Cheesy Cilantro Rice

My latest book, ONLY HIS, is at #11 on the New York Times bestsellers list for mass market paperbacks and at #34 on the USA Today bestsellers list tracking all books! This is my best third-week showing ever, and came on the heels of my best debut ever (#3) and my best second week ever (#8). And in the same month that Cosmopolitan Magazine published an excerpt of the first book of the trilogy, ONLY MINE. Such a thrill! Thank you to everyone who rushed out to read the romances of the Hendrix triplets of Fool’s Gold! If you haven’t picked up ONLY HIS yet, click here to read an excerpt: ONLY HIS.

And now… back to the kitchen! I haven’t done many rice recipes on this blog, so I decided now was as good a time as any. I wanted to come up with a different spin on rice. My first thought was cheesy rice. Almost everyone loves cheese! The Cheesy Cilantro Rice is a delicious side dish, especially good when accompanying a Mexican dish.

Recipe: Cheesy Cilantro Rice

2 C uncooked rice
4 C water
1 C fresh cilantro, minced
1C sour cream
4 oz Monterrey jack cheese, cut into ¼-inch chunks
1 small can diced green chilis
½ t salt

Put the rice, water, and cilantro in a heavy-bottomed pan and heat to boiling. For sticky rice, stir a couple of times as it’s heating to release the starches. Once the rice boils, cover the pan and lower the heat. Simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes, until the rice is done. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Mix the cooked rice and remaining ingredients and put in a casserole dish. Cover and bake at 325 for 30 minutes, until heated through.

Quick & Easy Hummus-Ranch Dip

Read free excerpts of Susan Mallery’s lively contemporary novels at www.susanmallery.com – and you’ll find lots of free recipes there, too!

Three weeks ago, I posted a recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Potato Pie. Two weeks ago, we had Slow Cooker Java Roast. Then came Linda Goodnight’s delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. I have been on a comfort food kick. I was nervous about whether readers would rush out to buy my latest book, ONLY HIS. Well, the results are in… and they’re great! ONLY HIS debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestsellers list, and hit #8 during its second week of release.

So it’s time to get back to being more mindful about what I’m eating. Which means lots and lots of veggies. I came up with this “recipe” for Hummus-Ranch Dip as a way to liven up plain veggies. Although it’s pictured here with grilled asparagus, it’s delicious with any vegetable on the vegetable tray. (I put “recipe” in quotes because this is so ridiculously quick and easy that it almost doesn’t count as a recipe at all.)

Not only is it delicious, it's perfect for those of us carb loading for our winter hibernation.

Recipe: Quick and Easy Hummus-Ranch Dip

½ C Low-fat or fat-free Ranch dressing
½ C prepared hummus

Mix. Dip

Linda Goodnight's Light Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Linda Goodnight is the author of heartwarming, inspirational romance novels, including her latest, THE CHRISTMAS CHILD. Linda has won the RITA Award for excellence in inspirational romance. Visit Linda online at www.lindagoodnight.com.

Linda, I love Christmas romances! Reading them is one of my favorite ways of getting into the holiday spirit. Would you please share the back cover blurb of THE CHRISTMAS CHILD?

Linda: I'd love to!

Who is little Davey?

A young boy is found huddled in a Dumpster in Redemption, Oklahoma, hungry, dirty and clutching a Christmas book. The scared, mute child captures Kade McKendrick’s guarded heart, and the undercover agent is determined to find answers. All he has is a name-Davey-and the boy’s trust of teacher, Sophie Bartholomew. As Christmas draws near, can sweet Sophie help the battle-scarred cop and the silent boy learn to smile-and maybe even to love-again?

In Redemption River, where healing flows...

Three Random Questions for Linda Goodnight

1. Share a random happy memory from childhood.

Let me tell you a story about a book, a mulberry tree, and a mama hog named Sally Ann. I have always been a bookworm and one of my secret escapes from two brothers was to take a book, hide somewhere on the farm and read all afternoon in peace and solitude. Sometimes I hid in the peach orchard and sometimes in the barn loft behind stacks of peanut hay with the barn cat, Bright Eyes. But this particular day I headed for the mulberry tree to indulge my taste buds in the sweet, ripe berries while I indulged my imagination in a book.

Everything went well that afternoon until my book ended and I was ready to climb down. You see, I’d forgotten one thing. The mulberry tree was inside a fence—a fence which happened to house a large Poland China sow and her six piglets. (To a nine year old she looked enormous.) Sally Ann was known to have a fierce temper but at the time I’d climbed up the tree she was nowhere around. Now, as I descended she spotted me and came squealing with jaws agape and evil intent. After scrambling back up, I hovered in the branches for a while and then tried again. Sally Ann was not to be challenged. She charged. I retreated. This went on for some time until I gave up the battle and decided if I was destined to die of old age in a mulberry tree at least I wouldn’t die hungry. After what seemed like hours, Sally Ann lost interest and wandered far enough away for me to escape.

