Moira Keith's Blog, page 318

A Tasty Tuesday Cover Reveal?

A cover? What does that have to do with cooking you might be asking yourselves. Well I am here to put your minds at ease. A few of my dear writing friends have worked hard on putting together a cookbook of some of their Tasty Tuesday recipes and even added in some new stuff as well. This might leave you with another unanswered query. What do writers know about cooking? Ah, more than you might realize. With each recipe, there are either stories or anecdotes to go along with the recipe. Some of the recipes were actually used by characters in stories and some were just author favorites. I promise there is something within its pages for everyone. All we have to do now is anxiously await the birth of this book and I have to tell you….the wait is killing me. Oh well, for now we all must settle on oohing and awing over the cover until we can cook like a writer.

To get a sampling of some of the recipes you might see in this lovely little book, please stop by the blogs of these lovely ladies:

A Catherine Noon - http://acatherinenoon.blogspot.com/2013/02/cook-like-writer.html

Denise A. Agnew - http://deniseagnew.com/blog/?p=2900

Kimberley Troutte - http://kimberleytroutte.blogspot.com/2013/02/cookbook-comin.html

Nancy Lauzon - http://nancylauzon.com/2013/02/12/tasty-tuesday-cook-like-a-writer/

Selena Robins - http://selenarobinsmusings.com/2013/02/11/changing-the-world-one-recipe-at-a-time/

Timeless

Music inspires so many of us. The rhythm and lyrics are often things we can relate to at different points in our lives. Sometimes its just a line, other times it is a verse or the entire song. This song by The Airborne Toxic Event did just that for me when I heard it for the first time this morning and I felt compelled to share it. Hope you all enjoy!

A Taste of Nostalgia

My family has endured it’s share of loss during the holidays this year. My grandfather joined my grandmother just before Christmas and is now looking down on us from above. Yes I’m a believer in heaven and an afterlife. And if I know anything about my grandfather, it is that he is looking down on us, with a gin and tonic in hand, smiling and waiting for us to be reunited once more. So for todays Tasty Tuesday, in honor of a man I loved and deeply respected, I’m toasting this Tuesday with his beverage of choice.

Gin and Tonic

Ice

2 fingers of Bombay Sapphire Gin (the man’s favorite gin)

Tonic Water

Lime (optional and never a preference of my grandfather’s)

Simple and yet refreshing recipe. Ready? Add ice to glass. Pour in about two fingers of gin. Fill remainder of glass with tonic. If you are opting for a squeeze of lime, add a wedge. Give a quick stir and enjoy!

Here’s to you Papa. May you continue to make great music, and save and gin and tonic for when we meet again.

Please stop by and see my fellow Tasty Tuesday partners in crime…

Apple Pie Oatmeal, by A. Catherine Noon  http://taurusandtaurus.blogspot.com/2013/01/tasty-tuesday-apple-pie-oatmeal.html

Great Balls of Italian Soup by Selena Robins – : http://selenarobinsmusings.com/2013/01/07/great-balls-of-italian-soup

Stay in Bed Stew by Nancy Lauzon http://nancylauzon.com/2013/01/08/tasty-tuesday-stay-in-bed-stew/

 

 

Naughty New Years Blog Hop

Happy New Years everyone. I love a good celebration and this year, I’m desperately in need of celebrating any way I can. So how am I celebrating? With a New Year’s Blog Hop courtesy of JustRomance.me. The Blog Hop features lots of wonderful authors and great prizes — including a Kindle — and a chance to expand your ‘to be read’ pile. A great way to ring in the New Year.

I have nothing uber sexy to discuss at the moment, though I do say there is nothing like ringing in the New Year with someone you love (or at the very least are physically hot and bothered for) and seeing as how we’ve all survived the end of the world and zombies aren’t running a muck and chomping on our brains, I think there is plenty to celebrate. So, while I’m a Guinness girl through and through, I thought we should kick off the new year with this little beverage that I like to call the Anti-pocalypse Tini. It is sure to help you get your naughty on…even just a smidge.

Anti-pocalypse Tini

Ingredients:

1 oz Chambord

1.5 oz honey vodka

.5 oz lime juice

3-4 raspberries

Directions:

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass or crushed ice-filled rocks glass. Top with more crushed ice. Garnish with raspberries.

And let’s wrap up this celebration with a little music and one of my favorite songs….



