Sunday, October 7, 2012

ZTA Cookies and a Very special Giveaway!

This has been a huge week of Celebration for a very special blogger and, I
feel fortunate to say, also a very special friend, Bridget Edwards. You see
not only did Bridget celebrate her birthday this week, she and the other
million or so people she's inspired through her blog also celebrated this!
I knew this day would eventually come for Bridget the moment
I discovered her blog and saw her sugar cookie creations...
                                                                                                                                        Photo collage by Bridget Edwards

I also knew I wanted to create cookies just like Bridget does
so I contacted her with a few hundred questions... Bridge was
amazingly patient and kind and, she answered every single one!
Pretty soon I was creating decorated sugar cookies of my own to rave
reviews from everyone that saw and tasted them... Especially my mom!
I wanted to do something to show my gratitude to Bridget for
all of her help and inspiration... Something to make up for all
the time she spent answering my questions. So I sent Bridget
a couple of cookie baking/decorating books I found on-line...
When I think about sending those books to Bridget now, I still get
a little embarrassed because today I know what I did was like...
Sending a paint-by-numbers set to Michelangelo!
Fortunately, Bridget didn't hold my faux pas against me! And, when her big moment
arrived, Bridget recommended her publisher send me an advance copy of her book!
I'm thrilled to have it and have already read it, cover to cover!
 And, once again I put Bridget's techniques to work on
these crown cookies I created this weekend for a friend
whose sweet daughter is pledging to ZTA this week!
But the release of Bridget's new book isn't just good news
for me... It's also good news for you because Bridget's publisher
included an extra copy for me to give away to one of my readers!
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment about your
favorite cookie baking memory. For extra entries, feel free to
tweet or share this giveaway on Facebook or at your own blog!
If you want to add Bridget's wonderful book to your library you may order
it here. Winner of this giveaway will be announced on 10/10 - Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Congratulations, Nancy McCandless - Please send
your address to me at: jcbridge@reagan.com

30 comments:

  1. Every year, for as long as I can remember I have baked cookies with my grandma for Christmas. I'm now 27 and feel blessed that we are still able to do so!

    Jenny M. Indiana

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  2. What a great giveaway!! That would be a lovely addition to any collection!
    My best cookie memories would have to be the past 17 years of Christmas cookies baked with my children. We bake cookies, tea cakes and candies to give our friends and family for Christmas. At first it was because it was budget friendly - now it's just what everyone looks forward to and we love to do it.
    I love looking at all of your lovely cookie creations! They look like little edible pieces of art. :D
    Tiffany

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  3. One of my happiest cookie baking memories occured on a day I spent baking cookies with two of my sons when they were toddlers (they are grown men now) to mail to my husband, who was stationed on the USS Kitty Hawk and away from home during the holidays during the first Gulf War. I think they tried to eat more dough than we baked, but they enjoyed knowing we were making something special to mail to Daddy. I can still see their little faces, smeared with dough, fingers covered with sprinkles, almost as though it were yesterday.....

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  4. I would love to win a copy of this book! My favorite cookie baking memory is from high school. A group of my friends got together for a Christmas party and made Sugar Cookies and decorated them together. I just remember it being a super fun time together talking and laughing, and putting WAY too many sprinkles on a cookie!

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  5. My favorite cookie baking memory is the the first time I baked cookies with my oldest daughter. She was not yet two and standing on a stool beating the sugar cookie dough with a rolling pin once the dough was "ready" she proceeded to lick and poke the dough all the while proclaiming "dat goo schtufff Mama!" I love that series of pictures, not quite what I had in mind but a cherished memory none the less.

    tissytano (a) optonline.net

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  6. What a nice giveaway!! (Although when I saw the word "giveaway" on your blog I have to admit I was hoping it was your cookies!) :) The book looks wonderful!!

    My favorite memory is making decorated sugar cookies as a child. My mom would let me invite a few friends over and she had the cookies all made. We sat at the table and got to frost and decorate them. My mom had a large Lazy Susan in the middle of the table with all sorts of fun candies to decorate with. I later did the same thing with my daughter! And to this day, I still use her sugar cookie recipe.

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  7. I remember the smells from my grandmother's kitchen as her mixer blended the dough for Spritz cookies. I am so honored to have her mixer today and make those cookies each Christmas.
    Winning Bridget's book would be like an early Christmas present.
    Thanks for the opportunity!!
    Andrea in WA.

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  8. Every time I bake cookies, I envision them in my head looking like yours, but they turn out ......well, not. But anytime I bake with my kids is awesome!!!!

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  9. My favorite cookie making memory is baking gingerbread men for my children at Chtistmas. My son would eat all the royal icing decorations before devouring the cookie!

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  10. Would love this book. I've made her cookies, which taste wonderful but I haven't mastered the icing yet. But, my favorite cookie memory is making my Dad's cousin sugar cookie recipe. They are roll outs or cut outs but they just melt in your mouth....lots of butter and powdered sugar in them. Making them with my daughters and now granddaughter makes them all the more yummy.

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  11. Would love this book. I've made her cookies, which taste wonderful but I haven't mastered the icing yet. But, my favorite cookie memory is making my Dad's cousin sugar cookie recipe. They are roll outs or cut outs but they just melt in your mouth....lots of butter and powdered sugar in them. Making them with my daughters and now granddaughter makes them all the more yummy.

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  12. Janet, do we get to see those owls and bats completed? :)
    Favorite memory? Christmas Eve, new flannel pajamas, and an old wooden table covered with flour in my mom's kitchen. I think we ate more dough than we baked!

