Come Build a House with Me!

It all started in 1988...I saw the advertisement in the Ft. Belvoir Newsletter that they were giving a gingerbread house class at the community center.  I went, I saw, I conquered! lol  I had the best time making a house, and took a good friend with me and since then I have been making them almost annually for my children and others.  I would always send one to school for the annual Christmas party when my children were in elementary school.  I really loved seeing the faces of the kids when it was brought in and they could start breaking off each piece of the house and getting even their biggest sweet tooth filled.

Gingerbread houses are just magical, that's all there is to it.

Well, I decided to teach a benefit class here on the mountain this year.  I usually get folks together one week before Thanksgiving and give them the pattern as well as the recipes, then we get together again the first week after Thanksgiving-that way I don't interfere with their special moments with friends and family.  I want to share my recipe/pattern with you.  I have been making these houses since 1988 and have loved each and every one.  And...I have got the recipe perfected, well, in my mind it is anyway.  I hope you enjoy it.  I also hope that if you choose to take up this challenge to make your own house with friends or family that you will share your photos with me.  I would love to be able to share in your smiles and happiness.  If you have problems, please, call me at 301-241-4869 (EST during the daytime) or email me at admin@nostalgicdreams.com and I will be more than happy to do what I can to help out.  Have fun!

Gingerbread House Class

WHAT TO BRING TO YOUR NEXT CLASS 

1.                  Pre-baked house pieces- enough to create one entire house.

2.                  Cardboard covered with foil- enough for house and small landscape area- around 14x14 inches.

3.                  2-3 batches of the royal icing: pre-made in an airtight bowl

4.                  Decorating bag with coupler and tips #3, #16, or #21

5.                  2 Kitchen towels

6.                  Spatula

7.                  Plastic Bag

8.                  2 bags of your choice of candy (please do not bring chocolate or soft candies as they don’t hold up well.)

9.                  Camera

Read Very Carefully

           The best way to start is to trace the house pattern pieces onto poster board, cut them out, cover them with taped down waxed paper.  You’ll need a front and back of the house, two sides, two eaves, and two roofs of the house.  When you make the house pieces out of dough, roll it out onto the cookie sheet lined with foil and trace around the pieces there.  Pull up the excess.  The moment you take the cookie out of the oven, transfer the foil to a flat, heatproof surface, trace around your pattern with a pizza cutter or sharp knife again and cut off the excess or the house will not fit together well.  Let the houses dry out on a wire rack for a day or so before assembling them.  The drier they are, the better they hold together.

            After you have made the royal icing, keep it covered in an airtight container with a piece of moist paper toweling between the bowl and the lid.

ROYAL ICING

 Remember that you need at least two batches of these made before class.

(Can keep up to a week in plastic ware in the fridge).

 3 level TBSP  meringue powder (available at Wal-Mart, Michaels, Joann’s and cake decorating stores).

4 cups confectioners sugar (1 lb.)

5-6 TBSP water (add one TBS at a time)

            Beat all ingredients at low speed for 7-10 minutes (10-12 minutes on high speed for portable mixer), or until icing forms stiff peaks.  Transfer to plastic bowl and cover with a lightly moistened, high quality paper towel and place the lid on top of that.

  

GINGERBREAD RECIPE

                         1 cup melted butter                                                   

                        1 ½ cups dark brown sugar                                         

                        1 egg                                                                          

                        2 TBS molasses                                                           

                        1 TBS corn syrup (Karo)                                            

                        1 tsp baking soda 

                        4-5  cups flour (depending on the weather)

                        2 TBS hot coffee

                        4 tsp cinnamon

                        3 tsp ginger

                        3 tsp cloves

                        2 tsp nutmeg

             Melt the butter on medium heat or in microwave, set aside the pan after it has melted.  Pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup and empty it into a very large bowl.  Add the melted butter and cream the two together with a wooden spoon.  Add 1 egg.  Add the molasses and corn syrup. 

            Mix the baking soda and the hot coffee together, ensuring the baking soda is dissolved, then add to the large bowl.  Add the cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  Mix thoroughly by hand or with an electric mixer on medium speed.

