Susan Mallery Cooks

Breaded Squash Sauté

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

You’ll find lots more free recipes online at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

If you’re like me, you have a standard set of vegetables you turn to when it’s dinnertime. Green beans in a steam-fresh bag, a can of corn, a side salad… I’ve been stuck in a vegetable rut! The other day, I was at the grocery store, and my gaze landed on the zucchini and yellow squash. They beckoned to me. They’re just so colorful and pretty.

Usually when I buy zucchini and squash, I sauté them with onions, tomatoes, and garlic. Delicious but, you know, rut. I wanted to do something different this time, something I hadn’t tried before.

Here’s what I came up with… probably not the healthiest vegetable option, since I sautéed them in peanut oil, but wow, they were delicious! And what the heck, I’ll go right back to my steam-fresh rut, so this breaded squash sauté can be a rare treat.

Recipe: Breaded Squash Sauté

2 zucchinis, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 yellow squash, cut into ¼-inch slices
½ C bread crumbs
¼ C Parmesan cheese
¼ t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 egg, beaten
Peanut oil (a couple tablespoons at a time)

Mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper. Heat some peanut oil in a large sauté pan. Dip the squash slices in the egg, then coat with bread crumbs. Sauté in the pan until browned on both sides, adding peanut oil as needed. Set aside and keep warm until all the slices are done.

Delish!

Make-Ahead Berry French Toast Casserole

2011-12-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

2012 is going to be a big year for me. In addition to putting out four brand new Fool’s Gold books plus one Fool’s Gold novella, I’m launching a new series set on fictional Blackberry Island, Washington. The first Blackberry Island novel will be BAREFOOT SEASON, which will be released on March 27. BAREFOOT SEASON is available for pre-order now. Here are a couple of places where you can pre-order it: Barefoot Season from Amazon | Barefoot Season from Barnes & Noble.

As we speak, my webmaster is hard at work on www.blackberryisland.com. The website will have a free excerpt of the book, the bookclub discussion guide, a map of the island, pictures, a little history of the island, and lots of delicious, original blackberry recipes. (You don’t want to miss my Blackberry Chipotle Sauce, which is shockingly delicious.)

I decided to use Christmas as an excuse to come up with one more delicious blackberry recipe, though this time I mixed it up a bit with other berries, as well. I prepared the casserole on Christmas Eve and put it in the fridge. On Christmas morning, I popped it in the oven, and it cooked while we had a relaxing cup of coffee and opened presents. I thought about waiting to share it but then realized that you might like to have the recipe for a late brunch on New Year’s Day.

You'll find a printable version of this recipe at SusanMallery.com/recipes.php.

Recipe: Make-Ahead Berry French Toast Casserole

1 loaf of French bread
8 eggs
1 C buttermilk
½ t cinnamon
1 T sugar
¼ t salt
1 3-oz package of cream cheese
1 16-oz bag of mixed berries, divided
½ C corn syrup

Cut the French bread into 1-inch chunks and place in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs through salt. Pour over the French bread and toss to coat thoroughly. Spray a 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. Add half of the bread. Dot with half of the cream cheese and a quarter-cup of berries. Add the remaining bread and dot with the remaining cream cheese and a quarter-cup of berries. Refrigerate overnight.

Put the remaining berries and juices in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan with the corn syrup. Heat to a simmer, stirring constantly. Continue to simmer until the mixture is thickened. I did this the night before as well, so it only had to be warmed up in the morning.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the casserole for about 30 minutes, until browned on the top and firm in the center. Serve with syrup.

Mushroom Gravy over Slow Cooked Roast Beast... er, Beef

2011-12-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Download a free, printable version of this and many other recipes at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

I’ve made roast beef in the slow cooker before (Slow Cooked Beef with Garlic and Red Wine, Slow Cooker Cheesy Beef, and Slow Cooker Java Roast, but this time, I decided to put the focus on the gravy. Could I come up with a delicious, hearty gravy using juices from the slow cooker? The answer is yes! And best of all, there are lots of chopped mushrooms in the gravy, which means you don’t have to worry about lumps. It’s supposed to be lumpy!

I decided to skip my usual step of searing the beef in a cast iron pan before putting it in the slow cooker. I wanted to see if it really made a difference. Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference at all. Certainly not enough to warrant the extra dish washing. So there was no fussing at all in the pre-cooking stage, but because of the gravy, there was a slight amount of fussing afterward. I’d say it took 30 minutes from the time I removed the beef from the slow cooker until we were eating it – although that was partly because I needed to take a picture. And what a festive picture it is! You can see my Christmas tree in the background.

Mushroom Gravy over Slow Cooked Roast Beef

1 4-pound roast beef
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 t Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, sliced thick
8 oz whole mushrooms
Black pepper to taste
2 T vegetable oil
2 T flour

Place the onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker, and put the roast on top of them. Mix together the soup, soup mix, and Worcestershire sauce. Spread over the beef. Toss the mushrooms and garlic on top of everything. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper. Cover and cook on low heat for about 8 hours.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker and set aside. Remove the mushrooms to a cutting board and mince. Pour the liquid through a strainer. You’ll need 2 to 2 ½ cups of liquid. If you don’t have enough, supplement with water or beef broth.

In a small, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, heat the oil. Toss in the flour and stir to coat. In small increments, add 2 cups of beefy liquid, stirring well to break up the flour. Heat to a simmer, stirring frequently. Once the gravy is thickened, add the minced mushrooms. If the gravy is too thick, add more beefy liquid in small increments until the consistency is what you like. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Cheaters Chicken Stroganoff from Laura Marie Altom

2011-12-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Laura Marie Altom, whose latest book is A BABY IN HIS STOCKING, a heartwarming Christmas romance. (How cute is that cover and title?!) In a moment, Laura Marie is going to share an incredibly heartwarming Christmas story from her own life. Seriously, it's going to melt your heart. But first, here's a little bit about A BABY IN HIS STOCKING:

Wyatt Buckhorn is only a pal. If sharing scorching kisses that leave a woman feeble-brained means they're pals! But that's all the oilman-slash-rancher can be to Natalie Lewis. Five months pregnant and jilted, Natalie refuses to trust any man, least of all a man who is the definition of playboy. Throw in that every run-in turns into a fiery encounter, and "just friends" gets complicated. Which is a shame, because Natalie's life is messy enough.

Besides, she knows Wyatt's secret--he's sterile, and so enforces a strict kid-free rule. But when circumstances have them caring for a whole clan of Buckhorn youngsters over the holidays, Natalie sees a side of Wyatt that's definitely kid-friendly. Weakening defenses, and even weaker knees, have Natalie determined to destroy Wyatt's anti-family policy . . . before he leaves town for good.

A Chat with Laura Marie Altom

Share a special holiday memory with us.

When our boy/girl twins were high school freshmen, our son asked if a friend could stay with us for two weeks. His mother had just been evicted and he had nowhere to go. Of course, we welcomed him into our home. He was skinny and literally had nothing except the clothes on his back and a few extra, threadbare shirts. Two weeks flew by and Russell grew more at ease in our home. When the time came for his mother to get him, he became sullen. Only she didn't come.

Months passed and she still hadn't picked up her child. By this time, I was mad. How could a mother do this to her kid? My husband and I called a family meeting and had a talk with our twins about how they wanted to proceed. Would they be okay with us claiming Russell as our own? They agreed and we hired a family law attorney. Russell's mother finally made an appearance--in court. With a simple signature, Russell officially became our son.

We wanted that year's Christmas to be extra special. What could we possibly give Russell to show him how much he'd grown to mean to us, and how permanent his new home was? We decided to give him a kitten, but that was easier said than done! You would think in a town the size of Tulsa, Christmas kittens are easy to find--wrong! LOL!! Hubby and I drove for an entire day to pick just the right kitty.

For two days, our dogs pitching a fit, we hid the kitten in the master bedroom. Keeping the secret was so much fun, and when it came time for Russell to be given the coveted last gift of Christmas morning, we placed Foxy in his arms. That was such a special year. We take for granted how blessed we are to have the basics, but seeing our lives through Russell's eyes, everything felt new.

Russell and our twins are now college sophomores. Like any family, we've had our share of emotional ups and downs. With Christmas 2011 fast approaching, I'm excited to put all of the year's worries aside to instead focus on what's truly important--family.

These are pics of Foxy then and 23lb Foxy now!! She dwarfs our Yorkie, Daisy!!

If you were to win an all-expenses paid vacation, where would you like to go?
Bora Bora!!! I have a serious thing for palm trees, and that crazy aqua-colored water you only see in the tropics. My idea of the perfect day would be exploring some isolated cove, snorkling and lounging and maybe picking up a few shells. If a hunky waiter wanted to bring fancy umbrella drinks, that would be great, too!!

Your parents sent you to a dude ranch when you were a kid. Did that experience inspire your Buckhorns series?
Hmm, wish I had some great romantic tie-in, but nope, the Buckhorn Ranch is WAY ritzier than the place I stayed!! LOL!! I do have magical memories, though. Learning to barrel race, escaping our cabin in the middle of the night to stare up at the stars, jumping into the pool on sweltering Oklahoma summer afternoons. Dude ranch was the best!!

Cheaters Chicken Stroganoff

Since Hubby's an engineer and works a traditional nine-to-five day, I always feel a little guilty for living the writer's lifestyle of lounging in my PJs all day. Sure, I might be typing away, but still, I know I've got it pretty good!! LOL!! As such, I pretty much always have dinner ready for when Hubby gets home. We've been married 22 years, so I guess he likes my cooking!

I loathe following recipes--it's way more fun to just play, so this is my much easier take on a traditional beef stroganoff that usually gets me nice, clean plates. To my way of thinking, that's the best compliment my family can give!!

That said, here are there ingredients. Feel free to add more or less of everything. For me, it's all about personalizing it for your family's tastes.

• Three or four skinless, boneless chicken breasts split and diced into bite-sized cubes• One diced medium sweet onion• 1/3 of a stick of butter.• Salt to taste

Melt butter in a generous skillet, then saute chicken and onion until chicken is cooked. Sprinkle salt over all a few times while stirring.

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup• 1 cup sour cream• 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine• 1 small can of mushrooms or 1 cup fresh (If using fresh, saute them with the chicken and onions.)

When chicken is cooked, add remaining ingredients and stir. Now's the time to get out your tasting spoon. You might want to add more wine or salt.

I usually pair this with a fresh veggie, or as in the picture, a light spinach side salad. A nice glass of wine is always yummy!! Hope you enjoy!!

Did Laura Marie's adoption story touch your heart? Be sure to post a comment here to let her know. And don't forget to buy A BABY IN HIS STOCKING!

Mac and Cheese ala Marin Thomas Plus Contest!

2011-12-07T05:54:00.000-08:00

I'm delighted to welcome Harlequin American Romance author Marin Thomas. Marin's latest book, A RODEO MAN'S PROMISE, is available now. Marin will choose a random commenter today to win a free copy of A RODEO MAN'S PROMISE (US and Canada only). Be sure to post a comment, and then check back tomorrow morning to see if you've won. She will post the winner's name in a comment, along with her email address so you can claim your prize.

Buy from Amazon: A RODEO MAN'S PROMISE

Hot, Young Cowboy...
Winning dominated Riley Fitzgerald’s mind...until the day he met Maria Alvarez. Now, all the rodeo champ can think about is winning Maria’s heart--a task that may be tougher than busting broncs.
Beautiful, Older Teacher...
As a struggling teacher of at-risk teens in an impoverished, gang-infested neighborhood, Maria doesn’t trust the affections of a rich, hot-shot cowboy, especially one who’s ten years her junior. But she can’t deny the attraction between them--and luckily, Riley’s never been one to back down from a challenge.
Is She Out Of Her Mind?
There’s only one thing that’s more important to Riley than earning another world title, and that’s earning Maria’s trust. He’s got one chance to prove to Maria that he’s all the man she’ll ever need, and she’s the only woman he’ll ever want.

Three Random Questions for Author Marin Thomas

Susan: You’ve lived in a lot of different places and recently moved again. What’s the hardest adjustment for you to make when you move to a new state, a new town, a new home?

Marin: New State…Adjusting to a change in political climate…whether it's a red state or blue state every aspect of our lives is affected by the predominant political party of the state we live in….school districts, social programs, taxes, TV news coverage and general laws specific to that state.

New Town…Finding new doctors and dentists.

New Home…Starting from scratch creating that "homey" feel. I hate having to prioritize my wish list of home repairs and makeovers…I want everything done now!

Susan: What’s a non-writing accomplishment that makes you proud?

Marin: My Academic-All American status when I played basketball at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Susan: You write wonderful cowboy heroes, including this month’s A RODEO MAN'S PROMISE. What’s something interesting that happened to you in real life while learning about cowboys and rodeos?

I attended my first rodeo at age 16 in Colorado. I was wowed by the good looking, larger-than-life cowboys strutting their stuff around the arena. My uncle knew the father of one of the bull riders so he took me down to the cowboy-ready area and introduced me to the bull rider. The cowboy grinned, flashing his missing front teeth then dug around in his gear bag until he found his dental bridge. He stuck it in his mouth and said, "There, now I can talk." That took all the romance out of my cowboy fantasies. When I began writing rodeo stories I decided then and there that my cowboy heroes would not be missing any of their pearly whites!

Marin Thomas's Mac and Cheese

1 (12 oz) container cottage cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
4 cups cooked elbow macaroni
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (Sharp or Mild)
½ cup 2% Milk
1 green onion, chopped
½ Teaspoon pepper
½ Teaspoon salt
1 Egg
Topping
½ cup Breadcrumbs
¼ teaspoon paprika

Mix cottage cheese and sour cream in blender until smooth. Combine all ingredients with the noodles and pour into greased baking dish. Mix bread crumbs and paprika, sprinkle on top of casserole then coat top of dish with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 more minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Variations: You can use low-fat dairy products in this recipe and it tastes just as good. For a heartier “crunch” use homemade croutons instead of the bread crumbs. Lightly toast croutons in butter and garlic salt spread over casserole and sprinkle with paprika. My husband loves the flavor of crisply browned croutons as you can see in the photo.

Quick & Easy Cranberry-Orange Muffins

2011-11-27T15:50:00.001-08:00

If you want to print out this recipe, go to SusanMallery.com/recipes.php.

I don’t bake very often. I don’t have the patience for it, or the time, and I’ve come to accept that carbs are evil. A dark, seductive evil. Resisting takes superhuman willpower.But it’s Christmas season, and my husband loves baked goods. So I decided to indulge his sweet tooth while indulging my love for sentimental holiday TV movies – I baked him these delicious little mini-muffins while Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas played on the TV. It was the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit!

A friend once made us a loaf of Cranberry-Orange Nut Bread. She would have given me the recipe, I’m sure, but making bread from scratch just seems so complicated. The movie was only two hours long – I didn’t have time to make bread from scratch. So I came up with a quick and easy alternative, using boxed cake mix, and I’m happy to say that they are truly delicious!

These Cranberry-Orange Mini-Muffins would be a great addition to any Christmas potluck, and I think they would look lovely on a plate of Christmas cookies, if you’re the kind of person who brings plates of cookies to the neighbors. (I’m not, so if any of my neighbors are reading this, don’t get your hopes up!)

Recipe: Quick and Easy Cranberry-Orange Mini-Muffins

1 box Duncan Hines classic white cake mix (18.25 oz)
3 large egg whitesJuice of 2 oranges, plus enough water to equal 1 1/3 cups
2 T vegetable oil
Zest of one orange
1 C fresh cranberries, chopped

Blend all ingredients except cranberries on low speed until moistened, then beat at medium speed for two minutes. Fold in chopped cranberries. Put into muffin tins lined with paper and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. I made mini-muffins, and they took about 20 minutes, but you should start checking at 15 minutes. If you make regular size or jumbo muffins, they’ll need more time.

Frost with orange-cream cheese frosting. (I bought a can of cream cheese frosting and added the zest of one orange to it.)

Snap Pea Cheese Canoes

2011-11-22T19:14:00.001-08:00

I decided to re-post a recipe I shared last year, in a post with several Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipes. This one was my favorite of those (though I really loved the Butternut Hummus, too). They feel very Thanksgiving-y, since the snow peas look like little Native American canoes. You can get a printable version of this Thanksgiving appetizer recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php, as well as lots of other appetizer recipes.

Recipe: Snap Pea Cheese Canoes

8 oz snap peas
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 green onion with top, cut into one-inch chunks
2 T minced chives
½ t garlic salt

Heat a quart of water to boiling. Add the snap peas and blanch for one minute. Drain, then put in ice water for one minute, then drain again. Carefully cut a slit into the straight side of each snap pea, then set aside.

