Gingerbread Engagement Cookies

Hello friends! Long time... I know. So much to tell you about!

First, let me share about one of my best friends, Paula. She is my Italian-other-half. She is responsible for my love for risotto, homemade lasagna, gnocchi, tiramisu, the list goes on.

Paula recently got engaged to her beau, Blair! So exciting! As (two of) her honoured bridesmaids, Alison and I threw her a super casual engagement party with a few Toronto friends and family.

As a party favour, I made ginger bread cookies (perhaps inspired by Blair... who knows).

I don't think gingerbread is among the list of all-time-favourite-cookies. People tend to prefer the chocolate chip, the double chocolate chip, the oatmeal raisin, the macadamia white chocolate, my favourite whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip. But those don't work well with cookie cutters.

So I went on a hunt for a good gingerbread recipe, a good icing recipe, and cute little cookie cutters.

I found the cookie cutters at St Lawrence Market.  There's a little gold mine of cooking/baking supplies at a place called Placewares.  They have everything.  Even the cookie bags and silver twist ties.

The gingerbread recipe was adapted from thejoyofbaking.com and the icing recipe was from this site.

The cookies were such a hit! I think the secret to gingerbread is making sure it's still soft and chewy. This recipe wasn't too sweet or overpowering with spices. Most recipes call for nutmeg and cloves. I just used cinnamon. The other change I made to the recipe was the ginger. I used fresh finely grated ginger rather than the ground stuff. Enjoy!

Congrats, Paula and Blair!

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Kelly Burns (500 calories)

From Out and About

My double XL muffin top that I got for Christmas (thanks Santa) has resumed it's regular size. *phew* Thanks in part to my faithful friend Paula who encouraged us all to sign up for the Robbie Burns 8km race (and then proceeded to book a vacation to the Dominican Republic on the same week.)

The Robbie Burns Run is an 8km race in January. JANUARY. 9 am!!!!! What was I thinking?! Right: January is usually the time my muffin top gets out of control.

I trained a decent amount for this race, and never having run in cold, cold weather, I had a goal to run the 8km in less than an hour. I'm proud to announce a final race time of 52:57!

From Out and About

From Out and About

Dustin does not train. He finished the race in 37 mins. I think it was his steroid-laced breakfast of peanut butter and concord jam toast. (Perhaps it is the bizarre way he eats his toast from the outside in...)

From Food

Our post race festivities included excessive amounts of breakfast food at Cora's. I've been told that if you run a race in the name of Robbie Burns, the food you consume immediately after the race turns directly into muscle. It's called burnsmosis. The (smaller) tire around my waist must be made of a special kind of muscle.

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The Behemoth

From vacation

If you haven't been to Canada's Wonderland in the last year or so, know this: things have changed. Some for the better, some for the worse, and some for the AWESOME!

This past Wednesday, my "Urban Family" and I went to Wonderland to escape the world of work, research, and whatever it is that Dan does. Also: we wanted to avoid the weekend crowd.

Apparently everyone else had the same idea, so although our first three rides (before 11am) were without lines, the majority of the day was spent standing in line, judging all the thick eyeliner, coloured contacts, impeccably short shorts, tight-see-through tops, double-popped-collars, exposed chest hair, and Lamb of God (the heavy metal band, not Jesus the son of God) t-shirts. We must have missed the memo on Canada's Wonderland dresscode.

We found ourselves saying (on multiple occasions) "my mother would never have let me out of the house looking like that." (The first occasion was referring to exposed cheeks. Not the ones on the face.) How proud my mother would have been.

To prove that we were just from a more "tastefully dressed" era, and not "old," we made it our mission to do The Behemoth as many times as we could. Last year, we did it four times. This time, we only managed three -- limited only by rain and the length of the lineup, and not our Young Roller Coaster Spirits.

From vacation

The ride is fabulous. I recommend to all. Even my mother would love it. Words alone cannot express how exhilirating a ride it is; therefore, I bought a mug. A very large mug. You could say it was a behemoth.

From vacation

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