Now click on the banner to see the rest of the blog hoppers and play! If you came here directly, go to justromance.me to join in on the fun.

Flirting With Secrets~

Whoot! I love when Nina Croft stops by for flirty Fridays. And today, she is flirting with secrets. You’re intrigued aren’t you? Well without further adieu, here she is!

 

Hi, I’m Nina Croft, and I love flirting with paranormal creatures. Today, I’m returning to wolves and talking about Bound to Secrets, my latest release and book 3 in my Sisters of the Moon paranormal romance series.

Each book is also a stand-alone romance and Bound to Secrets is Connor and Keira’s story. Connor is a doctor turned werewolf and very unhappy about the whole thing. Keira is a telepath whose powers are so strong and so out of control that she risks killing anyone she gets close to. Obviously this makes flirting with Connor very hard. In fact it makes doing anything with Connor (apart from patting him on the head when he’s in wolf form and therefore safe from her powers) almost impossible.

 

So here are a few lines from Connor and Keira to show how they manage to communicate when they can’t actually talk to each other…

 

The girl held up a hand, palm facing him, and shook her head fiercely.

Connor came to a halt ten feet away.

“No,” she whispered, her voice hoarse as though from lack of use. “I can’t…you must go. Please.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Connor kept his tone soothing as he took a step closer.

“Not me. You.”

For a moment, he had no idea what she meant. Then pain flooded his mind.

~*~

She’d accepted long ago that she would never have a normal life. Never be normal. She was a freak. That’s what the guards back at the Agency had called her. And they were right.

But then this man, or wolf or whatever he was, had hardly been normal.

What had she thought?

That they could be freaks together?

Hardly.

~*~

Behind Sebastian padded a huge black wolf. Connor. Her fake smile faded to be replaced by the real thing. He came to a halt by her chair and sat on his haunches, resting his great head on her lap. She stroked him while she waited for Sebastian to speak.

He perched on the edge of her bed, his expression solemn. Keira glanced from one to the other.

“Tell me,” she said.

It was bad news. She knew it. She was killing everyone. Or dying. Or…

~*~

Connor growled.

“She needs to know the options,” Sebastian said to him. “If this works you’ll have plenty of time to do what you like. But not if you’re dead.”

Connor tugged away from her and went to stand in front of Sebastian. He growled some more.

Sebastian sighed. “Yeah, I’ll tell her.”

“Tell me what?” Keira asked.

His lips quirked. “That if you have sex with one of those blood sucking leeches, Connor will rip their throat out.”

~*~

“Is it so bad being a wolf?” she asked.

He didn’t answer, but turned away and paced the room. It took him two steps to reach the wall and he swiveled and came back. She could see the frustration in his eyes, and the fear. He was scared as well. She just wasn’t sure what he feared. That they would fail or that they’d succeed.

Bound to Secrets – Blurb

 

Six years ago, an attack by a rogue werewolf plunged Doctor Connor McNair’s perfect life into nightmare. Now the mere scent of blood awakens the beast within him. He’s teetering on the brink of self-destruction when an intriguing rumor leads him to the desolation of Rannoch Moor and the one woman who might call him back from the darkness.

Part of a telepathic experiment that went dangerously wrong, Keira’s mind will destroy anyone who gets too close. Unable to control her powers, she has cut herself off from all human contact and found a measure of peace hiding on the moors with only the wild animals for company. Until Connor arrives, awakening hopes and desires buried deep inside her.

Connor is determined to save her, but some wounds are beyond the powers of a doctor to heal and time is running out, because Keira’s mind holds secrets that certain people would kill to keep hidden…

 

Buy links:

 

Amazon

 

Bio:

Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia, which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of 9-5 work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain.

Nina writes all types of romance often mixed with elements of the paranormal and science fiction.

 

Find me at:

Website

Twitter

Care to Flirt with A. Catherine Noon?

I would! I’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with A. Catherine Noon (a.k.a. Noony), and I couldn’t wait to be able to get her on my blog! Needless to say, now that the day is here, I don’t feel like delaying the good stuff any more than I have to, so let’s get on with it!

Moira: Let’s break the ice shall we? If you were stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and you had three people to help you fight of the zombie horde, who would they be?

Noony:  Rachel, Michael, and Lyn.  No question.  Rachel’s already prepped for the zombie apocalypse.  Michael is a mad scientist, and Lyn is his sister scientist.  We’d rock the world.

