Gingerbread

Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread -- I'm about to get sick of the stuff and still have about 12 dozen more to make of the 70 dozen I planned on this Christmas. I started making the stuff in Mobile, AL, before moving up here and it has become a tradition for me. It brings on the Christmas spirit and is my way of sharing myself, being that I am somewhat reclusive. It is also the gift I give you if I don't want to buy you a present.
I tell everyone that it is a family recipe, but I actually got it from the Betty Crocker cookbook my mom had when I was growing up. She made it, too, but not the way I do. I love it spicey and thick -- cakelike. Even people who don't like gingerbread seem to enjoy it. But, by the end of the baking both I and the kitchen counters and floor are well dusted with flour and I am sick of the smells of cloves, cinnamon, allspice and ginger, and the endless hand mixing that the stiff dough requires. I usually only eat one or two of my own cookies.
Outside the wind is romping, typical winter at Lookout -- too cold for those strong enough to fly, too strong for the rest of us. I've flown in that stuff -- or been flown by it, waiting to land when my hands were so cold I couldn't feel them, nor release them from the control bar. Winter here varies between windy and rainy and bright and cold and windier. Fortunately, it only lasts two months.

Gingerbread Cookies (thick ones):

1/3C shortening
1C Brown sugar -- dark
1 12-oz bottle molasses
Mix together thoroughly with:
1&1/2 tsp cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and cloves
add 2/3C cold water and mix
Add in 7C plain flour and 1 tsp salt with 2 tsp baking soda.
The dough will be quite stiff and may require hand-kneading to work the last of the flour in. Roll out thick (about 1/4-1/2 inch thick) and cut into festive shapes. Bake on lightly greased (I use Pam) cooking sheet at 350 degrees for 15 min. Makes about 3-3&1/2 dozen medium-sized cookies