Leftovers? An Easy, Money Saving, Healthy Recipe, Plus a Cookbook Free Today!

Slumgullion is one featured recipe in Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes, FREE today!

 Don't know what to do with all those lovely leftovers? Slumguillion to the rescue! 

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.

One last trick: You can always pour gravy over everything, yum! My favorite gravy recipe follows this recipe in Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes.

Sirens on Death Starke Blvd, another money saver with five authors and four books!

And my mom would be cross if I didn't mention another great deal, the first novel in my Starke Dead series, Starke Naked Dead, is in a book bundle right now! Sirens on Death Starke Blvd has five authors and four books for $1.99, for a limited time. So if you enjoy the free today Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes, head on over to get this bundle and read more of Dora Starke and her ongoing problems, one of which is named Aunt Maddie!

So dear readers, got any leftover recipes for us?

 

Great Writer's Advice, a Book Sale, and a Granola Recipe too!

Havoc overtakes a peaceful North Idaho town when feuding brothers combat a proposed safari camp. Mustard's Last Stand is the first in the Havoc in Hancock humorous suspense series.

Creating Believable Lies … and Granola

Thanks so much to Conda for inviting me to guest blog today! My post is about making fiction (and lies) seem real. I hope you will love the recipe that follows as much as I do. And that's no lie.

My novel, Mustard's Last Stand, is on sale today as part of an Amazon Countdown. Only 99 cents for a humorous suspense Kindle book that retails for $3.99. It's also available in audio format. 

In a recent conversation with my spouse, I said, "People will believe almost anything if it is told with conviction." We actually weren't discussing writing, but birding. Never an ornithologist, my dh proposed coming up with his own "life list," of birds observed, naming them whatever he chose. Today's was the Guatemalan Junko. Don't ask what it really was. Neither of us has a clue.

At any rate, the comment about belief in statements told with conviction transfers easily to writing: create a believable setting with strong characters, and readers will believe it exists. I was finishing up a mystery novel last night, set no doubt in a fictional town. The protagonist went to a café that served food so appealing that I considered trying it on my next visit to Pennsylvania. Then I remembered I was reading a story! The details made it come alive … the smell and taste of the food, the aromas abounding in the room, the personality of the server, the feel of the chair cushion beneath the character's (ample) butt. Add a sprung wire in the cushion, if you wish. Or a cranky host. Read a great sci fi novel, and soon you'll be looking for some of the inventions that made up daily life in the story world.

That is the result we're seeking when writing, and one way is to add flaws: perfection, even if it exists, doesn't seem real. 

Just this week, a reader posted a review of my novel on Amazon, and said, "What I liked most about this story was the very realistic and fascinating characters. By 'real' I mean that they did stupid things; they did wise and courageous things." 

It is cool when a reviewer makes your point for you. 

Are you a good liar, or do you stretch the truth only in fiction? What do you do in your writing to make it seem real? 

The recipe I'm including today makes a great hostess or last minute Christmas gift, and as granola goes, comes close to perfection. I tell you this in all sincerity. Believe me. Or try it and believe. With many Merry Christmas wishes, everyone.

Spiced Pumpkin and Brown Sugar Granola

Servings: Makes about 5 cups (large batch: 15 cups)

Ingredients

•           3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (large batch: 2 1/4 cups)

•           1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (large batch: 1 1/2 cups)

•           2 Tbsp. canola oil or olive oil (large batch: 6 Tbsp.)

•           1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (large batch: 3 Tbsp.)

•           2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (large batch: 6 tsp.)

•           1 tsp. ground cardamom (large batch: 3 tsp.)

•           1 tsp. kosher salt (large batch: 3 tsp.)

•           3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (large batch: 9 cups)

•           1 cup roughly chopped pecans (large batch: 3 cups)

•           1 cup pistachios (optional; large batch: 3 cups)

•           1 cup golden raisins (large batch: 3 cups)

•           1 cup dried cranberries (optional; large batch: 3 cups)

Directions

Active time: 15 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Preheat oven to 325°. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, cardamom, and salt. Add oats, pecans, and pistachios (if using), and toss to coat. Spread evenly on prepared baking sheet and bake 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Stir in raisins and cranberries (if using), and continue baking until oats are just crisp, about 15 minutes more. Stir one last time, then set aside to cool completely. When hard, break into chunks and store in an airtight container.

Kathy McIntosh, a recent voluntary transplant from Boise, Idaho, to Tucson, Arizona, is enjoying the change in scenery from cottonwoods to cactus. She often sees javelinas, coyotes and roadrunners strolling through her neighborhood. She assures her concerned readers that she can still write about Havoc in Hancock, her humorous suspense series set in North Idaho, and will finish book two, Foul Wind, as soon as she rappels from the stack of moving boxes! Read more at www.KathyMcIntosh.com and visit her blog today for a delightful, easy Cinnamon Pecan recipe, just in time for the holidays!

