One in Every Minyan

COOKIES, right? *hee*

I'm not sure why, but for me, the two go hand in hand.

That said, here's a little recipe I use as a general, all-purpose cookie dough base. I've added all sorts of ingredients to this before. In fact, when I had a big, industrial mixer at work, I used to multiply this recipe by 10, then separate out smaller portions to combine with different additions.

I usually make the cookie dough and once everything's mixed in, I'll roll it into parchment paper, making rolls about an inch and a half across and a foot or so long. They freeze really well and I can just remove one roll of dough and slice it into discs, peel off the paper and they're ready for the oven. *grins* About 325 degrees until brown at the edges (usually 7 to 10 minutes).



2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt


1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

* * *

Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together in stand mixer then add vanilla and eggs. Combine.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, a little at a time (to avoid the huge dusty flour cloud).

* * *

Some of my favorite things to add are white chocolate chips and pistachios, or dried cranberries and chopped pecans, or chopped dried apricots and slivered almonds. The possibilities are endless.

You can also not add any nuts or chocolate and instead sift in a tablespoon of ground cinnamon with the flour and such for a very basic cinnamon cookie. Or two tablespoons cocoa powder for chocolate ones. :)

And there you have it. Tis's cookie dough recipe. *hee*

That's right, I've managed to claw my way from the strangle hold of sleep and here I am! *hee*

It's just about 11:30 a.m. now, so I think this would be a good time to put out the call!

I think you guys know the drill by now, but if not... leave me anywhere from one to five words in comments here between now and... let's say 5 p.m. EST. I'll use at least one word from each of you in the fourth part of the ongoing saga of "The Irregular Regular", which I'll try to post before I finish up here tonight. :)

Each person who offers words or comments later on the finished product will be entered into a random drawing, courtesy of the Plastic-Cup-O-Doom (tm), the winner to be announced tomorrow, noon (which is when I'll close this contest).

If that's not clear, prompt-words 'til 5 p.m. today and comments 'til noon tomorrow (EST) will all be eligible to win. Prize is a 'pdf copy of either my Holiday single shot "Snow & Mistletoe" or my Holiday sip "Nice: A Change of Pace" (or if the winner already has those, something else from my backlist).

In case anyone doesn't feel like navigation my wordpress for the first three parts of the continuing story:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Have at it, people! *grins* Oh, and it's not actually the Holidays in the story, so don't feel as though you have to be holiday-themed. :) As usual, anything goes!

~Tis

I know for a FACT that Tis won't mind if I sneak in here and announce my winner from yesterday. How do I know this fact? I just do. She'll even vouch for me.

stormwever!!

Yay for you. Email me at ragingpixie at gmail dot com with the name of any title from my back list and I'll send you a free download.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Good morning (though it's barely that where I am, what with it being... 2:30-ish a.m.)!

Welcome to my advent calendar day!

I don't have anything particular planned for those who actually manage time away from friends and family on this very special day of the year, but I've gotten fairly good at winging it here.

One thing I DO plan is to continue my prompt-story that I started way back when, "The Irregular Regular." Previous parts can be found on my site Here!

Click on the links for parts one through three on on the right, under free reads.

I'm also thinking I'll have a contest or two to celebrate the releases of my new holiday single shot and sip.

There might even be a recipe or two, from my cheffing days. *grins*

So, welcome. There's coffe around here somewhere and lots of pretty boys just waiting to serve you. Do try to behave until I get back. *grins*

Oh, and if you guys have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I'll answer as soon as I can!

~Tis

Night, everyone. Thanks so much for hanging out today. I'll pick a contest winner and announce it tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, check out the books that Torquere put on sale today. Thanks again!

Chasing Victory, Keeping Karma and The Sound of Cicadas on sale for 20% off.

Even though my family celebrates Hanukkah, I do NOT get away with a Christmas-free holiday. Most of my friends and neighbors celebrate Christmas, and the husband and I usually exchange stockings on Christmas morning. (He gets Hanukkah presents, but he is not of the Chosen People. Double presents for him! Lucky.)

So anyway, just now I was downstairs trying to wrap up some of the munchies and baked goods we'll be taking to neighbors, and I realized that ALL of the baked stuff was everything I like to eat myself. I thought I'd just give you one of my favorite holiday recipes so you can try it out, too.

( Millionaire's Shortbread Bars )

Two of the three emails I got this week asked me if I was planning on doing more with Chris and Morgan from Tinder. The answer is yes, although the project got stalled for a few months while I dealt with some day to day real life stuff. Things are slowly getting back on track for me now, so I expect to resume work on their third and final installment.

This one is coming from Morgan's POV, so it's a bit different for me. Here's a little taste of what goes on inside Morgan's head.

( Morgan knew, even before he opened his eyes, that Christopher was not going to let this birthday pass unnoticed. )


I can take any questions you guys have about Chris and Morgan, or anyone else from my catalogue! All questions and/or comments to this post will be thrown into the hat and I'll pick a winner by tomorrow. The winner gets their choice of a free download of anything from my backlist.

