Rachel Vincent

[Note: the December giveaway details have been posted below, so scroll down to enter if you missed it. Double prizes this time!]

I completely forgot to mention the other day that Jenna Black’s new book, The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist, Book 1), is now available in bookstores all over the country. I’m not sure about overseas, but it’s probably there too. Most of you will (hopefully) remember that Jenna and I gave away an early copy of this one a couple of weeks ago, with some equally early holiday chocolate.

By pure coincidence, the winner of that giveaway happened to send me a picture of herself enjoying her prizes yesterday, and she said I could post it. So, here’s Christina Rundle with her book and chocolate. Thanks, Christina, for sending this in!

See, folks, real people do win books and candy here! So if you haven't signed up for the current contest, get on it!

Let’s see, what else…

Oh, I also forgot to post my spice cookie recipe, which Ang from Oz asked for. So, here you go, Ang. This is straight from The Complete Book of Cookies, which #1 gave me for Christmas several years ago. The book calls this recipe “Teddy Bears Picnic,” though I’m not sure why. But the fact that it’s listed in the children’s cookies section should tell you how simple it is to make. ;-)

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup confectioners’ sugar (that’s powdered sugar, to most of us)
1 ¼ sticks butter, cut into small pieces
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp water

For decoration:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbsp water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease several baking sheets or line with nonstick baking parchment.

• Place the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and combine. Blend in the butter using your fingertips, add the vanilla extract and 1 Tbsp cold water and, using your hands, bring the mixture together in a soft ball.
• Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, stamp out shapes and lift them onto the baking sheets, spacing them well apart. Gather up the remaining dough and roll it out again and cut into more shapes. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until evenly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• To decorate, mix the confectioners’ sugar with sufficient cold water to form a thin frosting. Using a decorating bag, pipe on the cookies in patterns. Allow to set.

Note: to decorate, I skipped the frosting and used fall-colored sugar before baking. I would post pictures, but we already ate all the cookies. ;-)

Writing update: I wrote 3,200 words on my side project yesterday and am at almost 22,000 words now. And loving every minute of it. ;-)