Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Saturday, September 1, 2018

Doughnuts, vodka and #mermaids... #recipes #guestpost @Lyncee

A Mermaid's Wish cover

By Lyncee Shillard (Guest Blogger)

 
Hi everyone!!!! I’m so glad you stopped by…And thank you Lisabet for hosting me.

Since this is the first time I’ve hung out on Lisabet’s blog, I thought I’d start off by sharing some of fav’s…. doughnuts and vodka. They complete me. :-p

These recipes are featured in my new release A Mermaid’s Wish

While doughnuts are my hands down favorite retreat food, cookies are a close second. And these – A Day at the Beach Cookies– are at the top of my list...

What You'll Need

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
  • ¼ cup coconut vodka
  • ¼ cup pineapple vodka
  • ¼ cup vanilla vodka
  • 1/2 cup flaked coconut

What to Do

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.
     
    2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
     
    3. In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, pineapple, and vodka; beat thoroughly. Gradually add flour mixture and blend.
     
    4. Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of coconut. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.
     
    5. Cool slightly and remove from pan with a spatula.

Okay so we have the food covered now let’s move on to the drinks… these are a favorite everywhere I go. Sometimes I think I’m invited just for this drink…

The tropics in a glass…

What you need:

  • 1 1/2 ounces vanilla vodka
  • 1 ounce coconut rum
  • 1/2 ounce cream of coconut
  • Splash of pineapple juice
How to Make It:
  • Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  • Shake well.
  • Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
  • Garnish with a pineapple wedge and/or coconut flakes.

So when I’m not baking cookies or making drinks, I write.

A Mermaid's Wish

Aislynn gives up her position in Neptune’s court for the chance to experience human emotions. Especially passion. Before her wish is fulfilled, she finds herself the target of a serial killer.

A teaser.... 

(I do this a lot…I can’t help myself…)

Aislynn’s role as a negotiator for Neptune’s court had taught her to divide and conquer. Scott wanted her to work up an entire professional pitch for saving Camille’s homeland and she needed to get Finley to fall in love with her. The computer hummed as Aislynn clicked her way from website to website.

For the campaign to save the land sprit’s homeland Aislynn knew she would need to prove how doing so would improve profits. While the movement to become more environmentally aware was gaining support, the bottom dollar still ruled. She outlined two of her strongest ideas and requested back-up material from several organizations.

Excitedly, she switched over to finding ways to make Finley fall in love with her. She read several articles describing love, how to know if a man loves you, and twenty foolproof ways to make a man fall helplessly in love with you.

And we all know that what we find on the internet is true and excellent advice... ;^)

Come and hang out with me... we will talk about doughnuts and vodka...





Amazon Author P age:


Monday, December 3, 2012

Proving Santa Exists

[It's finally December! Though there are still a couple of weeks before Christmas, you can get into the spirit with this sneak peak at Victoria Blisse's new tale, Proving Santa Exists. Enjoy! ~ Lisabet]

Blurb

When Jonathan transfers from the U.S to the Manchester branch of Computers Inc., Jenny is the first person to make him feel at home. Finding out about his bleak Christmases as a boy, she makes up her mind to involve him in all her English Christmas traditions.

Passion sparks between the two as they decorate the Christmas tree. Who would have thought such an innocent activity could become so sexually charged? Can Jenny succeed in seducing the hot American and also prove to him that Santa really does exist?

* Includes the Full Seasonal Recipes for meals & snacks mentioned in the story.


Excerpt

"Don't you just love the pine smell?" I inhale deeply as I rub my fingers over a prickly frond.

"Yeah, it's kinda spicy, isn't it?" He passes the boxes of decorations over and I open them up.

“So, there’s a particular way I do this.” I point as I recite the list.

“Baubles first, big at the bottom, small at the top. Then we put on the lights and then finally the tinsel.”

“Okay, boss.” He stamps his foot and gives a salute.

“Ha, less cheek, more work.” I giggle. “You just can’t get the staff these days.”

I settle at the foot of the tree and begin placing the bigger baubles around the lower branches.

