Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Linda Raedisch, author of The Old Magic of Christmas and the new Secret History of Christmas Baking. The Secret History of Christmas Baking took me almost two years to write. I did everything by the Old World book: candying my own orange and lemon peel, leaving my Pfefferkuchen dough to age for days in a corner of the kitchen, grating my own nutmeg, and crushing cardamom pods with my little mortar and pestle. By the time I'd sent the manuscript off to my editor, I was ready to take life easy. Don't worry: I put a few shortcuts in the book, too. I gave you, dear reader, permission to buy already-grated nutmeg, and I included my mother's