12 Things From My Life That Begin with "D"

in no particular order

and for no reason other than I needed something 

to blog about today

1. Deadlines. For a writer, they're part of everyday life, and they can be pure hell. Learning the discipline of writing is essential because there's nothing that can kill the muse faster than having to be creative on demand. But you know what they say . . . the only thing worse than having a deadline is not having a deadline.

2. Daughters. They're my kids and my best friends. They get me when no one else does. For every minute of grief or worry they've brought me, they've given me three minutes of joy.

3. Decorate. When I have the time and the energy, I love to decorate for the holidays. Unfortunately both of the above things have been in short supply the last few years. I haven't even bothered putting up a Christmas tree most years that we've lived in Florida. I'm not sure if it's because it never feels like Christmas here, or because I just really have no energy. I did get one up last year, but I'm pretty sure this year is going to get away from me again. 

4. Dreams. For most of my life, I haven't remembered my dreams. I suppose I did dream, but I never remembered what I dreamed about except an occasional recurring dream about being chained in a tower in a medieval castle. That dream is gone and now I dream about things like working for my old boss and frantically trying to get to work while something is obstructing my path. Then for several years, I dreamed about some people from my past--and not a good past. Those people reappeared in my life, and I guess the dreams helped me to be ready for that. 

5. Dogs. There was Angel, (part giraffe, part gazelle, and part kangaroo) my poorly socialized dog with ADHD and OCD. And there was Sammi who was my oldest daughter's dog and who lived with me for a while. And there's Cleo, my current grand-dog. who is a sweetheart and a rescue dog. And there was Pride my Doberman pincer, upon whom I based Max, the dog in the Candy Shop mystery series. And there were Holly and Copper, one a poodle and the other a doberman. I'm feeling puppy fever again, but with a new kitty in the house it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. 

6. Dance. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a professional dancer. More specifically, I wanted to be a June Taylor dancer, but I don't think I ever confessed my professional dance aspirations aloud, and I think they died away somewhere before I was 8. Besides being a novelist, being a June Taylor dancer is the only thing I ever really wanted to be when I grew up.

7. Dad. I have one, as do all of you :) Mine passed away on October 6, 2006 at the age of 82. He was a World War II Veteran who loved the great outdoors and dreamed of being a Park Ranger when he was a young man. He grew up on a farm and spent so many hours working in the fields, he almost didn't graduate from high school. That near miss bothered him his entire life.

8. Daydreaming. I'm all for it, and I'm lucky. I'm a writer because daydreaming is my job!

9. Dictionary. In 7th grade, I made a poster that was supposed to read "How To Develop your Mental Abilities." I misspelled two words on that poster, so it ended up reading "How to Develope your Mental Abbilities." Not only did the other kids in my class make fun of me, but the teacher did too--and this right after she laughed at me because I didn't know how to spell marijuana. (This was before it was a household word where I lived, and I was absent the day we learned what it was.) This all happened the year after I had Mr. Graybill, the world's most obnoxious teacher, in 6th grade. Mr. Graybill made the leather wallet I was crafting for my dad (see above) a public example of how not to do leatherwork. The public humiliation I felt over that stupid poster nearly did me in, but I became best friends with the dictionary that day. After that, I could out-spell almost everyone I knew. Even my Straight-A Sister -- the one who graduated 3rd in her class -- asked me how to spell words.

10. Deployments. My son-in-law was active military for the first 9 years of his marriage to my daughter and he spent more Christmases, birthdays and anniversaries in the Middle East than he spent at home. He was willing to be there because he believes that if we don't fight them over there, we'll have to fight them here on our own soil. War looks a whole lot different when it comes knocking on your own front door than it does when it's an abstract principle. I'm proud of my son-in-law and proud of his service to our country, and I'm proud of my daughter for standing at his side and keeping the family together while he was gone. 

11. Dishwasher. It's my favorite modern convenience. Need I explain? 

12. Down East. A place I've visited a few times and one place I've always wanted to live. 

10 Favorite Christmas Movies

Last week I talked about my struggles to seamlessly shift into Christmas mode now that I live along the Gulf Coast. I vowed to make an efffort to immerse myself in Christmas spirit this year, so in that vein, I give you the list of my 10 Favorite Christmas Movies:

1. A Christmas Story

Most of you are familiar with this movie, I'm sure. It's the story of Ralphie, a kid living in the 1940s, and his efforts to convince his parents and/or Santa that he needs a Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas. It's about much more than that, too--his relationships with his parents, his kid brother, his friends, and the neighborhood bullies. I've seen this movie at least 100 times, and the scene when his dad points out that one last present hidden away in the corner still brings a tear to my eye. 

My kids and I quote from the movie all the time. (A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus...) I defy anyone who sees this movie to ever pronounce "fragile" properly again or sing Deck the Halls without becoming politically incorrect for a few seconds.

