,  The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.  And has anyone else read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka? It was a fun little book that I picked up at a book sale. 

 Have you read any of these books?  Did you enjoy?  

Do you have any other fun book recommendations to pass along?  

Happy Reading, Happy Baking, & Happy Holidays!! 

Today's Art Project

It's an annual ritual in our house. My husband got the recipe from his mom, long before I ever met him.  So, over the last couple of days, we made the batter, rolled the dough, and baked the cookies.  (Truthfully, I did most of the actual cooking, and my husband was chief dishwasher and cleaner-upper.  Today, while you readers were in your classrooms teaching, I decorated all the little buggers, for hours and hours.  And now they are done, and ready to pack little boxes and mail to special relatives!

For a lesson parallel, I used to make gingerbread 'cookies' each year with my 1st graders. It was a rare time when I actually provided the kids with pre-cut shapes. The point was the decorating. Some older kids, who had finished work early, would cut out gingerbread boys, girls, and houses from brown Kraft paper. The 1st graders selected which they wanted to paint, and I would let the older kids, who had done all the cutting, decorate the leftover 'cookies' with leftover 'icing' (tempera paint).  I would premix frosting colors with tempera paint, using lots of white: I would provide pastel blue, pink, yellow, and green, as well as white, red, and brown. When the kids put their cookies in the drying rack at the end of art class,we would instead call it the oven. We would put them in there to bake!

I wish I had photos to share but I don't. But I guarantee, the cookies were always so cute & unique, with bow ties, mustaches, eyeglasses, aprons, hair bows, shoes, socks, suspenders, and more, all from the minds of 1st graders. And the nicest thing for this little Jewish art teacher is that anybody can decorate and enjoy gingerbread without worrying about what holiday they celebrate.

Two left feet!

A few crazy extras!  Have a hand.. or a foot!

My kitchen, overrun with gingerbread!