Cheryl Howe's Blog, page 3

Secret Pleasures Free Today on Amazon!

  Secret Pleasures is available for free on Amazon until midnight tonight California time. It’s the second book in The Pleasure Series but it stands alone so it won’t spoil anything for you if you haven’t read the first book.

I love a reformed villain, and though Darien wasn’t exactly a villain in Improper Pleasures, he had a lot of problems to overcome. When I created Ivy and Darien and their troubled past, I hadn’t planned on them being the next book. Healing their unrequited love seemed almost impossible.  Which is exactly why I had to write the story. Ivy so deserved her happy ending!

Here is a short description of their story:

First ruined by circumstance and then by choice, Ivy Templeton wishes nothing more than to retire from notoriety as one of London’s most well-paid courtesans.   Unfortunately, neither Georgian society or her ex-fiancé, Darien Blackmore, will let her forget her past.  Though Ivy prays Darien doesn’t believe the rumors that she ended their engagement to become his father’s mistress, she can’t deny her long-time liaison with his former friend.  Since Darien has become a drunk and a recluse, Ivy suspects he has heard every torrid thing ever whispered about her.

When Darien learns of his father’s engagement to a girl young enough to be his granddaughter, Darien hopes to stop the wedding. He persuades Ivy to join him in his quest, letting her believe she could somehow atone for their bitter breakup. Knowing he might never be able to forgive her, he also has never stopped loving her.  Once he has Ivy back on his family estate, nothing will stop him from keeping Ivy or discovering the secrets his father desperately wants kept silent.   If only the truth Darien longs to uncover doesn’t become the one thing that will keep he and Ivy apart forever.

Hope you have a chance to take a peek. Enjoy.

Happy Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

I like this sunset picture because it has a hint of purple.

Last night for the third time, I dreamed about eating gluten. Two nights ago, I dreamed I was eating a sugary Christmas cookie. Last night, it was pie. Since both are holiday related, I suspect some part of me is either stressing I’m going to accidentally eat gluten, or I’m still mourning its loss.  In all the dreams , I’m eating something sweet. Funny because I thought bread would be the hardest thing for me to give up, but maybe it’s forgoing the occasional baked treat (especially anything homemade) that gets me down. Since I’m determined not to eat gluten this holiday season, I’m going to attempt to make a gluten-free pie for Thanksgiving dinner.  Last night’s dream sealed my fate.

I’m not much of a baker and I’ve never made a pie. I’ll be going to my stepmom’s for dinner so I won’t have control over the menu. She does try to accommodate my gluten-freeness, but I think gluten-free homemade baked goods would be too much to ask. She’s got her hands full this year and a houseful of people. My husband and I have done the big ‘ol turkey dinner a couple of times. I always feel like I’ve hiked up Mt. Whitney afterwards. In case you don’t know Mt. Whitney, it’s about 5 hours north of San Diego and the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States.  Sometimes you need oxygen at the top. I’ve never done it, but that’s what I heard.

Here is a song by The Script that could be applied to climbing Mt. Whitney, cooking a Thanksgiving feast for a horde of hungry Howes, or me surviving the holidays without glutening myself.

So back to the pie. I think I’m going to need it to keep me honest. A quick search on Bing only confirmed that the pre-made gluten-free pie crusts aren’t delicious. Yuck was the word used most often. I skimmed the recipe for doing it from scratch and decided that would probably be too much for me being a first time pie maker. I fished out a recipe for Bourbon-Chocolate Pecan Pie my mom got from Southern Living magazine about two decades ago. This isn’t the exact recipe my mom has handwritten for me on a yellow legal pad paper, but it’s close. I think the rich filling might be my best bet for disguising the questionable pie crust. I’m going to try to stick with my mom’s recipe.

I’ll let you know if it works. I honestly have no idea what will be available at the health food stores near my house in the way of gluten-free pie crusts, but I’m hopeful. Since two of the key ingredients are chocolate and bourbon how can I go wrong.

