Hello, and here we are in the last month of 2020, a year that has kept us off-kilter, worried, and looking forward to a better 2021! Happy New Year, early!
Keep scrolling through for a terrific dessert recipe for Christmas from Sally's Baking Addiction's website , the December specials from Storyology, news about recognition received for With Kisses From Cécile, Anne's latest book recommendation, and a survey about your favorite Christmas traditions! Answer by midnight, December 6th!
FREE GIFT! Your survey reply enters you into a drawing to win a free notecard of your choice from the With Kisses From Cécile set now being sold by Storyology Design! Anne will post the survey results on her facebook page Monday, December 7. Check it out to see if you're the winner!
We hope your Christmas will be filled with love, laughter, and joy. For those celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, happy holidays! And, Happy New Year wishes for 2021!
Anne & Jan
PS-Want to help those in need this Christmas? Scroll to the end of the newsletter for links to charities needing support.
|
|
-
Prep Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (includes chilling)
-
Cook Time: 14 minutes
-
Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (includes cooling)
-
Yield: 12 sandwiches
Ingredients
-
2 and 1/4 cups (280g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
-
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
-
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
-
1 teaspoon baking soda
-
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-
1/2 teaspoon salt
-
6 Tablespoons (90ml) unsulphured or dark molasses
-
1/4 cup (60ml) hot water
-
2/3 cup (130g) granulated sugar
-
1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
-
1 large egg, at room temperature
Spiced Cream Cheese Filling
-
6 ounces (170g) block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
-
1/4 cup (1/2 stick; 60g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
-
1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-
small pinch of each: ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
- Whisk the molasses and hot water together. Give it a minute to slightly cool down, then whisk in the sugar and oil. Finally, whisk in the egg. Pour these wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Fold everything together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until combined– or use a mixer on medium speed. (It’s a bit too heavy for a whisk.) Dough/batter is heavy and looks a bit oily.
- Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
-
Spoon or scoop mounds of batter, a scant 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons each, onto prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes or until the edges appear set. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Make the filling as they cool.
-
Make the filling: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and beat until smooth and combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and spices, then beat on medium speed until combined. Taste. Add a pinch more of the spices if desired.
-
Pair the cookies up based on their size. Spread or pipe (I used Wilton 1A piping tip) the frosting onto the flat side of one cookie and sandwich with the other. Repeat with remaining cookies.
- Cover leftover whoopie pies and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
|
|
December 4-5-6
Antiques & Gift Show
1321 Atlanta Highway
Cumming, GA 30040
Phone: 770-889-3400
Friday 9-5 Saturday 9-6
Sunday 10-5
Tickets $3 - Good All Weekend
Children Under 12 Free
|
|
December 10-13
3650 Jonesboro Rd
Atlanta, GA
Phone: 404- 363-2299
Show Hours
Thursday 10:45am - 6:00pm
Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Tickets $5 - Parking Free
|
|
|
FREE on KU
ALSO IN PAPERBACK
&
online
where books are sold
|
|
The Jøssing Affair
and
The Quisling Factor
BY
J. L. OAKLEY
I met J. L. (Janet) Oakley at the Historical Novel Society Conference the summer of 2019, where we discovered that our ancestors were at the Battle of Gettysburg, hers as a doctor and mine as Lewis Addison Armistead who died as a result of leading Picket's Charge. Did they meet as Lewis lay dying from his wounds? We don't know, but that could be.
Janet and I bonded over our love of history, and I have become a fan of Janet's historical novels and an admirer of her involvement in historical reenactments.
Her latest book released April 2020 is The Quisling Factor. A quisling is a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country. The word comes from the surname of Norwegian Vidkum Quisling who served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1942-1945. His Quisling Regime collaborated with the Nazis and participated in the Final Solution.
The Quisling Factor is the sequel to Janet's award-winning The Jøssing Affair, which introduces readers to British-trained Norwegian intelligence agent Tore Haugland. The reader is drawn into the dangers and horrors of Norway during WW2, and the pages cannot be turned quickly enough to find out the fate of Haugland and the German widow with whom he has fallen in love.
The Quisling Factor continues Haugland's story, in the aftermath of WW2. Though the Nazis are defeated, Haugland's war is not over as his testifying against the war criminals places his life and that of the woman he loves in danger. If you are like me, you will be holding your breath throughout this tense and heart-breaking story.
