Meghan sold to Love Inspired Suspense as a result of the Killer Voices contest.
A Treat for
a Heroine ~ Fudgy Brownies
Greetings! Meghan Carver here. What a treat {
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to be in the café today! Many thanks to Cate Nolan, my writing friend and
sister Killer Voices author, for allowing me to visit!
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to be in the café today! Many thanks to Cate Nolan, my writing friend and
sister Killer Voices author, for allowing me to visit!
My Love Inspired Suspense out this month, Under Duress, features a heroine who
loves brownies. {Who doesn’t, right?} There is a scene in which she and the
hero and her ten-year-old ward are hurrying through a super center, on the run
from the bad guys. They hide in a terrific place, and I had such fun writing
that scene…but that’s beside the point.
So, as they rush down the main aisle, she spots a display of
brownie mixes and wonders if the hero’s idea of a fun evening might be brownies
and a movie.
Brownie mixes from the box are good, and quite frankly,
that’s what my teen daughters make most. And if teenagers want to get in the
kitchen and bake, I’m not going to complain. But if you want a from-scratch
version, this one is wonderful!
Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter or margarine2/3 cup cocoa2 cup sugar4 eggs2 teaspoons vanilla1 teaspoon baking powder½ teaspoon salt1 cup flour
Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from the heat.
Stir in cocoa, sugar, and eggs, one at a time. Add all the other ingredients,
folding in the flour last. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake at
350 for 30 to 35 minutes
Chocolate and a good book? Sounds heavenly to me!
Bon Appetit!
About Under Duress ~FAMILY ON THE RUNCriminals are trying to kidnap attorney Samantha Callahan’s adopteddaughter, Lily—and she has no idea why. So when bullets start flying,Samantha and Lily speed off in her car…and crash right into help.Ex-cop Reid Palmer is shocked when former law school classmateSamantha rear-ends his car and then climbs in with her daughter andbegs him to drive. Now they are on the run, and Reid will do anythingto protect them and figure out why kidnappers are after Lily.As they struggle to evade capture, Reid begins to realize thatSamantha is more to him than just a woman in trouble. Butwith the enemies closing in and their motives finally revealed,will Reid be able to make sure justice is served?
By sixth
grade, Meghan Carver knew she wanted to write. After earning a degree in
English from Millikin University, she detoured to law school, earning a Juris
Doctorate from Indiana University. She then worked in immigration law and
taught Comp 101 at the local college. Now, she homeschools her six children
with her college professor husband. When she isn’t writing, homeschooling, or
planning the family’s next travel adventure, she is active in her church, sews
for her kidlets, and reads.
Waving to another homeschooler of six!
ReplyDeleteAnd now I need brownies!
Good morning, Mary Jane! We big families eat a lot of brownies...a whole pan at a time. :-) My daughters usually cut the 9x13 into eight pieces. Not sure if I should admit that here, but there you go.
DeleteLOL, Meghan!! My husband always teases my daughter and me when we cut the pan of brownies. He so kindly reminds us it's supposed to be 16 servings!! LOL And we've just cut the pan into about 8...or less :)
DeleteMissy, 16? That's barely a bite! :-)
DeleteHi Meghan! Welcome to the Cafe :)
ReplyDeleteBrownies rock at our house, and they're usually from scratch. After all, homemade is almost as easy as a box mix, isn't it?
And congratulations on your debut book! I love reading LI suspense, so I'll be looking for this one on my next trip to Walmart.
Hello, Jan, and thanks for the warm welcome! It's always interesting to me that the recipe calls for one egg at a time, but then homemade is usually more interesting. :-) I hope you enjoy Under Duress.
DeleteI love interpreting recipes. I would have read that as each ingredient one at a time and put all the eggs in at once. It might be fun to try it both ways and see if there is any tanible difference. Plus that means more brownies to enjoy!
DeleteGood morning, Cate! Thanks again for having me! I suppose someone who knows about the various properties of food (is that a chemistry thing?) would know why one egg at a time. A side-by-side comparison sounds like a good plan to me!
DeleteMeghan!!!! I love brownies, I made two trays yesterday for the after school crowd and swirled peanut butter into one and Nutella into the other, and left one half plain.... I love the versatility!!! Brownies rock and when I'm caught up writing, they're a quick fix in the kitchen. I've never done this recipe, though!