Polenta: A Gluten Free Substitute For Pasta

Spaghetti is one of my husband’s comfort foods and a meal he almost always makes himself. He likes to season the meat and crumble the hamburger all in this special way. He even cooks the pasta because he can’t stand for it to be the least bit undercooked.  Though he’s very supportive with my gluten-free diet, he prefers normal pasta with one of his favorite meals. I don’t blame him because the texture can be weird with some of the gluten-free pastas. I started using polenta with his famous sauce because I didn’t want to use a separate pot to boil special noodles just for me.  Luckily, I discovered I prefer polenta with the meaty sauce.

About.com defined polenta as corn meal mush. You can make it from scratch but I buy the tubes at Trader Joe’s. I think the tubes are with the pasta and you can keep it in the pantry until you open the package. I slice a few rings, heat it in the microwave and top it with the sauce. I think the texture of the polenta is lighter than pasta and I feel less like I ate a boiling ball. I often feel run down if I eat too much red meat. Not the husband however.

Here is how he makes his sauce:

Ingredients:

1 package of organic hamburger meat (we stock up on this at Costco and always have it in the freezer)

salt and pepper

half an onion

A jar of marinara sauce (I found one I LOVED but just found out the company is going out of business! We like this sauce so much I’m sending Russ on a Costco run to see if there is still any on the shelves.)

a bell pepper (I like red because it’s milder and you get the vitamin C)

sliced mushrooms

red wine

Russ starts by browning the meat. He breaks it up finely with a wooden spoon because he says it blends with the sauce better. He seasons with salt and pepper then throws in the onions, cooking it with the meat. He then adds the sauce, bell pepper and mushroom. He pours probably about a half cup, maybe less, of red wine at the end. Simmer for as long as possible.

This meal is simple, delicious and I don’t have to make it. That’s the best kind of dinner. I’m very bummed about the marinara sauce being discontinued. The ingredients were few and all identifiable as real food. Anyone else got a great natural marinara sauce?

I currently don’t have a favorite song playing in my head which is odd for me. I must not be listening to enough music. Here is a song by one of my very favorite singer/song writers Sarah Bareilles. Her voice blows me away. What a talented woman!

Password Dysfunction

Amidst the chaos of last week, all my passwords went AWOL. I think it started with the battery for my laptop. It stopped holding a charge and would shut down my computer without notice. When I rebooted, the wireless connection would be off. I finally figured out which function key would reconnect but the down time seemed to erase my passwords to EVERYTHING. That might not be a problem for some people but passwords give me hives. My husband thinks I’m nuts. He says just use the same one. Like that’s possible. Some require numbers and other  such nonsense. I can barely remember my own phone number, so I took my stepmom’s advice and wrote them all in the front of a journal. Unfortunately, that false since of confidence led me to try too many times to get on let’s say Twitter. And you know what happens when you try to guess your password too many times?

Colin Nissan says it best in his hilarious article I’M THE DISTORTED SECURITY CODE STANDING BETWEEN YOU AND THIS WEB PAGE.

What is up with the blurry, distant picture of a wooden post with strange numerals on it in addition to a twisted word that doesn’t even exist? I might have made a note of the strange codes I was asked to retype but I was too busy having a melt down. Oh, and I did get my glasses on and dug in with my little flowery journal as my guide. Turns out I didn’t make note of case sensitivity. After PayPal asked me to step away from the computer for a few hours, like several days after, I realized the shift and cap lock key are sticking on my computer. So maybe getting on Twitter isn’t urgent, but I couldn’t even get on my WordPress blog. Tragic, I know. I couldn’t even share my amazing sunset picture that leads this post. I froze my butt off for that picture.

Here is a song that explains my position quite clearly.

Expect the Unexpected: thrown together Coq au Vin

Though I woke up with my usual Monday Malaise, I tried to shake it off. It was a beautiful morning with a clear purple sky.

Warm winds were blowing from the desert keeping the clouds away and the humidity down.

Oh, wait. Did I mention I was able to take these pictures because my cat didn’t get the note to change her clock. She started walking on me at about 4 am. A hectic week awaited me, but I was determined to make the best of it.  I went to Zumba and the first song was Gangnam Style. Things were looking up.  If you haven’t seen the video, take a look. The cowboy is my favorite. I appreciate his enthusiasm. I needed it.

