Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who adore Christmas and everything that comes with it. I start my shopping in February so I don't get overwhelmed in December, I make a bajillion cookies to give away, and I make sure there's always carols playing whether I'm in my car or at home. Then, there's the cooking. This cake tastes like Christmas to me.

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CRANBERRY SAUCE CAKE

For Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup mayonnaise (regular only, fat-free and reduced-fat don't work for this recipe)
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tbsp grated orange peel
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp orange extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

For Icing
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 to 2 tbsp orange juice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and soda.
3. Add cranberry sauce, mayonnaise, orange juice, orange peel, and orange extract. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Fold in walnuts.
5. Spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour batter into pan.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until cake tests done with toothpick test.
7. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack (or plate).
8. Combine icing ingredients to a slightly runny consistency.
9. Drizzle over a warm cake.
NOTES: Depending on the size of the slice, this can yield anywhere from 12-20 servings. I seem to get around 16. It's best when it's slightly warm.

For eight months, Dr. Mark Vance has been visiting Sheehan's Nursery to buy flowers for his mother's grave, and every week, Hal Sheehan slips an extra lily into the bunch. Mark would love nothing more than to get to know the gentle giant better, but in 1954 Baltimore, a man just doesn't ask another man out. His fears are compounded when a visit the day before Valentine's casts doubts on Hal's intentions. Maybe he really was meant to live a life of secrets. Or maybe he just needs the holiday to discover the best secret of them all.

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http://www.viviendean.com/

Thanksgiving is fast approaching (it’s already passed for us Canucks!), and it’s my favourite time of year. The pies the turkey, and most importantly, the stuffing!! Growing up I’d spend hours helping my mom preparing for the friends and family to come over and eat until we couldn’t move. Everything in my house was (and is!) made from scratch, and I’m always surprised at the number of people who don’t know how to make some of the basics. So here’s my favourite stuffing and cranberry sauce recipe.

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Cranberry Apple Stuffing

Turkey Giblets

1 Large Onion

2 loaves of slightly stale bread (I usually leave the twist tie off for a day or two)

¼ cup of cranberries

5-8 peeled and sliced apples (depends on size)

2 -3 cups of chicken (or Vegetable) stock

1-2tsp of Summer Savory

Dice Turkey Giblets and Onion, fry in a large pan or Wok over medium heat until giblets are brown and onion is clear. Add in cubed bread and stir until Onion is evenly distributed.

Add apples and cranberries to mix,

Slowly pour over chicken stock. Stir slowly until apples soften, remove from stove top and allow to cool before stuffing Turkey. Can also be baked in pan along side.

To make vegetarian, eliminate Giblets, and use vegetable stock.

*~*

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of cranberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

Boil water in a medium sized pot, add sugar.

Once boiling, add cranberries and cover. Will “pop” like popcorn. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Ash Cooper and Jason McCarty know they need to do one thing, and one thing alone stay alive. An IED attack destroyed their convoy and left them both injured in the high desert of Afghanistan and running from insurgents. They take refuge with a group of Afghan civilians, their only hope of rescue is two satellite phones that might be damaged beyond repair. Ash and Jason join forces with a British army nurse to survive the harsh living conditions. As days to turn to weeks they think of home, the husbands they left behind, and the lives they want to return to. But with food rations running short, the elders angry at them and the hope of rescue lost, Ash and Jason start to give up, and in the end turn to each other in their struggle for survival.

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The smell of food cooking all afternoon is soothing. Call me crazy, but it does! This recipe has the benefit of not only smelling great all afternoon, it's also something the whole family will enjoy – in one simple dish!

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Ingredients:

½ cup butter or margarine
2 cups milk
Family sized can of chicken broth
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped up (I usually make this dish after baking chicken for another night, cuts the prep time. If you're cooking from scratch, bake the chicken for 30 minutes until done and then chop)
1 can Ro-Tel Tomatoes (Mild, Medium, HOT, your choice), drained
8 oz Velveeta cheese cubed or shredded
4-5 oz Mexican blend or Colby-Jack cheese, shredded
1 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder (3-4 tsp if you like really spicy)
Salt/Pepper – to taste
5-6 tortillas, cut into 2" strips

Preparation:

Spray the crockpot sides with cooking spray and turn it on low if you have all day, if you only have a couple of hours, medium or high). Toss all the ingredients except the Colby-Jack cheese and tortilla strips in and close the lid. Stir every half hour. About 15 minutes before dinner time, deep-fry the tortilla strips until they are a golden brown; each batch of the strips should take only 15 seconds or so, but they burn easily so small batches are better than tossing them all into the deep-fryer. If you don't have a deep fryer, use a large frying pan. Cover the bottom of the pan in canola oil, heat and fry. Again, only about 15 seconds. Drain the strips so they aren't greasy.

