Happy Holidays Again

Normally, this is a "Jewish Christmas"



However because this year, Christmas Day falls in the middle of Hanukkah, we'll be celebrating with family, and won't be going out for Chinese food. (Not to mention, the Jewish population in Teller County isn't large enough to support either of the two Chinese restaurants in the county, so they're not open.

We'll be having Hanukkah at Gram's this year on Christmas Day.

Happy Holidays

For some it will be Christmas Eve tonight. For us, it's night 5 of Hanukkah.
Wishing everyone a happy weekend and hope you can share it with loved ones.

My Last Gift To You

Tonight's the last night of Hanukkah. I hope you've enjoyed some of your gifts. Remember, Rebecca York's contest runs through December 11th, so scroll down and leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of her book, DRAGON MOON.

And my last gift for you is another Smashwords coupon. This one is 50% off WHEN DANGER CALLS, and it's good through the end of the year. Use Coupon Code ET46A at checkout. I hope you'll enjoy it. This should give you plenty of time to read it before the sequel, WHERE DANGER HIDES is released in May. And if you want a dirt-cheap hard cover, email me.

(I have pleas for reader help at the end of this post—please read through)

My next NOOKcolor discovery really isn't about the device as much as about the programming and communication between the bookstore and the reader. My daughter-in-law gave me a gift certificate for Barnes & Noble for Hanukkah. I went to their website and 'registered' the certificate in my account. Then, I bought a book using my NC. When I checked my account on the website, lo and behold, it "knew" to use my gift certificate funds rather than the credit card associated with the NC account. Frabjous Day. I'm still refraining from going hog wild. I downloaded a slew of samples, but I will buy them only after I read the sample and decide I have to know what comes next.

On the home scene, the remodel is still going well—knocking on my desk. We had our first inspection, and it passed; nothing could move forward until the inspector signed off on the electrical.


Then there's the "this would NEVER fly in a book" scene.

Two More Gifts for You

An extra post today -- My guest, Rebecca York, will be arriving at 6 AM (or her post will, anyway), so I wanted to offer you my next gift without encroaching on her post--which you won't want to miss, because she's doing a giveaway.

Today it's a pair of recipes for holiday munchies.

NOOKcolor: Extras. And another gift

My gift to you today: A first look at a new entry into the "Cutting Room Floor" files of my website. The 'false start' to When Danger Calls. Read it here.

Yesterday was busy with our family holiday celebration. I baked the rugelach, made potato latkes and ricotta pancakes.Latke recipes are pretty much basic. Mine isn't much different from the standard: 4 potatoes, 1 onion, an egg, salt, and flour (or matzo meal). One variation I learned from my daughters' pre-school teacher was to take about 1/3 of the combined ingredients and give it some time in the food processor, making a kind of batter to bind the rest of the potatoes together.

We're traditionalists in that we serve the latkes with applesauce and/or sour cream. They're about the only thing I cook 'last minute' but this year, with our new open concept floor plan, I won't be alone in the kitchen (although sometimes I think that's a good thing.)

More of my NOOKcolore reports:

(You should be able to click on the NOOKcolor images to enlarge them for a bit more clarity.)

Your Next Gift

First - if you haven't checked out yesterday's gift, scroll down and do so. It's only good for one more day.

Today: a holiday recipe. I used to bake these as mini-loaves and give them as gifts.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Bread

3 c biscuit mix
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
1 t pumpkin pie spice
½ t ground cloves
½ t ground nutmeg
1 c chopped nuts

Oven: 350
Grease 9x5x3 loaf pan (or use 3 mini pans)
Beat all ingredients in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping constantly, 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed, scarping occasionally, 4 minutes. Pour into pan. Bake about 1 hour 10 minutes, until toothpick comes clean. (About 40 minutes for mini-pans) Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan. If desired, cool completely and spread with browned butter glaze.

Optional: Browned butter glaze
Heat 1/4 c butter in saucepan over medium heat until delicate brown; remove from heat. Mix in 1 c powdered sugar. Stir in 2-4 T hot water, 1 T at a time until of desired consistency. Spread or pour on cooled loaf.

Another Gift For You

I don't normally post on weekends, but in the spirit of holiday giving, I'm sending a gift your way. It's a coupon code for COPING MECHANISMS at Smashwords. Enter code GY23P and the price will drop to ZERO. The coupon is only good through Dec. 6th, so use it now. You can download the story in just about any digital format.

And while you're there, I hope you'll browse my other offerings. Feel free to pass the code along to your friends.

Enjoy!

