Christmas Cookies Are for Giving

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Tyr Publishing; (October 2003)
ISBN: 0972347399

Book Description

From the Publisher:

More than a cookbook, CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING is a celebration of family, friends and the joy of giving. Stories, recipes, tips and more...

Smells of cinnamoncookie cuttersrolling and bakingeating doughwarm times with friends and familyChristmas cookies are a universal symbol of sweetness and family tradition at Christmas. But the joy of Christmas cookies goes beyond eating. In CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING, Kristin Johnson and Mimi Cummins reawaken the fun of giving Christmas cookies, as they remember doing when they lived next door to each other when young children.

From the original short story "The Giving Christmas Cookie," which shows a family brought together by a special cookie at Christmas, to nearly 50 scrumptious recipes with mouth watering photos, to the timely, easy directions for making homemade "Gifts in a Jar," CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING shows that old-fashioned Christmas gifts are the antidote to cynicism about Christmas. The secret to celebrating your family and friends may not be in the mall, but in your pantry where you'll find the ingredients to make Triple Chocolate Caramel Brownies, Nut Roll, and Vanillekipferl-The Giving Christmas Cookie. Give this book as a present, and you may be rewarded when someone you love bakes the goodies in this book for you.

About the Authors
Kristin Johnson, an award-winning writer and a graduate of the University of Southern California Master of Professional Writing Program, has written about food for LivingRight.com and since her childhood is famous among her family and friends for baking Christmas cookies, particularly the family Nut Roll and German Christmas Cookies recipes. Her cookie-baking and her work on christmas cookies are for giving, led to a feature article in The Desert Sun in January 2003. She published her first novel, Butterfly Wings: A Love Story, in August 2000 and her third book, Ordinary Miracles: My Incredible Spiritual, Artistic and Scientific Journey, a collaboration with two-time Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Rupert A.L. Perrin on his memoir, will be published by PublishAmerica in 2004. A produced playwright, she recently began working on her fourth book. She is a busy lady who also maintains Poems For You, a writing business that provides biographies in verse, or celebratory poems for all occasions. She's involved with her local chapter of Women In Film and the National League of American Pen Women. She currently lives and writes in Palm Desert, California.

Mimi Cummins grew up baking cookies with her grandmother and is an avid cookbook-reader and recipe tester. She learned professional baking while attending the University of San Diego, where she worked with the university pastry chef preparing desserts and baked goods for the campus restaurants and deli. As soon as she discovered the Internet, her interest in baking naturally found an expression there. One of her first sites was dedicated to the legendary Christmas cookie recipes of her grandmother, Evelyn. The site soon grew into the hugely popular Christmas-Cookies.com, the most comprehensive repository of Christmas cookie recipes on the Internet. Mimi's exploits on the Web eventually led her to turn her hobby into a profession and she is now Design Manager at Xenocast, where she specializes in user-centered design. She has designed Web sites for national chains and her work has garnered the attention of the US and Canadian news media. She lives and bakes in Quebec, Canada with her husband and three boys.

Review by Diana's Desserts:
This cookbook not only gives you many wonderful cookie recipes for Christmas, baking tips, how to pack and ship these goodies for sending to friends and family locally or far away, and how to prepare Gift Cookies in a Jar", but the book also begins with a wonderful heartwarming "Dickensian" style story set in modern times, "The Giving Christmas Cookie". This is a story of a family with the Grandmother in a "Home" stricken with Alzheimers, and how a very loving woman who also resides in the "Home" reaches out to the daughter and grandaughter of this woman by way of her old cookie recipe that she keeps in a special box, to bring them back together making Christmas a happy time again for the ailing Grandmother, and also by making these special Christmas Cookies, it brings happiness and joy back into the other ill and lonely peoples lives who also reside at the Home, even if it's just for one day.

Now for the recipes. They are terrific! So many favorites from "simpler times", when making Christmas cookies was a family affair; a joyous time between mother and daughter, mother and son, or the whole family pitching in. The recipes are created by the authors; recipes from average people with wonderful stories to tell about their experiences in life with making Christmas cookies with their families, and recipes contributed from commerical food companies, and food organizations. I highly recommend this touching and very informative book. It's one you will pass down to your children and grandchildren. Give this to people you love, and give it to yourself. It's one of the best gifts you'll receive this year. .............DianasDesserts.com