Jamie Farrell's Blog, page 20

The Best Ever Magic Peach Cobbler

Every once in a  while, I get a girls’ night out. A couple Fridays ago was one of those nights. There was a wine and good food potluck at a fellow military spouse’s house, and since I had peaches in the freezer that I needed to use before we move, and since SuperHubby and I lived in Georgia (home of Georgia peaches, which are way special) for four years before the kids came along, and because this recipe is magic, I made peach cobbler.

Y’all want the recipe?

Here you go, adapted from a recipe in the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival Cookbook!

6 tablespoons of butter

1 cup sugar

¾ cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspon salt

¾ cup milk

2 cups peaches

1 cup sugar

Cinnamon and ginger to taste

Mix 2 cups peaches with 1 cup sugar and cinnamon and ginger as desired.

Preheat oven to 350. Put butter in bottom of 8×8 glass pan, and put the pan in the oven until the butter is melted.

Combine 1 cup sugar with the flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. Mix well.

Pour the batter into the middle of the melted butter. (Do NOT stir!! This is part of the magic.)

Dump the peaches on top of the batter. (Still do NOT stir! More magic!!)

Put it all back in the oven and bake for 1 hour. And try to not sit there at your oven and stare at the cobbler top rising through the peaches.

Note: You can double the recipe, but make sure you put it in at least a 9×13 pan. Otherwise you’ll lose half the great topping because it will bubble over the edges, and that’s like magic gone bad, which will make unicorns cry. And you don’t want to make unicorns cry.

I’m hiding from the world today, working my fingers to the bones getting The Husband Games cleaned up for my critique partners, but I’ll pop in when I can. So tell me. What’s your favorite way to eat peaches?

For the month of May, I’m giving away a surprise to one blog commenter. A surprise, you say? That’s right, a surprise! It could be anything! Want to enter? Just comment on any blog that I post in the month of May. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

A Year of Happy Mondays – SuperHubby’s Home Edition!

SuperHubby surprised me Saturday night by arriving home a full eighteen hours earlier than I expected him after his 5-week trip to Morocco! And because I don’t call him SuperHubby for nothin’, by the time you read this my bags will be packed for an impromptu writer-girl getaway. (And hopefully I’ll have some fun news from that soon, but I have other fun news coming later this week! Hint: It’s related to a certain book that was recently named a finalist in a National Readers’ Choice Award.)

With my family all back together again, I’m already smiling, but in the spirit of Happy Mondays, here are today’s ten smiles!

10. That when SuperHubby was away and a wasp came down my chimney, it was the only one, so I didn’t have to call the exterminator and evacuate my house.

9. That when SuperHubby was away, I was strong enough to drag in our massive folding ladder and climb all the way to the top and change the batteries in the two highest smoke detectors in the house without falling off. (Bonus: the smoke detectors waited until we were awake to start chirping!)

8. That when the bad storms came through our area last week, the kids and I had a safe place to huddle together and the storms passed us by without damage.

7. That SuperHubby flew through Paris on his way home. (Paris layovers for SuperHubby mean Parisian chocolates for me!)

6. Friends. Awesome friends who watched my kids occasionally the last five weeks are amazing.

5. FaceTime and Skype. While SuperHubby was gone, the kids (especially Buttercup!) loved talking to Daddy on the computer.

4. That Squeaker wanted to go visit SuperHubby at Ms. Rocco’s house. (He did eventually learn to say “Morocco” correctly, and in fact, upon seeing SuperHubby yesterday morning, proclaimed, “Hey! You are in Morocco!”)

3. That I wrote The End on the semi-final draft of The Husband Games about fifteen minutes before SuperHubby called Saturday night to say, “Hey, can you come unlock the front door?”

2. That none of my children got sick while SuperHubby was gone, despite both Munchkin and Squeaker threatening it at one time or another.

1. And–completely unrelated–Trace Adkins’ hit “Swing”. The song itself is fun, but the video totally cracks me up! Make sure you watch through the pitcher’s attempts. Juvenile and absolutely hilarious!

Hope y’all have as happy of a Monday as I plan on having! And remember to comment on Friday’s post to enter to win books by Barbara Samuel, Dorothy Garlock, and more!

