Boo !

Well the cobwebs building up around here on this blog are certainly apropos for Halloween, don't you think? This has been a pretty pathetic year of blogging for me.. so sorry about that.

October has been another whirlwind of a month for me.. lots of things going on. Mostly good or at least productive things going on.. a few not so good things, but everyone is healthy, hanging in there and doing their best so that's a plus.

So here I am on Halloween night and have no trick-or-treating costumes or stories to share with you because Anna didn't dress up this year and Maria is away at school. I do know she dressed up as a flapper for a Halloween party tonight and she did text me a photo that she also posted on instagram, but it's not the same as seeing her in her costume in person and taking my own photo. Then to top it off, we got ZERO trick-or-treaters at our door today! So sad...

Despite the lack of child involvement, though, I do have a few fun and festive Halloween photos to share.

This is a sunset photo that I took from the Home Depot parking lot a few weeks ago.

This is that same photo all dressed up for Halloween! I edited it right on my iphone using a really fabulous photo editing app called Rhonna Designs. I was lucky and bought it while it was offered for free but I think it's 99 cents now. Still a bargain if you're into this sort of thing.

Home Depot Sunset

Home Depot Haunted Sunset

I may have eaten a piece or two of Halloween candy before Halloween..

From where I stand at the welcome mat to our home..

Always a favorite time of year for black cats.

A house in my neighborhood with spook-tacular Halloween decorations. Even better up close in person and even spookier at night with creepy-scary music and sound effects. Yikes.

Trick-or-treat! I'm ready for the monsters to come!

There's something in the attic!!! (From the spooky house in town after dark.. )

I hope you had a safe and happy Halloween!

Do you have kids who dress up? If so, what were they? 

... still can't believe October is over already and 2014 is only two months away! Now THAT'S frightening!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all my peeps! I hope you're enjoying the day whether you celebrate Easter, Passover or nothing at all this time of year. Easter Sunday has always been a reminder to me of the hope and joy that spring brings as everything in nature begins to come to life again around now. Although you wouldn't guess it this particular chilly, gray day here in the NY metro area.

My apologies to those of you who already follow me on instagram. All of the photos in this post come from there except for one.

crocuses

rhubarb

We've seen snowdrops and crocuses blooming over the last several weeks and while the daffodils have been sending up green leaves, I haven't seen any blooming yet in my neighborhood. I did spot the rhubarb crowns in my garden pushing up, so there is that! I'm hoping to have enough for a strawberry-rhubarb tart later this spring.  Do you like rhubarb? 

I don't have a lot of memories of Easter celebrations from my childhood, although I do remember dying Easter eggs with my family the day before Easter for an egg hunt in the morning. I have vivid memories, however, of one particular Easter Sunday that we spent at my Oma and Opa's house. I remember an Easter egg hunt in their backyard, where eggs were hidden among the long, long rows of white and yellow daffodils lining their vegetable garden fence. I think it was one of the only outdoor Easter egg hunts of my childhood and for that alone, it stands out in my memory. Well, that and that it was spent at my Oma and Opa's house on Eastern Long Island. It was a special place. :)

As an adult, I have colored Easter eggs the evening before Easter, too, ever since I was living on my own. In the beginning, it was just my husband and me but of course our girls have participated every year since they were born even if just as a spectator on our laps when they were babies. Now at ages 14 and [almost] 18, they still color Easter eggs and hunt for them in the morning. This year, the girls hid the eggs for my husband and me to find. What a fun change of events!

I have to say, our egg decorating gets more and more creative every year. Here is a photo of a creative egg that my oldest made last night:

A Mike Wazowski Easter egg

It's Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.! Ha!

She also made this one that she calls her "galaxy egg." I love it!

"Galaxy Egg" by Maria Alba
photo credits: Maria Alba

I filled the girls' baskets with jelly beans, robin eggs [malted milk balls], marshmallow peeps, a peanut butter egg, a few Dove coconut creme filled chocolate eggs, a chocolate bunny and a Starbucks and iTunes gift cards. Lucky bunnies!

Yummy Easter basket

What's your favorite Easter basket treat?

What are some of your Easter food traditions? 

Not exactly a #WeekendCooking post, but I'm linking it up there anyway because it is somewhat food related and I'm anxious to break my very long Weekend Cooking hiatus! It's been way too long since I've participated..

