My favourite thing about family holidays has always been the family getting together and baking. Most holidays we made pies, bread/ rolls and the odd new-fangled concept which seemed to always work out, some how. Those days are a bit lost now as we move from the old generation into the new. But, I still like holiday baking and Halloween is one of my favourite three holidays.

I like these gingerbread men because they bring something new to an old Christmas tradition and something new to Halloween. Halloween gingerbread men are a good combination. Plus, tasty treats too.

Of course, most of these are based on the zombie idea. It's so trendy these days with zombie walks popping up in so many places. Gingerbread men (gingerbread people) in the zombie style tend to come with parts missing, gore and so on. Of course, you could just eat the odd leg - but that's a bit too much like double dipping. Frowned upon.

Then there's the skeleton gingerbread guy. Will you pick out the bones first or risk just crunching them between your teeth, in real gruesome Halloween style?

Why not continue on with all the standard Halloween characters in gingerbread, the ghost, the witch, the vampire, the Frankenstein monster and the mummy too. You can get tin, some snips and create your own cookie cutter designs. If you really want to go all out with the idea of gingerbread characters for Halloween.

Decorating the gingerbread men would be a bit challenging. I wouldn't like to use a lot of black icing so I'd get creative and turn them into colourful characters. Bring in more green and orange, black isn't the only traditional Halloween colour. Why should cookies be so darkly Gothic?

Pick a recipe for a basic or simple sugar cookie. These are the type which you can roll out, cut and decorate. Not every recipe will be roller friendly so if you try a new recipe read it all the way through first. Some may need refrigeration, some may be crispy and likely to break and snap once they are baked. Martha Stewart has a basic sugar cookie recipe, but if you have a family favourite stick with that!

Decorating cookies is a great way to make your best creative notions as edible creations. Use a simple cookie recipe, cut out the cookie shapes, decorate them, bake them and share them with family, friends and whoever wears the best costume.

I used to have cookie cutters that belonged to my Grandmother. I remember a gingerbread man. It was aluminum, a dull silver colour. The shape was filled in, not like the modern ones that are open on top. The old gingerbread man was wearing a pointy hat. That's about all I can really, clearly remember about him any more.

It's been a long time since I've seen that cookie cutter. Too much moving, too many boxes lost or damaged. Lost due to things like the water heater bursting and flooding the basement. Mice nibbling at boxes which were then thrown out as useless. Or, boxes just being forgotten in some corner of one basement or another. It's sad to lose things that way. It bothers me more than any other way of losing things. As if the things lost that way were never important enough to remember.

But, I have the hope that my lost things will be found someday and become someone's great find, treasured all over again, though they won't know the history. They won't know that cookie cutter once belonged to my Grandmother. They won't know my Grandmother, my Mother, my brother and sisters and I made gingerbread people many times with that old cookie cutter in the kitchen of the house I remember best from my growing up days. I wish I could tell whoever finds that cookie cutter the history behind it. Tell them about how my Grandmother was once nicknamed Pepper and how she liked to plant potatoes in the garden to aggravate my Grandfather. I'd like to tell them about how she fought breast cancer for years until she had to show/ teach us all how to die quietly, with pride and courage. I miss her. I really wish we had that cookie cutter still. There is some hope it will turn up in a box not opened during years of moving from place to place. More likely it is gone, to be found by someone who will wonder about that cookie cutter and other things that may be in the box they find in some corner of the basement of the house they move into.

It would be nice to tell them about that cookie cutter. To let them know it's not just another old cookie cutter. But, it doesn't work that way with lost treasures. The story becomes a secret known only to those who lost it. Those who find it can only wonder or imagine what the history behind it might be. Maybe, when they imagine the story they will get some of it right. That would be nice.

I have other new cookie cutters. A small collection of them. This Christmas I tried making gingerbread men again. I made the batter from a recipe online. But, when I tried to cut out the cookies the batter was too runny and sticky. It could not hold the shape. So no gingerbread men again this year. I will find a better recipe next year. Ideally, I'd like to get matching cookie cutters for gingerbread men and women and another for a gingerbread house cookie shape. Those would be the pinnacle of my collection.