Go on, ask. :)

Good morning! I'm sure the day is well underway for anyone not on the west coast, but it's just a little after seven in southern California, so I congratulate myself for being this early on a non-workday. You all should congratulate me, too. ;) No coffee, even!

Well, I was debating a few days ago what to actually post about, but then I got THREE emails just this week about my Oceanside Fire series, so. Firemen it is! I have a couple of snippets for you later and a super easy contest, but for now I'll leave you with one of my very favorite things to watch on the web. It's pretty NSFW because of language and sexual situations, but those are always the best kind, aren't they? It's also not very complimentary toward police officers, but the two cops I've shown this to found it hilarious. And all the firemen I know think Jake is their hero.

Here, watch and judge for yourself.

Policeman Perry and Fireman Jake are best friends who work in competitive industries...

Day 23 -- Tory Temple will be hosting.

To celebrate we've put Chasing Victory, Keeping Karma and The Sound of Cicadas on sale for 20% off.

Day 24 - TC Blue will be hosting

To celebrate we've put Lemon Yellow: Making Lemonade, Making it Up and Trine on sale for 20% off.

Day 26 -- Winnie Jerome will be hosting.

To celebrate we've put Spikenard: Freedom to Fly, Yuppie Blues and Blank Canvases on sale for 20% off.

Day 27 -- CC Bridges will be hosting

To celebrate we've put Bite Me, Down the Chimney and Cat's Eye on sale at 20% off.

And the winner is: marasmine!

Email me at molly/anne/church at gmail/com (replacing the / with dots), and let me know if you'd prefer a copy of "A Hope in Hell" or the upcoming (in April) "Color Box: Brown".

I'm going to go have a (very) late dinner, and then I'll be back to answer the recent comments - thank you all for participating today, in the posts, and the prompts, and the poll. You guys were great.

I'm sorry I didn't get to finish my story in time (prompt story and planned story ended up clashing), but I will finish it tomorrow (unless acts of god or war, etc), and post it on my livejournal, if you're curious.

Speaking of which, obviously, I have an lj - but I also have a blogger (pretty much the same as my lj), and a facebook. But I'm one of those "just shy/not antisocial/(you can talk to me)" people, so I never know how to approach others, even where you're supposed to, you know, network. So! If you have a facebook, and like the whole social networking thing, and whatever, feel free to add me. You can find me here.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I hope you guys did too.

Written to the prompts supplied here.

( More Dylan and Xavier - not work safe )

Back in a bit with the winner!

Edited for, you know, editing. *facepalm*

I should have perhaps mentioned in my prompt/poll post that I would be putting up two male/male excerpts and a male/male story written for the occasion - I'd go back and edit the post, but I'm pretty sure that would screw the poll up.

So, if in light of that your preference has changed slightly, you can let me know here or indeed, in the other post.

Anyway, on to the excerpt (sexcerpt?)!

This one is from my color box novelette which will not be out until the end of April, and is still in edits - I must emphasize this! - so it may yet change. But like the Ghost of Christmas Present, it's here for you to enjoy, as it is, in the moment.

( The working title is Grisaille in Brown. )

---
It is also available as an option for the winner of the prompt-post draw - and I should probably also add a plea to get your prompts in in the next three hours if you can. (I will try to include late submissions too, but I'll be starting writing in three hours.)

As I was saying last time I was here, I love the winter holidays.

And as hbkurtzwilde mentioned yesterday, there are a lot of them. It seems like everyone has something to celebrate around now.

That's a large part of why I love it.

Although I was raised Christian (Catholic - the American version of Irish Catholic, not the Irish version of Irish Catholic), I was fortunate to go to a school which genuinely, lovingly, celebrated diversity. There was no effort in it on the kids' parts (though in retrospect, I'm sure it required a lot of thought on the parts of our teachers and administrators). We even had something of a school song for the holidays (it was written by our music teacher), which we would preform for the parents on the last day before the winter break. "Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays" did not seem trite or politically correct, or even overly thought about. It was just naturally inclusive.

We were taught about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah (again, in retrospect, I realize that our school was made up of predominately Christian students, hence no need to inform us what Christmas was about), and it was wonderful.

Later, as I got older, I would discover that there were more than those holidays - Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism all have winter holidays. And I also learned that given the lunar basis of some of the holidays, like Hanukkah, the holidays could fall quite early in the winter (Diwali for example, sometimes even falls in the fall). Movable feasts, indeed. But I do not let that stop me. They're winter holidays now, and I always like the ghost of Christmas Present best (especailly this one).

As hbkurtzwilde was telling us yesterday, yesterday was the winter solstice - known also as Yule (mainly, though it does have other AKAs). This is the holiday I celebrate now, and it appeals to me not just as a pagan, but part of the excitement for me is that it is all inclusive. It's astronomical. We're all celebrating a solstice - winter in the north, summer in the south - it's all of us. The shortest day of the year is the longest one, somewhere else. And there's a great symbolism - both natural and human - in that.

And speaking of great symbolism, both natural and human, I should mention Newgrange.