2. White Christmas 

It's not Christmas at my house until we've watched this movie. It's old, of course. Made in 1954, it's the story of a couple of army buddies who team up after World War II as a successful song-and-dance team. They end up trying to help their former commanding officer to save the inn he's now running after leaving the military. It's full of sweet charm and romance and, of course, plenty of song and dance. If I have the story right, the movie was made to showcase the song (of the same name) which was introduced in an earlier movie, "Holiday Inn" starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. 

This one stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. I love "Sisters" (both versions) and the dance where Danny Kaye broke his foot in the middle of shooting and kept going without missing a beat of that catchy, syncopated rhythm. A true classic.

3. Love Actually

This movie follows the lives of several different couples on the way to Christmas. There are, of course, romantic couples but there are also different kinds of couples--friends, parent and child, cases of unrequited love, and business partners, all negotiating their way through complicated and troubled relationships or forging new ones. 

The movie stars Emma Thompson (who breaks my heart every time I watch it), Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Gregor Fisher, Liam Neeson, Martin Freeman, Kiera Knightley and, many others. It's centered around Christmas, of course, but it doesn't have to be the holiday season for me to watch it.

4. Noel

I don't think this movie is as well-known as the others on my list, but it's one of my favorites. It's set in New York City on Christmas Eve and, like Love Actually, is a composite of different stories about people who need a Christmas miracle. It stars the late Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, Penelope Cruz and Susan Sarandon, among many others. 

I'll confess that I'm not usually a fan of Sarandon's, but I really enjoy her performance in this movie (and in Stepmom, which reduces me to a blubbering blog of something unpleasant every time I watch it.) Walker's performance is sweet and touching. 

5. Christmas in Connecticut

An unmarried food writer who has misled her readers about being the perfect housewife and mother must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas. Since our hapless heroine can't cook anything at all, hijinks ensue. Throw in a baby borrowed for the weekend and an ardent suitor who leaps at the chance to play husband, and it's a fun time for all. 

There are actually two versions of this movie: one made in 1945 with Barbara Stanwyck and Sydney Greenstreet and one made in 1992 starring Dyan Cannon, Tony Curtis, and Kris Kristofferson. I like both versions, but of the two, the 1945 version is my absolute favorite. I didn't realize until I was writing this blog post that the later version was directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You can learn something new every day.

6. A Christmas Carol

This is a true classic, based on the tale by Charles Dickens. I don't know how many different movie versions of this story exist, but there are a lot. Whoopi Goldberg made one. Mickey Mouse made one. The Muppets made one. Vincent Price made one. Ronald Reagan made one. Mr. Magoo made one. Susan Lucci made one. Jim Carrey made one. 

It's been remade on various TV shows too, from The Andy Griffith Show to The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis to The Animaniacs to The Six Million Dollar Man. IMDb (International Movie Database) lists 184 versions. 

Of all the various versions, my favorite is the one made in 1984 starring George C. Scott. Scott's performance as Ebenezer Scrooge is terrific. He's my favorite Scrooge of all.

7. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Clark Griswold is an "every man" character who's kind of dorky and sweetly sentimental. All he wants is the perfect Christmas. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so. Take his immediate family, which has a few issues of its own, toss in his parents and in-laws, some uninvited guests and some snooty neighbors, and you have a recipe for disaster as only Griswold can deliver. 

It's full of moments I'm sure some people would consider inappropriate. It's got some language, too, so if those things bother you, you'll want to skip this one. 

8. The Santa Clause

There are three movies in the Santa Clause set, and I do like them all, but the first is my favorite. Starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a divorced father who works too much (yes, that's a required element for almost any Christmas movie), Judge Reinhold plays the ex-wife's new husband, and Wendy Crewson plays Allen's character's ex-wife. Eric Lloyd stars as the son they all share. 

Scott inadvertently becomes Santa after the current Santa is killed after a fall from Scott's roof on Christmas Eve. Scott becomes the new Santa for the night and takes his son along for the ride. Naturally, complications must arise, and they do here because Scott's ex-wife and her new husband are trying to convince their son that Santa isn't real. That's hard to do since the kid has gone around the world in a sleigh--a fact psychologist stepdad finds deeply disturbing.

9. Fred Claus

What can I say? I'm a Santa Claus fan. I'm also a Paul Giamatti fan and a Kevin Spacey fan. I'm not sure I'd call myself a Vince Vaughn "fan" (as in I'd go out of my way to see a film because he was in it) but I enjoy a lot of what he does on screen. Together as Santa (and Santa's bitter older brother, Giamatti and Vaughn are brilliant. 

The snowball fight scene can make me laugh out loud no matter how many times I've seen it as does the scene with the sibling support group. Maybe it's just me as a middle child identifying with all those overshadowed siblings, but I laugh every single time. 