( This all happened over a week ago but it still seems relevent.) Tuesday rolls around, and I don’t know if you heard, we have an election going on today. And more importantly (just kidding–VOTE!) it’s my husband’s birthday week so I agreed to take his mother to outpatient surgery very early in the morning, very far away. While I was escorting her to the car, I noticed a bag by the door. When I asked her if she needed it, she said it was for her to spend the night at out our house since she has to be rechecked  the next day in the very early morning, very far away.  And this is where the thrown together Coq au Vin comes in since I had about twenty other things to do which didn’t include cleaning the guest room. We use it as a spare closet.

I belive there is an earlier post about piles of laundry and the guest room. Call it foreshadowing. Wilma (mother-in-law) came home very disoriented. The surgery was a few hours  more than any of us expected. Russ and I tag-teamed. I dropped off and Russ picked up.  We’ve been doing this for years and don’t wait. Wilma has a lot of surgery and we’ve learned to pace ourselves.  The doctors and nurses are really great about calling and keeping us posted. The recipe is coming up, but I’ve been wanting to add a little commentary for people taking care of an elderly parent, or another family member with a chronic illness. Thus the title Expect the Unexpected. You all know that so give yourselves a big hug.

Here is the recipe taken from MAKE IT FAST, COOK IT SLOW by Stephanie O’Dea, haphazardly made my way so I could vote later that day.

I pulled out frozen boneless skin-less chick thighs, something I always keep on hand.  Plugged in the 4-quart Crock-Pot.  Set it on low and tossed in everything  I had on hand. I had mushrooms but I had to pick through a bunch that were too far gone to be salvaged.  Didn’t have the key ingredient of bacon which Stephanie O’Dea starts with.  I decided to get it started anyway but here are the ingredients in order.

ingredients:

6 slices of cooked bacon

6 t0 8 chicken thighs

8 ounces mushrooms

1 cup carrots

1 yellow onion

garlic

salt

pepper

half cup chicken broth

1  1/2 red wine

2 large thyme sprigs (I grow thyhme in a pot on my patio. Thyme is hardy and doesn’t mind too much being neglected.)

Stephanie O’Dea recommends cooking on low for 8 hours. I didn’t think I had time to do this so I did too much time on high. I thought  Wilma would be ravenous after her surgery, but she was just ready for bed and a sip of canned chicken noodle soup.

Russ and I voted at our new polling place in the dark but with no lines and a very efficient process.

My use of high and low made the chicken shred too much. We served it over Russ’s homemade mashed potatoes. The taste was great but I suggest the slower cooking.  I added a lot more wine and a bit more chicken broth. I put the bacon in after I got the rest started but I think it would have been fine if I hadn’t rushed it.

Give Coq au Vin a try. I’ve served it to guests when I did it right and it was a big hit. Russ’s mashed potatoes are always a hit. Maybe I can coerce him into giving the recipe for public consumption.

Happy Day After Halloween

Or Happy All Saints day which is where the etymology for Halloween came from according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. Part of the definition the link gives is as follows: Halloween. c. 1745 Scottish shortening of Allhollow-even “Eve of All Saints, last night of October.”

No wonder I can’t undertand what Scottish people are saying most of the time if that’s their idea of an abbreviation.  That’s ok. My husband’s Scottish relatives have a hard time understanding me too.

Here is a sort of spooky fog picture from Halloween last year. The fog did role in again this year but not so dramatically.

I am happy to report that though we only had two trick-or-treaters (tricker treaters was my original spelling before I looked it up on line), I did not gorge on Halloween candy. I bought things I didn’t love, though all chocolate is my friend.  I went with KitKat, Miklyway, and 3 Musketeer. The KitKat has cookie which equals gluten, so I knew I wouldn’t eat that.  Plus my husband really likes KitKats and I knew the bag wasn’t likely to last past the first ring of the door bell. Around 8:30, after giving a little spider man as much candy as possible, I brought the candy wrappers into the kitchen to examine the labels. This is major progress for me because in the past I’d give into the chocolate craving and ask questions later. The 3 Musketeers label looked pretty good and I didn’t see any gluten or mutant ingredients. It tasted way better than I remembered but I was able to stop at two. Now if I can only get rid of the rest of the candy before I decide 3 Musketeers invented yummy.

