Elaine Marie Cooper Author

Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul

winning recipe

Filling the Empty Man – Part 2

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Well, the Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter had his fill of cookie dough—and so did the baker!

Fortunately, most of the delicious frosted cookies went to a new home to bless others who also love homemade gingerbread as much as I do. Had these spicy cookies all stayed in my house, well, I’m certain I would have given in to eating FAR too many. It is definitely better to give than too horde for oneself. 😉

My blog of last week put out a call for what I consider to be the perfect Gingerbread Cookie recipe for me, a culinary-challenged writer who loves to bake from scratch. But with limited time on my hands, I wanted the recipe to be as simple as possible while still being delicious. With these as my goals, I have chosen not ONE, but THREE winners in my contest for the perfect gingerbread man dough to fill my empty cookie cutter man. The winners are:

– Janet Grunst

– Cynthia Howerter

– Linda Marie Finn

CONGRATULATIONS, ladies and THANK YOU for generously sharing your recipes!! There were aspects of each recipe that I liked, such as ease of preparation or additional spices. So I used my creativity (always dangerous for ME in the kitchen) and combined portions of each recipe that I liked. Well, it worked, and samplers of the finished product were filled with positive comments, like, “Delicious!”

 

Ladies, I will e-mail each of you so you can choose a copy of any of my books, signed to you. Thank you again!!

 

So now that  Christmas has passed for another year and all the presents have been opened, do you feel an emptiness in your heart that no amount of department store gifts can fulfill? Do you ever feel like “An Empty Man?”

There is nothing that can fill the need in our souls like the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He is the reason that we celebrate this time of year and His light can pierce the darkness in our hearts unlike any string of Christmas bulbs. Let his atonement for our sins shed at Calvary so long ago fill up your Spirit with His forgiveness and grace, and a life of fulfillment with Him.

Jesus Christ waits for The Empty Man, to fill each of us with life more abundant and hope for eternity with Him. It is His free gift to us—this Christmas and every day.

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17 NIV 

 

 

 

Filling the Empty Man – Part 1

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Tonight was the big night of experimenting with recipes for gingerbread cookies sent to me by three readers.

It was a dramatic moment to see The Empty Man anticipating the spicy dough filling his belly while this baker gathered the ingredients, revved up the mixer and plowed into cookie dough heaven.

Rolling the the sticky mass proved the daunting task as, per directions, the depth of the dough becomes critical: More than 1/4 dough does not cook well enough, while less than 1/4 inch thick cookie men leads to broken limbs and (GULP) heads.

 

 

They entered the oven on their cooking stone. Oops. One of those men looks like he ate too much molasses…

Nine minutes later, the warm, brown cookies emerged, sweet smelling and enticing.

With the dexterity of a paramedic, I slid the still soft men onto the cooling rack with the kitchen “backboard”—a large spatula.

 

 

 

Envisioning a coating of sweet frosting to add the finishing touch, the ultimate question niggled at my wondering mind:

Would this be the winning recipe?

Come back on December 26 when the winner will be announced.

 

And have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!