Moira: If you’re rocking the world, I’d like dibs on being a part of your crew. I study Daryl and I think I’d be pretty wicked with a cross bow. Okay now that we know that you intend to survive the apocalypse, tell us a little more about you for my readers that haven’t yet had the privileged to curl up in bed with you – I meant your books!

Noony:  I love multiple genres, and I love to tell stories.  Consequences fascinate me.  I like telling stories about consequences.

Moira: If I were to buy you a book for your birthday or just because I am such total awesomeness, what genre would I need to scour?

Noony:  KNITTING!  Definitely.  I love knitting books.  I have a huge knitting book collection, but I’m always looking for good new knitting books.

Moira: Knitting…you might have to convince me when you come to Sin City. And if you are writing, what is your genre preference? Is there a specific appeal to it? Like does it come with a heavy dose of chocolate and sex or is the innocence of the genre that tempts you?

Noony:  I like to tell stories that have magic in them.  The magic might be subtle and scientific, such as “real” psychics, or totally fantastical, like shifters whose shapes were gifts from a god.

Moira: Love magic in stories! Name one scene you go back and re-read often because you like it so much.

Noony:  I love Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed series, Steve Brust’s Vlad Taltos books, and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novels.

Moira: What is the oddest place you found inspiration for a story?

Noony:  The trashcan.  I once wrote a story about a dog who’d been thrown away like trash and lived on the scraps from a dumpster before he got rescued.

Moira: OMG when I read trashcan, I envisioned you were in the trash. Phew. I was worried someone threw you out and I was going to have to let the Scots-Irish in me loose to kick some serious arse! Worst and best pick up lines you either used or were used on you?

Noony:  Worst is to be stupid while I’m talking to you.  Best is to quote Monte Python, Shakespeare and know who James Joyce is.  My hub is a supergeek and sexy!

Moira: You mean like…We are now the Knights who say… “Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z’nourrwringmm. Did I win your heart my fair lady? Any deep, dark, and/or dirty secrets you’d like to share? Trust me, my readers can keep a secret.

Noony:  Riiiight.  Lessee.  Dark secrets, huh?  I have a secret desire to write a sexy story about a knitter who solves mysteries.  ~smirk~  Mixes all my favorite genres!

 

A Catherine Noon can be found Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora

Knoontime Knitting:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry

Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook

Team Blogs: Nightlight | The Writers Retreat Blog | Beyond the Veil | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers

Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere PressHer books? Well you must check them out! BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing. And EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Books.  Oh and let’s not fail to mention ”Taking a Chance“, part of the Charity Sips 2012 to benefit NOH8, available from Torquere Books.
And if by chance you’ve read everything that she has to offer, you’ll want to watch for TIGER TIGER, coming July, 2013, from Samhain Publishing!

Cranberry, Apple, and Sausage Stuffing

I love the holidays. Even more I love traditional side dishes like stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Sometimes though, you get a chance to sample something new. A recipe that still screams yum-tastic goodness and home cooking! This is one such recipe. It is my go to stuffing recipe since I don’t know how to make mom’s top-secret-if-I-told-you-I’d-have-to-kill-you stuffing recipe. Hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread
3 3/4 cups cubed white bread
1 pound ground turkey sausage
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
2 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 large apple, cored and chopped (I prefer Fuji or Red Delicious)
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
3/4 cup turkey stock
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted


DIRECTIONS:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.

2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavors.

3. Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, pecans, and parsley. Drizzle with turkey stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill. Or bake in oven at 350 degrees until warmed through.

Check out these other tasty recipes, such as:

Black Pepper Cookies by PG Forte

Chocolate Enriched by Selena Robins

Merry Menage Christmas Holiday Obsessions

I have a wicked obsession with Jack Frost. I imagine him as this extremely over the top sexy elf that has a very naughty streak. I caved to that obsession one year and wrote a little story about him. Now I’m feeling the need to elaborate on it. Get more inside Jack Frost than I did before. Afterall, who wouldn’t want a man who would go to extremes to get you back? Here is a sampling of the original story.

Excerpt from Frost~

I couldn’t let him go. Allowing him to walk away would mean I failed. No matter what the history was between us, I couldn’t let that happen. Without thinking, I grabbed his arm, leaned in close enough to smell the scent of cool pine-laced breezes wafting off his skin, and whispered, “I don’t want you to go.”

