A Sticky Mess!

And I'm not talking about the rats that might be in the sticky box traps my husband set in the attic.  I have instructed him NOT to notify me or show me when he catches them.  After all the comments on my last entry, I felt motivated to rid our attic of such creatures.  I now understand why the world hates rats.  They are apparently (per you, my blog readers) disease carrying, poop leaving, actively procreating little rodents.  They also chew your electrical wires.  So thank you for changing my opinion - I shall never look at them the same again...(and rest in peace Stuart Little and my little Ratatouille friends).

Now, back to the point of this post.  I went to Ralph's today to buy ingredients for my favorite Christmas cookie - ginger snaps dipped in white chocolate.  Every year I make them for all our friends and they are a hit, so I will add the recipe below from the Betty Crocker Best Christmas Cookbook.  As I was picking two molasses bottles off the shelf, I accidentally dropped one.  Molasses.  Sticky gooey molasses.  Could anything make more of a mess?  I was so horrified, it took a few seconds for me to realize I might want to pick up the bottle that was split in two and quickly spilling all over the floor.  I thought about running quickly at this point, but I couldn't bring myself to do it (maybe because there was a lady beside me watching this entire event).  So I did what any good customer would do.  I pulled my cart over the sticky mess and went to the front of the store to alert them.

The nice boss lady told me not to worry, that she would get someone to clean up MY mess (yes, I admitted that it slipped out of my hand even though I wanted to say it just fell off the shelf on it's own).  She ran off and WHO did she send to my rescue?  My sweet 17 year old son, Thane who works there.  Embarrassing all the way around.  So he grabs all the cleaning materials needed for molasses (dust pan, paper towels, mop, broom, and this powder that makes it clump up supposedly).  Have you ever had to clean up half a jar of molasses?  It is not pretty.  Our fighting made it even uglier.  He kept telling me to leave and he would do it.  I insisted on helping and told him to quit treating me like a customer - I am his mom and it was MY mess. And on it went...

So the moral of this post is to be careful when you are moving molasses jars from the shelf into your cart (and make sure you don't shop where your child works!).  Now, here are the cookies and the recipe as promised.  They are on the bottom right.  Happy baking to all of you!

 

GINGERSNAPS DIPPED IN WHITE CHOCOLATE

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup shortening (or butter or butter flavored shortening!)

1/4 cup sticky gooey messy molasses (don't drop it!)

1 egg

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

Granulated Sugar

White Dipping Chocolate

Beat brown sugar, shortening, molasses and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed.   Stir in remaining ingredients except granulated sugar.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.  Heat over to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease cookie sheets.

Shape dough into round 1" balls; tip tops into sugar.  Place balls, sugared sides up, about 2" apart on cookie sheets.  Bake 9-12 minutes or just until set (do NOT over bake - they should be light, not dark and crispy as they harden as they cool).  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack and cool completely. Dip half of cookie in white dipping chocolate.  

Comments

[Orion]

Huuuummmmm looks delicious !
Kiss from France.

***Orion***

[Kristi Smith]

Lol, you should have left poor Thane to clean it up! It was embarrassing enough that he had to clean it up but even more embarrassing that his mommy was responsible and helping with the sticky molasses. ;)

Oh, my poor Stuart. No more poop in my pantry though.

I have some molasses, I will have to try that recipe!

[Jackie Hyland]

loved the story. Funny....!

[Kathryn Martin]

Oh my goodness! Those cookies look so wonderful! Wow! Amazing! Mouth watering! Luckily I just ate a big meal or I might have been tempted to raid the kitchen for something equally sinful and in high doses! :) Kathy

[Linda Beeson]

Yes, dropping something in the grocery store is major embarrassing but Molasses does take the cake!

[Linda]

Oh no!! What a mess - but you had me chuckling just the same...what luck that your own son had to come to the rescue, ha! But I'm sure when he tasted your cookies, all was well! ;) Those sure do look yummy...