Tag Archive for: Cookbooks

I’d Rather Be Writing

/in /by

By Kay Kendall

When USA Today bestselling author  Lois Winston
invited me to participate in her new cookbook adventure, I jumped at the chance.
After all, the title captured my feelings exactly—WE’D RATHER BE WRITING, subtitled 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips.
You can pre-order the eBook for 99 cents
and receive it on October 30. A portion of proceeds will be donated to No Kid Hungry. Most of us authors juggle day jobs and
family responsibilities along with our writing. Because we need to find time to
write, we search for ways to save time. And cooking takes up such a huge chunk.

However, you don’t need to be a multi-tasking
author to need time-saving recipes and tips, so in our new cookbook you’ll find
easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and
vegetarian meals. The recipes require a minimum of preparation, freeing time to
do other things—to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with
family, or whatever.

The 88 participating
authors make up a varied group, writing a wide range of fiction—everything from
mystery to romance to speculative fiction to books for children, young adults,
and new adults—and some who write nonfiction. Some write sweet; others write
steamy. Some write cozy; others write tense thrillers. Some are debut authors
with only one published book; others are multi-published and have had long
publishing careers. And, while some are even New York
Times and USA Today bestselling
authors, even they still need to perform feats of juggling
daily.

We like to think
of ourselves as a rather creative and resourceful bunch when it comes to
carving out time from our busy lives. So in addition to timesaving recipes, we
have added timesaving organizational tips too.

Check this list of
contributing authors to see whose names your recognize: Lisa Alber, Reggi
Allder, Judy Alter, Krista Ames, Rose Anderson, Cori Lynn Arnold, Judy Baker,
Beverley Bateman, Donnell Ann Bell, Paula Gail Benson, Kris Bock, Maureen
Bonatch, Ava Bradley, Susan Breen, Lida Bushloper, Michelle Markey Butler,
Ashlyn Chase, Judy Copek, Maya Corrigan, Mariposa Cruz, Melinda Curtis, Lesley
A. Diehl, Conda V. Douglas, Nancy Eady, Helena Fairfax, Jennifer Faye, Flo
Fitzpatrick, Kit Frazier, Shelley Freydont, Mariana Gabrielle, Rosie Genova,
Marni Graff, Joanne Guidoccio, Margaret S. Hamilton, L.C. Hayden, Linda Gordon
Hengerer, Heather Hiestand, R.Franklin James, Kathryn Jane, M.M. Jaye,
Elizabeth John, Stacy Juba, Gemma Juliana, Carol Goodman Kaufman, Melissa Keir,
Kay Kendall, A.R. Kennedy, Lynn Kinnaman, Marie Laval, B.V. Lawson, Claudia
Lefeve, Alice Loweecey, Cynthia Luhrs, Sandra Masters, Lisa Q. Mathews, J.M.
Maurer, Sandra McGregor, Kathy McIntosh, Claire A. Murray, Ann Myers, Tara
Neale, Stacey Joy Netzel, Jayne Ormerod, Alice Orr, Laurel Peterson, Irene
Peterson, Pepper Phillips, Caridad Pineiro, Kathryn Quick, Renée Reynolds,
Josie Riviera, Elizabeth Rose, C.A. Rowland, Cindy Sample, Sharleen Scott,
Terry Shames, Susan C. Shea, Judy Penz Sheluk, Joanna Campbell Slan, Karen Rose
Smith, Lynette Sofras, Kaye Spencer, Skye Taylor, Lourdes Venard, Lea Wait,
Regan Walker, Lois Winston, and Aubrey Wynne.

We’d Rather Be
Writing is available on
Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wed-Rather-Be-Writing-Timesaving-ebook/dp/B01638N5PO

