Jingle Bells & Holiday Tales – Katie Lane & Hope Ramsey

Win a copy of HUNK FOR THE HOLIDAYS by Katie Lane and

LAST CHANCE CHRISTMAS by Hope Ramsey

Christmas Lights Stage Fright by Katie Lane

My father was the Clark Griswold of holiday lawn decorations.  A good two weeks before Thanksgiving, he would start preparing for his Christmas Light Extravaganza.  He’d stretch the strands of lights from the dining room to the living room and have me and my siblings check each bulb for outages or chipped paint.  Then when he had all the lights burning bright, he’d pull out the two-dimensional, plywood figures from the shed so we could clean off a year’s worth of dust and cobwebs from their wallpapered images.

It was quite a task.  We had a virtual army of holiday figures.  Santa, a present-packed sleigh, reindeers, wise men, shepherds and sheep, and Mary and Joseph.  Since our manger was multi-dimensional, complete with hay, a doll got the honor of serving as Baby Jesus.

It took Dad an entire week to get all the trees filled with lights and the flood lights positioned just right to perfectly display Santa and sleigh on the roof, the reindeer flying through the branches of our weeping willow tree, and the nativity scene on the lawn.  And it really was a drum roll moment when we all huddled out on the front curb to witness Dad’s achievement.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking that I must’ve been overjoyed to have such a pretty display.  But the truth is that I was a little embarrassed about the flood of lights that made our house the spectacle of the neighborhood.  I couldn’t step out the front door without finding carloads of people pointing and snapping pictures.  I’d freeze like a stagehand who had accidentally stumbled into the play and didn’t have a clue how to entertain the masses.  Awkwardly, I’d lift a hand in greeting before diving behind the nearest wise man.  There I would remain, peeking over the frankincense, until the line dwindled and I could sneak back inside.  I’m not sure, but I think my siblings felt the same way.  More than once, I caught my brother slipping out the back door and jumping the wall to get to his friend’s house.

As an adult, I look back on my childhood light display with fond memories and brag about my dad’s talents and how great our yard looked.  And every year, I pull out my own outside decorations.

A simple wreath and a few strands of lights.

Do you decorate your house?  Or do you have a house in your neighborhood that causes you to slow down?  Have you seen a child cowering behind a wise man?

Katie Lane’s favorite Christmas song:  O Holy Night

Lane Family Sugar Cookie Recipe

¾ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer.  Mix in almond extract and eggs one at a time.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and gradually add to the butter and egg mixture until incorporated.  Refrigerate dough for 3 hours or overnight.  Roll out dough and cut into shapes, place on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake at 375 degrees until set. (7 to 8 minutes)  Cool and frost with your favorite vanilla cream frosting.

COOKIES!  by Hope Ramsey

Cookies!
I love cookies.  Of all kinds.  Baking cookies is fun, but eating them is better.  The Cookie Monster’s got nothing on me.  I would rather have cookies for dessert than just about anything else.

I have favorites.  Thin Mints rank pretty high, right up there with Oreos.  And I have a recipe for chewy peanut butter and raisin cookies that melt in your mouth.  Yummmy!  And don’t forget ginger snaps, which are required eating if you happen to be having a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Of course there are Christmas cookies.  I like the butter cookies that come from Denmark.  I used to have a Danish client who sent tins of these cookies every Christmas.  They never lasted long.

But the king of Christmas cookies is the gingerbread man.

I started making gingerbread cookies when my kids were little.  The dough is easy to roll and Christmas cookie cutters are fun for little hands.  Over the years I’ve collected dozens of cookie cutters.  In fact I can’t walk past a display of cookie cutters without wanting a new one.  I have a whole drawer full of cookie cutters that include two or three different kinds of angels, not to mention cutters for gingerbread men and women, reindeer, Santa, moose, unicorns, bells, stars, moons, and Christmas trees.

Rolling, cutting and baking the cookies is fun.  I usually do this job without a lot of help these days.  I strap on my iPod and play Handel’s Messiah from beginning to end.  I sing along.  My husband leaves the premises, especially when I get rocking and rolling to “I Know My Redeemer Liveth.”

The baking is fun, but the decorating is what brings the family together.  I use royal icing, which is a snap to make, and then I color it into half a dozen different shades and use watercolor paint brushes to apply the icing to the cookies.  Of course I have sprinkles and dragees and colored sugar to spread around.  I put this all on my dining room table and get family members involved.

I have many wonderful memories of decorating cookies with my kids.  But by far, the best memory was the time Aunt Frances came visiting.  Frances, who passed away this year at the age of 96, was an award-winning water color artist.  And the year she came visiting, my mother, who was an award winning Japanese ink artist, came over to help decorate.  And darned if Mom and Aunt Frances got into a little contest to see who could come up with the most artistically decorated gingerbread woman.

Frances won.  She decorated a cookie that looked like a bride.  How she managed to make that white icing look like lace, I have no idea.  But it was beautiful.

And yummy when I ate it.  (You should always eat a gingerbread man’s the head first, it makes you feel powerful.)