Jonathan stands beside me, hanging baubles from the top of the six foot spruce. I adore dressing my Christmas tree. All my decorations have stories behind them: some belonged to my mother, others to my Nanna, and a few I’ve purchased myself.  I retell the tales as I pull them out.

“Oh, I made this one.” I pick up the felt stocking and smile. “I was about eight, I think. It took me ages to sew all the sequins on. There used to be more. Many have fallen off now.”

The red felt is faded and worn, the white edging closer to grey, and the sequins that are left no longer sparkle.

“My mum loved it. She always said it was her favourite.”

“I can see why.” His tone is soft and tender. “You put a lot of love into it.”

I nod and hang it on the tree.

“And this one I bought last year. It’s an owl. I’ve got a thing for owls.”

“Kinky,” Jonathan quips and I slap his calf.

“Behave.”

“Never.” He grins. “Anyway, you started it.”

“No, no. Your dirty mind started it. I meant I like owls and this one has a Santa hat on. How could I resist him?”

I look up and I see mischief in the set of his mouth. I slap him again.

“Ow! I didn’t say a thing,” he protests.

“No, but you were going too.”

He doesn’t deny it and we carry on loading the branches in companionable silence.

"Ooh, Jonathan, can you check those lights for me now?" I glance up, and find his crotch just above my eye height. I drop my eyelashes and quickly bend my head down. I try to not wonder about the bulge I'm sure I just saw there.

"Sure." He steps around me, his legs rubbing against my back. "So, er, do I just plug these in then?" Obviously, Jonathan is a Christmas tree light novice.

"Yeah, and if they light up, that's your job done. If they don't, you need to check all the bulbs and find the one—or ones—that don't work and replace them with those spares in that packet." I point as I speak. He follows the direction of my finger.

"Ahh, I see." He nods and sets to work while I move my way farther up the tree.

"Oh, now then, I need to find a good place for Fairy Mary." I hold up a small, old, porcelain fairy, her red dress flared, the sequins lost, only the little blobs of glue to show where they once were. Her blonde hair is more fuzzy than curly, and her gold glittering halo shows mostly silver now.

"Fairy Mary?" Jonathan flicks the switch to red, and the lights come on, fizzle with a sad "plink," then fade to black.

"There's a bulb loose somewhere. You'll have to fiddle with them then screw it in." He raises a long narrow brow, and I realise how suggestive that just sounded. "And, yes, Fairy Mary," I quickly continue, avoiding eye contact. "She's been passed down from my Nanna's Mum—who might even have gotten it from her mother, though we're not sure. She always has the most comfortable branch to sit on. She's an old lady now, you see."

He nods and continues to turn the lights in his fingers. "So, do you have a lot of Christmas traditions?"

"Oh, a fair few: the decorations, baking my own Christmas cake from scratch, watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. After that, I go up to Tom Jenkins's farm and look at the tree and Nativity scene before going to church for midnight mass. That's before we even get to Christmas Day!"

"Do you have many people here on Christmas Day?"

 I nod. "Yeah, a few. There's my sister Marie, and her husband Mike, and their two teenaged girls. Aunty May comes over with her friend Queenie, and then there’ll be Uncle Charlie and his wife, their son, his wife and the newborn boy—what's his name—oh yes, Jake."

"They'll all fit in here?" He has very expressive eyebrows; with the tiniest movement, he conveys great scepticism.

"Well, not all at once. Charlie and his lot come over at teatime. He had a falling out with his sister some years ago, and I've just found it easier to have them round separately." Just then, Jonathan tries the bulbs once more and the trailing vine lights up. Reds, greens, blues, and pink grapes shine with gaudy Christmas symbolism. I squeal in delight and clap my hands. "Just in time, too! I've just finished the decorations."

The lights are easily trailed through the forest of baubles, Santa's, fairies, and hanging toys. "Right, just the tinsel now. You start at the top, and I'll go from the bottom, and we'll meet in the middle."

