Every Christmas, my husband would make gingerbread cookies with our kids. They would cut them out with dino and traditional gingerbread men cookie cutters. By the end of the evening, the dinos always ended up with 2 heads and the gingerbread men would have dino heads. What silly fun!

Christmas is not complete without Gingerbread Houses. This yummy, spiced dough is perfect to make a whole Gingerbread Family.

Christmas is coming. I love baking cute gingerbread men with my daughters... Bon appétit!

My Grandmom was always making crafts and baking. What I remember was her shoofly pie, it was my Dad's and my favorite!

Ginger tea is my go-to. Freshly squeezed ginger with pineapple juice is a favorite smoothie of mine. Ginger carrots are so tasty and enjoyable. Gingerbread is totally different. By combining ginger, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, flour, can egg, butter and molasses, you have a most delicious treat that goes with coffee, tea or any beverage of your choice.

Beans around the World...Ahoy Matey! This recipe is said to be from the mid 1800’s, from a staple of “Yankee” real cooking, Durgin-Park in Boston, sadly now closed, but I have the recipe from a visit a few years ago. The Best baked beans ever, deep brown, and delicious! The key is, you have to keep them moist over the six hours of baking, adding water slowly, as the recipe says, “you can’t just let the pot sit in the oven’...and don’t flood the beans! You can leave the pork out, I never use it and half the sugar...you won’t be disappointed! A simple & perfect comfort dish on damp, grey days to warm your soul, and hey, they are “Navy” beans after all😝

It’s BEAN in the Family for Generations competition entry by Sara Theuerkauf:

Nothing beats a warm, comforting meal on a cold winter's night. This illustration is inspired by winters spent growing up in Nova Scotia. We had many cold, snowy nights and this simple, flavourful meal was a favourite and one we continue to return to each winter season. We'd slather mom's brown porridge bread with butter and use it to sop up the leftover sauce. The recipe is based on a recipe in the book by Marie Nightingale titled "Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens".

- Sara Theuerkauf

Baked beans are one of my favourite comfort foods. In Eastern Canada, a traditional winter activity is to visit a "cabane à sucre", or sugar shack where they produce maple syrup. Part of the experience is a meal where foods like sausages, eggs, pancakes and baked beans are enjoyed in a communal setting! Traditionally, these beans are baked with lard but this recipe is vegetarian for all to enjoy!

As a family with 5 children, I would cook with a lot of food with beans in it. Unfortunately, my oldest son did not like beans until I found a recipe for Cowboy Beans. Wow! This changed it for him. He loved them! (Funny how a the name of the recipe made such a difference, haha!)

Beans around the world contest / This recipe is one I customized from a plain baked beans recipe, because beans heart bacon! They come out rich, sweet, smokey, and yummy, the perfect combo of baked n' bacon'd beans!

In the UK I call these borlotti beans, I love growing them, not only are they delicious, but so pretty too.

Biscuits we used to make as children to decorate and hang from the tree. Best eaten before the mice get to them!

FAVE MEMORY: one of my very earliest memories is the tins of Xmas cookies mom would start baking in early December. Each tin would hold a different cookie- butterball, spritz, pinwheels, sugar sprinkles , cut outs & more. It was heavenly. She continued the tradition for years & years. Even as an adult, it was fun to find the tins & sneak a cookie 😋. In this Xmas pic, I got my favorite doll, my brother got a drum set with a bucking bronco on the side of it 😍. Still....the cookies were the best!! This recipe is from gramma Helen’s cook book published in 1931 & I still have it. It’s beautifully leather bound & embossed.

Delicious but healthy crispy/chewy molasses cookies in under an hour!

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These are the softest of the soft when it comes to Christmas gingerbread cookies! Our family has always undercooked them by 2 minutes for ultimate soft chewy goodness.