4 Christmas on Ladybug Farm
Page 11
Ida Mae’s Yeast Rolls
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 cup hot water
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon melted butter (for brushing tops of rolls)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, and hot water. Allow to cool until lukewarm, and mix in the yeast until dissolved. Mix in the egg, salt, and flour. Cover and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 2 hours).
Form dough into rolls with your floured hands by pinching off a two-inch section and forming it into a ball. Place rolls on a greased baking sheet, and allow to rise again until doubled in size.
Brush tops of rolls with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a roll comes out clean.
Serve hot with butter and honey.
Bridget’s Chocolate Truffles
8 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet high quality chocolate, chopped
1 /2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Amaretto
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 /2 to 1 cup cocoa powder for coating
In a saucepan over low heat bring the heavy whipping cream to a simmer.
Place the chocolate in a separate bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate, add the vanilla, Amaretto and almond extract and allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth. Allow to cool, and place in the refrigerator for two hours.
Remove from refrigerator and with a teaspoon roll out balls of the chocolate mixture. Dust your hands with confectioner’s sugar to prevent sticking, and roll between your palms quickly to form balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
Roll in cocoa powder and serve.
Makes 30-40 chocolate truffles.
Peppermint Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon peppermint extract
6 hard peppermint candies, crushed
In a chilled small mixing bowl and with chilled beaters, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and peppermint extract; beat until hard peaks form. Stir in crushed peppermint candies. Red food coloring may be added for a festive touch. Store in the refrigerator.
Ida Mae’s Fruit Cake
2 (8 ounce) containers candied cherries
1 (8 ounce) container candied mixed citrus peel
2 cups raisins
1 cup dried currants
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
2 (8 ounce) packages pecans
1 /2 cup brandy
2 1 /2 cups all-purpose flour
1 /2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
6 eggs
1 cup molasses
1 cup grape juice
1 bottle good red wine for marinating
In a medium bowl, combine cherries, citrus peel, raisins, currants, dates, and nuts. Stir in brandy; let stand 2 hours, or overnight. Dredge soaked fruit with 1/2 cup flour.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F Grease a tube pan fruit cake pan, line with parchment paper, and grease again. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, baking soda, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter until light. Gradually blend in brown sugar and eggs. Mix together molasses and grape juice. Beat into butter mixture alternately with flour mixture, making 4 dry and 3 liquid additions. Fold in floured fruit. Turn into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. Remove from pan, and lift off paper. Cool cake completely. Pour ½ cup wine over the cake and wrap tightly in a cloth towel, then cover with wax paper.
Pour 1 /2 cup wine over the cake each week until wine is gone, wrapping tightly again after each pouring.
Fruit cake should marinate at least four weeks, and should be started at Thanksgiving to serve by Christmas.
Ladybug Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 ½ cups baking flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
red food coloring (optional)
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix first four ingredients. Add dry ingredients a little at a time. Add red food coloring until the dough is a bright red shade.
Cover and refrigerate at least one hour. Roll out 1/4 in thick on floured surface. Cut into circles with a cookie cutter dipped in flour and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Roll one quarter teaspoon of dough into a small ball for each cookie, then flatten and attach the ladybug “head”. (This is a great job for children, who can shape the head of each ladybug and give it personality). Bake 8 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet until light golden . Cool and decorate with butter cream frosting (recipe follows) .
Buttercream Frosting
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
Red food coloring
Beat softened butter with almond flavoring until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar, one cup at a time, and beat until smooth. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, until frosting is of spreading consistency. Add food coloring until a nice shade of red is obtained.
Decorations:
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Red Decorator’s Sugar
Melt ½ bag chocolate chips in a double boiler until smooth. Dip the “heads” of each ladybug into the chocolate and place on wax paper to set.
Frost the body of the ladybug with red buttercream frosting.
While frosting is wet, sprinkle liberally with red sugar (or dip the cookie in a plate of red sugar and shake off the excess)
Place chocolate chips on the body of the cookie for the ladybug’s spots.
Bridget’s Best-Ever Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3 /4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 /2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 /2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 /2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1 /2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 /2 teaspoon salt
1 /2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
3 /4 cup white chocolate chips
1 /2 cup butterscotch chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in the nuts, white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
If you enjoyed this book, you might also enjoy Silent Night, a special Christmas Raine Stockton Dog Mystery by Donna Ball.
It's Christmas time, and for Raine Stockton and her Search and Rescue dog, Cisco, Hansonville, North Carolina is just like a Norman Rockwell painting-- except for the rash of thefts of baby Jesus figurines from nativity scenes, an abandoned box of golden retriever puppies that someone leaves beside her mailbox, and a mysterious gift from one of Cisco's a grateful admirers. Raine already has her hands full with her own misbehaving pooches, unexpected house guests, and a complicated new relationship. But when a newbo
rn is abandoned in the manger of the town's living nativity and Raine walks in on what appears to be the scene of a murder, she has more to worry about than keeping the Christmas spirit alive.
