Quinn's Cookie Exchange: Peanut Butter Blossoms

I've celebrated the release of a lot of new books this year, but this idea takes the cake. Or the cookie. Christmas cookies, to be exact ;-)

I've been invited to participate in a Cookie Recipe Swap by the lovely and talented Angela Felsted. She's celebrating the release of her first full-length novel - CHASTE.

I haven't read it yet, but I love the simplicity of the cover, and apparently the main character, Quinn, is a boy who likes to cook! (Thus the idea for the whole cookie exchange thingee!)

The book's blurb goes like this:

When he steps into his physics class on the first day of senior year, Quinn Walker is too exhausted from staying up all night with his three-month-old nephew to deal with moral dilemmas. As a devout Mormon who has vowed to wait until marriage for sex, the last thing he needs is a very hot and very sexy Katarina Jackson as his physics partner. Regrettably, he has no choice.

Kat feels invisible in her mansion of a home six months after losing her older brother in a fatal car crash and will do anything to get her parents’ attention. Since her pastor father has no love for Quinn’s “fake” religion and her ex-boyfriend refuses to leave her alone, she makes an impulsive bet with her friends to seduce her holier-than-thou lab partner by Christmas.

She also has a trailer which you can see by clicking here:  http://youtu.be/LQ4xPnf99gs

CHASTE is available as a Kindle or Paperback from Amazon - click here to go to the page:
http://www.amazon.com/Chaste-Angela-Felsted/dp/1480210609/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1354035858&sr=1-1 

Wow - adding that to my TBR list for winter - but right now, I'm busy baking up Christmas cookies and want to share one of our family's favorite recipes - Peanut Butter Blossoms. Yep, the ones with the whole Hershey Kiss stuck to the top!

Peanut Butter "Blossoms"

1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
white sugar for rolling
...and unwrapped Hershey Kisses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together margarine, peanut butter, and sugars.Blend in egg, milk and vanilla.Add dry ingredients.

With clean hands, roll small amounts of dough into walnut size balls.Roll balls in sugar to coat. Place on baking sheet.Bake about 10-12 minutes.

As soon as remove cookie tray from oven, place one unwrapped candy in the center of each cookie, pressing chocolate down into soft, warm cookie.As the cookie cools fully, the chocolate will harden into place. Just don't try to pack them up until the chocolates have hardened or you'll get a big mess!

(Got "leftover" unwrapped candies? Me neither!)