Play Day by Tia Dani

 Yesterday Tia and Dani (us) decided to take a day off from writing and play. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Olive Garden and sipped on the wine of the day. We can still taste the sparkling wine, it was so good–name of the wine unfortunately forgotten.

 It was about then we noticed that one of Tia's false eyelashes was coming loose. This was her first attempt to wear them and she seemed to really be having issues. Dani, being the eyelash expert that she is, suggested it might be a good idea for her to buy another pair and instantly decided a trip to the closest Wal-Mart should be the next stop. Besides she wanted to drive her new car. (More on this subject at a later date.)

 Once at Wal-Mart, as we entered the store, the wonderful aroma of cinnamon surrounded us with heady delight. The spicy smell was awesome and all thoughts of eyelashes went on hold as we searched the area for the smell, sniffing up and down the aisles. We finally found the source–in a bin high up on a wall above our heads. Cinnamon pine cones galore. You know the ones, they are around every holiday, bundled in a mesh wrapper and fills the house with glorious cinnamon?

We had to have them, or a candle, or at least something that would give off the cinnamon fragrance. That sent us on another search – find the perfect cinnamon gift for ourselves. Besides, we decided, there is so much that makes fall such a wonderful time. Cooler days, spectacular colors, hearty soups, crusty breads, and pumpkin pie. We've gained weight just thinking about what is to come.

 Yes, we did remember the eyelashes after Tia discovered a 20 dollar bill in the pocket of her jeans. What an unexpected find. Now she had money to get her eyelashes PLUS something cinnamon. We both decided on cinnamon sticks.

It was a good day of shopping.

Since we're talking about shopping. It's time to think about all the grocery shopping to be done for Thanksgiving. We came across this recipe for the yummy Tiramisu we enjoyed today. We're gonna give it a try.

This is a copycat recipe from the book, America's Most Wanted Recipes, by Ron Douglas. We're going to make it and see if it tastes like the one we had for dessert.

                   

                 Olive Garden Tiramisu

1 store-bought 10 to12 inch sponge cake (about 3 inches high)

11/2 tablespoons brewed strong brewed coffee (or instant espresso)

11/2 tablespoons brandy or rum

11/2 pounds cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, softened

1 to 11/2 cups superfine or confectioners' sugar

Unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1.   Cut across the middle of the sponge cake, forming 2 layers, each about 1 ½ inches high.

2.     Blend the coffee and brandy. Sprinkle enough of the mixture over the bottom half of the cake to flavor it strongly. Don't moisten the cake too much, or it may collapse on serving.

3.     Beat the cheese and 1 cup of the sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and the cheese is light and spreadable. Test for sweetness during beating, adding more sugar if needed.

4.     Spread the cut surface of the bottom layer with half of the cheese mixture.

5.     Replace the second layer and top with the remaining cheese mixture.

6.     Sprinkle the top liberally with sifted cocoa.

7.     Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving.

               Makes one 10 to 12 inch 2 layer cake  

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family and remember every opportunity that comes your way can bring exciting blessings.

Find Tia Dani's Time Travel romance at  http://bookswelove.net/tiadani.php

It's a Southern Thing by Gail Roughton

Hey, y’all!  Well, Thanksgiving’s near and this Thanksgiving’s really special at my house.  My youngest child is coming home.  He hasn’t been home since September, 2013.  He’s a Navy Corpsman and his specialty training is Field Medic for the Marines.  Because Lord knows he wouldn’t pick something safe like pharmacy or x-ray or lab tech or anything like that.  So this Thanksgiving I’m pulling out all stops.  And the highlight of Thanksgiving (food that is, people are the real highlight of Thanksgiving, we all know that) at our house is dressing. My family loves dressing.  One particular type of dressing.  Miss Emma’s dressing. 

Miss Emma – and please be advised that in the South, all ladies not your mother or your aunt who are some years older than you are addressed as “Miss”, just as all men not your Daddy or your uncle who are some years older than you are addressed as “Mr.” – was the office mother of the Macon, Georgia law firm of where I’ve worked for twenty-one years.  When I first met Miss Emma, she was a very young and spry 74.  In fact, she drove a stick shift and listened to a rock station on the radio.  I helped spearhead a special birthday celebration for her 75^th birthday.  And 85^th, 90^th , and 91^st.   At every one of those birthday celebrations, I gave the same toast, a quote from the Wizard of Oz to the Tin Man:  “Hearts are not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” 

Miss Emma was a true Southern lady with a strict work ethic and enough love to encompass the world, including every person who ever set foot through the firm doors, whether attorney, bookkeeping staff, paralegal, secretary, law clerk, receptionist, runner, copy clerk.   And pretty much everybody else she ever met.  Her heart was big enough to hold all of us and have plenty of room for newcomers.

