Three Awesome Books for a teaser of Book Sale coming August 6th!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

There will be over 20! authors selling their books at the Book Extravaganza this August 6th. A wide range of genres and styles will be represented, enough for any reader to find much to read! 

Many will be on sale or offering other specials. Here's three to tease.

Register to win a FREE copy!

Finding hope in all the wrong places.

Rebecca is a well published author. In her Christian romances she demonstrates why. 

And all her titles at the book sale will be ON SALE for only $10 each! Plus you can register to win a free copy of her latest work, Winds of Change. Find out more about Rebecca and her wonderful writing at her Amazon author page.

One Brick at a Time, a heart wrenching and heart warming biography you won't want to put down.

One Brick at a Time is Elaine Oostra's life story. She shares her fond and sometimes humorous memories of childhood as well as the struggles and pain of growing up with a mom who suffered from mental illness. 

Want some fun, fast reading? Mild West Mysteries abounds in thirteen cozy mystery short stories of the West as never seen before. 

Also, I'll be running a Buy One Get One of Same or Lesser Price HALF OFF with all my four titles: Starke Naked Dead, Mild West Mysteries, The Mall Fairies: Exile and Write Short to Succeed. 

For more about me and my wacky Idaho adventures, visit my Amazon author page.

Hope to see you Saturday!

Book Bundles, Promo Cookbooks and Free Books: Author Marketing that Works

Now through October 14th, Book Bundles, 20 reads for under 5 bucks! Get Prodigies of Mystery II here at iBooks, 99 cents for three full length novels!

How are midlist and new authors going to stand out in today's overburdened publishing biz? Here's a few recent methods I've found successful.

First up: Book Bundles. My publisher is running a special on five bundles, one of which, Prodigies of Mysteries II, includes my cozy mystery Starke Naked Dead. As a reader, I've noticed that I often buy these bundles because there's a lot of reading for cheap and it's a great way to find new authors. As an author, I discovered that Starke Naked Dead is coming up in the rankings considerably while offered in Prodigies of Mystery II. A  great way to get noticed and to brand your author name and series.

Here's another great way to get your name out there, thank you, Lois Winston, for this great idea. Bake, Love, Write is a compilation of dessert recipes with authors' advice on love and writing, 105 authors in all. Lois Winston is donating the proceeds to a worthy cause. The eBook is for sale for 99 cents, that's less than a penny a recipe! My recipe is easy, cheap and delicious soda cracker pie. Again, I often find myself buying just this type of book because I love to cook, love inexpensive dessert cookbooks and love finding other authors to read. Plus, with 105 authors, there's oodles of cross-marketing going on!

There's a lot of controversy about whether to ever have anything free, even promo cookbooks. The detractors say that being free only means that you are giving away content to people who may never read it, much less review it. However, I think there is a place for free, especially if it's a certain sort of free book. I've downloaded free short stories about a series and then gone on to buy books from the series. With my promotional cookbooks, I have found that after they're free that I do get reviews, perhaps because a cookbook is something that people do read after downloading. Plus, if you have a lot of downloads of your free book, Amazon will heavily promote it once it's no longer free. So, here's one of my cookbooks that introduces my Starke Dead cozy mystery series, Starke Deadly Delicious, and it's FREE today, October 8th!

So dear readers, what do you think? Do you do the same with these promotions? Or not? Do you think they work? Or not? Let us know in the comments!

Starke Deadly Delicious FREE March 17th in honor of St. Paddy's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

In honor of this oh-so-Irish holiday, Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes is FREE, Monday March 17th! One reason? It contains a recipe for slumgullion, that oh-so-Irish dish. And here's a variation on slumgullion, a slumgullion salad recipe, great for lunch if you overindulge celebrating the holiday! ENJOY!

SLUMGULLION SALAD

A twist on an old traditional salad

The inspiration for this "leftovers" salad came from the simple Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta cheese, with vinegar and oil dressing. But never stop there—slumgullion salad can be any mixture of vegetables that you like. You can even mix cooked and raw veggies.

