It’s the Holiday Historical Romance Cookie Hop!
I have never been a great baker-of-cookies. Although I’m great at cakes and other things, the perfect cookies elude me! I produce excellent door stops filled with chocolate chips or smelling like gingerbread but most times I avoid baking them. Oh, there are one or two I can make that are edible, delicious even, but I can’t count on them actually coming out that way.
So, maybe that’s why Rosette cookies appealed to me? No dough to make or roll or drop. No worries over too-thin-or-too-thick. Waaaaay back in the married-with-young-children days, I felt pressured to find something when my younger sister became a pizzelle master, especially at the Holidays.
From researching their origins, these batter cookies are claimed by several countries including Sweden/Norway, Netherlands and Mexico – and more. Basically they are fried batter that are dusted with powdered sugar. There are special irons that hold the batter in shapes to be dipped in hot oil. If it sounds like funnel cakes, it’s because they are the same batter but one has a shape and the other is freeform.
Each Christmas season, my sister would bring out her pizzelle iron (like a waffle iron) and make piles of pizzelles (almost crunchy, flavored with anisette) and I would make piles of rosettes. And our families loved them both! It’s a good memory and I think of my sister every time I see a pizzelle…
The recipe? Easy peasy — but the irons aren’t easy to find —
Rosette Cookies
Ingredients: Makes about 30 cookies
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- vegetable oil for frying
- confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Directions:
Beat eggs, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl. Add flour, milk, and vanilla extract; beat until smooth.
Heat oil in a large, deep skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place a wire rack over paper towels.
Heat the rosette iron in hot oil for 2 minutes. Lift the iron and let excess oil drain. Dip the iron in batter to 1/4 inch from the top of the iron, then dip the iron immediately into hot oil. Do not cover the whole form in batter!
Fry rosette in hot oil until golden, about 30 seconds.
Lift the iron out; tip upside down to drain. Use a fork to push rosette off the iron onto the prepared wire rack.
Reheat the iron in hot oil for 1 minute; cook remaining batter. Sprinkle rosettes with confectioners’ sugar.
Have you ever had Rosette Cookies (or Funnel Cake)? Or Pizzelles? Do you make any special family dessert for the Holidays?
If you comment below or email a comment to me at: contest@terribrisbin.com – you’ll be in a drawing for an ebook of any of my books along with a Scottish 2025 calendar – 2 winners will be chosen from those who enter!
And don’t forget to hop to all the Historical Romance Authors in the Holiday Cookie hop to find their cookies – and their giveaways! Any questions? Visit the FB event page – for more info and the complete list, too.
E-mail your completed list to Heather@HeatherMcCollum.com with “Historical Romance Authors are Sweet” in the subject line. Good luck!
Baltimore Book Festival 2019
I am so excited that I’ll be part of the Maryland Romance Writers part of the HUGE Baltimore Book Festival next weekend! There are three days of panels about writing romance, writing, publishing, research, etc – basically anything about romance novels. I’ll be on four panels with some of my favorite authors so it will be fun for me. There’s also a bookstore handling sales and signing of a couple of my books if anyone needs/wants one…or two… LOL!
On Friday:
On Saturday:
If you’re in the area or already attending the BBF, please stop over at the Columbus Center and visit us!
Across a Windswept Isle – it’s here!
Nothing more exciting that releasing a book into the reading world and, today, I’m doing that!
Across a Windswept Isle is the tale of a love forbidden and lost forever….or was it? This novella was previously part of the very limited edition collection THE FORBIDDEN HIGHLANDS but is now available on its own. Hope you will give it a try!
Ailis lost the love of her life … or is he standing right in front of her?
Lachlan MacLean loved his enemy’s daughter but duty called for him to marry another. Attacked by an unseen assailant and left to die in a fiery grave, he survived and now wanders the isle of Mull without any memory of his past. He seeks anyone who might know him but the one he wishes to find is the woman who haunts his dreams and visions. When he encounters her, she is being given in marriage to another man. He doesn’t know her name, but he knows he must have her to regain his life.
Ailis MacKinnon lost the love of her life in a terrible fire and months later is being forced by her father to marry. When she refuses and is given to the next man who enters the keep instead, she discovers that the mysterious ‘Iain’ reminds her of the man she lost. Worse, he encourages her to be the woman she should be. As the battle of wills between father and daughter builds, so does the passion between her and this hooded man.
Will she be able to claim the man she lost knowing that exposing his identity brings danger back to him? Or can she give him up now that she has found him?
Brandywine Brides – and the Writers Who Lunch
A couple of years ago, after decades of knowing each other, a small group of writer friends began to gather for lunch once a month. We would talk about family and life but then the topics would turn inevitably to writing and stories, the market and contracts, and other publishing topics. We were a mixed group – all published, most by traditional publishers, some of us trying our hand at indie publishing, too. Finally, someone said — hey, we’re all writers, we should write something together!
