Building a house of raw

That sounds like something from "The Three Little Pigs." In that case, I should have taken a cue from the story and built my house of bricks; just kidding.

I just wanted to fill you in on the gingerbread house construction. I brought all of the pieces to my mom's house to build my masterpiece with my family (mom, son, two nephews, sister, grandmother, aunts, cousins and a cousin's fiance).

But before I got started on my own house, I put together the framework for my son's work of art, which he decorated himself. It's not raw, but I've posted it anyway in his honor :-)

Then, I went right to work on my raw version. I set up my work station, covered a box with silver paper, filled a pastry bag with raw icing and began "gluing" the pieces together.

Unfortunately, I ran into some technical difficulties. The icing would begin to warm in my hands and start flowing too fast out of the tip. I overcame this obstacle by taking several breaks to re-chill the bag.

As you can see, patience pays off; I managed to build a house that exceeded my expectations (I was just hoping to end up with something that resembled a house in one way or another). I was happy with the first picture, but then I took it a step further and added a walkway and some trees.

I also took some time to decorate the extra cookies I cut out the night before with the leftover dough. In addition to the trees, I made a snowman and a gingerbread boy and girl. I even sampled them for quality control.

Satisfied with my success (and relieved to be finished), I sat down with my family to enjoy a warm bowl of soup; mine was raw, of course. Just look how alive it looks next to their cooked version (my mom made sure to make it vegan just in case I wanted some; she's always thinking of me). Maybe I'll make a larger batch to share next time. Do you think they would eat it? If not, more for me.

P.S. Mom, the house made it home in one piece :-)