Thank you EM for inviting me on your blog this holiday season to share one of my favorite memories of Christmas and news of my new Christmas short story, Snow Globe<\/em>, out today from Dreamspinner Press Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we don’t have the same environmental cues (like snow and ice) that help frame the holiday season–instead I have to draw on my memories of Christmases past to get me in the mood. Growing up, Christmas traditions changed with the venue\u2014Living in the Mojave desert far from family we were always the travelers\u2014we\u2019d drive hours and settle into homes already filled with their own special brand of holiday cheer.\u00a0 But throughout the years, there\u2019s been one tradition we claimed\u2014my mother\u2019s Christmas sugar cookies.<\/p>\n Back when my parents were newly married, there was no extra money to buy ornaments for their first Christmas tree. Instead, my mother found a rolled cookie recipe on the back of a bag of Gold Medal Flour. Unlike more traditional sugar cookie recipes, this one was something special\u2014an almond flavored shortbread with a delicacy of flavor that shone under a glazing of sugar.<\/p>\n That first year my mother covered the Christmas tree with cookies cut in the shape of bells all decorated with powdered sugar icing, silver dragees, and colored sugar sprinkles. She describes a tree hung all over with the cookies that disappeared one after another from the moment the first one hit an evergreen branch. It was a huge success, one that was repeated on other trees during my childhood. And, while the cookies never lasted all the way to Christmas, the memories linger.<\/p>\n Now every time I make this recipe for my family I think of her, and of Christmas. I remember all the years we made these cookies together. The tin cookie cutters that rattled as I pawed through them looking for just the right shape to use\u2014the Teddy Bear, the angel, the half moon\u2026I loved them all. Even better, no eggs made the scraps of raw dough a child\u2019s dream to eat.<\/p>\n These cookies are truly delicious, subtle and simple. They aren\u2019t cloyingly sweet and bland like so many sugar cookies are. They use almond extract that provides a depth of flavor missing in most rolled dough.<\/p>\n For a festive variation I make a separate batch flavored only with peppermint extract and tinted red to make the red stripes of candy canes that wrap the almond flavored dough in a warm holiday embrace. I hope you try this recipe and make some memories of your own.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 cup soft butter<\/p>\n \u00bd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 cup sifted powdered sugar<\/p>\n 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 teaspoon almond extract<\/p>\n 2 \u00bc\u00a0\u00a0 cup flour<\/p>\n \u00bc\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n Preheat oven to 375 degrees.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/b>Mix butter sugar, almond extract together<\/b><\/p>\n Stir in flour & salt<\/b> (I incorporate the salt with the flour separately before adding to the butter mixture)<\/p>\n Roll \u00bc\u201d thick.<\/b> (I chill at this point. It makes the cookies easier to cut out and retain their shape while baking).<\/p>\n Cut with 2\u201d bell shaped cookie cutter \u2013 makes aprox. 40 cookies<\/b> (yeah, right. I don\u2019t have my mom\u2019s deft precision cutting technique. I double the batch and use whatever cutter strikes my fancy, though silver bells are pretty amazing.)<\/p>\n Bake for 10 minutes <\/b>(edges should be lightly golden brown, centers pale.)<\/p>\n Cool, Frost with Thin White Icing <\/b>(eat before someone else gets them.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 cup sifted powdered sugar<\/p>\n 1\u20131 \u00bd Tablespoon Water<\/p>\n \u00bd\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 teaspoon vanilla extract (the good stuff, please people.)<\/p>\n Mix sugar and vanilla together, then thin with water until you have a loose consistency. It’s more of a thick glaze than an icing. Spread on cooled cookies then add decorations. Let them dry before eating, if you can. -LE<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s the story of Kris Hamilton, an artist who moves to a small town in Northern Minnesota looking for a home and a studio to create his snow globes.\u00a0 Kris\u2019 first meeting with blond Viking-come-to-life, Tyr Tollefson is a disaster and it isn\u2019t until Kris rescues Tyr\u2019s mentally challenged older cousin Bun, that the pair start seeing eye-to-eye.<\/i><\/p>\n Excerpt from Snow Globe by LE Franks<\/a> Available December 1st at Dreamspinner Press (and Amazon<\/a>, other distributors shortly after):<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n IT WAS the face pressed against his storefront window that first caught his attention.<\/p>\n \u201cPressed\u201d might have been too delicate a word. \u201cMashed\u201d is better, Kris thought idly, admiring the spread of pink skin sticking to the glass before his brain latched on to the thought spinning and tumbling at an increasingly alarming rate.<\/p>\n The litany of words shoved their way to the tip of his tongue, rushing to spill over and out of him in a waterfall of frothing adjectives: smushed, squashed, scrunched, crunched, crushed, squished, pushed, flattened, pancaked…. He\u2019d barely been able to throw on the brakes, limiting the torrent to a barely audible whisper until the words dribbled to a halt.<\/p>\n Crap. It had been weeks since the last time he lost control of his own peculiar form of Tourette\u2019s.<\/p>\n He looked around the tiny store to see if anyone had noticed, but was quickly drawn back to the spectacle outside. The little voice teasing at the edges of his mind suggested a few more words that he ruthlessly rejected, fully alert to the insidious nature of his own brain. The person outside was an impossible m\u00e9lange of old and young, tiny and broad, all brown and pink and white and fluffy red. Was that a scarf and hat?<\/p>\n Pompoms in July seemed off to Kris, and the noise came rushing back\u2014odd, unusual, unexpected, surprising, strange, weird, astonishing, peculiar…. Gasping, he stuttered back a breath, choking in the words and squeezing eyes shut tight.<\/p>\n Twenty-five cleansing breaths. Twenty-four, twenty- three…. His head noise kept pace with his diaphragm until petering out around number twelve. Kris paid attention, waiting to open his eyes again until the countdown reached number one… or was it zero? He felt another tingle of panic try to erupt. Shit. If he wasn\u2019t careful, he\u2019d be off to the races again, and he could feel the happy little ponies inside him bouncing in delight at the thought.<\/p>\n This time when he opened his eyes, his world was still. No strange visions at his window, no customers with pity or contempt in their eyes, no rampaging word strings waiting to torment him. With shaking hands he put up the Out to Lunch sign and locked the front door.<\/p>\n Not for the first time, Kris felt like he was living inside one of his own snow-globe creations\u2014never knowing when something was going to yank him upside down and shake him. At least for now, all the blizzarding shards seemed to have settled back to the bottom.<\/p>\n Find LE Franks Online:<\/p>\n Website: LEFranks.Com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Facebook:\u00a0LE Franks Author page<\/a><\/p>\n Twitter: @Boxtersushi<\/a><\/p>\n Blog: LE Franks<\/a><\/p>\n [wait a minute for Rafflecopter to load]![\"SnowGlobe_FBbanner_DSP\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/SnowGlobe_FBbanner_DSP.jpeg?resize=347%2C128\")
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\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSilver Bells Christmas Cookies<\/b><\/h2>\n
Thin White Icing<\/b><\/h2>\n
Snow Globe by LE Franks<\/h2>\n
![\"LEFranksSnowglobe\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/LEFranksSnowglobe.jpeg?resize=198%2C300\")
<\/a>My contribution to Dreamspinner’s annual Advent Calender, Snow Globe<\/a>,<\/em> is available December 1st<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0For more heartwarming tales, please check out this year\u2019s Dreamspinner Press Advent Calendar<\/a> selection of Christmas stories<\/strong><\/p>\nBuy Snow Globe from Dreamspinner <\/a>Press <\/a>and Amazon<\/a>.<\/h2><\/div><\/div>\n
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