Jeannie Moon: Traditions

I’ve always liked to bake and I tend to do it when I’m at my most stressed out.  The control I exert over flour and sugar and butter will calm me in ways nothing else can.  I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s something very Zen about cookie dough.

My Aunt Catherine was a baker as well.  At the holidays there were dozens of treats in her house, many of them traditional Italian cookies.  Struffoli, anise drops, and pizzelle were my favorites and when I was writing my Christmas novella, This Christmas, my heroine Sabrina’s mother, Enza, also infused their home with Italian Christmas treats. 

Over the past few years, I’ve been learning the art behind some of the Italian cookies my aunt used to bake.  First, I bought a pizzelle iron.  It took quite a number of batches to get the temperature and batter consistency correct, but my daughters and I finally did it.  This year I conquered anise cookies. Next year I think the Struffoli, or honey balls, will be next.  Each time something new is brought into my baking repertoire, I not only feel wonderfully happy, but I feel like I’ve kept a piece of my heritage, which is becoming diluted as years pass, from slipping away.

It was important to me to keep these Christmas traditions alive for myself and for my family.  We have our own traditions, like Christmas Day brunch and cinnamon rolls on holiday mornings, but I’ve been feeling the need to reconnect with different parts of my heritage. 

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. Maybe it’s because the people who introduced me to these traditions are no longer around and I want to keep them with me.  Whatever it is, Christmas has become a little warmer, and less about things, since I started introducing these treats.

I don’t fully understand it, but maybe there really is magic in cookie dough.

Jean­nie Moon has always been a roman­tic. When she’s not spin­ning tales of her own, Jean­nie works as a school librar­ian, thank­ful she has a job that allows her to immerse her­self in books and call it work. Mar­ried to her high school sweet­heart, Jean­nie has three kids, three lov­able dogs and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.  Visit Jeannie’s web­site at www.jeanniemoon.com

Terri Reed: Gluten-Free At Christmas

Hi, Terri Reed here hoping your Christmas was merry and joyful. Mine was filled with laughter, chaos and food. Lots of food. Most of the food was gluten-free.

Gluten sensitivity runs in my husband’s family so we have made adjustments over the years to the foods we eat.  But it was not always this way. We had never heard of gluten or celiac disease until my daughter was born in 1993. She was a healthy baby and so full of joy. However, issues soon cropped up.  The pediatrician kept prescribing antibiotics but the medicine wasn’t helping.  A friend suggested a naturopath.  We’d never heard of a naturopath but at this point we were growing desperate to help our little girl.

Through a battery of test, the naturopath found that she had sensitivity to wheat products and dairy products.  So began a journey of living wheat free and diary free. This was in 1995 and the term gluten-free wasn’t a mainstream word yet. There were few wheat free products available.  It was easier to cut out dairy.  I remember how many people thought we were weird for thinking wheat and dairy was causing our daughter harm. Over the years others in the family have been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, but we all are aware that careful monitoring is required as there is no guarantee that gluten sensitivity won’t turn into celiac disease. Now nearly twenty years later you can go to any grocery store and find gluten-free products from major companies, small start up companies and everything in between.  

Here are a couple of interesting articles on the subject.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/magazine/Should-We-All-Go-Gluten-Free.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

https://www.womentowomen.com/digestive-health/the-gluten-spectrum-from-sensitivities-to-celiac-disease/

My daughter loves to bake and has creatively modified recipes to make them gluten-free. Here’s one of her recipes.

Peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies

You will need:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1.5 sticks of butter

1 egg

1 XO Baking Co. all natural Gluten Free all purpose gourmet flour blend

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Additional granulated sugar

About 36 Hershey's® Kisses® Brand milk chocolates, unwrapped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon, until well blended.

Stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder until dough forms. Chill for an hour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional granulated sugar.

On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately press 1 milk chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

Enjoy.

 

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my Love Inspired Suspense series The McClain’s, plus some swag (a pocket calendar, a caramel black sea salt chocolate bar, book marks, recipe cards)

*** Terri's winner is Leni! Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing details!***

A Town Called Christmas

This is going to be a very Christmasy blog post. I thought it was too early to think about the holidays, but then...

It SNOWED.

About ten inches on November 6th! Even for Michigan, that's too much snow, way too early. :::shiver::: But the benefit is that now I'm in a winter holiday mood, just in time for the release of my new book, A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS.

There truly is a town called Christmas here in Upper Michigan, though my version has been fictionalized to suit my purposes. Ah, the joys of being an author--creating new worlds, inventing perfect men...such power!

It was great fun to write about mistletoe, holiday dinners, small town celebrations and especially one of my favorite activities....baking Christmas cookies. Here's the no-bake recipe for the cookies my heroine creates in the book (I remember making these a long time ago but they must have fallen out of fashion because I haven't seen any in years):

CHURCH WINDOW COOKIES

1 12 oz. pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 lb. (I stick) butter
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 10 oz. colored miniature marshmallows
flake coconut

Melt chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler. Cool. Add chopped walnuts and marshmallows. Mix. Sprinkle coconut on wax paper and spoon mixture onto coconut in log form. Sprinkle more coconut on top and sides as you roll wax paper over the log. Refrigerate until firm, then remove paper and cut into slices to serve.

The setting of the book is the heroine's family's Christmas tree farm. I didn't have to do too much research there, since my dad has been known as our town's Christmas Tree Man for decades. I've never cut a tree myself, but I've sold 'em! And cut the boughs that are made into wreaths and swags. My house always smells very piney during the holidays.


As an early Christmas present to Tote Bag readers, I'm giving away two copies of A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS. I'll choose the winners from the comment section of this blog and post the their names in my next blog, on November 20th.

Meanwhile, it's never too early to start on your holiday baking. What's your family's favorite Christmas cookie?

To read more about my latests releases, including excerpts, visit www.carriealexander.com