Put the remaining ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Put the cheese mixture into a Ziploc bag and cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag. With one hand, hold a snap pea so that the slit opens, then fill with the cheese mixture.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Cheesy Cilantro Rice

2011-10-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Slow Cooker Chicken Potato Pie

2011-09-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

Read free excerpts of Susan Mallery books at www.susanmallery.com! (Plus, you’ll find more free recipes there, too.)
Here we go again! ONLY HIS was released yesterday, which gets my emotions all in a tangle. It’s very much like Christmas morning. After you’ve spent months on a handmade gift, you wonder whether your loved one will treasure it. Anticipation and excitement mingle with nervousness as you watch your loved one’s face, interpreting every nuance of expression. Does he love it?
The difference is, of course, that I can’t see readers’ expressions to interpret their reaction to ONLY HIS. I have to rely on the sales numbers for the first week to tell me the story. If readers love Fool’s Gold as much as I do, and if they’ve been eager to get their hands on Nevada Hendrix’s story, I’ll know it because they’ll rush out to buy the book this week. But until I know, all I can do is try not to fret too much. Comfort food helps.
I was in the mood for chicken pot pie, but I wasn’t in the mood to spend all day in the kitchen. So I came up with this recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Potato Pie. It took less than ten minutes to put together, and then I turned on the slow cooker and forgot about it until dinnertime. And it was good!

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Potato Pie

1 lb. uncooked chicken, cubed
1 family-sized can (26 oz) cream of chicken soup
½ C white wine or milk
1 can corn, drained
1 16-oz bag of frozen peas and carrots
1 small onion, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 t dried basil
1 t dried thyme
½ t sage
½ t pepper
3 red potatoes, sliced thin
Put all of the ingredients except the potatoes into the slow cooker. Mix well. Layer the potato slices on top of the chicken mixture. Cook on low heat for 6 hours.

Dana Marton's Stovetop Chicken Casserole

2011-09-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Dana Marton is the author of fabulous romances filled with international intrigue. Her heroes are powerful, dangerous men with hearts of gold and a desire to serve and protect their country, their family... and the women with whom they fall in love.I recently had the pleasure of reading the first two books of Dana's latest ebook trilogy, Agents Under Fire, starting with GUARDIAN AGENT and continuing with AVENGING AGENT. If you love romantic suspense, you must check out these books!

Amazon: GUARDIAN AGENT, AVENGING AGENT
Barnes and Noble: GUARDIAN AGENT, AVENGING AGENT

When she's not writing, Dana uses her creativity in other ways... such as creating this delicious Stovetop Chicken Casserole. Mmmmmm! It looks as creamy and delicious as the heroes in her books. And now here's Dana Marton...

Recipe: Stove Top Chicken Casserole

(As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I came up with this stove stop recipe when my husband broke my casserole dish, and found that I can make something very similar in less time than it would take in the oven. Which leaves extra time for reading!)

4 chicken breasts chopped into cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 package of your favorite noodles (I used wide egg noodles)
1 can of Cream of Broccoli soup
1 cup of milk
1 package of frozen broccoli
Grated parmesan cheese

Take a large non-stick skillet, add olive oil and chicken. Salt, then cook over medium heat. When the chicken is almost done, add frozen broccoli, soup and milk, and stir well. Cover with lid. While that cooks, prepare and drain noodles. When both the meat and the broccoli are ready, stir in hot noodles. Cook for 5 more minutes without the lid. Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Anyhow… that’s what someone watching me would see while I cooked this. Now here is how it goes in my head. Yes, writers’ brains are that weird.

Love is a Complex Dish

(a story of romance and danger)

“Help!” she cried, despair burning through her.

And he was there, once again, to save her.

“Agent Broccoli,” she sighed his name with relief, even as the dancing flames surrounded them. Did this mean that he’d forgiven her?

He cut the ropes that bound her and dragged her out of the smoke-filled Parmesan Pantry, the cheese store that had been in her family for three generations. Then he dragged her into his arms. “I’ll always be there for you.” His seductive voice whispered into her ear. “And not just because you’re a hot chick. I love you.” His olive color eyes darkened as he kissed her.

But, as the last time, a new wave of attack interrupted. He pushed her protectively behind him to face their evil enemy.

He charged at Wide Noodle, fury pushing him forward, his masculine lips twisted into a growl.

Lord, she loved those lips, his wild, full head of hair, those wide shoulders… She loved everything about him.

“I love you!” she called after him, admitting it at last. She was done pushing him away.

He fought with renewed strength, ignoring his injuries, until Noodle lay limp at his feet, begging for mercy.
His reinforcements were arriving by then, and carted the villain off to the Skillet County Jail.

Then it was just the two of them, and she threw himself into his arms, where they finished that kiss at last. Love really was the salt of life, she thought, dazed by the emotions that swirled through her. She knew now that what she had with him was worth fighting for. She was never going to run from love again.

Hope you enjoy both the dish and the story!
Author, Dana Marton
www.danamarton.com

Renee Ryan's Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

2011-09-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'd like to welcome Renee Ryan to the blog, whose next book from Love Inspired Historical, COURTING THE ENEMY, is an inspirational romance set during World War II. Visit Renee online at ReneeRyan.com

Three Random Questions for Renee Ryan

1. Tell us about something fun you did over the summer.
I had the pleasure of moving my daughter out of her dorm and into her very first apartment. Okay, I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but I was able to reconnect with her after her first year of college. I hadn’t realized I would miss her as much as I did. We had a great time rushing around town, getting lost (on my part) and eating lots of frozen yogurt. I even enjoyed buying all the necessary items for her new apartment, especially the things for her kitchen. Who knew there were so many different sized pans?

2. What do you remember about the first date you ever went on?
We were both way under dressed. It was a semi-formal event for one of the high school clubs. We were naïve sophomores and thought semi-formal meant jeans without holes in them. At least we were both equally embarrassed when we walked into the room. I guess that helped the first-date jitters, or at least put the tension on the situation rather than each other. I dated that boy for months after that, forever in teenage years. :)

3. COURTING THE ENEMY is a World War II historical romance. Share an interesting fact that you learned while researching this time period.
One of the best things about writing COURTING THE ENEMY was that I was able to set it in the United States just a few miles from where I grew up as a child. The story is focused on a Nazi plot to bring the war to American soil. The Nazi’s actually did land a group of saboteurs off the coast of Florida, walking distance from my home. Thankfully, the attempt failed. Because my father is a WWII vet and lived close to where this real-life event occurred I was able to research the area with him by my side. A blessing all around.

Recipe: Renee Ryan's Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

2 cans of cherry pie filling (21 ounces each)
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 sticks of butter, sliced into 12 pieces each
2.25 ounce bag of chopped pecans
1/8 cup white sugar
This recipe is so easy and so delicious
Preheat the oven to 350.
In a 9 x 13 cake pan:
Dump the 2 cans of cherry pie filling into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the box of chocolate cake mix evenly on top of that. Distribute the butter slices on top of the cake mix. Spread the pecans evenly over the butter and cake mix. Finally, sprinkle the sugar over all.

Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes and serve warm.

Many variations: 2 cans peach pie filling and yellow cake mix, walnuts. Or 2 cans peach pie filling, white cake mix, pecans or other nuts (or no nuts)... use your imagination!

This is also delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Marinated Steak and Mushroom Fajitas

2011-09-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

You can print this recipe – and lots of others – from www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

You may have heard that I have a new book out this week. In ONLY YOURS, the second of the Hendrix triplets of Fool’s Gold finds love. (ONLY MINE came out a month ago, and ONLY HIS will be out on September 27.) What you may not know about me is that I am always, always very nervous whenever a new book is released.

You’d think that after more than 100 books being published, I’d be more Zen about the whole process, but you’d be wrong. In fact, I’m probably more nervous now than I was in the early days because the expectations are higher. ONLY MINE hit #10 on the New York Times list. Will ONLY YOURS do as well or better? This month, a lot of big name authors released books on the same day as me, which makes me even more nervous. I know that readers have a limited entertainment budget. Will they choose ONLY YOURS as the book to entertain them this week?

Whenever I’m nervous or stressed, I turn to comfort food which, for me, is any food that’s really delicious. (I don’t want to waste calories on something that’s just okay.) These Marinated Steak and Mushroom Fajitas were very delicious and very comforting… but I’m still nervous.

Recipe: Marinated Steak and Mushroom Fajitas

2 lb steak, raw
8 oz mushrooms, sliced thick
½ small onion, sliced thick
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
2 T olive oil
4 oz Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
Flour tortillas

Marinade:
1 ½ C red wine
½ C soy sauce
2 T red wine vinegar
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ C onion, juiced (or minced very small, if you don’t have an onion press)

Lay the steak flat in a glass or ceramic dish. Combine the marinade ingredients and pour over the steak. Marinate for 2-6 hours, flipping the steaks occasionally.

Grill the steaks whole for four minutes per side, then allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. If you’re not in the mood for fajitas, you can eat the steaks on their own. This marinade is easy and truly yummy.
While the steaks are grilling, sauté the mushrooms and onions in olive oil. After ten minutes, add the bell peppers.

Warm the tortillas and assemble the fajitas with a generous helping of each ingredient. Eat while reading ONLY YOURS. Comforting, no?

Cold Veggie Ranch Pizza

2011-08-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from the Fool’s Gold Family Recipes Cookbook, a PDF cookbook that you can download for free at www.foolsgoldca.com/funstuff.html. The full-color cookbook has 48 pages of recipes contributed by the characters of Fool’s Gold – everything from Mayor Marsha’s Citrus-Grilled Steaks to Low Carb Cheesy Cauliflower from Dakota Hendrix, the heroine of the latest Fool’s Gold book, ONLY MINE.

I love the vegetables of summer. I know we have the luxury of being able to get fresh vegetables year round, but somehow, the vegetables of summer taste better. They’re more colorful, more flavorful. I’m sure there’s a reason – probably because they’re coming straight from local farmers instead of being shipped north from Chile.

One of my favorite ways to use fresh vegetables is in this cold vegetable Ranch pizza. It’s something of a misnomer to call it pizza, since only the crust is cooked – and it’s not actually a crust but rather crescent roll dough. But I don’t know what else to call it, so I stick with pizza. My husband doesn’t love it. I think he’s crazy, but I’m convinced the reason for his ambivalence is because the word “pizza” creates expectations in his head that this pizza doesn’t meet. So bite into it with an open mind and enjoy. If you love vegetables and ranch dip, I don’t see how you can go wrong.

Recipe: Cold Veggie Ranch Pizza

2 tubes Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough
1 pint sour cream
1 package Ranch mix
4 C fresh vegetables, in ¼-inch pieces
2 C cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can sliced black olives (optional)

Flatten the crescent rolls in a single layer in an ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Cook at 350 until golden brown, 10-12 minutes. Cool. Meanwhile, mix the ranch dip with the sour cream. When the crust is cool, spread the ranch dip over it. Top with vegetables, cheese, and olives, if desired.

When choosing vegetables, stick with those that won’t get slimy or wilted if you’re planning to store the pizza for a few days. (I like to make it on Sunday and then have it for lunch throughout the week.) I use carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, sugar snap peas, red peppers and onions. Plus, I drain a small can of Green Giant Niblets corn and include that. The more colors, the prettier!

Garlic Butter Salmon with Teriyaki-Glazed Green Beans

2011-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

You’ll find more free recipes – and excerpts of my books – at SusanMallery.com!

The hero of my latest book, ONLY MINE, Finn Andersson is a sexy, rugged small airplane pilot from Alaska. When ONLY MINE hit #10 on the New York Times bestsellers list, my friend Marilyn of Marilyn’s Romance Reviews suggested I should celebrate with an Alaskan salmon dinner. What a perfect idea!

Marilyn sent me a recipe for barbecue sauce for salmon, but I wasn’t in the mood for a tomato-based sauce. She also sent me a link to this recipe for Taku Glacier Lodge Salmon Baste. That recipe looked delicious, but I didn’t have any brown sugar on hand. Plus, it was a recipe for 8 salmon fillets, which means I would have to do math to cut the recipe down for me and my husband.

I decided to use the two recipes from Marilyn as inspiration for my own salmon basting sauce. This Garlic Butter Salmon is, if I do say so myself, incredibly delicious! I paired it with Teriyaki-Glazed Green Beans. All in all, a terrific way to celebrate the #10 spot on the New York Times list. Life is good!

Recipe: Garlic Butter Salmon

2 salmon fillets, 1 pound total
¼ C butter
4 cloves garlic
1 t soy sauce
1 t granulated sugar

Cut the butter into chunks and put in a small microwave-safe bowl with the garlic, soy sauce, and sugar. Microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir well until all the butter is melted.

Preheat the grill. (I use an indoor grill.) Create an aluminum foil boat for each salmon fillet. Brush the bottom of the foil with the butter mixture. Place the salmon on the foil boats and baste with butter. Grill for about ten minutes, basting every two minutes, until salmon flakes easily with a fork.

Recipe: Teriyaki-Glazed Green Beans

1 lb fresh green beans
1 T sesame seeds
1 T sesame oil
1/3 C teriyaki sauce

Place the greens in a large sauté pan with about half a cup of water. Cover. Cook over medium heat until the water is mostly gone, about 5 minutes. While the green beans are cooking, toast the sesame seeds in a small, dry sauté pan. Be careful, the seeds will burn easily.

Uncover the beans. Add the sesame oil to the pan and toss to coat. Cook another 2 minutes. Add the teriyaki sauce and toss to coat. Put on a plate and then sprinkle the beans with the sesame seeds.

Gravlax (Salt and Sugar Cured Salmon)

2011-08-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Find more free recipes - and excerpts of my books, including the latest Fool's Gold romance, ONLY MINE, at www.susanmallery.com!

I'd like to welcome Louisa Edwards to my kitchen! Louisa writes a series of steamy, sexy romances with a cooking twist.

Louisa Edwards:

My next book, Too Hot to Touch, is out on August 2nd! It’s the first installment in my new contemporary romance trilogy, and it introduces a team of talented young chefs competing in a high-stakes culinary competition for fame, fortune…and each other’s hearts.

As you might have guessed, there’s plenty of food in my books! I think you can say a lot with what you choose to cook—and my hero, Max Lunden, definitely understands the language of food. The language of love? That, he needs a little help with. Luckily, he’s got Jules Cavanaugh, their tough-talking team leader…who just happens to have had a crush on Max since they were teenagers. Now that they have to work together, though, she’s determined to keep her cool—no matter how hot it gets!

The competition is fierce, and the whole team has to pull together to create a winning menu. I wanted to share one of the three recipes that appears in the back of Too Hot to Touch. This one is for gravlax, one of my favorite things to make. It’s a super adaptable recipe, perfect when you’ve got houseguests or a dinner party, because it’s one of those where you throw the ingredients together and then just stick it in the fridge and forget about it.

I know it sounds fancy, but gravlax is just salt and sugar-cured salmon—sort of like smoked salmon without the smoke! The salt/sugar blend “cooks” the fish, and leaves it with a firm, supple texture and a delicious, lightly sweet and herbal flavor that you can change, depending on what you add while it’s curing. I’ve made it with dill and gin instead of tarragon and Pernod, with no alcohol at all (it’s completely optional), and it always tastes delicious and refreshing. Perfect for such a hot summer!

I hope you enjoy the Too Hot to Touch team’s version…and if you want to find out whether the recipe helps them win a spot in the Rising Star Chef competition, and if Max and Jules figure out how to tell each other what they really feel, read the book!

Too Hot to Touch on Amazon
Too Hot to Touch on Barnes & Noble

Recipe: Beck’s New York-Style Gravlax

2 lb whole salmon fillet, skin on (ask fishmonger to remove all pin bones)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup salt
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon black pepper
4 bunches fresh tarragon
¼ cup Pernod, or other anise-flavored liqueur (optional)

Rinse the fish, checking for loose scales, and pat dry with paper towels.

Stir together the garlic, sugar, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Coat the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole with about a third of the mixture.
Lay the fish, skin side down, across the sugar mixture in the pan. Place one bunch of tarragon around the sides of the salmon, then pour the rest of the sugar mixture over the top of the fish, making sure to cover it completely.

Spread the rest of the tarragon over the coated fish, then (if you want) pour the Pernod over all and cover with plastic wrap.

You may place a weighted 8 x 11 pan on top of the covered salmon to help the curing process and absorption of the tarragon oil into the sugar, but it’s not strictly necessary.

Put the pan in the refrigerator and allow to cure for two to three days. Check the salmon every twelve hours or so to make sure it’s still covered, adding more sugar and salt if needed.

When ready to serve, remove the gravlax from the pan and rinse well. Pat dry with paper towels and slice thinly across the grain. Great on sandwiches, in salads, with eggs—anywhere you’d use smoked salmon! It’s especially good on crackers with sour cream, diced red onion, and capers…

Whole Wheat Basil Rosettes

2011-07-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

My next book is coming out on July 26. It’s called ONLY MINE, and it’s a funny, passionate romance set in the quirky small town of Fool’s Gold, California. You’d think that I would be Zen about book release day by now, but you’d be wrong. I’m very, very nervous. I wonder whether readers will love Dakota Hendrix as much as I do, her curious mix of sarcasm and vulnerability. I wonder whether readers will fall in love with handsome, rugged Finn, a family man who insists that he’s anything but.

At this point, it’s out of my hands. I have no control anymore. I have written the best story I could, a story that made me laugh out loud while writing it and with a happy ending that brought tears to my eyes. The book is edited, printed, and sitting in boxes in warehouses around the country. Now it’s up to my readers. Have they pre-ordered ONLY MINE or, alternatively, will they rush to the store on Tuesday to buy it? (Those first week sales serve as my report card, and I have always been an overachiever who wants an A on every test.)

