A Pair of Black Eyes!

Hmmm, it looks like Al Roker's gingerbread man features nuts.

When I think of cookies and bites, I think of , well you know, cookies that you bite. But when my son Jack thinks of cookies, he is more likely to be thinking of computer bytes and bits.

I fell in love with my children for so many reasons. As a father, I can tell you that I have found great pride in knowing that my kids and I share certain personality traits. But they also have many traits that I can only aspire to having.

A proud Dad and his son Jack.

Parent rule number one: never compare your kids to each other.

Yeah, well, okay. I confess I may have broken that rule from time to time. Hey, can you really blame me? Many times my kids were my only point of reference.

This is me around 1963, drawing pictures.

As a small child, I loved to draw and color. From the time my oldest child Alison was small, she also loved coloring and drawing. I didn't think much of it. I felt like drawing and coloring were simply things that kids like to do. But while Alison loved drawing and coloring, my youngest child, Jack, made it clear that he was not interested in drawing or coloring in the least.

Sure, like most other toddlers, Jack liked pushing paint around. But when it came time for Jack to color in a picture, that was a different story all together. He felt that coloring, regardless of whether the image was in a coloring book or a picture that someone else had drawn, was a complete waste of his time.

What's more, Jack was perfectly willing to let anyone who asked him to color something know just how he felt about it.

Case in point, I remember a grade school paper that Jack brought home that had a failing grade and a note from his teacher. Jack had answered all the questions correctly on his homework, but there was still a problem. He had refused to color in the pictures as he had been instructed. The teacher's note was in response to a note that Jack had written on his homework paper that read,"I don't color". The teacher wrote back, "Jack, the instructions were to add the numbers and color the pictures."

Later that same school year, Jack was given a fun holiday art class assignment. All the children in Jack's class were given a plain paper cut out of a gingerbread man. The class was instructed to decorate cut outs at home and then bring it back for display on the bulletin board. These were meant to become a gingerbread self portrait so to speak.

After the school's Christmas pageant, my wife , our kids and I visited each child's classroom to check out their classroom's holiday display. When we got to Jack's classroom we were greeted by some of the cutest gingerbread "children" you can imagine. The results of the art assignment were really fun and creative. Most of the children in his class had used yarn, fabric scraps, photos, glitter, magic markers and paints to decorate their cookies.

I say most because not all of the children were so inspired.

My son Jack took a more "minimalist" approach to decorating his gingerbread boy. Jack chose to simply use his pencil to draw a pair of black eyes, a curved smile, and two buttons on his cut out. He then simply called it a day. No color. No glitter. No fabric scraps or cut out photos.

Looking at Jack's black and white gingerbread boy among all the his classmates's colorful creations, we could not help but laugh about it. I seem to recall telling his mother at the time, "Well, Jack is one kid who certainly is never going to become an artist!"

This is not to say Jack was not a creative child. His medium was Lego blocks rather than paper and crayons. He was constantly making things like airplanes, cars, rockets, moon vehicles, concert stages or movie sets out of Lego blocks.

Jack and his Legos.

Fast forward ten years and we find Jack finishing up his first semester freshman year attending ...(you guessed it) art school. Jack has enrolled in Virginia Commonwealth University's (VCU) School of Art. That same child who could not be bothered with pushing a crayon when he was a small boy is now creating life sized drawings of himself and sewing gigantic soft sculptures of a MAC computer.

At times, all these art projects became a bit overwhelming for him. This is understandable when you consider that Jack was never one to do crafts, draw, paint or even color for that matter. I try to remind Jack that this school year should be all about trying new things. It's okay not to be accomplished in everything he tries. This is his time for exploration and learning about what he likes and where he does (or doesn't) have talent.

I heard once that a man's desire to reproduce is directly linked to his fear that without a teenage son, he will never be able to operate his new electronic devices.

This may be true. It was true for me. More than once I have called on Jack to help me with my computer ( yet another trait I admire in him).

Jack was always fearless with my computer.

It is a good thing Jack is so comfortable with computers. Once he is officially accepted in the art program (he finds out if he is officially accepted in the art program following the completion of his freshman year), Jack will be working mostly on his computer and will be spending much less time in the art studio. I wish him all the luck in the world and could not be more proud of him.

How about some cookies? And now I am talking about the REAL deal.

While Jack's grammar school gingerbread man may have left us with something to be desired, I have a recipe today for spicy Gingerbread cookies that are sure to please. More than once I have been complimented on these cookies with the remark, " I never really liked gingerbread cookies, but these are amazing!".

I hope you will give these a try. These are cookies I am sure to bake a least once every year at Christmas. Truth be told, these often are eaten so fast, I make more than one batch each year. In fact, I need to make another batch already this year due to the fact my first batch has already been eaten.

These cookies are so tasty, they do not need frosting, but I still like to frost some anyway.

Jack on the other hand, prefers his plain without frosting. Go figure...

John's Spicy Rolled Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

5 Cups of All-purpose Flour

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda

4 Teaspoons of Ground Ginger

2 Teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon

2 Teaspoons of Ground Cloves

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Cup of Shortening

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Egg

1 Cup of Molasses

1 Tablespoons of Vinegar

Directions:

In a large bowl, add in the Flour, Soda, Spices and 1/2 teaspoon of Salt. Using a whisk, combine dry ingredients.

Beat shortening for about 30 seconds, then add Sugar and beat until it is fluffy and completely combined. Add in the Egg, Molasses and Vinegar and beat well. Add in dry ingredients, a little at a time, until thoroughly blended. If too dry, you can add in a teaspoon of water at a time until you are able to form the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into two portions. Fashion each portion into a ball, then a flatten each ball into a disc. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

When ready to bake the cookies, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease your cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap. Place the dough between wax paper. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut cookies with your favorite cookie cutters and then bake for 5 to 8 minutes. Do not over bake.

These cookies need to cook before removing from the cookie sheet as they will harden as they cool. If you remove the cookies while they are too warm, they will be too soft and are likely to break apart.

For some reason, these cookies taste even better the day after you bake them. The flavor becomes more intense the next day. As I said earlier, while they are delicious plain, I like to frost them with a simple white outline. The dramatic dark brown color of the cookie contrasts so well with simple white frosting. For an added punch of color and flavor, try using red hot candies to decorate your cookies.

Give this recipe a try. When you eat these, I just know you are going to love every single bite (and that's bite spelled with an "i" Jack).

Jack says, "Trust me when I tell ya, these cookies are the best!"

Happy Holidays!