It is that time of year again…for the annual gingerbread cookie factory. I made up the gingerbread dough a week ago, while heating left-overs before we headed for the Nutcracker Ballet. To my chagrin, I realized I didn’t have enough molasses! I made up the difference with honey. Whew!

Then I realized I had nowhere to roll it out! We got new laminate countertops last year, that look like black granite. To our surprise, the countertops we special ordered were textured! I couldn’t believe it! I was frustrated by that for some time, until I heard a designer on hgtv say those are desired for laminate countertops, because they give the appearance of real stone.  Well, I was glad to hear something good about that!  Nevertheless, we got a black granite laminate that was smooth, different series that looked more real, for our new master bathroom.  Sadly, that is so smooth, it shows all the water spots and wipe downs.  I now agree that textured laminate is great, at least the black granite.  They rarely look dirty!  But they are a pain when kneading/rolling out dough.

I had a difficult time rolling out the gingerbread dough last year.  I think I used parchment paper, but I was frustrated because it kept moving and wrinkling.  I used to have a really nice marble pastry board that I got from Lillian Vernon years ago. I still have the rolling pin. But a few years ago the pastry board broke. I was heartbroken. The advantage of using a stone like marble is that it’s easy to clean and the cold surface allows less flour to be used to prevent sticking. Over the year I researched my options and found only one place where I could find a good quality pastry board, William Sonoma. I could either get a large wooden one or another marble one. Both were about the same price. I decided to bide my time and wait for a good deal. Well, here it was time for a pastry board and no board. So Friday afternoon we got school work done early, so we headed to a large shopping mall about 30 miles north of us. It was cold, drizzly and crowded! Where in the world did all these people come from? Didn’t they belong at work or school? I thought I’d be avoiding the rush, going before school let out. Anyway, we got to William Sonoma and they had one wooden board left. I decided on that, because it wouldn’t break!

Here it is! It fits perfectly on the countertop

and has special measurement markings on the other side 

Sat we rolled out the dough

and cut out the cookies and baked them. Actually, the children were now old enough to do most of this themselves, and they did a pretty good job of cleaning up.

We didn’t get to decorate them, because I was out of meringue powder. Either I ran out last year, or I threw it out in utter frustration! Decorating cookies is not on my top 10 list of things to do. I'm not a big fan of frosting anyway, nor is it good for my glucose intolerance.  But dh and the dc like them. However, I must admit, with this gingerbread, a bit of cool frosting is a tasty combination. 

Another problem is that hours are spent to make gorgeous gems that are gobbled up in seconds! I prefer putting my artistic skills to something more lasting…like perennial gardens that come back every spring, or a quilt that can give us warm hugs throughout the year.

Another act of frustration with decorating these things is the mess. DH had just remodeled the kitchen last year and I had no idea how well our new stone floor tile and new everything else would be easy to clean from the huge mess. In addition, lots of clean up is required when using all the frostings and decorative doo dads…and who likes to clean things? Not me! To make matters worse, part of our kitchen design dilemmas were solved when I found this gorgeous island like table at the furniture store. It seemed to make the most use of our space. I love French Country; therefore the grooves in the wood top are classic…and a never ending mess to keep clean. Sigh.

This year I hit upon a design clean up solution! Vinyl tablecloths!

Why didn’t I think of those before?

We used an autumn vinyl tablecloth when carving the pumpkin. 

 www.homeschoolblogger.com/teacupsinthegarden/417071/

The children love these so now we are all happy campers. =)

We ran to the store but couldn’t find any meringue powder at two stores. I wasn’t about to stress and at the second store I gave in…I bought those icings in a can. Turned out to be a good thing. DD had an awful time figuring out how to operate the can. The OT they had as toddlers/preschoolers would have loved it! This was a glorious opportunity to work on fine motor skills! DD got the hang of it! I’m still not a fan of decorating cookies…I think at this point of my life I have so much on my to do list, I got busy whittling down my to-do list while the children decorated...

and decorated...

and decorated...

and decorated....

and decorated...(the white snowflake with blue middle with white middle has my name in white)

 Then they thoroughly cleaned the kitchen without my even asking them to do that! =)