Cowboy, It's Cold Outside
Page 30
These are Matchmaker Cookies. You’re the matchmaker helping others find their way on the path to love. Don’t make them for yourself. If you need help in the love department, get a friend to bake for you.
Set an intention when mixing and baking these cookies. For example: if the person you’re helping is frustrated by the pace of love, bake a batch with the intention that their true love will find them in a timely manner.
These cookies are potent. Keep them out of the reach of children and serve them only to individuals who are not already in a romantic relationship.
Try not to meddle too much. Serve Matchmaker Cookies when all other methods have failed, then get out of the way and let love take its course.
Be very careful to whom you serve Matchmaker Cookies. The lovers’ future is in your hands.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg and 1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 tsp cinnamon bourbon (May substitute vanilla extract, but if vanilla is used forgo an intention because cookies will no longer have matchmaking qualities. At this point, they may safely be consumed for yumminess purposes by anyone, including children and married couples.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup thinly slivered almonds
1/2 cup dried apples, diced fine
1/2 cup caramel bits for baking
Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, and beat after each addition. Add bourbon (or vanilla extract) and beat to incorporate.
In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
With the mixer on Slow, add the dry ingredients into batter. Scrape down the bowl as needed and mix thoroughly.
Fold in slivered almonds, diced apples, and caramel bits.
Allow the dough to cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With a tablespoon, round mounds of dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 11–14 minutes until the bottoms look lightly browned (edges should not brown). Serve immediately to the lovelorn in your vicinity. Prepare for fireworks.
Acknowledgments
To Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), who died while I was writing this book. His music, lyrics, and golden voice have inspired and kept me company in many wee dark hours of early morning when I write love scenes. Thank you, Leonard, for all the pleasure you’ve given me over the years. You will be greatly missed.
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author LORI WILDE has sold over eighty works of fiction to four major New York publishing houses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensic nursing from Kaplan University. She is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.
Her first New York Times bestseller and the third book in her Twilight, Texas series, The First Love Cookie Club has been optioned for a television movie. The town of Granbury, Texas, upon which her fictional town of Twilight, Texas, is loosely based, honors Lori with an annual Twilight, Texas weekend each Christmas.
www.loriwilde.com
www.twilighttexas.com
www.avonromance.com
www.facebook.com/avonromance
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
By Lori Wilde
The Stardust, Texas Series
Love of the Game
Rules of the Game
Back in the Game
The Cupid, Texas Series
Million Dollar Cowboy
Love with a Perfect Cowboy
Somebody to Love
All Out of Love
Love at First Sight
One True Love (a novella)
The Jubilee, Texas Series
A Cowboy for Christmas
The Cowboy and the Princess
The Cowboy Takes a Bride
The Twilight, Texas Series
Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside
A Wedding for Christmas
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Christmas at Twilight
The Valentine’s Day Disaster (a novella)
The Christmas Cookie Collection
The Christmas Cookie Chronicles:
Carrie; Raylene; Christine; Grace
The Welcome Home Garden Club
The First Love Cookie Club
The True Love Quilting Club
The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club
Available from Harlequin
The Stop the Wedding Series
Crash Landing
Smooth Sailing
Night Driving
The Uniformly Hot Series
Born Ready
High Stakes Seduction
The Right Stuff
Intoxicating
Sweet Surrender
His Final Seduction
Zero Control
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
cowboy, it’s cold outside. Copyright © 2017 by Laurie Vanzura. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition NOVEMBER 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-246824-6
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-246823-9
Cover and stepback art by Larry Rostant
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HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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