Marie Bostwick's Blog, page 24

Meet the Green Chile Egg Puff, the Best Christmas Morning Recipe in the World

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet because we all probably have a few things to do this week.

Every family has their own traditions when it come to Christmas morning. I love holding on to these and enjoying them year after year. (Like forcing my children to watch It’s a Wonderful Life, much to their chagrin).

But I also love finding new traditions.

What I’ve learned since I’ve acquired three beautiful and advanced daughters-in-law is that new members of the family mean new traditions.

One of my daughters-in-law who lives in Oklahoma has a Christmas morning tradition of egg casserole. But not just any egg casserole, mind you. This one has a southwestern flair of green chiles speckled throughout the whole cheesey, gooey, decadent dish.

Let’s just say I request this every time I’m in town. I forget about the calories and the Weight Watchers Freestyle points and just enjoy every. last. indulgent. bite.

Enjoy your Christmas traditions and don’t forget to try new ones from time to time!

Here’s the recipe for the best Christmas morning recipe in the world.

Print

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Meet the Green Chile Egg Puff, the Best Christmas Morning Recipe in the World




Author: Marie Bostwick







Print Recipe
Pin Recipe






Ingredients



10 eggs, beaten


1 tablespoon butter


1/2 cup flour


1 teaspoon baking powder


1/2 teaspoon salt


16 ounces small curd cottage cheese


1/2 cup butter, melted


1/2 pound Monterey jack cheese, grated


1/2 pound Monterey Jack jalapeño cheese, grated


4 oz can of chopped green chiles


1 pound sausage, ham, or bacon, cooked (optional)








Instructions

Butter a 9 x 13 x 2 inch glass baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter.  Mix remaining ingredients together in large mixing bowl.  Pour in baking dish, then bake uncovered at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes, until slightly browned.  Cut into squares. Top it off with salsa or guacamole and serve with mimosas!

Notes

This isn’t the healthiest. I’ll be honest.  Just remember, this is a dish for special occasions! It deserves to be special.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @fiercebeyond50 on Instagram and hashtag it #fiercebeyond50

The post Meet the Green Chile Egg Puff, the Best Christmas Morning Recipe in the World appeared first on Fierce Beyond 50.

The Sap Gene

If you've read my Too Much, Texas novels, BETWEEN HEAVEN AND TEXAS and FROM HERE TO HOME, you already know that the women in Mary Dell Templeton's family suffer from The Fatal Flaw - an unfortunate tendency for these otherwise sensible women to, "at some point, and sometimes at many points, allow lust and biology to trump morality and reason". As you can imagine, this causes the Tudmore-Templeton women no end of trouble.

A reader who just finished those books just wrote me a little story about her own family's "Fatal Flaw" - something they call The Sap Gene. Though the consequences of this condition aren't quite as dire as those that Mary Dell and her family wrangle with, this is a weakness I'm sure that many of us can relate to so I thought I'd share the story. Enjoy!

"My mother taught herself to sew and raised 4 daughters, teaching them all to sew. We were in 4H and won lots of awards so it was no secret that we were a sewing household. Soon neighbors and church friends were asking my mother to do sewing and mending for them.

Once we "girls" were out of the house, she began quilting. One of her early projects caused her a lot of trouble and as we often do, she tucked it away for another day. After a couple of attempts at finishing the quilt she decided it was 'too much' and tucked it in a bag and dropped it off at the local thrift store.

Sunday morning at coffee after church a friend of hers dashed up, bag in hand and said, "Look what I found at the thrift store! Can you finish it for me?"

Yes it was her quilt. She took it home never telling the lady the story behind the quilt. Our family has the inability to say "No" when asked to help. We call it the 'Sap Gene' on our DNA. You would call it our Fatal Flaw."

A Mother's Day Weekend Story

A couple of weeks ago, my oldest son ran a half marathon. He texted an image of his route and times to everybody in the family with the question, "So what did you do today?"

Daughter-In-Love #1, wife of a pastor and mother to a 5 and 3 year old, plus an infant, responded with this...

"I woke up early with the baby, unclogged the toilet - twice- cleaned up mashed banana from my hair, unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it again, wrangled three small people into decent outfits, showered AND put my contacts in, and now and EARLY to church.
So...kind of a big deal.

"But 13 miles is good too."

Touche'! Here's to all the Mommas out there. Enjoy your bragging rights, Ladies. You earned them!

Hartford Books Examiner

Oh, how I love it when somebody else does the work of blogging for me and all I have to do is post the link!

Recently, I did an interview with John Valeri of the Hartford Books Examiner. It includes some intriguing tidbits and anecdotes that avid bibliophiles will appreciate, including a one about the time I got hollered at for reading too much. (Can I get an "Amen" fellow Book Nerds?) I think you'll enjoy this.

Here's a link. My interview with John is near the bottom.
http://www.examiner.com/books-in-hart...

Pub Day, Challenge Extension, and a Quiz!

Today is THE day! FROM HERE TO HOME has been released and readers are stampeding into bookstores in a white heat, wrestling one another to grab hold of the hot-off-the-presses copies!

As you can see, I have a rich fantasy life. That's why I write.

In reality, today has begun like most others for me. I got up this morning and did my usual things - made coffee, fed the cat, did some dishes, prayed and journaled, checked in on social media, etc. And, of course, today I will spend several hours writing.