Mom and Aunt Frances are no longer with us.  But every year when we gather to decorate the gingerbread we all remember the time Frances made that bride cookie.

Below you’ll find the recipe for Gingerbread and royal icing that I use.  It came from the pages of an ancient Food and Wine magazine.

So what’s your favorite cookie?

GINGERBREAD COOKIE RECIPE

Cookie Dough

Ingredients:

4 cups flour
1 tablespoon coco unsweetened coco powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
(do not use margarine — the cookie dough will not roll as well.  And let’s face it if you’re going to all the trouble of baking cookies from scratch, use butter — Christmas comes only once a year)
1 cup superfine sugar (using superfine sugar makes the process of creaming the butter and sugar so much easier)
1 egg at room temperature
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses

Cooking instructions:

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together and set aside.

2. In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add the egg and beat thoroughly.

4. Beat in the molasses

5. Gradually, on low speed, beat in the dry mixture. Depending on your mixer, you may have to hand beat the last little bit of dough because it will get thick and heavy. You know you’re done when the dough makes a nice ball.

6. Cut the dough into quarters, form each quarter into a flat disc like a hamburger pattie, and then refrigerate. It’s best to refrigerate several hours or overnight. Don’t skimp on the refrigeration time.

7. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

8. Roll the chilled dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. The dough should be thinner than 1/4 inch but thicker than 1/8 inch before you cut the cookies. You may find that dough directly out of the refrigerator is too cold to properly roll. Let it warm up a little bit, but make sure it’s still cool while you are rolling it out. The dough will tear while rolling, but you can pinch it back together around the circumference.

9. Cut the dough with your cutters and transfer the cut cookies to an ungreased cookie sheet. (Hint — a thin flexible spatula will be very helpful in getting the cookies onto the baking sheet.

10. Cook in the oven for about 8-9 minutes. Remove the cooks from the sheet and place on a rack to cool for about 4 minutes.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

1 box of confectioners sugar (1 lb)
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

Combine the sugar water and egg whites in an electric mixer and beat until the icing is thick and glossy. Divide the icing into smaller containers and use food coloring to get a large variety of colors.  Then use watercolor paintbrushes to apply the color.  Add sprinkles, colored sugar, or dragees for additional fun.

CONTEST TIME!

Leave your answers to Katie and Hope’s questions in comments.  One lucky commenter will win print copies of LAST CHANCE CHRISTMAS  (US only).  Winner will be selected using random.org on 12/9.

Now Available – HUNK FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Always putting business before pleasure, Cassie McPherson works hard for her family’s construction business. That might explain why she doesn’t have a date for the company Christmas party. But it doesn’t quite explain why she’s crazy enough to hire an escort for the event or – crazier still – why she’s dying to unwrap him like a present . . .

With whiskey-colored eyes and a killer smile, James is one gorgeous hunk who really knows how to fill out a tuxedo. He charms everyone, including Cassie. And when the night ends, the party doesn’t stop. As Cassie falls, literally, into his bed, James falls head over heels in love. Now he has to figure out a way to tell her the truth: he’s not an escort. He’s her family’s fiercest business rival. But all he wants for Christmas is her . . .

 

Now Available – LAST CHANCE CHRISTMAS

Dear Reader,
I’ve been wishing for a miracle for my oldest boy, Stone, and this Christmas my prayers might just be answered! 

Her name is Lark, and she’s here in Last Chance, looking into her father’s past-and stirring up a whole mess of trouble without meaning to. As the chief of police, Stone sure has his hands full trying to keep up with her. Ever since his wife died, Stone’s put everything into raising his daughters and dodging the Christ Church Ladies’ Auxiliary matchmakers. And it’s clear Lark has been through some trouble and could use a place to finally call home. I only hope Stone can let go of the past soon enough to keep her . . .

Goodness, I need to stop talking and finish up Jane’s highlights so we can make the town tree-lighting. You come back by because the Cut ‘n’ Curl’s got hot rollers, free coffee, fresh-baked Christmas cookies-and the best gossip in town.

See you real soon, 
Ruby Rhodes

Coming December 18 – TROUBLE IN TEXAS

THERE’S A FOX IN THE HENHOUSE

Inheriting the most notorious house of ill repute in Texas can spell trouble for a girl’s reputation . . . especially when she’s Elizabeth Murphy, Bramble’s prim and proper librarian. Yet when she discovers a buck-naked cowboy handcuffed to a four-poster bed, she forgets all about the town gossips. Elizabeth has sworn off men, but the stranger’s kisses melt her resolve faster than ice cream on a hot summer day.

Waking up in Miss Hattie’s Henhouse isn’t how Brant Cates reckoned on getting to the bottom of his great-granddaddy’s murder. The plan was to solve the centuries-old crime, then get the heck out of Dodge. But after meeting Elizabeth and discovering that the buttoned-up beauty is a sexy siren in disguise, he just can’t pull himself away.

Now Brant needs Elizabeth to finally put his past to rest, but is she willing to risk her future on Bramble’s newest bad boy?