Today I am so pleased to welcome Shae Connor to Joyfully Jay. It’s Shae’s birthday and she is here to celebrate with us! Shae has brought some of her favorite recipes and a great giveaway! Please join me in giving her a big welcome and wishing her a very happy birthday!
It’s My Birthday, but You Get the Presents!
Hi all, and thanks to Jay for letting me visit today! I’m here to celebrate because today is my birthday, yay! I’m off somewhere in Manhattan right now, playing tourist and (OMG!) seeing Hamilton on Broadway, but I left this post behind for all of you to enjoy.
First off, I decided to share two of my favorite holiday cookie recipes. The “Nut Tree Cookies,” as I dubbed them when I was about 4 years old, have been a family tradition most of my life. The white chocolate cranberry came along more recently, but they are amazing.
As for the other present? Well, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card that you can use for last-minute holiday shopping or keep allllll for yourself. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with one of two things: your favorite holiday cookie, or your favorite holiday romance. Or both! (Links appreciated as well.) One entry per person. 🙂
And now: the cookies!
Nut Tree Cookies (aka Toffee Bars)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup chopped nuts
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 by 9 baking pan.
Mix thoroughly butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Blend in flour. (Dough will be very stiff; mixing by hand may be needed for the last of the flour.) Press mixture evenly in bottom of pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until very light brown (crust will be soft). Remove from oven. Immediately sprinkle milk chocolate chips over crust. As soon as chocolate is soft, spread evenly over crust. Sprinkle top with nuts. Cut into 1-inch squares before completely cooled.
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 egg
½ tablespoon vanilla
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup white chocolate chips
¾ cup sweetened dried cranberries
½ cup chopped macadamia nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries (and nuts, if using). Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. For best results, take out while still slightly doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
Blurb
Love can sneak up on you in the last place you’d expect.
Kellen Grady has known he’s gay since he was a teenager, but he’s never been that interested in dating. A professional pianist, he’s happy spending his days teaching students of all ages and his nights working and playing at an Atlanta bar and concert venue. When former pro football player Terrence Harvey and his brother buy the bar, Kellen’s thrown by the change to his routine, but he develops a quick friendship with Terrence, drawn to his sunny nature and sharp mind. Then their relationship takes a turn when Terrence surprises Kellen with a kiss. The unexpected action, though not unwelcome, leaves Kellen faced with reevaluating everything he thought he knew—about Terrence, and about himself.
Bio
Shae Connor lives in Atlanta, where she’s a lackadaisical government worker for a living and writes sweet-hot romance under the cover of night. She’s been making things up for as long as she can remember, but it took her a long time to figure out that maybe she should try writing them down. A member of the Romance Writers of America, Shae was first published in 2010 and has a lineup of short stories, novellas, and novels available.
Shae is part Jersey, part Irish, and all Southern, which explains why she never shuts up. When she’s not in front of her laptop, she enjoying cooking, traveling, watching baseball, reading voraciously, wearing tiaras, and hugging a lot. She’s also the volunteer Director/Editor for the Dragon Con on-site publication, the <em>Daily Dragon</em>.
You can find Shae hanging out on Twitter most any time @shaeconnor, but for the more direct route, you can visit her website at shaeconnorwrites.com or email her at shaeconnorwrites @gmail.com.
Giveaway
Shae has brought a $25 Amazon gift card to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. And feel free to share your favorite cookies or your favorite holiday romance novel! The contest ends on Tuesday, December 20th at 11:59 pm EST.
- By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
- Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
- If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
- Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
- Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
- All book prizes are in electronic format unless otherwise specified.
- By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
- Readers may only enter once for each contest. Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Happy birthday, Shaw! And thank you for your awesome recipes… I shall try them, but I’m really terrible at baking so I don’t have much faith in what I will manage to produce… My favourite cookies are ginger and dark chocolate cookies, but I have to buy them because all my attempts to produce them have resulted in total failures… as for my favourite romance novel, there is no way I can choose just one. I find new favourites every week! 😉
Happy birthday, Shae – best of wishes on the years to come. And thank you for the cookie recipe; I’m a cookie recipe hoarder (sometimes try one or two of them) my favorite is anything gingery or with coffee. To accompany me reading Josh Lanyon’s The Dickens with Love.