Some combos that work well are:

Either raw or cooked broccoli and cauliflower (or one can be cooked and one raw, trust me, it works) with raw or cooked carrots.

Cold cooked brussel sprouts with garbanzo beans and raw carrots

Add fresh tomatoes to any slumgullion salad (not cooked or canned, because it is too reminiscent of spaghetti sauce and the tomatoes are too liquid)

Add garbanzo, lima beans or white beans to the Greek salad

Add olives to the salad, or capers 

Add nuts and/or dried cranberries or raisinsAdd chopped apple or pineapple, or even mangos, if you like sweetness with your salad

Some combos to avoid:

Tomatoes are a strong flavor, so be careful what you mix them with, apples and tomatoes don't mix well, for example.

Avoid adding too many ingredients together, this will create a murky, muddy taste, with no one taste standing out.

Avoid too much of the strong tasting topping, for example too many nuts or olives or capers will overwhelm the salad, and in the case of pickled olives and capers, will make the salad too salty. 

Cheap easy delicious Sunday dinner recipe!

Sunday Dinner Slumgullion, YUM!

My of-Scots-descent mom always made slumgullion for Sunday Dinner because it was always different and always delicious. What is slumgullion, you ask? Simple: mixed up leftovers. Not so simple, because if you mix up the wrong leftovers you get ... cooked garbage. Aunt Maddie does this when she makes this dish in my Starke Dead mystery series. But if you follow a few simple rules, slumgullion will become a Sunday dinner staple in your home too!

Rules:

Think of like with like and ingredients you'd use together in dishes. In the example pictured above, I took leftover chili (steak, chili sauce, tomatoes), leftover Mexican casserole (hamburger, corn, chilis and carrots) and leftover pasta and combined. Yum!

If you have a lot of one leftover and a little of another, and not quite enough to make a meal consider another item that would combine well with your ingredients. I might add beans or some spaghetti squash to the recipe above. Or add a side dish too, a salad perhaps.

Avoid mixing too strong of flavors, sweets and sours, for example. If Aunt Maddie was making the recipe above, she'd add apple pie! Okay, an extreme example, but Aunt Maddie is pretty extreme herself. Also avoid too many different added spices. Both these mistakes will make the food taste strange and murky.

If you have "simple" leftovers, such as cooked vegetables and chicken, consider which spices to use and try different ones for a "refreshed" dish. (I might use coriander, thyme and pepper for the vegetables and chicken, for example.)

Avoid mixing tomatoes,vinegar or lemon juice with peas, green beans and/or broccoli as the green vegetables will turn brown and bitter.

That's it! Otherwise, let your creativity reign!

Do any of my readers have suggestions or stories, good or bad, of slumgullion recipes?

Easy Cheap Delicious Mustard Salad Dressing Recipe

Takes five minutes to make and oh, so good!

In honor of my having sold the first in my Starke Dead mystery series, Starke Naked Dead, to my publisher Muse It Up, here's a healthy and fast dressing recipe that's chockablock full of cancer fighting antioxidants! Why? Because I need fast, healthy food so I can work on the next in the series, Starke Raving Dead!

MUSTARD SALAD DRESSING

Basic recipe:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider, coconut vinegar or rice vinegar work well)

1/3 cup oil (olive oil works best, but grape seed, canola oil or walnut oil also work)

1/3 cup mustard (Dijon works best, but any mustard will do)

1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together in a jar and you're done! Easiest way to mix is to shake the jar.

Variations:

Add complementary spices:

1 teaspoon of curry spice makes a tasty curry mustard dressing

Coriander, cumin and/or pepper

1 to 2 tablespoons of nutritious (brewer's) yeast will make this dressing creamier

Substitute mayo for the oil

Substitute dill pickle juice for the vinegar

Add a splash of lemon or lime

For a thicker "creamy" dressing, process 1/3 cup of cooked or canned beans of your choice in a food processor until smooth and then add the ingredients in the basic recipe.

This keeps well up to two weeks in the fridge, although in my house it never stays that long!