10. The Family Stone

An uptight, conservative, businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life. They're close. They bicker, but it's obvious they love one another. She is much more buttoned-up and watching her with this family makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable every time I watch it. 

It's got a great ensemble cast including Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Daines, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson (is there anyone else who can play the dad of a big, warm, messy family quite as well?), and Luke Wilson, plus a host of others. 

I find family dynamics endlessly fascinating, which is one of the reasons I like this movie so much.

These aren't the only Christmas movies I enjoy and watch repeatedly. I could easily extend the list to my top 20 or even top 30. What can I say? I love Christmas movies. If I had to pick an Honorable Mention (okay, I don't have to, but I can't leave this one off the list), it would be A Christmas Visitor starring William Devane, Meredith Baxter and Dean McDermott. Another one that brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it -- probably because back in the day, I was a huge fan of Knot's Landing and there wasn't anything more moving than watching Greg Sumner mourning the loss of his beloved wife. Good grief! All the man has to do now is swallow and I'm a mess. And, yeah, he swallows in this one. 

Anyway, this is my list. What's on yours? 

Switching Gears for Christmas

Thanksgiving is over in the US for another year. The food is put away, the autumn decorations have disappeared and Christmas music is playing everywhere. Are you ready to switch gears?

I grew up in Montana, where it's cold. The cooler temperatures signal the change from summer to autumn, from fall to winter. By Thanksgiving, the trees are bare and the wind is cold. Even in Utah, November was mostly cold and dark, and there was snow on the mountains even if there wasn't snow on the ground. All of that made it easy to switch gears.

Things are different here along the Gulf Coast. After living here for six years, I am starting to notice some subtle signs of the changing seasons, but they are subtle.

My daughter observed today, for instance, that by late November the Cypress trees have turned brown. For the first few years we lived here, I assumed the trees were either sick or dying. Now, I'm starting to think it's a sign of the season.

Source via Creative Commons

Christmas decorations are different here, too. I'm used to lots and lots of Christmas decorations. Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations, too. Starting in late September, stores and neighborhoods are decked out in whatever the theme of the season might. Unlike New Orleans, along this stretch of the coast, very few people get into the Halloween season, and nobody hires a professional artist to paint leaves or turkeys in their store windows.

I'm used to Christmas lights in abundance, covering trees, bushes, houses, stores ... what have you. In Salt Lake City, the LDS church decorates Temple Square with thousands upon thousands of tiny twinkling lights, and walking through the square to look at the lights is a popular pastime in December.

Decorations are very different here. Not wrong, just different. Since trees don't drop their leaves in this climate, it's probably a fire hazard to string thousands of tiny lights in the branches--or maybe it's just a different custom. Whatever, Even after 6 years, I still don't think "Christmas" when I see palm trees with their tops dark and trunks wrapped in lights.

Nor am I used to Christmas shopping in flip-flops and capri pants, although I'm not going to say I don't enjoy that. I do.

I miss snow in theory, not in reality. But the differences mean that switching gears to Christmas season doesn't happen naturally for me. Even if I'm out Christmas shopping, it doesn't feel like Christmas shopping, so Christmas Eve always sneaks up on me. One day it feels like the middle of the summer, and the next people are expecting presents under the tree I haven't put up yet.

Source

I'm going to try really hard this year to get with the program. To embrace Christmas the way it is here instead of expecting it to magically become what it was there. I want to find a way to make my heart feel like this -->

Maybe I'll turn on Christmas music or watch Christmas movies on TV, pull a few Christmas books from the shelves and read them again. Because I don't want Christmas to sneak up on me again. This year, I want to be ready!


(An Addendum:)  After writing this post, I set off to snap a few pictures of Christmas decorations in my part of Florida. One of our cars was already on the fritz, and the remaining "good" car broke down on the way to take the pictures.

Luckily, my dear friend, Wendy, came to our rescue and by some miracle we even passed a couple of decorated trees on the way home.

Thanks, Wendy, for pulling over so I could get pictures in spite of everything that went wrong. Sharing one just wasn't enough, so here's another.

To add to the seasonal joy, our only TV sizzled to its untimely death today and since I recently discovered that my computer won't play a DVD, watching Christmas movies may not be on my list of things to do for the season this year -- but I'm determined to press forward.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells ... Ho Ho Ho!

I'm Not Crafty

For years, I've maintained the delusion that I'm a crafty person. I want to be crafty. Really, I do. I see things in stores or on Pinterest or in other people's homes, and I think, "I could do that." But the sad truth is, I probably can't. For years, whenever I pick up a power tool, my kids have, in effect, told me to put it down and back away slowly. Drills and things routinely get the best of me. Not in a disastrous way, but I struggle. I freely admit it.

