Countering the commercialization of the holidays, Ellen Stimson, bestselling author of “Mud Season,” has released a new book celebrating the true meaning of the season: “An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Sweet Traditions for Hearth and Home.” The book features 98 winter-warming recipes — including treats for four-legged friends, as well as memories of holidays past, from sleigh rides, nostalgic tree ornaments and family gatherings to women sharing recipes at the beauty parlor.

Stimson talks about her new book from her Vermont farmhouse, where she cooks and writes.

Q. How many years ago did you, your husband and three children move to Vermont? Are you originally from New England?

A. I’m originally from the St. Louis area and we moved to Vermont in 2003, which is completely different. On vacation, we always played the game: ‘What would it be like to live here?’ When our daughter, Hannah, was about 12, she said, ‘Why do we always do this on vacation? Could we live anywhere?’ The next thing we knew we were moving to Vermont. We loved our lives, our friends, in St. Louis, but we were always planning our next vacation. We wanted to live somewhere more beautiful. Meineke Muffler Shops on every corner became a metaphorical image — we had to get out of there.

Q. What is it about Vermont that makes it so wonderful for celebrating Christmas — besides guaranteed snow?

A. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We are a Christmas family — the main reason we picked it. We thought how beautiful it would be at Christmas — it would be just like in the storybooks and old movies.

Q. You describe yourself as a “bread and butter” cook. What does that mean?

A. I’m not a chef. I’m a cook. I have no formal training. My husband and I both love to cook. When you move to Vermont winters are long, so you better like each other and have things to do, and like cooking. In winters we make long, complicated meals and have friends over. So I think that’s one of the truer things about me.

Q. How did you choose which recipes to include in the book? The Slovak nut roll that actually passed down through five generations of your husband’s family (that your daughter makes now) seems like an obvious choice. How about other recipes?

A. I still have an old-fashioned recipe file — and now I have computer files — but I still have this recipe file in my kitchen. It turns out I had about 500 recipes in there and I separated them by season and pulled out my favorites.

I married my husband John for that nut roll. We were dating and it was Christmas and he said, “Can I stop by, right now?” This was before cell phones. I said, ‘Sure, in very casual way, but I ran around like a maniac, fixing my hair and cleaning up. I opened the door and he’s kind of messy looking, with flour on his shirt and this nut roll in his arms, after I just rushed around like crazy. But the reason was, he had been at his grandmother’s baking this nut roll with her all day. I was completely smitten; I knew I had to marry this man, who bakes with his grandmother, so the nut roll had to go in there.

Grandma Lorraine’s Golden Tassies is another one. My dad died when I was 5. We had a pie bakery in our basement and my mother would bake at night and deliver the pies in the morning, so she could stay with me all day. I helped her roll out the dough. I grew up really playing with, messing with, dough. And so she invented the recipe, Golden Tassies. They were sort of like mini cheesecakes in a muffin tin — not really good — made with pie dough and a little dry. So we started playing with it and she invented this sweet dough with butter and cream cheese and by Christmas it had been perfected and everyone got Golden Tassies (for gifts) that year.

Q. What do you think of Bank Square Books doing an old-fashioned cookie swap during your booksigning event?

A. I think it’s going to be so fun. A lot of bookstores I’m going to are doing it. My mother-in-law still does it. She’s 88 and every Christmas she sends us a big box, it comes UPS, filled with 10 different kinds of cookies she makes every year — John’s childhood in a box.

Q. You’ll be the judge of best cookie. What are your criteria?

A. I love cookies that conjure up that amorphous feeling of Christmas. They don’t have to be highly decorated; it’s about taste and being somehow unique. It has to be delicious and conjure memories. I don’t like fancy food; I like food that tastes good. It could be someone’s unique family recipe or a basic chocolate chip cookie, or decorated to give the feeling of Christmas.

Q. What is your philosophy about healthy cooking versus full fat but delicious? Is there a balance?

A. Think we’re living in a time when it’s all about what you can’t eat — people that only eat gluten-free, can’t eat dairy, are doing the Paleo diet. It’s an era when it’s not about what tastes delicious, but about what you can’t eat.

Food makes you feel tended and nurtured. Not fancy food. It may not make you skinny, but it will make you happy. And yes, it’s all a matter of moderation.

“An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Sweet Traditions for Hearth and Home” by Ellen Stimson (Countryman Press) is $24.95, hardcover, illustrated.

EGGNOG GOOEY BUTTER COOKIES

Hannah (my daughter) loved eggnog when she was little. Starting just after Christmas I would mix it up a couple of mornings every week for breakfast and she would lick the blender. A cookie just seemed like the next natural step, so we made up this recipe together when she was in first grade. It used boxed cake mix—we use golden butter or yellow. We liked them from the very first batch and so we’ve just kept the recipe the same all these years. One year we figured out that you could frost them, too, with a little butter, eggnog, and powdered sugar. They are pretty divine either way.

A word about ground nutmeg: Buy the whole ones and grate them. It’s cheaper and in all ways tastier.

—Ellen Stimson, author of “An Old-Fashioned Christmas.”

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract

1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup powdered sugar, and more for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Mix in rum extract and nutmeg. Lastly, mix in the cake mix until thoroughly incorporated. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll chilled batter into 1-inch-sized balls and then roll them in powdered sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and gooey.

Cool completely and sprinkle with more powdered sugar (more is always better).

SWAP AND SIGNING

Bank Square Books, 53 West Main St., Mystic, will hold a cookie swap and contest at 6 p.m. on Dec. 1, and Ellen Stimson will judge the best cookie. The winner will get a free copy of her cookbook. To enter the contest, just bring a plate of cookies, and after Stimson announces the winner, names will be drawn and attendees will swap plates of cookies with each other. Stimson will also sign copies of her book, and refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public and bringing/swapping cookies is not required to attend.

More information is online at www.banksquarebooks.com or call the bookstore at (860) 536-3795.