____________
More Books in the Ladybug Farm Series
A Year on Ladybug Farm
At Home on Ladybug Farm
Love Letters from Ladybug Farm
Recipes from Ladybug Farm
And, coming in 2012
Vintage Ladybug Farm
*******
Other Books by this Author
The Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series
SMOKY MOUNTAIN TRACKS
A child has been kidnapped and abandoned in the mountain wilderness. Her only hope is Raine Stockton and her young, untried tracking dog Cisco...
RAPID FIRE
Raine and Cisco are brought in by the FBI to track a terrorist …a terrorist who just happens to be Raine’s old boyfriend.
GUN SHY
Raine rescues a traumatized service dog, and soon begins to suspect he is the only witness to a murder.
BONE YARD
Cisco digs up human remains in Raine’s back yard, and mayhem ensues. Could this be evidence of a serial killer, a long-unsolved mass murder, or something even more sinister… and closer to home?
Learn more about Donna and her dogs at http://www.dogdazejournal.blogspot.com
**********
RENEGADE by Donna Boyd
The Long- Awaited Third Installment in the Devoncroix Dynasty
Emory Hilliford, a quiet anthropology professor, is drugged, held captive and interrogated by a mysterious stranger who wants only one thing: the truth about an ancient race of beings known as the lupinotuum, half man/half wolf, who have walked among humans for centuries. Once they ruled the tundra, now they rule Wall Street. Once they fought with teeth and claws, now they fight with wealth and power. And Emory Hilliford, an orphan who was raised by a family of sophisticated, influential lupinotuum in twentieth century Venice, is uniquely positioned to chronicle their culture, their history, and their secrets.
Unknown to all but a select few, Emory has also been carefully groomed to play a crucial role in history, one that could have deadly consequences for his own race, and theirs. Now forced to tell his story, Emory must decide how much of the truth he can afford to reveal, and what secrets he will take to his grave… because his own time is running out.
From the ancient legends of Greece and Rome to the mysteries of the Dark Ages and the glitter of modern day New York, RENEGADE is a sweeping saga of passion and betrayal, sacrifice and destiny, that will consume your days and haunt your nights long after the last page is turned.
Heart-pounding suspense by Donna Ball
NIGHT FLIGHT
She’s an innocent woman who knows too much. Now she’s fleeing through the night without a weapon and without a phone, and her only hope for survival is a cop who’s willing to risk his badge—and his life—to save her.
SANCTUARY
They came to the peaceful, untouched mountain wilderness of Eastern Tennessee seeking an escape from the madness of modern life. But when they built their luxury homes in the heart of virgin forest they did not realize that something was there before them… something ancient and horrible; something that will make them believe that monsters are real.
EXPOSURE
Everyone has secrets, but when talk show host Jessamine’s Cray’s stalker begins to use her past to terrorize her, no one is safe … not her family, her friends, her coworkers, and especially not Jess herself.
*******
Romance Revisited by Donna Ball
MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER
He was a cowboy looking for a wife. She was a lady specializing in brides. They were made for each other... They just didn't know it yet.
A MAN AROUND THE HOUSE
He was the answer to a busy working woman's dreams. But was he too good to be true?
FOR KEEPS
He's an animal trainer who lives by one rule: never get attached. She's a social worker who knows all too well the price of getting involved. It may take an entire menagerie to bring them together, but eventually they both must learn that sometimes it's for keeps.
STEALING SAVANNAH
He was a reformed jewel thief now turned security expert and her job depended on his expertise. But could he be trusted not to steal the most valuable jewel of all-- her heart?
UNDER COVER
She's working on the biggest case of her life, and her cover has already been blown-- by the very man she's investigating. Now they must work together to solve an even bigger mystery-- their future together.
THE STORMRIDERS
They were thunder and lightning when they were married, and their divorce has been no less turbulent. But trapped together during a deadly blizzard with the lives of an entire community depending on them, they discover what's really important, and that some storms are worth riding out.
INTERLUDE
Sometimes a chance encounter is over in a moment, and sometimes it can last a lifetime.
CAST ADRIFT
She was a marine biologist on short deadline to find a very important dolphin, with no time to waste on romance. He was a sailor who knew there could only be one captain on his ship-- himself. But two weeks at sea together could change everything...
ABOUT THE AUTHOR….
Donna Ball is the author of over a hundred novels under several different pseudonyms in a variety of genres that include romance, mystery, suspense, paranormal, western adventure, historical and women’s fiction. Recent popular series include the Ladybug Farm series by Berkley Books and the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery series. She lives in a restored Victorian barn in the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains with a variety of four-footed companions. You can contact her at http://www.donnaball.net.