Serve:

Spoon a ladle of soup into a bowl, add a handful of the shredded cheese and then another ladle of soup. Place several tortilla strips on top (this is to your taste, add a lot or a little, your choice). Serve.

**Note: I like my tortilla strips to get a little soggy, so I put the tortilla strips in the middle with the shredded cheese. My husband likes his strips crisp so he leaves them on top. Your choice.

Esmerelda Quinn has been looking for a place to belong since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was young. The closest thing to home has always been Aunt Constance's villa in Puerto Vallarta, so after a string of dead-end hotellier jobs, she's coming home to run the villa.

Santiago Cruz has called the villa home for as long as he can remember. In between surfing events, Constance has always had a room for him. Color him surprised when Constance decides to retire - and leaves a joint interest in the villa to both Santiago and Esme.

Esme isn't thrilled to share ownership of the villa with the the youngest Cruz brother - especially when she learns Santiago's brother has been after the villa for years. But Santiago has grown up while she's been away at school and soon she finds herself falling for the rich boy down the hall.

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Website: http://www.kristinaknightauthor.com

This recipe is a mainstay of the fall for my family (even the most finicky will slurp it) and, when I actually drag out the good tureen, the soup is a centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table, orange and golden and autumnal, beautiful soup.
(The hardest part of this is peeling the hard shell of the squash. So if you see it already chunked up for you in the produce section, go for it. I won’t tell.)

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1 butternut squash, peeled and chunked
1 onion, peeled and chunked (sensing the pattern here?)
2 apples, peeled, cored and chunked
6 cups of chicken broth
3 cups of water (you can adjust the liquid up and down for texture and taste)
1 piece of white bread (no crust)
(You can use a potato, peeled and chunked instead of the bread – it’s the starch that counts)
Pinch of crumbled rosemary
Or, you can use a potato, peeled and chunked
Heavy cream (You be the judge – I sometimes make this without the cream, and don’t process the veggies quite so much. It’s a whole different texture. A whole different soup. The cream makes it all smooth and velvety, more elegant and decadent, less rustic.)
Throw it all in a pot (except the cream) and simmer until the squash is tender. Then put it through the processor or a blender. You will probably have to do that in batches. Return to the soup pot. Add cream to pot just before serving. (You can add another little sprig of rosemary for garnish. But you don’t have to.)
In mystic Sleepy Hollow, succubus Lily Night put her prom date, Campbell Jones, into a coma after a night of wild, unbridled sex. She has steered clear of mortals ever since, afraid of damaging them or worse, not to mention the inconvenience of knocking out the power every time they have sex.
Successful architect Campbell Jones has lived with strange powers and a sexy secret since that prom night. He’s buried himself in work to forget the woman who’d dumped him at the ER then vanished from his life without a trace.
Neither Lily nor Campbell have forgotten that night or the love they’d shared. Will a 1Night Stand help them bury their past?

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I like to think I’m good at different things, but alas, cooking is not one of them. The following recipe is one I got from a former coworker and it’s perfect for me because it’s easy and perfect for an appetizer or snack. And with the veggies, you can even pretend it’s good for you—score!

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VEGGIE BITES

2 (8 oz.) containers cream cheese

2 lg. cans crescent rolls

Broccoli flowerettes, diced finely

Any other veggies to taste: red or green peppers, olives, carrots, whatever you’d like!

1 cup. shredded cheese (optional – I usually make them without cheese)

Chop broccoli and other veggies, mix and place in refrigerator. Take out cream cheese to let soften. Cut each crescent triangle into 3 small pieces. Bake 7 or 8 minutes or until lightly browned (follow package directions.) Let cool. Peel off top layer if too flaky to ease in spreading cream cheese. Spread cream cheese over each piece, then sprinkle veggie mixture over top of cream cheese. Add cheese on top if wanted. Serve immediately or cover with saran wrap or refrigerate.