There’s nothing to do but try to distract myself, to try to find ways to avoid obsessing about whether ONLY MINE will fly off the shelves next week… which is the only possible explanation as to why I made dinner rolls from scratch in the middle of July.

“It smells like Thanksgiving in here!” my husband exclaimed when he came home. Yeah, that’s because it makes sense to turn on the oven in November, when you want to heat up the house. Fortunately, here in Seattle, even in July it doesn’t get too hot. But if you live in Texas, you might want to save this recipe for autumn.

The rolls were delicious… but I’m still nervous. If you pre-ordered ONLY MINE or plan on buying it the first week, let me know. It’ll make me feel a lot better!

ONLY MINE on Amazon
ONLY MINE on Barnes & Noble

Recipe: Whole Wheat Basil Rosettes

(modified from a recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens 75th Anniversary Cookbook)
2 – 2 ½ C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 T garlic powder
1 package active dry yeast
1 C milk
1/3 C butter, softened
2 T fresh basil, minced
¼ C sugar
¾ t salt
1 egg
¼ C olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
Black pepper

Combine 1 cup of white flour plus all of the whole wheat flour and the garlic powder in the bowl of an electric mixer. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter, basil, sugar, and salt. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter is mostly melted (warm but not hot). Sprinkle the yeast over the liquid mixture and stir to dissolve.

Add the liquid mixture to the flour and beat on low speed for about 30 seconds. Add the egg and beat just to incorporate the egg. Add more flour, half a cup at a time, until the dough forms a ball. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes elastic, about five minutes.

(You see what I’m saying? I kneaded dough in July. That’s how nervous I am!)

Pour 2T of olive oil into a bowl. Put dough in the bowl, swoosh it around, and turn the oiled side up. Cover and let rise until double, about an hour. Punch the dough down, then divide it into 24 pieces. (Divide in half, then divide that in half, and then divide that in half… and finally divide that into three pieces each.) Roll each piece of dough into a rope about 12 inches long. Tie the rope into a loose knot.

Bring the bottom end up and tuck it into the center.

Pull the top end around and tuck it under the roll.

Place the rolls on greased baking sheets (or on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, put the remaining 2 T of olive oil into a small bowl with garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Do this now so the garlic flavor will infuse the oil while the rolls rise and bake.

Pre-heat the oven to 375. Bake the rolls until golden brown, about 13-15 minutes. Immediately remove them from the baking sheet to a wire rack and brush with the garlic-infused oil.

Aren’t they pretty?!

Donna Alward's Nacho Dip

2011-07-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'd like to welcome Harlequin Romance author Donna Alward today as a guest cook on Susan Mallery Cooks! Today, we have not one but two of Donna's favorite recipes, which she shares below.

Donna is the author of A FAMILY FOR THE RUGGED RANCHER, a sweet and emotional story of a die-hard bachelor who falls hard for his new housekeeper. Free excerpt of FAMILY FOR A RUGGED RANCHER.

Instant family - just add Daddy!

Gruff rancher Luke Evans's new live-in housekeeper comes with an unexpected addition: a small son! Emily may be a pretty single mum - and even Luke has to grudgingly admit little Sam's quite cute - but a family is not on this die-hard bachelor's wish list!

Luke's plan? To spend as much time away from the house as possible. But, slowly charmed by Emily's sunny smile and Sam's infectious giggle, Luke begins to wonder if there might be room on his ranch - and in his heart - for a family after all!

Three Random Questions for Donna Alward

What was your favorite food that your mother used to make for you? Do you make it now for your family?
One of my faves was what we called Meat Pie but which is really a Beef Pot Pie. She'd cube up leftover roast beef, potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, and of course gravy and seasonings and put it all in a casserole and top with pie crust. I don't make it often for our family as it never tastes quite the same when I do it, but when we go home for a visit she often makes it because we all love it. She usually pairs it with baking powder biscuits. Yum!

What kind of car do you drive, and what does it say about you?
I drive an old Ford F150 pick up. When we first got it, it was my husband's vehicle and I had a minivan. But when we moved he bought a car and I "inherited" the truck. Which is fine by me. It gets me where I need to go (which usually isn't far, since I don't have any commute!) and it's quite practical for hauling around camping stuff or mulch or whatever we want to load into the bed. I expect I will drive it until it dies but when it goes I want another truck. I suppose what it says about me is that it is practical without a lot of fuss.

You love writing romances with rancher and cowboy heroes, such as your current Harlequin Romance, A FAMILY FOR THE RUGGED RANCHER. Who’s your favorite on-screen cowboy and what do you love about him?
Right now I'm REALLY taken with Tim Olyphant as Raylan Givens in JUSTIFIED. He's sexy, edgy, and a real cool customer. Plus he makes me laugh.

Recipe: Donna Alward's Hot Nacho Dip

Donna says, "It's summer time and one of our absolute favourite things to do is hang out next to our pool with friends. All that swimming (and floating and making margaritas) works up an appetite for snacks, so I often whip up nacho dip. Here are two recipes, one hot dip and one cold, both really easy and delicious."

1 250g tub cream cheese
1 can Stagg Chili
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterey jack blend cheese

Spread cream cheese in the bottom of a pie plate. Layer on the chili and top with the cheese. Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is bubbly (you can also do this right on your barbeque!), and serve with your favourite chips!

Recipe: Donna Alward's Cold Nacho Dip

1 cup cream cheese
1 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup taco sauce
1 tomato, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar
sliced pickled jalapeno peppers (optional)

Whip cream cheese and salad dressing together and spread on the bottom of a pyrex pan (9x13 is a good size). Then layer: taco sauce, salsa, cheddar, tomato, green onion, and jalapenos. You can eat it right away but it's even better if it's refrigerated a few hours ahead of time. Serve with your favourite chips!

Summertime Broccoli

2011-07-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

For a printable version of this and lots of other great recipes, visit www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

I am especially proud of this recipe for Summertime Broccoli. Why? Number one, because it’s delicious; and number two, because it wasn’t inspired by any other recipe I’ve ever seen or tried. It started with me standing in the kitchen staring at a head of broccoli, wondering what I could do to give it an interesting twist.

I’ve been hard at work getting ready for the release of ONLY MINE, the first of this year’s Fool’s Gold books, as well as writing next year’s books, so I didn’t have a lot of time to cook. (You can read a free excerpt of ONLY MINE at www.susanmallery.com/excerpts.php.) I know a lot of my readers are busy women, too, and I wanted to create something fast, easy, and delicious. And healthy. Broccoli is such a rich green color, you know it’s got to be chock full of vitamins.

ONLY MINE, July 26 2011

Summertime Broccoli fits the bill on all counts. The nutty, salty flavor is a pleasant surprise. We ate it alongside a nice rib-eye, and I think it would be a delicious side dish for chicken or seafood, too. I think you’ll love it!

Recipe: Summertime Broccoli

4 C fresh broccoli, cut into half-inch chunks
1 T toasted sesame oil (peanut oil may be substituted)
1 t tahini (smooth peanut butter may be substituted)
1 clove garlic
½ t red pepper flakes
½ t Kosher salt
¼ C walnut pieces

Steam the broccoli for 5-7 minutes, until crisp-tender. Rinse under cool water, then drain completely. Mix together the oil through the salt. Pour mixture over the broccoli and toss, then add the walnut pieces. Serve warm or chilled.

Dana Marton’s Tall, Dark and Cool as a Cucumber Salad

2011-06-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

I’m happy to introduce my good friend Dana Marton, author of fast-paced, adventurous stories of romantic suspense. Dana’s latest book, GUARDIAN AGENT, takes readers to the dangerous nighttime canals of Venice, Italy, where hero Gabe Cannon is part of an elite covert ops group tasked with bringing in a rogue agent. But when Gabe gets orders to shoot to kill his former friend, he goes rogue, too, to protect the former agent and his friend’s beautiful younger sister.

Read a free excerpt of GUARDIAN AGENT at www.danamarton.com!

Three random questions for Dana Marton

Did you ever have a crush on a teacher or another inappropriate adult? If so, who knew about your crush?
I had a huge crush on my history teacher in high school. He looked like Antonio Banderas. I always made sure to get As in his class :-) As far as who knew about it.... I'm afraid, pretty much all the other students did. I was not very good at disquising my teenage crush.

Where did you and your husband go on your first date?
Perkin's. We lived in a very small town so choices were limited to the extreme. But by the end of dinner he knew I was the one. (He says.) Once when I was overcome by skepticism, I asked him if it was such a momentous occasion for him, does he remember what I wore. I totally didn't expect him to, but he remembered everything to the last detail after 15+ years.

What is something silly you’ve done when playing Truth or Dare?
Ride on the hood of a car, hanging on to the windshield wiper while someone drove it around the parking lot. I was young and very stupid. Do not try this under any circumstances!!!

And one not-so-random question

What makes Gabe, the hero of your latest book, GUARDIAN AGENT, so delicious?
He's tall, dark and hot. And nice. He just has the most amazing heart. On the outside, he's this tough commando soldier with a dark past, but when things come down to the wire, he always does the right thing. He is the type of man who would put his life at risk for a stranger. If you're ever in real deep trouble (as in mercenaries with a kill order are chasing you accross the rooftops of Europe to take you down), he is the guy you'd want by your side.

Recipe: Tall, Dark and Cool as a Cucumber Salad

—a story of summer love for the kitchen, the back yard BBQ and the picnic park—
He stood tall, dark and cool. His very name made her tremble with desire: Sir Cucumber. She rolled with grace, a curvaceous redhead. Lady Tomato.

“Juicy,” he thought the first time he saw her.

But Odorous Onion stood between them.

Their fight shook the garden. Swords flashed. Endless cuts on both sides. Courage and despair. Their grunts peppered the air. As well as Odorous Onion’s salty language, which made Miss Tomato gasp.

“You will be mine, you zesty wench,” Onion threatened.

“I’d rather drink vinegar,” she tossed back.

“She’s my love, my life, my everything!” With that shout, Cucumber surged forward and cut Odorous Onion down where he stood, vanquishing his archenemy at last.

“My Kingdom is yours, Lady Tomato,” the gallant prince kneeled in front of his love at last. “Please come with me to my castle of Mayonnaise.”

She gave him a serene smile. “I do think our flavors will blend beautifully, fair Prince,” she agreed before he kissed her.
----------------------------------------------
Cast of characters: 2 cucumbers, 2 medium tomatoes, ½ red onion, pinch of salt, pinch of ground black pepper, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 3 tbsp mayonnaise.

Synopsis: Cut cucumbers, tomatoes and onion into thin slices then mix in with salt, pepper, vinegar and mayonnaise. Cover and chill in fridge for an hour.

Genre: Cucumber Salad

Potluck Pleaser: Cauliflower-Crab Salad with Cilantro-Lime Mayonnaise

2011-06-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

You can get a printable version of this recipe and many more at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

This is the most beautiful time of year in Seattle. However reluctantly, summer has finally arrived. Because of the rain we get through much of the year, everything is green and lush, and now that the sun comes out to play every day, the colors are so vibrant that you can lose yourself in them. Every June, I am awed again by the infinite shades of green that are possible in nature.

To me, summertime is made for salads. One of my favorites was always crab pasta salad, but “pasta” and “swimsuit season” should not be used in the same sentence. I asked myself what could substitute for pasta to make a low-carb version of the delicious side. I decided to try it with steamed cauliflower.

Instant success.

This is a healthy, relatively light, low carb salad that tastes amazing. Because I needed to use enough other ingredients to balance out an entire head of cauliflower, this made enough salad to feed an entire softball team. If you’re bringing it to a potluck, make the recipe as shown. If you’re making it for your family and don’t want a ton of leftovers, I suggest you cut the recipe in half.

Recipe: Cauliflower-Crab Salad with Cilantro-Lime Mayonnaise

1 head of cauliflower
2-3 pounds of imitation crab
1 lb bag of frozen peas, thawed
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
½ C onion, diced
Dressing:
2 C low fat or fat-free mayonnaise
1 ½ C fresh cilantro, minced
1 T lime juice
1 t soy sauce
1 packet Splenda (or ½ t sugar)
Lime zest to taste

Cut the cauliflower into small chunks and steam until crisp-tender, about 10-12 minutes. If you don’t have a steamer, you can put them in a microwave with a little water. Microwave a minute or two at a time until the cauliflower reaches the desired texture. Cool to room temperature.

Put the cauliflower and remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together the dressing ingredients, then fold gently into the salad to get everything coated. I used about ½ t of lime zest to give the dressing a nice limey bite.

Tomato-Basil Salad with Molasses Vinaigrette

2011-06-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

You can get a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php - plus lots more free recipes!

Summer has been slow to come to Seattle this year, as it is every year. While other parts of the country talk about trips to the beach, we crane our necks looking for a hint of sun peeking from between the clouds.

Seattle finally got a little bit of sun this week, and it’s thanks to me. (You’re welcome.) This weekend, I decided that summer needed a little encouragement, so I came up with a recipe for Tomato-Basil Salad with Molasses Vinaigrette. Summer in a bowl.

I had never even heard of molasses vinaigrette before. I have since found some recipes online, so clearly I wasn’t the first person to think of this delicious combination. The vinaigrette has a slightly smoky flavor. One website said it tastes great on spinach salad, and that sounds true to me.

Recipe: Tomato-Basil Salad with Molasses Vinaigrette

2 cups of tomatoes, sliced into one-inch pieces
½ C sweet onion, quartered and sliced
¼ C fresh basil, sliced

Molasses Vinaigrette:
3 T red wine vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 ½ t molasses
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the tomatoes, onions, and basil in a bowl. Combine the vinaigrette ingredients, then pour over the vegetables. Toss lightly to coat. Allow to marinate for at least half an hour. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Slow-Cooked Honey-Soy Pork and Potatoes

2011-05-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

You can print this recipe and lots more at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php! Last week, I went to Book Expo America in New York. Normally when I go on a trip, I let my husband fend for himself as far as meals. After all, he’s a grown man and perfectly capable of feeding himself. However, this was my second trip in less than a month. I had also traveled to Texas on book tour for ALREADY HOME just two weeks earlier.

Nothing says “I love you” to most men like meat and potatoes. My slow cooker was just the ticket. I could make a pork roast for us to share on Sunday, and he could eat leftovers on Monday and Tuesday. That’s two days’ worth of loving feeling.

Since the roast was in the slow cooker, I had time to pack, unpack, and repack on Sunday as I obsessed about what to wear in New York City, the most fashionable city in the U.S. (I was going to say “in the world,” but that seemed presumptuous. Paris or Milan would likely take top honors. I’ve never been to either; New York is intimidating enough.)

What I love about the slow cooker is that you get the credit for making a home-cooked meal with much less hassle. Throw everything in and then ignore it for eight hours. I did make some gravy right before serving, so that was about ten minutes of work. This meal would be even easier if you made packaged pork gravy. I served the roast with a ready-made salad from the grocery store. Big thumbs-up from the man.

Recipe: Slow-Cooked Honey-Soy Pork and Potatoes

¼ C soy sauce
2 T honey
1 t black pepper
1 pork roast, about 4 pounds
3-4 potatoes, cut into fourths
1 large onion, sliced thick
2 T flour
Salt and pepper

Throw the potatoes and onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the pork roast, fat side up, on top of the vegetables. Mix together the soy sauce, honey, and 1 t black pepper. Pour over the roast. Cook on low for 8 hours.

To make the gravy, remove the pork and vegetables to a platter. Pour the liquid through a strainer into a measuring cup. Add enough water to make 2 cups of liquid. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Preheat a heavy-bottomed, small saucepan on medium heat. Skim 2 T of oil from the top of the liquid and heat up in the pan until shiny but not smoking. Sprinkle 2 T of flour on the oil, stir. Add about a quarter-cup of the liquid to the flour mixture. Stir well, getting rid of lumps. Add another quarter-cup of liquid and stir well. Continue until all of the liquid has been added. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Simmer until the gravy is the desired thickness. Salt and pepper to taste.

Sweet and Spicy Marinated Pork Chops

2011-05-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

You can download the printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php - lots of other delicious recipes, as well!

To celebrate the release of my latest book, ALREADY HOME, I held a contest for the best original recipe to win a man’s heart. Hundreds of recipes came pouring in, and I was astounded by the cleverness and creativity of home cooks. I chose three finalists, bought ingredients, and made those recipes. (The winner was Pan-Seared Shrimp Tacos with Mango-Strawberry Pico de Gallo, and you can find the recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.)

One of the finaling recipes was for Naughty Brownies. They were incredible. Rich, chocolatey deliciousness with a subtle hit of “wow” spiciness.

That “wow” came from Sriracha sauce, which I found in the Asian section of the local grocery store. The brownies called for just a small amount of it, so after the contest was over, I was left with a big bottle of super spicy Asian red sauce.

What to do, what to do…

Pork marinade sprang to mind. I threw together a few ingredients, marinated some pork, and cooked it last night on our indoor grill. Wow. These pork chops were delicious! I hope you love them as much as we did.

Recipe: Sweet and Spicy Marinated Pork Chops

2 thick pork chops
½ C soy sauce
1 C water
2T Sriracha hot sauce
2T raspberry jam
4 cloves garlic, minced

Combine the marinade ingredients and marinate the pork for at least two hours. Cook the pork chops as desired (grilled, pan-fried).

