Virtual Advent is a blog tour that runs from December 1st through 24th. On each of these days one or more blogs will post about a Christmas tradition, memory, or anything Christmas that they want to share.
Spumoni Cookies
I like to cook, but baking from scratch has never been one of my strong points. When I discover a recipe that works well, I’ll use it again and again. I don’t like to argue with success. That’s what happened with my Spumoni Cookies. They were a big hit one Christmas so I brought them again the next year. I’ve been baking this cookie for almost 20 years now and when I don’t bring it on Christmas Day I hear about it. So it’s become a tradition that I bring the Spumoni Cookies.
Ingredients
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
• 5 drops red food coloring
• ¼ cup ground pistachio nuts or almonds
• 5 drops green food coloring
• 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
Preparation
- In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.
- Add the 1½ cups sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla, beat just till combined.
- Slowly add flour mixture beating on medium speed till combined.
- Divide dough into 3 equal portions and place in 3 small bowls. To one portion stir in peppermint extract and red food coloring. To another stir in the pistachio nuts and green food coloring. To the remaining portion stir in the melted chocolate. (I find it impossible to stir anything into dough and have it mix thoroughly. Once I’ve stirred as much as I can I use my hands and mix it until even. Messy, but works the best.)
- Divide each portion of the three balls of dough in half making six balls, total. On waxed paper shape each portion into a 10 inch roll.
- Gently press one roll of pistachio dough and one roll of chocolate dough together, lengthwise, keeping round shapes intact. Gently press one roll of peppermint dough on top, lengthwise, making a shape similar to a triangle. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Wrap each tricolored roll in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-24 hours or until dough is firm enough to slice. (Dough can also be wrapped in foil and frozen for up to 3 months.)
- Cut each roll into ¼ inch slices rotating the roll as you slice to avoid flattening the roll. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350° F for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Makes about 60 cookies.
I use parchment paper over the cookie sheets. It makes cleanup so easy I will never cook them directly on the pan again. Also, one tip, check the temperature of your oven with a thermometer. Don’t trust the dial on the stove. Mine is fairly new and it’s off by about 15° F. I preheat for an extra 10 minutes until I’m sure the temperature is even. I got tired of burnt cookies.
Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and lots of cookies.
——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The December host is Susan at Suko’s Notebook .
Another Monday already. Here’s what I received last week:
For review from Crown Books:
Saturday Night Widows
by Becky Aikman
In her forties – a widow, too young, too modern to accept the role – Becky Aikman struggled to make sense of her place in an altered world. In this transcendent and infectiously wise memoir, she explores surprising new discoveries about how people experience grief and transcend loss and, following her own remarriage, forms a group with five other young widows to test these unconventional ideas. Together, these friends summon the humor, resilience, and striving spirit essential for anyone overcoming adversity.
For review from Random House:
The Burgess Boys
by Elizabeth Stroud
Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help.
For review from Penguin Audio:
The World Until Yesterday
by Jared Diamond
Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.
What are you reading?
——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
It’s important to have fresh water available for the birds year round. I have several birdbaths in my yard and as long as the temperatures remain above freezing I leave all of them out. For the coldest months I have a heated birdbath mounted to my deck railing.
I moved one of the birdbaths under the apple tree where the finch feeders are located. Most birds are cautious and spend some time observing anything new before approaching it. This little goldfinch had to think about it for a while before taking a drink. I suppose it didn’t help that this birdbath has decorative birds perched on it.
Christmas Bird Count
Today I’m participating in the 113th Audubon Christmas Bird Count, a citizen science survey to collect data. We count the birds and the scientists analyze the data to assess the health of bird populations and to help guide conservation action.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The Prankster: A Novella
by James Polster
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: 47North
Publish Date: July 10, 2012
Format: Paperback | 122 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
Aliens from the planet Archano are using the Earth and it’s people as the setting for a Reality TV series. Traveling back and forth through our time stream Trager, star of the show and prankster, pulls practical jokes on the earthlings to be broadcast back to his planet, with the victims blissfully unaware they have been pranked. Influencing the design of the Edsel, sighting the Loch Ness Monster, creating pet rocks and Cabbage Patch Kids were some of his handiwork.
When Trager is dropped in the wrong location and a malfunction makes it impossible to communicate with him, another from his world must be sent to Earth to get him to the alternate retrieval point. This sends them, along with a few humans they meet on the way, on an action filled road trip to San Francisco and ultimately back to Archano.
I loved the premise of the book and its satirical look at Reality TV and found it to be a fun, light-hearted and often humorous read with a quirky ending. The story was plot driven with not a lot of character development, which was understandable given its length of only 100-ish pages. It’s a fast-paced adventure and at times I felt like we were jumping too quickly from scene to scene, and in a few places we are left to fill in the blanks for ourselves. I would have liked to see this expanded into a novel but it does work well in the short format.
Science Fiction fans and those who like quirky, humorous tales such as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will enjoy this short read.
——————————–
Source: Review copy.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: There weren’t a lot of birds at the marsh so I took photos of the dried prairie plants.
