Category: Fun Stuff

Thanksgiving Giveaway– What’s In Your Oven?

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Yesterday began my four-day preparations for Thanksgiving (my husband and I have both of our families over every year), and as I was baking, a thought occurred to me: I haven’t done a giveaway in several months.  Time to rectify that!  After all, I have a lot to be thankful for, with the arrival of Baby Girl James who’s just the cutest cupcake ever.  And on a work-related note, on Friday I heard from my editor that my first book, Just the Sexiest Man Alive, has gone into its fourth printing!

So in the spirit of the holiday, I’ve decided to give away a grand prize of a $50 gift card to either Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Williams Sonoma (because I love all the baking/cooking accoutrements in their holiday catalog)– at the winner’s choosing.  And I’m also giving away three runner-up prizes of a copy of my current release, Something About You.  (For those who are interested, you can find an excerpt of Something About You here.)

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 10pm CST on Friday, November 26th.

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!

You May Have Heard…

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Last week, after 40 weeks and 2 days, Baby Girl James was born.  She’s the cutest little cupcake, and my husband and I are ecstatic.  Her big brother, however, is on the fence about whether he approves of the new addition to our family.  My mother says it took me two years to forgive her for the birth of my sister, so maybe it runs in the family.

While I don’t have a ton of time to read these days, I started a book in the hospital before delivering the Cupcake– The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series).  I’ve really enjoyed every book in the series so far, and it’s the perfect light-but-not-too-light read.

Meanwhile, I’m re-honing my skills in typing with one hand, and pretty much doing everything else with one hand while holding a baby with the other, too.  Oh–and I’m also discovering the wonders of late-late-late night television when up for feedings. Who knew the Tonight Show re-runs at 3a.m.?

Ugh. Up at 4a.m…

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Ugh.  I woke up this morning at 4a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep.  Hate when that happens.  I finally gave up, started eating peanut butter out of the jar, and cracked open a new book.  I grabbed The Merlot Murders by new-to-me author, Ellen Crosby.

I’m enjoying it so far, which is saying a lot considering I was reading at 4 a.m.  A murder mystery set on a vineyard. . . that’s right up my alley.

Fun stuff: tea-time photos and what I’m reading/watching

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I meant to post these photos a week ago, and then got sidetracked with my RWA round-up blog and the arrival of my international books.  A short while ago, I had the delightful opportunity to get together with two readers and romance fans, Jennie and Jen.  They were in Chicago for a half-marathon, and we met for tea at the Drake.  Tea the Drake hotel is always fantastic (they even have a harpist!), and beyond that, I had such a blast meeting with Jennie and Jen!  It’s always wonderful to get the chance to meet readers and talk about books.   Here are a couple of photos I thought I’d share (thanks, Jen, for the pictures!):

And the piece de resistance, we couldn’t resist taking a picture of our shoes:

He, he– I’m such a shoe girl.  It truly is my weakness.  : )

On another note, having finished up the revisions for A Lot Like Love, I’ve been catching up on some reading and TV/movie watching.  Last week I read Slow Heat by Jill Shalvis, which I really enjoyed, and yesterday I started Abandon the Night by Joss Ware, the third book in her Envy Chronicles (I thought the first two books in the series were great and have been looking forward to this one).

In terms of television, after finishing Dexter, the Husband and I had a free slot in our TV-viewing schedule, so we decided to give True Blood a shot.  (I was curious to see what all the hoopla was about.)  Oh, that Vampire Bill. . . I think I’m started to get why everyone’s making a fuss over this show.

And speaking of hoopla, after hearing numerous rave reviews of the BBC series North and South, I decided to give it a try.  It took me awhile to get into it, but I was hooked by the third episode and couldn’t stop watching after that point until the end.  If you like romance and angst and a hero who broods–and then broods some more–this is the mini-series for you.  It doesn’t top the Pride and Prejudice BBC mini-series in my book, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

So that’s what’s going on here. . . how about with you?  Reading/watching anything good?

I’ve gone international!

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How cool is this? The other day, I received from Berkley copies of several foreign editions of my books.  I love these covers!  And since I don’t have jpegs of all the covers, I thought I’d take a few photos and share.

All the foreign editions--don't they look cute together?

Taiwan editions of Just the Sexiest Man Alive & Practice Makes Perfect

Russian edition of Just the Sexiest Man Alive

Thai editions of Just the Sexiest Man Alive & Practice Makes Perfect

Japanese edition of Just the Sexiest Man Alive

What do you think? I’m not sure why the Chinese cover includes the image of the Parthenon… but I love it.  And Jason and Taylor look about eighteen years old in the Russian edition of Just the Sexiest Man Alive, but they’re so cute together it doesn’t matter.

So there you have it–I’ve gone global.  There are other foreign editions in the works, including a French edition of Something About You, and I can’t wait to see those as well!