Christmas Recipe Blog Swap and Contest
Dec 22, 2012 
Filed under: chat/contest, contemporary, excerpts, holiday, m/m, recipes, sweet treats
Today some of my favorite authors and I are going to be sharing holiday recipes. If you comment and share a favorite recipe of your own (a link to one is fine) you’ll be entered to win your choice of my Christmas titles, One Kiss and Needing a Little Christmas (These stories are temporarily unavailable).
One of my favorite things about the holidays is making cookies. I love to bake year round but at Christmas I usually go a little crazy making as many as a dozen different types of cookies and giving them as gifts. But one kind that we make every year are Oatmeal Hershey Bar Cookies. They hold together well for shipping once the chocolate bars on top are set and they are usually gobbled up quick as lightning. I always save plenty for our family and I have been known to eat embarrassing amounts of them when someone else doesn’t beat me to it.
Oatmeal Hershey Bar Cookies
(This recipe makes 10-12 dozen cookies. When I make it at other times of year, I usually halve it.)
2 c. Butter (4 sticks)
2 c. Sugar
2 c. Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
2 t. Vanilla
4 c. Flour
5 c. Oatmeal, ground into powder (I do this in the food processor)
1 t. Salt
2 t. Baking Powder
2 t. Baking Soda
2 c. Chopped Pecans
3 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
12 Hershey Bars (the plain milk chocolate ones that are divided into 12 pieces)
Preheat oven to 375F.
Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and blend until creamy. Add flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend just until combined. Add pecans and chocolate chips and blend on the mixer’s lowest setting. (If I make a full batch, it overflows from my mixer and I have to do the chips and pecans by hand.)
Drop by tablespoons onto a parhment lined cookie sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes. The cookies will be soft and will not look done when you take them out. The edges may have just a hint of brown. Do not overbake!
Before removing them from the pan, top each cookie with one section of a Hershey bar. After about 2 minutes, remove them from the pan and let cool. The chocoalte will remain gooey and soft for a long time.
Enjoy!
Needing a Little Christmas by Silvia Violet
Discovering his boyfriend’s affair with a co-worker wrecks Eli’s holiday plans. With his parents on a cruise and his brother and sister out of town, he’s on his own. His mother insists he escape to her friend’s mountain cabin. Eli reluctantly agrees, but he takes off unprepared and ends up driving into the worst snowstorm the area has seen in years.
He survives the trip, but he’s stuck with no logs for the woodstove and little food. Fortunately, he gets the number for Mac’s Wood Delivery. Mac doesn’t mind riding to the rescue, and his deep, sultry voice has Eli eagerly anticipating the delivery. Is Mac the little bit of Christmas cheer Eli has been needing?
Excerpt:
“What do mean you’re not going to be with Dave’s family for Christmas? Why?”
I pulled the phone away from my ear. I’d known my mother would be upset, but her reaction was even more vehement and loud than I expected. “Apparently one of the junior partners at his firm isn’t nearly as boring as I am. They’ve been having an affair for months.”
My mother made a sound of disgust. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry, and you are not boring.”
“Sure, I know, but Dave thinks I am.” And honestly, I thought he was probably right. I preferred to stay at home rather than go out. I spent most days in sweats and T-shirts. When Dave did drag me to a party with his socialite friends, I inevitably embarrassed him with my lack of knowledge of current affairs. I’d taken to hiding out in the bathroom writing notes for my next book on my phone. He’d even attempted to coach me in the art of party conversation. I’d used his lessons in a book but ignored them as they applied to me. The book had done well; readers found the lessons hilarious.
When Dave suggested I was not only an uninteresting social companion but boring in bed as well, I’d taken that seriously. I might prefer a quiet lifestyle, but I knew how to please a partner sexually. After pondering what I could do to shock him, I’d gotten my nipples pierced, something I’d secretly wanted to do for years. He’d laughed. I should have broken up with him that night. We’d only had sex a few times after that, and each time, Dave raced to completion, showered off the scent of me, and promptly fell asleep.
I heard my mother’s heels click against the floor. She must be pacing, something she always did when strategizing. “I’m so sorry, honey. Do you want us to cancel our cruise?”
That was the last thing I wanted. “Of course not. You’ve been looking forward to it for months. I’m fine. Really.”
“Are you sure?”
I held the phone between my shoulder and ear as I poured myself a generous measure of whiskey. “Yeah, things hadn’t been great between me and Dave for a long time.”
She huffed. “That doesn’t give him any excuse to—”
I held up my hand even though she couldn’t see me. “No it doesn’t. He acted like an ass, and I think he knows it. He moved out of his beloved apartment and told me I could keep it.” Not that I could afford it for long unless my next book was a runaway hit.
Mom sighed. “I don’t want you spending Christmas alone.”
After draining my drink, I’d wandered into my bedroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My eyes were red from lack of sleep and they looked more hazel than their usual bright green. My curly dark hair stood out at odd angles. The stress of trying to meet the deadline for my book and trying to hold on to a relationship that had died well before I caught Dave fucking his colleague in his office hadn’t been good for my appetite. I’d lost weight and the bones in my face showed prominently. I was definitely not looking my best, but I wanted a few more days to wallow in self-pity. “I really don’t want to be around anyone right now.”
My mom sighed. “But it’s Christmas.”