A long time ago - a very long time ago, indeed, back before the ancients raised Stonehenge or the Great Pyramids - on a small island at the very edge of Europe, the ancient people of Ireland built a temple of incredible complexity and beauty. We can't know all that Newgrange meant to them, or why they did it. But even today, five millennia later, at dawn, between the 19th and 23th of December, it is illuminated, for a brief time.

So, greetings of the season, and the solstice, to your and yours.

And all of us.


---
(Edited for word!fail.)

"A Hope in Hell", my first story, came out about this time last year. Actually, it's two stories, and a Torquere Press Taste Test - and it's on sale today!

So, to be begin at the beginning: the original excerpt is available here, and it's the start of the story.

( And now for something a little less work safe )

Molly Church is hosting.

To celebrate we've put Taste Test: A Hope in Hell on sale at 20% off.

Leave a prompt (one, two or three words), and I shall post a very short story before midnight.

Unlike some of Torquere's more intrepid authors, I can't promise that I'll be able to use all of the prompts, but I will try to work in as many as I can and everyone who suggests a prompt will be entered (whether their prompt was used or not) in a draw for a copy of A Hope In Hell (or, if the winner is especially patient, they may choose my still-in-edits, not-out-till-April Color Box novelette).

A couple of tips for prompts:
1. Try to get your prompts in before 9pm GMT/UTC (that's 4pm on the US east coast, and 1pm on the west coast, and about 10am Wednesday if you're in NZ, and between 5 and 7 am if you're in Australia - sorry! though maybe you'll see this before you head to bed). I will check for new prompts while I'm writing, but your chances of seeing your prompt in the story is will naturally be somewhat diminished the closer I get to the end.
2. I lean toward somewhat darker/dramatic themes - silly or comedic prompts are less like to grab my muse. If you do have a silly prompt, that's fine, and I won't exclude it, but, fair warning, I may not be able to work them in.

(If you're wondering what a prompt is, it's a word or phrase that "prompts" a writer to write. If words, usually (though not necessarily) the words are nouns. A two word prompt word be something like "smoke and mirrors", for example.)

Please note: You are welcome to vote in the poll even if you do not wish to leave a prompt (or any other comment for that matter). So, if you do have a preference, please let me know what it is.

Poll #1502122 Prompt story poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

The story should be:

My preference for the above is:

Well, "Good Morning" to those in my time zone, and good something else to everyone else!

Anyway, whatever time zone you're in, I hope you'll get a chance to stop by and spend some time with us today.

I have a few things planned for today - a very little story I've written almost finished for the occasion, a prompt-based story (I'll put up a prompting post in a bit), and some general musing on the holidays, and why I love them (warning: there might be meta).

I must warn you, it's been cold enough to snow here, so I'm in a fairly whimsical mood - the plans could change still slightly :)

A couple of other "warnings":
1.) Some of the other posters this week have mentioned problems with livejournal's formatting - so I'll keep an eye out, but let me know if something looks very wrong.
2.) On the subject of looking "very wrong", my dyslexia has been very naughty lately, and although I do spell check, that won't pick up things like homophones/heterographs*, or where my brain decides to substitute "yet" for "etc" or the like. So please, if you see something, feel free to say something.



* It looks like I just paired off homophones and heterographs, and made it sound political at the same time, doesn't it? Yet there's nothing I can do about it.

I had a great time hanging out with folks today.  Here's hoping your holidays are memorable.  For those of y'all in parts of the world where 'cake' means something different than what I think, check out Cake Wrecks for some examples of our holiday fare. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-sweets-cutest-christmas-cupcakes.html makes me want to just lick the screen.

This time of year, I wear my 'unaffiliated' badge a little more publicly than normal.  It's not that I don't get down with all varieties of festivities, cause I do.  I find it's easier to duck under the ropes and get at the goodies if I'm not presented as an envoy from a different team.

BUT!  Today I actually have something I'm celebrating.  I invite you all in my usually geeky, dorky fashion, to observe the Winter Solstice which is today.  Enjoy any sunshine you get just a little more today, if for no reason than there will be less of it.  You'll have to amp up your appreciation factor just a little.

Not sure what the Astronomical Winter Solstice is all about? No problem, we have nerd: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091221-winter-solstice-2009-first-day-winter-shortest-day-year.html

So while I'm over here munching on the cultural nod to this natural phenomenon, I'd also like to take a moment to remember how all these wonderful shindigs ended up happening mostly at the same time.  And face it, we always need at least one more excuse this time of year to stuff cake into our faces.



Notice: LJ is dropping my paragraph breaks for no reason today.   Sorry for any accidental text blocks.

Today the holidays are being celebrated by my neighbors.  They're having several palm trees planted.  That's right, folks.  I live in a place that basically looks like this: which is why Eab Nanoorn is also a tropical paradise.  Here's a link to excerpts from Buying Day, a holiday story in Eab Nanoorn style.   Go here for holiday savings: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=96&products_id=737 Again, sorry for the strange format of excerpts today, but I will not let LJ defeat me!