Men will grow in the oven.

I few weeks ago I needed to make cookies, and I had a hankering for gingerbread. And I also had molasses in the cupboard. And in the back of my brain was a memory that the best gingerbread cookies I'd ever had were from a Christmas recipe book that my uncle and aunt gave my mom for Christmas about 15 years ago.

So I called up my mom and described the book and the recipe I was looking for...the description went something like this: "It's the one Uncle Paul and Aunt Elaine gave you one year. Sort-of country-ish? Christmassy, though. Yeah, and there's a recipe in there. It's either for molasses cookies or gingerbread cookies. I don't remember what they're called. Oh, gingerbread? Yeah, with molasses in the recipe. Yep, that's them. Can you email me that recipe?"

I ran by the store and picked up a couple items I was missing and I came home to print off my mom's email - and opened it, and read through, and began to laugh.

The final instructions read like this: "Add more flour if making gingerbread men. Cut them out and place them on the sheet. Men will grow in the oven."

And my mom had added: "(yes the recipe says just that) :) See if any men grow in YOUR oven."

None did. Much as I tried. Instead, cookies came out. And they were a hit. A HUGE hit. All the college girls that ate them loved them. More than men.

I need cookies again this week. So I decided to see if men would grow in my oven again.

Still no men. But awfully good cookies.