Breaking the Mould
Page 28
“I have everything I need and want,” he said, holding her close, breathing in her ear. “But this is good.”
The air was crisp, winter well established. Jaymie’s cheeks were getting cold, but she stared up at the dark night sky as she had when she was a kid. That was a New Year’s Eve tradition with her dad, to go out after midnight and wish on the first shooting star of the new year.
Finally she saw one and closed her eyes, whispering. Then she turned and kissed her husband, looking up into his face, only visible by the spilled light from the kitchen through the summer porch. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you. So . . . what did you wish for?”
“I can’t tell you that. But, I can tell you I’ve never in my life been happier. All I want now in my life is for this to continue.”
“I second that emotion,” he said.
“What?”
“It’s the title of an old song! Don’t you know it? Smokey Robinson. My oldest brother has always loved classic Motown. How can you not, living in Michigan?” He sang a snatch of it, and the lyric was perfect for them and their love.
“Yup. That’s how I feel.”
“Here’s to the new year, Mrs. Müller.”
“And to you, Mr. Müller.”
Kissing is an excellent way to stay warm, they discovered.
Vintage Eats
Holiday Hermits: The Perfect Cookie for Any Platter
By Jaymie Leighton
As you may know, lately I have been doing some work with spices, given that Queensville, unbeknownst to me, is the spice capital of the USA! Captain Jonas Perry, one of the founding fathers of our village of Queensville, was a spice importer who traveled the world in search of the freshest spices to import. If you are curious about spices and want to see more, visit the Queensville Historic Manor any day of the week and see our spice grater collection in the classic 1920s kitchen I established there last year.
Hermits are a special cookie to spice lovers. Cinnamon, allspice, cloves . . . this fragrant and deliciously evocative blend will have you thinking holidays in no time. If you’re feeling festive, you can add a little nutmeg, too! I’m giving it a special holiday twist by adding in dried cranberries, a jolly and colorful addition. With or without that, they are the perfect picnic cookie, after-school snack and all-round best pairing with cocoa or frothy milk. The hermit cookie is the king of cookies and ideal for any occasion. With all of that being said, here is my take after reviewing dozens of hermit cookie recipes, vintage and modern!
I have such a tough job!
Holiday Hermit Cookies
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ tablespoon salt (Note: if you use salted butter, as I did, omit the salt!)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (omit if you prefer or if you don’t have this, or substitute allspice)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts if you prefer)
1 cup dates, chopped (the original recipe I had said to pit the dates, but I bought them already pitted and chopped; I just chopped them more finely)
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or use Silpat silicone baking sheet liners.
With an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. I used a stand mixer; it makes baking cookies so easy!
In a separate bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture a bit at a time, letting the mixer beat it in. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again, if you’re using a stand mixer.
Fold in nuts, dates, cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls, spacing the cookies about two inches apart. Bake for 10–11 minutes until lightly browned. Put the baking sheet on a raised rack for a few minutes before lifting the cookies from the pan.
If you are in a hurry, it’s great to make the cookie dough and bake it later. I baked a few off, then rolled the rest in wax paper, wrapped that in plastic, and will slice chunks off to bake later. There is nothing like freshly baked! (This worked out great, by the way. Fresh cookies another day!) But hermit cookies keep well; it’s been said that the reason they are called “hermit” cookies is that even if one gets away and hides out in the bottom of the cookie jar, it will still be good by the time you find it! I love little legends like that.
The cookies can be stored at room temperature for five days. If you make these up ahead of time, they will freeze well.
These are fat, fragrant, delicious and satisfying with a frosty glass of milk or a cup of cocoa. They truly smell and taste like the holidays!
Happy Christmas, everyone, or Frohe Weihnachten, as my in-laws say!
Books by Victoria Hamilton
Vintage Kitchen Mysteries
A Deadly Grind
Bowled Over
Freezer I’ll Shoot
No Mallets Intended
White Colander Crime
Leave It to Cleaver
No Grater Danger
Breaking the Mould
Merry Muffin Mysteries
Bran New Death
Muffin But Murder
Death of an English Muffin
Much Ado About Muffin
Muffin to Fear
About the Author
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson.
She now happily writes about vintage kitchen collecting, muffin baking, and dead bodies in the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mystery series. Besides writing about murder and mayhem, and blogging at Killer Characters, Victoria collects vintage kitchen wares and old cookbooks, as well as teapots and teacups.
Visit Victoria at www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.