Kate Collins's Blog, page 323

Cooking through the Grief

by Kate Collins

Thanksgiving has always been my responsibility. My siblings and I started rotating holidays years ago, when our mother decided we were all grown up enough to assume the duties. Somehow along the way the rotation stopped with the turkey dial pointing toward me. I really didn't mind.

This year, however, because of the recent passing of my husband, I was dreading it. The thought of celebrating without my Greek saddened and terrified me. We had been such a team -- planning, shopping, preparing, and cleaning up together -- that I couldn't imagine doing it without him.

In stepped my children and step-daughter, who performed like the troopers they are.

Instead of purchasing a prepared bird complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, as I was ready to do, they decided we should make everything from scratch. So we started early Thursday morning with the turkey, then moved on to a homemade gravy mix, homemade stuffing using gluten-free bread, and skin-on smashed potatoes. Our last task was preparing homemade apple crisp, which we popped into the oven just as the rest of the family descended.

Sadly, the apple crisp was forgotten in the crush and nearly burned up. But it was definitely crisp.

Everyone brought a dish and a dessert, so we had plenty of food to feed the crowd. We came together as a family, prayed together for our absent ones, ate together, and, as promised, the kids cleaned up afterward. At the end of the day the four of us were exhausted. We collapsed onto the sofa together with a contented sigh – and then realized we'd had a good day. Good days are hard to come by when grieving.

Cooking together was our therapy. It allowed us to work as a team, sharing laughs, concerns, and hopes, even as the kids learned kitchen skills that will last them a life time. I was extremely apprehensive about undertaking the meal, to be hone st, but now I'm so glad we did. One holiday down – and many more to go. I think maybe we'll try baking as therapy for Christmas.

What do you think about cooking as therapy? Do you enjoy working in the kitchen with family or friends? Does baking relax you? Or would you rather order the food and let someone else do the work?

Thankful to Be a Grandmother

by Leann

This past week, my granddaughter, age 3, came to visit with her daddy--aka my son. There were many special moments, ones that made me grateful for aging into this new role. I saw her in September, but that was amid the hoopla of the new granddaughter. I didn't get as much time then with my Maddie as I did this week. The memories:

1. Drinking imaginary tea
2. Playing the piano while she danced. Can't recall the last time I played (and I am not good at all, but Maddie didn't care.)
3. A visit to the library, where she saw Grandma's picture on the door (I'm speaking there next week)
4. Watching her sit on her grandpa's lap at the Disney movie and huddle close to him during the scary parts.
5. Asking us to make our dog Rosie do her "magic tricks," which include sitting up, rolling over--regular dog stuff, but amazing to her.
6. Maddie asking if she could "borrow" my cats and take them to her house for a while. So cute.
7. Naming the people in the photos on the wall--all relatives--and hear her say under her breath, "That's my family." My heart melted.



Can you guess I had a wonderful Thanksgiving? What about you? Any new things for the memory bank?

And All Without A Recipe . . .

By Lorna
I am not a great cook--but I'm getting better!

Yesterday I was just going to make a turkey salad sandwich and a turkey pot pie out of the leftovers.  But after I got the bird out of the roasting pan, I figured--why not just get it all over with in one day instead of drawing the whole leftover prep out over the weekend.

Up first--lunch!  Turkey salad.  (Mmmmm....  It was delish.)  I denuded the skeleton (isn't it funny to think of a turkey skeleton?), got out the soup pot and toss in all the bones.  I boiled them for three hours.  Meanwhile, I got my veggies ready for the soup and the turkey pie.  Of course, lunch intervened, and by the time I'd strained the broth from the bones, I'd forgotten which bowl of veggies was what and dumped my turkey pie veggies in the soup.  Oh, what the heck--I figured and dumped the rest of the veggies in the soup, too.  Then I dumped in the meat that came off the bones.  Whoa--this is one pretty thick soup.

I used a bunch of leftovers for my turkey pie, too.  Leftover gravy, leftover pearl onions in white sauce, tossed in a can of chicken broth, more veggies and lots of meat.  Whoa!  Using the onion sauce and gravy really gave my pie a great taste.