Wishing you all a wonderful day! xo

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun! 

Note: your post does not have to be posted on the weekend, but do visit Beth's blog over the weekend to link up your post. 

a rosy day

Happy Valentine's Day to you.. whether you spend it celebrating love with your one and only in a fancy way, a simple way at home, out with your friends or even home alone with a good book (I vote for a romance novel!), I hope your heart is filled with love today and every day of the year. xo

Heart-healthy produce in today's
organic co-op box! 

Speaking of affairs of the heart, today is as good a day as any to ask yourself if you're taking care of your heart. I don't mean in the romantic way, but in the healthful way. Eat your vegetables, eat some fruit, eat whole grains*, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds and lean protein. Then get moving! If you don't have a regular exercise routine in your life.. GET ONE. No more excuses.. love yourself and just do it!

*Choose whole grains in their whole forms whenever possible to keep the GI or glycemic index low. Include grains such as quinoa, oats, farro (spelt), barley, millet, amaranth, buckwheat, wild rice, brown rice and corn in your regular diet. I'm working on this myself. :)

Okay, lecture over.

Today is a rosy kind of day in our home. My husband gave me a beautiful bouquet of a dozen red roses this morning and is surprising me with a special dinner out tonight. Aww so sweet.

After he and the girls left the house for work and school, I started to put the roses in a vase.. when they all started falling apart! The rose petals were literally falling off the stems with the slightest touch. I tried my best not to handle them so much, but alas, two roses were destroyed and the rest were more like rosebuds at that point. I thought about calling my husband to let him know, but I didn't want him to feel bad about it and buy me new ones! 

So I made the best of this gift of love that was falling apart at the seams. I arranged what I could in the vase and scattered some of the rose petals on the table.

I put some rose petals on the window sill in the kitchen.

I scattered more petals in the foyer... 

...and up the stairs.

marking a path of rose petals to my daughters' rooms.

.. And a few leading to the master bedroom...

..  to our bed. Ooo la la!

I think these rose petals made our home more beautiful and full of love than if the roses had remained intact! 

Then I started thinking how these rose petals tell good lessons about love.

Love is delicate.

Handle love with care.

If the love you're in starts to fall apart or change shape, don't rush to discard it.

Work with it.. compromise..

Find beauty and joy in what you've got.

Be creative. Have fun. Love your partner as best you can.

Happy Valentine's Day.  xo

A Merry Little Christmas...

... from the heart of my home to the heart of yours.

The girls and I were down for the count with a nasty stomach virus last week. I then fell behind in a lot of Christmas preparations and spent the last couple of days trying to catch up. I tried to let things go and not get stressed over it, but that's easier said than done when you have traditions you want to maintain and you don't want to disappoint anyone--including yourself! Regardless of what did and didn't get done, we are all happy, healthy and together, which is the truly the most important thing, so in the end... we are having a lovely Christmas. :)




I hope you all had a beautiful day spent with the ones you love.  xo

Crazy for Christmas Cookies!

After hearing all about the annual Virtual Advent Tour hosted by Marg [The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader] and Kelly [The Written World] over the last couple of years, I finally decided to join in the merriment. Today's post is my contribution to the 2012 Virtual Advent Tour that just kicked off a few days ago. The idea behind the tour is for book bloggers to share anything they wish about the advent season with their fellow bloggers.. family or country traditions, recipes, books, movies, songs, anything at all, really. To learn more about the Virtual Advent Tour, the schedule of participants with links to their blogs, or to sign up yourself, visit the Virtual Advent Tour Blog HERE.

As you can guess from the title of this post, I am crazy for Christmas cookies. Ever since I can remember, my mother would bake dozens of Christmas cookies--at least five or more varieties and store them in decorative tins on the dining room table. We would eat them, of course, but my mom would also package sampler plates of cookies, wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon to gift to relatives, friends, neighbors, the mailman, the garbage collectors, teachers, crossing guards, and so on. She made a lot of cookies!

My mom practiced this Christmas cookie tradition after learning it from her own mother--my maternal grandmother whom I called Oma. My Oma baked traditional German cookies such as spritz, lebkuchen and linzer cookies. My mom baked those same cookies--except for the lebkuchen, and then some. She'd switch it up a bit every year but there was always spritz, linzer cookies, almond crescent cookies, chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, iced holiday cutout cookies. My brothers and I usually helped with the cutout cookies. So much fun!

