Free Prizes – 105 Authors – Bake, Love, Write – Cooking and Me

Free Prizes All Month – 105 Authors – Bake, Love, Write – Cooking and Me by Debra H. Goldstein

Even the words themselves make me tremble. Cooking!?   Cookbook!!!!

There are a few things you can always count on from me:  I shoot straight, I have an emotional side but I’m not touchy-feely, and the kitchen is the last room in the house you’d ever expect to find me in.  So, how is it that my most recent published piece is related to cooking?

In fact, who would ever expect me to be telling you how to cook/bake?  And yet, here I am, one of 105 authors in a cookbook. Bake, Love, Write was the brainchild of author Lois Winston. After noticing how often authors and food go together, Lois invited writers to submit dessert recipes and their thoughts on romance and writing. Somehow, she accepted mine and 104 more  and edited them into a cookbook.

The recipes in Bake, Love, Write are special, often handed down from generation to generation. My chocolate velvet nut pie recipe has a history, too.  I stole it from a friend of my mother’s and added my own nutty twist. Easy and delicious, it epitomizes the smoothness and richness I find in relationships and good writing.

Speaking of relationships, 30+ of the Bake, Love, Write authors have joined together to sponsor a scavenger hunt giving away over 60 prizes as Halloween treats treats to our readers. Like any good scavenger hunt, from now to Halloween, you’ll race to find Halloween icons on our websites and then report your findings to the master site from which prizes will be awarded daily using rafflecopter.

To start, visit Sloan McBride’s blog at http://sloanmcbride.blogspot.com/  for a list of the prizes and authors and to download the answer sheet.  Visit the live websites shown, find the Halloween graphic and then e-mail your answer sheet to sloanmcbride@gmail.com . Remember, the more authors’ websites you visit, the more prizes you can win.

Good luck!   Good eating!

Debra Does Cooking by Debra H. Goldstein

Debra Does Cooking by Debra H. Goldstein

Remember when I decided to try my hand at pottery? (Stop laughing L.M.) Well, I’ve decided to impress Joel with my culinary talents. There is some danger in this decision because I’ve spent thirty years training him to expect a certain level from my homemaking skills.

For example, I was working on a new recipe a few weeks ago when a button popped off his pants. Disgusted at having to change his pants, he said something about needing to take the slacks to the tailor. I was focused on my dish and without thinking volunteered, “Would you like me to sew it back on?”

He stared at me and asked, “Do you know how to do that?”

“On second thought,” I replied, “take it to the tailor.” I then went back to figuring out how to rescue the recipe I had accidently put 2 tablespoons rather than ¼ teaspoon of pepper into when Joel distracted me during my crucial measuring moment. At dinner, there was no further mention of his pants and we agreed my dish looked good, but it definitely had a bit of heat.

My new interest in the kitchen has resulted in me taking stock of my kitchen equipment. Although I could boast some still in their box utensils and two unopened spices from the “Can She Recognize This” kitchen shower my friends had for me, I never received the pots, pans, and gadgets new brides receive today. The high points of that shower were when I recognized a garlic press and when I pulled out some beautiful paper plates and matching napkins and someone quipped, “Oh, look! She got her good china.” The low point of the shower was opening a mixer with dough hooks rather than the food processor I really wanted.

I’ve made up for being deprived during the last three weeks. I now own a new wok (I did have one once but I used it for something other than cooking and it was never the same), an on-the stove smoker (the salmon came out good, but the house reeked of burnt ash for two days), and my first crockpot (I made Joel come home for my first one pot dinner at four because I miscalculated the 7-8 hours the stuff was bubbling). Over the years, I’ve always enjoyed purchasing cookbooks (some of my favorites include Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Cookbook; Come For Cocktails, Stay for Supper; and especially You Should Write a Cookbook for its spinach pie recipe that features thawed frozen spinach soufflés), so it was a no brainer to buy five new ones to match my new kitchen items. I’m sure I’ll use four of them often, but the one I accidentally downloaded won’t get much use as I read somewhere it wasn’t wise to put an ipad near gas generated flames.

For years, I joked that I only cooked when we had snowstorms. Joel hasn’t said he wishes I would return to that practice, but he has started calling me every afternoon to ask “Would you like to go out for dinner, tonight?”

Maybe I should take that quilting class that was on my post-retirement bucket list.