Try your own variations as this is a forgiving recipe. Share your variations!

Happy Labor Day and an EASY recipe!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Traditionally, Labor Day is a day of rest for all us hard workers. However, if you are in a creative field you know we almost never take time off! So here is a very quick and easy and gluten free recipe that's delicious and healthy. Then at least you won't have to work hard at a treat. This recipe is one in my upcoming cookbook, Starke Deadly Delicious, full of recipes inspired by my Starke Dead mystery series.

 BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:

2 large ripe or very ripe bananas

1 cup of quick oats

In a food processor liquefy the bananas and then add the oatmeal and mix together. Bananas are different sizes, so if the mixture seems too thin to hold the cookies together, add oatmeal. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes on a greased or parchment covered cookie sheet (depending on size of cookies). The oatmeal makes the dough sticky so make sure to prepare the sheet. Freeze well.

Delicious this plain way but easy to add:

¼ cup of chocolate chips
¼ cup of crushed walnut pieces or other nuts
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon or nutmeg or cardamom
dried fruits: cranberries, raisins, blueberries, etc.

1 teaspoon vanilla, or lemon extract, or rum flavoring extract (very tasty with rum, cinnamon and walnuts)

Be careful not to add too many additional ingredients—the dough won't hold together.

Booksigning, Short Story and a RECIPE

Come join Kathy McIntosh, author of Mustard's Last Stand, and me, author of Starke Naked Dead, at our book signing, Friday, March 15, from 4pm to 8pm at the Hastings at the corner of Five Mile and Overland in Boise. (There'll be cookies!)

In honor of this event, here's a short story with a couple of characters from Starke Naked Dead and then the recipe that Maddie so enjoyed--because it's delicious!

MAMA CHIN'S LIVE FOREVER CASSEROLE

Mad Maddie Starke stared down at her menu and frowned in her signature facial expression of pure fury. She stared up at Mama Chin, who's calm gaze didn't waver a micro inch. Mama Chin knew all about Maddie's blow and bluster.

            Maddie pointed at a word on the daily special on Mama Chin's Save On Café's menu. "What the heck is that?"

            "It's quinoa," Mama Chin said, resisting the overwhelming urge to sigh. She couldn't resist a shift from aching foot to aching foot. She needed new wait staff. It didn't work anymore for only her and Paul to try to run the café all on their own. Not with the ski resort successful.

"Keenwah? How do you get that from quinoa? Why isn't it qwe-noah? Like it's spelled?"

"I agree totally."

Maddie's eyebrows raised high at Mama Chin's agreeing with her, which almost never happened.

"But, we've got to update our menu to sell to our new customer base, you know, the health-nutty skiers?"

Maddie's eyebrows remained halfway up her forehead. "Do I look like a health nut?"

Mama Chin regarded her slightly overweight—plump—okay, fat friend. "Not really."

"Don't you have a real food daily special? You know, meatloaf with gravy? Chicken pot pie? Stuffed pork chops? Bacon and eggs?"

Now Mama Chin sighed. "No. You can, however, order any of those at the regular price."

Maddie reared back in her chair. "How many generations have our families known each other? Have the Starkes ever ordered off the regular menu? It's a matter of pride—"

Mama Chin leaned forward to stop Maddie's word flood. "And have any of you ever had a bad meal at the Save On Café?"

Maddie wrinkled her brow. "Well, once Great-Grandpa—"

"I can toss any customer out of here, you know."

Maddie glared. "Okay, okay, I'll have the quinoa casserole."

***

            Maddie patted her mouth and then her tummy.

            "Well, how was it?" Mama Chin asked.

            "I'm so glad I'm always open to new experiences, especially in the realm of good food." Maddie gave her mouth another prim and somehow smug pat. "And that I've decided to eat more healthy."

            Mama Chin crossed her arms over her chest. "First time for everything. So does that mean you'll tip for the first time?'

            Maddie's shocked expression was her answer. 

QUINOA EGG BAKE

Since the quinoa in this recipe gets baked in the oven, it doesn't need to be precooked. Instead, it settles into the bottom of the pan and creates the casseroles' crust.