From the first year that I had my own kitchen, I've been baking Christmas cookies for the holiday season as well. There may have been a year or two when I only managed to make one or two varieties, but I always baked some cookie for Christmas. Interestingly, the only cookie from my childhood that I consistently bake every year are spritz cookies. I wrote about my affection for spritz cookies last year, in which I include a recipe in this post HERE. I have been using the same cookie press for almost 20 years now and I think I'll just cry the day it fails me. I sure hope I don't jinx myself by even thinking of that happening.

I love cooking magazines probably just as much as I love cookbooks and I have acquired many many issues over the years. That can be a whole separate discussion, but the point here is that every December I pull out all the holiday issues of cooking magazines in my collection and pour over them for days and days and days and weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, deciding on the cookies that will make that year's list. I think planning the cookies is almost as much fun as baking them! But never as much fun as eating them. ;)

My holiday magazine collection includes:

Over a decade of December issues of Cooking Light magazines:

Holiday issues of Cooking Light magazine

Nearly a decade of December and Holiday issues of Everyday Food magazines:

December & Holiday issues of Everyday Food magazine

Several special Holiday publications from Martha Stewart Living:
These include decorating and homemade gift ideas and instructions. SO fun!

Holiday cookies {and homemade gifts} MS publications

One beloved copy of Holiday Baking by Cook's Illustrated magazine:
I subscribed to this magazine for a year or two--loved it. Very good for serious cooks who love reading about test kitchen processes and food science as much as they love cooking.

Holiday Baking special publication
from Cook's Illustrated

Several special Christmas Cookies publications from Better Homes and Gardens magazine:
SO many terrific cookie recipes and tips in these magazines. Also, instructions and templates for making Gingerbread Houses. I bought a new one [the red Holiday Baking one on top] just the other day because I want to make the gingerbread house inside it this year. :)

Christmas Cookies | Holiday Baking
Special publications from Better Homes & Gardens
magazine

I also have ONE Christmas Cookie cookbook that I absolutely LOVE. I have cooked many recipes from this cookbook of classic Christmas cookie recipes. That is, Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer-Becker and Ethan Becker. If you are passionate about Christmas cookies like I am, I highly recommend this cookbook. It's no longer available in print from the publisher, but look for it at your library or from used book sellers! This is becoming my trademark line lately, isn't it?


Nothing says Crazy for Christmas Cookies like my collection of cooking magazines, don't you think?

I also have a collection of Christmas craft books and cross-stitch patterns that rivals this collection of Holiday magazines...  ; )

Are you crazy for Christmas cookies, too?

What is your FAVORITE Christmas cookie? 

Holiday Baking by Sara Perry

Here I am once again, about to rave about a cookbook from my shelves that is no longer available in print, although it looks like you may be able to buy a new copy through the author's website at http://saraperry.com/main.html. Holiday Baking is available as a Kindle edition and you can also buy it used from several sellers on amazon.com. Or look for it at used bookstores or your local library. I assure you this one is worth the trouble of hunting down for your collection.

I bought my copy of Holiday Baking [Chronicle Books, 2005] on impulse back in 2005 while helping out at the Scholastic Book Fair at my daughters' elementary school. I fell in love with the cookbook the moment I picked it up. First of all, I have a special fondness for holiday themed cookbooks and cooking magazines. Both my maternal grandmother and mother always baked a wide variety of cookies and breads for the Christmas season for their own families and to give as gifts to friends and relatives, so I've developed the same inclination. Secondly, I love the diversity of holiday goodness that's celebrated in this cookbook. There are chapters for each Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa and New Year's Day. Finally, the recipes are fun to read and all are very appealing. I quite honestly want to try them all! There isn't a photo for every recipe, but there are quite a few mouth watering photos.

Want a peak inside Holiday Baking by Sara Perry?
Visit the cookbook's page on amazon and click on the cookbook image where it says Click to LOOK INSIDE.

Holiday Baking is one of the cookbooks from which I chose to cook for the Cookbook Challenge hosted by Cynni at She Likes Bento. The purpose of the challenge is to encourage participants to cook from cookbooks that we've owned for a long time, but have never cooked a recipe from them. Holiday Baking was one such cookbook for me until just this morning, although I do habitually pull it off the shelf this time of year and look through it for holiday inspiration.