For the month of May, I’m giving away a surprise to one blog commenter. A surprise, you say? That’s right, a surprise! It could be anything! Want to enter? Just comment on any blog that I post in the month of May. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

Help A Military Wife Move in May!

If it’s Friday, it must be time for another giveaway and winner! Great way to start a weekend, right?

Super congratulations to last week’s Historical Romance bundle winner,

Pamela M.!!

Pamela, shoot me an email at jamie @ jamiefarrellbooks . com (no spaces), and I’ll get your books in the mail right away!

We have a couple weeks before we’re down to the wire on our move, and I still have boxes of books to give away. How about some women’s fiction this week?

To enter, just comment below and tell me your favorite kind of dessert. Because I’m working hard on The Husband Games, and because I have more exciting news coming soon about Southern Fried Blues, and because in a dessert kind of mood. Happy weekend, y’all! Winner announced next Friday!

 

For the month of May, I’m giving away a surprise to one blog commenter. A surprise, you say? That’s right, a surprise! It could be anything! Want to enter? Just comment on any blog that I post in the month of May. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

Spring Love, Zoo Style

Today’s post is dedicated to SuperHubby. Because it’s the First of May.

WINNERS!! New Month! New Contest! Details below! But first… a little story.

We decided to take the family to the zoo the other day.

And the kids thought it was really sweet that the jaguars were snuggling.

 

Those jaguars already have three cubs. Somebody needs to tell them where babies come from. And you don’t want to know what I saw the parakeets doing either.

WINNER WINNERS!!!

Congratulations to Pam M.!! She won April’s Blog giveaway! Pam, email me at jamie @ jamiefarrellbooks . com (no spaces) with your address and your choice of either SOUTHERN FRIED BLUES or MR. GOOD ENOUGH, and I’ll get your signed copy in the mail right away! And I’ve contacted Jennifer E., who won my monthly newsletter subscriber contest too!

Sign up for my newsletter (CLICK HERE!!) to be keep in the loop on the latest news, and also to be entered in May’s newsletter subscriber giveaway! And keep reading for May’s blog contest!

For the month of May, I’m giving away a surprise to one blog commenter. A surprise, you say? That’s right, a surprise! It could be anything! Want to enter? Just comment on any blog that I post in the month of May. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

Southern Charm At Its Finest

I’m still so tickled that Southern Fried Blues is a finalist in the OKRWA’s National Readers Choice Awards! So today, here’s a fun little snippet. I dare you to read and not fall in love with Jackson.

p.s. Don’t forget – today’s the last day to enter to win April’s monthly contests!

* * *

After Jackson made sure Radish, his old spaniel, was fed and watered and happy, he made himself scarce before Momma got hold of him and made him stay for dinner. He had a date at the bowling alley. Didn’t take long to find Mamie and her crew. Only had to look for the gray-hairs with the highest scores.

“Gimme a minute to get this here strike, sugarplum,” Mamie called as he approached. “I got me a game to win.”

When she grinned big like that, her face exploded in wrinkles, but she was still near about the prettiest thing he’d seen today. Near about. “Go on and make me proud, Mamie.”

He settled in with her normal crowd, asking after Miss Flo’s great-grandbabies and Miss Dolly’s poodle while Mamie cleaned up the lane. Miss Ophelia must’ve seen him coming, because she walked into the pit with a big old cup of root beer like she used to when he was shoulder-high to an armadillo. “You’re sweet as ever, Miss O. How’re them boyfriends treating you?”

“Ain’t you a sugar-pie, worrying over little old me,” she said with a pinch to his cheek.

“Aw, shucks, ma’am, it ain’t nothing. Just making sure you’re keeping Mamie stocked with ideas for those books of hers.”

The ladies tittered. Down the lane, ten pins exploded against the back wall. Mamie pumped her fist in the air. “Eat my ashes, you old biddies,” she called.

Jackson gave her a high five, then helped her off the lane. Not that she needed it. She’d probably be handing him his own cane some day, rate she was going. “Ain’t you a little young to be trash-talking like that?” he said.

