The Lost Gingerbread Post or The No-Mess Crisco Device

Isn't it cute! Look in the windows, can you see anything?

It's the day after Christmas and I finally have a moment to just relax and put this post together. I've had the pictures and the gingerbread house completed for about a week now, so I'm really happy to finally be showing them! The House ended up taking LittlePlum, Bethany, and I about two days to finish. The first day we made up all the gingerbread dough and icing and on the second we assembled the house and decorated it. As I promised before I'm going to share a little trick I learned to measure out Crisco. In a lot of holiday baking recipes you will  find that it calls for Crisco or vegetable shortening. I personally love using it whenever called for, because of how well the products turn out, but I know many people have trouble using vegetable shortening because of how messy it can be. So here's what I do, I hope it helps you the next time you have to use Crisco.

You will need:

• Sandwich size plastic bag
• Plastic wrap

 First, place a square of plastic wrap in your measuring cup.

Then, using the plastic bag as a glove, scoop out the Crisco and place it in to the plastic covered measuring cup until you have the desired amount.

I ran out of sandwich bags and had to use the small snack bags, thankfully it worked still and I didn't get any Crisco on my hands. 

Then, it's as simple as pulling the plastic wrap out of the measuring cup and putting it in the bowl.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

-E

Plans Gone Awry

Please forgive the slow updates on my posts lately, things have been slightly hectic around here lately. I had a great post planned for tonight but my youngest dog-child, Baxter, keeps taking my attention away from the computer. Right now I am typing one handed since my second hand is currently holding his bone for him. Yeah, he's a bit high maintenance. If I let him chew the bone by himself he immediately starts whining. But it's not his fault, he didn't get his hour at the dog park today, because we were too busy with our gingerbread house. That's what today's post was supposed to be about, our beautiful gingerbread house! Well, let this just be a preview for that post, because it will be epic. I plan on showing pictures of the entire project, as well as share my trick for measuring Crisco sans mess. See you then!

-E