I think this marinade would taste really good with chicken or shrimp, too (though you wouldn’t want to marinade the shrimp as long as you do the pork.)

Oven-Baked Chimichangas with Queso

2011-04-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

You can download a printable version of this recipe (and many other delicious recipes) at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

Ever since I started this cooking blog, I have begun to analyze flavors in restaurants. I haven’t decided yet whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Does it make me enjoy my meal more, or does it distract me from pure pleasure? In any case, when I eat something delicious, I now try to figure out whether I can recreate it at home.

(The answer to that question is often “no.” I’m not what you would call a natural cook.)

Recently, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant we hadn’t tried before, and we both ordered the Chimichanga with Chili con Queso. I thought the Chili con Queso was going to be a red, beefy sauce with some cheese mixed in. Instead, it tasted like queso dip, really delicious.

Chimichangas are fried, but I wanted my home version to be a little bit lighter. (By no means can I call this a “light recipe.” But at least it’s lighter than it would’ve been if I had fried the chimichanga.)

I came close to the deliciousness of the restaurant’s version. This was really tasty, and very easy, too!

Recipe: Oven-Baked Chimichangas with Queso

1 5-oz box of Spanish rice
1 lb ground beef
1 packet of burrito seasoning
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can green chilis, drained
½ C water
Flour tortillas

Queso:
16 oz Velveeta
1 can green chilis
1 t cumin powder

Cook the rice according to the package directions and set aside.

Brown the meat, drain and rinse. Put the meat back into a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the burrito seasoning, beans, 1 can of chilis, and half a cup of water. Simmer until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Stir in the rice.

Preheat the oven to 425. Put a generous amount of beef mixture on each flour tortilla. Roll up the tortillas and tuck the ends under. Spray with cooking spray or brush with a small amount of olive or vegetable oil. Place seam-side down on a pan lined with aluminum foil. Leave plenty of space between each chimichanga so they’ll crisp up. Bake until they’re golden brown and hard to the touch.

While they’re baking, cut the Velveeta into ½-inch chunks and put in a microwave-safe bowl with other queso ingredients. Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute at a time, stirring each time, until melted. Spoon the queso sauce generously over each chimichanga.

Honey Orange Pork Chops

2011-04-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Print this recipe for free from www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

I’m drawn to shiny things – sparkly jewelry, glistening frosting on a chocolate éclair, and the latest, greatest gadgets. That’s why I created the free Susan Mallery app for the iPhone and Android, and that’s why I bought this doohickey when I saw it at Tuesday Morning. A turkey baster with a silicone brush… who could resist such a thing?

Then I faced a dilemma – I had a pretty new basting brush but nothing to baste. That would never do. We were planning on having pork chops on the grill at a friend’s house that evening. (My condo’s HOA frowns on open fire on our balcony.)

I whipped out my phone, did a search for “pork baste,” and used the recipes I found to come up with a recipe all my own. I have to tell you, in all modesty, that this tastes amazing!

If you like to create recipes, too, don’t forget that I’m holding an original recipe contest! Some lucky home cook is going to win $300 to Williams-Sonoma, one of the most fabulous cooking stores on the planet! You can find details about the contest at www.susanmallery.com/ah_main.html.

Recipe: Honey-Orange Pork Chops

Basting sauce:
1 C water
¼ C honey
¼ C mild vinegar – I used rice vinegar
1 T salt
1T Worcestershire sauce
1 t black pepper
1 t orange zest
½ t red pepper flakes

4 thick pork chops
1 whole orange, cut into 4 thick slices

Preheat the grill on high. Put the pork chops on the grill and baste the exposed side every couple of minutes for 8-10 minutes.

Flip the chops over, baste, then put one thick orange slice on each chop. Continue basting frequently while the chops cook.

When the chops reach 150 degrees internal temperature, remove them from the grill and allow them to sit for 5 minutes before serving. Seriously fabulous.

Curry Chicken Enchiladas

2011-04-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

ALREADY HOME was released last week, and I’m thrilled to finally get the book into readers’ hands. Jenna, the heroine of ALREADY HOME is a chef who has lost her confidence in the kitchen. Her ex-husband, also a chef, made fun of her every time she tried something innovative, and she began to believe him when he said she had no talent. So she gives up her lifelong dream of being a chef and opens a retail kitchen store in her Texas hometown.

Through the course of the book, she’s challenged in more ways than she can count by the unexpected and unwelcome arrival of her birth mother. Through the turmoil, she rediscovers her love of adventurous cooking. I won’t go into details about how this happens because I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Let me just say there’s a first date involved, with a fabulous, handsome man.

One of Jenna’s innovations is Mexican/Indian fusion cuisine. In the book, she came up with a recipe for Curry Chicken Enchiladas. When I wrote that scene, these enchiladas didn’t exist, but I knew readers would ask me for them. So I came up with this recipe, and I have to say, it turned out even more delicious than I’d hoped! Enjoy!

Click here to read Chapter 1 and 2 of ALREADY HOME for free: www.alreadyhomenovel.com

Recipe: Curry Chicken Enchiladas

3 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced (no seeds for mild, all seeds for hot)
½ t sugar
1 t cumin seed
2 T curry powder
1 bay leaf
½ t grated fresh ginger root
6 oz can of tomato paste
8 oz plain, unsweetened yogurt
½ C canned coconut milk
1 lb cooked chicken, cut into ¼-inch chunks
1 C cooked rice
¼ C cilantro
4 oz can of diced green chilies
4 oz shredded Monterrey jack cheese, divided
8 corn tortillas

Heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion, garlic, and jalapeño until onion is translucent. Add sugar through coconut milk and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside ½ C of the yogurt sauce. To the remaining sauce, add the chicken, rice, cilantro, chilies, and half the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wrap the tortillas with a damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds. Divide the chicken mixture evenly into the corn tortillas and place them seam-side down in a lightly greased 8-inch square pan. Pour the reserved yogurt sauce over the enchiladas. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and cook until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.

Serve with naan chips, peach salsa, and spiced chickpeas and tomatoes. More free recipes can be found at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

(Confession: I forgot to take a picture, but the enchiladas looked like this stock photo I bought online. Next time I make them, I’ll get a picture. In the meantime, if you make them, I’d love for you to send a photo to my assistant at jenel@susanmallery.com.)

Good Morning Sunshine Casserole from Jill Shalvis

2011-03-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Jill Shalvis has a new book out on March 29 called THE SWEETEST THING, the second book of her charming Lucky Harbor series. Tara Daniels thinks she's got it all together. A tightly wound erstwhile Southern belle, she knows all the answers. Until sexy Ford Walker swaggers into her life and turns her brain into pudding.

Click here to read an excerpt of THE SWEETEST THING on Jill's website. We're giving away a copy of THE SWEETEST THING today! Post a comment here for a chance to win. US addresses only.

I invited Jill to join me here today to answer five random questions and share one of Tara's delicious recipes. (Clearly, Jill had much better luck with Tater Tots than I did!)

Five Random Questions for Jill Shalvis

Who taught you how to drive? Have you ever had a fender bender?

My 16 year old boyfriend taught me to drive, and it wasn't pretty. It was a VW Bug, a stick, and I'd never driven a stick before. AND we lived in hilly Los Angeles. It was a nightmare. My first of many fender benders involved the tragic death of a mailbox. It died too young.

What is the biggest failure you’ve ever had in the kitchen?

Oh Lord. Pick one. My favorite is when we moved from Los Angeles to the Sierras. High altitude. Like 6300 feet high altitude. And my favorite kind of cooking is baking. But let me tell you, cooking at 6300 feet is VERY different. I burned bread, I burned muffins, I burned cupcakes, I burned pies. And I burned them all quite spectacularly. One time the fire department even had to get involved, but I don't want to talk about it.

What’s with this famous cookie obsession of yours? How did it start?

I can't even remember how it started. But hi, my name is Jill, and I'm addicted to cookies. Any kind. All kinds.

What’s the weirdest thing you like to eat?

Okay but don't judge me. The day after Thanksgiving, I made bread, slice it thick, load on leftover turkey and lettuce and ... ketchup. Don't ask, I can't explain it.

Writers often put aspects of themselves into the characters in their books. What, if anything, do you have in common with Tara from The Sweetest Thing?

Tara and I have very little in common. She's tall and beautiful and self assured (at least on the outside) and tough. I have far more in common with her sister Maddie (whose story was told in Simply Irresistible 10/10). Maddie's a little bit fumbling and unsure, but she is fierce when it comes to those she loves. I'm definitely fierce. :)

Good Morning Sunshine Casserole

1 layer of tater tots
1 layer of ham or sausage cubes (or crumbled bacon, whatever makes your skirt blow up)
1 layer of grated cheddar cheese (there's no such thing as too much cheese for breakfast)

Pour this over the layer:
6 beaten eggs
1/2 tsp salt (or more, if no one's looking)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 cup of chopped onion
3 cups of milk
2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
Add 1/2 cup melted butter over all that.

Cook 1 hour at 350 degrees uncovered.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Beef

2011-03-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

Download a printable version of this recipe for free – and lots of other recipes! – at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php

Everyone knows I’m on a diet. Slow Cooker Cheesy Beef is not diet food. Which is sad for me because it’s really, really delicious, and I could only have a taste. The thing is, my husband’s not on a diet, and I’m a good wife.

Also, not all of my readers are on a diet, and I created the recipes page on my website as a gift for the readers who have been such enthusiastic, wonderful fans. Every month, I get a report from my webmaster that shows me where readers go when they visit SusanMallery.com. The free excerpts of my books are the most popular pages, thank goodness, but the recipes have been a big hit, too. One of the recipes that’s been downloaded the most is for Slow Cooker Cheesy Potatoes (PDF). So I bought a four-pound chuck roast, brought it home, and thought, “How am I going to make something new and interesting with this in the slow cooker?”

I opened my cabinet, and angels smiled down upon me. There, right at eye level, sat a can of cheddar cheese soup and a box of onion soup mix. Nothing bad could possibly come of that combination! I mixed them together, added a couple spices, then threw them over the beef, onions, and mushrooms in the slow cooker.

The only thing that would’ve made this better would be if I had thrown in some potatoes, too. But I’m a good wife, not a great wife. I couldn’t stand to watch my husband eating potatoes while I denied myself.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Cheesy Beef

1 chuck roast, about 4 pounds
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 packet onion soup mix
1 t dried thyme
1 t black pepper
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3 T flour
1 C cheddar cheese, shredded
1 C sour cream

Mix together the soup, soup mix, thyme, and pepper. Layer the bottom of the slow cooker with onions and mushrooms, and put beef on top of them. Pour the soup mixture over the beef. Cook on low about 8 hours.

Remove the roast and vegetables from the slow cooker and set aside. Pour 3 cups of the liquid into a saucepan. Discard the rest of the liquid. Heat the liquid to boiling, then add the flour, a little at a time, stirring with a whisk to remove lumps. When it’s nice and thick, stir in the cheddar cheese until it’s melted. Then stir in the sour cream. Return the beef and vegetables to the slow cooker and pour the cheese mixture over it. Cook on low another half hour to an hour.

Don’t forget, ALREADY HOME will be released on March 29!

Serenity's Portobello Mushroom Fajitas

2011-03-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

You'll find a printable version of this recipe and many other free recipes on my website, SusanMallery.com.

In ALREADY HOME, which will be in stores on March 29, heroine Jenna Stevens is surprised by the sudden and unwelcome arrival of her birth parents. Why now? They claim they’ve always thought of her… so why did they wait until she was in her early thirties to show up?

Not that she’s been anxious to meet them. Jenna had been raised by loving and traditional adoptive parents in a town outside of Austin, Texas. After a painful divorce, she moved back to her hometown to be near her parents, returning to the comfort of the familiar and expected. The last thing she wants to deal with is a New Age birth mother who won’t go away.

Without revealing any secrets, I will tell you that Jenna discovers that she does have a few things in common with her birth mother, Serenity, after all. Most notably, they both love to cook. But Serenity is a vegan, while Jenna was raised in a family of unrepentant carnivores.

This week, I thought it would be fun to come up with a recipe for Serenity’s Portobello Mushroom Fajitas. These can be vegan, but I’ll confess – I added cheese and sour cream to mine. I’m unwilling to live in a world without dairy.

Recipe: Serenity’s Portobello Mushroom Fajitas (Vegan or Vegetarian)

12 oz Portobello mushrooms, sliced ¼-inch thick
½ C + 2 T olive oil, divided
6 cloves garlic, minced
½ C cilantro, minced
1 t cumin powder
½ t salt
1 small onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 orange, red, or yellow bell pepper, sliced
Splash of lime juice
Flour tortillas
Cheese and sour cream (unless you want to go vegan)

Place the mushroom slices in a casserole dish. Mix half a cup of the oil with the garlic, cilantro, cumin, and salt, then pour over the mushrooms. Stir to coat well. Allow to marinate for an hour or more.

Preheat a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Put a single layer of mushrooms in the pan and cook, without stirring, until it browns, about 3 minutes per side. Keep warm in the oven while you cook the rest of the mushrooms. After all the mushrooms are cooked, add 2 T of oil to the pan and toss in the peppers and onion. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the peppers are crisp-tender. Put in the dish with the mushrooms, and add the splash of lime juice.

Serve on warm flour tortillas with, if desired, cheese and sour cream.

Susan Mallery + Julia London = Win an iPad!

2011-03-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

My friend author Julia London and I wanted to do something really special for our fans. We’re giving away an iPad! And you don’t have to do anything special to qualify – everyone who clicks Like on both our Facebook pages will automatically be entered for a chance to win. We’ll hold the giveaway as soon as Julia’s page has 8,500 likes and mine has 6,500 likes. Encourage your friends to like both our pages. The sooner we reach our goal, the sooner someone will win! Could be YOU!

www.facebook.com/susanmallery

www.facebook.com/julialondon

To get this party started, I’m giving away a copy of Julia’s fabulous new book, A LIGHT AT WINTER’S END, to one lucky fan who clicks like or posts a comment on the contest announcement on my Facebook page today! I'll choose the winner at random at the end of the day, so get clicking!

Spicy Manchurian Cauliflower

2011-02-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

You can download a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

As you might have heard by now, I’m on a diet. I made a very public New Year’s Resolution to lose 20 pounds by March 31, and with the support of my Facebook friends and readers who email me, I’m more than halfway to my goal. Yay, me.

But I’m getting kind of bored. I’ve been eating a lot of very bland food. Steamed chicken breast, steamed broccoli, steamed cabbage… Salad without dressing. Chicken without skin. Cheese without fat.

Food without flavor.

No, I’m exaggerating. It hasn’t been that bad. But I did feel like I needed to wake up my tongue this week with something different. I decided a taste trip to the East was just the answer. The Manchurian Cauliflower is my version of a spicy cauliflower dish from an Indian restaurant I visited pre-diet. The “real” stuff has some sort of breaded coating and is deep fried. This version is a lot lighter but still has a lot of flavor.

Recipe: Spicy Manchurian Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets
2 t ground coriander
1 ½ t ground cumin
1 t pepper
½ t ground cardamom
½ t ground cloves
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t salt
2 t vegetable oil, divided
6 cloves of garlic, minced
¾ C ketchup
1/8 – ½ t cayenne pepper
1 green onion, sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put the cauliflower in a large Ziploc with 1 t oil. Shake to coat. Add coriander through salt to the bag. Shake to coat. Put cauliflower in a single layer on a large, ungreased baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, flipping once.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a small saucepan. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the ketchup and cayenne pepper to taste.

Mix the cauliflower with the ketchup mixture, then return to the baking sheet. Roast for another 20 minutes, flipping once. Put in a bowl and toss green onion slices on top.

Avocado-Orange Salad with Toasted Pecans

2011-02-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

You can find a printable version of this recipe and many others at susanmallery.com/recipes.php. While you’re there, please sign up for my free Members Only area to receive when I release a new book.

As most of you know, I’m on a diet. I’m trying to lose 20 pounds by March 31, and I’ve been sharing each painful, funny step with you along the way, triumphs and failures. Sometimes, diet food feels like punishment. But… sometimes I happen across that perfect combination of healthy ingredients, flavors that complement each other perfectly, and my meal actually feels like a reward at the end of a long day of work.

This Avocado-Orange Salad with Toasted Pecans is definitely a reward. Especially because it’s so easy to make. The most difficult part is peeling the orange. I confess… I was feeling lazy, so I bought a tangelo, which is much easier to peel. (Yes, at times I am just that lazy.)

The recipe makes four salads. I made these for lunch for my husband and me, so I had to cut the recipe in half. I never used to be able to save half an avocado until the second day. Even when I put it in a Ziploc bag and tried to get all the air out, the flesh would turn brown and icky. But a while back, I invested in this avocado saver, and it really works well. As soon as I cut the avocado in half, I nest the pit in the avocado saver and then strap it in. I put the whole thing in the fridge. On Day 2, the avocado is still in pretty good shape.

Recipe: Avocado-Orange Salad with Toasted Pecans

Baby spinach or mixed salad greens
1 orange, peeled, separated into wedges, and cut into chunks
1 avocado
½ C cooked turkey breast, diced
2 green onions, sliced
½ C pecan halves
1 T seasoned rice vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 T olive oil

Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Once it’s warm, toss the pecans in the pan and heat, stirring constantly, just until you start to smell the nutty goodness.

