the weather has turned here in Austin, Texas and i love to bake ginger cookies for the holidays. so i thought i would share the recipe i love to use.

Ginger Spice Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
Sugar for rolling

Preparations
Combine first 6 ingredients in medium bowl; whisk to blend. Mix in crystallized ginger. Using electric mixer, beat brown sugar, and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add egg and molasses and beat until blended. Add flour mixture and mix just until blended. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets. Spoon sugar in thick layer onto small plate. Using wet hands, form dough into 1 inch balls; roll in sugar to coat completely. Place balls on prepared sheets, spacing 1.5 inches apart.

Bake cookies until cracked on top but still soft to touch, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 minute. Carefully transfer to racks and cool. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Makes about 40.
adapted from Epicurious.com recipie

the holidays also make me think of photographs. my family has this tradition where we all get dressed up and take photos in front of my parent's christmas tree. and when i say family, i don't mean just my grandma, mom and dad and my sister and her fam...no i mean all the aunts and uncles, cousins, their families and of course the four-legged members who are around. photos also somehow make the past real. i love photos because they capture that moment in time...with all it's emotions too. and with digital photography, things have gotten easier. we point and shot without a second thought...we can always delete!

So for the christmas, i wanted to photo books made for my family. I found this wonderful site that can help me do it for cheap! it it called viovio. (i will forewarn that the UI for the site isn't grand...it actually is just...eh. but hey, it does the job.) they offer a wide variety of sizes, hard or soft covers, matte or glossy print, book or sprial bound. the possiblities are endless! so if you are a digital scrapbooker, or just want to have a proofbook of all your digital photos...this is probably your cheapest bet! so to you shutter happy people out there and sentamentalist or the digital scrapbook junkie...this is for you :)