Lynn Huggins Blackburn's debut book and a great recipe!

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer here and I have a special guest with us today. Lynn Huggins Blackburn is releasing her FIRST BOOK in a few weeks! It's called Covert Justice. 

Doesn't it look amazing?? Here's the blurb:

AGENT UNDERCOVER 
When a woman drags Blake Harrison out of his wrecked car, he knows the mysterious stranger has saved his life. But more shocking than the hit-and-run is the news that a crime cartel has infiltrated his factory. There's a fortune to be made by tampering with the factory's products…but only if Blake is out of the way. Undercover FBI agent Heidi Zimmerman has two goals—catch the criminals in the act, and keep Blake alive. Falling for the single dad and his adorable daughter isn't in the plan. But everything changes when an abduction leaves Heidi face-to-face with a killer, revealing the danger that's been hiding in plain sight all along…

And here's the beautiful Lynn, and a little about herself. (We always love to meet our hostess before we dive into the food! And what a delicious recipe she has for us! )

Lynn Huggins Blackburn believes in the power of stories, especially those that remind us that true love exists, a gift from the Truest Love. She’s passionate about CrossFit, coffee, and chocolate (don’t make her choose) and experimenting with recipes that feed both body and soul. She lives in South Carolina with her true love, Brian, and their three children. Her first book, Covert Justice, releases June 2015. You can follow her real life happily ever after on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and at lynnhugginsblackburn.com.

So, now I'm turning the cafe over to Lynn! 

Thanks for having me here today!

I’m excited to be with you to talk about food, although I must say that writing this post has convinced me to stick with fiction. I would make a horrible food blogger. I’m way too messy in the kitchen when I cook!

Anyway…

I’ve always enjoyed food.

Probably more than I should.

When I was a kid, the contents of my lunchbox could bring joy or dismay.

Oreos – Yes!

Doritos – Fabulous! Orange fingertips were cool!

PB&J – Great! No reason to complain about a classic.

Ham sandwiches – Fine.

But there was one lunch box regular that I’m sorry to say never made me smile.

Tuna fish.

It made my lunchbox smell like, well, fish. And it always left my bread soggy.

I don’t do soggy.

My feelings about tuna fish were so ingrained that I avoided the stuff for many years.

Two things changed my mind about it:

1.     I found some fun things to add to it that amped up the flavor. (Getting over my childhood distaste of onions helped…)

2.     I quit trying to eat it as a sandwich. I rarely eat bread these days. (I love it – it doesn’t love me).  And it turns out that it wasn’t really the tuna I didn’t like. It was the soggy bread that I had to gingerly peel away from the still soft bread in order to eat the sandwich.

As a busy mom of three, I don’t have time to fix fancy meals for lunch. I’m lucky if I get to eat lunch sitting down! So tuna salad has become one of my favorite quick meals. I can make up a big batch on the weekend and then I’ve got lunch prepared for several days. A bowlful of lettuce topped with a big spoonful of tuna salad, maybe a few slices of tomato, and I’ve got a healthy and filling lunch that will keep me running until supper!

I never make it exactly the same way, but I have a handful of ingredients that usually find their way in there:

 

Celery – chopped small for crunch and color (I guess it add flavor, but that’s not why I use it!)

Nuts – leave these out if you’re allergic. I like to mix it up. Pecans, walnuts, almonds – whatever I have in the pantry is fair game.

Something sweet – Diced apples (I like fuji or jazz) or Apple-Juice sweetened craisins are my favorites.

Something savory – Onion (red, white, sweet, scallions – I use whatever I have on hand). Sometimes I use diced dill pickles. My mom always used sweet pickle relish, but I rarely have it. If you’ve got some, try it!

Salt & pepper

Mayo, and sometimes a little squirt of mustard!

 

Here are my three favorite flavor combinations. 

The Classic – Tuna, dill pickle, celery, onion, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper.

The Waldorf – Tuna, apple, celery, walnuts, onion, mayo, salt, pepper.

The Family Favorite – Tuna, craisins, celery, walnuts, onion, mayo, salt, pepper.