And even if I can actually make the thing, I never know what to do with it next. Two years ago, I worked up a bunch of courage and decided to make a thing. I'm not even sure what you'd call it, but I saw some appealing knobs at a craft store and, with my youngest daughter's encouragement, decided I could make The Thing. 

In my imagination, it would be cute and it would be mounted on my wall, and I could use it for hanging bags. I'm a serious bag-a-holic--not purses or handbags, mind you, although with an unlimited budget, I could probably take my place in the handbag collectors' hall of fame. No, I'm talking about reusable shopping bags, cute totes, and bags collected from attending writing conferences over the years. I have a few. And by a few, I mean lots. And lots.

But I digress. 

I'm talking about The Thing. 

My daughter actually pulled out her power drill and let me touch it. I painted and I drilled and I screwed in the cute little knobs, and voila! The Thing was born. I actually made it. I didn't hurt myself or anyone else, and I don't think I even drilled a hole into my daughter's table. That's how successful I was. 

I packed The Thing up and drove it home across four states, where I carried it into my office and leaned it against the wall--and there it remains to this day. Because, having made the thing, I have no idea how to mount it on the wall so I can actually use it. 

So maybe I should stick to crafts that don't require wall mounting and other things that are beyond my capabilities. I saw these on Pinterest and thought they were cute, and even seriously considered making them. Two things stopped me: 

1. I would probably never actually use them, and 

2. I'm pretty sure they would require the use of a hot glue gun, which I'm perfectly capable of using, but not without significant globbing. If I'm going to hot glue something, it needs to be something much larger and more forgiving. 

So maybe I need to take on something bigger. Something more like this. I could probably handle this. I'm not sure what I'd do with it once I finished it, but I might be able to actually corral a heap of buttons into a rough heart shape and glue them in place. 

This is not to say that I'm completely inept. I can wield a mean crochet hook. Once the weather turned cool back when I lived in Utah, out would come the yarn and the hook and I'd make afghans for everyone. But crocheting here along the Gulf Coast ... well, it just doesn't cool down enough for long enough to get my crochet on. 

I'm pretty well adjusted most of the time. I take my lack of craftiness in stride. But there are some times of the year--usually as we start ramping up for the holidays--when te urge to craft rears its head and I long to hit the craft store with grandiose ideas and an unlimited budget. 

But first, I really need to get The Thing mounted on the wall. I need that space on the floor to heap my new crafts. 

A Game & a Giveaway!

There's a game with a giveaway today on my author page here on FB. Hurry over, like the page, pick a number, share or tweet the post, and you could win a signed copy of a Piece of Cake mystery!

Posted by Jacklyn Brady on Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Nice Girls Sometimes Finish Last...

...if they finish at all.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Missouri, taking care of my granddaughters while their mother (my daughter) went to Texas for a friend's wedding. While there, I got to deal with a lot of stuff that happens in the life of a growing child, disappointments over perceived failures and the angst that comes from trying to make friends in a new school being chief among them.

At some point, I found myself sharing a story from my own youth in an effort to convince my oldest granddaughter (known as "The Princess") that I understood what she was going through. She had recently run for student council and lost the election, and now every time she walked past the annoying poster in the school hallway (right by the cafeteria, of all things!) sporting the cheerful faces of the winners, her little heart broke.

She told me that she hated that poster, and she wanted to sneak into the school and tear it down. Oh babycakes, I hear ya! I really do!

Years ago, as I was heading into my junior year of high school, I decided to try out for Pep Club. Being a member of the Pep Club was a huge deal for juniors of the female persuasion in those days. You got a pricey outfit. You got to sit with all the other Pep Club members at the games and walk around looking unbelievably cool on game days. If you were a member of Pep Club, you were ... well, cool.

Everyone who was anyone was in the Pep Club. In fact, just about the only girls who weren't were the unmentionable ones--the parking lot girls, if you know what I mean, and those who were simply too geeky for words. But, really, even the geekiest got in.

Even so, we still had to try out. It's how the game was played.

To try out, we had to come up with a concept for a Spirit Week and present it to the selection committee. I don't remember anything much about my spirit week presentation except that I worked very hard on it. I had a theme. I made posters. I made up new cheers and whatever else was required.

About that time, a new girl moved into our neighborhood. We'll call her Ann. Ann was nice, and new, and trying hard to make new friends in her new school. I was one of them. Ann moved in too close to the tryouts to put together a spirit week presentation, and the realization that she would have to spend her entire junior year at a new school not one of the ultra-cool kids made her sad.

In a burst of friendship and empathy, I gave Ann my presentation. She probably demurred. No doubt, I insisted. I do remember that part of my argument was that I could always just put together a new one. Mostly, the idea of being so magnanimous made me feel good about myself. Not exactly the best reason for doing something, but what can I say? I was young.