She gave him a squeeze. “Such a charmer, you. Go on and fetch me my phone. I gotta Tweet the score.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After Mamie updated her Twitter and Facebook accounts, and after Miss Dolly and Miss Flo got on their phones and fired back some gently bred insults of their own, Jackson followed the ladies up to the snack bar and treated them to a pizza party.

“You planning on sticking around a while this time?” Mamie asked over the normal din of the bowling alley. “Us girls could use a strong handsome man to fetch our balls.”

“What’s wrong with my Cletus?” Miss Ophelia said. “I thought he done a right good job of ball-fetching.”

“But he ain’t the looker Jackson here is.” Miss Dolly wiggled her penciled-in eyebrows. “He grew up right pretty, he did.”

“Right perfect,” Mamie corrected.

Jackson grinned. These sweet old gals could show a Yankee girl how to flatter a man. “I ain’t got nothing on you fine ladies, and you know it.”

“You keep sweet-talking, I’m gonna start thinking you’re here looking for something,” Mamie said.

“Just looking for time with my favorite gals,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” Miss Dolly said. Miss Flo stretched her neck out and peered at him over her glasses.

Miss Ophelia adjusted her hair. “What’s her name, and how far along is she?”

Jackson choked on his root beer.

“Now why would you think that about my sweet Jackson?” Mamie demanded. “He might could have a couple other things bothering him.” She dropped her voice and leaned into him. “It ain’t a girl, is it, sugarplum?”

Jackson wiped his mouth. “No girl,” he assured her.

She pinned him with the same stare his daddy’d always used. “You getting out of the service?”

He’d be getting out about as soon as he’d be planning on being a daddy himself, and Mamie knew it. “Got orders.”

All four women sucked in a breath as one. Miss Flo gave herself the sign of the cross.

“You be careful over there, y’hear?” Miss Ophelia said.

“Moving orders,” Jackson clarified.

Their breaths whooshed out as one too.

“To Gellings.”

Mamie let out a whoop, and Miss Ophelia gave his cheek another pinch. “Don’t you be scaring us like that, y’hear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a chuckle.

“You looking to settle down while you’re here?” Miss Flo wanted to know. “I got a granddaughter about your age. She’s real nice. Bakes good biscuits too.”

“That means she ain’t got the looks God gave a porcupine, bless her heart,” Miss Ophelia said.

“She’s a real sweet girl,” Miss Flo insisted.

“That she is,” Miss Dolly agreed. Miss Ophelia added an “Mm-hmm,” but Mamie rapped a knuckle on the table. “Y’all leave my grandbaby alone. Just ’cuz he’s back here in God’s country with all these nice Southern girls don’t mean he’s gonna pick the first one what comes along. He’s gonna be trying biscuits all over half the state when the mommas find out he’s come home, you mark my words. How long you gonna be here, sugarplum?”

“Couple years.” But he wouldn’t be sampling just any biscuits. A few assignments ago he would’ve, but he’d learned the hard way when he sampled the biscuits, the biscuit baker expected him to bring home the butter.

* * *

Want more? Get your copy of Southern Fried Blues at:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble |  Kobo |  iBooks  |  Google Play  | Smashwords

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

The Glamorous Life of a Romance Writer

Saturday, I was notified that Southern Fried Blues is a finalist in the National Readers Choice Award for Best First Book! I’m so honored and surprised and absolutely thrilled. Huge thank you to OKRWA for sponsoring the contest and to the coordinators and judges for all their hard work and dedication!

And let me tell you, that high was the only thing that got me through yesterday. Because yesterday, Squeaker attempted to get run over by a car in a driveway, Munchkin hit an upside-down step stool instead of the toilet, and Buttercup dumped an entire cup of apple juice on her head. (I think this is my children’s way of keeping me humble.) And that was before a stray cat made my cats go freaky-crazy in the middle of a tornado watch.

But the other good news is that I’m making great headway on edits for The Husband Games. If all goes well (knock on wood), I’ll have some exciting updates before we move in early June. I’m working hard to make this book the best I’ve ever written, and I can’t wait to tell y’all more about it!!