Note: The aluminum gingerbread man in this article, looks like my Grandmother's old one. It might be the very same kind that she had. Also, we had a Christmas tree and that bunny from this collection too. Ours was badly dented in the middle though.

Resources:

The Cookie Cutter Collector's Club -- Based in the US. The 2010 convention will be in California, in June.

Cookie Cutter Search -- From the Cookie Cutter Collector's Club.

There are cookie cutter collectors displaying their cookie cutters in photos on Flickr: Cookie Cutters.

After you look at that group, see how the cookies were decorated on Flickr: Cookie Cutter Cookies.

Brand Name Cooking -- Has posted a good article about collecting cookie cutters.

This is the original recipe. Of course, I had to fiddle with it.

First, no pecans cause my brother is allergic to any nuts except peanuts. He may not even be here for the cake but you never know if plans will change or he could be by and hope for leftover cake the next day.

Other changes: added some vanilla (real vanilla not extract), added cocoa powder and did not have ground cloves. Also, because it's Thanksgiving we have lots of pumpkin all cooked from fresh pumpkin so I did not use any pumpkin out of a can for this recipe.

I probably won't serve it with a brick of cream cheese and fruit. It's a birthday cake! We have candles and I have icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder to make some chocolate icing. 

PUMPKIN GINGER PECAN LOAF

Serve with a brick of cream cheese (soft, for spreading) and fruit.

1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup unsifted flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup water
1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.

Sift together dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture alternately with water. Beat well after each addition. Add pumpkin and beat until well blended. Stir in chopped pecans. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and spread smooth.

Bake in moderate oven (350°F) 60 to 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out on rack to cool thoroughly.

Makes 1 loaf.

Blueberry Cottage Cheese Pancakes presented by The Inn Keeper's Place Bed and Breakfast

Makes 18 pancakes (4")

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups blueberries

Butter for griddle or Pam spray.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

Stir together sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl.

Add flour mixture, stir until just combined.

Gently stir in blueberries.

Heat oven to 200. Heat a griddle over medium heat. Butter griddle lightly.

Spoon level 1/4 cup batter onto griddle for each pancake.

Cook until lightly brown and bubbles begin to form 3-4 minutes.

Turn and cook other side. Keep in warm oven on baking sheet until ready to serve.

Garnish with berries and citrus wedges.

These sound great. Will be trying them tomorrow morning. Zack and I are going to make a pancake breakfast for Grandma.

When I was a kid one of the best things was doing stuff with my Mom. Even though we didn't get things exactly right, or as well as she could have done it herself, my Mom was pretty good about letting us do things by ourselves. We did cooking, gardening and crafts all year round. Christmas was the time of year for the most cooking and crafts. We would have a lot of family come to our house every holiday but Christmas was the busiest time of all.

I really remember peeling what seemed like hundreds of apples for pies. Kneading the dough for hours and hours to make bread, of course it was only about half an hour that I actually lasted. We made homemade jam, tried making candles at least once. I did sewing too but that was usually in front of the TV and we didn't have as much chatting and fun.

Here is a recipe which I found on the Internet a couple of weeks ago. I've since made it twice and its turned out great, even when I didn't measure carefully and adapted it to make less bread since its only me that will be here to eat it. You can help make this with your Mom, or Dad or Grandparents, whoever you choose. Bread is a bit fussy, you should have the room warm so the yeast will rise. The kneading is still good arm muscle exercise too.

Enjoy the recipe, this is my adaptation of it.

Boil a kettle of water, let it sit in a large bowl or measuring cup until its lukewarm. That means its hotter than just being warm. Sprinkle a package of dry yeast (not the fast kind) over the water. Then sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over top of the yeast. Cover it up so its nice and warm and leave it to start growing. If its happy, nice and warm and left alone, it will grow. In ten minutes check it and see.

Now, add all the ingredients to a large bowl, big enough for your bread to grow about double in size while it rises.

Here is what you will be adding to your yeast:

half a cup (or less) sugar half a cup (or less) canola oil a sprinkle of salt 2 tablespoons of white vinegar 2 cups of water (more or less) 8 cups of flour (more or less)

By more or less I just mean that you can make a bigger or smaller batch of dough. With the flour I didn't measure it, just kept working it in and then kneading until it stopped cementing itself to the countertop.