Divide spinach or salad greens onto four plates. Put an equal portion of orange, avocado, turkey, onions, and pecans onto each plate. Drizzle with vinegar and oil.

Pepper-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Feta

2011-01-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

You can download the printable version of this recipe and many more at susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Brussels sprouts are one of those love-‘em-or-hate-‘em vegetables. There is no middle ground. There’s no way that you can doctor Brussels sprouts so that a hater will grasp her hands to her chest and cry, “Delicious!” It’s not gonna happen. You can stir fry them, roast them, grill them, or cover them with cheese sauce, but they’re still Brussels sprouts. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are what they are.

So I won’t try to convince you that this recipe will convert any nonbelievers. But for those of you who already fall in the Love ‘Em category, this Brussels sprouts recipe is going to rock your world! I invited a well-traveled foodie friend to dinner the night I made these. This is a woman who has been to Paris many times, and who has dined in fine restaurants in Europe and the United States. She said, and I quote, “These are the best Brussels sprouts I have ever had.”

I think I might cry.

Recipe: Pepper-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Feta

1 lb Brussels sprouts
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 habanero pepper, chopped
½ t salt
1/8 t pepper
2 T crumbled feta cheese

Place the oil in a small bowl. Add the habanero pepper and the garlic, and allow flavors to infuse oil for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the ends off the Brussels sprouts and remove the outer leaves. Place the sprouts into a bowl and pour the oil in through a strainer. Toss with salt, and pepper.

Put in a single layer on a shallow roasting pan and roast for about 35 minutes, stirring twice. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Put them into a serving bowl, add the feta, and toss.

Hummus Chicken

2011-01-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

You can download a printable version of this recipe for free at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php. Lots of other delicious recipes there, too!

Since I started this cooking blog, the funniest thing has happened: I imagine flavors more than I ever did before. It used to be when I imagined a flavor, it was the flavor of my favorite dish in some restaurant, and the only way to get it out of my head was to visit that restaurant. But now, I imagine flavor combinations that I’ve never tasted before, just wild ideas that pop into my head. The combinations don’t always work – my husband will attest to my many failures.

But sometimes, wow. They’re as delicious in real life as I imagined them to be. One example is the Shrimp Margaritas appetizer I concocted. And the Snap Pea Cheese Canoes. (My imagination didn’t serve me nearly as well with my Tater Salad, potato salad made with Tater Tots, which tasted so horrible that I put it in the “Don’t try this at home” category.)

I am very proud to share with you my delicious recipe for Hummus Chicken, which happily tasted even better in my mouth than it did in my head. And it’s super easy, with just four ingredients.

Recipe: Hummus Chicken

3 – 4 pounds of boneless chicken breasts
4 oz prepared hummus
1 T mayonnaise (I used fat-free)
½ t cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice each chicken breast in half.

Mix together the remaining ingredients. Spread some of the hummus mixture inside each chicken breast, fold the halves closed, then spread some on top of each chicken breast. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and put it into the oven.

Bake until the chicken is cooked thoroughly, about 50-60 minutes.

Minted Roast Beef

2011-01-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

You’ll find a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Since I started this cooking blog last year, I have begun to follow other blogs that share free recipes online. There are a lot of very talented cooks in the world… and many of them are also very talented photographers. Sadly, my pictures don’t do my recipes justice.

Recently, I joined Tasty Kitchen. I have shared a couple of my recipes online there already and plan to share more as time permits. While I was on the site, I was very excited to stumble upon the Pioneer Woman’s Food Photography Tips. Maybe by following these tips, I can get a photo accepted by FoodGawker.com, described to me as “food porn.”

Unfortunately, I hit a stumbling block with the first and second tips. The first is to turn off the flash, and the second is to rely instead upon natural light for the food pictures. The problem is, this time of year, the sun goes down in Seattle before 5 pm, and I don’t start cooking until after I finish my writing for the day. And even when the sun is up, we don’t see it very often in this cloudy city. I create recipes as a way to connect with readers, but I think most of my readers would prefer that I spend my best, most creative hours writing the books they love.

But for this recipe, because the meat would benefit from a few hours to absorb the flavors of the rub, I did do some prep work during daylight hours… with a rare Seattle peek of actual daylight! And I must admit, I love how the garlic cloves look in the natural sunlight.

Oh, and by the way, this roast beef tasted amazing. The flavor really didn’t taste much like mint, but it did have a nice little “bite” that was different from the same-old, same-old.

Recipe: Minted Roast Beef

1 beef roast, 2-3 pounds
2 T fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
3 cloves of garlic
1 t dried oregano
1 t kosher salt
½ t black pepper
1 T vegetable oil

Mince the mint leaves and garlic and place in a small bowl. Mix with the oregano, salt, and pepper, then rub over the meat. Place the meat in the refrigerator, uncovered for about two hours.

Pre-heat oven to 225 degrees. Heat heavy-bottomed, oven-safe pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Add oil. When oil shimmers, put the roast in the pan. Sear on each side for about 2 minutes. Place the pan with the roast in the oven and cook on low heat until the center of the roast reaches about 150 degrees, about 60-90 minutes. Allow the roast to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

This picture was taken with a flash, long after the sun went down.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad

2011-01-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

Sigh. Yes, I’m on a diet. I’ve committed to losing 20 pounds by March 31. I’m still feeling bitter about it, but I’m hopeful that in a couple of days, after the sugar has worked its way out of my system, I’ll get happier. Or at least more resigned to my fate. I’ve invited my Facebook friends to join in the challenge – or to set a resolution of their own – and we’re cheering each other on at www.facebook.com/susanmallery. Or if you prefer, you can join the challenge at www.susanmallery.com.

So… dieting. That means that for the next three months, I will try to post only reasonably healthy recipes. My hope is that coming up with new recipes will make this fun.

And the truth is, this salad really was kind of fun to create. It was very easy, but it looks beautiful, doesn’t it? We served it with a steamed chicken breast, and I didn’t feel deprived. Much.

Recipe: Tomato-Cucumber Salad

1 large cucumber, sliced thin
2 small, sweet tomatoes, sliced thin
½ small onion, sliced thin
1 T mild vinegar
1 t olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ C Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 T pine nuts

Layer the vegetables on a large plate. Drizzle with vinegar and oil, then add salt and pepper. Allow to marinate at least half an hour. Just before serving, top with cheese and pine nuts.

You can get a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Steamed Vegetable Toss

2010-12-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

Download the printable version of this recipe for free at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

If you’re like me, you’ve overdosed on sweets over the holidays. Christmas candy and cookies… I love chocolate so much that I’ve written books based in bakeries and candy companies just so I could do the research, but even I have had enough. (I can’t believe I’m saying that!)

Last night, I created a super easy, delicious, and beautiful vegetable side dish. Seriously, recipes don’t get an easier than this.

Recipe: Steamed Vegetable Toss

1 C whole, peeled baby carrots
1 head of cauliflower florets
1 zucchini, cut into one-inch half-rounds
1 yellow squash, cut into one-inch half-rounds
1 red bell pepper, cut into one-inch chunks
1 t season salt or garlic salt
¼ t dried thyme leaves
1/8 t black pepper
1/8 t celery seed

Steam the baby carrots for 10 minutes. Add the remaining vegetables and steam for 10 minutes more. Remove to a bowl. Add spices and toss.

Aren’t they pretty?

Quick & Easy Chicken Cheesy Soup

2010-12-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

You'll find a printable version of this and many other free recipes online at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Last week on Facebook and Twitter, I asked my fans to tell me one thing they enjoy about winter. (I needed a pick-me-up. I don’t enjoy being cold, and Seattle at this time of year is cold and wet and gloomy.) Several people said “snow.”

That did nothing for me.

Someone else said curling up with a good book next to a roaring fire. Now we were getting somewhere. As you might imagine, I do love a good book. But still, I’d rather read that good book in the summer, when the days are long and the skies are blue.

Finally, one of my Twitter followers said that what she enjoys about winter is a bowl of thick soup. I perked up. Most of the year, I’m not into soup. I could take it or leave it. But on a cold winter day, a nice, thick soup warms me up from the inside out.

Unfortunately, by this time, it was already getting close to dinner. I wasn’t willing to put off the soup for another day. I needed to find something good about winter now, darn it! So I came up with a recipe for a hearty, delicious soup that took just half an hour from start to finish.

How is that possible? Because the soup is only sort of homemade. There are so many cans of food in it that I thought about naming it Can-Can Chicken Soup.

I settled on the name Quick & Easy Chicken Cheesy Soup because rhyming is fun.

Recipe: Quick and Easy Chicken Cheesy Soup

1 whole rotisserie chicken
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can of corn or Mexicorn
1 can diced green chilies
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chicken broth
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
2 C milk

Tear the meat off the chicken bones, chop, and put into a heavy-bottomed soup pot with the accumulated juices from the chicken. Stir in all remaining ingredients. (Don’t drain any of the cans except for the black beans. Just open them up and add them to the pan, juices and all.) Heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently.

This recipe can be made in the slow cooker. Just toss all the ingredients in a slow cooker and heat on low until warm all the way through.

Pork and Asparagus Alfredo

2010-12-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

You can find a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.

Last week, one of my Twitter followers mentioned this recipe for Pasta with Asparagus and Bacon from historical romance author Vanessa Kelly. It looks incredible, and I’ve had asparagus on the brain ever since. I’m going to make that recipe exactly one of these days, but for today, I decided to come up with something original, inspired by Vanessa.

I started out with the idea of fresh asparagus, and nothing past that. I found some nice pork chops at the store, so I thought I would cook them simply with a little salt and pepper, and then serve the asparagus on the side. Unfortunately, by the time I finished working for the day, it was too late to start the pork chops. They were about an inch thick, and cooking them as I’d planned would push dinner too late.

One of the things I love best about asparagus is that it cooks so quickly. The flipside to that is that it overcooks very easily. I wanted to create something that would allow the asparagus to keep a nice bit of crunch.

Why not cook the pork quickly, too? So I sliced my chops thin and cooked them in a heavy-bottomed pan. In order to resist the urge to flip them too soon, I snapped the asparagus into one-inch chunks while the pork cooked. There’s no need to use a knife to cut the asparagus. When it’s fresh, you can snap it apart, a very satisfying activity. If it doesn’t snap easily, it’s not fresh enough. Because I didn’t move the pork around in the pan, it got nicely browned.

The Alfredo sauce isn’t a true Alfredo sauce, but it’s really delicious and fast to make. I hope you love it as much as I do! If you like, you can serve this over pasta. I chose to serve it on its own with a salad on the side. Delicious!

Recipe: Pork and Asparagus Alfredo

1T butter
3 T olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T onion, minced
1/8 t nutmeg
½ t black pepper
8 oz sour cream (low fat or fat free is fine)
½ C milk
1 C parmesan cheese, shredded
1 lb pork, sliced thin (about 2 boneless pork chops)
1 lb asparagus, cut in 1” chunks

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter with one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, until onion is translucent. Add the spices, sour cream, milk, and cheese. Lower the temperature to low and warm the mixture, stirring frequently, melting the cheese.

Heat a heavy-bottomed sauté pan on medium heat. Place about half of the pork in the pan, so that the meat is not overcrowded. Cook until brown, then flip over, about 1-2 minutes per side. Set aside the meat, cook the rest, and then set that aside, as well. Put the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and break up the browned bits that are stuck on the bottom of the pan. Add the asparagus chunks and sauté for about three minutes.

Return the pork to the pan and add the Alfredo sauce. Toss to coat everything well.

Christmas Crackers

2010-12-05T06:44:00.000-08:00

Last year for the first time, I made Magic Wands, which are pretzels dipped into melted white almond bark and then sprinkled with colored sugar. The salty-sweet flavor made them a big hit. Such a simple treat, and yet they were the first thing that many people reached for when they approached the plate of cookies. (You can find a printable version of the recipe for Magic Wands at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.)

So this year, when I decided to try to make up a recipe for a new Christmas treat, that salty-sweet combination was on my mind. I opened my pantry, and there sat an unopened box of Ritz crackers. Perfect! I would create something using the Ritz as a base. Its shape and size would make it both pretty and portable.

I didn’t want to just dip it in almond bark and sprinkle it with sugar, though, because that would be cheating. This needed to be a whole new recipe, something that would make people slap their foreheads and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

Often when I’m writing a book, I start out with a really great title and then try to come up with a story to fit the title. (And then my editor or the marketing department ask me to change the title because it turns out that I do not have a talent for titles. Even so… ) Before I started contemplating ingredients, I thought about what I could name my new treat.

Christmas Ritz?

Putting on the Ritz?

On Britzen?

Somehow, I stumbled upon Christmas Crackers, and felt that thrilling “Aha!” rush through me. I’ve always found the British tradition of Christmas crackers to be charming, those brightly colored little pockets of wrapping paper, which pop open to reveal candy and toys.

So I would make my own version of Christmas Crackers with a Ritz cracker as the base with melted chocolate hiding a surprise inside.

On the outside, these treats look nearly identical, but each one contains a different surprise under the layer of chocolate. I experimented with several options. Pictured below are Parmesan cheese, caramel bits, marshmallows, and chopped peanuts.

I tried both Parmesan on its own and Parmesan over a layer of orange marmalade. Both were okay, but they weren’t as good as the four options I settled upon for the recipe. (The printable version of this recipe with its multiple fillings is also available at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php.)

Christmas Crackers

1 box (4 sleeves) of Ritz crackers
1 36-oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 T vegetable shortening or coconut oil

Line four cookie sheets with parchment paper. (If you don’t have four cookie sheets, you can just lay the parchment paper out on any flat surface. You only really need the cookie sheet for the sleeves of crackers that will have the marshmallow filling.) Lay all four sleeves of crackers out on the parchment paper and cover each of the crackers with one of the following fillings.

Melt the chocolate and shortening in a double-boiler. If you don’t have a double-boiler, then boil water in a small saucepan and carefully balance a medium-sized saucepan over it. Stir constantly until chocolate is melted.

Cover each cracker thoroughly, hiding the filling. Refrigerate until set.

Caramel Filling:
1 C caramel bits or caramel candy
½ T heavy cream

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the caramel and the cream. Heat in 30-second increments until melted, stirring after each time. Drop by scant spoonful onto each cracker.

Marshmallow Filling:

Place 3 mini marshmallows of half of one large marshmallow on each cracker. Broil for one minute, then flatten with a spoon. I overdid the broiling a little bit, but they still tasted great.

Peanut Butter Filling:
Spread a thin layer of creamy peanut butter on each cracker, then sprinkle heavily with chopped peanuts.

Mint Crème Filling:
¼ C butter, softened to room temperature
1 C powdered sugar
1 T green crème de menthe

In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add crème de menthe and mix thoroughly. Spread a thin layer on each cracker.

Happy holidays!

Slow Cooker Mexican Lasagna

2010-12-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Remember, you can get a printable version of this and my other recipes at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php!

Slow cooker recipes are terrific on cold winter days. As the food cooks, the scent drifts through the house, and you feel like you’re being productive even long after the work is done. When evening rolls around, it feels like magic to go into the kitchen to a fully cooked meal. Putting a meal in the slow cooker is like giving a gift to the “you” of later that day.

I was in the mood for pasta, but I wanted to put my own twist on it, so I decided to try to create a recipe for Slow Cooker Mexican Lasagna. My husband was skeptical. He lives by a very specific set of rules and, as he put it, “Lasagna is Italian!”

Yes, okay… but I still made it, and it was so good that he was speaking Spanish by the end of the meal.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Mexican Lasagna

2 T olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 package of taco seasoning mix
2 15-oz cans of tomato sauce
1 15-oz can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
16 oz low fat cottage cheese
8 oz bag of shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided
1 C fresh spinach, chopped
9-10 whole grain lasagna noodles

Brown the turkey in oil, then add the onions through beans. Stir well and set aside. Combine the cottage cheese with half of the Mexican cheese and all of the spinach.

Layer in the slow cooker like this:

One-fourth of the meat mixture
One-third of the noodles, broken up to cover the meat
One-third of the cheese
One-fourth of the meat mixture
One-third of the noodles, broken up to cover the meat
One-third of the cheese
One-fourth of the meat mixture
One-third of the noodles, broken up to cover the meat
One-third of the cheese
The rest of the meat mixture.

Cook on low for about 5-6 hours, until the noodles are soft. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, cover, and allow to melt.

If desired, serve with sour cream, chopped green onions, and chopped cilantro.

Dill Salmon

2010-11-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Seafood doesn’t get any fresher than it is here in the Pacific Northwest. One of the things I love best about fish is that it cooks so fast. That makes all kinds of seafood a great choice when you’re in a time crunch for dinner.

Salmon is one of my favorite kinds of fish. It tastes great with nothing more than a spritz of fresh lemon juice and a sprinkling of salt. I went a little farther than that with this recipe, but not much. From start to finish, you can have this quick & easy recipe for dill salmon on the table in 15 minutes.

And it’s delicious, too!

Serve this with a nice spinach salad with vinegar and oil. (It’s pictured here with the Thanksgiving appetizers that I made for last week’s blog because I made all those recipes in one wild Sunday of cooking.)