Part of proceeds will
be donated to No Kid Hungry < http://www.nokidhungry.org/>
 ~~~~~~~

Kay Kendall is a long-time fan of
historical novels and writes atmospheric mysteries that capture the spirit
and turbulence of the sixties. She is a reformed PR executive who lives in
Texas with her husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills.
Terribly
allergic to her bunnies, she loves them anyway! Her book titles show she’s a
Bob Dylan buff too. RAINY DAY WOMEN published on July 7. It is
the second in her Austin Starr Mystery series.

Bake, Love, Write—3 Stiletto Gang Members Contribute to Dessert Cookbook — NEW!

/in /by
By Kay Kendall
Bake Love,
Write is a brand new cookbook full of delicious desserts. It is the brain child
of Lois Winston, a USA Today

bestselling, award-winning author
who currently writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting
Mystery series.

Authors
from the US, UK, and Canada contributed their favorite recipes. Of the
participating 105, three are Stiletto Gang bloggers. We are Lynn Cahoon, Debra
Goldstein, and me—Kay Kendall.

Here
is information about this unique cookbook that may tempt you to buy it soon,
available online. Lois writes, “What do most
authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets
sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing
rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their
successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or
receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat
with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes.
Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their
favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also
share the best advice they’ve ever received on love and writing.”

I contributed the beloved
family recipe of my Aunt Martha from Texas. Her recipe for Oatmeal Cake is given below. But, to read what I advise on Love and
Writing, you’ll have to buy the cookbook! 
Aunt Martha’s Oatmeal Cake
Deliciously moist cake that keeps and travels well, handed down
through the Texas side of my family for decades. If you can’t eat nuts, then
omit them and double up on the coconut for the topping.Note: This cake is easy to mix by hand. Does not require an
electric mixer.
 Ingredients for the cake:
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 cup oatmeal
(uncooked) 
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1 2/3 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon soda
Dash of salt
 Ingredients for the topping:
6 tablespoons
margarine or butter
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons canned condensed
milk (Pet, Carnation, etc. NOT sweetened condensed milk)
1 cup chopped nuts
(pecan or walnut—can be toasted ahead of time too before baking as a topping)
1 can angel flake
coconut
 Instructions:
1. Turn oven to 350
degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13 inch pan.
2. Place oatmeal in a
bowl and pour hot water over oats. Let stand while you do next steps.
3. Blend brown sugar,
white sugar, and cooking oil in a large bowl.
4. Add eggs, sifted
flour, cinnamon, soda, dash of salt to the sugar mixture. Blend with a large
spoon.
5. Now add the
water-oats mixture and stir until all ingredients are well blended.
6. Pour into greased
and floured pan.
7. Bake at 350 degrees
for 35 minutes. Remove from oven.
8. Make the topping. In
a saucepan combine margarine, brown sugar and canned condensed milk. Boil for
one minute. Remove from heat and add chopped nuts and coconut. Blend.
9. Before cake cools,
spread the topping (from step 8) thinly over top.
10. Turn oven up to
500 degrees. Return cake-with-topping to oven and bake for 4-5 minutes. Watch
that nothing burns since the heat is now so high.
11. Remove from oven
and cool.
 This cake is delicious immediately, but even more moist and
yummy on the next day. If kept tightly covered with foil or clear wrap, this
cake stays moist and lovely for many days. It never lasts a week at my house,
but I bet it would be good even then.
Bake, Love Write will
sell in the major e-book formats at 99 cents and will be available on Amazon also
in paperback. Watch this space for more news.
 *******

Kay Kendall
set her debut novel, Desolation Row—An
Austin Starr Mystery, in 1968 in an anti-war group. The sequel is Rainy Day Women, set for 2015, and this
time her amateur sleuth Austin Starr must convince police her best friend
didn’t murder women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. A fan of
historical mysteries, Kay wants to do for the 1960s what novelist Jacqueline Winspear
accomplishes for England in the perilous 1930s–write atmospheric mysteries that
capture the spirit of the age. Kay is also an award-winning international
public relations executive who lives in Texas with her husband, three house
rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Terribly allergic to the bunnies, she loves them
anyway! Her book titles show she’s a Bob Dylan buff too.  
 *******

Too Much of a Good Thing … is Filling My House

/in /by

I’m Amy Alessio, a YA librarian and an author. I was delighted to meet half of the fabulous Evelyn David team at the Love is Murder conference. I told her to hurry up with the next book, and she suggested I help with a guest blog spot.

I have my own blog on Vintage Cookbooks to share my addiction to old cookbooks, and I have fun failing to make some of the old creations. (Think lots of lard.) I also blog for the Love is Murder conference and for Echelon Press’s Teen Scene.

Blogging is an excellent way to procrastinate writing my own fiction. I have some librarian books published and I have a short story published in The Heat of the Moment, an anthology by Echelon Press which benefits the victims of the CA wildfires (anthology pictured on the nightstand). My YA mystery is with an agent.

I read almost as voraciously as I eat baked goods. In addition to books I review for Teenreads.com and Crimespree magazine, I bring home several books a week from the library. To narrow it down, I love romance, mysteries, especially those with Chicago authors like Michael Black, J.A. Konrath, Tom Keevers and Julie Hyzy, fantasy, teen books, any kind of chick lit, anything with a librarian character or by a librarian, anything written up in People magazine, anything with food on the cover and maybe the occasional non-fiction. Cookbooks also of course.

This week I’ve had the flu, so I’ve been reading 3-4 books a day. Yes, even with my four year old at home some of those days. It’s amazing how much you can read during a Backyardigans episode. Sounds like a dream, right? One was a romance anthology on chocolate. Another was the new Carole Matthews Chocolate Lovers Club or something like that – it had to go back before I ate it. I also read Mary Kay Andrews’ new one about two cooks who fall in love, complete with tomato soup cake recipe. Yesterday I broke down and made a chocolate cake. Really – you can’t read that stuff forever and not eat something really naughty.

I’m also reading Kate MacAllister’s Aisling Grey series. I like the occasional paranormal romance, like a MaryJanice Davidson, or Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle (who used to be a librarian), but I think this is my first dragon series. These are great spicy fun. I think she’s writing mystery under a pseudonym too. Having a pseudonym is like waving a red flag in front of a librarian, by the way. We love tricky questions.

So you see it’s imperative that I have an entire library at home. On top of the nightstand is what I want to read soon. In the nightstand are my all time favs and autographed books. Under the bed are mainly YA I want to read less soon. Then – there are the 300 cookbooks. They are in 5 locations, that I can remember, in the house. Most of those cost very little at antique or used book stores. Who else would want a Blender or Meat Stretcher cookbook from 1970?

It’s interesting that while my son is adopted, he has similar book habits. Next to his bed is the first pile, photographed here. Then there’s the dresser and the bookshelf. He may have to clean them up soon, though – to make room for more of my cookbooks!

How many books are in your nightstand? Ok, now how many are hidden in your house?

Amy Alessio