Archive for November 2011


Winners–Thanksgiving giveaway

November 24th, 2011 — 12:40am

Thanks to all who contributed recipes in the Thanksgiving giveaway!  I’ve jotted many of these down for my preparations for next year.

So without further ado, the winners are as follows (and, as an FYI, I did include the people who posted on my Goodreads page, since this blog shows up over there):

The winners of the three copies of A LOT LIKE LOVE are…

RachelKiwi (comment # 42)

Kathy (comment #21)

Taryn Lisa (comment #51)

And the winner of the $25 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble is…

CrystalGB (comment #40)

Winners, please contact me at info[at]juliejamesbooks[dot]com to claim your prizes. The three of you who won a book should send me your snail-mail addresses. Crystal, please let me know whether you would like a gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

And to everyone– have a happy Thanksgiving!

2 comments » | giveaway

Thanksgiving Giveaway– What’s In Your Oven?

November 19th, 2011 — 12:19pm

**Giveaway is closed. Winners will be posted shortly.

Hey everyone! Some of you may remember this giveaway from last year. . . . I figured since we all had fun (and got some really great recipes) that we might as well do it again!

So tomorrow begins my four-day preparations for Thanksgiving (my husband and I have both of our families over every year). And as the holidays approach, I thought, who couldn’t use more books? Or a gift card to buy more books?

Thus, I’ve decided to do a giveaway. Grand prize is a $25 gift card to either Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and I’m also giving away three runner-up prizes of a copy of my current release, A Lot Like Love.  All you have to do to enter is tell us, in the comments below, one thing you’re baking/cooking for Thanksgiving AND you have to include the recipe.  (Hey, we all can use good recipes this time of year, right?)  And if you’re not cooking or baking anything this Thanksgiving, then just post any favorite recipe of yours.  The contest will be open until 8pm CST on Wednesday, November 23rd.

I’ll start us out, with recipes from two fantastic cooks: my grandmothers.  One is one of my favorite desserts, and the other is for the best stuffing I’ve ever tasted.  I make both of these every Thankgiving.

Grandma Arline’s Magic Bars

1 1/2 cups corn flake crumbs

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 12 oz pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine corn flake crumbs, sugar, butter and mix thoroughly.  (I melt the butter first.)  Press mixture evenly into 13 x 9″ baking pan.  Use back of spoon to press firmly into bottom of pan to form crust.

Scatter chocolate chips over crust.  Spread coconut evenly over chocolate chips.  Sprinkle the walnuts over the coconut.  Pour sweetened condensed milk over walnuts.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned around edges.  Cool.  Cut into bars.

Grandma Marge’s Bread Stuffing

3 loaves of bread

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cup chopped celery

1 1/2 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon salt

2 tsp ground sage

1 tsp pepper

1 beaten egg

Milk

Break bread into pieces and leave out to go stale.  (Note: I do this two days before I plan to make the stuffing and leave the bread out for two days in two brown paper grocery store bags.)

Saute the celery and onion in the melted butter until soft.  Add the salt, sage, and pepper.  In a large bowl, mix celery/onion mixture with one beaten egg. Begin adding stale bread, add milk as you mix in the bread to keep the stuffing moist.

Bake for about one hour at 325 degrees in a buttered 13 x 9 casserole dish.  If made the day before and refrigerated, increase cooking time to about 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!  And happy Thanksgiving!

53 comments » | A Lot Like Love, fun stuff, giveaway

Calling all Goodreads members!

November 14th, 2011 — 12:17pm

Well, look at this. I have some awesome news to report– A Lot Like Love made the semi-finals round of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance!!!  Now that is some great news to start off a Monday morning.  Winners advance by readers’ choice, so if you liked A Lot Like Love and are a member of Goodreads, please consider dropping by and casting your vote by following this link. (Or the handy-dandy widget below.)

Thanks!  And thanks to all who voted to get ALLL into the semi-final round!  The book was a write-in nominee, which is especially flattering.  I’m officially the grass roots candidate. : )

Choice_logo_90x107

Vote now for your favorite books!

2 comments » | A Lot Like Love

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