Thank you, Kathy, for this delightful blog post and recipe! And dear readers do you have your own believable lies to tell in the comments? And/or a recipe to share?

And don't forget to pick up a copy of Mustard's Last Stand while it's on sale!

Three Reasons To Bundle Books For Author Success! (One you'll never think of until you do it!)

 The Mall Fairies Boxed Set

Tis the season, when authors are working maniacally hard to promote/sell their titles. One useful instrument is the eBook boxed set or bundle. Why? Read on.

1. You will expand your readership.

Because they love to read, readers are always looking for a bargain. Book bundles provide that bargain. For example, the book bundle above provides the first two novels in my Mall Fairies series, plus a stand alone short story, for an estimated 602 pages of reading, all for $1.99!

They are also looking to discover new authors with little risk. Bundles provide that, whether with a single author as above or with several other authors as in another bundle I'm in, Sirens on Death Starke Blvd. 

With five authors and four mysteries, and 825 pages for $1.99, why not?

Sirens on Death Starke Blvd.

I know this is all true because as a reader, I often buy bundles.

2. You will add to your brand.

Book bundles are one strong way of promoting your brand, especially when you have a one author (you) bundle. It's another way of having the readers find you. It sends out the message that you are not a one book wonder and can be trusted to provide more reads, always important to readers.

If you are in a bundle with other authors, your brand is strengthened by association with those authors' brands. For example in Sirens on Death Starke Blvd., it is obviously a mystery genre bundle, and if you like one book, you'll like another. It brands me as a mystery author.

3. And least thought of: Oddly enough, bundling my books led me to more story ideas! I never expected that. But seeing three of my Mall Fairies books together reminded me of what the whole series was about...and what the next could be about, or wait, here's an idea for another short story. Sometimes revisiting the prior work provides inspiration.

So dear readers, do you buy book bundles? If you're an author who has a book bundle out? If so, provide a link in the comments!

Sara Jayne Townsend Mystery Author Guest Blogs!

Dead Cool, the second in the Shara Summers Mystery series.

It's my pleasure to have mystery author Sara Jayne Townsend on my blog today. Thank you for visiting, Sara! Without further ado...

The Complicated Love Life of Shara Summers

By Sara Townsend

                                   

I always said I don’t write romance novels.  I don’t like reading romance novels – I have always held this view that too much romance detracts from the action.  But lots of people like love stories, and even I will agree that sometimes a love interest can add a bit of spice to a sub-plot.

When I created my amateur sleuth Shara Summers, I made her a 30-year-old straight single actress with a fairly relaxed attitude to casual sex.  It was logical to assume there would be men in her life.  I also decided that a slightly chaotic love life would make for a more interesting character than someone in a happy and stable relationship, especially since this was a character I wanted to take through a series.

So I had already decided that Shara would have relationship problems.  However, I did not anticipate when I set out to write DEAD COOL, the second book in the series, just how chaotic Shara’s love life was going to be.  The book begins with the re-introduction into her life of her Canadian ex-boyfriend, David.  Shara is now settled back in England and thinks David is behind her and far away, in Toronto.  But then he turns up on her doorstep – literally – begging her to audition for the sudden and unexpected vacancy of backing singer in his new band, which is about to embark on a European tour.

It soon becomes clear to Shara that David isn’t quite as over their relationship as she is.  But she’s more interested in the band’s guitarist, Jake.  And then when the band’s front man is killed, the handsome detective constable investigating the case seems far more interested in Shara than perhaps he should be.  And what of Richard, the actor that Shara was seeing at the end of DEATH SCENE?  She’s ignoring his calls – but why?

This isn’t a love triangle I’ve put my poor character into.  It’s more a rectangle.  It seems the path of true love is not destined to run smoothly for my amateur sleuth.  But from a reader’s perspective, I think it’s far more interesting when it doesn’t.

Sara-Jayne Townsend is a UK-based writer of crime and horror.  She was born in Cheshire in 1969, but spent most of the 1980s living in Canada after her family emigrated there.  She now lives in Surrey with two cats and her guitarist husband Chris.  She co-founded the T Party Writers’ Group in 1994, and remains Chair Person.

The first two books in her amateur sleuth series about Canadian actress Shara Summers, DEATH SCENE and DEAD COOL, are available as e-books from the MuseitUp book store: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/70-our-authors/authors-t/420-sara-jayne-townsend

You can learn more about Sara and her writing at her website at http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com or her blog at http://sayssara.wordpress.com.