It reminds me of an old Native American proverb I heard somewhere. "Before spiritual enlightenment, you must cut wood and carry water. After spiritual enlightenment, you must cut wood and carry water."

Translation; no matter what is going on in your life, you must attend to the ordinary tasks of living.

Still, cat feeding and dish washing aside, it is an exciting day for me! I've been getting lots of lovely messages from readers who have already gotten their books or are going to bookstores right now. Reading their notes has definitely put a smile on my face. After all, I'm nowhere without readers.

That's why I want to thank everybody who has added FROM HERE TO HOME to their bookshelves so far. I know we didn't get to the 1,000 mark that would let me unlock the first two chapters of FROM HERE TO HOME, but it was a valiant effort! In appreciation, I've decided to extend the challenge for one more week, until April 5th. We can do it!

Also, I want to share a little quiz that my publisher created about me and my books. No prize for getting all the correct answers, but it's kind of a fun thing to do. Enjoy! http://bit.ly/1Rp1AHo

"From Here To Home" Excerpt Challenge!

Only 9 days left until the release of FROM HERE TO HOME!

I gave you a little taste of the book in my previous blog about Role Models and Mentors. Today, I'm throwing out a new challenge.

As I write this, about 775 people have added FROM HERE TO HOME to their bookshelf. If we can boost that number to 1,000 before the March 29th release date, I'll post the first two chapters of the book here on Goodreads.

Ready for the challenge? Let's do this! Here'a a link to the book! http://bit.ly/1pXsVGn

Role Models and Mentors

My new release, From Here To Home (3/29/16) features two very different heroines. Mary Dell Templeton is the 60-something host of a long-running quilting show that has suffered a recent ratings slip. Holly Silva is her 20-something co-host, an ambitious young woman who knows nothing about quilting but whose career hinges on outshining Mary Dell in order to earn her own show.

In these circumstances, how could Mary Dell and Holly fail to become adversaries, which is just what an unscrupulous network executive hopes will happen? How? By becoming comrades instead competitors. Here's an excerpt from chapter 21...

"Mary Dell sat down at one of the tables, motioned for Holly to take the second chair, and then swiveled in her seat so she could face her young co-host directly.

Her expression was uncharacteristically somber, with no trace of a smile on her lips.

“I know that Jason is determined to make sure that the eighth season of Quintessential Quilting will be the last,” she said with no preamble. “I don’t know why he is so set on it, but he is. And he’ll do whatever he can to make it happen, including trying to play us against each other. But we’re not going to fall for that.”

Mary Dell paused. Her gaze was unblinking.

“Are we?” she prodded.

“We’re not,” Holly confirmed. “Neither of us has anything to gain from that. We’d both end up looking bad.”

“Good.”

“But I’m starting to think I’m going to end up looking bad no matter what. Just listening to you talk to that lady about bias binding and sewing curves made my head hurt.” Holly sighed. “I can’t even imagine being able to do that.”

“You will, if you keep up with it. You’ve got more talent than you give yourself credit for. You’ve got color sense, for one thing,” Mary Dell said, nodding toward the bag of brick and gray fat quarters Holly had set down on the table.

“Which, I have to say, comes as a relief. I’ve always relied on Howard to help me with that part. My fabric choices can get a little…Let’s call them exuberant. That’s the word Hub-Jay used once,” she said, a small smile bowing her lips. “It sounds more refined than saying I’ve got no taste.”

“Now who’s not giving themselves credit?” Holly scolded. “I saw you helping that lady pick out the fabrics for her baby quilt. Sure, it was bright and colorful with all that hot pink and lime green, but you didn’t go overboard. Bringing in that bright white for the border and then binding it with pink tied everything together. You’re good with fabric choices.”

“I like what I like,” Mary Dell replied, “and what I like is loud and bright. But I have learned to tone it down a little. Howard and Hub-Jay have been good influences. So, how about we both call ourselves a work in progress?”

“Fair enough,” Holly said. “I just wish I was progressing faster. Really, Mary Dell, I just don’t know how I’m going to keep up with you.”

“You can’t. Not when it comes to quilting.”

Holly opened her eyes, a little surprised by the frankness of her remark.

“That’s not an insult,” Mary Dell said, lifting one hand. “It’s just the way it is. Baby girl, I’ve been quilting since before water was wet. Two weeks ago, you didn’t even know what a bobbin was, let alone how to wind one. If you try to make out like you’re ready to play in the same league as me, you’ll end up looking foolish. And I’ll end up looking mean.

“If we’re going to pull this off, we’ve got to work as a team,” she said, leaning forward a little. “I’ve been mulling it over for the last few days and I think I’ve come up with a way to make your inexperience work for us.”

By becoming Holly's role model and mentor, Mary Dell will find that she learns as much as she teaches and the two women's lives will be changed for the better.

It's a theme that has played out powerfully in my own life. If not for the generosity of a writing teacher who became my mentor more than 20 years ago, I would never have written FROM HERE TO HOME, or any of my other novels. His influence and kindness changed the course of my life in ways that are impossible to measure. It's a debt I can never repay - at least not to him.

What I can do, and have done, is support and guide those who come behind me. In doing so I have discovered, as Mary Dell does, that I get as much as I give.

How about you? Have you had a mentor or been one? How has your life been impacted by that experience?From Here To Home