And I did put together another spirit week presentation...at least, I tried. I did my best, anyway. But, alas, when the results of the tryouts were posted, Ann was part of the Pep Club and I was not. I spent the rest of my high school experience hurt and bruised and resentful and bitter. Every game was exquisite pain for me. Every day the members of the club got to wear their uniforms to school was torture.

It hurt. A lot. And the worst thing was, I knew that I had nobody to blame but myself. Oh, sure, it's possible that Ann might have been accepted if she'd thrown together her own campaign based on luck or a better personality, a cuter face, or just plain old sympathy. It's possible that I might not have made the squad, even if I'd used my original presentation. We'll never know.

Image Source

My story wasn't one of those feel-good stories with a great moral that would leave The Princess with renewed faith in life. It was just a story with feeling. Lots of feeling, designed to let her know that I understand how she feels every time she has to walk past that irritating poster celebrating the kids that won.

Hopefully, it will be enough for her to know that as painful as this might be for her right now, life does go on and things do eventually get better, and one lost election or not being selected for Pep Club won't ruin your life if you don't let it.

Even rejected girls can grow up to do cool things and have happy times. I'm living proof.

On a side note -- look at this cool cake made for my alma mater by Salt Cake City. I wonder if they could make one for me to look like the Pep Club uniform I never got.

Cakes to Die For

It's almost Halloween, and although some of you are probably over it, I can't pass up one more chance to share some holiday-themed cakes. I'm not going to post the recipes here, but I will post links to the recipes so you can find them if you're interested in baking one for yourself.

You'll find the recipe for this cute layer cake on Taste of Home. It's made using cocoa and orange extract, and it's perfect for a family dinner. Start your own Halloween tradition by making this one every year.

The recipe for this Boo-tiful Chocolate Marshmallow Ghost Cake is found on marthastewart.com. Make sure you click through to the recipe for the two kinds of frosting (Vanilla and Chocolate Cream Cheese). You'll need some marshmallows (large and miniature) for decorating, and a few chocolate sprinkles too.

Poke cakes are fun and easy to make, but they look great when you cut into them. For a little dramatic flair without a lot of work, try this recipe at Taste of Home. You'll need a marble cake mix (or make the batter from scratch) and two boxes of orange-flavored gelatin. Add some candy pumpkins or candy corn on top for extra flair and you're good to go!

This one isn't a cake recipe, but isn't this adorable? Whether you're entertaining kids or adults, everybody would love this. Complete instructions are on The Cake Blog. You'll need a cake, frosting (white), Oreo cookies, Mini Oreo cookies, Junior Mints and M&Ms. I'd make this one right now if I had the goods in my kitchen! 

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everybody! 

The Week I Had

As anyone who is following my posts on Facebook and Twitter probably knows, I've spent the past week in Missouri. Actually, I've spent the past two weeks here and have one more to go. My daughter is in Texas, helping prepare for and attending a friend's wedding as her Maid of Honor, and I'm here with my grandkids, getting them up and ready for school, helping with homework, dealing with the social anxieties that come with being a kid, and making sure they get to bed on time.

No complaints here. It's glorious work. I love, love, love spending time with my precious granddaughters and learning about what makes them happy and what makes them sad, watching the turn from babies to little girls and now watching the oldest morph into a young lady. I love being a daily part of their worlds. Since we now live so far apart, I miss it more than I can say.

But I'm not going to lie, I'm worn out. Keeping up with kids who still have a full tank of energy at all times is challenging.

We went to a parade last weekend, followed by a shrimp boil. We've taken walks with the dog and walks to find fall leaves for a school assignment. We've played four-square so the girls could practice and I could prove that four-square existed way back when I was a girl.

I spent yesterday with the oldest grand-girl and her school class on a field trip at a local corn maze. Those kids raced from a corn box (like a sandbox but filled with dried kernals of corn) to a 40-foot slide to a volleyball court, to a bouncy house, to a "hay" ride, to the corn maze without breaking stride. They could barely sit still long enough to eat lunch before launching themselves back into the fray.

They followed the corn maze adventure with time at a local university where they got to see a "ginormous" snake, a turtle, a few other exotic creatures, along with some other very cool things. And they followed that up with a dance. And they were up and at it this morning as if yesterday just created more energy for them.

I'm still trying to find enough oomph to look at the pictures I took.

Exhausted? Yes. Absolutely. But also filled with gratitude for the week I had and grateful, too, that I have one more action-packed week before I go home to my quiet existence in Florida. I'll be glad to get back to my own bed, but as for the rest, I'm going to miss it. But I don't want to dwell on that. I want to remain grateful for the chance to be here and enjoy every moment of the time I have left!

