Graham Crackers -- The New Gingerbread

My first encounter with a gingerbread house came when I, as a Wisconsinite transplanted to Arizona, was invited to a holiday dinner at a colleague's house. Their gingerbread house was preserved with some kind of acrylic or shellac, and they used it year after year. I was disappointed. Although it was beautiful, I couldn't imagine making a cookie house that couldn't be eaten.

A few years later, I watched Martha Stewart build a gingerbread mansion on her television show, and decided this would be a fun activity to do with my kids -- then ages 5 and 2. We bought a kit and assembled a Mickey Mouse gingerbread house, complete with sloppy icicles everywhere and too much candy (and also many decorative fingerprints). It was much better-looking than Martha's "perfect" house, according to friends and relatives. Then I discovered no one in my family likes gingerbread except me.

This discovery led us to try alternative cookie types. Some cookie dough was too soft, some too fragile. Then we ran across the not-so-new idea of building with graham crackers, and a new construction company was born! We did this at home for fun, for birthday parties, with Girl Scouts . . . and now we'll be doing it at the library! Saturday, December 15 from 1-3 p.m. you can build a delicious cookie house dripping with frosting and candy!

I've been trying to put together a few cookie houses to decorate the children's library (and to brush up on the how-to's before Dec. 15). Unfortunately, my pets see a kitchen counter littered with cookies and candy as an open invitation to dine. So far, there are no survivors (no surviving houses, that is). December 15 might be my only chance.

Join me on Saturday, December 15 and discovering the joy of Graham Crackers -- The New Gingerbread!