Hi Jen! I never usually comment on videos, but I wanted to share a new baking habit I’ve started implementing that truly changed the game for me. I know we all have our particular ways of doing things when we are baking, but from watching many of your videos, you always exude a sense of curiosity and seem open to learning new things, so here it goes. In the past few years, I’ve been using a kitchen scale for any ingredients where it makes sense to do it - things like butter, sugar, flour, oats - even used it for molasses when I was baking ginger sparkles yesterday :) I measure in grams - it takes the guess work out of measuring (I worry about overly compacting brown sugar and I don’t have the patience for spooning flour). Instead of using measuring cups, I just put an appropriately sized bowl on the scale, tare it out, scoop or pour the ingredients into that, then transfer into to the mixing bowls. And that little dopamine flood from hitting -exactly- the right number on the scale? So satisfying. I’ve found there are also fewer dishes to wash as well. Win-win! Any old family recipes I have used for years, I have been measuring the traditional way, then putting each ingredient on the scale so I can convert the volumetric measures to mass. There are also conversion charts online that I have found to be quite reliable for many ingredients. Honestly, this switch has made baking much more manageable for me, so I wanted to share it with you. I appreciate your content and look forward to it each week. Keep up the good work and best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday season!🎄❤️

I love gingerbread so much. Along with molasses/ginger cookies or anything with that sharp kind of flavor.

My mom taught me to grease my pans the same way 😊

Love gingerbread

Oh I love REI, I don’t have one nearby anymore and I’m not super outdoorsy lol but they have so much practical stuff!

Think I need to try some version of this. Digital was fine for work, but I need to not be able to so easily move to-dos (now including my mom’s finances) days or weeks ahead. I just don’t believe in them when they are so easy to move or indeed forget…

I love love love plum paper! Also stickers. I always say I use my planner more if it's pretty, lol. My husband makes fun of me when I get all of my stickers and washi tape out. It's like playtime. I don't work so I have to organize my time or NOTHING gets done. I love your planner videos. I would definitely watch more.

Merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

Molasses trick - give the measuring cup a spray with cooking oil before you pour in the molasses and it will slide right out. Also much easier to clean the cup afterward.

That’s exactly how I grease a pan, except I do use shortening. I keep shortening for banana bread and buttercream frosting, so we always have some at hand.

I love gingerbread. It must smell divine. My mom used to butter leftover gingerbread and grill it like you’d grill a grilled cheese sandwich. Oh my gosh that was good. Great memories.

It might be a little pouch for travel soap?❤

My daughter read the Sweetgrass book & highly highly recommends it! Sounded fascinating. Your son should love it. Poor Lenny baby! Hope he’s feeling loads better now. ❤️

The late, great writer, Laurie Colwin, has a chapter devoted to gingerbread in her second food memoir, More Home Cooking, Both this book and Home Cooking, her first food memoir, are terrific reads.

I grease my pans the exact same way. My first year baking in my new house and I burnt an entire batch of sugar cookies. Using a new oven or new recipe i should have baked just 1 cookie…..great tip .

I would love to try a light orange sauce or drizzle on the gingerbread. Looked yummy!!

Hi. Just loved the recipe. For the natural twins question, ask Céline Dion about it !😊 I bought for the 1st time my calender this yea. So much fun, very good idea to splurge on me for once. Bless you. Have a nice yule time 😊

Future blog request: what Elemis products you love 😊

I use my fine mesh colander to sift flour. Easier to clean than a real sifter. But love the whisk idea.

I also had Nationwide pet insurance for my sweet Ellie that just passed at a little over 13 years old. It was great for many years, but it got very expensive in her later years and began to not cover as much. She had Cushings disease which had a very low limit for coverage, and it seemed like any other medical issues she had, they tied to Cushings and wouldn’t cover. So that was frustrating. Overall pet insurance can be just as frustrating as human insurance!

The item you didn’t know what was a soap bag. They are suppose to make your soap last longer. Watching you bake leaves me feeling the way I felt watching Martha Stewart. Who in the world is willing to wash all those dishes. I worked as a substitute teacher for several years, almost 20 years off and. One day I was substituted in FCLA and was making kool-aid, the students had a fit when I used the scoop to measure the sugar. I tried to explain it was just kool-aid. Thank goodness the bell rang, because I was at the point I didn’t know if I was going to laugh or cry.And no they would drink the kool-aid.

The Charlie Brown album is also my favorite! What a sweet gift from your son!

I usually use that baker's spray that has both oil and flour in one can. I love your vids by the way! Merry Christmas to you, the hubby, kids and dogs!

Jen I was meant to find your channel. My mom has dementia and today has been such a challenging day for her. I am listening to your advise w my heart. One day at a time.

Love the planner content and the Disney content and all the things!

It’s to hold a bar of soap I think

This is my kinda unhinged vlogmas

The dancing while creaming the butter in fast mode was hilarious..way to go Jen for the laughs

And check your extracts! I ruined a recipe that way. As soon as it hit the dough I knew it had turned, but it was way too late. Had to start all over again.

I love gingerbread with Cool Whip!

❤❤❤ merry Christmas! You are a natural comedian

I was so happy to hear that you have to consult the recipe over and over again. I have to do that too.

I first thought you send you were in the “wine-down stage”! Lol. I’m so gonna make that gingerbread tomorrow! And I think the cloth in the l’Occitane box you put over two fingers and use it so wash or sluff dead skin off your face. That’s what I’m gonna do with mine!

I bust out laughing when you pulled out that unknown item right after discussing your thoughts on the l’occitane advent calendar.

Is the mystery item for the soap? Soap goes inside and lather up like a wash cloth?

Gingerbread❤ and I butter my pans the exact same way.

Yaaaaaaaaaay love this 😃🥰🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄xxx

Greasing the pan with butter is how we do it here in Germany. So I think it‘s the propper way for gingerbread ;)

Is that pouch thing a soap keeper?

So good!!! Going to have to try. Well done.

This was a lot of fun! love gingerbread! Our family tradition is to make hermits (molasses cookies). My mom’s trick with the molasses is to very lightly grease the glass measuring cup and the molasses slips right out.

In today's video I referenced my newsletter and if you'd like to sign up head here! www.jenlefforge.com

Gingerbread is, like, best thing ever! My mom and I will be making no bake cookies tomorrow and enjoying Charlie Brown Christmas! We also like to watch Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. Easily my favorite version of Christmas Carol ever :D (totally not bias because of me being super Muppet fan XD and first version I ever saw of Christmas Carol lol) I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday, Jen! Been watching your channel for a year now mainly came from your other channel but still look forward to watching your videos!

I have a very similar system. I use a paper planner that has multiple layouts and is focused on mindfulness and meaning combined with the Hebrew calendar with all the holiday dates and planning pages specific to those. I love stickers and I’m always trying to find ones that work well with this planner’s layout. Stickers help me get excited about the mundane 😂 At the beginning of every month I input all the info that lives in my phone calendar and on my kids various school calendars.

Yum!!

Looking forward to this BUT feeling guilty about wanting to make this because hubby doesn't like it and I love it 😂

I have been looking forward to this video!!! I love gingerbread!!!

Just wanted to mention that Nationwide dropped a lot of pets randomly a couple months ago. I have them too from my company but wanted to maybe suggest going with a company that puts pets first if someone is in the market. I've heard good things about Pets Best but I have no experience. Hope Lenny gets better!

If you have ripped or torn clothes donate it to any H and M store, esp jeans - they recycle them into mattresses for poor countries.

Great video I like how you mentioned tipping house keeping