holiday cookies

Betty felt like God the Creator last night as she rolled and pressed, framed and cut out, little men made of molasses and spice.

Making gingerbread man cookies is so fun because you may select the thickness and shape of each individual cookie, then smush the cookie up with a rolling pin if you don't like it! It's the closest some of us will ever get to being sculptors. More constructively, towards the end you may also smush together scraps of spare dough to make a man.

When Betty was buying cookie supplies, she actually FORGOT the name for "cookie cutters" (cookie stencils? she was thinking) - proving that some terms would rather become social cliches used year-round than remain useful seasonal indicators.

Here's the Joy of Baking recipe Betty more or less followed.