Tinsel trails through my fingertips as I twirl around the tree, stooping low, then bending at the waist, then almost standing straight with just my shoulders stooped. As I raise my head to see how Jonathan is doing, I crack against something hard.

"Oh, I am sorry." I reach out automatically and rub my hand against Jonathan's bumped chin, cupping his cheek in the palm of my hand, like a parent comforting an injured baby. However, the slight prickle of his end-of-the-day stubble reminds me in a powerful way that this is a grown man I'm handling so intimately.

Then, there are lips: softly demanding lips pressing gently against my own. They have to be Jonathan’s as he’s the only other person in the room. They form a kiss. They don't apologise or ask permission; they take possession of my mouth. Brooking no argument, confidently they mesh with mine, moving sensually as his hands come round me, sheltering me, cradling me close.

I want the kiss to deepen, urge Jonathan forward by stroking his cheek. I’ve forgotten everything else but him and me joining so intimately. His touch has made me a mass of tingling anticipation. His kiss makes electricity flow through my veins. I feel like an extension of the fairy lights. I must be lighting up, I’m so turned on.

But no sooner has the kiss been created than it is torn apart. We are red-cheeked, unable to meet each other's eyes.

"I'll, erm, turn off the lights then so we can see the, er, lights." Sentences just aren’t forming. My lips are still in kissing mode and my mind is in turmoil. Why did he pull away from me? I scurry over to the switch and flip it. "Ooh." I gasp as the glaring main light dims and the Christmas tree comes into its own, bathing my room in festive cheer. "It looks just about perfect."

Get your copy of Proving Santa Exists !

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

And this link on my website covers both links and has a blurb/excerpt for people too:
http://victoriablisse.co.uk/books/blissemas-tales-proving-santa-exists

Bio:
Victoria Blisse is a mother, wife, Christian, Manchester United fan and award winning erotica author. She is also the editor of several Bigger Briefs collections, Smut by the Sea and Smut in the City.

She is equally at home behind a laptop or a cooker and she loves to create stories, poems, cakes and biscuits that make people happy. She was born near Manchester, England and her northern English quirkiness shows through in all of her stories.Passion, love and laughter fill her works, just as they fill her busy life.
 


Saturday, December 24, 2011

Creating Traditions

By E. Ayers (Guest Blogger)

Thanks, Lisabet, for having me here on Christmas Eve. I thought I'd share a wee bit of my Christmas and how it got started. I've also got a little Christmas gift for all your readers tucked at the bottom of this post. Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates and Peace to everyone else.

What is traditional in one house may not be traditional in another. And how do these traditions get going? Some people put a Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving Day. Others wait until Santa brings the tree on Christmas Eve. Most of us fall someplace in the middle. But what happens when two very diverse people from different backgrounds marry and the family traditions are far from the same? It's time to decide what is important and create your own.

My husband grew up in a small city with a big French Canadian family of aunts, uncles, and cousins living nearby. Everyone went to the grandparents' house, and food was abundant. To him, Christmas Eve was everything. They all went to Midnight Mass, then returned to the grandparents' house for "breakfast" at one o'clock in the morning. Somehow, Santa came to the grandparents' house while they were at Mass and filled their stockings with treats and inexpensive toys. After "breakfast" they were allowed to open their gifts from their grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. At dawn, they returned home. There they had gifts from his parents to open. It was a non-stop party. That afternoon, they went back for Christmas dinner at his grandparents' house. The women cooked, the men did their thing, and twenty cousins played.

As a married couple, we didn't live anywhere near that family, and his grandparents were no longer living when we married, but he loved that big family atmosphere and the foods. Hmm, I had my work cut out for me learning to make a few of those traditional dishes. I also knew, I didn't want our children to stay up all night. To me, part of Christmas Eve was going to bed and listening for Santa to arrive and the long wait for the sound of hooves on the roof. Also there was no Midnight Mass to attend.

My mom always made a big meal on Christmas Eve. Her feeling was we'd just had that turkey dinner the month before so why do it again? She did a ham and then fixed things like macaroni salad to go with it. Her emphasis was on the desserts, rolls, and other baked items. She didn't want to spend Christmas in the kitchen and miss being with her children and grandchildren. I liked her logic.