I ran my hand through my hair, making it stick out even more. “I’m not in the mood for holiday cheer.”
“Your dad and I can go on a cruise another year.”
“No, arranging this once was difficult enough. Rick and Cindy will want to spend next year with you since they’re with Cindy’s family this year. And Ally’s trip to California is a special one-time deal. This is our gift to you, and I won’t be responsible for screwing it up.”
“You wouldn’t be responsible; Dave would be.”
“I wasn’t exactly looking forward to listening to his family brag about how wonderful they all are. I’ll have a better time alone.” My mom’s pacing stopped, and I realized I’d said the wrong thing.
“Eli, why didn’t you tell us you didn’t want to go home with Dave? We would never have agreed to the cruise if we thought you’d be miserable at Christmas.”
I tried to back pedal. “It would have been fine. I enjoy visiting Boston even if the company leaves something to be desired.”
“Hmm.” My mom didn’t sound convinced. “Maybe we could get you a ticket for the cruise. It might not be full.”
The cruise was supposed to give my parents some uninterrupted time together. And the last thing I wanted was be trapped on a ship with lots of happy, smiling people encouraging me to socialize while my mom fussed over me. “No, thanks. I really, truly would rather be on my own.”
“But what will you do?”
“Stay home and drown my sorrows in Christmas cookies and eggnog.”
Buy it at Amazon, ARe, or Silver
Visit the other post in the Christmas Blog Hop:
Angel Martinez: http://www.freewebs.com/
Laura Harner: http://lauraharner.com/
Lee Brazil: http://
Em Woods: http://authoremwoods.com/2012/
Havan: http://
Sharon S says:
Hi Silvia,
This is so cool. And since I already own both of your Christmas books, please do not enter me in the contest. I just wanted to share my favorite holiday recipe. xoxo
My favorite Holiday recipe is one that has been passed on from my husband’s Memere.
Tourtiere (French Meat Pie)
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 onion, walnut size, chopped fine
2/3 cup mashed potato (NO milk or butter added)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pie crusts
Preheat oven to 450.
Mix pork, beef and onions in a large skillet; cover with water. Cook, tossing lightly on medium heat, uncovered, until water is gone. If there is a lot of fat, spoon some out. Add potatoes and the remaining ingredients (except the crusts). Mix well.
Line a 9” pie plate with one crust, fill with mixture, top with remaining crust.
Bake in hot oven (450) for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and cook for additional 30 minutes or until golden brown.
On December 22, 2012 at 6:59 am
Havan says:
Love your books…and how do I get on your baking list? OMG these sound amazing! hehe *hugs*
On December 22, 2012 at 10:04 am
Em Woods says:
I agree with Havan, these sound amazing. I think I’m going to add them to my baking today. Let’s see how I do. 😉 And the more I see Sharon’s recipe the more I want that too! LOL
On December 22, 2012 at 10:18 am
Will Parkinson says:
Sigh. I don’t have any cookie recipes, but I do love some Silvia Violet. 🙂
On December 22, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Angel Martinez says:
nom, nom, nom… these sounds so yummy! I’m beginning to think you should always have recipes at the end of your stories *hint hint*
On December 22, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Laura says:
Thanks, Silvia, they sound really good. My family loves the peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s Kisses, so I know they’d love these, too.
On December 22, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Silvia says:
Thanks everyone! Sharon, I will have to try out the meat pie. It sounds delicious! Angel, I have thought about putting recipes in my books and even about doing a short story collection where each story is based on a recipe with the recipe included 🙂
On December 22, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Nancy S says:
Love the short story/recipe idea. My grandson and I are baking sugar cookies today. The recipe can be found in the December issue of FoodNetwork magazine. I found these cool pens that can be used to decorate cookies and can’t wait to see what he will do with them.
On December 23, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Trix says:
I was never a fan of pumpkin cheesecake until I found this one in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s ROSE’S HEAVENLY CAKES…it brought down the house at Thanksgiving, and now I’m making it for Christmas Eve. BTW, if you have a nut allergy (my niece does), just substitute more gingersnaps in the crust…it’ll be just as good! (In the book, she does recommend substituting 1/3 cup solidified browned butter for the 4 tbsp melted butter in the crust–I would stick with that, it’s worth the extra effort.)
Link is here:
kitchenography.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/rose-levy-beranbaums-pure-pumpkin-cheesecake——i-found-the-recipe-in-fine-cooking-but-its-also-been-featured-on-leites.html
On December 23, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Cathy Brockman says:
This blog hop is fun your recipe looks great will try that one!
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margarine, softened
1 lb dipping chocolate or 1 lb confectioner’s coating
Directions:
1
Stir together powdered sugar, peanut butter and butter until well mixed.
2
Shape peanut butter mixture into 1 inch balls, placing them on a baking sheet covered with waxed paper.
3
Let balls stand for 20 minutes until dry.
4
Melt the dipping chocolate or confectioners’ coating.
5
Drop balls one at a time in melted chocolate.
6
Using a fork, remove from the chocolate, letting excess chocolate drip off.
7
Place back on the waxed paper.
8
Let stand until dry.
9
Store tightly covered in a cool dry place.
Read more at: http://www.food.com/recipe/peanut-butter-balls-21812?oc=linkback
On December 24, 2012 at 7:02 pm