I have a thing for plastic- and paper-ware.  Fun, pretty, clever, playful... there is so much cute stuff out there begging me to buy it and bring it home, and I can almost always never say no.  Their squeaky, high pitched, plastic-y voices call out---"pick us, pick us!!.... we're perfect for picnics, for barbecues...we're dressed in so many bright and festive colors....we're relatively cheap (especially those blue and red-checked bowls that you picked up at the grocery store)..."



"....we never BREAK (unlike your favorite red and white transferware vegetable dish that you sweat bullets over every time you use it to actually serve food in)....we are dishwasher-safe (but don't put us in the microwave, like someone did to Mr. Baby-Blue Polka Dot plastic-plate, who now sports a couple of unattractive bubbles and bumps)..."  



The many darling paper plates and napkins that I encounter everywhere are tempting too, their papery voices whisper beguilingly..."you don't even have to wash us, just throw us away when you are all finished eating.  Minimal cleanup. You like that, don't you?" 


These voices don't stop once I bring my latest find home and tuck (stuff) it into my already bulging cupboards and drawers. These melamine-as-paper plates charmers below created a shrill clamor as the Fourth of July approached---"don't we remind you of all those family picnics on the beach, the boxes of fireworks your brothers bought from those roadside stands (when fireworks were still legal in California), Colonel Sanders fried chicken with sand in it?"








"Oh please bring us out so we can all be nostalgic and go on a sentimental journey back to all those Fourth of July picnics at the beach, in the park, in the back yard with the smell of newly cut grass and the whine of hovering mosquitoes!"  So out came the red, white, and blue crew....

Cookies aren't what I would normally think of when planning the birthday dessert for any party... but here is what thinking outside of the box gets you, especially when you add that old birthday standby, ice cream (and in my world, chocolate)..... 




Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add the egg and beat well.  Add the molasses, and beat until light and fluffy.  

Sift together the flour, soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger (another option is to use a whisk to mix dry ingredients and remove any lumps). 

Add dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg-molasses mixture, and mix just until combined (you don't want to see any traces of the flour mixture, but you don't want to over mix either). Chill the dough for at least 2 hours; overnight is better.  Chilling the dough well helps to prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven and produces a thick, chewy cookie.

Using a spoon or a tablespoon-sized ice cream scoop, form small-walnut sized balls. Roll each ball in granulated sugar and place on a non-stick cookie sheet (using parchment paper is even better, since it eliminates any sticking).  Sprinkle each unbaked cookie with a few drops of water (this causes the cookies to crack when they bake) and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the cookies are set, not hard (they will firm up as they cool).  Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.