Gingerbread Houses for Girls' Night

Sometimes, the culinary adventure is not in the ingredients...or even in the finished product. I doubt I'll even nibble on this. But the adventure is the process and the company. Last night I went to MY Museum's inaugural Gingerbread House Making for the 21 and over Crowd; they have an event for the littles this weekend to round out their Gingerbread Extravaganza Weekend.

Pia and I were joking that we made dinner for our boys and completely neglected to feed ourselves. Thankfully, in addition to the gingerbread houses, we had grown-up libations, and delicious nibbles from some of our favorite local food artisans.

Chef Ron Mendoza of Revival Ice + Cream was first to the rescue. Yes, we did eat dessert first! We devoured the chocolate popsicles dipped in milk chocolate and covered in whiskey meringues. And, yes, it was as decadent as it sounds.

There were also peppermint chocolate whoopie pies from Chef Michelle Lee at the InterContinental - The Clement and some tasty morsels - think caprese skewers, melon and prosciutto, and chorizo and cheese drizzled with honey - from The Wharf Marketplace. Did you know they catered? I didn't. Yum.

And the reason I didn't get photos of the food: I was too busy chatting and making my gingerbread house!

photo by Pia

After spending hours upon hours baking gingerbread and spending way too much money on candy, I kinda like the all-in-a-box-gingerbread-house kit! Within 90 minutes, we had finished houses. See!

photo by MY Museum

At the end of the evening, I dropped mine in the box for safe-keeping and headed home.

I did want to add a quick note about my scarf because it's timely and festive. I planned to crochet little gingerbread scarves for my girlfriends, but (1) I don't know how to crochet though I am a quick study and (2) I ran out of time. So, if anyone wants to teach me how to do this... let me know! I'm already thinking about next year's Gingerbread Extravaganza.