Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Cookies with a BITE...now what were the exact directions?
These Ginger Chocolate Molasses Cookies will knock your socks off!
Anyone at our house will tell you that this cookie concoction will make music on your tongue. For anyone who savors GINGER, nutmeg, GINGER, cinnamon, GINGER, cloves, GINGER, coffee, and GINGER and chocolate all in one little bundle, this is the secret to happiness.   I often have one of these delights ..."underway"... eating one corner and savoring another corner for later.  Just tuck one in a baggie inside the cookie jar and keep working on it over a day or two.  This cookie has a history that goes all the way back to my husband's youth.   It was time to consult the oldest sister and the conversation went something like this...

Was it mom or grandma that baked the best ginger cookies?  You know the ones, they were chewey on the inside and sugared and crispy on the outside.

Was it the gingersnap recipe resurrected from the old recipe treasure chest or how about the one from the worn Good Housekeeping Cookbook.

Did mom make this recipe or was it Grandma?

Why did Grandma always keep her cookie jar way up high on the refrigerator?

If you like them crispy on the outside, here is my best technique....and so the conversation went until I intervened and came up with an internet model recipe that was quite good, if I do say so myself.

Well, with a little editing here and some more ginger there, a pinch of flax, and coffee, and plenty of ginger and chocolate, success was achieved.  Now, our cookie jar is full of deep, dark, ginger cookie heaven.  Here are a few snaps of my husband creating his glorious and satisfying goal of the "best ginger cookie ever", and I assure you, Mom or Grandma would not recognize them as their own.  My husband says this recipe is all about the texture, scent, and appearance of the cookie in process...a little on the scientific side of life.

Passing thought ... Is it true that memories are changed and reworked the more we relive and retell them?  Well, I think in this instance that thinking is correct. Now, this is one memory that I savor regardless of any similar taste sensation of the past.   Visitors who drop by, check out our big glass cookie jar almost immediately upon arrival, and well the rest of the story is ... another batch will soon be on the way.




Heron Rookery In Nearby Wetlands

Nature at work before our eyes.  Herons in their rookery.


Life is full of surprises...
It turns out that Harry and Henrietta Heron are more than just a couple, but one couple among many in the wetlands not far from our home.  We had no idea their numbers were so great. 

What a fine spring sight to see these often solo fliers tending and repairing their nests high in the scraggly alder treetops.

We are eager for the a wild celebration in the pond below once these babies emerge and learn about their world.  

A mother's worry...it is a long way down!

Heron WebCam at Cornell Lab
Great Blue Herons nesting at Cornell Lab