And that was the beginning our our series – The Blackwood Legacy – and our first anthology – Brandywine Brides!
We gathered for planning sessions. We climbed into cars and did road trips all over Chester County PA, looking at stone houses, horse farms and the Brandywine River as it ran down through historic Chadds Ford. It took months before the family’s history and the idea of the first connected collection took shape. One writer had to bow out and we recruited another to take her place. Finally, seven stories about seven generations of the Blackwood family took shape – from the patriarch Finlan Blackwood in 1721 down to the current owner and namesake Finn Blackwood. 
Brandywine Brides is now available for pre-order and will debut on April 25 — we hope you’ll give us and the Blackwood Family a try…. it’s at a special price now – 99¢ – and available at most retailers
One Family ~ Seven Generations ~ A Legacy of Love
Upon a Misty Skye – preorder now!
I was so excited to be invited to write a story for a limited-time-only Celtic ghost/haunted castle collection of novellas last fall and even more excited when that collection – ONCE UPON A HAUNTED CASTLE – hit the USA TODAY bestseller list! Now, I’m releasing my novella UPON A MISTY SKYE by itself — and it’s available now for preorder!
The story — On Scotland’s Isle of Skye, Alexander MacDonald and Isabel MacLeod were not supposed to meet or fall in love or marry. Now that they have, their parents mean to separate them, by any means possible. But the ghost of Duntulm Castle has other plans for the forbidden lovers.
Here are some links to the preorder pages —
You’ve Come to the WRITE Place!
The Scottish Affair Scavenger Hunt is on! 
I like to WRITE. I especially like to WRITE about hunky, highlander heroes. When I WRITE, I imagine being there, in the Highlands of Scotland with those hunky, highlander heroes. When I WRITE, I lose myself in the history and beauty of Scotland. When I WRITE, I dream of going back there….
If you’re looking for my word, it’s WRITE! Now, before you go and visit the rest of the authors – would you sign up to receive my email newsletter?
WRITE (LOL) over there>> >>>>>>>>>>
Thanks! Have fun scavenging!
Terri
PS – all the clues and a list of authors and prizes can be found at : Coffeetime Romance.
Girls’ Night Out in NJ!
I’ve been invited to speak at a very special event at the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ on August 24th — a Girls’ Night Out! 
I’ll be talking about writing romances, the covers we love and hate and answering questions from the audience. There will be chocolate and margaritas and even a few prizes given out — in other words – FUN! I hope you can be there. Contact the Monmouth Museum for more info or to sign up!
And yes, this is also open to MEN WHO DARE!
Terri
Pleasure Me event….LOL!
I know that had to grab your attention! A writing colleague is celebrating the release of her new book PLEASURE ME with a month-long blog event featuring lots of authors and giveaways. I’m today’s guest and chatting about the inspiration I get from Gerard Butler — especially while writing my upcoming Harlequin Historical – HIS ENEMY’S DAUGHTER!
Stop over, post a comment — I’m doing a giveaway and so is she! http://monicaburns.blogspot.com/2011/02/pleasure-me-with-terri-brisbin.html#more
Terri B
A Storm of Pleasure is here!
It’s here!! Yes it is!! The second book in my STORM trilogy hits the stores in just hours…I’ve been staring at this gorgeous cover just waiting to share it with readers. I hope you’ll look for it and give it a try.
RT Book Reviews called it ‘fast-paced and wildly hot, with a touch of supernatural’ and Romance Junkies said it’s a ‘sensuous, lush historical tale with its basis in legends and folktales’. Both sound good to me!
Bottomline – it’s for anyone looking for a sexy, emotional story set in the highlands and islands of Scotland when the Vikings ruled and when magic still glimmered in the air….
And hey, isn’t the cover just gorgeous!?
To celebrate — I’ll be doing a couple of signings — first, this week, Wednesday September 29 at the Barnes and Noble store at the Christiana Mall in Newark DE. I’m signing from 5-7 and then meeting with the romance readers’ group to chat about both A STORM OF PASSION and A STORM OF PLEASURE.
Then, on Tuesday October 5th I’ll be visiting the Barnes and Noble store on Route 18 S in East Brunswick and signing and chatting with romance readers and authors like Judi McCoy, Jenna Kernan and Shelley Freydont. It’s all begins at 7:30pm….
And, A STORM OF PLEASURE is being featured in a special Nook promotion that provides some original contest that is downloaded to any Nook ‘activated’ in a B&N store! I’m thrilled to be part of that… Please let me know if you have a Nook and receive my article at a store.
Terri
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