Gingerbread men vs. Sugarbread men

Do you prefer sugar or spice?

In one corner, I offer you the traditional gingerbread men.  On the other side, we have the ever irresistible, and what I call, sugarbread men. 

Excuse the use of "men"...I should say gingerbread/sugarbread people but I'm just keeping things simple.  And all kidding aside, I feel like sugar cookies are a must for us during the holiday season.  Despite my occasional whining about rolling out cookies, I'm starting to get used to it, particularly during these cooler temperatures when handling the dough is a lot easier.  And I think I've discovered the "secret" to a great sugar cookie dough: mix in just a little bit of milk at the end and the dough comes together beautifully, is more moist, and rolls out smoothly. 

I've been making what I call "sugarbread men" cookies during Christmas for a few years.  Every time I make and taste sugar cookies, I'm reminded of how delicious butter and sugar are together. 

I have to say I prefer sweetness to spice.  For as long as I've been making cookies from scratch (which actually isn't all that many years), I've made sugar cookies for the holidays, in various holiday shapes.  I actually never made gingerbread cookies until last year around this time.  And it started because each year, we'd pick up one of those ready-to-go gingerbread houses to decorate at home with our son and usually, the house would come with a couple of gingerbread people and he'd ask to eat one.  Of course, I'd shriek "no, you can't eat that!  Who knows how long those cookies have been in the box!"  And so finally, I appeased the little guy by saying I'd make him some gingerbread cookies myself.

Look, there's gingerbread snow-man too!

So I'm making these gingerbread men cookies last year thinking this is going to be a waste of time.  The boy is not going to like them.  Personally, I don't particularly like them and my husband isn't a big fan either.  I've never been into strong spices (in a cookie) and I'm thinking there's just no way the kid is going to like all that ground ginger, cloves, and such.  Of course, you know where this is going.  The boy liked them...quite a bit.  Maybe not as much as chocolate cake but he liked them.  I was surprised.  So it's a new tradition to make gingerbread cookies around here and it's fun to decorate them and leave them around the house for decor.  I prefer to just use sanding sugar or nonpareil sprinkles on the sugar cookies since they're sweet enough alone, and save the royal icing treatment for the gingerbread cookies.

So I guess I could say there's sugar, spice and everything nice in our house?

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday is coming up in just a few days.  In our house, my little guy is very eager for this holiday because it means the Easter bunny will come and leave him a trail of eggs to find in the backyard.  He is very curious about when the Easter bunny actually comes and whether he talks or knows how to drive a car.  He can't wait to open up those plastic eggs and see if the Easter bunny remembered to leave him a few of those matchbox cars he loves so much. 

This is a beautiful time of year, when the grass starts to turn green and flowers begin to jut out from the ground.  Despite battling the allergies that come with this, it feels like the world is waking up from the long, cold winter's sleep and everything goes from black and white to color.  I'm glad to say goodbye to all that snow we had this year!  So how ever you are celebrating Easter and what it symbolizes for you, here's to the start of something new.  

I thought I'd mark the holiday by making some classic sugar cookies and cutting them out into some Easter theme shapes.  I decorated a few with some royal icing but this is definitely not my area of expertise!  But hey, it's all about having fun and learning in the kitchen.