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  13. I love to host a cookie exchange each December right before Christmas. The party has grown to 30 people exchanging every kind of cookie imaginable.

    Patti from MA.

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  14. I have to say my favorite baking memory is baking Christmas cookies with my mom...spritz cookies..I was in charge of sprinkles. I am so lucky to have that memory....and now I am sharing my love for cookies with my son...he now is the sprinkle exptert!

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  15. My fondest cookie making recipe is baking them for my wedding with my mom! I have much improved since then, esp with my royal icing skills, but those memories and cookies will always be a part of me! Wish that I can get my hands on a copy of Bridget's book!!

    email me at sarkerfarhana@gmail.com

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  16. I love baking anything. But my favorite cookie to bake is oatmeal raisin. I can remember mixing the dough with my grandmother at least once a month on a Sunday!

    Stephanie Wiley
    stephaniewiley91@gmail.com

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  17. I'd love this book. Favorite memory, making cookies with my daughter, I love that at 19 she still loves to do this with me! 2nd favorite is my best friend coming over before our annual Christmas open house...both are special times with special people!

    Maureen G NH

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  18. Wow, your cookies look awesome. I actually found out about Bridget's blog through your blog after seeing your pretty cookies. I am new to cookie decorating and still trying to get the consistency down. Every year after Thanksgiving I host a Gingerbread House decorating party at my house for about 20 kids. I pre-baked the dough the week before and assembled the houses together before the kids arrive. It is so fun to see the inner artist in each kid. I would eventually, like to add decorated cookies to the party. Thanks for the giveaway. Jane N. (cookie2lov@gmail.com)

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  19. My fondest memory of baking is when we were kids, my mother would let us make Toll House Cookies. We would eat 1/2 the dough then get scolded because the recipe only yielded 2 dozen cookies!

    Bridget is the reason I am a cookie decorator. I found her site 2 1/2 years ago and I haven't looked back!

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  20. Learning to bake with my great granny in the december holidays in South Africa. She taught me to make Hertzog Cookies. (Apricot jam tarts with coconut on top). I had to wait till i was married before i got the recipe from my Granny. (By now my great granny (affectionately known as old granny) had died at 97 yeaes old. ). This recipe is still in my recipe book and i am now looking forward to teaching my 7 year old. You post has now inspired me to start this weekend. Our weather is hot now so will remind me of the good times. I may have to eat them before the word gets out that old grannys hertzog cookies are being made and the doorbell starts ringing!

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  21. My favorite cookie baking memory is from when I was a small child and if I was sick, I was sent to Grandma's house while my parents went to work. Grandma was known for her sugar cookies, and she knew the best way to make me feel better was to help me make some. And she always made two batches so we could bake some and eat some of the dough.
    She is turning 92 this week, and still makes her sugar cookies.

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  22. My favorite cookie baking memory is making cookies with my grandmother and siblings. Some of my best memories!!

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  23. Would love to have this book to share with my girls. Thanks for the chance. Sasha

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  24. My son licking off all the wet icing after hours of decorating some cookies. Ugg..it killed me but his sly grin was so hard to get mad at.

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  25. My son licking off all the wet icing after hours of decorating some cookies. Ugg..it killed me but his sly grin was so hard to get mad at.

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  26. I have always loved baking with my two boys-well, let's be real, I bake, they sit and lick the bowl and wisks! But we have good talks while they are waiting, with me wishing that they would stay little forever and them wishing I would hurry up-kinda like our feelings about growing up. They are 7 and 14 and time is flying by so fast but still slows just a little whenever that butter, flour and sugar starts to come together. Thanks for the giveaway!!

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  27. When my oldest son Andrew started middle school five years ago I started baking chocolate chip cookies for his teams on game days and I've continued thru the years for he and his two brothers. Last week I baked 21 dozen cookies for three soccer games! The boys on the teams are always excited for their cookies no matter if they win or lose! I would love to make them fancy cookies like your beutiful ones!
    Bethany from Maine

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  28. Every Christmas my grandmother had us (her 25 grandkids) over to bake cookies with her. We made everything from icebox cookies to decorated cookies. She is gone now but, whenever, X-mas rolls around and I am in my kitchen I can't help but, think of her and the sweet smell of her kitchen. Stevie e-mail:steve.stephens55@yahoo.com

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  29. Well maybe the third time posting is the charm!! Just in case the other ones post I'll leave a different great cookie memory. Last year while baking with my sisters, I had just finished putting the hopscotch crunchies on the parchment paper, was only 5 feet from the table when my sister's dog decided he like those cookies and ate an entire row!! I'll I can say is thank goodness it wasn't chocolate!! (ps - I need that book! lol) - Nancy

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  30. Hi! I so need this book!!! One of my favorite memories of baking would be Christmas Cookies with my Mom. I remember as a kid she would always have to find the original recipe that her mom wrote (a copy would never do!)and she would read the letter that was attached to it. After her mixing and rolling the dough out she would let us use the cookie cutters (nothing like those nice copper oven ones!)and we always wanted to make the trees because they were the biggest and we knew mom would only let us have one when we were finished and of course we wanted big ones! Mom would let us decorate them and I think we got more sprinkles on the table and us then on the cookies. This was our time where mom would tell us stories and we would laugh so hard we would cry. It is the perfect baking memory. Now my sisters bake every Christmas - and remember all the stories. - Nancy

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Readers who comment ROCK!

xo