——————————–
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Thanks to the publicist, I have one copy of Saving Each Other to give away to a reader with an address in the USA. I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet but the reviews have been glowing on this inspiration story and I’m excited to have a copy for giveaway.
Saving Each Other
A Mother Daughter Love Story
By Victoria Jackson and Ali Guthy
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Publish Date: October 16, 2012
Format: Hardcover | 288 pages
About the Book
Suddenly, Victoria’s dream life is broken as she begins to battle a mother’s greatest fear.
In 2008, her daughter, Ali, began experiencing unusual symptoms of blurred vision and an ache in her eye. Her test results led to the diagnosis of a disease so rare, the chance that she had it was only 2%. Neuromyeltis Optica (NMO) is a little understood, incurable, and often fatal autoimmune disease that can cause blindness, paralysis, and life-threatening seizures, and afflicts as few as 20,000 people in the world. At the age of 14, Ali was given a terrifying prognosis of between four to six years to live.
Saving Each Other: A Mother-Daughter Love Story begins just as Victoria and Bill learn of Ali’s disease, starting them on a powerful journey to save Ali, their only daughter, including bringing together a team of more than fifty of the world’s leading experts in autoimmune and NMO-related diseases to create the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation.
Told in alternating viewpoints, Victoria and Ali narrate their very different journeys of coming to terms with the lack of control that neither mother nor daughter have over NMO, and their pioneering efforts and courage to take their fight to a global level.
Bringing their story to light with raw emotion, humor, warmth, and refreshing candor, Saving Each Other is the extraordinary journey of a mother and daughter who demonstrate how the power of love can transcend our greatest fears, while at the same time battling to find a cure for the incurable.
About the Authors
Victoria Jackson
Having achieved success as a Hollywood makeup artist, cosmetics entrepreneur and television infomercial pioneer, Victoria Jackson prefers to think of herself as “a goodwill ambassador for makeup.”
A recognized trailblazer in the infomercial industry, Jackson altered a global beauty aesthetic with her “no makeup makeup” — a foundation that was the cornerstone of her eponymous line Victoria Jackson Cosmetics, which has enjoyed over a half billion dollars in sales, and continues to grow.
Jackson has also garnered a devoted following through her two briskly selling books: Redefining Beauty: Discovering Your Individual Beauty, Enhancing Your Self-Esteem and Make Up Your Life: Every Woman’s Guide to the Power of Makeup, a deeply personal account of her experiences in business.
Today, Victoria’s primary focus is the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, which is dedicated to funding biomedical research in the search to understand the pathophysiology and biochemistry of Neuromyeltis Optica (NMO) Spectrum Disease. It is her greatest hope that “together we will reverse the effects of NMO and eventually cure this disease.”
Married to husband Bill Guthy of infomercial giant Guthy-Renker, Victoria Jackson is the mother of three children and together they reside in Los Angeles.
Ali Guthy
Ali Guthy, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has kept a journal since she was a young girl. At The Buckley School in Los Angeles, she served as co-editor-in-chief for her high school’s award-winning newspaper, The Student Voice. She is also the managing editor of The Spectrum, the newsletter she created with the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation. While at Buckley, she had record-setting achievements on the tennis court, finishing with an overall winning record of 165-22. Ali also received Buckley’s coveted Head of School Award — given to a student who demonstrated leadership, academic achievement, character, and service on behalf of the school and community. Ali has also been honored with numerous awards and in the media for giving a public face to NMO and for her leadership in reaching out to newly diagnosed patients and their families.
More Information
Visit the Guthy-Jackson Foundation and Vanguard Press.
Follow the authors on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
100% of all proceeds from this book directly support scientific and clinical research for NMO. Order a copy.
Win a Copy of Saving Each Other
Giveaway is open to those with an address in the US only, age 13 or older. To enter, leave a comment on or before Saturday, December 22nd 27th. For one extra entry tweet or blog the giveaway and leave the link in your comment. I will draw a random winner who will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
Giveaway extended through the Holidays until 12/27.
Contest Now Closed
Winner: Beckey
——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. The December host is Susan at Suko’s Notebook .
I can’t believe it’s Monday already! This week went zooming by and I feel like I didn’t get much accomplished, although in reality I probably did. I spent a significant amount of time working with Charlie, a Lovebird that I rescued from a shelter, so that he would feel comfortable in his new home and then of course there are the Christmasy things that I hope to finish up this week.
I received two books last week, one for review and one was a win.
For review from the publisher (Little, Brown):
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.
A win from Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit:
A Walk In The Park
by Jill Mansell
Lara Carson left her family and boyfriend Flynn eighteen years ago without a word to anyone. Why has no one heard from her since? Does it mean anything that she’s suddenly reappeared in Bath just in time for her ex-best friend Evie’s wedding? And what about Flynn? Even the most eagle-eyed observer can’t tell whether he’s happy to see her, or just stunned. While secrets pile up on secrets, and the gossip mill wings into high gear, the brand-new life Lara’s searching for becomes ever more elusive.
What are you reading?
——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Under My Apple Tree 