Official Cover Coming Soon

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

A Year of Happy Mondays – Best of Strawberries Edition

We went strawberry-picking this weekend, which all the kids loved, and now I’m up to my ears in berry heaven. Which means today, all ten of my smiles are about strawberries!

The Top Ten Ways to Eat Strawberries

10. Cheesecake stuffed strawberries (I haven’t tried these, but I want to, and I imagine they taste like little bits of heaven.)

9. Strawberry ice cream (This Ben & Jerry’s recipe is our favorite!)

8. Strawberry daiquiris (It’s like springtime wine. Very necessary after a day of shrieking, streaking children.)

7. Grandma’s Strawberry Cake (If you only try one strawberry cake recipe in your whole entire life, this is the one.)

6. Chocolate covered strawberries (Yum.)

5. Fresh strawberries, plain or with whipped cream (Sometimes, simple is perfect.)

4. Strawberries in crepes (Y’all. If you click one link today, click this one! OMG!! Looks so fantastic! We eat our crepes too fast to gather enough for this recipe, but one day… one day, I will.)

3. Strawberry shortcake (or chocolate strawberry shortcake)

2. Strawberry pie (My first strawberry pie came from A Slice of Pie in Rolla, Missouri, which is the very best pie shop in the entire world. Y’all, Anna bakes pies in Southern Fried Blues because A Slice of Pie changed my life. So even though she didn’t make Jackson a strawberry pie (it wasn’t strawberry season), you can trust me when I say she knows how. And her pies are awesome.)

1. Strawberry pizza with ricotta and Nutella (Doesn’t that sound amazing?! I bought Nutella and ricotta yesterday so I can force my children to sample this. I like to torture them. Obviously.)

If you’re not feeling the Monday love, I hope you’re feeling the strawberry love. Have a great week, and enjoy the rest of April. You have a couple more days to get your comments in to be entered to win April’s monthly contest, and remember to enter to win Friday’s Help A Military Wife Move Giveaway featuring historical romances by Gaelen Foley, Victoria Alexander, and Teresa Bodwell!

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

 

 

Keep Helping This Military Wife Move!

Y’all have been fantastic in volunteering new homes for the books I need to pass along, and it’s time to announce this week’s winner and put the next box of books up for volunteers!

Drum roll please….

The winner of last week’s bundle of books is…

bbbaddict!!!

Congratulations, bbbaddict! Send me an email (jamie @ jamiefarrellbooks . com, no spaces) with your address, and I’ll get the books out to you right away!

Y’all ready to see what’s up next?

(Historical Romances were my first love. And this box might have a bonus surprise book in it.)

These books need good homes, y’all! Comment to enter. How about this week, while I’m working on edits for The Husband Games, you tell me about your favorite music? Favorite band, favorite artist, favorite kind of music, any or all! Just tell me what you like to listen to.

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

Munchkin’s Favorite Restaurant

Munchkin had a birthday recently. Things have been a little harried with getting ready to move, but we took a day and made it special, going out shopping (toy stores, of course) and for lunch.

Because it was his birthday, I asked him where he wanted to go.

Kid didn’t hesitate. “Hooters!”

Thanks, Grandma. You’ve ruined him for life.

(Before you ask–yes, Grandma takes him to Hooters. She thought it would be funny to watch SuperHubby’s reaction. Poor Grandma. All SuperHubby did was man-grunt and say, “Good wings.”)

What’s your favorite birthday tradition?

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.

A Southern Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Rid of Fire Ants

It’s been a while since we’ve had a nice long excerpt. And I’m in a mood to fall in love with Jackson Davis again.

So, today, here’s a little something from Southern Fried Blues. Enjoy!

* * *

Anna braced herself, scooted into the car, and cranked the engine. Steam flowed out of the air vents. She tilted them away while the AC system caught up. After buckling in, she gave her rearview mirrors a quick check. The gearshift seared her palm, but she gritted her teeth and put the car in reverse anyway.

Something tickled her finger. She absently scratched it and gave the car a little gas. Something else tickled the back of her hand.

She frowned.

Sweat didn’t usually tickle. Not like that.