Recipe: Quick & Easy Dill Salmon

2 salmon fillets
1 T olive oil
1 t dried dill
½ t salt
½ t pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Make a paste with the oil and spices, then rub all over the salmon. Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on thickness, flipping once.

Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipes

2010-11-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

This week, I decided to do something different. Instead of offering one recipe, I’m offering several. I came up with some fresh ideas for Thanksgiving appetizers, and I am so proud of how they turned out! You can get printable versions of these Thanksgiving appetizer recipes at www.susanmallery.com/recipes.php, as well as lots of other appetizer recipes. If you make any of these appetizers, I would love to hear from you. Post a comment here, or send me an email via my website.

Recipe: Snap Pea Crab Canoes

8 oz. snap peas
8 oz crab meat
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 green onion with top, cut into one-inch chunks
1 t lemon juice
1 t Dijon mustard

Heat a quart of water to boiling. Add the snap peas and blanch for one minute. Drain, then put in ice water for one minute, then drain again. Carefully cut a slit into the straight side of each snap pea, then set aside.

Put the remaining ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Put the crab mixture into a Ziploc bag and cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag. With one hand, hold a snap pea so that the slit opens, then fill with the crab mixture.

If your family doesn’t like seafood, try this variation instead:

Recipe: Snap Pea Cheese Canoes

Recipe: Sweet Potato Rounds with Roasted Garlic and Feta

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced ¼-inch thick
2 large heads of garlic
2 T + 1 t olive oil, divided
1 t salt
1 t dried sage
¼ C crumbled feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. With the sweet potato slices in a bowl, add 2 T olive oil, salt, and sage, and stir to coat. Place the slices in a single layer on two cookie sheets. Put each head of garlic on a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle 1 t of olive oil over the two heads of garlic, then wrap them both with aluminum foil and place on the cookie sheets. Roast for 10 minutes, flip the slices, then roast for another 10-20 minutes, until the slices are brown at the edges. Remove from the oven.

Turn the oven to broil. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into a bowl and mash roughly. Spread mashed garlic onto the sweet potato rounds and then add a bit of crumbled feta to each round. Broil for about 2 minutes.

Recipe: Bruschetta Bites

1 tube of crescent roll dough
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 T mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
20 whole fresh basil leaves
3 small, sweet tomatoes, sliced thin
Parmesan cheese, sliced thin

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Take the crescent roll dough out of the tube but leave it in the tube shape. Slice into ¼-inch rounds and place in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 11 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Mix the cream cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic. Spread each dough round with cheese mixture, then layer with one basil leaf, one tomato slice, and one parmesan slice.

Recipe: Butternut Hummus

1 butternut squash, about 2 pounds
2 cloves garlic
½ C tahini
¼ C olive oil
2 T lemon juice
½ t salt
½ t paprika

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut the squash in half and place cut-side down on a cookie sheet. Bake for 45 minutes.

Scoop the flesh of the squash out of the skin and place in a food processor. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Serve with pita bread.

Members Only Refer-a-Friend Contest

2010-11-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Friends who read together are The Best of Friends! Invite your friends who love to read romance to join the Members Only area at www.susanmallery.com. If your friend joins, you’ll both be entered to win a pair of matching coffee mugs and some fun little surprises. (Including free books, of course!) When the prizes arrive, you can call each other and giggle over what you got.

The contest is open to fans around the world, and I want to know where you’re from! There will be nine pairs of first place winners. Three pairs of second place winners will win a Fool’s Gold goodie pack. We will also have one GRAND PRIZE winner for the person who refers the most friends who join my Members Only area. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com!

To refer your friends, click here: Refer-a-Friend Contest.

Slow Cooker Coq au Vin (Chicken with Wine)

2010-11-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

On my Facebook page, several readers asked for more free slow cooker recipes. I love them, too. The prep work is a snap, the aroma drifts through the house all day, and the end result can be amazing. Slow cooker recipes are especially wonderful during these cold months.

I was in the mood for something simple. Something like you might find on a stove top in a French countryside kitchen, a few fresh ingredients that come together in the perfect combination of flavors.

I suspect that true aficionados of French cuisine probably don’t use Onion Soup Mix, but I’m a fan. I’m all about quick and easy recipes, and onion soup mix is a short cut to flavor. Ranks right up there with the best inventions of the 20th Century.

Coq au vin. Chicken with wine. As soon as the thought occurred, I knew I had a winner. And I was right. You know that aroma I was talking about? My house smelled incredible all day Sunday. So good! And the flavor was amazing.

I’m very proud to share my recipe for Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin with you. You can find a printable version of this recipe at www.susanmallery.com.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Coq Au Vin

3 lbs chicken bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
8 oz whole mushrooms
2 stalks of celery, cut into one-inch chunks
1 small onion, sliced
1 can of Campbell’s golden mushroom soup
½ can of dry red wine
1 envelope of onion soup mix
1 bay leaf

After washing the mushrooms, toss them into the slow cooker whole. Layer the onion slices and celery chunks, and then place the chicken thighs on top of the vegetables. Mix together the soup, wine, bay leaf, and onion soup mix, then pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.

I ate this by itself, but I do think this would taste even better served over rice. It would be good over mashed potatoes, too, but in that case, I think you would want to thicken the sauce with cornstarch.

Quick and Easy Peach Salsa

2010-11-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, you can get a printable version of this and other recipes on my website, www.susanmallery.com.

This was one of those weeks when time got away from me. I’m writing Nevada Hendrix’s story, the third of the 2011 Fool’s Gold books, and that has taken all my time and attention.

Like many busy women, I needed something quick and easy. I bought a pre-seasoned turkey breast from the grocery store. All I had to do was pop it in the oven. I served it with a small side salad and this Quick and Easy Peach Salsa, which was just enough to “fancy it up.” This is so easy, it feels like cheating.

Recipe: Quick & Easy Peach Salsa

1 15-oz can of sliced peaches, drained and roughly chopped
¼ C sweet onions, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 T fresh cilantro, minced
1 t lime juice
Mix all ingredients.

See? I told you it was easy! Great with tortilla chips, too.

Easy Slow Cooker Beef Fajitas

2010-11-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

You can find a printable version of this recipe on my website, www.susanmallery.com. Hover over Members Only Lounge, then click Recipes. Enjoy!

I wanted to treat my husband to a home-cooked meal on Sunday, but I didn’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. I pulled out my slow cooker so that we could enjoy the aroma of the beef wafting through the house all day, but I could also spend the day with Nikki curled up in my lap while I finished reading Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas. (Wow, is she good!)

Readers have told me that they want more slow cooker recipes, so I decided to make up a recipe that I could share on my blog. Beef fajitas sounded like just the ticket, and I came up with the simplest possible recipe. It turned out amazing! Seriously amazing.

Instead of using flour tortillas, I served our fajita beef with romaine lettuce leaves. We’re trying to cut down on our carbs, and this was a delicious way to do it. A piece of lettuce, shredded beef that had been slow cooked all day, and shredded cheddar cheese … ah, life is good.

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Beef Fajitas

3-lb boneless beef roast
Salt & pepper
Vegetable oil
2 onions
1 C orange juice
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 4-oz can of diced chilies

Sprinkle the roast with salt and pepper. Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium/low heat, then add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and heat for 30 seconds. Brown beef roast for 2-3 minutes per side, adding more oil if needed.

Slice onions about ½ inch thick and do not separate the slices. Lay them flat in the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the browned beef roast on top of the onions. Mix together the orange juice, taco seasoning, and canned chilies, then pour over the beef. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Shred the beef with a fork. Wrap in flour tortillas or whole leaves of romaine lettuce for a low-carb option. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and, if desired, sour cream, onions, tomatoes, avocados, chips, and salsa.

Pesto Panko Cheesy Chicken Rolls

2010-10-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

You can now get printable versions of these recipes on my website. Go to www.susanmallery.com, hover over Members Only Lounge, and then select Recipes. You don’t have to join the Members Only Lounge in order to get the recipes, but it’s free, so why not? While you're on my site, you can read Chapter 1 and 2 of SOMEONE LIKE YOU for free. SOMEONE LIKE YOU is being reissued today with this fabulous new cover.

Recently, a foodie friend with a more sophisticated palate than mine raved to me about the miracle of Japanese Panko style bread crumbs. She said baked chicken coated in Panko crumbs would turn out really crispy.

And you know how much I love Crispy Baked Chicken.

So Panko was floating around in the back of my mind when I happened across this recipe for Pesto Cheesy Chicken Rolls. It looks delicious, doesn’t it? And it’s low carb, too… but still, I had to mess with it. After all, I had that Panko floating in my head.

I did follow the recipe for the first few steps, and I discovered something about myself: I am not good at pounding chicken. Boneless, skinless breasts, I mean. Although I suspect I would not be good at pounding a live chicken, either.

Not a theory I ever intend to test.

In my recipe – which turned out delicious, by the way – I used Homemade Pesto that I had in my freezer, but you can use a jar of pesto. I also added some sliced mushrooms inside the chicken breasts, but you can skip them if mushrooms make you wrinkle your nose. You can also make this with traditional bread crumbs if your store doesn’t have Panko style. But then you have to change the name of the dish.

Pesto Panko Cheesy Chicken Rolls

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ¼ inch thickness
1 C pesto sauce, divided
4 slices of mozzarella cheese
¼ C mushroom slices (optional)
2 T mayonnaise
1 C Japanese Panko-style bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix 1 tablespoon of pesto with the mayonnaise and set aside. Divide the remaining pesto equally between the four chicken breasts. Top with mushrooms and cheese. Roll up tightly and secure with toothpicks. Cover the outside of each chicken breast with mayonnaise mixture, then roll in bread crumbs. Place on an ungreased baking sheet with a rim so the juices don’t overflow. Bake until done, about 40-50 minutes.

Kielbasa Potato Pie

2010-10-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Prepare yourself. Today’s recipe is likely to cause overeating. It is deeeelicious! You can now get printer-friendly versions of all my blog recipes at my newly redesigned website, susanmallery.com. Hover over the Members Only Lounge button, then click Recipes.

Have you ever woken up and found yourself in the mood for kielbasa? No? Well, me either, so color me surprised when it happened to me today. But I also knew that I needed to make something I could put on the blog, and kielbasa on its own just isn’t complicated enough. What would my recipe say? Warm kielbasa, the end?

Wouldn’t exactly make people race to follow my cooking blog.

So I asked my Facebook fans what they were having for dinner, and someone used that magical phrase, “comfort food.” Which instantly made me think of mashed potatoes and chicken pot pies. Could I come up with a recipe for Kielbasa Pot Pie, but with a mashed potato crust?

I Googled “potato pie crust” and found this terrific looking recipe for Fiesta Potato Pie from Cake, Batter, and Bowl. It looks excellent, but I thought the kielbasa might make the mashed potatoes too soggy, and I thought shredded potatoes would give a more interesting texture. So then I found this recipe from, of all places, Breastfeeding Moms Unite: Vegetable Pie with Grated Potato Crust

With the crust settled, I moved onto the filling. I thought about using canned cream of mushroom soup as the liquid in the Kielbasa Potato Pie, but I was afraid it would be too salty. Kielbasa (also known as polish sausage) is very salty on its own, so I used a simple white sauce instead, with no added salt. If you’re in a rush, try low sodium cream of mushroom soup and be sure to let me know how it turns out.

Kielbasa Potato Pie

Crust:
2 baking potatoes, grated
¼ C onion, grated
¼ t ground pepper
2 eggs
1T melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grate the potatoes and squeeze out as much moisture as possible with paper towels. Put the grated potato in a bowl with the onion and pepper. Toss with a fork until well mixed. Crack open the eggs on top of the potatoes, mix the eggs with the fork, and then toss it all together.

Spray a deep pan with nonstick spray. Put the potato mixture in the pan and press down. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then brush with melted butter and bake 5 more minutes.

Filling:

3 T butter
1 C fresh mushrooms, minced
3 T flour
1 ½ C milk
2 carrots, peeled and cut into ¼-inch chunks
½ C frozen peas
1 can of whole kernel corn, or 1 C of frozen corn
1 lb Polska Kielbasa (polish sausage), sliced into ¼-inch rounds.
½ C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the mushrooms and sauté until browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour one tablespoon at a time, then add milk a bit at a time, stirring well after each addition. Stir in the carrots, peas, and corn and simmer for 10 minutes.

When the potato crust is done, remove it from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Place half of the kielbasa slices on the crust in concentric circles. Top with half of the vegetable mixture. Add the rest of the kielbasa, then the rest of the vegetables. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Top with cheese and broil until the cheese is browned, 2-4 minutes. Check every minute to be sure the cheese doesn’t burn.

Book-a-Day Giveaway

2010-10-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'll share another recipe with you very soon, but in the meantime... The Book-a-Day Giveaway at susanmallery.com has been so much fun! So far, I've given away eight books to Members. Today's prize is Irresistible, from one of my most popular series, the Buchanans.

With apologies to my international fans, the contest is open to U.S. residents only. To qualify, you must join the Members Only area at www.susanmallery.com, confirm your membership, and your zip code must be on record.

To join: http://susanmallery.com/lists/?p=subscribe
To check your confirmation status: http://susanmallery.com/mailconfirm.php
To check to see if your zip code is on record: http://susanmallery.com/lists/?p=preferences

Good luck, and happy reading!

Pan-Fried Okra

2010-10-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

I’m a born-and-raised California girl, and these days, I live in Washington State. But for a number of years, I lived in Texas. Sugar Land, to be precise. And when you live Texas, you’re going to run across okra on a pretty regular basis. I mean okay, yes, I had seen it before, but it wasn’t a staple of restaurant food in California or Washington.

In Texas, it’s a pretty common item on the menu. Fried okra. The first time I ordered it, it felt exotic, if not exactly sophisticated. I don’t think you can feel like a sophisticate while eating fried okra. I’m not even sure what wine pairing I’d recommend, except maybe Cooter’s Box O’ Fermented Grape Juice.

Last week, I saw okra at the grocery store. The thing is, I don’t like okra, but my husband does. As I’m a loving wife, I brought it home. Where it sat in my fridge for three days. Taunting me. Every time I opened the fridge, I heard the mockery: Who are you kidding? You don’t know how to cook okra!

(Okra is the mockingest of all the vegetables.)

So I turned to the web and discovered this for Okra Curry. I didn’t want to do a curry, but I used that recipe as inspiration for my own variation. No recipe is sacred!

Pan-Fried Okra

1 lb fresh okra, sliced into ¼-inch rounds

1 T olive oil

1 t all-purpose flour

½ t garlic salt

1/8 t black pepper

Microwave the okra for three minutes. While it’s cooking, mix the flour, salt, and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the okra and cook for about five minutes. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the okra. I put the flour in a mesh strainer to get an even dusting. Cook the okra, stirring frequently, for two more minutes.

My husband says it’s delicious, but I’m still not a fan.

Susan Mallery's Book-a-Day Giveaway

2010-10-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

For the next four weeks, I will give away one book every day to a randomly chosen Member at susanmallery.com. All Members with U.S. zip codes on record are automatically entered into this contest, so be sure to sign up and tell your friends to sign up, too.

To join the Members Only area: http://susanmallery.com/lists/?p=subscribe

If you're already a Member, check to see if your zip code is on record: http://susanmallery.com/lists/?p=preferences

(I ask for Members' zip codes so I can let you know when I'm coming to your area for a book signing.)

SISTER OF THE BRIDE (Free ebook)

2010-10-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

I had to share this news with you because everyone likes something free. SISTER OF THE BRIDE, a Fool’s Gold story that was published in August, is available for free download for a limited time at both Borders and Amazon. I didn’t want my ebook fans to miss this opportunity! The book won't be free for long, so be sure to get it right away. Here are the direct links:

Amazon Kindle

Borders ebook

I have this blog set up to feed to goodreads and other sites, but I don't know whether the links will work on those other sites. So if you're reading this and the links above are not live, you can find the links in the latest Dear Reader letter on my website, www.susanmallery.com.

Happy (free) reading!

Susan

Slow-Cooked Beef with Garlic and Red Wine

2010-10-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

It’s interesting how a recipe comes together. Last week, I posted my recipe for Flour-Dusted Roast Chicken to my Facebook page, and my fan Maggie said something about wanting a beef recipe. Near the same time, another fan, Susie, shared with me her son’s recipe for “Lomo con Ajillo” (Pork with Garlic), and yet another fan, Jennifer, mentioned that she relies on her slow cooker.

Put them all together, and what do you get? My recipe for Slow-Cooked Beef with Garlic and Red Wine. Dedicated to Maggie, Susie, and Jennifer, even though Jennifer’s kids won’t eat anything beefy. I served this with a simple salad tossed with vinegar and oil, and a hunk of fresh bread from the store.

By the way, the next time I make this, I’m going to spring for the pre-peeled garlic cloves from the store. I can’t imagine they’re that expensive, and I’m willing to pay a couple bucks to avoid having to peel 40 cloves of garlic in one shot.