ReplyDeleteI must try it! I've used the Baker's Chocolate squares, and this is using cocoa and butter in their place, and I always have monster-sized cans of Hershey's Cocoa on hand and big multi-packs of butter. You have just made my life easier!!!
And who doesn't love a heroine with a penchant for brownies???
So... did the hero like the idea? Brownies and a movie?
What smart man wouldn't????
Hey, my lawyer kid is writing now, too.... perhaps the jurist mindset?
ReplyDeleteI love how brains work.
Hey, Ruthy! The Reply button isn't working for me right now, so I'll just post down here. I'm so glad you like the recipe!
ReplyDeleteThe hero and heroine were on the run at that point, not much time for conversation except for the how-are-we-going-to-get-out-of-this discussion. :-) But by epilogue time....
I'm not surprised when lawyers like to write. The dean of my law school was skeptical at my English degree preparing me adequately for law. But that constitutes so much of the study and practice of law - reading, analyzing, writing. A good lawyer must be a good writer. I agree - the human mind is an incredible creation.
Meghan, that brownie looks amazing! We're all about boxed mixes here, but I may just try this recipe. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us today!!
Box mixes are great, too, Missy. Especially when they're on sale.... :-)
DeleteY'all are making me feel very lazy. I have a huge box of Girardhelli chocolate brownie mix that I bought at COSTCO and I haven't even managed to bake that. Of course if I don't bake them, I won't eat them and my hips will thank me.
ReplyDeleteWow, Cate! Girardhelli? That's some serious chocolate! :-)
DeleteIt's a seriously huge box too. But it's still safe in the box.
DeleteI am a huge proponent of homemade brownies. They fill the void for many occasions! Thanks for the new recipe to try. Congratulations on your release!!!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Tina. They're perfect when you need a last-minute dish for a pitch-in or get-together. Thanks!
DeleteHi Meghan and thanks for joining in at the Yankee Belle Cafe. And with homemade brownies. I hope you have some to share. yum They would go great with my coffee this morning.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your book debut. How super exciting. Enjoy every minute of it. smile
Coffee and chocolate...a match made in Heaven. :-) Thanks, Sandra!
DeleteARgghhhh -- all this brownie talk and I don't have any cocoa or chocolate in the house. Sniffle. And it's another winter storm -- snow all morning and half the afternoon and now we're moving into the freezing rain part. So, not cocoa shopping for me. No chocolate of any kind for me. Waaaahhhhhh!
ReplyDeleteMeghan -- I read Under Duress...I was under duress reading it -- whoa -- you are mean to your characters. Just sayin'. :-)
I'm sorry, Kav. I'd don my snow shoes and bring some over if I could. :-)
DeleteWell, in writing, they say to up the stakes. Keep adding difficulties. Okay, then. What fun to put on the pressure and see what they did! And they had their happy ending, so all's well that ends well. :-)
The lawyer-writing talk made me think of when I was the head of the Umatilla County Law Library (before I married) and the DA (who worked in the same building) found out that I had worked in law libraries for years but hadn't gone to law school (went for an economics degree in grad school instead).
ReplyDeleteHe said, "But why? Studying law is perfect for everybody! Well, maybe not artists."
I laughed. I know what he was trying to say, but it was just the funniest thing to come out of his mouth. Everybody? I think not. Spending my life closely analyzing text? Nooooo.
I think it's true that a good lawyer must be a good writer. But I don't think every good writer would make a good lawyer.
You were a law librarian? Cool!!!
DeleteBut graduate economics? Spending my life closely analyzing numbers? Noooo. :-)
Haha! And I attended the Warsaw School of Economics. So, numbers... in Polish. It's a prestigious school in the econ world but still, I have no idea what I was thinking. Warsaw as a tourist would be depressing. As an econ student was downright frightening.
DeleteI should clarify before Ruthy pops in. Prestigious if you're going to work with Eastern European emerging democracies, which was my plan. Probably unheard of if you're going to manage portfolios of the rich on Wall Street. LOL
DeleteSo impressive! I am in awe of anyone who has studied and worked overseas. I've been stuck in Illinois and Indiana my whole life.
Delete