He turned his head slightly, his lips brushing against my cheek as he spoke. “Why?”

The slight contact wreaked havoc on my nerves and I began to tremble. He was so close. All I’d have to do is reach out and take him. But I couldn’t. Doing so was against regulation. He was my assignment. Taking him into custody and returning him to the North Pole was a direct order given by Santa himself. Giving in to my own wishes and desires was not an option.

“I…wrapping.” My voice sounded far off and distant. Like I was having an out-of-body experience. Around Jack, I always wanted to be present in body, at the very least. I started to hyperventilate.

“Oh.” A small, swirling pattern of snowflakes appeared to take form in the depths of his eyes. “Walk with me.”

He placed his hand at the small of my back, briefly brushing my handcuffs. “You were going to handcuff me?”

“Last resort only.”

“Really?” He pulled at my over shirt to reveal my gun and the corners of his mouth drew up in amusement “And this is purely an accessory?”

“Want me to shoot you?”

“Not if it’s filled with one of Doc’s tranqs. Wouldn’t want you to take advantage of me.” He chuckled as we walked through the crowd towards Macy’s.

“It’s no spiked eggnog.” I said, unable to keep the past at bay.

“Still equally as powerful.” With a wink, he maneuvered me into a corner. “We could test it if you like, you know, for old times.”

I didn’t like feeling boxed in, my back against a wall. It did give me a good view of the area though, allowing me to plan my escape route if I should need one. Around Jack, I’d learned to be prepared for the unexpected.

With his hands splayed on the wall on either side of me, Jack rested his forehead against mine. “Why did you leave that morning?”

Of all the questions he could have asked me in that moment, that one caught me off guard. I couldn’t think while he touched me and his breath warmed my cheeks. “It was a drunken night of wild abandon—”

“And wrapping paper,” he interjected.

“Yes, and while it was fun, it was one night. It didn’t mean anything.” Or so I’d been trying desperately to convince myself.

“Didn’t stick around long enough to find out, did you?” He leaned in and pressed his lips gently to mine.

***

Want to read the rest of the Frost story in it’s entirety you can find it on my Bookshelf page.

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Flirting with an Evil Author~

Moira: Let’s break the ice shall we? Give us a little peek behind the curtain and name one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you.

Silke: Oh gosh. Probably that I hold a private pilot license.

Moira: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

Silke: I’ve had my ears pierced, but that’s it. I’m too scared of needles to get a tattoo.

Moira: If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you spend the money on?

Silke: I wouldn’t buy much. A nice house with big rooms and lots of land in the UK, the same in the US. Somewhere to set up a rescue farm where I could take in abused and neglected horses. On top of that, I would take on some troubled young people (and hire people to help them) to help look after those horses. Basically, give both the humans and the horses a chance.

Moira: What an awesome idea! Which household chore do you abhor and why?

Silke: I abhor all of them lol. I hate cleaning up, hoovering and all that. But my horse’s stable is spick and span, I’m tellin ya. LOL

Moira: Do you have any guilty pleasures you feel comfortable sharing?

Silke: I play World of Warcraft and sometimes get a bit…carried away. For hours.

Moira: Which of your characters would you most/least like to invite to dinner and why?

Silke: Ashriel. He can cook! Although… I wonder what Caedir could come up with.

Moira: One author, dead or alive, and you get to sit down and have a one on one with them. Who would it be and why?

Silke: Karl May. Because he never went to all the places he wrote about, and he did it so well, that when I went to some of them — he wasn’t far off with his descriptions. Plus, I used to devour his stories as a kid, and he took me to places like the Wild West and Arabia without me ever leaving the couch.

Moira: Name one scene you go back and re-read often because you like it so much.

Silke: Uh. I don’t really have one. I sometimes go back to an old book and re-read it, but not particular scenes. I’ve read “Pest Control” by Bill Fitzhugh a million times, because it’s just so funny.

Moira: If you could have one talent besides writing, what would it be?

Silke: Making people laugh. I mean, really laugh, and not because I’m a klutz and fell into the mud, or something lol.

Moira: Any deep, dark, and/or dirty secrets you’d like to share?

Silke: I’m batman.