The recipes sound great! My family makes homemade biscotti for Christmas.
Happy Birthday Shae!!! It sounds like you are having a wonderful day! Enjoy Hamilton! My mom always made butter cookies and I still love those! I make snickerdoodles and lemon cookies every year and have recently added almond cookies! There are just so many!
Last year I read Keira Andrews’ book If Only In My Dreams and I just loved it! I haven’t found another holiday book I love quite so much.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAE!!! I hope you have a wonderful birthday “day” and of course best wishes for the next year, both in you personal and professional life as an author.
I’m not really into cookies because I’m a chips/popcorn girl all the way. Cookies are just too sweet for savory-loving-girl like me. So I prefer a bag of Lays and read whatever new holiday read offered this season, because also, I don’t re-read. Too many new/shiny books for me to explore.
Happy Birthday, Shae! I hope you enjoy your day.
And, thank you for gifting us with those two yummy recipes. My favorite holiday cookies are cut-out sugar cookies that my kids and I decorate together. I love too many holiday romance stories to pick one. 🙂
I’ve always enjoyed Jamie Fessenden’s THE HOLIDAY WAGER, and last weekend I read Kari Gregg’s I DON’T: A HOLIDAY WISH and loved it. As for cookies, while I love everything from dark chocolate to peanut butter blossoms, I’ve reverted to oatmeal cookies lately (Alice Medrich’s recipe is my favorite). They’re just so versatile!
Oh, and happy, happy birthday!
Happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful time!
Thanks for the recipes, I’m not much into baking buty mum can make them. 😉
One of the books I read recently and enjoyed it was A Chance for Christmas by DJ Jamison, totally recommended. 🙂
OOh those cookies sounds great! I love making cookies and treats around the holidays and my favorite is fudge! This is pretty much the only time of year I eat it, but it’s oh so good plus I have one of those recipes that only has a couple ingredients and is done in minutes!
Happy Holidays!
Happy Birthday! Thank you so much for the cookie recipes. I really enjoyed Heidi Cullinan’s Minnesota Christmas series.
Happy birthday Shae I love shortbread at Christmas I’m not sure if that’s a cookie or not. My favourte holiday read would “Turkey In The Snow” by Amy Lane.
HBD, Shae! My favorite cookies – though not specifically for the holidays, I guess – are snickerdoodles.
Happy Birthday Shae! My favorite Christmas cookies were my grandma’s sugar cookies, but since she’s no longer with us to make them these are my 2nd favorite:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cherry-kiss-cookies
And I simply cannot pick a favorite book, it’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is.
Happy Birthday! I love the recipes and hope to try them. Of course, you work is wonderful as well./
It’s hard to pick a favorite holiday romance or a favorite holiday cookie, but I’ll give it a shot.
Holiday Romance–Lone Star by Josh Lanyon
Holiday cookie– I like almost all shortbread, but just tried a new one for dark chocolate espresso shortbread…Yum. 🙂
Oops, I had to try this multiple times due to picky computer, and it looks like it left off the birthday wishes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 🙂
Happy Birthday, Shae. I hope that you’ve had a wonderful day; I’ll admit that I’m suffering serious Hamilton envy!
I have a fondness for way too many holiday cookies. I particularly like fudge and chocolate almond brittle. Congratulations on the release of Heart and Soul, and best wishes for your next writing project.
Happy Birthday Shae! Thank you for sharing those cookie recipes they look so good. I love sugar cookies during the holidays. But really I’ll eat any cookie. As for books I’ve always liked
Better With Sprinkles
Share by Chrissy Munder,
The Reason for the Season by Chrissy Munder, In Another Life
by Cardeno C. and Holiday Outing
by Astrid Amara
Ooh, those cookies sound amazing! One of my favorites is Ren’s Cookies –> http://www.tigerscursebook.com/blog/post-177/
I’m pretty sure I could just eat those for the rest of my life and be happy. 😀
I love Big, Soft Ginger Cookies (that’s the name of the recipe too!)
Happy Birthday! Thank you so much for sharing your cookie recipes! I can’t wait to try the Nut Tree Cookies! They sound wonderful. I love stories about musicians so I am so excited about Heart & Soul. Thank you for the giveaway!
happy birthday! i love white chocolate cookies