I made eveything without a recipe.  I like the feeling I get when tossing stuff together and it coming out tasting very fine indeed.  (Secret ingredient in both the soup and pie:  a pinch of herbs de Provence--but just a pinch--that spice packs a lot of whollop!)

What great tasting food do you make without a recipe?

Black Friday

By Heather

How many of you are braving the stores today? Waking up early? Elbowing your way through the crowds?

I have to admit the sales are pretty tempting. And the advertising is topnotch, luring us in with deals, deals, deals.

Me? I'll be at home, nice and cozy, doing my best not to go out. Deals or no, that kind of traffic and those kinds of crowds—I can feel the migraine coming on just thinking about it.

But lucky me, I have a computer and a credit card and I know how to use them! I'll be doing a little online shopping today, trying to find the best deals in town while never leaving home.

How about you? Staying in or headed out?

~Heather

To Show My Gratitude...Free books!

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!
This is the day to count our blessings and so I would like to offer you the reader, the lurker, the regular poster, the first-time visitor,a show of gratitude by giving away two signed copies of Black Beans & Vice.
All you have to do is name an author or book title that made you feel grateful for what you have. You know things like donuts, snow globes, pets, children, stars, spring rain, the smell of pumpkin, your parents).
I'll go first. Anything written by Charles Dickens reminds me of how lucky we are to live in this country and that even when times are hard, we've got it better than most.
Enjoy the food and the company and thanks again! Happy Thanksgiving!

Beaujolais Nouveau = Holiday Time

Last Thursday was the official release day for this year's first harvest Gama grapes, handpicked in the Beaujolais region of France. Beaujolais Nouveau! Every year, I wait impatiently for the third Thursday of November when I can finally purchase this fine wine. There have been years when I had to stock up as fast as possible because it sold out. That's how popular it is.

Beaujolais Nouveau isn't a sweet wine, but because its fermented for only a few weeks, it retains all those wonderful fruity flavors - strawberry, black currant, bananas, pears....with no tannin.

And I've discovered that a lightly chilled bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau is the perfect wine to serve with turkey. If you are a wine lover like me and you haven't tried this one, now's the time.

You know what I'll be drinking tomorrow. How about you? 

Giving Thanks

When you read this post, I'll already be back in Northern Virginia, doing some book business and spending time with my family. I'm joining my daughter Christine's family for Thanksgiving Dinner as I did last year. Son-in-law Tim's parents will also join us, so it'll be a full table. I love, love, love the Thanksgiving feast. So, we'll all probably need to go on diets the day afterwards.


In the spirit on Thanksgiving, I wanted my post for today to be one of Gratitude. There is SO very much I am grateful for, that I thought I'd get started expressing my thanks now.
First of all, I am grateful for my abundant Good Health. Without that, nothing else is possible.
Second, I am grateful for my family and friends, who despite all my craziness still manage to love me---and put up with me. :) .
Next, I am OVERWHELMINGLY grateful to you readers and fans of the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries. You have made these mysteries the big bestsellers that they are, and I am continually amazed at the growing readership and support. Again, Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

Next, I am grateful to ALL the crazy characters that constantly pop into my head and demand to be put on the page.


Next, I am thankful for the ability to travel and meet so many new people and booksellers and shop owners throughout the USA during the year.

There are scores of smaller things I'm thankful for, but I'd rather hear what you folks have to say. What are YOU thankful for this Thanksgiving? What has happened in your life?
And-----Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Holiday Meal Stories, Anyone?

by Leann

This is the time of year when the stories are written, when the memories are made. The holiday season is upon us. I'm searching for the good memories, trying exceptionally hard to be positive. My son and his growing family will be in Texas with us next week and I want to make some memories my oldest granddaughter won't forget. She already has a sense of humor, after all. Funny is best, in my book!

I have been searching back for some good holiday memories and for me, as a writer, it always comes back to characters. Take my grandfather. He was one funny guy. I can picture him at the head of the huge dining room table in my grandparents' home (there were a LOT of grandkids), the table filled with food, making us all laugh. He had that Irish twinkle in his eyes and always made me feel like whatever joke he told, it was just between him and me. Then there was the shared family joke. Everyone participated. Grandpa hated carrots with a passion. Yet we ALWAYS had carrots for the holiday dinners and every one of us would make sure and ask Grandpa if he'd like some. Doesn't that tell you something about my quiet, little Grandma, the one who made sure we had those carrots on the table? She knew how to make a memory. Smart lady.