Slow-Cooked Beef with Garlic and Red Wine

4-5 pound beef roast, cut into two-inch chunks

40 cloves of garlic, peeled

4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 t Kosher salt

½ t ground pepper

1 C dry red wine

Brown the meat on all sides, in batches. (Don’t overcrowd the pan you’re using to brown the meat.) Add the meat, garlic cloves, and rosemary sprigs to the slow cooker.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour in wine and the accumulated beef juice from browning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve with a salad and bread for dipping.

Flour-Dusted Roast Chicken with Asparagus in Lemon-Curry Sauce

2010-09-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, THE BEST OF FRIENDS was released, and I wanted to celebrate with a really good meal. In the morning, I happened upon a Food Network show on which they were making roast chicken with olives and onions. I came upon the show in the last few minutes, so I didn’t know how to make their recipe, but roast chicken sounded like a very nice way to celebrate my latest book. (Read Chapters 1 and 2 for free here: THE BEST OF FRIENDS excerpt)

One of the most popular recipes I’ve shared so far was the Crispy Baked Parmesan Ranch Chicken, and I wondered if there was a way to roast a whole chicken and make the skin as crispy and delicious as it was on that recipe.

My flour-dusted roast chicken recipe turned out delicious. It would be wonderful served with mashed potatoes and gravy made from the drippings. If only carbs weren’t evil.

I served it with roasted asparagus and red pepper, and a lemon-curry sauce of my own devising. I actually devised two versions, one with wasabi, then decided I liked this one best. So I threw out the other one, only to realize I had thrown out the one that I preferred. Then I had to throw out the wasabi one, wash all the bowls and measuring spoons, and start from scratch. Which means that I can say definitively that this recipe is reproducible.

Flour-Dusted Roast Chicken

One 4-5 pound roasting chicken

¼ C all-purpose flour

2 t season salt or garlic salt

¼ t cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper. Place half of it in a bag that’s large enough to hold the chicken with room to spare. If you have nothing else, a plastic grocery bag should work, though you’ll want to work over the sink in case there are any small holes. Put the chicken in the bag, then toss in the rest of the flour mixture. Shake to coat the chicken all over. Remove the chicken from the bag and shake off the extra flour.

Lightly oil the rack in a roasting pan, and place the chicken breast side up on the rack. Roast on the lowest rack of the oven, basting occasionally with its own juices, until the thigh temperature reaches 170. The chicken will take about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Asparagus in Lemon-Curry Sauce

Lemon-Curry Sauce:
¼ C mayonnaise

¼ C plain, unsweetened yogurt

1 t curry powder

1 t soy sauce

1 t honey

1 t lemon juice

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Roasted Asparagus and Red Peppers:
1 lb. asparagus

1 red bell pepper

To prepare the asparagus, snap off about one inch at the bottom and discard. Snap the remaining asparagus spear into two pieces. Slice the red bell pepper thin. Toss the asparagus and the pepper with about half of the lemon curry sauce. Lay in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the asparagus is crisp-tender. Arrange a serving on a plate and then drizzle it with lemon-curry sauce.

THE BEST OF FRIENDS - Available today!

2010-09-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to announce that my second women's fiction book, THE BEST OF FRIENDS, is available today! This is a fast-paced, emotional look at female friendship. As women, we need friends in our lives, but at times, our girlfriends make us so crazy we have to scream. In THE BEST OF FRIENDS, Jayne has always been the “go along to get along” kind of girl. Now that she’s started to stand up for herself, will her friendship with the glamorous Rebecca survive? Should it survive?

THE BEST OF FRIENDS – Find your sparkle! I’ve included a book club discussion guide in the book. If your book club chooses to read THE BEST OF FRIENDS and you’d like to talk to me about the book on the phone, please send me an email. I will be happy to set up phone calls with book clubs to chat about this book.

I'm making roast chicken tonight, so be on the lookout for a recipe later this week. In the meantime, find your sparkle with THE BEST OF FRIENDS!

The Best of Friends Shrimp Margaritas

2010-09-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

This week, I wanted to create a recipe in honor of the release of THE BEST OF FRIENDS, which will be in stores on September 28. THE BEST OF FRIENDS is a fun, poignant story about female friendships, so I thought about what foods mean “friendship” to me. And the first things that came to mind were margaritas.

Okay. Not a food.

But I do have gorgeous, hefty, hand-blown margarita glasses that would look really pretty on my blog. What to do, what to do…

Shrimp Margaritas!

Shrimp Margaritas?! Could that work? It sounded crazy, but some of my best ideas have been crazy. I decided to give it a shot.

The three key ingredients are tequila, lime juice, and salt. Sounds like a good basis for a marinade to me, but I added some honey to sweeten it up, and a couple Mexican spices. The honey was sticky and hard to dissolve, which brought another crazy idea to mind. I could use the honey on the rim of the glasses and then press them into crushed tortilla chips.

The Best of Friends Shrimp Margaritas were adorable and delicious. I think they would taste just as delicious with chicken in place of the shrimp. Make a batch, then call your girlfriends over to enjoy them together! Oh, and if one of your friends will bring extra glasses, you can even serve them with margaritas!

The Best of Friends Shrimp Margaritas

1 lb shrimp
Tequila-lime marinade (recipe below)
2 T honey
¼ C crushed tortilla chips
4 C shredded lettuce
2 T fresh cilantro, minced
1 carrot, shredded
2 green onions, sliced
2 oz pepper jack cheese, cut into ¼-inch chunks
1 avocado, chopped
Salsa, store bought or homemade

Marinate the shrimp in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours. Drizzle the honey into a circle the size of the rim of four large margarita glasses. Swoosh the glass around in the honey, then swoosh it around in the crushed tortilla chips. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to broiling (500 degrees). Toss the lettuce, cilantro, and carrots and divide equally into the four glasses. Top with onions, cheese, and avocado.

Drain the shrimp and place on the rack of a broiling pan. Broil for 2 minutes on each side. Divide the shrimp equally into the four margarita glasses. Top with salsa and serve.

Tequila-Lime Marinade

½ C tequila
Juice of one lime
1 T honey
1 T water
2 T fresh cilantro, minced
1 t Kosher salt
½ t chili powder

Mix all ingredients until salt and honey have dissolved.

Brined Chicken under a Brick

2010-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

Many times, I’ve read recipes that talk about weighing down a piece of chicken with a brick wrapped in aluminum foil. I always kind of wanted to try it, but – you may not know this about me – I’m not the kind of woman who has bricks lying around the house. So to try this cooking method, I would actually have to go out and buy two bricks.

It never seemed worth the effort before, but now that I have a cooking blog, I have to step outside of my comfort zone for your entertainment. And believe me, brick yards are wayyyyyyy outside of my comfort zone.

But for you, I’d do anything.

Almost.

I didn’t go to a brick yard. I don’t even know where there is a brick yard. I thought, surely Lowe’s would carry bricks. So I put the chicken in brine and went to Lowe’s. It took me a while to find the brick aisle. I got distracted by all the beautiful shower curtains and bathroom accessories. I love being a girl.

Here’s how you do it:

Brined Chicken under Bricks

For the brine:
10 C lukewarm water
½ C Kosher salt
¼ C white sugar
Ice

For the chicken:
2 chicken halves with bones and skin
1 t black pepper
½ t garlic powder
½ t onion powder
¼ t cayenne pepper (spicy) or paprika (mild)
¼ C olive oil

Put the sugar and salt in a bowl that’s large enough to hold the chicken and the water. Add the water, stirring constantly until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Then add the ice to cool the water. Rinse the chicken and place it in the bowl. Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Overnight is fine.

Cover two bricks with a double layer of aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Drain the chicken and pat dry with a paper towel. Combine the spices and rub over the skin. Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop over medium high heat, just until the oil gets glossy but not so long that the oil smokes.

Put the chicken in the pan skin-side down, then weigh it down with the bricks to hold the skin flat against the pan. Cook on the stovetop for about 10 minutes. Without removing the bricks, transfer the whole pan to the hot oven. Bake until the juices run clear, about 18 minutes. Remove immediately from the pan, trying not to break the skin, and allow to rest on a plate for about 5 minutes before eating.

This is some seriously delicious chicken!

But now what am I supposed to do with the bricks?

Shrimp Tacos

2010-09-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

I love eating in restaurants. Truthfully, I love it much more than cooking. But sometimes, a restaurant just plain gets it wrong. I recently ordered Shrimp Tacos and was presented with cold cocktail shrimp on a cold flour tortilla with coleslaw on top. Coleslaw.

If this isn’t a travesty of justice, I don’t know what is. Isn’t coleslaw German? Now if they had called this Shrimp Schnitzel, I might’ve been able to accept the claim. I wouldn’t have ordered it, but at least I wouldn’t have fumed with righteous indignation.

Sadly, my lawyer said misrepresentation is hard to prove, so my only recourse was to make shrimp tacos the way they were meant to be made.

I found a terrific recipe from Rookie Cookie. Shrimp Tacos One of my goals with this blog is to help bring attention to some of the terrific cooking bloggers out there. I include a link rather than the recipe so that you’ll go to Rookie Cookie’s site to get the recipe. (And I don’t believe in taking credit for someone else’s work.)

No coleslaw in site. These are taco toppings, people! And the shrimp was cooked immediately before serving so it was warm. “Fresh shrimp” does not mean “fresh from the fridge.”

I cut down on the prep work by buying pre-peeled and –deveined shrimp. Makes life so much easier that it’s worth the higher price. I did make a couple small additions to her recipe. I added a dash of cayenne pepper to the marinade to give it a little kick, and I included shredded cheese with the toppings.

Finding Perfect-Available Today!

2010-08-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not cooking today! Today is the release day of my latest book, FINDING PERFECT, and release day means I get to celebrate by letting someone else cook for me! A nice dinner, a glass of wine...

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Pia and Raoul are two of my favorite characters. Pia was a mean girl when she was growing up, one of those girls who was too pretty and too rich for her own good. And she knew it. But everything was ripped away from her when her father was arrested for embezzling. She not only lost her status at school, but her family lost their status in the community. They weren't envied anymore, they were scorned. Pia had something inside herself, though, that turned that negative into a positive. She learned humility and kindness and generosity ... but the girl still enjoyed a good party!

Raoul had it tough in childhood, too. And he, too, rose above his circumstances with a good sense of humor and a strong view of right and wrong.

These two are perfect for each other! I hope you'll agree. You can read chapters 1 and 2 for free on the Fool's Gold website. Or just head to your favorite bookstore and pick up a copy of FINDING PERFECT today!

Corn and Blueberry Pasta Salad

2010-08-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

I’m a brave person. I wouldn’t say I’m fearless, but I don’t let fear prevent me from taking crazy leaps of faith. Like the time I turned down a well paying job with a solid future in accounting in order to try my hand at writing romance novels.

My latest act of daring could be considered even more foolhardy: I modified a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

Gasp!

Let me preface this by saying that I love BHG. The magazine always has great decorating ideas, inspiring garden features, and recipes I love. The recipes are sophisticated but simple.

The other day, I was flipping through the June issue and spotted a recipe for Corn and Blueberry Salad and I stopped in my tracks. Corn and blueberries? Together? It was so pretty, I had to try it.

I followed the recipe exactly, and it was delightful. This salad is gorgeous and would be a wonderful addition to any potluck. But I live in a house with two people, and this was a lot of salad for just two people.

So after we had eaten about half of it, I took a leap of faith and modified the recipe to come up with Corn and Blueberry Pasta Salad. No recipe is sacred. And with apologies to the editors and writers at BHG, I have to tell you, this is even more delicious than the original. It was a great grab-and-go lunch meal for me for a couple of days, which was timely since I was deep into writing one of next year’s Fool’s Gold romances at the time. (I’m working on Montana’s story.)

Note: This recipe is from scratch. Alternatively, you could start out with Corn and Blueberry Salad from BHG and then add the remaining ingredients after you eat about half.

Corn and Blueberry Pasta Salad

3 ears sweet corn
½ C fresh blueberries
½ C cucumber, sliced
½ C carrots, diced
½ C sugar snap peas, chopped
¼ C red onion, diced
¼ C red bell pepper, diced
½ C cheddar cheese, in ¼-inch chunks
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
½ jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
4 C cooked whole wheat pasta

Dressing:
1 C mayonnaise
1 T lime juice
1 T olive oil
2 t honey
¼ t ground cumin

Boil the corn for 5-7 minutes, then drain and rinse with cool water. Wait until the corn is cool enough that it won’t melt the cheese when you mix the ingredients. Cut the kernels from the cobs and place in a large bowl with the next 9 ingredients.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and add to the pasta mixture. Fold in the dressing gently so you don’t pop the blueberries. Refrigerate overnight if you can resist it that long. Try to give it at least a couple of hours for the flavors to meld.

Gnocchi with Shrimp and Homemade Pesto

2010-08-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Notice the title of this recipe is not “Homemade Gnocchi with Shrimp and Pesto.” Maybe someday I’ll be willing to attempt gnocchi, but not today. I’m deep into plotting the next Fool’s Gold books, so I needed something I could make while I was distracted by story ideas.

By the way, FINDING PERFECT will be in stores on August 31. I have received a lot of reader mail about Raoul since he appeared in SWEET SPOT in 2008, and about Pia since CHASING PERFECT came out earlier this year, so I’m really eager for readers to see these two strong personalities find each other. You can read a free excerpt of FINDING PERFECT at FoolsGoldCA.com.

So… back to the gnocchi. If you want to make homemade gnocchi, I suggest you try this recipe from A Tasteful Garden: Homemade Gnocchi

My inspiration for Gnocchi with Shrimp and Homemade Pesto was this Cooking Light recipe on AllRecipes.com: Gnocchi with Shrimp, Asparagus, and Pesto It looks delicious, but there were two reasons I didn’t follow it exactly. First, I made asparagus last week, and I want to have variety in this blog and on our dinner table. And second, their pesto didn’t use olive oil.

I’m sorry, but that’s morally wrong.

I started out by making the pesto. I made a lot of it because I remember reading once that you could freeze leftover pesto in ice cube trays and then grab a cube whenever the mood struck.

Homemade Pesto Sauce

2 C Fresh basil, tightly packed
2 cloves garlic
½ C Parmesan cheese, grated
¼ C Pine nuts
½ C Extra virgin olive oil

Put the first four ingredients in a food processor and pulse six times. Add the olive oil and process until it looks well chopped and well mixed. (How’s that for technical recipe jargon?)

Use immediately. Freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays. Once they’re frozen, you can pop them out of the tray and store them in a Ziploc bag. These are very handy.

Gnocchi with Shrimp and Pesto

Note: I took out the word “homemade” here because you can substitute jarred pesto sauce for the homemade pesto sauce.

1 16-oz package of vacuum-packed gnocchi
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 C prepared pesto sauce
Parmesan cheese, shredded (optional)

Heat a pot of water to boiling. Dump all the gnocchi into the water. As the gnocchi floats to the top (after a couple of minutes), remove it from the water with a slotted spoon. Add the shrimp to the water and boil for about five minutes, until the shrimp is opaque. Put all ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat. If desired, top with additional Parmesan cheese. And why wouldn’t you want to do that? Cheese is almost always desirable!

Crispy Baked Parmesan Ranch Chicken with Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

2010-08-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Is there a limit to the number of words that are allowed in a recipe title? At first, I was going to call this new recipe Ranch Chicken. Simple, right? But then I decided to add Parmesan – both to the recipe and to the title. Parmesan Ranch Chicken.

Then when the chicken was done, and it came out so delicate and crispy, I thought, “Well, I have to add ‘Crispy’ to the title. They need to know that right up front!”

Parmesan Ranch Chicken sounds good, but Crispy Parmesan Ranch Chicken sounds delicious! Then I realized that you might wonder what made the chicken so crispy. Did I deep fry it? No! I baked it. And it still turned out delicate and crispy. It’s much healthier than deep fried chicken, and it tastes incredible.

But I thought that Incredibly Delicious Crispy Baked Parmesan Ranch Chicken was going a little too far.

Crispy Baked Parmesan Ranch Chicken

Serious bottle of ranch mix from Sam's Club

2 lbs Chicken breasts with bones (skin optional)
1 C Ranch dressing
1 C Flour
1 t Dry ranch mix
1 t Black pepper
2 T plus 1 t Parmesan cheese, shredded, divided
1 T Olive oil for drizzling

Place the chicken in a Ziploc bag and add ranch dressing. Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours. (8 hours or overnight would be even better.) Drain.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a clean, dry Ziploc bag, add the flour, ranch mix, pepper, and 2 T of Parmesan cheese. Mix well. Add the chicken pieces one at a time, close the bag, and shake to coat. Place the chicken pieces on a cookie sheet with raised edges. Sprinkle with remaining teaspoon of Parmesan cheese, then drizzle with oil. Bake until the pieces are golden brown and reach the desired temperature, about 40-50 minutes.

The chicken recipe used only a small portion of the Parmesan cheese. Plus, in my refrigerator, I had a bunch of asparagus. So I Googled asparagus+parmesan and found this recipe for Parmesan Roasted Asparagus from PickyCook.com.
It was so easy, and it cooked at the same temperature as the chicken. While the chicken started cooking, I prepped the asparagus and then put it in about 20 minutes before the chicken was done. My house smelled amazing.

I love it when a plate comes together! This is seriously some of the best chicken I’ve ever had, and I made up the recipe. I’m so proud of myself. Or should I say full of myself?