Not one for excess sentimentality, she showed her love in concrete ways. Like cooking.   And believe me when I tell you this – Miss Emma could cook.   The break room was fragrant with the smells of fresh baking more mornings than not. Her pound cakes were legendary.  I can still smell the long pans of peach cobbler, baked that morning and still streaming steam.  In the afternoons, a block of cream cheese sometimes took up duty by a plate of crackers and an open jar of her homemade green pepper jelly.  That’s a southern thang, y’all.  Cream cheese and pepper jelly.

She’d collected her recipes years before into a big black notebook, divided into categories by divider tabs. One of my friends made a copy of that notebook when Miss Emma finally retired for good at 92, as well as one for herself and one for me.  Melody made a copy of her copy and gave it to my daughter as a wedding present.  She inscribed it “From Melody and Miss Emma.  She’d want you to have it.”  Her church had the recipes printed in a book and sold them with proceeds going to one of Miss Emma’s special Church projects, but  we prefer our own copies of the original wherein we can still see the notes in her own handwriting:  “Very good”; “Bake at 425 instead of 400”; “Add ½ cup of butter rather than ¼”. 

And so without further ado, because I get teary-eyed when I remember Miss Emma, I present Miss Emma’s Southern Cornbread Dressing, exactly as she wrote it, which is to say, as if she was standing over your shoulder telling you exactly what to do.  It’s the only dressing I make.

SOUTHERN CORNBREAD DRESSING

(With Turkey or Hen) – Serves about 8

2 cups crumbled stale cornbread

2 to 2-1/2 cups crumbled dry white bread (such as leftover biscuits or rolls – biscuits are better)

1 onion chopped fine

2 or 3 stalks of celery chopped fine (about ½ to ¾ cup)

½ stick melted butter or margarine

3 eggs, beaten slightly

4 to 5 cups turkey or chicken stock (after skimming off the grease –see note below)

1-1/2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1-1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

(**Gail’s addition:  1 ½ tsp. sage)

Preheat oven to 425.  Mix breads, stock, beaten eggs and seasonings.  In the meantime, in a shallow frying pan, melt the butter/margarine and partially cook the onion and celery till it is just limp; then add the whole bit to the first mixture and stir well. This should be soft and runny, about the consistency of cake batter or very thick soup – this is the secret of good dressing, as it will dry out as it cooks.  After you make this a few times, you will be able to tell about the consistency.  Use a shallow pan for baking – a 9 x 13 size, or two smaller sizes – as this should be a rather thin layer.  I grease the pan with butter first.  After about 15 to 20 minutes, I take a cooking fork and run through it and sort of stir it up and then let it continue baking about another 15 to 20 minutes.  Or, you can leave it alone and let it bake smooth – then cut into squares.  Of course, you must have giblet gravy with this.  If you don’t know how to do that, I will be glad to tell you if you will give me a call. (Note from Gail:  That’s Miss Emma talkin’, not me.  I’m not chopping and boiling giblets and have not a clue how to make giblet gravy.  The store-bought turkey gravy works just fine for me.)

NOTE:  As to the stock, I always pour the stock up after baking a turkey or after cooking the giblets (neck, gizzard, heart and liver) and let it get cold in the refrigerator and remove the fat from the top.  Then I put that in the freezer to save to make dressing and gravy the next time I bake a turkey.  Otherwise, you have the problem of baking your turkey ahead of time and not having time to prepare the stock.  It really is too greasy if you don’t remove the fat.  (Note from Gail:  Cans of chicken broth work well also.)

For Oyster Dressing:  Simply add up to a cup of chopped oysters to the batter before baking.

If you don’t mind eating dressing and gravy two times in a row, it’s nice to bake only half of the above and put the balance in the refrigerator and bake it fresh the next day.  Or you can half the whole thing to begin with. (Note from Gail:  Or in the case of my family, you can double it.)

Find Gail Roughton's Country Justice and all her titles here: http://bookswelove.net/roughton.php

 

A Sweet Potato Thanksgiving by Jamie Hill

November is a good time to reflect on things for which we’re thankful. Thanksgiving dinner is something I’ve always taken for granted, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand that not everyone is so fortunate to have a big, bountiful meal. (I hope that those of us who do get to partake will keep the less fortunate in mind and donate as we’re able to our local food pantries.)

Canadian Thanksgiving has passed, but we’re just gearing up for it here in the states. Thanksgiving seems to me sort of a forgotten holiday, sandwiched in between two others that are much more fun for children. For many adults, Thanksgiving boils down gathering together whatever family and friends you can and enjoying a big meal and lots of leftovers.

