Guest BJ Daniels joins the Clan of the Cake -- #recipe, #romanticsuspense

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Out here in Montana, there are so few writers that most of us know each other, and I'm delighted to say many of us have become good friends. Romantic suspense writer BJ---Barb---Daniels and I first met at Bouchercon, the mystery convention, many years ago, and have seen each other at numerous writers' conferences and fan events in the years since. One of the highlights of last summer was teaching with her at the Get Published! Conference in Bozeman, and another was a book talk in Billings, where we interviewed each other!

For those of you tracking such things, she is definitely Clan of the Cake---and her recipe might even convert me!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of INTO DUST.

B.J. DANIELS: I love cooking and food, so of course my characters EAT. I once read a book where the villain was making his famous enchiladas. I couldn’t believe the heroine escaped before she got to taste them. That would never happen in my books. Food is so important that I was writing one day and my character had just taken a bite of my Oatmeal Cake, a favorite of mine. I stopped typing to reach for a bite of the cake myself and realized, regretfully, that my character was the only one who had the cake!

I got this recipe from an old college friend and it has become a family favorite. I love the coconut in the frosting, but you can leave it out. Same with the nuts. It’s still delicious even without the oatmeal in the frosting. The cake is so wonderful that I once served it warm to friends who’d just walked in the door with no coconut, oatmeal or nuts in the frosting. They loved it and had to have the recipe.

OATMEAL CAKE

In a bowl put:

1 ½ cups hot water

1 cup old fashioned oats

Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream:

½ cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

Add and mix:

2 eggs

Add:

1 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add the oats and water mixture. Pour into a 9x13 cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Frosting:

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

4 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 cup coconut

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans because I had them)

Boil butter, sugar and milk for 1 min. Add coconut, oatmeal and nuts. Pour over warm baked cake and return to the oven for a few minutes.

Cool as long as you can stand it before eating --- but don't wait too long, or all your neighbors will drop by and eat it first!

Leave a comment below with your favorite cake or a favorite food from a book, for a chance to win a signed copy of INTO DUST. Contest open till midnight, Monday, August 1. 

From INTO DUST, part of the Montana Hamiltons series:

As the daughter of a presidential candidate, Cassidy Hamilton left the Montana family ranch to escape notoriety. But when someone tries to abduct her off a Houston sidewalk, tall, dark cowboy Jack Durand saves her. Only Jack knows more about her kidnapping that he is letting on. On the run, they expose a plot years in the making, but it comes at a price neither could have known.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author B.J. Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three Springer Spaniels, Spot, Jem and Ace. When she isn’t writing, she quilts or spends the summer on the water.  

Daniels writes both series and single title books for Harlequin Intrigue and HQN, and has sold just short of 100 books.

To contact her, write: B.J. Daniels, P.O. Box 1173, Malta, MT 59538 or email her at bjdaniels@mtintouch.net Check out her webpage and blog at www.bjdaniels.com or visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/BJ-Daniels/127936587217837 or on twitter at bjdanielsauthor.

Black Bean Salad #Recipe @PegCochran

This salad is a perfect addition to a summer meal—it functions as both a starch and a vegetable getting you out of the kitchen faster and back to enjoying the warm weather.  And if it’s hot, there’s no need to turn on the stove with this recipe.

The recipe is quite “loose” in that you can add/remove whatever you do or don’t like!  It goes especially well with grilled fish or meat.

Ingredients:

1 15 ½ oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 avocado, diced

1 small red onion (or half a large one), diced

1 cup of corn (frozen and defrosted or fresh)

1 red and/or yellow pepper, diced

Juice of two fresh limes  

1/3 cup olive oil

Cilantro, chopped (more or less to taste)

Directions:

Putting this together is super simple.  Prepare all your ingredients and toss in a large bowl.  Whisk lime juice and olive oil, pour over salad and toss again.  

Beautiful fresh vegetables!

Whisk together dressing

Delicious and healthy! 

Coming September 6!

 A Romantic Times Magazine TOP PICK!

On her blog, The Farmer’s Daughter, Shelby McDonald is growing her audience as she posts recipes, gardening tips, and her experiences raising two kids and running Love Blossom Farm in the small western Michigan town of Lovett.

Working the farm is demanding but peaceful—until that peace is shattered when the minister’s wife is murdered on Shelby’s property during a fund-raiser for a local church. But the manure really hits the fan when Shelby’s good friend veterinarian Kelly Thacker emerges as the prime suspect. Shelby decides to dig in and find the murderer by herself. As more suspects crop up, she’ll have to move fast—before someone else buys the farm. . . .

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

 

Mussels with Cider and Cream

I was going to be industrious and bake something using summer’s bountiful fruits and vegetables—but have I mentioned our local heat wave? Day 6 and counting. Or is it Day 7? So I started thinking about cooler recipes, ones that don’t involve any heating up an oven or standing over a fire.

And then I remembered the mussels in my freezer.

Back in 1999, my daughter and I traveled to Ireland alone (my husband was in South Korea at the time), landing at Shannon and driving south along the coast toward Leap, where we’d be staying. Along the way we stopped in Bantry for lunch. There’s a nice harbor there, and looking out across the water I asked, “what’re those things?” As it turned out, those were mussel beds.

I filed that thought away, and it was a few years later I was in my local market and saw they had packages of frozen mussels, ready to heat and serve. I read the fine print, and found they came from Bantry, which is in West Cork. [Note: while the company that packages these flourishes, they’re getting their mussels from China these days. But they still taste good.]

