3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
About 1 cup rainbow sprinkle
Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, oil, sugar, and confectioners sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be very soft but wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Adjust oven rack to upper and lower middle positions and preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Fill a shallow bowl with sprinkles. Use a 2-ounce cookie scoop (or a rounded tablespoon) to form cookies into balls. Roll each ball in sprinkles to cover then transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake until cookies are golden at the edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Gabbi lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early morningswriting contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love.She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black.
Ginger Snapping All the Way Synopsis:
Maddox
I’m not a fan of Christmas. I’m happy to stay up in my mountain cabin and let the silly season pass me by. But when a friend asks for a favor, I can’t say no. Now I’m stuck in my cabin during a snowstorm, trapped with the most beautiful man I’ve ever met—who can’t wait to get away. He just might break my heart when he goes.
Ravi
I’m racing to get home for the birth of my goddaughter when mechanical troubles force my plane’s emergency landing. There are no beds at the inn due to a horrendous storm, but a friend says she knows a guy who won’t mind putting me up until the bad weather passes. Now I’m trapped with that man, and I must decide if I stay, hiding from the rest of the world, or go and face my past to earn a shot at my happily ever after.
This is a 72k word, hurt/comfort, lumberjack/nurse, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity MM romance novel with a moderate amount of angst.
All of a sudden, the mechanical whirr of a window descending sounded through the cabin, and within moments, a blast of cold air hit my neck.
“Jesus, Sofia.”
I glanced in the side mirror, and damned if the dog didn’t have her head stuck out the window. She must’ve climbed over my bag and, apparently, knew how to lower the window.
Impressive.
“I’m rolling up the window.”
More whirring, and an indignant yip.
I didn’t speak dog, but I knew pissed when I heard it.
“I don’t care.” Maddox gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.
Another yip.
“Okay. One French fry. But that’s all you’re getting. Zephyra said no more treats.”
I hesitated. None of my business, but I couldn’t help myself. “Uh, if you don’t mind me asking, who is Zephyra?” I probably didn’t need to know, but this was the first conversation in about fifteen minutes, and even if I was interrupting dog/human communication, I wanted in on the discussion.
“Dr. Zephyra Dixon is Sophia’s veterinarian. Her clinic is across from the A&W, and she might have spotted me giving Sophia a French fry.”
Two quick successive yaps.
Ah, now the truth was coming out.
Sofia placed her front paws on the center console by my elbow and nuzzled my ear again.
“Holy crap, dog, you’re all wet.” And cold.
“Hence the reason I don’t want her rolling down the window. Doesn’t have the sense God gave her.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find a grinning pup. Oh, she was mighty pleased with herself.
“At least she’s strapped in.” I’d noticed that. Some kind of harness system. She could go back and forth between the two back windows and come up to the front console, but was clearly secured.
“There’s a reason for that.”
I waited, but no further elucidation came. “Care to share?”
A grunt. “Not long after I got her, we were driving home from town. When I arrived at my place, the back seat was empty.” He shot a quick glare at the dog who didn’t appear the least bit cowed. “She won’t tell me if she slipped or jumped, but she’d gone out the window when I’d slowed down to make a left. Took me two hours of walking the back roads. Finally, someone stopped and told me where they’d seen her. Little shit.” That last bit was muttered, but clearly audible.
I turned to face Sofia. “That must have been traumatizing.”
A snort. “Little dear was lapping up the luxury in someone’s backyard, sunning herself after a dip in the kiddie pool. Damn lucky no one shot her.”
“Shot her?” I pressed a hand to my chest.
“Plenty of my neighbors have guns. Wouldn’t be legal, but that wouldn’t stop some of them. She lucked out.”
I tweaked her nose. “Did you hurt yourself?”
A snicker. “She was just fine. Shaved a couple of years off my life, but she was no worse for wear.”
Ah, so he did have a heart.
For his dog, at least.
While reading this book don’t forget to snack on some ginger snaps. A recommended snack from the author.
I made applesauce recently and it made 4 jars. I love eating applesauce plain and it was gone fast. So my family and I made a second batch. We didn’t use that up as quick and since it is just refrigerated and not properly canned I like it used within a few days. Not wanting a drop of that amber goodness going to waste I decided to make my Applesauce Quick Bread. This is a old family favorite from an old church cookbook. We played around with the spices and find this recipe was the most liked.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup applesauce, homemade or store bought
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil, vegetable is fine
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons skim milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
preheat your oven to 350 degrees
grease a 9X5 bread loaf pan
In a large bowl, combine applesauce, sugar, oil, eggs and milk. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
Now add flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt.
You want to fold in these dry ingredients. With quick bread you don’t want to fuss with it too much. when you see there are no more white spots of flour stop mixing.
Pour batter into greased bread/loaf pan
Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle of bread comes out clean.
This is such an easy recipe and so delicious. You know those desserts you bite into and think where have you been all my life. Yeah that’s this pastry. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Orange Cream Cheese Danish
1 puff pastry sheet
1 (8 oz.) brick cream cheese
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
one egg for egg wash
Glaze:
1 tablespoon milk, may need more start out with 1 tablespoon
1/2 cup confectioner sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Directions:
defrost the puff pastry prior to making this recipe
the puff pastry has three sections. leave middle section alone and cut 10 strips evenly down both sides, use the line as a guide where to stop so you leave middle in tact.
place pastry on a sil pat on a cookie sheet
mix cream cheese, vanilla and sugar. spread evenly on middle of dough. Add the orange marmalade over cream cheese.
alternating sides wrap the strips one over another, see photo to see how its braided.
crack one egg into a small bowl, beat egg and brush it over the top of pastry.
Rae's Books & Recipes 