Party kickoff 2016

[wiseheart]

Welcome to my annual (virtual) birthday party! I'll be turning 60 on October 9, which is a round number, meaning, that a whole new decade of my life will start. Imagine that! Where has all the time gone when I was not watching?

In any case, let's have fun! The goal is, as always, to create as many collapsing threads on as many pages as possible. I'll kick up the first few topics, just to start the ball rolling, but basically it's up to you what we'll be talking about. So far, we always had fascinating topics. Photos of cakes and cookies and flowers and kittens and whatever you want to post are also welcome.

Since LJ chose to crash our party 3 years ago, I'll save the whole thing to Dreamwidth on a daily basis. Last time it happened it took us an ungodly amount of effort to recreate the lost comments, and even so, we didn't manage to get everything back.

Again, welcome and let's have fun! God knows we all deserve it. The party closes at midninght on October 9, sharp, as always. Let's use the time we have well! Last year we had almost 900 comments, most of them in various threads of lovely discussions - let's hope we'll going to have at least as much fun and enjoyment again!

And a Hobbit-style birthday gift for Merlin fans: I've finally updated "Magic Mirror"!
Chapter 6 - Leontes in Wonderland has been posted to FF.Net. Enjoy!

Comments

[sammydragoncat]

Interesting, the gingerbread recipe I use calls for molasses not honey.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I never worked with molasses. I seriously doubt you can get them over here. But in Hungary (and in Germany, too), gingerbread is always made with honey. Although there are a few recipes that call for syrup, most people just use honey.

[sammydragoncat]

I believe honey is the more traditional way to make it, molasses is a very strong taste, I have been cutting back on the amount called. I might start using honey instead.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is supposed to be healthy, too. Perhaps that's why I hate it. *g*

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to try it, I could send you a jar of good molasses in your Christmas package, I think. I'll have to check customs and shipping rules, as it's a liquid. It gives the cookies a darker color and also a darker flavor. Growing up, we made both a pale cookie dough with white sugar -- similar to your recipe -- and a dark cookie dough with the molasses for our holiday baking.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That's very nice of you to offer, but since we both hate gingerbread, the good stuff would be wasted on us. This is about the third time I made the things, and I don't intend to make them again out of my own free will. There are too many good cookies that are less bother and we both like. :)

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Life is too short to bake cookies one does not care to eat!
And please give Mum my greetings.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I have. She sends her love. We both still remember the wonderful surprise when you gave me a phone call on my birthday, all those years ago. It is always a warm feeling to be able to connect at least a voice to all the written messages, as it is rather unlikely that either of us would manage to get into the country of the other one. Unfortunately.
How is the Beloved doing?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

The recipes I know for the more cakey type of gingerbread use black treacle, which I believe is like one of the types of molasses. It would certainly come out differently with honey, but would be interesting to try at some point.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

For dark gingerbread we usually just add a certain amount of cocoa powder. Works like a charm, or so the people who regularly make the stuff tell me.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

That is very interesting. If I get back to baking, I'll have to experiment with that.