Meet Zoey Jergens

Zoey Jergens, a new employee at Zydeco Cakes (and Estelle's niece), is blogging today at Killer Characters. Zoey swears she's not saying a word--not a single word--about recent exciting events at Zydeco. But Zoey likes to talk, so who knows? 

If you have a minute, stop by and say "hey!"  
________________________________________________________________________

Rebel Without a Cake, book #5 in the Piece of Cake Mystery Series, is available at your favorite bookseller now! Book #6, The Cakes of Monte Cristo, (cover coming soon!) is scheduled for release Jan 5, 2016, and available now for pre-order.

Green Chicken Enchilada Meatballs

If you've been following me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you probably know that I'm in Missouri this week (and next) taking care of the grand-kids while their mom is away from home attending a friend's wedding. It's been a while since I had all the after-school brouhaha that comes with two school-aged kids, and the hours get away from me far too easily. Luckily, my son-in-law is in town, so once he gets off work and finishes whatever other commitments he has for the evening, he's here to do all the things a dad needs to do.

One of the fun things about visiting my daughter and her husband is that they always have new-to-me recipes on the menu. Tonight's was really good, so I decided to share. My daughter pinned the recipe from a blog called iBREATHE, I'm Hungry. You can go there for the recipe, the pictures, the detailed instructions, but the basic recipe is here: 

Green Chicken Enchilada Meatballs 

(Low Carb & Gluten Free) 

A low carb and gluten free Mexican-inspired meatball. Ole!

Makes 16 meatballs

Ingredients 

1 lb. ground chicken or turkey (you can also use ground beef, which makes it a bit less healthy, I suppose, but it's still delicious ~JB) 

1 egg

¼ cup almond flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

2 Tbsp green onions, chopped

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp garlic powder

¼ cup queso fresco, crumbled (We used Feta. It was delicious! ~JB)

oil for frying

To Serve

½ cup salsa verde

¼ cup queso fresco, crumbled

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Form into 16 meatballs. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large, nonstick saute pan. Add the meatballs and cook thoroughly - about 3 - 4 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.

To serve:

Spread a few tablespoons of salsa verde on the bottom of a large serving dish. Place the meatballs on top, then spoon the remaining salsa over each meatball. Top with crumbled queso cheese. Serve immediately - or place under the broiler for 2 minutes until the cheese melts and turns golden brown. (Which would be amazing, but it's also great to serve the meatballs with the salsa on the side and let people dip as much or as little as they want. ~JB) 

Notes: 

Approximate nutrition information:

Per meatball: 85 calories, 7g fat, .85g net carbs, 8g protein

Per serving (4): 341 calories, 28g fat, 3.4g net carbs, 32g protein

Nutrition Information: 

Serving size: 4 meatballs

Photo from www.ibreatheimhungry.com 

Where it All Began

An Excerpt from A Sheetcake Named Desire

first in the Piece of Cake mystery series

CHAPTER ONE

The Mississippi riverboat cake tilted on the table in front of me, its fondant paddle wheel askew, gashes of lemony yellow cake gaping in its once-smooth white surface. In the five years I’ve been working as a cake artist, this was the worst disaster I’d ever seen. Repairing the badly damaged three-foot cake would have been a daunting task under ideal conditions. In my current situation, the job was almost overwhelming.

Trickles of nervous perspiration snaked down my back as I studied the wreck from every angle. I could feel the staff of Zydeco Cakes watching me intently as I sorted through possible ways to proceed.

First priority: stay calm. Not easy under the circumstances. The stakes were as high as they got in the world of professional cake decorating. The cake was due in less than three hours at the grand opening of a new riverboat cruise line, for folks with money and influence. Failure to deliver on time would have a far-reaching impact on Zydeco’s reputation. For a cake artist, reputation is every bit as important as talent.

The staff at Zydeco had already suffered a blow today. I couldn’t let them down again.

The air conditioner was cranked up to keep the work area cool, but the intense heat and humidity of New Orleans in July still managed to creep into the building somehow. The undercurrents of tension that ebbed and flowed through the room didn’t help me keep my cool either.

My name is Rita Lucero, and I’m a trained cake artist, a graduate of the French Pastry School in Chicago. Currently wasting my fancy training by working as sous chef in my uncle Nestor’s Mexican restaurant in Albuquerque. So what was I doing sweating over a cake in New Orleans?

It was the same pending divorce that had left me chopping onions by the bushel that had brought me to the Crescent City for a few days. But now, instead of getting my ex’s signature on our divorce settlement, I was standing in his bakery, shaking the dust off my cake decorating skills.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I closed my eyes and counted to ten—a trick my aunt Yolanda had taught me when I was thirteen and angry with the world. It didn’t always work, but I hadn’t given up trying. I needed to focus, but concentration was hard to find in a room full of tense, anxious people.

