Conda V. Douglas's Blog: Conda's Creative Center, page 7

Happy Labor Day and an EASY recipe!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!
Traditionally, Labor Day is a day of rest for all us hard workers. However, if you are in a creative field you know we almost never take time off! So here is a very quick and easy and gluten free recipe that's delicious and healthy. Then at least you won't have to work hard at a treat. This recipe is one in my upcoming cookbook, Starke Deadly Delicious, full of recipes inspired by my Starke Dead mystery series.
 BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:2 large ripe or very ripe bananas1 cup of quick oats
In a food processor liquefy the bananas and then add the oatmeal and mix together. Bananas are different sizes, so if the mixture seems too thin to hold the cookies together, add oatmeal. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes on a greased or parchment covered cookie sheet (depending on size of cookies). The oatmeal makes the dough sticky so make sure to prepare the sheet. Freeze well.
Delicious this plain way but easy to add:¼ cup of chocolate chips
¼ cup of crushed walnut pieces or other nuts
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon or nutmeg or cardamom
dried fruits: cranberries, raisins, blueberries, etc.1 teaspoon vanilla, or lemon extract, or rum flavoring extract (very tasty with rum, cinnamon and walnuts)Be careful not to add too many additional ingredients—the dough won't hold together.

New recipe and story to celebrate Fandemonium and the FREE re-release of my cookbook!

Fast and easy and oh, so yummy Cinnamon Slumpy!
This Friday, August 2nd, I'll be teaching a workshop at Fandemonium on When to Quit. In honor of that, I've added recipes to my The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook and it will be FREE on Amazon starting July 31st through August 4th. Here's one of the new recipes and its story. Enjoy!
CINNAMON SLUMPY TO THE RESCUE!
Uh-oh, Grandma MacDougall thought as she looked at the clock. She'd overslept this Sunday morning. It was almost eleven. While the store didn't open until noon on Sundays, this Sunday she'd needed to be up early, or at least early enough to make a big breakfast. Grandma listened as she threw on her robe and headed the few feet to her tiny kitchen. Sweet silence made her sigh. Not a peep from Grace's loft, where her granddaughter and her granddaughter's best friend Jody slept. Thank heavens teenagers slept heavy and long, hopefully long enough for Grandma to make her promised payment to them both. If they helped with the Christmas Fairyland store's annual inventory then they'd get one great homemade-by-great-cook-Grandma-MacDougall breakfast, a dinner of their choice at the Food Court and movie tickets. Okay pay for a couple of hours work in the tiny store—okay, they worked cheap.Now for the first part of their pay—breakfast. Grandma cast about her closet-sized kitchen for what to make and what she could make quickly that would still be fabulous. She stopped at the flour canister with the illustration of a Santa holding a small Christmas tree in such a way it appeared the top of the tree went up his nose. Should she make pancakes? Nope, too long to get the old creaky griddle hot. Biscuits with sausage gravy? No sausage. No time to make the biscuits. From Grace's loft came a sleep voice, "Mrs. MacDougall, is breakfast ready yet?" Jody was awake, Grace would soon follow. Time's up. "Just a few minutes," Grandma called back. She wondered if she could pass cereal off as…nope, no way. Then she spotted the extra large canister of cinnamon, the one illustrasted with a crossed-eyed orange reindeer. She slumped in relief. Fast, easy and delicious, Cinnamon Slumpy would save the day!


