Christmas and Computers

Yesterday DGS came and made Christmas gifts for his parents and sister. He's putting in a zipper here --

I took a photo of a sheet of cookies (Swedish Buttons) ready to go into the oven, and I downloaded (uploaded?) it to iPhoto, but it has vanished. Sometimes computers make me want to return to this:

Can't do much with photos using a pencil, but the English have found a creative use for pencils: I took this picture while on the bus to Heathrow to fly home. Much more attractive than the ugly fencing we put around construction sites here!

English Gingerbread Recipe

Delicious. There are certain things I make only at Christmas, so they are always special, never 'everyday.' This is one of those.

English Gingerbread (more like shortbread than cake)

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (don't substitute!)

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

1/4 cup sultanas (golden raisins)

2 tablespoons finely diced crystallized ginger

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan.

Sift flour with the baking powder and ginger. Put into a bowl and add the pieces of butter, blending until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Stir the brown sugar, sultanas, molasses and ginger into the above mixture - it will be very short and crumbly - not like dough or batter. Press into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until a knife blade inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on a rack 10 minutes, then cut into narrow wedges. Transfer wedges to the rack to finish cooling.