Decorative Gourds and Full Moon Mystery

My post yesterday seemed pretty naked without any pictures so I’d thought I’d make up for it today. I woke to a bright, almost-full moon outside my window and tried to snap some pictures. But I’ll save those for last.  First I’ll share my china cabinet decorated for fall.

I made ample use of decorative gourds and garlands of fake leaves. Since It’s Monday and everyone needs a laugh, here is a funny essay about fall decorations that I saw posted a few times on  Twitter. If you’re offended by the liberal use of profanity, and references to prostitutes and illegal drugs you might want to give it a pass.

Next is a Halloween decoration provided by nature.

It’s a spider web in the olive tree in front of our house. My husband told me to leave it up for Halloween. Not that I was planning on touching it.

And last but not least, the full moon pictures I tried to take this morning.

I’m taking this picture pre-coffee so my early morning freak-out might be understandable. In this first picture, I thought the orange honeysuckle flowers were lights. I figured the flash was making the flowers look bright in my viewer but something still seemed off. Notice the blue light in the next three pictures.  The first one is in the orange honeysuckle and then its just above the horizon in the second one. In the last pic it’s in the trees.  The light was moving on its own, I’m telling you. Maybe it’s a weird reflection or something weird with my camera, but I’m not sure. This morning I’m thinking ghost light. I saw a horror movie last week on one of the cable networks. I wasn’t really watching it but it was on in the background. The guy in the movie was a photographer and a ghost kept getting in his picture. Of course, it was his dead lover haunting him. I wasn’t getting a haunting vibe from my blue light, more of a festive feel. Way more festive than I was feeling at 6 am.

Gluten-Free Roman-Style Chicken

Last week I decided to experiment with a few new dinner recipes. The week before that I had been preparing my newest book, Secret Pleasures, for Amazon. Thousands of mouse clicks later, I had to step away from the computer and get creative in the kitchen. Who knew moving one little finger could be the cause of so much neck pain?

Even though I blog about recipes, I wouldn’t call myself an expert cook. I only started actually making things without a prepackaged mix a few years ago. Not only did I improve my culinary skills, I actually began to see cooking as therapeutic and I discovered I enjoyed doing it. That doesn’t stop me from still having some disasters in the kitchen. A few weeks ago I made a chicken and rice dish in the crock pot that my husband dubbed prison gruel.

No such disasters last week. Out of the three dishes I made one was a two thumbs up, the other was pretty good and the third was a try again with alterations.   The naturally gluten-free Roman-Style Chicken  was the big winner even though I managed to forget a key ingredient. I’m directing you to The Food Network site for Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe. The dish has over a thousand five-star reviews if you don’t want to take my word for it. The only thing I changed from Giada’s recipe was to use boneless skin-less chicken thighs instead of breasts. I also didn’t use prosciutto because the package somehow got misplaced. We still haven’t found the package I know I bought and my husband said he saw on the kitchen counter. We went nuts looking for it the night I was making this meal. I looked in the refrigerator, freezer, drawers, pantry, anywhere it might have been misplaced and then my husband did the same thing. We looked in the car, the garage. We still haven’t found the prosciutto. We’re currently having Santa Anas, hot wind from the desert, so you think we might start to smell unrefrigerated meat. I’ll let you know when it turns up.

But even without the escaped prosciutto, this recipe was great and easy. Don’t let the long list of ingredients intimidate you because there isn’t that much chopping. It came together really easily. Instead of the fresh garlic, I used the already chopped that comes in the jar to make it that much easier. I served the Roman-Style Chicken  with some brown rice penne pasta.

Here is the new song from Bruno Mars. I love his versatility and the song’s The Police feel.