But the one tradition in my family that I hated was the one that made us wait until we had eaten a good breakfast before we could open our presents. That one was tossed away. The other thing I didn't like was that Christmas didn't last very long. The tree went up a few days before Christmas and vanished Christmas night. By nightfall on the twenty-sixth, all traces of Christmas were gone.

So in the end, when we sorted out what was important to us, including the foods that we loved, we came up with our own. The first weekend in December, we decorated for Christmas. My husband's job was to help get the tree up and do the lights. When our children were little, our Christmas tree was inside the playpen. The kids could see but not get to anything, and packages were safe from little fingers.

Christmas Eve dinner was ham and a few added items from my husband's family. As darkness descended, we did everything by candlelight except for the lights on the tree and the candles in the windows. Christmas music played in the background. I allowed the children to open a specific Christmas Eve present before they went to bed and bedtime was at a normal hour or slightly later. Then it was our time to be together. It was a beautiful way to end a hectic day. We'd curl up together on the sofa and … well, it was romantic.

Since we had no fireplace to hang stockings, our girls hung them on their doorknobs of their bedrooms. The deal was that they could grab them and climb into our bed to open whatever was in their stocking. This worked perfectly as it contained them. They didn't wake each other! It also gave us time to open our eyes and fix a pot of coffee before they ran into the living room. I'd also put the tourtiere (French Canadian pork pie) in the oven to warm because it wouldn't be Christmas morning without tourtiere for breakfast. Then we'd turn the kids loose to see what else Santa had brought. When the flurry of gifts was over, we'd have breakfast. Then it was a lazy sort of day.

Between New Years and Christmas we'd take the tree down and return the house to normal. It would be almost another year before we'd do it all again. Today, the idea of family together at Christmas Eve still holds. My girls visit with their other family on Christmas, but Christmas Eve is still ours, and so is the ham and the tourtiere. Except, I no longer make it, my granddaughters are learning to make it. Their grandfather would have been so proud of them.

Tourtiere Recipe

1 pound of ground pork (I ask the butcher to grind very lean pork for me. It costs a few cents more, but it's worth it.)

2 medium boiled and peeled potatoes (Cut up fine. You want some texture but no large chunks.)

One fat slice of mild onion (or cheat with powdered onion and skip sautéing in butter.)

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of cloves

a dash of salt and little butter

pork gravy (you can cheat and use packaged gravy)

Cut up the onion into very fine pieces and sauté in butter. Add ground pork and stir until cooked. Turn stove off. Drain any excess fat. Stir in seasonings. Gently add the potatoes. You will need about a cup of gravy. I save my unsalted potato water and mix that with the gravy packet. Add that gravy to the meat and potatoes mixture and lightly stir.

Pie Crust

(I swear they are so easy to make and taste delicious. You'll never use store bought again.)

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of salt

2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons of shortening

4-5 Tablespoons of cold water

A pie plate (8-9 inches)

Measure flour and salt into a bowl. Cut in shortening. Take two knives and cut until shortening seems to vanish into the flour and it all becomes grainy. Sprinkle in water, mixing until the dough begins to form a ball and pulls from the sides of the bowl. Gather into a ball with your hands and cut the ball in half. Cover the one unused half with a damp paper towel.

Don't worry about having a dough board, etc. Make certain your countertop is extra clean. Sprinkle it with flour. Be generous. If you don't have a rolling pin substitute with something that will roll such as a smooth glass jar. Sprinkle a little flour on the ball and don't be afraid to sprinkle more flour as you go. Roll the half ball into something about the size of your hand. Pick it up, flip it over, and roll it using pie slice strokes to create a round shape. (Think of a clock and roll from the center to the 12, then from the center to the 2, from the center to the 4, etc.) The flattened dough needs to be about two inches larger than the rim of the pie plate. Don't worry about ragged edges.

