12/09/03’s illustrious band:

Gingerly

Brought to you by more holiday confections. Yesterday, candy canes. Today, gingerbread.

I don’t think anything else in the world smells as marvelous as warm gingerbread. Whether in the form of moist, fluffy cake -- with raisins, of course -- or dense, spicy g-people with icing mittens, gingerbread is the aroma that jingles my bells the most.

Gingerbread is a family tradition. Sister-san has a diverse staff of gingerbread people who come out in force to decorate her house each Christmas. I enjoy baking tributary cookies from a recipe handed down from our grandparents’ bakery. Tributary cookies are a softer, chewier version of gingersnaps that get their name from the network of cracks that spread on their surfaces as they expand during baking, like a map of rivers and tributaries.

No Christmas is complete until I’ve baked a batch of tributaries, eating at least half a dozen raw. Mother Media is often kind enough to mix and chill the batter before I get to her house, so I just do the fun part: rolling balls of dough in sugar and popping them into the oven -- and then into my mouth along with a swig of cold milk. (Take-home tribs warmed for a few seconds in the microwave are almost as good.) Since tributary cookies were a special favorite of Dad’s, I always think of him when I have one. Or two.

Today around the world: December 9 is Constitution Day in the Northern Mariana Islands (a commonwealth in political union with the U.S.) and Independence Day in Tanzania (a county in eastern Africa bordering the Indian Ocean; famed Mt. Kilimanjaro provides its highest point).

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