I may never be asked back to the Yankee-Belle Café, given that this isn’t a real recipe, but here you go.

Directions:

1.     Pick your favorite combo.

2.     Open your tuna.

3.     Dump it in a bowl and break up any chunks.

4.     Add your ingredients until it looks right.

5.     Mix in as much mayo as you need.

6.     Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Thank you again for having me here today!

Virginia here again and YES, you are welcome back anytime!! I love tuna and my whole family does, too. We can't wait to try these. :)

Family Favorites with Belle Calhoun!

Family Favorites  -   By popular demand

Hi everyone! Belle Calhoune here.  I'm very excited to be visiting the Yankee Belle Cafe.

Frankly, I love to cook, which is a good thing since my family loves to eat. 

In Forever Her Hero, my May Love Inspired release, the Trask family gathers for a family celebration on the beach to enjoy a clambake and fellowship.  When my own family comes together in Cape Cod, I tend to make family favorites.  Seafood.  Chicken kabobs on the grill.  Grilled corn on the cob.  One of my main goals is to satisfy the taste buds of the adults as well as the younger crowd (teenagers and the 11 and under crew).

First, let me say that I am a crock pot gal.  Call me crock pot crazy.  It fascinates me how many things I can make in this magical cooking device.   Last year we had a tragic moment where I dropped the lid of my crock pot, causing it to shatter on the kitchen floor.  Yes, there were tears.  And a hushed silence as my husband and two girls waited for me to lose it.  That's how much I loved my crock pot.  Happily, a few weeks later a brand new one was sitting under my Christmas tree.  Might I add that it was nicer than the one I broke.  Score!

Savory Chili.  This happens to be my all time favorite meal.  Good thing the rest of my family loves it as well.  Throw in some cornbread and I'm in heaven.  I consider this the ultimate comfort food, perfect to put on the table all year round.  My mother used to make it for us all the time.  I love how easy it is to make.   You can also choose an alternative to ground beef for a different taste and a healthier option. 

Ingredients:
Hamburger, Ground Turkey or Ground Chicken Meat. 

1 can of tomatoes

2 can of tomato paste

1 cup marinara sauce

2 cloves of minced garlic

1 chopped onion

1/4th of a tsp of pepper

1/4th of a tsp of salt

1 tsp of oregano

1 tablespoon cumin

Chili Pepper (as needed)

1 Can of Kidney beans, strained

Packet of Chili seasoning. 

Brown meat in skillet.  Once browned and fat drained off you can start adding whole tomatoes, tomato paste and marinara sauce.  Then add the kidney beans, onion and garlic.  Mix in all the seasonings.  Let the chili simmer for a half an hour on low for best results. 

*

My Aunt Josephine was born on the island of Monserrat in the West Indies, along with my grandmother.  Aunt Jo was a fantastic cook.   She was a baker extraordinaire.  My one major regret is that we didn't record all of her recipes in a family cookbook.  I can still taste her rice and beans,  as well as her carrot cake and almond cookies.  Her recipe for lemon squares is one I still have the recipe for.

Lemon Squares with a tropical twist:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4th a cup of sifted powdered sugar

½ cup butter or margarine

2 eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

½ tsp of finely grated lemon peel

½ tsp vanilla extract

1/4th tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Powdered sugar

Set oven to 350.  Mix flour and powdered sugar.  Add butter to mixture.  Once mixture clings together place in baking pan.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  While crust is cooking beat eggs with a mixer, adding in granulated sugar along with lemon peel, vanilla and lemon juice.  Beat until smooth and mixture thickens. Set aside. Stir together 2 tablespoons flour and baking powder then add to egg mixture.  Take out crust from oven.  Pour mixture over warm bottom crust.  Place back in oven for 30 minutes.  Once out of oven sift powdered sugar on top. 

Voila! After the lemon bars cool, cut them into squares and enjoy.

Clabber Girl.  I recently discovered this product.  Can you believe it? My husband brought it home from the supermarket and I just stared at it because I thought it was the cutest thing.  I then posted it on my author page and discovered that Clabber girl is famous.   As a New Englander born and bred, I hadn't seen it or used it.  All I can say is, I'm now a fan.  Where has Clabber Girl been all my life?