When I opened my eyes again, Zydeco’s manager, Edie Bryce, was staring up at me, a deep scowl accentuating her round face and the almond-shaped eyes she’d inherited from a Chinese grandmother. To the uninformed, Edie resembles the stereotypical porcelain doll, but I learned a long time ago not to underestimate her.

“So?” she demanded. “Can you do it or not, Rita?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Think faster! That cake is due for delivery in less than three hours.”

Not helpful. “Nobody’s more aware of the clock than I am,” I assured her. “Just back off a little, okay? Pushing through this too quickly is guaranteed to make things worse.”

Edie’s frown deepened, and impatience flashed in her dark eyes. She muttered something under her breath and turned away, but I knew she’d be back soon. Patience has never been one of her virtues.

I glanced around at the others, some of whom I’d known since pastry school. The rest I’d met just a couple hours earlier, and I was still struggling to remember their names. “We’re going to need buttercream,” I said to no one in particular. “Lots of it.”

___________________________________

BUY THE BOOK:

Berkley Prime Crime: ISBN-13: 9780425242742

Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble |Books A Million |

Mysterious Galaxy | IndieBound |

FOR YOUR E-READER:

Kindle Version | Nook Version

Cover Reveal: The Cakes of Monte Cristo

I don't usually put up two blog posts in the same day, but I just received the cover for The Cakes of Monte Cristo and I'm too thrilled to wait. This is the 6th book in the Piece of Cake Mystery series, due to hit bookshelves and online retailers in January 2016.

From the back cover: 

In the fresh new Piece of Cake Mystery from the national bestselling author of Rebel Without a Cake, a pastry chef becomes embroiled in a suspicious death as a mysterious curse casts a pall over an annual New Orleans ball.

Rita Lucero, co-owner of New Orleans’s Zydeco Cakes, is thrilled to be catering an annual ball held at the Monte Cristo Hotel. Designing the high-end desserts is her priority—until she stumbles upon a mystery long-buried at her shop. It’s an ornate ruby necklace, hidden underneath her staircase and rumored to be cursed. 

After the gem’s appraiser suddenly drops dead and Rita herself is targeted by a menacing stranger, she’s no longer laughing at local superstition. Now with five cakes on order and an investigation into the necklace’s past revealing layers of unsettling clues, Rita has reason to keep looking over her shoulder while she’s frosting. Because any way you slice it, the next victim of the legendary curse could be her.

Follow this link to pre-order your copy.  As of this posting, the cover was so hot off the presses, it hasn't even been uploaded to other sites yet. 

Tex-Mex Chicken Soup

I'm learning to embrace a new, much healthier lifestyle, so I'm also on the lookout for new, much healthier recipes. I found a new (to me) recipe for Tex-Mex Chicken Soup on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

The pin took me to Taste of Home's website. You can find the recipe here, but here are the basics:

The recipe says that it takes 10 minutes prep time, which is about right as long as you've pre-cooked your chicken. Otherwise, you need to tack on time for that.

Total cook time is about 45 minutes. Again, that was just about right. And it smelled delicious as it was cooking.




Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
3 medium zucchini, sliced
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes undrained
1 can (11 ounces) whole kernal corn, drained
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1/2 cup salsa
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
tortilla chips (optional)

The verdict:

Very good. It tastes great, full of flavor and nicely spiced. I did sprinkle a little shredded cheese on my bowl but did not use tortilla chips, but even without the chips, the zucchini was cooked through but not mushy, so the texture was pleasant.

I'll definitely make it again.


photo credit: Food 003 via photopin (license)
photo credit: milho via photopin (license) 
photo credit: Clagett Farm Share Week 15 via photopin (license)

You Say Absaroka, I Say Absorkee

Longmire is one of my favorite shows on TV. I love the writing. The characters are richly drawn and deep. I love the friendship between Walt and Henry, but I also love the relationship between Walt and Branch. The books by Craig Johnson are wonderful, and nobody in the known world (with the possible exception of Mr. Johnson himself) was happier than I when Netflix picked up the series to stream for season 4. 

However, I have had one tiny quibble--and when I say tiny, I mean tiny. It's about one word. One single word. 

When I was a kid growing up in Montana, my dad always pronounced Absaroka as Ab-SOHR-kee. Three syllables, not four. When I started watching Longmire, it bothered me a bit that everyone on the show says AB-sah-RO-ka when they're talking about the county in which the series is set. It didn't bother me enough to stop watching or anything silly like that, but it was always there niggling at me. 

At first, I thought the writers, actors and directors just didn't know what they were doing. And then, I started wondering if my dad just got it wrong. (Gasp!) Could it possibly be? I mean, look at that face. Does it look like the face of a man who might say a word wrong? 

Well, yeah. 