CINNAMON SLUMPY
This recipe is for those who love bizarre textures. I never know when this “Slumpy” is done, hence the name. It doesn’t matter, it’s delicious, whether still runny in parts, or all fluffy, crusty cake. This cake is really fast to make. And it makes a lot, so halve the recipe if it’s for fewer than four to six people if you’re out of room in your freezer. This Slumpy is great for a throw together brunch with some fresh fruit and/or yogurt on the side.
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup unbleached flour (add a half cup for a more sponge-like cake and less slump)½ cup of sugar (may be halved for a more cake-like dish, or omitted, the sweetness comes from the brown sugar topping, I usually omit the sugar)¾ cup of soy or other “milk” 1 to 2 teaspoons baking powder (I use two for fluff amongst the goo, or when I add the flour and bake it longer it’s a sponge cake.)1 egg or egg substitute1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla or ¼ teaspoon lemon extract (for a lemony cinnamon cake)
Topping:
½ cup brown sugar or more1-2 teaspoon cinnamon or more¼ to ½ cup margarine, butter, or coconut oil melted (or even more, discover what you like)
Mix the flour, sugar, milk and egg together and pour into an 8 or 9 inch round or square cake pan. Spread lots of brown sugar and cinnamon over the top. Add a cup of chopped nuts and/or apples, dried or frozen blueberries or cherries, raisins or cranberries on top. If you use the dried fruits, soak them a little in the margarine, so they don’t burn on top of the Slump. Or anything else you’d like on top of a cake. Be imaginative! Drizzle the butter/margarine/coconut oil over the top. Try to get it a little even, more or less. Bake for 20-25 minutes in 350 degrees, for gooey Slump, around 35 minutes for spongy Slump.

Low Fat, Low Calorie non dairy ice cream that's delicious for the Fourth!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
Yes, the title of this post is long--but I had to share this easy recipe for fabulous ice cream. I hope, like me, you keep frozen bananas in your freezer all summer long. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 3-4 bananas, sliced and frozen (slice before freezing), a spoonful of peanut butter (or other nut butter, see my recipe below for cashew butter, can be omitted), 2-3 tsp. cocoa powder (for chocolate ice cream, can be omitted).Put your bananas into the food processor (not a blender) and blend. This takes a while and you will need to stop and check to see if all the frozen pieces are getting chopped. When it gets smooth, add the other ingredients add the other ingredients and blend again and eat! If you want it to be more of a firm instead of a soft serve, put it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Variations:Try other frozen fruit, like strawberries for strawberry sorbet. Add a touch of vanilla, always good. Or rum flavoring and nutmeg for a different taste (this works with or without the chocolate).Add coconut flakes and chocolate bits and nuts for a rocky road ice cream.Or maraschino cherries and chocolate bits.Or lemon flavoring, or—the list goes on! Try your own!
I like the creamy aspect of adding a nut butter, but I'm allergic to peanuts so here's my cashew butter recipe (this works with any nuts, inexpensive and delicious):
Ingredients: 2 cups of cashews with half cup or more of coconut oil or other oil (although coconut oil makes these butters sweeter). Place ingredients in a food processor. Pulse processor until nuts well ground, then blend carefully checking often. Refrigerate. Take out of refrigerator before using to return to "butter" consistency.

It's the writing, stupid!

No, it's not you, dear reader, who is the stupid one, it's me. And that's why I'm writing this blog post, as a reminder: what's the best path to success? It's the writing! Everyone agrees, whether they be writer superstars or midlisters or just those who've researched how to succeed as a writer--it's writing!

That's easy for me to forget. I tend to get caught up in social media marketing. I tend to get caught up in submitting short stories and articles instead of writing new stuff. I tend to get discouraged by my perceived lack of progress, even though I sell those stories and articles. (In fact, I just sold a short story and just had published the one pictured below!)


But, but, the more I write the better I become and the more I have to sell. And truly, writing is my heart's passion, my love, my desire. So while I will continue to blog and do social media, etc. etc. first comes writing! (And here's my article proposal on Slate about realizing being true to myself is always best:
http://hive.slate.com/hive/second-act... )

Here's my call to action--no matter what your creative endeavor--do that! Me, I'll be off writing ...

HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY EASTER!

My Magnolia is about to bloom, but not quite in time for Easter!
Here's a fun, easy and healthy recipe for Easter morning:
HEALTH NUT WAFFLES:
1/2 c. quick oatmeal1/2 c. whole wheat flour1/2 c. ground flaxseed (or increase amounts of oatmeal and flour)2 teas. baking powder2 teas. or more cinnamon1 teas. vanilla2 eggs1/2 c. milk3 tablespoons healthy oil Mix dry ingredients together, then wet, let set for five minutes, add milk or egg if too dense to pour. Pour into wafflemaker (should make about 4 good sized waffles) and cook. Eat and enjoy. And everyone:
HAPPY EASTER!

