’Twas 10 nights before Christmas, and all through the (publishing) house, many creatures were stirring, yes, even a… OK, I’ll stop. Our annual holiday party and 2^nd annual cookie swap offered so many ways to make merry: caroling, carousing, delicious food, Raising the Bar’s irresistible Whiskey and Ginger Punch—and an interdepartmental smackdown. The adversaries: Suzie (Editorial) and Angela (Sales). The challenge: Bourbon Balls. The prize: Bragging rights—and an excuse to eat booze-infused cookies.

Angela brought the heat with Sheila Lukins’s decadent Kentucky Bourbon Balls (from Celebrate!), rich with pecans, cocoa, and plump golden raisins. Suzie threw down with a recipe from Lauren Chattman’s upcoming Cookie Swap Cookbook (fall 2010), in which buttery shortbread meets melted chocolate and mingles over a drink of Kentucky’s finest.

The winner? Luckily for all, it was a draw. As someone in the Art department remarked (on condition of anonymity), “It’s really hard to choose; partially because they’re both delicious—and also because now I’m a little tipsy.”

Dancing, dining, singing, cookie swapping (and just a hint of bourbon)—’twas very merry, indeed!

Angela's Kentucky Bourbon Balls from Celebrate!

Of all the holiday culinary traditions my family holds near and dear (hazelnut biscotti,  Venetian tri-color cookies, and a seven-course Christmas Eve fish dinner, better known as “La Vigilia”, to name a few), I must admit that my favorite is quite possibly the simplest: the gingersnap. Perfect alone or paired with hot cocoa, tea or even coffee (and excellent in ice cream sandwiches, by the way), the gingersnap conjures up many memories. So I thought it only appropriate that my foray into the Annual Workman Holiday Cookie Exchange spotlight a cookie that proves to be a perennial crowd favorite (and is also a breeze to whip up).

For this recipe, I turned to Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook. Written by Myra Goodman, co-founder of Earthbound Farm, Food to Live By features over 260 scrumptious yet casual recipes that emphasize using fresh, local, organic foods as often as possible.

The ingredient list is pretty easy to complete and features the typical stars: molasses, ginger, and plenty of sugar. But it also calls for whole-wheat pastry flour, which is available at any health food store or Whole Foods. Pastry flour, as the authors explain, is lighter than regular flour, and results in a more airy cookie (and the whole-wheat aspect makes me feel a tiny bit healthier).

The steps involve mixing, beating, and rolling tablespoons of dough into small balls (three steps – my kind of recipe). 20 minutes later, the cookies were cooling, and the finished product was perfect: a bit chewy on the inside, but crisp on the outside; sweet, but with that familiar bite of ginger. A neighbor down the hall even commented on how good they smelled (a testament to the ingredients, and the apparent proximity of New York City apartments).

And my co-workers seemed to agree. Happy Holidays to All!

Earthbound Farm Ginger Snaps

Makes about 30 Cookies

12 T. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup molasses
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cinnamon
2 t. baking soda
½ t. salt

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or waxed paper and set them aside.

2. Place the butter and 1 cup of the sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and beat until combined, about 1 minute.

3. Whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

4. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and beat until the dough is smooth.

5. Roll pieces of the dough between your palms to form 1-inch balls. Lightly dip the tops of the balls in the remaining ½ cup of sugar. Arrange the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, sugar side up, 2 inches apart.

6. Bake the cookies until they are very fragrant and cracks appear on top, 8 to 12 minutes.

7. Place baking sheets on a wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Then, using a spatula, remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them directly on the rack to finish cooling. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 1 month.

At Workman, we love to bake, and our annual Holiday Cookie Swap is when we show off our favorite recipes and decorating skills with mouthwatering results! With inspiration from our new cookie decorating book, Cookie Craft Christmas, and our upcoming Cookie Swap Cookbook (Fall 2010), this year’s cookies were just as beautiful to look at as they were delicious! From old family recipes to new cookbook favorites, this year’s Holiday Cookie Swap was loaded with a wide variety of crunchy treats.

Wracked with anxiety over your holiday baking?  Sure your cookies won’t measure up at the office party? Well, stop second-guessing yourself and get back in the kitchen armed with tips and solutions from The Baking Answer Book by Lauren Chattman.

Q: I’ve underbaked my chocolate chip cookies, but now they are cooled, I realize they are way too soft. Can I return them to the oven at this point?

Absolutely. Drop cookies like these can be crisped up in the oven with a minute or two of additional baking, even after they’ve cooled.