Frankly, it wouldn't have been the first word he pronounced wrong. He spent his entire life putting the "T" in often. When I said it the way he did at school, I got a mighty scolding and some shaming from a teacher. And then there was the word chiropractor, which Dad always, somehow, pronounced CHOIRpractor, as if the doctor also led the singers at church, which was kind of funny since Dad loved listening to Mom, my sister and me pay the piano, but couldn't carry a tune himself. 

Through three seasons of Longmire (I haven't started the 4th yet.) I've wondered if Dad just had it wrong. But the other day, while procrastinating, I came across a Montana pronunciation guide put out by the Billings Gazette (the trusted newspaper of my youth) in which the mystery is finally solved. 

In Montana  (I can't speak for Wyomingites) the correct pronunciation of Absarokee/Absaroka is, indeed, Ab-SOHR-kee or Ab-SOHR-ka, not AB-sah-RO-kuh.  

There! My dad was right. Phew. 

I have to admit, it makes my heart happy to find out that, at least for the place we lived at the time, my dad nailed it. And now that I know that, Walt and Henry and Branch and the rest can pronounce it any old way they want. It won't bother me a bit. 

________________________________________________________________________

A Sneak Peek Today!

An exclusive offer for readers of Killer Characters: You'll find an excerpt from The Cakes of Monte Cristo (coming in January) on the blog today. Stop by and check it out!

The Cakes of Monte Cristo is available for pre-order now. If you like the series and want more books, put a hold on your copy now.

________________________________________________________________________

Jacklyn Brady is a national bestselling author who lives on the Gulf Coast. She writes the Piece of Cake Mystery series set in New Orleans. The series features cake artist and trained pastry chef, Rita Lucero. Rebel Without a Cake, book #5 in the Piece of Cake Mystery Series, is available now! 

Jacklyn loves to hear from readers. Connect with her on the web: Website | Facebook | Twitter

20 Things About Me ...

Which works out to approximately 19 more things than you ever wanted to know! 

1. I'm the mother of two adult daughters who are without question my best friends in the world.

2. I'm the grandmother of two granddaughters, who are without question the light and the air in my world.

3. I've wanted to write novels as long as I can remember. Never had any real interest in short stories or magazine articles, just novels.

4. My favorite food in the entire world is my mother's homemade spaghetti and meatballs -- unless she makes the meatballs with ground turkey, which she started to do several years before I moved away.

5. The taste of ground turkey literally makes me gag, even if it's nicely browned and simmering in my mother's amazing spaghetti sauce.

6. If you ask my kids what makes me happy, they will answer without even pausing to take a breath that it's my family.

7. I frequently have discussions with the TV -- usually because some ad makes no sense or insults my intelligence, or because a plot twist in a TV show is unrealistic and unbelievable.

8. Apparently, I'm not very good at keeping my opinions to myself. At least, that's what one of my daughters says. If only she knew how many opinions I swallow whole, she would be stunned by my amazing ability.

9. I have been told that I remind some people of Bette Midler -- in her character as Winnie in Hocus Pocus. Now I love Bette. I truly do. But this one's kind of hard to take as a compliment.

10. I do not have a middle name.

11. I was born in Utah, moved to Montana before I was a month old, back to Utah before I was 12, and then, eventually, to the Gulf Coast region.

12. Perhaps because I was born in September, autumn is my favorite season of the year. Sadly, we don't have a recognizable autumn where I'm living now and I miss it. We do, however see Monarch butterflies migrating in the fall and we have an invasion of dragonflies every year. Some day I may actually think autumn when they show up.

13. I was born without any natural ability to be a good hostess. If you were to knock on my door, I would talk to you for 2 hours without ever once inviting you inside. Honestly? I wouldn't even think of it. This failing has always been apparent, but is even more evident now that I live in the South.

14. My favorite form of exercise is turning the pages of a book or pressing the forward key on my Kindle.

15. I spent many years (years ago) singing and playing keyboards with a band.

16. I love to travel. I've been to all but 9 states in the US and to several provinces in Canada. Some day soon I hope to color in the states I'm missing and also travel abroad.

17. For some reason I can't remember now, I learned how to play the clarinet when I was a small child. No, I wasn't very good at it -- probably because when my mother set the timer for me to practice, I kept inching the dial forward, shaving minutes off my practice time.

18. I am presently owned by my cat, Tinkerbell.

19. Even though I was a single mom with very little money when I was younger, struggling to make ends meet, if anything had ever happened to my sister and brother-in-law when the kids were little, I would have raised my nieces and my nephew as my own. In fact, I would have taken out anyone who tried to stop me. I knew without question that my sister would have done the same for my kids. Now that I think about it, this may be why I created Aunt Yolanda in the Piece of Cake mystery series. Aunts are Awesome!

20. I love to laugh.

________________________________________________________________________