margarettannersblog: 2015

Old-fashion Cinnamon Candy

By Paty Jager

Thanksgiving to Christmas our house has always been filled with aromas of baking. Spices, chocolate, sweetness. The counters overflow with baked goods cooling, piled on plates, and carefully layered in airtight containers. The freezer becomes a booby-trapped appliance with bags and containers of goodies shoved in every available space.

The wonderful smells mingle with pumpkin pie, turkey, ham, and at Christmas the tang of pine and cinnamon. I’ve heard it said smells can trigger memories. Any time I smell the nostril tingling scent of cinnamon I’m taken back to the two-story farm house my parents, siblings, and grandparents lived in when I was young. My grandmother’s claim to fame at Christmas was her cinnamon candy.

Here is the recipe: Old-fashion Cinnamon Candy

1 pint Karo syrup

2 cups sugar

1 bottle cinnamon oil

6 drops red food coloring

powdered sugar, desired amount for coating

Directions:

1) In a sauce pan, bring syrup and sugar to the hard- crack stage—about 300 to 310 degrees.

2) Add cinnamon oil and food coloring.

3) Stir quickly and pour into a well greased cookie sheet.

4) Let candy harden.

5) Crack into pieces and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

In my Christmas story in the Silver Belles and Stetsons Christmas Anthology, Christmas Redemption, the hero has been in prison for ten years for something he participated in as a young man. When he returns home to confront his father, he finds his mother in her kitchen baking. The smells take him back to his childhood.

Blurb for Christmas Redemption:

Van Donovan returns to Pleasant Valley, Oregon where twelve years earlier as a boy of fifteen he left in handcuffs after standing guard for a bank robbery. He's learned a trade and excelled at it and is ready to prove to his father and the town he can amount to something.

Upon his return he learns the fate of the daughter of an innocent man who died in the robbery crossfire. To make amends he takes her out of the saloon and gives her a job, not realizing she'd been squatting in the very building he'd purchased for his business.

Can two battered hearts find solace or will the past continue to haunt their lives?

You can find this and nine other historical western romance Christmas novellas in Silver Belles and Stetsons.

Silver Belles and Stetsons
Ten Western Romance Christmas Novellas
Available as a boxed set for a limited time

Bestselling and Award-Winning Authors bring you ten western romance novellas featuring alpha-cowboys from the past. This boxed set will take you back in time when
men were rugged and handsome and the women who loved them, courageous and
daring.

* * *

The Greatest Gift: A Montana Cowboy Christmas by Kathleen Ball. Amazon Bestselling
and Award- Winning Author. Looking for the man who ran out on her, Ginger finds a
cowboy worthy of love but he doesn't want or need love.

Catherine’s Cowboy by Cait Braxton, Amazon Bestselling and Award-Winning Author. During a supernatural dust storm, Fate steps in when rugged army tracker Elam helps Catherine deliver her child.

Stone Mountain Christmas by Caroline Clemmons, Amazon Bestselling and Award-Winning Author. Can Celia restore the town's Christmas spirit? "A beautifully written story about love and hope and all the emotions Christmas brings out in people." Karren Lucas

Angel and the Texan from County Cork by Carra Copelin. Amazon Bestselling and Award-Winning Author. Does Angel trust marriage to the man she suspects of killing her husband or the stranger who promises to pay off her debt and set her free if she decides their marriage of convenience won’t work?

The Drifter’s Proposal by Kristin Holt, Amazon Bestselling Author. The baker's man is home for Christmas... "Compelling. Heartwarming. Tender." ~Diane Darcy, USA Today Bestselling Author

The Perfect Gift by Lyn Horner. Friendship has blossomed into young love, but it seems destined to die on the vine...until an unexpected Christmas gift promises happiness.

Marshal Mistletoe by Susan Horsnell. She married the wrong man. Will fate intervene?

Christmas Redemption by Paty Jager, Amazon Bestselling and Award-Winning Author. Can two battered hearts find solace or will the past continue to haunt their lives? "A story of forgiveness that has a wonderful hero who has worked hard to redeem himself."

A Hard Candy Christmas by Hebby Roman, Amazon Bestselling Author. Two damaged souls. Can their budding love and the healing power of Christmas bring them together?

Cowboy Christmas by Margaret Tanner. Will a miracle Christmas baby unite two tortured souls, or will it forever keep them apart?

BUY LINKS: Amazon

Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. On her road to publication she wrote freelance articles for two local newspapers and enjoyed her job with the County Extension service as a 4-H Program Assistant. Raising hay and cattle, riding horses, and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Her penchant for research takes her on side trips that eventually turn into yet another story.

You can learn more about Paty at

her blog; Writing into the Sunset

her website; http://www.patyjager.net

Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paty-Jager/132536633482029

Newsletter: Paty’s Prattle: http://eepurl.com/1CFgX

Paty’s Posse: https://www.facebook.com/groups/402519373168442/?ref=bookmarks

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1005334.Paty_Jager

twitter @patyjag.

THE LOVES WE LEFT BEHIND - 3 BOOKS IN ONE, SPECIAL EDITION TO MARK THR CENTENRY OF WORL WAR 1

I have just done a talk at my local library regarding my research for my World War 1 romance novels.

THE LOVES WE LEFT BEHIND – 3 IN 1 SPECIAL WORLD WAR 1 CENTENARY EDITION ISBN 9781771452557. In print and e-book

Special Centenary Edition containing three novels depicting three different women who triumph over tragedy during the 1^st world War.

A hundred years ago, from the far flung corners of the British Empire, young men rushed to fight for Mother England. They left their wives and sweethearts behind. Many of these brave women waited in vain for their men folk to return. How did they cope with the loss and heartache? Could they ever hope to find happiness with another man? Three full novels, each telling a brave young woman’s story of triumph over tragedy and adversity. Allison’s War, Daring Masquerade and Lauren’s Dilemma.

Allison’s War:
In 1916, on the French battlefields, a dying soldier’s confession has the power to ruin the woman he loves.

Daring Masquerade:
Harriet Martin masquerades as a boy so she can work with her shell-shocked brother, falling in love with her boss wasn’t part of the plan.

Lauren’s Dilemma:
Lauren Cunningham, carrying the out-of-wedlock child of a soldier, marries another man who is unjustly tried for murder. To save his life, will she publicly admit her sin, and risk the diabolical consequences that will surely follow?

http://amzn.com/B00MASTCHM