Apple crumble.  A favorite dessert often requested by my youngest daughter, Sierra.  She could eat this every day, and it's my go-to dessert when I have lots of apples to use up.

              

  I've used all kinds of apples to make this, which results in a sometimes sweeter and other times tarter taste. 

Now that Spring has finally sprung in Connecticut, my mind is beginning to wander to family barbecues and get togethers.   What's your family favorite recipe?

  Bio:

Belle Calhoune grew up in small town outside of Boston.  An avid reader since she was a child, she was known to always have her nose buried in a book.  Thankfully, her Physician mother and Biologist father never discouraged her from reading romance novels.  While at Syracuse University, Belle met her future husband and majored in English literature.  After graduation Belle became a Federal Investigator in Boston, celebrated the birth of her first child and worked full-time as her husband attended law school.  After the birth of her youngest child, Belle moved to southern Connecticut where she began to focus on her writing dreams while being a stay at home mom.  Writing for Harlequin Love Inspired is a dream come true. Being able to work in her pjs and stay home with her mini poodle and Chocolate Lab are huge perks.  Busy writing and plotting her next novel, Belle loves to hear from readers. Visit Belle at: http://www.bellecalhoune.com

Guest Sherida Stewart with Date Pudding

Missy, here. When Sherida was talking on the Seekerville blog about her grandmother's Date Pudding, I asked her to share it here. I'll probably share it again near the holidays but was anxious to find out how she made it! Here's Sherida…

Family Treasures

by Sherida Stewart

In a 1950’s Kansas kitchen filled with the scent of frying doughnuts, I learned to love cooking and to treasure the handed-down recipes which are my family’s heritage. Grandmother would stand at the stove frying the puffy dough while I stood on a chair helping Granddad dip the treats in sweet glaze. I waited with anticipation until we finished so I could finally bite into one while it was still warm. Yum! In their small town, Grandmother was known as the Doughnut Lady because of the thousands of doughnuts she made for church fundraising projects and for selling at the local mercantile. That recipe is in a church cookbook in memory of her contributions.

My mother, grandmothers, and aunts cooked wonderful meals for family celebrations. Through their efforts, I learned about family love and family traditions expressed by preparing food for others. Those memories of family festivities are recalled when I use their recipes. A special memory is our Christmas Eve dinners at my grandparents’ home. Thirty-five family members would sit at a very long make-shift table stretching from the dining room through the small living room. We looked forward to Grandmother’s special Date Pudding dessert, a recipe handed down with love. We knew it was a treasured tradition.

My mother and her four siblings grew up during the hardships of the Depression. My grandmother stretched the food budget with her garden and creative cooking. During the Depression, the ingredients for this Date Pudding recipe were very expensive. Grandmother would scrimp to be able to make this special dessert for Christmas dinner. My uncle told me the family would sometimes save money by collecting hickory nuts in the nearby pastures. These were hard to crack, but tasted fine in the Date Pudding. Generations have passed this recipe down, continuing to make it as part of our Christmas celebrations.

This is very rich, but also very easy….a treat to treasure.

DATE PUDDING

1 T. flour

1 T. soda cracker crumbs

1 cup sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 cup dates (cut in thirds)

1 cup walnuts (broken)

2 t. vanilla

2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients. Beat in eggs. Add dates, nuts, and vanilla.

Pour into a greased and floured 8- or 9-inch pan.

Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Makes nine servings.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, crushed crackers, sugar, and baking powder) in a bowl.

Beat in the eggs.

Cut the dates into pieces. Cutting them into thirds works well for me.

Mix in the dates, walnuts, and vanilla until combined.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured 8- or 9-inch baking pan.

Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Be careful not to bake too long.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

I treasure the recipe card in my mother’s handwriting, reminding me of her love of family, cooking, and traditions.