The recipe I chose to cook is for a breakfast pancake with apples baked in a large cast iron skillet. It can also be served as a dessert or late night snack. I just love the title for this one:

It's-Thanksgiving-Morning-but-They-Still-Deserve-Something-Special Apple Puff Pancake.

There is a dessert version of the recipe in the cookbook called It's-Nighttime-and-They're-Still-Hungry Apple Pastry with Calvados and Golden Raisins.

I just made this recipe this morning after freezing my butt (mostly my toes!) off on a thirty-four mile bike ride, so I'm calling it It's-Thanksgiving-Weekend-and-I-Still-Need-Something-Special-to-Warm-Me-Up Apple Puff Pancake.

No matter what you call it.. know you can call it DELICIOUS!

Warming up with Apple Puff Pancake
from Holiday Baking by Sara Perry

It's-Thanksgiving-Morning-but-They-Still-Deserve-Something-Special Apple Puff Pancake

2 teaspoons unsalted butter 
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
pinch of ground nutmeg 
4 medium to large Granny Smith apples, 
        peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices 
1 cup all purpose flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
1/4 teaspoons salt 
2 eggs, at room temperature 
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature 
powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Grease a heavy, 10-inch ovenproof or cast-iron skillet with the butter and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the sugar with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the apples and toss to coat. Transfer the apples to the skillet and set aside. Portions of the apples may be higher than the side of the skillet.

3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt until blended. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, then add the milk and whisk until blended. Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until blended and smooth.

4. Pour the batter over the apples. Using the skillet's handle, give the skillet an easy back-and-forth shake to settle the ingredients. If you wish, you can level the top with a spatula. Some apples will remain only partially submerged.

5. Bake until the batter is golden, the protruding apples are tinged and golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar, cut into 6 to 8 wedges, and serve.

This was my first time making a puff pancake in a skillet like this. I've seen recipes for similar pancakes, sometimes called A Dutch Baby and always wanted to try it. Now I finally did and it won't be the last time I do. It's a festive and delicious and very easy! The texture is a bit like the cross between a regular pancake and maybe bread pudding. Cakey but a bit spongy at the same time. Very flavorful. It really hit the spot today and helped defrost my poor frozen body after this morning's bike ride. My husband even came back for seconds which says a lot as he's not the biggest fan of pancakes for breakfast. My older daughter had hers with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and was in heaven. My youngest passed.. she's been such a picky eater lately. >_<

There are way too many recipes in Holiday Baking that I'd like to make--definitely too many to list. If I had to choose just a few, however, at the top of my list is The Ultimate Dinner's Guest Gingerbread [Thanksgiving], Apricot Nut or Cardamom Pistachio Rugelach [Hanukkah], Jerusalem Olive Oil Cake with Orange Marmalade and Almonds [Hanukkah], Stir-Up Fruitcake [Christmas], Saint Lucia's Saffron Crown [Christmas], Buckingham Palace Shortbread [Boxing Day], Apricot Jam and Coconut Squares [Kwanzaa], and Bloody Mary and Baked Mushroom Omelet [New Year's]. Yes, that's my abbreviated list.

I give Holiday Baking by Sara Perry 5 out of 5 stars.

GRADE: A

Do you do a lot of baking for the holidays? 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Cookbook Challenge runs through the end of November, so if you'd like to join in, visit Cynni's sign up post HERE. Hope to see you cooking from a much neglected cookbook on your shelves soon!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun! 

Note: your post does not have to be posted on the weekend, but do visit Beth's blog over the weekend to link up your post. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my home to yours... 

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving

spent in the company of loved ones

in a warm home

with delicious, wholesome food on your table

prepared with love. 

xo

Happy Halloween!

Hey everyone! I hope you had a really safe, happy and fun Halloween today!

I made this Halloween banner tonight using a really fun, easy and FREE photo editing website called PicMonkey.com using a photo I took four Halloween's ago when we hosted a Halloween party for the high school volleyball team. That post is one of my most popular hits on my blog. I think because of the pumpkin carved like a volleyball. :)

Hurricane Sandy pretty much put a damper on Halloween this year in our area. Schools are closed for the rest of the week because of power losses everywhere and the dangerous conditions with fallen trees and power lines all over the place. Trick-or-treating has been rescheduled for Monday, November 5th. Kind of anti-climactic, but hopefully the kids will get into it.

