Cooking With Kathryn

Recipes and Tips for Everyday Food Lovers

Gingerbread Cookies

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My favorite holiday in the entire world is Christmas.  I have so many amazing memories attached of family and friends.  And one of my favorite things to make around the holidays is gingerbread cookies.  They’re a lot of fun, delicious and can be super cute! So I’ve decided to share this version for you to make your own Christmas memories with.  Also, excuse the sloppy icing.  I have a cat who enjoys getting in the way of everything. 🙂

Gingerbread Cookies

Every year since I was probably two or three, my dad and I decorated the Christmas tree together.  We turned on the same Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD, drank hot chocolate, and hung up the myriad of decorations that we collected.  And, at the end, we would turn off all the lights in the house and just look at the beautiful tree.

This was the first year that I haven’t done that.  And, honestly, it was bittersweet.  There was something special about decorating the Christmas tree (my first live one!) with my husband for the first time.  And, of course, it had to be the most difficult experience ever.  The following things went wrong:

  1. We barely got the tree home.  It slid about four feet down the back of my car and, by the time we pulled into the parking lot of our apartment complex, was hanging on by only a couple of branches.
  2. The tree stand that we bought was broken, so we had to go back out in the rain and get a new one.
  3. The night after we decorated the tree, it fell down, breaking several of the ornaments.

One redecoration, several magazines propping up the tree stand and ten pounds of rice hidden to keep the tree from toppling over again later, our tree is up for good!  It sure turned out good after all of that, didn’t it?  And we concluded by turning off all the light and just looking at the tree 🙂

Christmas Tree

So I hope you enjoy my gingerbread cookies and that they warm up your day!  I wish you a Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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Gingerbread Cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Yield: 12 cookies

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter or butter substitute (such as Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbs. molasses
  • 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • For the icing:
  • 3 tbs. corn syrup
  • 2/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tbs. almond or soy milk

Instructions

  1. Cream room temperature butter and add brown sugar. If you don't have time to let the butter site out, microwave for 5 seconds at a time until just soft. Continue to beat until fluffy.
  2. Add egg and molasses. Then add in flour, baking soda, all the spices, and salt.
  3. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour. Otherwise, you won't be able to roll it out.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  5. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface, also flouring the rolling pin. Using your cookie cutters, make your shapes and space them out on the cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 min or until firm. The longer you leave them in the harder they will get.
  6. Let them cool before icing.
  7. To make the icing, mix all of the ingredients in a bowl, adding more powdered sugar if it needs to thicken.
  8. Add the icing to an icing bag with a very think tip and decorate however you want! Feel free to add food coloring if you like.

Notes

Original recipe from InspiredByFamilyMag.com.

http://cookingwithkathryn.net/gingerbread-cookies/

Cornbread Muffins

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One of my favorite parts of cold weather is making warm soup and eating cornbread with it.  However, when I went to make cornbread, I realized that I didn’t have enough flour, nor a baking dish small enough to cut the recipe in half.  So I decided to make cornbread muffins!  This recipe is sweet, delicious and perfect for a cold day!

Cornbread

Another thing that I love about cold weather is that my best friend, Katie always comes to visit.  She lives in Asheville, NC and is pretty much the greatest person ever.  She’s incredibly wise and hilarious at the exact same time.  So she came up this weekend and we had a blast looking at Christmas lights, making S’mores over a fire, and cooking together.  And I also got to take her to my favorite place in Nashville – Nashville Humane Association.

This is an incredible organization and is the place that blessed us with our cat, Reesie.  So I always love to visit, donate some food and love on the animals that certainly don’t get enough attention.  And, honestly, it’s a blast.

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So I hope this cornbread recipe warms you up as much as it did us.  And I encourage you to give back wherever you see fit this holiday season.  It really is worth it.

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Cornbread Muffins

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbs. baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup almond or soy milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread (or butter), melted
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • Paper muffin cups

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, butter and honey.
  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
  5. Evenly divide the batter between 12 paper muffin cups in a muffin tin. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.
http://cookingwithkathryn.net/cornbread-muffins/

Mexican Shepherd’s Pie

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Pie

So Shepherd's Pie is one of those warm, comforting homey foods that is hard not to love.  But if you're lactose-intolerant, it's hard to make, due to the mashed potatoes and cheese.  I've found a way to create a delicious Mexican version of the … [Continue reading]