This year we enjoyed Date Pudding on New Year’s Day when our younger son and his fiancée were able to join us for a late Christmas celebration. Endearingly, she asked if I would give her the recipe. Yes, absolutely I’ll pass it on….along with the cookbook of family treasures I’m collecting for her wedding gift. Welcome to our family heritage of food mixed together with love and sprinkled with memories!

Thanks to Missy for asking about this treasured recipe and for having me visit with you here in the Yankee-Belle Cafe. Do you have treasured recipes which have been passed down with special memories?

******
Sherida Stewart is hiking along the trail God has mapped for her and learning to trust in His directions. Married to her high school sweetheart for 42 years, they have two sons, two grandchildren, a daughter-in-law, and one future daughter-in-law. A former teacher, Sherida now enjoys blogging about inspirational romance and writing at www.SheridaStewart.com and about traveling and food at http://QuietTravels.com.

Guest Cheryl St. John with Eggnog Scones

B-r-r-r-r-r!!! It's been a brisk beginning of December here in the Black Hills of South Dakota! Over the last week, negative temperatures have been the norm...but that's perfect to start the Christmas season, isn't it?

Jan here, and I'm so excited to introduce you to our guest in the cafe today! It's Cheryl St. John!!!!! And she has a fabulous recipe to share with us. I tried it out last week. These scones are so sweet, soft and delicious, you'll love them.

But without further ado, here's Cheryl:

I share a passion for eggnog with several of you, and it’s the season! One of my favorite holiday events is a tea, where I get out all my pretty teapots and cups and saucers and bake ahead for a week or more. Scones are my passion at teatime, or any time really.

This is the recipe I’ve come up with after much experimentation. Many scone recipes don’t call for an egg, but I love the texture an egg gives the dough. Heavy cream makes a scone less like a biscuit.  Eggnog is an ingredient I stumbled upon, and the flavor it adds is incredible. Orange juice is another alternative. You many add or substitute ingredients - for example craisins & raisins are interchangeable. Currants are an option.  Walnuts or pecans are a good addition. Guess what--some people like them plain!

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Jan here. Notice I opted for Cheryl's Craisin
alternative!

Soak 1/2 cup raisins in warm water.

In mixing bowl sift together:

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ cup (or less) sugar

Use pastry cutter to cut 1/3 cup butter or margarine into the flour mixture.

Add 1 beaten egg

½ cup egg nog (or heavy cream)

I always make a double batch:

4 cups flour

¾ - 1 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

5 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup butter/margarine

2 eggs

1 cup eggnog

            1 cup raisins

Stir with fork till pretty well mixed (it will be dry and crumbly), then turn out onto lightly floured surface or floured waxed paper and knead several times until a dough forms.  Keep a little cup of flour at your fingertips and dust surface and hands with flour until you get a good consistency for pressing out. (If it sticks to your fingers, add more flour.)

Press dough out to about ½ in thickness. You may either

-       cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters or a glass…

-       or roll out the entire batch into a circle (2 if you double the recipe) and cut into pie-shaped wedges.

Place on lightly sprayed cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Jan here again: I'll have to make Cheryl's suggested double batch
next time. These barely lasted long enough to get a picture!

Some people brush the tops with milk. I don’t.

Optional: sprinkle with sugar or grated lemon peel

My special topping: sprinkle with lemonade mix!

Another option - a dash of ginger or cinnamon

Scones are so easy to make ahead. These freeze great. Layer with waxed paper and freeze in a tightly sealed container. Thaw them out a few hours before serving.

Serve with preserves, jelly or lemon curd.

Buy your copy HERE!

Cheryl's achievements include over fifty published books in both contemporary and historical romance 
genres, as well as a Writers Digest craft book, WRITING WITH EMOTION, TENSION & CONFLICT. She has received numerous Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards and RITA nominations. In describing her stories of second chances and redemption, readers and reviewers use words like, “emotional punch, hometown feel, core values, believable characters and real life situations.” She has taught writing on local and national levels, and is in demand as a motivational speaker.

Connecting with the reader on an emotional level is a vital skill that every writer must learn to master. Whatever the genre, emotion, tension, conflict, and pathos are essential to hooking the reader's interest from the very first page. Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict gives writers a variety of intensive tools and techniques for instilling emotion into plots, characters, dialogue, and settings in order to achieve the highest impact with each element.