She moved to shift the car into drive and something dark scurried over her windshield. “What the—”

A line of fire ants marched across her steering wheel.

Anna shrieked. She threw the car into park and tumbled out of it. “Get off! Get off!” She raked her hands over her arms and hopped on her clogs to shake the little buggers off. The prickles moved to her back, up her neck, into her hair. She knew the ants couldn’t be up there, there’d only been one or two, but she scrubbed at her scalp anyway.

“Ma’am? You okay?” A guy leaned out the side of a red car behind her. She was blocking one of the exits.

“Oh, yeah, sure, you betcha.” She wiggled her itching toes. “Sorry. It’ll just take me a minute to get out of your way.”

Her car’s engine whined. Heat radiated off the hood and wrinkled the air. The backs of her knees tingled as if a hundred ants had gathered there for an impromptu Riverdance.

A car door shut behind her. “Need a hand?” he drawled in a local-boy kind of way.

“Everything’s fine. Thanks.” Because she carried insect-killer in her car all the time in case her car came down with a case of the ants.

It took some effort to not reach for her phone. This was the kind of thing Neil would’ve taken care of for her. And it pissed her off that she wanted to let the man approaching solve her problem.

She was an independent woman, dammit. She’d fix this herself. She squared her shoulders, marched to the edge of her door, and hit her trunk release. She scooted around the car to survey the potential ant weapons in her trunk. She had to have something useful. Maybe she could club them one by one with her jumper cables. Shoot her emergency flares at them. Drop the box of Neil’s junk on them. Label them to death with the label maker.

It’d worked on her marriage.

And there was that stingy feeling behind her eyeballs again.

Long runner’s legs ending in flip-flop–clad feet entered her blurred vision. “You got some friends there.”

If Neil had to leave her, he should’ve done it somewhere else. Somewhere without fire ants, somewhere more hospitable to her Norwegian coloring, somewhere with halfway intelligent locals. She shot her audience a look she should’ve tried on the ants. “Where I come from, they’re called a nuisance.”

Instead of shriveling up and dying, he flashed her a goofy grin. His dark-lashed eyes creased in the corners.

Those lashes and the mass of just-long-enough-to-be-curly hair on his head were proof positive a man could have brains or looks, but not both.

And that tingly sensation along her breastbone was proof positive she had no business being single. First she agreed to a date with Rodney, now she was getting hot over a redneck.

She was supposed to be worrying about the ants. Class. Her life.

He scratched his curly hair and surveyed her neatly organized trunk.

As if he could wield her jumper cables better than she could against an army of fire ants.

Instead, he swung her Windex out of the trunk like a gunslinger preparing for a showdown, then tucked her paper towels under his arm.

“My car is very—” she started, but then it hit her.

He wasn’t going to clean it.

Carbon-based ants, meet ammonia.

Forgetting simple chemistry principles was not a good omen for her degree.

Wanting to watch her unexpected helper go to battle against the ants wasn’t a good omen for her sanity.

Her skin flushed as if she were standing inside Hell’s boiler room. She reached for the Windex, but something stopped her before she could get close enough to grab it.

Something that tasted suspiciously like fear.

Not of him.

Of herself.

“I’ll do it,” she bit out. She flicked her fingers up, gesturing for him to hand over the Windex.

“Ain’t no trouble.” His gaze wandered down her body, and she felt a whomp in her chest beneath the tingles spreading to her rib cage.

“Be a shame to mess up them pretty clothes,” he said.

“I can handle this,” she said firmly. She gestured to his car. “There’s another exit two rows down. I’ve taken enough of your time.”

His eyes were big and blue as her wounded heart, but when he squinted at her like that, they went a shade darker to cobalt. “Now I’m sure it don’t matter none to you, but my momma’d have my hide if she heard I abandoned a lady with critters in her car.”

* * *

Southern Fried Blues. Get your copy now now at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play | Smashwords

 

For the month of April, I’m giving away a signed copy of the winner’s choice of Southern Fried Blues or Mr. Good Enough! To enter, just leave a comment on any blog post. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win! Limit one entry per post, though feel free to comment as much as you wish! Full contest rules here.