On my mother's side of the family, I had an aunt who never needed an energy drink. She was born caffeinated. The meals she made for Thanksgiving were as if she started and just couldn't stop--and this was before the days of allrecipes.com where every day I'm getting a new photo of something I would love to make. She just had the ideas for the meal in her head. What a concept? There may have been a dozen of us for holiday dinners, but she could have fed fifty. And she never sat down during the meal, running from one end of the table to the other to make sure my brother had the stuffing (we actually called it "dressing") or my sister had enough mashed potatoes. Then, after we'd filled our plates twice, she'd come up behind one of us and dump some side dish on that person's dish. "Don't want to throw this out," she'd say. Without fail, because of the volume of food, she forgot something in the oven or in the fridge that she would bring out later as we all lay on the living room floor stuffed like that turkey had been. "Who's ready for flaky dinner rolls?" I can hear her say. "They're a little too brown, but still good." I am smiling as I remember. Gosh, I loved that woman.

What about you? Any memories about the those holiday meals and why you remember them so vividly? It's the people not the food, is my guess.

Do they really sell books?

By Lorna

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise to readers that authors spend just as much time on promotion as they do writing.  (Or at least quite a few of us do.)  This promotion comes in many forms:  sending out postcards and bookmarks, showing up on Facebook, Goodreads, Myspace and Twitter, and making personal appearances.

As I mentioned last week, I'm doing a craft show today (which is why I'll be scarce for comments until late in the day).  I don't do a lot of personal appearances out of my area because I don't fly.  I am scared witless of it -- and considering all the hassles involved in air travel these days, I feel even more determined never to fly again.  (There's a reason God didn't give us wings.)  Therefore, I do a lot of my promotion from from my computer keyboard.

One of the most fun things to do for promotion is to make a book trailer.  Sadly, I don't have the technical know-how, but luckily I have friends who do.  Right now Jennifer Stanley and I are working on a book trailer for my first Victoria Square Mystery.  I've never been very good at writing a synopsis (ask my editor), but for some reason I'm better at writing a book trailer script.  Boiling the story down to a couple of sentences was actually kind of fun. Finding the pictures was even more fun.  Now to see what Jennifer comes up with for the music, the timing, etc.  (That's the really hard part.)

This will be my fourth book trailer.  The others are:

Dead In Red
Bookmarked for Death
Chapter & Hearse

And if you like those, don't forget to see all the Cozy Chicks' book trailers right here.

I'll let you know via Facebook and my blog when the new trailer is available.

So, do you like book trailers?  Do you think they entice readers to buy books?  What are some of your favorite trailers?  (Please share the links in the comments section.)

Multitasking

By Heather

I'm not sure when it happened. That I turned from a competent multi-tasking woman to a…someone who's not. Somewhere between raising three kids, writing books, keeping house (not well, but still) and doing all the ordinary everyday things, I've changed.

I'm scattered. My short-term memory is history. Kaput. Gone fishing with its buddies, focus and motivation.

Now I'm lucky if I can walk and chew gum at the same time. It takes all my concentration to work on any one task. For example, if I get a phone call—everything must stop so I can focus on what the caller is saying—or I lose track. Don't get me wrong--I still get everything done--it just takes much longer than it used to.

I realized just how bad my focus has become when it was pointed out to me that my voice mail on my cell phone wasn't working. I hadn't noticed. That's not the worse part. When I called AT&T for help, the nice man on the phone (great customer service, btw) told me my voicemail box had been disabled (techno issue) since…wait for it…April.

Yeah. No wonder I wasn't getting any messages with all those missed calls.

So, I'm not altogether sure why this is happening. I blame getting older. And having three kids (nothing saps brain cells faster than kids). But what I want to know is how I get back to my multi-tasking self. Any thoughts? I've already started playing more brain games—word games, specifically. Word searches, Scrabble, crosswords.

Do you think there's any hope for me? Has this happened to any of you?