Flower shop owner Alexa Conroy had it all before the recession hit and her customers fled to cheaper shopping grounds. Desperate to make ends meet, she sells her dream home and moves into the rundown apartments above her shop. When she spots six feet of sexy distraction—complete with muscles, piercings, and tattoos—ripping up flooring, Alexa knows the karmic windfall she’s due just landed on her doorstep.

And the attraction’s definitely not one-sided.

Dillon James, reluctant heir to the corporation about to foreclose on Alexa’s shop, is not about to jeopardize their scorching chemistry by admitting he’s not the building’s handyman. But with only weeks until her business goes under and his identity is revealed, Dillon must find a way to convince Alexa cooperation isn’t a dirty word, help her save the shop from his brother’s greed, and persuade her that he’s not the enemy…or risk losing the only woman who’s seen the real him.

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www.cariquinn.com

I love to garden and love to cook, but sometimes I get sick of it, just want a day off where someone pampers me. So, in my latest book, Bermuda Triangle I wrote a hero that was into gardening and cooking. There’s nothing sexier than a good looking, shirtless man making a meal. Well, maybe what happens after supper ...

I have a couple apple trees in my backyard, and this Apple Danish recipe is a favorite at my house.

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PASTRY:

•3 cups all-purpose flour

•1/2 teaspoon salt

•1 cup butter

•1 egg

•1/2 cup milk

FILLING:

•6 cups sliced peeled apples

•1-1/2 cups sugar

•2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

•1 teaspoon cinnamon

GLAZE:

•1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

•2 to 3 teaspoons water

Directions

In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine egg and milk; add to flour mixture. Stir just until dough clings together. Divide dough in half.

On a lightly floured surface, roll half of dough into a 15-in. x 10-in. rectangle; transfer to a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, toss together filling ingredients; spoon over pastry in pan. Roll out remaining dough into another 15-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Place over filling. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

For glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and enough water to achieve a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm pastry. Cut into squares. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 20-24 servings.

A plane crash leaves pilot Paige Williams stranded on an island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle with sexy twin brothers Dalton and Cooper Thompson. She tries to resist the advances of both, knowing it would only be a fling, but as time passes she has to face the fact they may never be rescued. Paige doesn’t want to choose one brother over the other, so Dalton and Cooper come up with a solution—they’ll take turns having Paige’s beautiful body.

Soon jealousy and tension make them rethink the arrangement. The only way to keep the peace is for all three to be involved in every sexual adventure, and it turns out to be more fulfilling than they thought possible. Who wants to be rescued when you’re living in paradise?

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http://skyrobinson.com

When I moved out on my own eighteen years ago, and had family over for the first time at Thanksgiving, I overdid it with too much food. So after I send as much turkey home with everyone as I could, I was still left with over half of the gigantic bird. After much talking to my Grandma, she gave me the recipe that she’d use often and always found most effective.

Considering that I and other Canadians just celebrated Thanksgiving a couple days ago, I thought I’d share this idea for what to do with the leftover turkey!

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Mini Turkey Loaves

Prep: 10 minutes
On the table: 35 minutes

Ingredients

· 3 tbsp apricot jam

· 1 tbsp regular mustard

· 1 lb ground turkey

· 3/4 cup zucchini, finely grated

· 1/2 cup grated onion

· 1 tsp minced garlic

· 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

· 3/4 cup crushed whole-grain shredded wheat cereal

· 1 egg

· 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a muffin tin lightly with oil.

2. In small bowl, mix together jam and mustard.

3. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients until well mixed.

4. Divide among 8 muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes, then generously spread jam mixture on top of each loaf.

5. Continue baking for 10 minutes, until loaves pull away from pan and glaze looks golden.

Serve with favourite vegetables on the side.

A “The Edge” short story

Connected to In the Arms of the Law Series

On leave of absence from the police force and desperate to resolve the intense anger inside him, Ethan James escapes to the Shenandoah Mountains...alone.

During one of the worst storms to hit the area in years, he's surprised when he opens the door to find Shanay Gold, an old friend, and sometime submissive lover, dripping wet and looking sexy as hell. So sexy, he has to keep reminding himself he's kept her at arms-length because of the future she wants. A future he can't give her.

When lightening sparks an old flame, desires blaze to life, and Shanay and Ethan are left with little choice but to roll with passion's Wild Thunder.

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Food in many cases can set the place of a story more than any other factor.  Landscapes can repeat across the world, but put a plate of clotted cream on the table and you know where you are immediately.  English tea anyone.