Bottle Cap Celebration of St. Paddy's!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!
In honor of this fun day, here's my new bottle cap pin, for everyone to have a lotta of good luck today. These pins are easy to make! Here's my link to my blog post on how to make these.

Booksigning, Short Story and a RECIPE

Come join Kathy McIntosh, author of Mustard's Last Stand , and me, author of Starke Naked Dead , at our book signing, Friday, March 15, from 4pm to 8pm at the Park Center Hastings. (There'll be cookies!)

In honor of this event, here's a short story with a couple of characters from Starke Naked Dead and then the recipe that Maddie so enjoyed--because it's delicious!
MAMA CHIN'S LIVE FOREVER CASSEROLE
Mad Maddie Starke stared down at her menu and frowned in her signature facial expression of pure fury. She stared up at Mama Chin, who's calm gaze didn't waver a micro inch. Mama Chin knew all about Maddie's blow and bluster.            Maddie pointed at a word on the daily special on Mama Chin's Save On Café's menu. "What the heck is that?"            "It's quinoa," Mama Chin said, resisting the overwhelming urge to sigh. She couldn't resist a shift from aching foot to aching foot. She needed new wait staff. It didn't work anymore for only her and Paul to try to run the café all on their own. Not with the ski resort successful."Keenwah? How do you get that from quinoa? Why isn't it qwe-noah? Like it's spelled?""I agree totally."Maddie's eyebrows raised high at Mama Chin's agreeing with her, which almost never happened."But, we've got to update our menu to sell to our new customer base, you know, the health-nutty skiers?"Maddie's eyebrows remained halfway up her forehead. "Do I look like a health nut?"Mama Chin regarded her slightly overweight—plump—okay, fat friend. "Not really.""Don't you have a real food daily special? You know, meatloaf with gravy? Chicken pot pie? Stuffed pork chops? Bacon and eggs?"Now Mama Chin sighed. "No. You can, however, order any of those at the regular price."Maddie reared back in her chair. "How many generations have our families known each other? Have the Starkes ever ordered off the regular menu? It's a matter of pride—"Mama Chin leaned forward to stop Maddie's word flood. "And have any of you ever had a bad meal at the Save On Café?"Maddie wrinkled her brow. "Well, once Great-Grandpa—""I can toss any customer out of here, you know."Maddie glared. "Okay, okay, I'll have the quinoa casserole."***            Maddie patted her mouth and then her tummy.            "Well, how was it?" Mama Chin asked.            "I'm so glad I'm always open to new experiences, especially in the realm of good food." Maddie gave her mouth another prim and somehow smug pat. "And that I've decided to eat more healthy."            Mama Chin crossed her arms over her chest. "First time for everything. So does that mean you'll tip for the first time?'            Maddie's shocked expression was her answer. 

QUINOA EGG BAKE Since the quinoa in this recipe gets baked in the oven, it doesn't need to be precooked. Instead, it settles into the bottom of the pan and creates the casseroles' crust.

1 teaspoon butter or margarine 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa 8 eggs 1 1/4 cup milk or soy, almond or coconut milk (the coconut milk is good with curry spice, instead of the other spices, for an "Indian" Egg Bake)1 tablespoon chopped garlic 1 teaspoon chopped thyme (optional)1 teaspoon sage (optional)1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper (or more if you love pepper) 2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped (or you can use frozen spinach as well)Or/and 2 cups of the vegetables of your choice, green beans, corn, peas, cooked carrots, or a combo all work well.1 cup finely shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese or any hard cheese of your choice.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch x 8-inch glass or metal baking dish with butter; set aside.
Put quinoa into a fine mesh strainer and rinse until cold running water until water runs clear; drain well.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, the spices you've chosen, and quinoa. Stir in spinach or other vegetables then pour mixture into prepared dish. Cover tightly with foil then jiggle dish gently from side to side so that quinoa settles on the bottom in an even layer. Bake until just set, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle top evenly with cheese. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until golden brown and crisp, 10 to 15 minutes more. Set aside to let cool briefly, then slice and serve.

Note: this is a forgiving recipe, but the texture will be a little too chewy if you leave out the vegetables. Try different combos of spices and see what you like the best. Me, I always splash in a little hot sauce because I love hot sauce!