Wow! Where was this book when I started my writing career?

"A must-have compilation of rock-sound advice from a writer who knows what she's talking about. A book you'll want to inhale whole and then return to time and time again to improve your craft and go deeper in order to write YOUR story. Not only does this book embrace some of the most complex elements of story construction in a clear, easy to digest format, it acts as inspiration for the writer. Sentence upon sentence of outstanding advice!"

- Mary Buckham, author of the Amazon best-selling WRITING ACTIVE SETTINGS series for writers.

Guest Piper Huguley with Aunt Cee's Sweet Potato Pie

Jan here, and I'm so pleased to introduce you to Piper, our guest in the Cafe's kitchen today!

Take it away, Piper....

Aunt Cee’s Sweet Potato Pie

Look!  The chair is empty and the remote control has been abandoned!  It’s the one time of the year that DH is in the kitchen—he makes sweet potato pie for us!

Hello!  I’m thrilled to guest in the Yankee-Belle Café today.  A few months ago, I mentioned on Facebook that my husband makes his sweet potato pie for us for the holidays.  Jan asked me to share it with you.  I am happy to do so.  A word of warning though:  this is my husband’s recipe.  I will come in and try to clarify as I can!

This recipe makes 4 pies.

I told you, this was a man’s recipe. Aunt Cee was not a man, but she made a lot of pie.

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes (8 or 9 medium sized ones)

Cinnamon (3 teaspoons)

A big bag of sugar (3 ½ to 4 cups about 2 pounds, but I always buy a new 5 lb. bag)

Nutmeg (2 teaspoons)

1 stick of butter (This is the same, ½ cup of butter, softened)

1 can of evaporated milk (Yes, the whole can—12 ounces)

3 eggs (No clarification needed here!)

Vanilla extract  (3 teaspoons.  It doesn't matter if it is pure or imitation vanilla extract)

4 regular sized graham cracker crusts or 3 of the larger sized graham cracker crusts

Directions:

Have your wife boil the sweet potatoes.  Go back to the comfy striped chair and watch SportsCenter or better yet, the James Bond Marathon.

(I get my biggest dutch oven pot and fit the potatoes down into it. Don’t be afraid to cut them if you need to, but keep the size of the potatoes in the medium range.  The larger potatoes don’t have the sweetness and have more fibers in them!  Cover with cold water and boil the potatoes until your sharpest knife slides easily through each potato. This can take up to two hours.)

Your wife should line up everything to put into the bowl with the cooked sweet potatoes:

When the potatoes are done, while they are unpeeled,  run cold water over them.  This makes them easier to handle, but you don’t want them to get cold.  Fold up two or three  wadded up paper towels to grab the slightly cooled potato to peel  away skins with a paring knife.  The skins come off easily because of the boiling process.  Put the potatoes into a big bowl (or if you have a mixer like Thor, he can do this job as well. It would be a little overwhelming for Miss Edna.) Throw the skins away.

Pour the entire can of evaporated milk in the bowl.

Put the stick of softened butter in the bowl

Crack the three eggs in the bowl with the mixture.  So in the bowl, you have potatoes, milk, butter and eggs. 

Now.

Call in your husband.  Make sure nothing important is on tv, but it is a crucial time, because the potatoes need to remain hot. 

If you don’t have Thor the mixer to take care of this next step, then you can use a hand mixer.  If the potatoes are hot, the “strings” of the sweet potatoes will come off on the beaters rather than stay in with the pie. 

Start mixing.  While mixing, have your wife put in the sugar, a cup at a time, the vanilla, sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg in.  Put in 3 ½ cups of sugar and taste.

(Umm. This is disgusting because of the raw eggs and salmonella danger, but DH swears by this step.  It lets him know if we have a sweet batch of potatoes, and if you need the other ½ cup of sugar or not.  Whatever, I would just put in the 4 cups and take my chances.)

