After much baking, and deliberation, a winner has been chosen for the Challenge Dairy Shortbread Challenge! A panel of judges, which included a chef, chose the Bleu Cheese Currant Shortbread Rounds! So, congratulations, Kristen! Well done! I had not even considered anyone would enter with a savory recipe. This one was sweet, and savory, and sweet again. It was very inventive, and quite delicious. This little swirls of flavor would make an easy and elegant little appetizer.

If you have not already looked all the entries, though, please click on all of them in the comments section and take a look. All were delicious, and finding a winner was very difficult.

I’d also like to thank Challenge Dairy who has sponsored this contest, and who will be giving Kristen a year’s supply of Challenge Dairy Butter.  If you didn’t win, don’t worry, you can still go to their website to print off coupons.

And now, on to these chewy ginger molasses cookies. Awhile back, Brooke gave me a plate of gingerbread men. I think they were meant for my family or something, but all I remember was that I ate almost every single one.

They had this hidden flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. So I had to keep tasting them. Again. And again.

When I finally realized the flavor was orange zest, I had to eat a few more, just to be certain.

Coming up with a chewy cookie when you don’t use shortening is very difficult, as far as I am concerned, so I usually don’t take chances. That’s why I generally take a chewy cookie recipe, that is already tried and true, and then make it my own. Though these are pretty different from Martha Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies, I used that recipe as a guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

I mentioned The Morning Gift was my favorite book a couple of weeks ago when I posted the vanillekipferl recipe. Though this isn’t a Christmas book, it fills me with such happiness that I am sharing it with you now.  I hope you all like it, too.

Eva Ibbotson is this amazing writer who caught my attention with her book A Countess Below Stairs (recommended to me by Julie). Her writing style is varied and complex, which, along with her exceptional knowledge of all things European and wonderful, makes you feel slightly inferior for just a moment before resolving to be smarter and better informed in the future.

Ruth, the main character in The Morning Gift, is an old-fashioned heroine, slightly reminiscent of Anne Shirley—intelligent, quirky, and lovable. She is half Jewish and living in Austria in the midst of Hitler’s power at the start of the second World War. Everyone in her family escape, but due to terrible complications, Ruth is stranded in Vienna. Her story starts when a young professor and colleague of her father, comes to check on the family to be sure they have all left the city safely. When he finds Ruth there, they discover the only way to get her out of the country is to marry. But dissolving the marriage when they arrive in England is more trouble than they expect.

This is one of those books that is more fun the more you read it. I found myself laughing out loud and calling my mom on the phone every time I got to a good part (She loves it too, by the way).

Some of Ibbotson’s Young Adult novels have some mature themes (nothing too steamy, though), as they were written initially for grown-ups. If you’re wanting a daughter to read this or any of her other Young Adult novels, you may want to preview them first.

Calamity Jack, the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge, is written by Shannon and Dean Hale, and illustrated by the awesome Nathan Hale.  It is a modern retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, complete with giant villains and giant vegetation.  It even brings in a few new characters.  I like the fantastic new adventures, and Jack seems more cool in this book.

Calamity Jack is well written and magnificently illustrated.   It’s even funnier than the first book.

—Mr. Book Reviewer (That’s me up there, reading the book!)

Congratulations to  . . .

Cassidy,

the winner of the 3 month subscription to the Cookie of the Month Club from Platine Cookies!

Aren’t you glad you came to my blog today??? This is my post for the Baker’s Dozen Ultimate Cookie Exchange! Yea!!!! Some other bloggers and I are sharing cookie recipes today, and all of them can be seen by clicking here. Be sure to check them out, since many of them will be having giveaways—including me!

Let’s get to that first, shall we???  One lucky reader will not have to lift a finger to enjoy some scrumptious cookies for the next couple of months.  Platine Cookies of Los Angeles has offered to award one very lucky reader a three month subscription to the Cookie of the Month Club (I am seriously tempted to enter the giveaway under an alias).

The Chef and owner, Jamie Cantor (her name is Jamie, so she’s already cool, as far as I’m concerned) started Platine Cookies awhile back, and her cookies and bakery have been mentioned in People Magazine, Vogue, LA newspapers, and all over the web.

Her cookies are all natural, and perfectly wonderful, so if you want to win some, click over to PlatineCookies.com, decide which cookies look the most delicious to you, and tell us about them in the comments section.  Only one entry per person please.  I will choose a random winner on Monday morning, December 14.

If you don’t win, that’s totally fine, since I will have their link over there in the sidebar for whenever you get a craving and need to order some.

In the meantime, if you’d like to whip something up on your own, try out my recipe for the cookies in the picture.  They were pleasantly addictive.

vanillekipferl

To be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce these. You’d think, since I have some German heritage, I might actually know a tiny bit of German, but I don’t.

I decided to make these back in the summer when I was rereading my favorite book, The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson (Oh yes, this is my favorite book now). The main character’s mother makes the Kipferl to celebrate something really special, and since the author gave such a delicious narrative of the process of making them, I knew I needed to make them, too.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve mentioned Nathan a couple times before. He is my friend from when we were missionaries for our church in Quebec. His latest book Calamity Jack, the sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge (both written by Shannon Hale and her husband Dean Hale), hits shelves in a couple of weeks. My son, who has been enamored by Nate’s blog, recently interviewed him about his career.

Nate, the cool illustrator that he is, didn’t just answer the questions, he turned the whole interview into a comic series. Click here to read the first one. Then you can keep going back to his blog everyday to see his latest post in the interview.

Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t tell you all how excited I am!

A few weeks ago, I had this idea that it would be fun to get together with some other food bloggers and challenge them to take a list of ingredients and their measurements, and then just see what they would come up with.

When Challenge Dairy started following me on twitter, I thought how fun it would be to get them involved with my idea somehow. They are a California based Dairy, and I’ve been using their butter over the years. It’s my favorite brand.

Here’s the scoop:

The Challenge Dairy Shortbread Challenge
Win a year’s supply of butter from Challenge Dairy!*

Here’s what you have to do:

Simply take ingredients in my basic shortbread recipe, then make it your own!

2 sticks butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour

You can add in whatever you like, roll it out, cut it out, press it into a pan, or bake it up however you want. When you have made your shortbread, take a photograph, and post it on your blog along with the recipe that includes what you added, baking time, temperature, etc and a link back to sophistimom.com and Challenge Dairy. Then post a comment on this contest blog post, stating the name of your shortbread recipe, with a link to your entry post on your own blog.

All entries must be posted in the comments by December 18th at midnight.

Entries will be judged on creativity, flavor, and visual presentation. The winner will receive a year’s supply of butter from Challenge Dairy.

Although a purchase is not required, all valid entries must include a link somewhere in the post to Challenge Dairy’s website.  Here is the link: http://www.challengedairy.com.  The site has recipes, and a $.50-off coupon!

The winner will be selected on December 22nd and will be awarded the prize and will have their recipe featured right here on sophistimom.com.

*If the selected winner is outside of the Challenge Dairy market (see website for all states that sell the butter), that person will be awarded with a $50 cash gift card.

Read the rest of this entry »