Welcome to Taking Time for Mommy. I’m the last stop on this awesome tour.
Before we get any further I have to say I received a copy of this ebook for my honest opinion, no compensation was received
Well now that we have that out of the way I want to tell you I love anthologies and this one is RELEASED TODAY for only $1.99 ebook!!
The stories are the perfect length and I enjoy trying new authors without investing in an entire story to see if I like them.
Official Summary
Curl up with this heartwarming Christmas collection!
Jill Shalvis, Dream a Little Dream: Melissa has kept every man at a safe distance—especially firefighter Ian, a sexy friend with sexy benefits. But Ian secretly longs for more. Luckily, ’tis the season for giving love a chance . . .
Kristen Ashley, Every Year: Holidays don’t come easy for Shy and his brother, Landon. But with the magic of Christmas, along with a little help from Tabby and her family, the Cage brothers are about to get the gift of a lifetime . . .
Hope Ramsay, Silent Night: Down on her luck and evicted from her apartment, single mother Maryanne hopes to start over in Last Chance. When the snow begins to fall, it looks like her baby might literally spend Christmas Eve in a manger. And Maryanne might celebrate the holiday with a handsome stranger.
Molly Cannon, Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas: Lincoln is a bachelor who’s set in his ways—until a professional organizer dressed up as Mrs. Claus changes his life, one tip at a time . . .
Marilyn Pappano, A Family for Christmas: War widow Ilena doesn’t mind spending Christmas alone. But when a new doctor blows into town with the winter wind, will she get her secret Christmas wish?
Plus: Excerpts from upcoming novels!
My review - I’m going to give you a general review for all of them. They are all great cozy reads and each a little different. You can appreciate the different writing styles. My favorites were Silent Night and Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas. Some of the stories are touching, some funny, and some HOT! A great mix and fantastic value. I will be picking up some books from these authors.
The authors graciously donated recipes for their stop today
Mulled Cider (Marilyn)
1-1/3 cups brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2-1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
2-1/2 teaspoons allspice
3 cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon to taste
1 gallon apple cider.
Combine all ingredients; stir until sugar dissolves, then bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer 5-10 minutes. Serve warm.
Holiday recipe-Apricot Cheesecake (Molly)
Prep time: 30 minutes Total time: 5 hours and 20
seconds
Ingredients:
2 cups finely crushed butter cookies (about 30 cookies) 1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted 1-1/2 t. vanilla
1 15-1/4 oz can unpeeled apricot halves 3 eggs
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened 1 10-oz jar apricot
spread
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. For crust: In a medium bowl combine crushed cookie
crumbs and melted butter. Press mixture into 9 inch spring form pan. Bake 8-10 minutes
or until golden. Set aside.
For filling: Drain apricot halves, reserving 3 tablespoon syrup. Coarsely chop apricots
and set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, sugar, the reserved syrup,
and vanilla until combined. Stir in chopped apricots. Pour filling into crust. Place on
a shallow baking pan in oven. Bake about 50 minute or until center is nearly set when
gently shaken. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen crust from sides and
cool 30 minutes. Remove sides of the pan. Cool cheesecake completely.
For glaze: In a small pan melt apricot spread over low heat. Remove from heat and stir
in nectar. Spread over cheesecake. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 4 hours
before serving. Makes 16 servings.
GINGERBREAD COOKIE RECIPE (Hope)
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.
Gramma Moutaw’s Yeast Crescent Cookies (Kristen)
You need an extra six hours or make the dough the day before!!!
4 C Flour
½ C Sugar
1/4 t Salt
1 Package Dry Yeast
1/4 C Warm H2O
½ C Melted Butter
1 C Sour Cream
2 Eggs (Lightly Beaten)
Filling:
1 C Sugar
4 t Cinnamon
More Melted Butter
Powdered Sugar for Finish
Melt butter and leave to cool for a bit. Sift flour, sugar & salt together. Mix eggs
and sour cream with cooled butter and beat. Soften yeast in H2O then add to butter
mixture. Add the liquid to the flour mixture and knead until dough leaves the sides of
the bowl. Cover and store in the fridge overnight or for 6 hours.
Preheat Oven to 375° (190° C)
Divide dough into 4 parts. Using a rolling pin, roll into a circle 1/4″ thick and cut into 12
wedges. Brush liberally with melted butter and sprinkle with filling. Roll into a crescent
shape. Bake on a cookie sheet until brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Good Morning Sunshine Casserole (Jill)
1 layer of tater tots
1 layer of ham or sausage cubes (or crumbled bacon, whatever makes your skirt blow
up)
1 layer of grated cheddar cheese (there’s no such thing as too much cheese for
breakfast)
Pour this over the layer:
6 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt (or more, if no one’s looking)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 cup of chopped onion
3 cups of milk
2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
Add 1/2 cup melted butter over all that.
Cook 1 hour at 350 degrees uncovered.
Check out the rest of the tour
12 best gifts (11/22): Fiction Vixen Book Reviews
11 worst/funniest gifts (11/23): Smexy Books
10 quotes from your novellas (11/24): http://www.abookishescape.com
9 Items on your Holiday List (11/25): www.hesperialovesbooks.com
8 Favorite holiday movies (11/26): http://lbookbliss.com/
7 Things on your holiday wish list (11/27):http://tiffanytalksbooks.com/
6 New year’s resolution (11/28): http://www.cocktailsandbooks.com/
5 Best Holiday Stories (11/29): www.sosaloha.blogspot.com
4 holiday favorite foods (11/30):www.stitchreadcook.com-
3 books you plan to read during the holiday season (12/1): : http://www.thewindowseat13.com/
2 holiday songs (12/2: http://kindlesandwine.com
1 holiday recipe (12/3):http://takingtimeformommy.com
Enter to win a print copy (Open US)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tweet This Post
The post A Christmas to Remember – On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me! appeared first on takingtimeformommy.com.