The holiday season is a time of family gatherings and family gathering games. Here’s one of our favorites, from Uncle Elwyn’s 80th birthday party:
Caravan Sites I have Visited.
Here’s how you play it:
Each team is given a print out of a dozen photographs of campsites that Uncle Elwyn has visited. The teams must identify these campsites based on things like; “the grass looks pretty green, is it in Wales? Does anyone know the name of any campsite in Wales?†or “That sheep looks cold. Maybe this campsite’s in Scotland.â€
After half an hour of this, including a fair bit of hysterical drinking, Uncle Elwyn’s son Gareth stood up and read the results. We scored 0 out of 20. He sat down.
A moment later, he stood up again. He’d gotten the pages muddled up and identified the wrong campsites. He would read the answers again.
We scored 0 out of 20.
Easy spiced chocolate cookies
1 ½ cups flour ¾ cup coco powder (not hot chocolate powder, real coco powder) 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp ginger ½ tsp paprika (or cayenne if you prefer) pinch of salt pinch of black pepper (about 1/2 tsp) 1 cup sugar 1 ½ sticks of butter 1 tsp espresso coffee (or vanilla extract) 1 egg Â- Make sure the butter is at room temperature, then add the sugar and mix until fluffy, then mix in the egg and the espresso
- Sift together the flour, coco, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, salt and pepper in a bowl, then add the dry mixture tbsp. by tbsp. into the butter mixture until combined
- Divide the dough in half so that it is easier to manage, then roll each lump into a fat sausage. Wrap the logs of dough in wax paper, then freeze for at least 2 hours, or up to a month or so
- Pre heat the oven to 375f
- Slice the dough into fat cookies. Place on a cold baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for 8 – 10 mins – keep an eye on them. It’s hard to tell if they are burning because the dough is so dark. Plus, they firm up when they cool.
- Cool on a rack, and eat warm with ice cream as dessert, or anytime with a cup of coffee