Of Favorite Cookies & Cookbooks: A Christmas Special

For cookie bakers, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies aren't to be missed, they're the best chewy and butter sugar cookies you might have ever tasted but without all the fuss and muss of rolling and decorating. I'm making them for my cookie swap next week, the - get this! - 19th annual.

For home cooks, savory and sweet both, the Food52 Cookbook isn't to be missed either, it's one of two favorite new cookbooks in 2011. It's a collection of "best of the best" recipes from home cooks -- I think it's fabulous and am giving away a copy!

Head on over to Kitchen Parade, No-Roll Christmas Sugar Cookies (or click the photo) for the cookie recipe and cookbook giveaway. It's easy to enter to win -- US and Canadian residents for this giveaway, please, through December 14th.

MORE GIVEAWAYS? I've started posting giveaways (mine and other food bloggers') on a special bulletin board on Pinterest. Follow me there for the latest! And it's Christmas -- right now there are a BUNCH of giveaways going on, including for wonderful LeCreuset Dutch ovens and other cooking gear.

WHERE IN HECK ARE THE VEGETABLE RECIPES? So isn't A Veggie Venture the food blog about vegetables? Yep, it is, except in December when our interest in vegetables falls to the wayside in favor of, well, Christmas cookies, holiday parties, picking out just the right gifts, decorating the tree, sitting by the fire with a hot mug of Scandinavian mulled wine (my recipe is fruity, not sweet and by the way, made for a much-lively Scandinavian dinner party weekend before last) or passing along along family traditions like making Swedish Potato Sausage. Here's my promise, made on a stack of sliced beets: Come January, A Veggie Venture will return to its usual programming, all vegetables, all the time.

Can't wait? Here are vegetable recipes I've featured during December in prior years:

EAT VEGETABLES IN SEASON: THIS WEEK, 2005 - 2010
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta & Garlic Roasted Potatoes & Red Onion Cauliflower with Pancetta, Capers & Parmesan Broccoli with Pancetta & Parmesan (< this week's favorite!) Zucchini Muffins Delicata Squash with Hot Pepper Glaze Celery with Tomatoes, Olives and Capers Braised Brussels Sprouts Broccoli Tomato Holiday Wreath Homemade Swedish Potato Sausage

KITCHEN PARADE, THIS WEEK Festive Holiday Salad

ST LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, LAST WEEK Veritas Vegetable Soup from Veritas Gateway to Food & Wine

NEVER MISS A RECIPE (OR THE OCCASIONAL GIVEAWAY)! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

A Veggie Venture is home of 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
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