            Add the flour one cup at a time.  Mix well with a wooden spoon.  Dough will become stiff so the last dry addition may need to be blended by hand.  Work dough until it is smooth in consistency.  If dough sticks to your hands, lightly dust them with flour.  Careful though, too much flour makes dough dry and hard.  When dough is easy to work, you’re ready to roll it out and make your house pieces.  If you’re not going to make your house right away, wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate (up to one week).  Be sure and bring it to room temperature before rolling (around three hours). 

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Place pieces on a baking rack for them to cool, do NOT put them in plastic ware or a plastic bag immediately.  They need to dry out before you put them in an airtight container. 

If a piece breaks into just a couple of pieces, don’t worry about it.  We can glue it back together later with royal icing “glue” when we build.  

Here are the house piece patterns, just print them out as a "photo" from your computer and you will have the exact dimensions that I use.

Here are a few pics of my house.  Still have to make the tree in the yard but you get the idea.  

 

 

And here are a few pics from the final class last night.  I only got one pic of houses before everyone skidaddled out but we had fun!

 

 

The Empty Stocking

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I would like to share a bit of our Christmas tradition with you in the form of a stocking.  I have been married for almost 29 years to a wonderful man.  He is a great father and husband and has always done his best to provide for us.  Throughout our marriage we have had some tough times and though the peaks and valleys came about we would always, somehow, find a way to ensure that our children had a decent Christmas morning that I can remember.

One of the things that I have tried to instill into my children is that "little things mean a lot" so each year when Christmas morning comes around, we always have Christmas music playing on the stereo, the Christmas lights are lit on the tree and the smell of sausage balls and hot wassail fill the air.  Imagine all this and then you are handed your stocking.  One thing that we always ensure is that there is some sort of fruit in the toe of the stocking-it encourages the owner to remember to have their breakfast of the sausage balls, wassail and also their piece of fruit.  (I never make breakfast, just prep the sausage balls the night before and pop into the oven first thing in the morning).  We also try to include little things (sometimes a little on the expensive side) are tucked away in the stocking along with body wash, a pouf, some candy, and yes, sometimes even a lump of coal-albeit, the coal is usually the candy kind.  lol  But always, stockings come first, they always
have in this household at Christmas time-and always will.

Stockings are special.  Little things do mean a lot and to that end I also would like to share another tradition with you.  We always keep our Christmas movies separate and only watch them during the Christmas season.  This excerpt was taken from the original "The Bishop's Wife" with David Niven, Loretta Young and Cary Grant.  It speaks of a stocking that was owned by Christ and how we have been so caught up in our daily living that we have actually forgotten to fill the most important stocking.  We are supposed to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ, Our Lord.  That is the one and ONLY reason that Christmas exists.  There are other traditions, other circumstances, other religions that celebrate

around Christmas time, but ideally, this is the one holiday that we should celebrate, because without Christ being born of Virgin Mary thousands of years ago, we would not have Easter which is the death and resurrection of Christ.

I truly hope that you celebrate the "reason for the season" this year and remember to fill His stocking during the celebrating with your family and or friends this year and for years to come.

If you would like to know any more about Christ's resurrection, please email me at admin@nostalgicdreams.com and I will be more than happy to share the meaning of Christmas with you.

*hugz n blessings*

Elizabeth

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.


Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.


But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. Its his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.


Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth."

Helllllllllllllllllllllp!

I can't find my way out!  lol  Baskets are everywhere!  I haven't told you much about my best friend, Lacy, but he just left after visiting a couple of weeks ago.  He lives in Tennessee and is married and is the bestestest friend in the world.  (is that a word?)  Anyway, Lace and I met on the internet over two years ago.  Long story short, we ended up being best friends.  I am so grateful for his friendship.  He and Jeff get along awesomely and the kids call him Uncle Frilly.  (Well Connor does anyway.) Lacy knew that I was trying to get into the gift basket business and he fell into a basket windfall over a year ago and brought the last load to me when he visited.  I must say, I have never seen so many baskets in my life but I goaded him into trying yard sales and he is as hooked on them as I am!  I have begun to sort them and wash them in small amounts but this is gonna be one long task.  My attic has just about this many in it as well so I am going to be sort for baskets for a good long while.  Jeff said I needed to rename my business "The Basket Case".  *smile*  I am so very fortunate and blessed in my life.  God has been so awesome to me!  By the way, I intend on filling the baskets and selling them at the bazaars that I am set to do so please come by.  These are "imported" baskets! ~From Tennessee~

*hugz n blessings*

Elizabeth