Q. My recipe calls for softened butter. Should my eggs be at room temperature too?

Experienced cake bakers are careful to bring all liquid ingredients, including eggs, to room temperature along with their butter. Room temperature eggs are just as important when making cookie dough. Even if your butter is properly softened and creamed to a light fluffy state with the sugar, your batter will curdle if you then add very cold eggs. Remove your eggs from the refrigerator when you remove your butter. Or bring them to room temperature by placing them in a bowl of hot tap water for 5 minutes.

Q. The pastry crusts of my lemon bars and pecan bars are always a little oily rather than moist and crumbly. What am I doing wrong?

If you are melting butter to make these crusts, make sure to cool it before stirring it into the dry ingredients to avoid oiliness. If you are mixing solid butter with dry ingredients, your butter may be too soft and warm. In either case, if your crust looks shiny and oily before you bake it, put the pan into the freezer for 5 minutes to let the butter solidify.

Q. Are there tricks to getting evenly shaped slice-and-bake cookies?

When you are ready to cut, remember to rotate the log of dough often, so that one side doesn’t become flattened by the repeated pressure of the knife.

Q. Are there secrets to better-looking bar cookies?

I often line my baking pan with nonstick aluminum foil before filling it with cookie dough. So instead of having to dig out that first brownie with a spatula (and probably destroying it in the process), I just lift the foil from the pan when the cookies are cooled and slice them into neat squares.

The best bar cookies are slightly underbaked in the center. If they’re not, then the bars closest to the edge of the pan will definitely be overbaked. But underbaked bars are very soft and can crumble when cut. To make neat squares, freeze the cooled but uncut cookies for 15 minutes to firm them up and then cut straight down with a sharp chef’s knife rather than dragging the knife across bars.

We’re lovers of all kinds of books over here at Workman, and we love to share them with our families.

Here’s 15-month-old Isabella with her aunt Cassie, a Workman editor, enjoying a well-worn copy of Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance!

What are the kids in your family reading this holiday season?

With Hanukkah beginning at sundown tonight, Judy Bart Kancigor, author of Cooking Jewish, shares some of her favorite holiday memories and recipes for a Hanukkah feast including latkes, dipping sauce, and a delicious cherry chicken.

Hanukkah comes early this year. You know what they say about the Jewish holidays – they’re always early or late. They’re never on time!

When my boys were young, I used to hate it when Hanukkah came early. By the time Christmas rolled around, all their toys were already broken. Oh, the joys of the Hebrew lunar calendar. Only once, to my memory, did Hanukkah fall after Christmas. That year I saved all my Hanukkah shopping for the day after Christmas sales. (Talk about a leap of faith!)

As we light the candles, I can’t help but remember the Hanukkahs of my youth. My mother’s family was very close, and we cousins (13 of us) were raised together practically as siblings. Remember the movie Avalon? That was our childhood (without the fire, of course!) There were so many of us Papa Harry even put a board in the children’s table.

The highlight, of course, was our Hanukkah party. The pile of latkes! The mountain of presents! The noise! The excitement! The squabbles! Then when we cousins started producing the great-grandchildren, Aunt Sally’s basement bulged with our bounty. (No one ever thought of drawing names for a gift exchange back then!)

When we moved to California from New York, our boys were six and four. Away from our roots, our friends became our extended family, and our neighbors only too eager to share our traditions. On the first night of Hanukkah I would make my signature latkes, those crispy, irresistible potato pancakes, and set them on doily-lined Hanukkah paper plates for my boys to distribute up and down the block.

I have noticed through the years, however, that a snobbery has developed among latke aficionados, who view with disdain from their lofty perch those who use a blender to process the potatoes. Their mantra? Shredded is better. “Oh, no,” they tsk-tsk when they see my recipe, just a touch of feigned sympathy in their eyes. “I use the food processor. I like texture.”

Texture? You want texture? I’ll give you texture. Use my SPLAT! method and you’ll get all the texture you want with these babies. My family hovers over the pan to fight over the thinnest ones that are so crunchy and full of holes you can practically see through them, so turn down your decibel meter.

Now for the real secret of my very crispy latkes. Heat the oil until very hot, but not smoking. (I use canola.)  Scoop some batter with a large spoon, hold the spoon about eight inches above the pan and spill all at once. SPLAT! Remove your hand quickly so you don’t burn yourself. (It’s all in the wrist.) The pancake will splatter, forming holes, the better to hold the sour cream or applesauce. Keeping the temperature of the oil constant is key, so don’t crowd the pan. Allow the temperature to go down and you risk soggy latkes.

