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?
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
twitter @patyjag.