The mixture should look like this:

Note the color.  There is something about the color that is the Holy Grail, DH says.  I am not sure what it is, but I took a picture of it to show you.  Also note: someone watched a little too much of Dr. No or something because the mixture is a little lumpier than usual.  That’s okay, it will still be good, but it is a warning not to let the potatoes cool too much!

Go back and finish Dr. No and hope you didn’t miss the part with Ursula Andress in it. 

Divide the mixture between your 4 pie shells.  You want a nice high pie. It takes about 4 big cooking-spoon sized spoonfuls to fill the pie shells.  Spread the mixture with the spatula in each pie to even it out for baking.  If you have a little extra you can still divide it between the 4 pie shells.  It won’t spill over. 

You can also make sweet potatoes pancakes or muffins or bread with the extra, but I do like all the mixture to go into the pies. Sometimes we give the pies as gifts and you want people to see they’ve received a nice-sized pie. 

Put the four pies into a 350 degree oven.  They take about an hour and a half to cook.  The top should be set firm with a little slight browning on top.  If you take them out too soon, the filling will crack. It will be good, but who wants a cracked pie top?  See here:

That little browned part in the middle of the pie let’s you know it is done.  If you don’t like the looks of it, you can pull it off and taste it.  Ahhh.  It’s cooked now. 

Let the pies cool in the refrigerator.  The plastic shell that came with the crusts makes a nice cover for the pie once you remove all the paper and the glue inside of it. Just top with a bow for gift giving. 

My Dad got a little sneak peek—he deserves it! 

Merry Christmas and Enjoy! 

Jan here again. Don't those pies look fabulous? And here's a bit about our guest:

Piper G Huguley is the author of Migrations of the Heart, a five-book series of inspirational historical romances set in the early 20^th century featuring African American characters.  Book four in the series, A Champion’s Heart, was a Golden Heart finalist in 2013.  Book one in her new historical series Home to Milford College was a semi-finalist in Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest.  

She blogs about the history behind her novels at http://piperhuguley.com. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son. 

Chopped Salad with Tina Radcliffe!

Missy, here. Posting this ahead of time as I'm in Atlanta for the Romance Writers of America National Conference. Today is a crazy busy day, including a Harlequin book signing, lunch with my Senior Editor, a Love Inspired Meet & Greet with authors and editors, the RITA and Golden Heart reception sponsored by RWA, and a Harlequin Pre-party event for RITA finalists as well as milestone achieving authors. And all that is followed by the big fancy party Harlequin hosts for their authors, this year being held at the Ritz-Carlton (I'll share photos of spectacular desserts next week!).

Knowing my head would be spinning, Tina graciously offered to cover for me. Thank you, Tina! Now, here's her amazing recipe...

Chopped Salad with Tina Radcliffe

1 head iceberg lettuce (rinsed and shredded)

1 can black beans- drained

1 small can (or ½ a regular can) corn)-drained

Tortilla chips or strips about ¾ of the bag

Small can sliced black olives (2.25 oz.)-drained

Package shredded Pepper Jack Cheese ( 8 oz.)

Two chicken breasts grilled then shredded

Ranch Dressing ½ to 1 cup

Salsa ½ to 1 cup

3 tablespoons any “tangy” BBQ sauce

Mix all ingredients right before you serve, including shredding salad. If you are taking it somewhere then wait to add the chips and stir in with a wooden spoon breaking them up right before you serve.

TIPS FOR A BETTER SALAD

-- Early in the day wash the lettuce and dry well and store in zip bags or a covered bowl to chill in the fridge.

--Drain and rinse the beans or they make the salad overly soggy.

--You can grate your own cheese, but be warned, Pepper Jack is soft so this is rather tedious

--Some palates prefer the chips layered on top but I like mine mixed in and moist.

--I have also used Tyson frozen Southwestern chicken strips which I microwave and add.

--Vegetarians, this tastes great without the chicken.

--I like my salad very moist and add the full 1 cup of Salsa and salad dressing

That’s it! Enjoy.

Tina Radcliffe writes heartwarming and humorous romances for Love Inspired. Her latest release is Mending the Doctor’s Heart. You can find her at www.tinaradcliffe.com