In the meantime, since we're among the fortunate to still have power, we've opened our home to friends who need a warm place to visit, a hot meal, outlets to charge their cell phones, ice for their freezers, a washer and dryer and most of all the cheerful company of friends.

Hope you're having a spooktacular week! xo

Christmas in July FIVE {A Giveaway}

Can you believe we're about halfway through the year to Christmas? It's the last thing on my mind right now as I'm packing up for vacation, but at least I remembered to do my 5th annual Christmas in July giveaway.


This year, one randomly selected winner will win their choice of one the following prizes:



The Cozy Prize: [US only]

A gently used book of their choice from my gift shelf,
A homemade beaded book thong [a bookmark made with thin ribbon and jewelry-quality beads],

A few extra goodies like author swag, a bonus book of my choosing,
AND a trinket souvenir from the London Olympics! Woohoo!

OR

The Glossy Prize: [US or international]

A shiny new mass market paperback of your choice, shipped to you via TheBookDepository.

OR

The Modern Prize: [US or international]

An ebook of your choice, valued up to $10, delivered to you by the magic of technology.

To see what books I'm offering for the cozy prize, please visit my gift shelf.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment in this post telling us which summer Olympic games are your favorite?

I honestly could be thoroughly entertained watching them all. Some of my favorites, though, are swimming, diving, volleyball [beach and court], track and gymnastics. I'm also interested in following the triathlon and cycling events after having competed in a sprint triathlon last summer myself. ; )

Will you be watching the games over the next couple of weeks?

Giveaway is open everyone, although international winners can only receive The Glossy Prize.

Giveaway ends on August 7, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST, at which time I'll use random.org to select the winner. Winner will be announced in a separate post and I'll also leave a comment here on this post, so be sure to subscribe to comments if you enter.

Winners have one week to claim their prize, after which a new winner will be selected.

Good luck! :)

Happy Easter & Joyous Passover

I really like when the major holidays of my friends land on the same days, like Easter and Passover this year. I find it comforting to know we're all celebrating with our loved ones at the same time.

So whether you're celebrating Easter or Passover at this time, I wish you a wonderful holiday with your families! :)

And if you're not celebrating either of these holidays, I hope you had a great weekend. Last week was super busy for me so aside from two nice long bike rides this weekend [43 miles Saturday and 26 miles Sunday!], I've been having a relaxing, low key weekend reading, napping and just hanging out with my family. I hope to catch up with all of you during the week! xo

Happy Valentines Day

... hope you all had a lovely day. :) xo

Happy Christmas . . .

. . . from my home to yours.



Wishing you and your loved ones all the peace, joy and love of the season. xo

Wrapping Presents

Right now I'm wishing I had several hours I could pull out of my back pocket. How about you?

I have a lot of last minute things to do today for Christmas--mostly food preparations, tidying the house before guests arrive and wrapping presents.

Doing my best to do it all merrily!

Speaking of wrapping presents... check out this adorable video on How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas.




Merry Christmas Eve!  ^_^

Spritz Cookies!

Baking an assortment of homemade Christmas cookies has been a tradition in my family for at least three generations now. My maternal grandmother immigrated to the United States from Germany as a teenager, following her sweetheart from her hometown, already skilled in cooking and baking, including traditional German recipes for a variety of holiday breads and cookies such as stollen, lebkuchen, linzer cookies, and spritz cookies. My mother continued the tradition of baking tins full of Christmas cookies for the holidays--some of my grandmother's traditional recipes and some new ones she found here and there in her own cookbooks or passed to her from friends. We would eat more than our share of cookies the week between Christmas, but my mother would also package several cookies of each variety into decorative tins to give to friends and family during the holidays. I have joyfully continued this Christmas cookie tradition in my own home, establishing a repertoire of Christmas cookies I bake every year. My husband even has two cookies he makes every Christmastime, too. *loves*

I have baked a lot of different Christmas cookie recipes over the years,  recipes I found primarily in cooking magazines that I have accrued over the years--many of the magazines special issues dedicated entirely to Christmas cookies. I also own Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker, which is a must for anyone who loves classic, tried and true Christmas cookie recipes.

