Cooking Addict

Making time for some fun activities with the kids when the holidays roll around can be a tough task. You can make the time spent together something your children will remember for many years to come. In fact, you just might start a family tradition that they can continue with their own kids.

A great family activity that can become a yearly event is making your own gingerbread house. If you are a baker, you can fill your home with the spicy scent of gingerbread in the oven while your children wait eagerly to decorate it with the bags of goodies you stocked up on.

Supplies You Will Need

For those who are not known for their baking skills, there are many already baked gingerbread houses available that are just waiting to be decorated. They come with a few embellishments, but you will have to supply the creativity and the sweets.

• Toll house chocolate morsels in holiday shapes and colors are a must
• Green and red spice drops for added zip
• Holiday themed M&Ms
• Sprinkles
• Vanilla and chocolate frosting
• Butter knives for spreading the frosting
• Newspaper to cover your work area

You can use your imagination and your own personal tastes to customize your gingerbread house.

Now that the holidays are rolling around, it’s time to start baking cookies to give away as gifts to friends and family. A gift of home baked cookies is a gift that everyone will appreciate, from the mailman to the tellers at your bank. The only hassle with baking is the mess and clean up afterwards. You can cut some of the mundane chores out in order to leave you more time for the fun stuff: decorating!

Here are some ways you cam cut down on the messy chores and still whip up a batch of perk-me-up treats!

Buy Packaged Cookie Dough

There are so many choices of packaged cookie dough, it seems a waste of time to bake from scratch. After all, with work, the house and the kids taking up most of your time, it’s hardly practical to expect women to prepare the dough from scratch.  There are choices of prepackaged cookie dough that will allow you to decorate your cookies in any way you want.

Be sure to use lots of flour in your work area. Sometime the dough will get soft and stick to your countertops. The use of flour can help you avoid that mess. Though flour itself can be a chore to clean.

You can buy packaged cookie dough that you’ll need to roll out and use cookie cutters with, or you can buy the kind that allows you to cut a piece off and place on your cooking sheet. Be sure you stock up on edible embellishments so that you can make your cookies even more delicious and festive.

Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help

Get the kids in on the act.  Kids enjoy anything to do with cookies and will be excited to help with the actual reparations. Ensure that they help with all aspects and not just the decorating and tasting. You may find the time flies by quicker when you have little helpers cleaning up as you go along.  For more holiday baking tips, visit Real Simple.