When I taught my children I often used waxed paper under the pie crust as they rolled. I'd let them roll it out part of the way on the counter, and then when I flipped it over, I put it on waxed paper that had been floured. The waxed paper tends to slip around so I'd glue it down with a smear of dough on the countertop. I'd let them mark the circle with a pen ahead of time so they knew how far the dough had to stretch. Then it's easy to pick the crust up, waxed paper and all, and flip it over into the pie plate. Gently peel the waxed paper off and push the crust into place. Fix cracks, etc, with a wet finger as you push the dough back together. Trim the crust slightly beyond the edge of the plate.

Fill pie with meat filling. Do not exceed the height of the pie plate. And don't try to pack it tight. (Any excess filling can be heated in the microwave and eaten on toast. Or if you have enough you can make another pie or freeze it.)

Make a top crust by rolling out the other half of the dough. Lay it gently on the pie. With luck this one will look much better. (The bottom crust was practice, right?)

If you have clean pastry shears you can cut the dough, if not use a sharp knife and remove all but an extra inch. Tuck that top layer under the bottom layer on the rim and flute it with your fingers. Or cut both crusts to the edge of the pie plate and run a damped finger between the two so that they stick together. Use the handle to a spoon and press them together or use the tines of a fork. You can make pretty fluted patterns doing it.

Cover the edges of the plate with a foil sleeve to protect the edges from getting too brown. Just wrap two inch wide pieces of alumium foil around the edge This pie needs to be vented so that the steam escapes. The quick way is to put two or three 1 inch (2-3 cm) knife slices in the center. Bake the pie at 425 degrees Fahrenheit until it begins to brown.

I remove the pie and refrigerate. Then I reheat it without the foil on the edges. And I serve with more gravy. (Thank goodness for packets of gravy! I've also seen his family eat it with ketchup on it.)

I decorate the crust and this has become a tradition. It doesn't take much skill and it's fun! It only takes a sharp knife and toothpicks. I promise it was more difficult for me to draw them with a mouse than it is to do it with a knife. Using a cookie cutter is a great way of marking the design, but don't cut all the way through the unbaked crust. Just mark it and then using the tip of the knife or a toothpick to pierce the crust in that design. Over the years trees have become elaborate things with presents under them and Christmas balls hang from pine branches. Some years the pie crusts haven't looked that great especially when my girls were learning. And lately, it's been the same with the grandchildren making them, but they taste wonderful.

This is a great multi-purpose piecrust.

*************************************************

A Snowy Christmas in Wyoming

A Native American cowboy and a national TV news anchorwoman have nothing in common except for their pasts. Is love preordained? An old diary from when Jessie and Clare Coleman settled on the land in the 1840's provides a history of their life. But tucked between the pages is an unrequited love between Clare Coleman and a tall Native American. Does love and land come full circle? In this season of giving, will fate reach through time to give a gift of love?

Andy Coyote settled into the job as foreman on the Coleman ranch. He's got custody of his thirteen month old daughter and the situation is perfect for both of them until Caroline Coleman returns home for Christmas and one of the worst blizzards in years hits the area. He's forced to accept Caroline's help to move a herd of cattle and mixed in it are several head from another ranch in the community. Cattle rustling still happens.

Caroline Coleman has her dream job as a Washington, D.C., news anchor for a national broadcast, but home is in Wyoming on her family's ranch. She has everything that money can buy, but the things that she really wants can't be purchased. Raised with solid, hard working, family values, she knows her life in the spotlight isn't real. She wants a man who appreciates the ranch, loves her for who she is and not what she is, and she wants a family of her own. And she doesn't like the idea of Andy Coyote taking advantage of her grandmother.

*************************************************

My holiday gift to all of you.

Go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/106948

Put it in your shopping cart.

Use coupon code: DL56J

UPDATE the cart and watch the price fall to zero.

This coupon is good until the end of December 2011.

Enjoy!

I love hearing from my readers. e.ayers [at] ayersbooks.com

I wish you all a wonderful holiday. If you have a moment to post a comment, I'd love to hear how you celebrate this season.