In my family we go the traditional route with turkey, potatoes and gravy, and sage dressing (cooked in a separate dish, never in the bird.) My favorite vegetable is green bean casserole and my second favorite is a sweet potato casserole topped with brown sugar and pecans. It tastes more like pumpkin than sweet potatoes and is sweet enough to be a dessert, but we serve it right along with the meal. Homemade rolls round out the first course and pumpkin pie with whipped topping comes out about an hour after dinner has settled.

If I’ve kept up with the pots and pans as I went along it’s just a matter of loading plates directly into the dishwasher and finding enough plastic containers (with lids that fit) for the leftovers. They’re piled in the front of the fridge because just a few hours later we’ll drag everything back out for a repeat of the same meal in the evening.

Friday noon we’re still eating turkey but by that night, we usually order pizza because we’re ready for a change. On the weekend, the leftovers are either consumed or frozen because we’re all tired of them by that point.

Once Thanksgiving weekend has past it’s full speed ahead to Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho! But we’ll talk about next month. For now, I’m making my grocery shopping list and checking it twice. If I close my eyes I can smell Thanksgiving dinner cooking already.

Please enjoy our family’s sweet potato casserole recipe, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Casserole

2 pounds sweet potatoes (boiled and mashed)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter or margarine

4 eggs (beaten)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup sugar 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all above ingredients with electric mixer and pour into buttered 9 x 9 casserole dish.

Topping:

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup soft margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pecans

Mix topping ingredients together and pour over top of sweet potatoes.  Bake 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. For sweeter taste, double topping ingredients.

  

Find Jamie Hill's titles including her latest release, Pieces of the Past, here: http://bookswelove.net/jamiehill.php

Circumstantial Evidence by Gail Roughton

A writer’s done a good day’s work when the characters have gotten themselves into or out of some sort of convoluted situation, whether humorous, dangerous, nightmarish, or ridiculous. It’s what we do. 

     We create worlds of action, adventure, and danger. We plop our characters squarely in the middle of it and watch them squirm their way out of situations we’d love or hate to get ourselves into and out of but never will. And why not? We’re safe at our little keyboards; there aren’t any repercussions for us. Or are there? Because our most valuable tool, the one essential thing modern writers can’t function without—could be our Judas. Our betrayer. Think about it. Over the past years, how many trials have featured the defendant’s computer as one of the star witnesses? 

Unless you’re a computer whiz yourself, you don’t know how to wipe your computer’s memory, now do you? I don’t mean clear out the recent browsing history - occasionally even I remember to do that.  I mean clear the “innards” of your computer, where, the experts tell us, our entire online life is recorded. Forever. Unless you’ve got one of those wiping devices from the CIA, of course.  I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have a lot of those high tech luxuries on my shelf and I’m pretty sure they have folks who could backtrack it through the servers anyway.

What I do have is a browsing history guaranteed to send me away for life were I the suspect in an horrendous crime being prosecuted by any fairly competent District Attorney. And if somebody wanted to frame me—well, they’d just have a field day. In the course of building the backgrounds of my books, in creating that believability that grabs a reader and makes them believe the unbelievable, I’ve set myself up. Big-time. Especially if anything ever happens to my husband.

Even a cursory glance at my browser shows that I know how to obtain a marriage license 24/7 in Vegas, and where to go to use it. I know where prostitution’s legal in Nevada, and where it isn’t. And it isn’t legal in Las Vegas, who’d have thought? 

I’ve got a general knowledge of Voodoo and its hierarchy of spirits, as well as Hoodoo (which isn’t the same thing, by the way). I’ve checked out the quality, weight, and street value of various controlled substances, and the styles and types of different handguns and the damages each can inflict. 

I know the Temple of Isis at Pompeii (yes, Pompeii, not Egypt) was excavated in 1764. I know golems are creatures made of sand, from Jewish mythology, who carry out their makers’ bidding.

I mean, any prosecutor could convince a jury I offed my husband by means of a golem armed with a .357 Magnum and powered by astral projection, hid his body in a mausoleum, ran away to Vegas, opened a brothel, and founded a black magic coven.

Or maybe they’d say I ran away to Daytona Bike Week with an outlaw biker, and currently serve as second-in-command for a big sprawling drug cartel. Or—well, there’s just no end to it. If you’d like to see the results of all this web-crawling, hop on over to my web-blog, http://gailroughton.blogspot.com where you can view the final results of all this incriminating research. None of my books would have been possible without it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d better go make sure my husband took his vitamins. I do believe it might be in my best interests to keep him healthy. 

Halloween in the Quirky Suburbs of SoCal

While other little girls played with Barbie dolls and latest version of baby 'cry and wet', I collected Universal Monster Collectibles and stayed up late at night to watch the horror host, "Moon-a-Lisa" introduce the classic Universal Studio Monster (black and white) movies.