Moira: In closing, tell us a bit about your latest release (& share an excerpt for those who aren’t yet familiar with your work)

Silke: Watch Me is the standalone sequel to Howl. It’s Tiffy’s story. When I wrote Howl, she was a teenager, but she intrigued me. So when the edits on Howl were done, I sat there, joking around with my editor on Skype. From that conversation, and a joking “What if”, Watch Me was born.

Tiffy wants independence and freedom–until she discovers a Lycan watching the compound. Now she wants Keric, and she goes after him with single-minded determination.

Keric is worried about his brother and has come to find out why he seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Getting involved with a young girl–far too young for him–isn’t in the cards. He rejects Tiffy, despite liking her.

But things turn nasty, and Tiffy’s involvement is part of the reason he nearly ends up dead.

Two years later he’s back, and this time he’ll get to the bottom of everything. Tiffy, grown up now, is wary of him. Their attraction grows to a tentative love, but his bloodline and her past, along with vindictive pack members, might just get both of them killed.

Keep your enemies close…

Poor little Tiffy — that’s how her pack members and the Alpha view her after the brutal murder of her father, and Tiffy is sick of it. She wants independence, not pity or protection. Then handsome Lycan Keric O’Neill shows up and Tiffy wouldn’t mind some protection — and other things — from him.

When Keric finds himself the target of Tiffy’s misguided seduction, his mission to track down his brother takes a violent turn at the hands of the Alpha — but yields some devastating revelations.

Two years later he is back. This time he will stop at nothing to avenge his brother, and even falling for Tiffy won’t sway him from his goal. Unaware of her past and the links to his brother, he doesn’t know his actions and heritage will crush Tiffy’s fragile trust.

But danger comes in many forms, and when Keric’s secrets and betrayal come to light, will revenge and vindictive pack members destroy the delicate bond between them?

 

Mini Excerpt:

 

Her heart thundered and she was certain he’d hear it. “Why did you come back?”

“Does it matter? I’m here.” He winked at her. “And this time, you’re not illegal.”

Oh he assumed she’d jump into his arms, just because he’d shown up? “It was a silly teenage crush, nothing more.”

Something entirely too predatory entered his eyes. “A crush.”

He’d been gone almost two years. One year, eight months, one week and three days. Not that she’d been keeping track, or anything. “Yes. Have you never had a crush on anyone?”

“Tiff, you ran naked into my arms to stop Zalin’s goons from rearranging my face, and you’re trying to convince me you just had a crush on me?” A smile twitched on his lips. “You looked at me as if I were your whole world. I sure as hell didn’t imagine it.”

Damn. Yeah, she had. And she’d do the whole naked thing again, if she had to. Tiffy felt her cheeks heat. “It meant nothing. Haven’t you ever done anything stupid?”

“I have.” Keric lowered his head slightly, staring straight into her eyes. “I should have kissed you when I had the chance.”

Watch Me is available now from:

 

 

 

Learn more about Silke at her  Website, Twitter, or on Facebook

Holiday Tequila Sweet Potatoes

Not your run of the mill sweet potatoes, I promise you that. The only thing better would be shoving all of this goodness in a pie crust, which I will try the next time I make this.

Ingredients:

3 lbs whole unpeeled sweet potatoes

2 Tbsp unsalted butter1C unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp Silver or Gold Tequila

4 Tbsp packed brown sugar

3 lg egg yolks (reserve the whites for the meringue)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pierce the sweet potatoes in several places with a fork and bake whole, directly on the oven rack for 50 to 60 minutes until they are very tender. Remove from oven and drop temperature to 350 degrees. Butter a large, shallow casserole dish.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides from the skins into a bowl and mash. Mix in applesauce and butter. When combined, add salt, cinnamon, tequila, and brown sugar.  Stir in egg yolks until you can no longer see them in the mixture. Spoon into the prepared casserole dish. Just before baking make the meringue.

Meringue Ingredients:

3 lg egg whites, at room temperature

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

Beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed. When egg whites are foamy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar and gradually add the granulated sugar. Continue beating on high until egg whites are glossy and hold soft peaks. Spoon meringue over the sweet potatoes, covering the entire surface or form into small puffy mounds. Bake entire casserole for about 30 minutes, until the meringue is lightly browned and potato mixture is heated through and bubbling.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to stop by and visit my fellow cool cooking chicks!

P.G. Forte is cooking up some Thai Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup

Nancy Lauzon is cooking up Friendly Flank Steak

Selena Robins is sharing her favorite veggie – Broccoli Rabe