When I was growing up, and visiting Long Beach Island in New Jersey in the summer, mussels were those annoying things you cut your toes on. Now people see them in markets and say, “what the heck do I do with those?” Or “Where’s the food in them? They’re all shell!” I’ll admit they’re kind of labor-intensive for the amount of mussel you get out, but they do taste good.

And you can buy them shelled! Perfect for a very quick summer meal. Here’s one I adapted from a more traditional Irish recipe, modified for ready-to-eat mussels.

Mussels in Cider

Ingredients:

1 package frozen mussels (the 8-ounce package served two of us; the brother was enough for a larger package)
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed or minced
2 oz finely-diced pancetta
2 Tblsp butter
1 cup hard cider
1/4 cup heavy cream
Small handful of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

In a medium-size saucepan, brown the pancetta pieces over medium heat until they are golden and sizzling. Add the butter, then the shallot and garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the shallot is soft.

Add the cider and let bubble for a few minutes (what little alcohol there is will evaporate). Add the mussels and let them steam for a few minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cream and parsley, season with salt and black pepper. And there you have it!

Serve with some nice artisan bread to sop up the liquid.

Bakes locally in Plymouth

If you've never tried mussels, this is a simple way to start! Using mussels in the shell looks more impressive, but they're kind of messy.

Here's a version I had in Dublin. The green stuff
is samphire, which grows on rocks along the
shore. It tastes kind of like asparagus.

Soon I'll switch gears to the next Orchard Mystery, which is Seeds of Deception (I'll be writing the next in the series shortly, but it's only a glimmer of an idea at the moment, involving an organic orchard and poison).

www.sheilaconnolly.com

Stir Fried Okra and Grilled Trout #giveaway @LWiken

As the delightful Victoria Abbott/Mary Jane Maffini mentioned last Sat. in her post, our annual writer's retreat is also a bit of a foodie feast time. We pair up and take turns preparing the main meal.

Keeping with the seafood (I should say sensational!) theme set by MJ with that sensational sambuca shrimp appetizer, I decided to do a very simple grilled trout along with one of my favorite veggies, okra which I stir fried, also a simple recipe for a very hot summer's day.





We'll start with the okra.

Of course, I added some of my favorites to the mix. Fresh mushrooms, a sweet red pepper, and some jalapena pepper. Now, I could give amounts but it's really up to you, according to what quantity you want for your dinner guests.

I did use a touch of Celtic sea salt, freshly ground pepper and, although it's not shown, some Bragg Herbs and Spices Seasoning mix to taste. And of course, olive oil for the actual stir frying.

For the trout, I brushed the pieces with olive oil and sprinkled Herbes de Provence seasoning over top. For the final touch, some sprigs of fresh dill.

They were large pieces and I found just the right size to be divided between the five of us.

The grilling took about 12 minutes and only doing one side. The stir fry was half the time which made it easy to have both ready at the same time.

Remember, this was meant to be an easy meal so the final dish was a container of store bought potato salad.









Friends always make any mealtime and good time!

I'm still so pumped about my new series, that I'm doing another random draw for a copy of Toasting Up Trouble! Just leave a comment about your annual summer friends or family fling!

Writing as Erika Chase -- the Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery series are available on-line or at your favorite bookstore.

 
           

Visit Linda at www.lindakwiken.com
Love to hear from you at my Facebook author page and
on Twitter  @LWiken  
Also appearing at www.killercharacters.com
                                                                               

Visit Erika at www.erikachase.com 
 at my Facebook author page
and on Twitter  @erika_chase. 

Stir Fried Okra and Grilled Trout #giveaway @LWiken

As the delightful Victoria Abbott/Mary Jane Maffini mentioned last Sat. in her post, our annual writer's retreat is also a bit of a foodie feast time. We pair up and take turns preparing the main meal.

Keeping with the seafood (I should say sensational!) theme set by MJ with that sensational sambuca shrimp appetizer, I decided to do a very simple grilled trout along with one of my favorite veggies, okra which I stir fried, also a simple recipe for a very hot summer's day.





We'll start with the okra.

Of course, I added some of my favorites to the mix. Fresh mushrooms, a sweet red pepper, and some jalapena pepper. Now, I could give amounts but it's really up to you, according to what quantity you want for your dinner guests.

I did use a touch of Celtic sea salt, freshly ground pepper and, although it's not shown, some Bragg Herbs and Spices Seasoning mix to taste. And of course, olive oil for the actual stir frying.

For the trout, I brushed the pieces with olive oil and sprinkled Herbes de Provence seasoning over top. For the final touch, some sprigs of fresh dill.

They were large pieces and I found just the right size to be divided between the five of us.

The grilling took about 12 minutes and only doing one side. The stir fry was half the time which made it easy to have both ready at the same time.

Remember, this was meant to be an easy meal so the final dish was a container of store bought potato salad.









Friends always make any mealtime and good time!

I'm still so pumped about my new series, that I'm doing another random draw for a copy of Toasting Up Trouble! Just leave a comment about your annual summer friends or family fling!

Writing as Erika Chase -- the Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery series are available on-line or at your favorite bookstore.

 
           

Visit Linda at www.lindakwiken.com
Love to hear from you at my Facebook author page and
on Twitter  @LWiken  
Also appearing at www.killercharacters.com
                                                                               

Visit Erika at www.erikachase.com 
 at my Facebook author page
and on Twitter  @erika_chase.