I knew very little about Norway during World War Two before Janet's breathtaking and nail-biting stories. Her impeccable research shines through the story-telling. If you are drawn to historical thrillers set against World War 2, both The Jøssing Affair and The Quisling Factor are must reads.
The Jøssing Affair
In the tantalizing prologue of Oakley's solid thriller set in 1944 Norway, Henry Oliver Rinnan, "a Gestapo unit unto himself with a maniacal lust for brutal punishment" of his Norwegian country- men, shoots a man before dumping him in a snowy ravine. An elderly witness to the shooting retrieves the victim and manages to revive him. Flash back to seven months earlier ...Oakley effectively recreates a lesser-known chapter of WWII through well-developed characters and suspenseful situations.~ Publisher's Weekly
"British-trained Norwegian intelligence agent Tore Haugland has enough worries when he is sent to a tiny fishing hamlet on the west coast of Norway to set up a line to receive arms and agents from England via the “Shetland Bus.” Posing as a deaf fisherman, his mission is complicated when he falls in love with Anna Fromme, the German widow of an old family friend. Accused of betraying her husband, she has a small daughter and secrets of her own. Though the Allies have liberated France and the Netherlands, the most zealous of the Nazis hang on in Norway, sending out agents to disembowel local resistance groups. If Haugland fails it could not only cost him his life, but those of the fishermen who have joined him. When Haugland is betrayed and left for dead, he will not only have to find the one who betrayed him and destroyed his network, but also prove that the one he loved was not the informer."
The Quisling Factor
"The best in post-World War II espionage thriller novels, Oakley offers another stunningly significant and brilliant Nordic noir we could not put down. Highly recommended!" - Chanticleer Reviews
"Treason. Espionage. Revenge. In the aftermath of WWII, ex-intelligence agent Tore Haugland tries to adjust to life in his newly freed country with the woman he loves. But he still has to testify against a Norwegian traitor -- one of the monsters of the German occupation -- whom he helped to capture. When mysterious notes threaten Haugland and his family, he must choose between protecting them or bringing to justice the man who tortured him and destroyed the village that hid him. Challenged by injuries and recurring nightmares, he will have to rely on his former training and old Resistance friends to rescue his wife from the traitor who will do anything to keep Haugland from testifying."
|
|
|
|
ABOUT J. L. OAKLEY
IN HER WORDS...
|
I wrote my first historical fiction story in fifth grade. I haven’t stopped.
Today, I write historical fiction that spans the mid-nineteenth century to WW II with characters standing up for something in their own time and place. I’m proud that my writing has been recognized with a 2013 Bellingham Mayor’s Arts Award, the 2013 Chanticleer Grand Prize, the 2014 First Place Chaucer Award, an Everybody Reads and Bellingham Read pick and the 2015 WILLA Silver Award, Pulpwood Queen Book Club 2016 backlist pick for February 2016.
When not writing, I demonstrate nineteenth-century folkways in the schools and at San Juan Island National Park.
And I have a cat who thinks she’s editing.
|
CONNECT WITH J. L. OAKLEY
|
|
|
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO MOST DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON?
|
|
WATCHING FAVORITE HOLIDAY MOVIES
|
|
|
|
|
DECORATING THE HOUSE/TREE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
on Kindle and KU
READ THE FREE
PREQUEL NOVELETTE
AN
EMBOLDENED KISS
|
|
|
|
When Mirabelle Montgomery visits Paris on a business trip for her critically ill mother to buy antiques, she finds an aged note in a 1900 Paris Exhibition coin purse souvenir: Meet me at the Luxembourg Carousel —M.
On a whim, Mirabelle stops at the Carousel, where she is sent into its whirling time travel vortex. She becomes The Carousel Traveler, transported to 1900 Paris to alter a man’s destiny. But whose?
Deposited onto the moving sidewalk of the Paris Exhibition in a beautiful Paquin design, Mirabelle is weak and disoriented. She accepts assistance from sexy yet secretive Jacques Thibaut, a disgraced former police detective who now races newfangled automobiles at untested speeds.
Fiery passion ignites between them, despite the clash of Mirabelle’s modern feminism with Jacques’ male superiority. Although he will not divulge his tormented past, Mirabelle believes she has found her man…but she has been sent to change his fate, not fall in love.
If she proves Jacques innocent, the Carousel will whirl Mirabelle back to the present and her mother, separating the lovers by over a century.
Unless…they become Carousel Travelers, together.
|
|
Join Anne & Jan
in helping those less fortunate this Christmas.
Click below to choose a charity
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
