Pffffefffernoo

Our women's group at church had their Christmas wing-ding and as it had an international theme I figured this was a good excuse to make a big batch of pfeffernusse, one of those wonderfully fragrant things that I adore and other people sometimes won't even eat.  Found a faboo recipe at allrecipes, liked the anise extract to tone down the anise slightly, had to crush whole cardamom with my pestle because I didn't have any ground (that took a while) and increased the black pepper to 1 1/2 t., added some buckwheat honey with the clover in the molasses and wow - these about make my eyes roll up in my head, mmmmmm.  They're heaven just sniffing them. Thanks to the strange aversion on the part of others, I even had a goodly lot left over to nibble/snarf at home too.

Life is uber-crazy, rather weird, both very good in some ways and quite stressful in others, very mixed right now - I'm grateful for the holidays and cookies and sparkly decorations, they are a welcome distraction and lift the spirits. 

Now - all of you go bake something super-tasty, but be sure the people around you don't want it so there's plenty left for you. ;-)