Stir all the ingredients until its too thick to stir in your bowl. Now, before you get your hands really messy with dough, pour some flour on the counter where you will be kneading the dough. Pour about a cup of flour and keep it handy in case you need more. Smooth some flour over the counter and put your lump of dough on top. Now, last thing to do before you start kneading is put some oil in the bottom of your bowl. This keeps the dough from sticking when you let it sit to rise.

Now, you're ready for the kneading. Roll up your sleeves. Hold your arms out in front of you. If you have your hands up, facing the dough that bottom part of the palm of your hand is what you use to knead the bread. Don't knead with your fingers, that just gets messy. If you push the bread around with that bottom part of your hand you will find it much easier. Don't forget to bend your elbows as you smush and roll that dough. Do turn it as you knead. Its pretty much knead, turn, knead, turn, etc. Just a quarter turn each time.

Keep kneading for at least 15 minutes. My Mom and my Great Aunt Alice, used to tell me to knead it until it squeaked. I didn't believe them about it squeaking but a couple of times I kneaded it for a really long time and it did squeak! It was so funny. Once it starts squeaking they come more and more often. But, your arms will be rubbery by then. Get your brothers and sisters, all your family to help. Tell them to wash their hands first. Sometimes people forget that they are actually going to be eating that dough a little later.

Now, when you've decided you are all kneaded out, put the dough in the oiled bowl. Rub oil over the surface and then turn it over so top and bottom are both oiled. It doesn't need a thick coat, just a little does fine. Cover it up again, just as you did when it was just yeast and leave it to rise, grow again. This time you can give it an hour. Now its got all that flour weighing it down so it takes longer for the yeast to grow. Keep the room warm, or at least keep the bread dough warm.

After its had an hour to rise come back and have a look. This time you will punch it down. As kids we always liked this part. It was funny to see it deflate down. Give it a couple of punches if you like, just don't go crazy. Remember you will be eating this later.

Making the bread into shapes doesn't take long once you get the hang of it. You can make a loaf of bread or individual buns. A loaf is just a big chunk of dough which you turn the edges down underneath itself until the top is a nice smooth round shape. Oil your pan, not too much oil, your crust doesn't need to fry just bake. Put that aside to rise for the last time, cover it up, just as before.

Making buns is no big trick. You don't need muffin trays if you don't have them or don't want to wash all those individual holes in the tray. I like to just use a deep cooking pan, the same kind I make lasagna and other casseroles in. Buns also need that nice rounded, smooth top. The bottom will be hidden so its ok to be funny looking. Try to keep all your buns the same size so none burn.

Take a glob of dough in one hand. Find kind of a smooth spot to start with and then shape the dough with your fingers so that spot is at the top of a globe shape of dough. Now, choose which hand is easier to work with and hold your thumb and index finger together in a circle shape. Push your globe shape dough through the whole with the smooth surface going through first. This stretches the smooth surface even more. When the dough is mostly through the hole of your fingers use your other hand to push the bottom ends up inside and together to the centre. Now you have made a bun. Stick the first one in the centre of your pan with the rough looking bottom side down. Now put all the next buns you make around that first one until you have the pan full. Don't squish them together to fill the pan. Remember, they are going to rise again and will easily fill the pan when they have grown. Sometimes they even grow a tiny bit more in the oven before the heat starts to cook them.

Once your buns or loaf of bread have had about an hour to rise, all nice and warm, just as before, its time to finally cook them. During that last rising time, the last few minutes, you can get the oven warming up. It can to about 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Its a nice feeling to put your bread in the oven, after all your work kneading and making buns and all that time waiting for them to grow! Watch that they don't start to burn. Sometimes they cook fast, it depends on your oven. Expect it will take 15 to 30 minutes. You know they are done when the tops look golden and if you tap the top with a fork it will sound hollow.

Don't forget your oven mitts when pulling them out of the oven. I hope you have butter to put on them. Few things are as good as fresh homemade bread, still warm from the oven with butter on them. My Mom used to put a little butter over the tops of all the bread and buns, just to give them a nice shiny look.

Enjoy the bread. I hope it can be a real family day for you.