One of my favorites was the 1932 version of The Mummy.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, I've created a plot summary:

In 1921 a field expedition in Egypt discovers the mummy of ancient Egyptian prince Im-Ho-Tep, who was condemned and buried alive for sacrilege. Also found in the tomb is the Scroll of Thoth, which can bring the dead back to life. One night a young member of the expedition reads the Scroll out loud, and then goes insane, realizing that he has brought Im-Ho-Tep back to life. Ten years later, disguised as a modern Egyptian, the mummy attempts to reunite with his lost love, an ancient princess who has been reincarnated into a beautiful young woman.

Yes, a new version was made in 1998.  However, I prefer Boris Karloff, and the stylized special effects. The flashback scenes in ancient Egypt were designed to resemble a silent film, with no dialog, exaggerated make-up and gestures, and a faster camera speed, to suggest the great antiquity of the events portrayed. 

And, if you are an avid fan of this genre, you will know that this is the only Universal monster of the time without a fictional antecedent. Large segments of the movie are scene-by-scene parallels of the movie Dracula (1931). An ankh symbol (the ancient Egyptian glyph for "life") is substituted for the crucifix of the earlier movie. Even Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is quite analogous to his Dr. Van Helsing from the vampire film.

So, it comes to no surprise that I really, really look forward to Halloween.  I throw a 'pre-Halloween' Spooktacular party for all of the youngsters in my family.  This year: Bloody Fingers (lean franks in a bun), Cat's eyes (glowing yellow jigglers with a sliver of a red grape), goblin toes, bat cupcakes, and bubbling witches' brew. (Visit my Pinterest boards for more info).

This is why I penned my Fun & Sassy Fantasy series.  I wanted to have a good time.  And more importantly, I wanted my readers to share in the fun!  My next novella, "Bell, Book, and Gargoyle" is set in Hollywood.  And "Walk Like An Egyptian" plays homage to my favorite Universal Studio classic.

Since I reside in Southern California, I can spent a day or two at Universal Studios.  I'm sorry so that much of the back lot was destroyed in a fire several years ago.  However, the pond that doubled for a Louisiana swamp in The Mummy's Curse, and provided close-up scenes while filming The Creature from The Black Lagoon, is still part of the guided tour.

I hope you enjoy my current release: "Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow" #10 on this weekend's Holiday list of most downloaded free novels on Amazon.  I am also being interviewed by
 I.B. Nosey, reporter on October 30th (http://feelingnosey.blogspot.com).  Please to login and participate in the fun (I.B. did mention prizes).

And, in case you are wondering. . . yes, I do collect Monster High Dolls :-).  (I am still searching for the Zombie doll).

Please visit my website: www.novelsbyconnievines.com  or click on: http://about.me/ConnieVines

Happy Halloween to all of my readers,

Connie

In search of the Naga by Vijaya Schartz

My next novel in the Curse of the Lost Isle series, tentatively titled BELOVED CRUSADER, is scheduled for early 2015 from Books We Love. In that novel, the villain is a Naga. For this medieval fantasy romance, I needed a shape shifter to do the will of the Goddess, one that could attack on sacred ground.

I considered a Djinn, or a demon, but dismissed them as overused. Besides, demons cannot take human shape, and they cannot function on sacred ground. So I kept digging for something that would resonate with the serpent symbols of the Pagan beliefs of the time.

Then I remembered the strange bas-reliefs found in ancient temples in India, and the legends of the Naga. Although these are not depicted as legends, but as historical facts, according to these ancient texts. These looked very much like Melusine the Fae when her curse transforms her into an Ondine, once a month, and she becomes a serpent from the waist down.

Naga in India means python. The ancient Naga were a gentle people, half human and half serpent, who could take human form and travel between dimensions. But my research revealed that among them was once a male Naga who had a predilection for human females and bloody murder. So much so that he was forever banished. His name was Sadangula, and he is the villain of my next novel.

I like a good villain, and Sadangula certainly fits the profile. One wonders if such a creature did not inspire later descriptions of the devil.

So, look for a twisted shape shifter to wreak havoc among the Crusaders and threatening my heroine, in the next installment of the Curse of the Lost Isle series, BELOVED CRUSADER.

In the meantime, I'm having fun writing the story, and researching as I go, because no matter how much research I do in advance, I still research every detail as I go, because I think historical accuracy is foremost, even when writing medieval fantasy.

Wishing you a great Halloween. Have fun, and stay clear of Sadangula if you happen to meet him on the night when ghouls and demons roam the streets.

Vijaya Schartz
Romance with a Kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com