Monday, April 29, 2019

A Witch to Remember






A very warm welcome to our friend, Heather Blake! Heather writes the Wishcraft Mysteries and A Witch to Remember is the 9th book in the series!

Heather is giving away a copy today, and because I have a book coming out tomorrow, I'm throwing in The Diva Sweetens the Pie, too.

Don't forget to enter at the bottom of the post!










In my latest release, A Witch to Remember, the ninth book in the Wishcraft series, my main character, Darcy Merriweather, has instituted family-and-friend dinners on Sunday nights. Big meals, shared with loved ones, to catch up on the week behind and to start the week ahead off right. (Of course in Darcy’s world nothing ever goes quite right, and let’s just say that there’s only so long cheesy bread can keep in the oven.)

The inspiration for Darcy’s dinners came straight from my husband’s family. They always had weekly spaghetti dinners growing up. Once I joined the family, I found something so comforting about knowing that every weekend we’d be together, enjoying my mother-in-law’s amazing spaghetti sauce and meatballs. There were plenty of laughs and lots of love (and I didn’t have to cook—bonus!).

In my family growing up, we didn’t have weekly extended-family meals, but it seemed like we celebrated every good life event under the sun with a barbecue. Having a baby? Barbecue! New job? Barbecue! New house? Barbecue! Graduation? Barbecue! I even had a barbecue after my second wedding (same man—a church wedding a year to the day after we were married by a justice of the peace).

To this day, when there’s some sort of big family event happening, we tend to barbecue, and this recipe (also my mother-in-law’s!) is always on the table. It’s an easy dish to throw together, and in my opinion, is even better the second day as leftovers.

At some point over the past decade, our weekly family dinners stopped happening, and I miss them. Maybe it’s time to reinstate them—perhaps as a weekly barbecue?

Does your family have celebratory barbecues or weekly dinners?

Macaroni Salad
1 lb box elbows
1 green pepper, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 cup green olives, sliced in half
4-5 stalks celery, diced
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup milk
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¾ tsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
*Adjust sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste


1.     Cook the elbows according to the directions on the package. Drain and rinse in cold water.
2.     Toss elbows with the remaining ingredients and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

*Note from Heather: This makes a lot of macaroni salad, at least 8 servings. These pictures are from a half-batch.


Heather Blake, aka Heather Webber, is the author of more than twenty-five novels. She loves to read, drink too much coffee and tea, birdwatch, crochet, and bake. She currently lives near Cincinnati, Ohio, and is hard at work on her next book.

To enter the giveaway to win a copy of A Witch to Remember and a copy of The Diva Sweetens the Pie, please leave a comment with your email address so we can notify you if you win. Good Luck! 
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44 comments:

  1. Our daughter works near our house so we love it when she stops over for dinner. And I will definitely miss this once she marries and relocates closer to her fiance’s job. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity...I love both these series. Kuzlin(at)aol(dot)com

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  2. Thanks for the opportunity. cheers (at) MarjimManor (dot) com

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  3. The book looks terrific & I would love a chance to win. Thanks for your great generosity. lindamay4852@yahoo.com

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  4. When I as a kid we had extended family dinners for every birthday and holiday. These days the family is scattered all across the country, so the family dinners sort of fizzled out. I miss those days. Please put my name in the hat for this great giveaway! My email is silalumenn@gmail.com

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  5. Would love to read this book, and a great bonus of the macaroni salad. Thank you. Cas95515@gmail.com

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  6. Thanks to both of you for the chance to win. pjcoldren[at]tm[dot]net

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  7. Thanks for the chance. When I was a kid we use to have spaghetti with sausages and meatballs every sunday. I miss those days.

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  8. When my daughter was growing up, we would have dinner once a week at my In-Law's house. I really looked forward to it, and my daughter loved being with her Mimi and Papaw. Also, Mimi is an awesome cook! Thanks so much for the great giveaway ~ bobandcelia@sbcglobal.net

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  9. I’ve never had the opportunity to live close to extended famy, so no family dinners. Thanks for the chance. evening_star1986@yahoo.com

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  10. My family dinner days have been over for a long time..kinda sad really. Thanks for the chance
    Vickiela3@hotmail.com

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  11. Would love to read this book. Growing up, every Sunday we went to my dad's brother's house for dinner and to watch Disney in color. Sadly my parents divorced and the family Sundays ended.

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    1. Oops, my email is sharonasmith@charter.net. Thanks for the chance to win.

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  12. The salad sounds yummy! And thank you.
    idlivru1 (at) gmail (dot) com

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  13. Thanks for the chance of getting a new book and a yummy sounding recipe. My email is vkreft@aol.com.