If you want to prepare the batter up to a day ahead, here’s a trick taught to me years ago by my friend, Elaine Asa. Prepare the batter without adding the flour, and pour the mixture into a tight-fitting glass jar. (Do not use plastic ware.) Tap the jar on the counter to release any air bubbles, cover the batter well with a thick layer of flour, and refrigerate up to 24 hours. When ready to cook, remove the flour layer with the black ring that has formed beneath it. Then add the flour, stir and fry.

For a change of pace, serve the latkes with a dipping sauce made from Aunt Hilda’s Cherry Chili Chicken, her decades-old signature dish, eagerly anticipated by all (although she just called it “Holiday Chicken.” I always was a sucker for alliteration.) Sweet yet zippy, pretty plump cherries dotting the dish, Aunt Hilda’s Holiday Chicken ushered in countless New Years, heralded scores of birthdays and graced many a holiday table.

Not serving chicken this year? I’ve included a recipe below for the dipping sauce minus the bird. Happy Hanukkah to all!!

Click here for recipes fit for a Hanukkah feast

Author Sandra Boynton talks about why books are wonderful gifts to give, especially during the holiday season. For more about why books make great gifts, visit booksaregreatgifts.com

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For more about Sandra Boynton, visit Workman.com/boynton

“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”

–W. T. Ellis

Compost, also known to gardeners as “black gold,” is the stuff that makes soil healthier and helps keep plants stress-free by avoiding insects, disease and nutritional disorders. And best of all you can make your own compost with a few easy-to-find ingredients and a little bit of time.  With the recent interest in rooftop and urban gardening, city-dwellers can get in on the action as well by using composting bins. David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth’s What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?) provides an outline of what you need to get started — So give your stressed-out plants a break and start making some compost, here’s how:

1. Pile up kitchen and garden waste and let it decompose. Be sure that all material you add to compost is pathogen and pest-free. It should also be free of weed seeds, and chemicals of any kind.

2. The pile should be made up of two-thirds “brown” material and one-third “green” material. Brown materials include brown, autumn leaves; straw; shredded paper and cardboard; branches that have been run through a chipper; sawdust from untreated wood; dry pine needles; and similar stuff. Green materials include kitchen waste with no animal products; green leaves; grass clippings; and other stuff. These proportions can be measured by the handful, bucket, or shovelful. It is the proportion that counts. As you build the pile, add 1 part good soil to 3 parts brown/green material mix.

3. Toss the brown, green and soil material together randomly. Old-style compost recipes made much of placing these ingredients in distinct layers. Modern research has shown that random scattering works better.

4. After you have a pile equal to about one wheelbarrow full of material, add one 40-pound bag of chicken manure.

5. Turn the pile over with a shovel or pitchfork about once a week to speed up decomposition.

The bacteria, fungi, and chicken manure breaks down and digests the vegetable matter, turning it into a marvelous, dark, friable material that will bless your garden with its generosity. The process takes time of course. Also be aware that the pile generates heat.

If your climate is cold and wet, cover the pile with a tarp, and recognize that you may not have rich soil for up to a year. In a warm and moist climate, you could have finished soil in a matter of weeks. In a very dry climate, water the pile to keep it moist.

If having a somewhat unsightly pile of compost in your backyard isn’t your style, then composting bins may be a better option. Readily available at most garden centers, you can implement the “three-bin” method to create a constant production of compost. Using the same proportions outlined above, pile material into bin A. When the volume of material reduces by half, shovel it into bin B, and refill bin A with fresh material. When the volume in bin B reduces by half, shovel the material into bin C. Shortly after landing in bin C the compost should be ready to go into the garden.  With this system you’ll have a constant production of compost.

A big milestone in learning to sew is gaining the ability to make something look decent. The problem? Achieving a “decent” stitch is unlikely to garner you any compliments. So in cases like these, I feel it is important to toot your own horn.

What I am bragging about today is the fact that, with my very own two hands, a needle, some thread, and a diminutive pair of scissors, I have hemmed my own pants. Not just once, either. TWICE. (And I’m not even counting individual pant legs!) I know. It’s mind-boggling. I am awash in the glow of my own self-reliance and economy!

The best part is, I didn’t inherit the ability to hem from a crafty relative, I learned it from one of our books! Check out this excerpt from  Diana Rupp’s Sew Everything Workshop and you, too, could avoid the terrible, unjust, and deeply dissatisfying feeling of having your tailor turn your discounted pair of $50 pants into the originally priced $60 pair of pants you were so excited not to be buying. Not to mention the deep shame of having new pairs of pants sit in your house, unworn, for months before you manage to get them to the tailor.

A word of caution: If you, like me, are not a very good sewer and do not own a sewing machine, the first hemming attempt may be a time-intensive process. But the post-hemming feeling? Priceless.