Thai-ish Cashew Beef with Garlic Brown Rice

2010-08-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things about cooking is that there are many ways to cook just about everything. So if you see a recipe that looks good but you don’t have all the ingredients on hand, you can come up with creative alternatives.

That’s just what I did when I got this month’s Taste of Home magazine in the mail. They had a feature on Thai food, but I couldn’t find one of the ingredients for Cashew Curried Beef at the store. (You can see their recipe by clicking the link. You have to join their website, but it’s free!)

I couldn’t find red curry paste. Now, if I had a better work ethic when it came to cooking, I probably could’ve tracked it down. I could’ve asked someone who worked there, or I could’ve tried another store. I’m a hard-working writer, but I’m a lazy cook.

So I modified the recipe and came up with Thai-ish Cashew Beef with Garlic Brown Rice. I used stewing beef, which was too gristly, but other than that, this was delicious.

Thai-ish Cashew Beef

Marinade:
2 T Thai sweet red chili sauce

2 T Creamy peanut butter
2 T Soy sauce
1 can Coconut milk
¼ t Cayenne pepper

1 lb. Beef, sliced in ¼-inch strips
2-3 t Peanut oil, divided
2 Carrots, sliced into matchsticks
½ Red bell pepper, sliced
½ Green bell pepper, sliced
1 Small onion, sliced
½ C Salted cashews

Mix the marinade ingredients, adding more cayenne if you like spicy food. Pour half the marinade over the beef in a non-reactive bowl. (I feel so smart for saying “non-reactive” like I know what I’m talking about!) Allow to marinate for at least a couple of hours. Reserve the other half of the marinade.

Drain the beef.

Heat 1 teaspoon of peanut oil over medium-high heat in a wok or a deep skillet. Brown the beef, trying not to stir too often. It’s difficult to resist the temptation to stir, but the beef will brown better if you let it be. Remove the beef to a large bowl. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the vegetables until the carrots are crisp-tender, just a couple minutes. Put them in the bowl with the beef. Then pan-roast the cashews for about 30 seconds in a little more oil, just until they become fragrant. Put them in the bowl with the beef mixture. Toss and serve over Garlic Brown Rice.

Garlic Brown Rice

1 T Vegetable oil
2-3 Garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 C Brown rice
2 ½ C Water

Heat the vegetable in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic slices for about 30 seconds, then add the rice and water. Raise to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and cover the pan. Simmer until all the water is gone, about 50 minutes.

Voilá! Doesn’t it look pretty?

Turkey & Black Bean Tacos with Pineapple Mango Salsa

2010-07-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Last week on the Taste of Home blog, they posted a link to their recipe for Pineapple Mango Salsa. Even before I made it, my tongue started to tingle. That’s always a good sign (in cooking and in romance!) Pineapple Mango Salsa... The flavor of the tropics without the humidity!

I decided to make it with turkey and black bean tacos. And with regular salsa because my husband said the Pineapple Mango Salsa sounded fruity.

Uh… yes. It’s made out of fruit.

Turkey and Black Bean Tacos

1 T olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
1 can black beans, undrained
1 can of diced green chilis
1 envelope of taco seasoning
½ C water

Brown the turkey in oil over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Serve on flour tortillas with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cheese. I also like to add ranch dressing to give it a different kick.

Pineapple Mango Salsa

You can click the link above to get the recipe. In the meantime, I did want to share a tip on how to chop mangos. First you have to cut the mango in half. I don’t have any tips on that part. It’s a bugger! If you have a tip, please share it with me in the comments.

But once the mango is cut in half, leave it in the peel and slice vertical and horizontal cuts into the flesh. Then invert the peel and cut your delicious little mango chunks off the peel.

The colors in this salsa are incredible! A bowl full of summer.

When making the tomato salsa, I decided to break out my new toy, a Ninja. I had bought the Ninja to replace my blender because I read reviews online that it was the best at crushing ice. (For those all important margaritas.) The blender came with this little food chopper.

The blender/food processor design has been rethought, so the motor is in this little handheld part that you place on top of the food container. The Ninja people say that pulsing works best, so I pulsed away. As you can see from the pictures below, it pulverized the food except for one big chunk.

To add texture, I chopped one tomato by hand and added it to the mix. Much better! Of course, in the end, my husband said he liked both the Pineapple Mango Salsa and the Tomato Salsa equally.


Pulverized by pulsing	Pulverized, plus one chopped tomato

Tomato Salsa

2 large tomatoes
1 jalapeno, with seeds if you like it spicy, without seeds if you like it mild
2-3 green onions with tops
1t ground cumin
¼ C fresh cilantro
Salt to taste

Chop everything as fine as you like it or put it all in a food processor if you like slushy salsa. There are endless variations. You can use canned tomatoes instead of fresh or a mixture of both. You can chop the tomatoes and then warm them in the microwave for 30 seconds to bring out their sweetness. Or even sprinkle them with a little bit of sugar. Use as much or as little of each ingredient as you like.

The next day, we used the leftover Turkey and Black Bean Taco meat to make nachos. Delicioso!

A Golden Wedding

2010-07-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is my first non-recipe post, but I couldn't resist sharing. Check out this interactive magazine article about Josh & Charity's wedding. (Josh and Charity were the hero and heroine of the first Fool's Gold book, CHASING PERFECT.) You can click on the magazine to see it in full screen mode, and you can even flip through the pages.

The Fool's Gold website is my gift to all those readers who write to me asking for updates on the characters. Lots of freebies and fun stuff over there! I hope you'll check it out.

Open publication - Free publishing

Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler

2010-07-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was in the mood for peach cobbler, so I asked my Facebook fans to tell me their favorite cooking blog or website. I wanted to find a recipe online that I could try because I’m all about making connections. One of my readers told me about the fabulous My Baking Addiction (thanks, Jessica!), and it just so happened that Jamie had made peach cobbler earlier this month.

The recipe calls for a 1.5-quart casserole. I had 1 quart, and I had 2.5 quart, but no 1.5 quart. Make less or make more? When in doubt, always make more.

My standard rule of thumb when it comes to peaches is to only buy them when I happen to smell them while walking through the store. I find that when they emit that lovely, peachy scent, they’re juicy and delicious. Otherwise, they’re likely to disappoint.

Sad to say, no scent. But I had already publicly committed to making the cobbler, and I could not back down.

Then it was time to peel, and I didn’t know the proper peach-peeling protocol. A potato peeler worked just fine, and I was off!

Simmering the peaches filled my house with the aroma of peachy goodness.

When it came time to spoon the peaches gently onto the batter, I was filled with angst. Was I gentle enough? I’m more of a “slap it down” kind of cook. “Gentle” doesn’t come naturally to me. Are they supposed to look like this?

I knew I would have to bake this longer because I had doubled the recipe, but I didn’t know how long. The recipe says the batter would rise to the top during baking, so I kept turning on the oven light to see whether the batter was at the top yet. I looked for a lovely golden brown crust.

Then I looked again. And again.

It never came. I don’t know what I was thinking. That the batter would sneak past the layer of peaches? What happened instead is that the batter firmed up beneath the peaches. From the top, it didn’t look much different than when I put it into the oven.

But ohhhh, did it taste like heaven!

Marinated Swai (White Fish) and Grilled Avocados

2010-07-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

I have a shameful secret, and I’m about to confess it publicly: I bought frozen fish.

It’s entirely possible this wouldn’t be shameful where you live, but I live in Seattle where frozen fish is sacrilege. But in my defense, I’m a word girl, so when I saw an unfamiliar word on a package of fish at the supermarket, I couldn’t resist.

Swai.

That was the word that caused me to turn my back on my Seattle brethren. Swai. I don’t even know how it’s pronounced. Sway, as in Sway to the music? Or Swhy, as in Swhy on earth did you buy frozen fish?!
But whatever, I bought it. I’ll get over the guilt.

One of my goals when I started this blog was to link to recipes I find online and, since I had no idea how to cook swai, this seemed like a good time to get started. So I searched for swai recipes and discovered the fish is also known as basa and panga. It’s from the catfish family, a firm white fish.

And it’s farm-raised in Viet Nam.

I’m nervous eating seafood in Illinois because the fish is flown in from the coast. And now I'm going to eat frozen fish flown all the way in from Viet Nam? What was I thinking?

I settled on this recipe for Basa Swai with Lemon Pepper. Which, interestingly, does not have lemon pepper on it. It has lemon and pepper, but no lemon pepper.

The first ingredient of the marinade is white wine or Italian dressing. Rule of thumb: Always choose the wine.

I marinated the fish for four hours. The fillets weren’t completely thawed when I put them into the marinade, but they were by the time I took them out.
While they were marinating, a Facebook fan told me that she found a recipe for Avocado Fries on the Taste of Home Facebook page. That recipe was on Kitchn.com. Although they looked delicious, I decided that recipe was more work than I wanted to do last night, but I noticed a recipe for Grilled Guacamole. I was intrigued.

In the end, even smooshing the avocados with a fork was more work than I wanted to do, so I grilled the avocados and sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper and left it at that. I was worried that flipping the avocados would be difficult because they’re so soft, but it wasn’t too bad. I did leave little bits of green on the grill.

My husband loved the grilled avocado. I liked it fine, but I like it better raw and didn’t think grilling was worth the effort. My dog felt that she would’ve liked either of them, and she felt it very strongly.

And voila! Marinated Swai and Grilled Avocado. Doesn’t it look pretty?

The marinade is light and tasty, and the fish tasted pretty good. I’ll make it again… but I’ll use it on fresh fish next time.

Fluffy Puffy Pancakes

2010-07-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, a reader emailed me via SusanMallery.com to share a recipe for pancakes that she said are “melt-in-your-mouth good.” So good, in fact, that her boys hover in the kitchen chanting, “Are they done yet? Are they done yet?”

Sounds like a great excuse for breakfast for dinner to me! (I only have pancakes for breakfast when we go to a restaurant. I’m not nearly energetic enough to cook until at least 3 pm. I need coffee, more coffee, and lunch before I can think about doing anything that involves mixing. Even then, it’s hit or miss.)

Recipe: Fluffy Puffy Pancakes

4 eggs – separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the griddle to 375 degrees. Whip the egg whites until they’re stiff, then set aside. Beat the egg yolks with the vanilla, cottage cheese, and sour cream. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until moist, then fold in the egg whites. Pour four-inch pancakes on the hot griddle. Keep warm in the oven.

Yield: 11 four-inch pancakes, plus one half-inch pancake for Nikki, my toy poodle

When I saw the list of ingredients, I was skeptical. (Sorry, Coleen!) Four eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, and vanilla seemed like a lot of wet stuff when compared to less than a cup of flour. But I soldiered on, regardless.

I whipped up the egg whites with an electric mixer. I have no knack for wrist action with a whisk. If I ever appear on a TV cooking show, they’ll have to use a stunt double for the whisk segments. If I’d had two bowls with my KitchenAid, I would’ve used the electric mixer for the other parts, too. I’m a somewhat lazy cook, though, and I had to weigh the amount of effort of mixing by hand against the amount of effort of pouring the egg whites into a separate bowl. I mixed the rest by hand.

I realize today that I forgot the vanilla. That’s not as bad as it could’ve been – I almost forgot the sugar and the salt. I’m pretty sure some mysterious chemical reaction would’ve failed to take place without those two ingredients. In my defense, I was watching HGTV at the time, and I can’t be expected to focus on cooking when I’m trying to figure out which home the House Hunters will choose.

Fortunately, the pancakes were delicious even without the vanilla. “Melt-in-your-mouth” is a terrific description. Because of the stiffened egg whites and the wet-stuff to dry-stuff ratio, the pancakes felt almost fizzy on my tongue. Little pockets of air popped when I pressed the pancake to the roof of my mouth. (Yes, I play with my food.)

The sour cream and cottage cheese gave the pancakes an ever-so-slight tartness, which contrasted nicely to the sweetness of the maple syrup. I had real maple syrup because I ate these on Canada Day and wanted to give a nod to my northern friends.

Yum! Thanks, Coleen! Don’t they look pretty?

Cookie S'Mores

2010-06-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, while I was racing around to get ready for my book tour in Illinois, I had the TV tuned to the Cooking Channel. My attention was fractured. I was thinking about ALMOST PERFECT, the second Fool’s Gold book, which is available now. (Click the link to read a free excerpt. I’m so excited to hear what readers think of Liz. She’s a mystery writer, and she’s been killing her first love, Ethan Hendrix, over and over again in her books.) So there I was, thinking about ALMOST PERFECT and wondering whether anyone would notice my newly painted toenails.

The upshot is, I only caught the tail end of a barbecue segment. Paula Deen and others were eating dessert – s’mores made with cookies instead of graham crackers – but I had missed the recipe! I looked on their website, but I couldn’t find it there, either. I was disappointed – I wanted to share the recipe with you in time for 4th of July barbecues.

Then I thought to myself, “How hard could it be?”

That question has led to many kitchen disasters throughout my life, but I’m pleased to report that this time, the results were delicious. I must warn you, though: there’s so much sugar in this treat that you may well slip into a coma after one bite. Encourage your kids to wear a safety helmet before eating!

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie S’Mores

Ingredients:

2 dozen chocolate chip cookies – homemade or store-bought
144 mini marshmallows (approximate)
144 chocolate chips (approximate)

Preheat the grill to medium-high. Place one chocolate chip cookie on a square of aluminum foil. Put about six mini marshmallows and about six chocolate chips on the cookie. If the marshmallows roll off, then split them with your finger and press the sticky side into the cookie. Place a second cookie flat-side up on top of the marshmallow layer. Wrap loosely (but airtight) with the foil. Grill over direct heat about 4 minutes on each side. Unwrap carefully. Yield: 1 dozen s’mores

Next time, I’m going to try these with peanut butter cookies. Kids should love these easy treats. You can even make them if you’re going camping! (As long as you remember to bring helmets.)

Tater Salad

2010-06-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today, I had the bright idea to try making potato salad with Tater Tots. Tater Salad. The main reason for this brainstorm was simply that I think it’s funny to say Tater Salad. I didn’t have Tater Tots on hand. I had to make a special trip to the grocery store to buy them. All so I could say Tater Salad.
Ingredients:

1 28-oz bag of Tater Tots, baked according to package directions, then cooled on paper towels

6 hardboiled eggs, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

½ of a large onion, chopped

1 C. mayonnaise

1 T. prepared mustard

½ t celery seed

1 10-oz can of Bacardi frozen strawberry daiquiri concentrate, mixed with 1 can of water (optional)

Coconut rum (optional)

Crushed ice (optional)

Fill a glass with crushed ice. Add the amount of coconut rum you want and top off with strawberry daiquiri mix. If you’re feeling more energetic than I was, you could put all of that in a blender and do it right. But it tastes pretty good with crushed ice from the refrigerator door.

With drink in hand, you’re ready to start on the Tater Salad.

Put the cool, baked Tater Tots in a bowl and set aside. Put the other ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well. Add the mayonnaise mixture to the Tater Tot mixture and mix gently. Refrigerate.

The Tater Salad turned out to be more fun to say than to eat. It was okay, but it wasn’t better than regular potato salad. You can use this recipe for Potato Salad, too, though. Just replace the Tater Tots with six large baking potatoes. Peel, chunk, and boil the potatoes. Cool, and then continue with the recipe as above.

Cheers!

Green Salad with Turkey and Cranberry Vinaigrette

2010-06-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I cooked a boneless turkey breast on the grill. I wanted to use the leftovers today in a salad, and I thought that cranberry vinaigrette sounded like a nice dressing for it. Sadly, I didn’t have cranberry vinaigrette on hand. Is that a staple in anyone’s pantry?

I looked up some recipes online, but they all called for a bag of cranberries, which was another thing I didn’t have. I find that most new recipes arise out of laziness. Or maybe it’s agoraphobia. All I know is that I wanted cranberry vinaigrette, but I did not want to go to the store. I wanted to use the can of cranberry sauce that I had bought at Thanksgiving but forgot to serve. Was
that so wrong?

It turned out surprisingly delicious. I’m always surprised when I make up recipes and they taste good. They don’t always, I swear. But I’ll probably never tell you about the ones that don’t because I want you to keep coming back to this blog, and I don’t think you will if I post recipes for inedible food.

Cranberry Vinaigrette

1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce, whole berries set aside
½ cup of olive oil
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
¼ cup of water
1 t. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Garlic Croutons

Adding to the deliciousness of the salad were homemade garlic croutons. O…M…G! They were so easy, too! I pressed three cloves of garlic through the garlic press into a small bowl and then poured about a quarter-cup of olive oil over it. Let that sit for about 20-30 minutes, then pour it over a sieve into another bowl. The oil becomes infused with garlic flavor. Toss with cubed bread and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, flipping once.

The hardest part about the croutons was cutting the bread into little chunks. It required delicacy, and I’ve never been the delicate type.

Salad

I lined the plate with a bed of salad greens, added sugar snap peas, green onions, the turkey, croutons, and reserved whole cranberries. I used bleu cheese, but if you don’t like bleu cheese, then romano or parmesan would be good, too. Drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Let me know what you think! Would you change anything if you tried the recipe? This recipe and many others will be available as printable PDFs on my website, www.susanmallery.com, as soon as we finish the redesign.