Bready or Not: Cinnamon Twist Cookies
These Cinnamon Twist Cookies give you an opportunity to play with cookie dough.
You divide the dough in half and mix cinnamon into one half. Then you twist the doughs together, creating delicious braided cookies!
This would actually be a great recipe to involve kids or grandkids! Just keep in mind that the cookies spread as they bake, so you don’t want them too large.
This is one the first cookie recipes I claimed as “mine.” I found it on the Betty Crocker website back in my newlywed days when I was hunting for new cookies that would please my husband.
I made these cookies all the time for about five years, and then the recipe became buried in my growing collection of clippings and print-outs. I was stunned to realize recently that I hadn’t made these cookies in years.
These cookies keep well for several days and they’re durable to pack and bring with you places. They have a kind of snickerdoodle vibe going with that kick of cinnamon, but they’re not messy at all.
Most importantly of all, they are delicious.
Bready or Not: Cinnamon Twist Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Divide dough in half. Stir cinnamon into one half until it's mixed in and brown.
- Grab equal pinches of both kinds of dough, place them side by side, and gently twist into a short rope. Place on cookie sheet, with several inches around each to account for expansion. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookie is set with the pale dough just tinted brown. Let cookies cool on wire rack. Store in a sealed container for several days.
- OM NOM NOM!
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5 Tips to be a Prepared Panelist at an SFF Convention
So you’re going to attend a genre convention as a panelist. Whoo hoo! If this is your first time, it’s normal to be nervous. If this is your thirtieth time, it’s normal to be nervous.
Here are some tips to get you geared up, regardless of the content of your panel(s).
5) Know your schedule before you get there.
Carry a notebook or Post-It pad. Make sure your entire schedule is in there–panels you’re on, panels you want to attend, or any other important events during the con. Why? The paper-bound con guide can be very unwieldy to carry or poorly organized. Sure, the con may have an app or allow you to save your schedule online, but the internet can and will go down. Some convention centers get absolutely horrid reception.
I like to use Post-It notes. If my badge is in a plastic sleeve, I will slip the sticky notes right inside the back so I can reference my schedule at a glance without having to dig into my purse in a big crowd.
4) EAT. Seriously.
Food is kinda important, but the very nature of conventions can make it hard to eat. Your schedule might have you booked solid, or the venue might not have restaurants close by, or you’re on a restricted diet. You need to take care of yourself. The last thing you want is to have low blood sugar in the middle of your panel and be listless or feel faint… or for your stomach to be growling like a caged werewolf.
Bring a stash of snacks–granola or energy bars, nuts, jerky, something safely portable. Use Google Maps or Yelp to map out nearby eateries ahead of time; you can focus the online map and search for places right nearby!
If you’re feeling weak and hungry, don’t be afraid to ask for help, either. I bet someone will have some food on their person or be willing to dash for the nearest snack bar for you.
3) Know the layout of the convention.
Large convention centers were surely designed the same folks who create video games dungeons. There are dead ends, winding corridors, nonsensical room numbers, boss monsters. Sometimes the maps shown online or in the con booklet aren’t that useful, either, because they don’t clearly show where floors connect to different levels or across streets.
Reserve some time right at the start of the convention to walk the grounds. Find where your panel(s) will be, and also where you might find the nearest water fountains or bathrooms.
2) Read up on your fellow panelists.
If you have time, read a book or two by your fellow panelists, or at the very least, read their biography, know where they are from, and where they have been published. Maybe there is someone you want to get to know more, so you want to sit beside them to chat; or maybe there is someone you know you want to sit far, far away from.
(Note: A lot of conventions will have a space in their initial questionnaires about “who I do not want to be on a panel with.” You should also feel free to turn down a panel if you think it’s a poor fit or that you’ll clash with another panelist.)
1) Jot down notes during the panel.
I like to use a pen and paper. Some folks use their phone instead. Whatever the medium, it’s nice to have a way to jot down quick notes during a panel. Why? Sometimes questions are long and convoluted, or maybe a fellow panelist will babble on so long that you forget the original question. Maybe someone will mention a book or author that sounds really good. Maybe you need to keep score of something, or need to preserve a neat tip or research morsel. Don’t trust yourself to remember anything during the low-sleep high-craziness action of a convention.
All of these tips revolve around a central concern: YOU. Take care of yourself. A little work to prepare will make for a less-stressful, happier time during your convention!
Reposted from Novelocity.
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Sunday Quote has a giveaway ending soon
“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”
~ Francis Bacon
Goodreads Book Giveaway
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Bready or Not: Cardamom Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze
It’s June and hey, let’s eat cake! Cardamom Cake with Coffee Glaze. A bundt cake full of sugar and glory and cardamom-y goodness.
I read a lot of books. I also read a lot of magazines. One of my favorite things to do is hit up a good used book store or library book sale and buy stacks of older food magazines to raid for recipes.
That’s how I found the original recipe for this in an October 2013 issue of Country Living. I modified it, removing pistachios and tweaking here and there, and created a cake that earned the utter adoration of my husband’s co-workers.
Coffee and cardamom is a fantastic flavor combination. You might remember the Cardamom Coffee Pound cake I posted last fall. This bundt cake is like that awesome loaf cake, and so much more.
It’s bigger, for one, being a full-size cake. It has a kinda pound cake thing going, too. The sour cream does miraculous thing for cake texture, creating crumb that is dense, not crumbly.
This is a cake you can eat out of hand, no saucer required. And you’ll want to lick your fingers clean, too, because the glaze includes espresso powder (one of my favorite ingredients to keep around) and sugar.
If the caffeine doesn’t boost your day, you know the sugar will!
Bready or Not: Cardamom Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze
Ingredients
Bundt cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature, plus more to grease pan
- dried breadcrumbs fine texture, to dust pan
- cooking spray
- 2 1/3 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream 8 ounces
Coffee glaze
- 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon milk or half & half, plus more if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Generously butter a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan. Dust the pan with fine bread crumbs; a toasted and pulverized half heel of bread will do. Apply cooking spray over the bread crumbs.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, use a mixer on medium to beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla extract, beating until very pale yellow.
- Reduce the mixer speed and alternate between adding the flour mix and the sour cream into the butter blend.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, using a rubber spatula. Bake cake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the cake comes out dry with only a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, then invert cake onto rack to completely cool. Once cool, move cake to cake plate and prepare glaze.
- Whisk together sugar, espresso powder, and cocoa powder. Add milk and stir, adding more milk as needed until glaze is just thin enough to drizzle. Dribble over cake.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Breath of Earth $1.99 continues PLUS new Call of Fire giveaway
The sale on Breath of Earth continues into June! Get the ebook for $1.99 at all major online bookstores:
The deal was featured on Bookbub on the 1st, and I was stunned to see my book make it to #247 out of all Kindle books and #53 out of all Nook books. Wowsers!
Also, I’m giving away two copies of the sequel on Goodreads. Enter below!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
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