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  14. I love your wish craft series. Thank you for the chance to win. My email address is lgronewold@comcast.net

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  15. holdensheryl@hotmail.com want to read the book and make the macaroni salad

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  16. We always had big dinners when I was growing up. I think that was part of my appeal for my then-boyfriend-future-husband. Lots of noise and good food. We can't do it so much today because we are spread across the country. The macaroni sounds good. I've been making my mom's recipe for years but maybe I'll give this a try. Thanks for the great giveaway. sallycootie(at)gmail(dot)com

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  17. Macaroni salad is great. It's so versatile! Thanks for sharing your recipe, Heather!

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  18. We haven't done any big family dinners for a while. We're too scattered. But we do usually try something for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Depends on who's in town!
    patdupuy@yahoo.com

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  19. My family used to meet for dinner about once per month. Now we all live too far apart for that to happen, but do get together when possible.
    turtle6422 at gmail dot com

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  20. We have big family dinners about once a month. I'll have to make this macaroni salad. But I might just eat it all myself because I love it so much.
    eswright18 at gmail dot com

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  21. We always used to get together to have Sunday dinner with my parents when growing up. Now we are living in different states but we still get together as much as we can.
    diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com

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  22. The recipe sounds good! I would love to win the books! Thanks for the chance to win! terileebrooks@netscape.com

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  23. Yes! Reinstate that weekly meal. What a gift that will be for the whole family.

    libbydodd at comcast dot net

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  24. I used to have weekly family meals at my house when I lived on my own. I have MS and about 1.5 yrs ago I joined households with my older son and his family. My DIL likes doing most of the cooking and cooks from scratch almost every night. They usually bring mine on a tray for me to eat upstairs in my room, since keeping the kids exhausts me and that avoids another trip down and up the stairs. But their family eats together every night (three young sons.) I love various pasta salads and this recipe looks good. Ty for the chance to win the books too! Legallyblonde1961 at yahoo dot com

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  25. I love macaroni salad and will try this for summer. Thanks. Cute cover of the book. gayleboyce@gmail.com

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  26. We celebrate on holidays, but that's about it.

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  27. Yhe recipe sounds grade & I'd love a chance to win these books. Thanks for your great generosity. lindamay4852@yahoo.com

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  28. I have added the recipe to my recipe box! We usually have our "big" meal on Sunday with family. I would love to win a book! My email is: bentleyboy22@comcast.net Thanks for the chance!

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  29. I love Heather's series and would love to win this book. Your recipe sounds really good too, and I am not usually a fan of macaroni salad. my email is: frauenb@gmail.com

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  30. Weekly dinners sound like fun! The recipe sounds delicious! Thank you for the opportunity! staceytoney6@gmail.com

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  31. We had a barbecue as our wedding reception six months after our sort of elopement wedding in Vegas. It was one way to get everyone together and fed. We had a great time.
    I come from a small family and we are scattered to the Oregon, Kansas, Colorado [me, J and K] and Mr B's family are all in Virginia and Minnesota. It would be an intriguing dinner if they all came together for a meal though....polar political beliefs... VWinship at aol dot com

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  32. We tried to do monthly dinners with my husband's family for a while, but busy work and kid schedules got in the way. Thank you for the chance to win. Dmskrug3 at hotmail dot com

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  33. Loved the recipe! I would love to win the book as we are remodeling our home right now so no funds to buy anything "unnecessary!) Thank you!
    teddi1961(at)arcemont(dot)com

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  34. Thank you for the opportunity! - Janelle

    janelleblckwll@gmail.com

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  35. I was reading Witch To Remember over the weekend. When I got to Sunday night I had the toughest choice with about 75 pages left, savor it some more and finish it during the week or stay up late and be super tired for work Monday. I couldn't stop myself and stayed up to finish it. I loved it. Worth all the coffee I needed today, lol.

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  36. We had extended family Sunday dinners every week when I was growing up. The gatherings now center around the holidays throughout the year.

    jtcgc at yahoo dot com

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  37. We get together just because or to celebrate birthdays. And we have a pool, so in the summer we have a lot of impromptu get togethers. Kkcochran (at) hotmail (dot) com

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  38. I love both of these series so much! Thank you for the chance to win!
    Dawn H
    529jvb (at) gmail(dot) com

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  39. I have had family traditions on my mind lately because we used to celebrate mother's day and my mom's birthday on that same Sunday. She looked forward to it and insisted on doing most of the cooling. She just loved having her family together for a meal, and didn't mind some presents too. Good memories.
    browninggloria(at)hotmail(dot) com

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  40. I sure can relate to your post! I grew up in a family (Dad's side) with an aunt and 3 uncles and 9 cousins. We got together a lot! I would love to be your contest winner! lindaherold999(at)gmail(dot)com

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  41. Love this recipe. Thanks for the giveaway. doward1952(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  42. Hi, Heather! I already own this book - hardbound, too - cool! - but I love the discussion. We have both special-occasion barbecues and weekly family dinners at our house. The latter have become so important that I hear my teenaged grandson on the phone saying "No! I told you, I can't talk on Sundays - family dinner!" They've brought our family so much closer.. we all live here in town, and we know just how blessed we are for that.

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