The Great Ongoing Scarcity Hoax Rant

My new short story, BETTER TO BITE, coming out from Muse It Up March 15th, pre-order here for 20% off until then!
Here's my rant:

The publishing world continues to change daily. E-books have destroyed all of the old ways. And yet, and yet, some of the publishers, especially the big traditional publishers, plus some of the (physical) bookstores and some of the agents continue to insist that it is 1982, or earlier, perhaps 1882.

One of the reasons for scarcity is the old belief that readers hate to read and will only real a very limited amount of books. Newsflash! Readers love to read. Their limited reading has been self-imposed by a publishing world that again, because it was only print, could only provide a limited amount of titles.

Plus, because in the old days books had to sell enough to pay for print runs, the old-fashioned publishers (and agents) often rejected and still do reject new untried new authors--the authors who could not prove a track record. There were plenty of reasons to reject, and very few to accept. Often, perhaps even usually, it has little to do with the quality of the work, and much more to do with whether the publisher thought it would appeal to a large enough group of readers to pay for the print run.

Nowhere is this more obvious than with short stories. For decades, publishers have insisted that the huge majority of readers don't read short stories. Another newsflash! Readers love short stories, when they can buy them cheap and not as an expensive hardback anthology or expensive printed magazine.

The one annoying thing about all of this? The scarcity is now a hoax! It no longer exists! But I hate when new authors quit writing because their writings don't fit a narrow band of old time traditional publisher requirements.

Having written this rant, I've realized that the annoying hidebound practices of the old-style publishers, agents, and etc. are truly the last gasps of a world no longer relevant.

And that most of all, I'm very grateful and happy with this new world, both as a reader and a writer. I love having oodles of great and different stuff to read, all lengths, all genres. I love how the wonderful publishers of my novels, short stories and articles have published and sold my wide range of different writings. I love the synergy and energy and most of all the abundance of this new world.

So, dear readers, what do you think? I believe we're now in a world of glorious plenty--which brings with it a different set of problems--do you? What's your experience?

A Free Cookbook! With Fairy Stories!

FREE on Kindle through tomorrow, Monday February 18th!
I'm trying something new in my writing life. For the first time ever, I'm self published! It's The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook. Here's a taste of one of the recipes:



BROWN SUGAR CHOCOLATE COOKIE BARS
Ingredients:1 cup butter, softened1 cup brown sugar1-3 teaspoons vanilla2 cups unbleached flour1 to 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour. Stir in chocolate. Press into a 15” x 10” x 1” pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until a lovely medium brown. Cut into squares and remove while still warm (if you wait you’ll never get it out of the pan). Really yummy while warm too.
Variation: add a cup of chopped walnuts, peanuts or pecans. You can substitute nuts for the chocolate as well, but why?
 Since this is my first try at self publishing anything and my first go round KDP Select I have a few questions.
So readers I'd be thrilled if you downloaded my cookbook and let me know:
Do you think the stories and recipes together work? Or?
If you are a writer, and have experience with KDP Select, what do you think?
And everyone, how do you like my recipes? Be honest!
And many thanks!

Taking Time and Quick Peanut Butter Cookies!

Four ingredient, flourless, fast and easy peanut butter cookies!
Oh, my, we're mid-January!  That's why this post is about taking time. As creative people we tend to forget that everything about our writing life takes time, often more time than we think. After all, aren't we doing what we love? Shouldn't it be easy and quick? Then, when it takes more time we beat up on ourselves. Which of course takes more time!

My suggestion is to give ourselves a break, which will take less time. Everyone is different, especially when it comes to being creative. Or as my mother always said, "It takes the time it takes."

So take time.

And in honor of her wise words here's a quick and easy recipe to make and eat for some more creative energy!

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky with no sugar added
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream together all ingredients until well mixed. Use a tablespoon to scoop round and place on cookie sheet (these cookies don't puff up much).  Cross hatch on top, flattening slightly.
 Bake 350 degrees at around 10 minutes.

Variations (pictured above):
Press peanut halves into dough before baking or mini chocolate chips or both--yum!