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Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
2 pints full cream milk

Preparation:
Pour milk into a basin or dish, and leave in a cool place for at least 8 hours. The cream will rise to the top. Put the dish over a pot of boiling water. You may want to use a double boiler. Simmer the water until the cream begins to show a ring around the edge and the surface just begins to bubble. After about 45 minutes to an hour, remove from heat. Let the cream cool, and skim the clotted cream from the surface.

Splits

Ingredients
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
1 tablespoon white sugar
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Directions
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the milk and add the sugar. In another bowl, sift the flour and salt together and add the cooled melted butter.

Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, and turn out onto a floured counter and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draft free place to 45 minutes.
Turn dough out onto the freshly floured board and shape into 9 balls. Place dough balls into a buttered and floured 9 inch square pan. Let them sit, covered for another 15 minutes to rise again. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned and puffed. Split open and serve warm.

Tanley's boring life on Saint Michael's Mount gets a lot more complicated when a man is washed up on the beach. With her father dead, the neighbor smuggling, and a knife wound in the man's shoulder she's all alone with a whole lot of trouble.  At least she's not stuck getting rid of a body when he wakes up at long last, but delivering papers for the government to help pay the debt after the war with Napoleon makes the stakes higher than just a little smuggling.  Alone with James though temptation is hard to resist, if only getting caught didn't bring up a whole new set of problems.

 

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www.jennifermuellerbooks.com

My current favorite to make for holidays is a BBQ brisket, or brisket tacos. The brisket is a tougher cut of meat and therefore needs to be handled well to keep it moist and soft.  Since I’ve picked up brisket as one of those things I can do well, I get asked a lot about how to figure out cooking it. I’ll share my easy calculations for how to make a great brisket at home in your oven.

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What you’ll need:

· Brisket

· Onion

· Salt

· Pepper

· BBQ, seasoning, dry rub, beer batter or other dressing

When you cut the packaging open on your brisket, go ahead and give it a quick wash. Keep that wrapper handy though, you’ll need it toward the end. You’ll see that one side of the brisket has a fatty layer, usually half an inch to an inch thick. Put the brisket in a pan with the fat side up. This way as the brisket cooks the fat can keep the meat moist.

Dice up the onion to add some flavor. Some people here in Texas like to add some peppers and jalapenos as well. I’m simple, so I prefer a plain onion.

Season your brisket to taste. This can mean a few things. I personally prefer a good BBQ brisket, so I will either make up a quick batch of BBQ from scratch or use my favorite brand of store bought sauce and slather the entire brisket in a bottle so the flavor can cook through the meat. You can also experiment with beer batter, various rubs or sauces.

I usually pour a cup or more of beef stock in the bottom to add more flavor and ensure that the meat stays as moist as possible. This is something you can take or leave, it’s just my preference.

Another tip for those who want easy clean up and chose to skip the broth, you can wrap the brisket in foil inside the pan so there’s even less scrubbing to do.

When you’re brisket is ready to pop in the oven, it’s time to calculate how long you will need to allow for cooking. If you’re a well-done person, I’d suggest something around 275 degrees. I’m more of a medium-rare girl, so I cook my briskets around 225 degrees.

Go back to your wrapping that you removed at the beginning and see how much your brisket weighs. For every pound of meat, you will need to cook the brisket for one to one and a half hours. The more you cook it, the more well done it will be.

So say you have a five pound brisket and want it well done. You’d cook it at about 275 degrees for up to seven and a half hours. Say you want it on the rare side. That same cut of meat would be cooked at 225 degrees for as few as five hours.

If you have a meat thermometer you can cook until the inner temperature is between 145 to 190 degrees.

When it’s finished, cut and serve to your preference, be that sliced and slathered in BBQ sauce or diced and in a taco!

A woman who doesn’t believe she deserves love…

Toe-curling kisses and enough sex to fill a weekend were all Pandora wanted from a fling with her teenage crush. She’s never forgotten how he played the knight in shining armor to her damsel in distress. She’s ready to say thank you in several naughty ways, so long as she can walk away when it’s over with her heart intact.

A man moving on from tragedy…

Brian has no intention of allowing the feisty tattoo artist to leave him after one taste. He hasn’t had enough of her inked curves. The packaging might have changed, but Pandy is the woman he hasn’t been able to excise from his memory. He’s ready to put together a new life, one that includes her. But he’s not the only one vying for her attention. Someone else wants her, dead or alive.

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