Every year I'm on the lookout for new Christmas cookie recipes to try, because you never know what's destined to be the next family favorite. Favorites may come and go over the years, but one cookie that has a permanent spot on the family favorites list--and one I enjoyed from my grandmother's and my mother's kitchens is Spritz cookies! My daughters especially have come to love and expect spritz cookies every year at Christmas and I'd like to share my recipe with you.

Spritz cookies are a traditional German butter cookie also known as Spritzgebäck, that are made from a very basic butter cookie dough that is pressed or 'squirted' [spritzen is the German verb for squirt!] through a cylindrical cookie press that is fitted at the opened end with discs with patterned holes that form special shapes. So technically you will need a cookie press to make traditional spritz cookies. They are inexpensive and fairly easy to find at specialty food shops, department stores and possibly even grocery stores during the holiday season.

What if you don't have a cookie press or don't want to invest in one just to make Spritz cookies?

Do not despair! You can still make spritz cookies using a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip. Simply fill the pastry bag with the cookie dough and pipe the cookie dough directly onto cookie sheets. You can pipe the dough into 2" sticks,  circles for wreaths or shape the piped dough into hearts.

Spritz Cookies


1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Set your kitchen timer for 5 minutes because these cookies really do turn out best when you beat the butter and sugar for the full 5 minutes.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well blended.

4. Add the flour in three additions, adding the salt with the first addition, mixing well with each addition.

5. Assemble and fill your cookie press according to the manufacturer's instructions.

6. Press cookies onto ungreased, cool cookie sheets. If you are reusing the same cookie sheet for separate batches, make sure the cookie sheet cool completely before using again.

7. Decorate with colored sprinkles, if desired. This is a must in my house. :)

8. Bake for 6-9 minutes or until the cookies are just lightly brown at the edges. Watch carefully to avoid over baking. They tend to go from perfectly baked to burned in just a few seconds.

9. Cook the cookies on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack or large platter.

Enjoy!

Yield: 4-5 dozen.

Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog event hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Please visit Beth's blog for more information and join the fun!

A 500th Post Holiday Giveaway

It took me almost exactly four years [my blogging birthday is December 29, 2007], but I've finally reached my 500th blog post and this is it! That's an average of 125 posts a year, 10.4 posts a month or about one post every 3-4 days. That sounds about right.

What started out as a place to share my thoughts on books with an emphasis on romance novels has expanded and transformed into pretty much a personal blog. I still post regularly about bookish things, but also about fitness, food, family and other assorted adventures. All are topics I'm passionate about and enjoy sharing with my readers here on the happily ever after... I hope you all enjoy the mix, too. :)

To celebrate this 500th post milestone and the upcoming holiday season and to thank all of you who visit the happily ever after... and keep me company on this blogging adventure, I'm giving away a holiday ebook prize to one lucky winner. Below is a list of holiday novellas, most of which are new releases, from which one lucky reader will win up to three stories of their choice.

I'm afraid I don't know a lot about the restrictions of purchasing ebooks for recipients overseas, but I will look into that between now and the closing of the entries and see what I can do. In the meantime, assume that you will at least need to have one of the following to qualify for the prize: A kindle or kindle app on your reading device OR an iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone with either iBooks or the Kindle app installed, depending on the book below.

Winner will choose from the following list of fantastic holiday ebooks:
  Click on titles to see the book on goodreads.

   

Newly Fallen by Megan Hart [kindle only]
A steamy contemporary Hanukkah romance!

A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian [iBooks or kindle]
A Midnight Breed novella, book #9.5
Paranormal romance, not so Christmas-y

Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare [iBooks or kindle]
A Spindle Cove novella, book #1.5
Historical romance.

Or perhaps one or more of the following contemporary romance novellas from the Carina Press holiday anthology, Holiday Kisses:

 

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey [iBooks or kindle]

It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon [iBooks or kindle]


 
A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton [iBooks or kindle]

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent [iBooks or kindle]


Romance not your thing? That's okay! We can still be friends and you can choose this "regular" Christmas book: ;)

The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere [kindle only]







To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment letting me know which THREE holiday novellas you would like to read.

All entries must be received by Friday, December 16, 2011 12 noon EST.

Be sure to leave an email address if it is not easily found in your profile.

Happy holidays! :)