Rugelach and more NOOKcolor

Since I'm not making latkes until Sunday night, and there are plenty of other blogs posting recipes, I thought I'd share one of our family traditional cookies instead. They're not 'officially' connected to Hanukkah, although we've made them at our house for decades. They're great for assembly line preparation with kids. And enough work so that they're a definite 'occasion' treat. You can also make the dough well ahead of time, which is another plus in my book.

The recipe's at the end of this post.

As for today's NOOKcolor report. I've already talked about reading books, but what about getting the books onto the device. One thing I've always been is frugal. Raising 3 kids on a university professor's salary will do that to you. I've never had a huge TBR pile. I do, however, have a TBR list. I'm also reluctant to spend money on books I'm not sure I'll like, or on authors I've never heard of.

So, with my NC, I take advantage of the samples and their wish list. I can browse the bookstore, click 'sample' and/or 'wish list', and presto--the book appears on my NC. Depending on the length of the book, the sample size varies. For a "Thomas" book for my grandson, the sample didn't get beyond the front matter. But for Lee Child's new book, I got about 60 pages. So, when I'm ready to read, I can open the sample, and if I like it, I can then click the 'buy now' option and add the entire book. That way, I don't spend money until I "need" the book, but I'm also able to browse content without going to the library or bookstore (and if you live where I do, that's a plus!)

And onto the Rugelach!

Holiday Giving

We're now in the midst of Hanukkah, and this one's unusual in that it's not only the two of us. We're in Colorado, first, to celebrate our grandson's second birthday. And, as long as we were going to travel, we decided to do some preliminary relocation scouting.

It just so happened that our visit coincides with Hanukkah, and so we actually have family around. Or, rather, family has us around. With everyone scattered, and with a holiday that gets little recognition from employers as being worthy of time off, we don't usually have the opportunity to celebrate face to face.

Our kids are grown, and we've long since cut back our gift exchanging to immediate family, and even then, we rarely go all out. We've reached a point where "it's the thought that counts" much more than a tangible gift.

But because we were going to see two of our kids, and it was going to be during the holiday, I asked if they had any special wishes. My daughter-in-law suggested a donation to her favorite charity. We decided that was an excellent idea, and that is what we're giving to our kids this year. Donations in their names.

To me, that's the true spirit of giving. (And the fact that you don't have to hit the malls doesn't hurt either.)

Be sure to come back tomorrow when my guest, Mary Ricksen relates a tale about how she saved her dog's life by refusing to give up.

A kid's game? Maybe not.

A dreidel is one of the Hanukkah symbols. Basically, it's a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side. You spin it, and whichever side lands face up dictates what you do. In a nutshell, it's a kind of gambling. I remember using pennies, or even raisins when we played. It was also a bit of a math exercise, because one symbol meant you got half the pot, so you had to know how to divide by two.



Where did the original tradition come from? I found an article by Robin Treistman called Poker, Dreidel and Hanukkah.

Ah. This is where the deep part starts. In the time of King Antiochus (you know - the Syrian/Greek dude whose tyranny was overthrown by the Jews), one of the decrees against the Jews was the prohibition of the study of Torah. This went along with other sweet prohibitions such as the one against circumcision, ritual slaughter, performing Temple duties, and more. So how did the Jews get around it? Tradition holds that the children and adults would gather to engage in some kind of game that resembled gambling, such as cards, and at the same time, they would discuss the Torah orally among themselves. Picture this:

'Reb Yaakov - if you were watching my ox, and it fell in a pit, who is liable?'

'I pass - it is quite clear from the Torah that the present overseer of the ox is.'

'Reb Yossi - hit me with 2, OK? But what if the ox got away by itself?'

'I still think that the overseer is liable - he should have had control over the ox all along. The Torah does not differentiate. Hey, check it out guys - a straight flush!'

So a game intertwined with Torah study was the way our great- great-great-great... grandparents would get around Antiochus' decree and similar decrees ordered by later persecutors of the Jews. In memory of this practice, and in celebration of the fact that we can now study without the poker game in the background, we allow and even encourage our children to play dreidel, even though it is like gambling.

Read the full article here

But who'd have thought it could turn into a high stakes competitive sport?

The competitors hunch over the tables, cracking fingers and stretching their wrists. It's the first night of Hanukkah, and only one person can take home the crystal dreidel-shaped trophy. The Major League Dreidel championship is on.

The legends of the game arrive early at a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. With nicknames like Debbie Does Dreidel and Jewbacca, this is no longer a sport for children.

Read the full article here