Now, you’re probably wandering why that’s a happy memory. Truthfully, I don’t know why, but it is. I loved those lazy, innocent childhood days on the farm.

2. What kind of commercials make you cry, if any?

My family claims that I cry at anything-which is pretty much true. I am painfully sentimental which means sweet Christmas commercials from Hallmark and the Budweiser Clydesdales get me every time. I particularly love commercials where someone returns home after a long absence, especially if the returnee is a soldier in uniform. The minute I see him walking up to the door with that duffel bag in tow, music playing in the background, snow on the ground and a wreath on the door, I’m sniffling. I also get teary at commercials where the father of the bride fights emotion as gives his little girl away. Though I never remember what they’re advertising, I love those moments. Don’t you?

3. In what ways do you relate to the heroine of your latest book, and how are you different?

The heroine of THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, Sophie Bartholomew is a fifth grade teacher who loves Christmas, kids and baking cookies. That description fits me too, though I’m no longer teaching. We’re also both small town girls, but the similarities end there. Sophie is the eternal optimist, a character trait I envy but don’t have. She has a big, sweet smile and is a doer who thinks she can make the world a better place by giving to others. I wish I was more like her!


It seemed only fitting that I share a cookie recipe that Sophie and her students would make for their annual cookie sale. These are a light, sweet chocolate just perfect with a glass of cold milk.

Recipe: Light Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 squares of unsweetened chocolate melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 cup peanut butter chips
½ nuts optional

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the butter and sugars. (I use a mixer.) Beat in the egg, chocolate, and vanilla. Mix in flour. Add the peanut butter chips and if desired, the nuts.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased or sprayed baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Slow Cooker Java Roast

More free recipes at Susan Mallery's Free Recipes!

ONLY HIS was released last week and, as always on release week, I feel the need to treat myself, more as a distraction than a celebration. As I write this, I’m still waiting to find out whether ONLY HIS will hit the New York Times bestsellers lists as the first two books in the trilogy did, and if so, how high. I live in Seattle, where coffee is worshipped like cats in ancient Egypt. We were the first city in the country to have a Starbucks on every corner, and Seattlites are known to coffee-hop from Starbucks to Starbucks all the way to work. (Okay, I made that up, but we do love our coffee.) So my treat of choice has been Starbucks coffee… which, admittedly, might not be the best way to calm one’s nerves.

I once found a recipe in a Better Homes & Garden cookbook for Secret Ingredient Barbecue Sauce. The secret ingredient was coffee, and it gave the sauce a nice smoky quality. I wondered whether coffee would work with a roast beef in the slow cooker. After all, I’ve heard of (but haven’t tried) roast beefs cooked with a can of Coke, and I thought coffee would have to be better than that.

I whipped out my iPhone and did a quick search, and I discovered several recipes for Slow Cooker Coffee Pot Roast, including this one from Kristen at Dine & Dish, one of my favorite cooking blogs: Slow Cooker Coffee and Garlic Roast Beef. I wanted to give my recipe a unique twist, so I looked around my pantry and came up with two additions I thought would work: coffee liqueur and onion soup mix.

The meat was delicious, infused with just a hint of sweetness from the liqueur, and fall-apart tender. I turned the juices into gravy. Made you want to lick your plate, it was so good.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Java Roast

1 4-5 pound beef roast
6 red potatoes
2 small onions
16 oz whole mushrooms
5 cloves garlic
1 ½ C prepared coffee (I used Hazelnut flavor)
1 envelope onion soup mix
¼ C Kahlua or other coffee flavored liqueur (optional… but it’s really good!)
Black pepper

Brown the beef in a heavy pan on the stove, turning to brown all sides. While it’s browning, cut the onion into thick slices and cover the bottom of the slow cooker with the onions. Place browned beef in the slow cooker. Pile the potatoes and mushrooms around the beef. Toss in the garlic cloves, peeled but left whole.

Mix together the coffee, Kahlua, and onion soup mix. Pour over the beef and vegetables. Pepper the beef and vegetables generously. Cook on low for 8 hours.

For the gravy: Transfer two cups of the liquid to a measuring cup. Allow to sit for a while so the fat rises to the top. Carefully skim 2 T of oil from the top, placing in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over low heat. Add 2 T of flour to the drippings, stirring well. In small increments, add the liquid, whisking well each time. Once the liquid is all added, continue to heat until the gravy has thickened, stirring occasionally.