1 teaspoon butter or margarine

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa 

8 eggs 

1 1/4 cup milk or soy, almond or coconut milk (the coconut milk is good with curry spice, instead of the other spices, for an "Indian" Egg Bake)

1 tablespoon chopped garlic 

1 teaspoon chopped thyme (optional)

1 teaspoon sage (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon pepper (or more if you love pepper)

 2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped (or you can use frozen spinach as well)

Or/and 2 cups of the vegetables of your choice, green beans, corn, peas, cooked carrots, or a combo all work well.

1 cup finely shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese or any hard cheese of your choice.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch x 8-inch glass or metal baking dish with butter; set aside.
Put quinoa into a fine mesh strainer and rinse until cold running water until water runs clear; drain well.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, the spices you've chosen, and quinoa. Stir in spinach or other vegetables then pour mixture into prepared dish. Cover tightly with foil then jiggle dish gently from side to side so that quinoa settles on the bottom in an even layer. Bake until just set, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle top evenly with cheese. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until golden brown and crisp, 10 to 15 minutes more. Set aside to let cool briefly, then slice and serve.

Note: this is a forgiving recipe, but the texture will be a little too chewy if you leave out the vegetables. Try different combos of spices and see what you like the best. Me, I always splash in a little hot sauce because I love hot sauce!

Gravy: Aunt Maddie's Slumguillion Solution GRAVY!

Mmmm, Gravy

Hi, Dora from Starke Naked Dead here. Those of you who have read Dead know that Aunt Maddie occasionally believes she can save money by making slumguillion, that Scottish concoction of whatever-is-leftover-in-the-fridge-thrown-together-and-heated meal. You probably all have a version of this meal that you make and then throw out when nobody has eaten it and nobody's looking.

Well, salvation of slumguillion is at hand. It's gravy! Pour that gravy all over that leftover mess and yum! Here's the easy delicious recipe for a quick gravy. SCROLL DOWN for the variations, including macaroni and cheese.

Here's the basic recipe:

1/4 c. whole wheat flour or white or unbleached white, wheat flour is fuller flavored, white is creamier.

1/4 c. olive oil or other shortening (butter burns, so be careful)

seasonings to taste: onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder (optional) salt and pepper

1 cup broth

1 cup milk or soy milk

1 tablespoon parsley (optional)

Make a paste out of the flour, oil and seasonings. Add in the broth and milk and stir with a whisk until smooth. Heat on high heat, stirring with whisk continuously until thickened. If too thick, add broth or milk, too thin, whisk in a little more flour.Can add a tablespoon of nutritious yeast for a creamier taste.

VARIATIONS (this recipe is very forgiving, so come up with your own as well)

Add curry spice for a curry gravy.

For turkey giblet gravy: use the drippings from the turkey as the oil, can use more than 1/4 cup if desired, use turkey broth, chop up gizzards, etc. and add to broth when thickened. Add sage to taste. 

Use beef drippings for a beef gravy.

For a soup base: use two cups of broth or more to thin, or have a 1/3 cup of flour and two cups broth to one cup of milk for a creamier soup.

For a cream sauce: Use 2 cups of milk and use butter or margarine as the oil. Cook on a lower heat (about medium) stirring constantly until thickened.

USES for the cream sauce: 

Over vegetables. Can sprinkle bacon and/or cheese and/or bread crumbs to make a quick and easy no bake casserole.

Add cooked sausage and pour over biscuits for biscuits with sausage gravy.

For MACARONI AND CHEESE: 

Optional: to the cream sauce add a tablespoon of white wine (not cooking wine) or rice vinegar and a tablespoon of of nutritious yeast.

Add a 1/2 cup to a cup of your favorite cheese, shredded. Stir until melted. Pour over hot, cooked noodles. 

Dora here, again. You can see that this recipe is a real meal saver. For more about me and my dear sweet, oops--so not--Aunt Maddie read Starke Naked Dead, available now!