Jaci Burton’s Muse

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Nalini Singh contest! I used random.org to select a winner.

Congratulations to BOOKLOVER1335 (comment#2)!!! You’ve won your choice of a signed copy of Branded by Fire or a mass market copy of the An Enchanted Season anthology!

Email me at jaciATjaciburton.com with your full name and mailing address and I’ll get your info to Nalini so she can send your book to you.

Thanks again everyone, and thanks to Nalini for offering up the prize! For those who haven’t read Nalini’s books yet, please check them out…they’re fantastic.

Yes I’ve lost count and I’m too lazy to go back and look it up.

Using one of the brilliant Larissa Ione’s recipes again (this time from The Write Ingredients cookbook, which by the way is full of awesome recipes and is a charity cookbook, so please go buy it!), I made Mexican Lasagne.

Let me explain the photo. By the time I pulled this out of the oven, Biker Dude and I were starving. And it smelled so good. I spooned it out onto our plates and thought….shit…I forgot to take a picture. So the photo is kind of cut off because I’d already cut into the lasagne. Sorry. We were hungry.

This lasagna was fabulous! We loved it, so much that we ate it two days in a row. Yummm.

Mexican Lasagne

Ingredients

4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2-12 uncooked lasagne noodles
1/2 lb hamburger (I used Boca crumbles, which is a soy meat substitute. So if you’re not cooking vegetarian, this is still a yummy meal to make for your family and you can just use hamburger. Though I have to say the Boca crumbles tasted just like hamburger)
1 can black beans
1 onion, chopped (I used half an onion but I’m not big on over-onioning things.)
3 cups salsa
1 cup water
Small clan sliced black olives
Sour cream (optional)

Directions:

Cook hamburger, drain (Note that the Boca crumbles are already cooked, so I just tossed them right from the freezer into the skillet to warm them up). Add onion and cook until onions are tender. Stir in salsa, water, beans and 1 cup of cheese.

Spread 1/4 of sauce in bottom of greased 13 x 9 pan. Layer noodles, sauce mixture, and cheese. Repeat, ending with sauce and cheese. Sprinkle with olives.

Cover with foil, bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove cover and bake another 20 minutes. Serve with sour cream, if desired.

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So here’s where I talk about our week of Vegetarian eating. Biker Dude and I were frankly surprised at how well this worked out. We thought we’d miss meat, at least a little. We didn’t–at all. Not once did we want to rush to McDonald’s for a hamburger. In fact, the thought of it right now is kind of nauseating

I thought he’d go eat some meaty meals for lunch. He didn’t. Not once. We went to the Hard Rock Casino last night and ate dinner at one of the restaurants there. We each had a salad, then we split cheese fries, and asked them to leave the bacon off. Another total vegetarian meal. Yay for us!

We’ve also decided to eat vegetarian meals at least a couple times a week from now on because we found this so easy and found so many great recipes. We also didn’t feel so heavy and weighed down this week. We’re also going to cut back on the amount of red meat we eat (which has been a lot) to once a week and try to eat more turkey and chicken. So I’d call this week’s experimentation a huge success. And thanks to those of you who offered up recipes. I really appreciate it.

CONTEST HAS ENDED AND A WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN. THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING!!!

I love Nalini Singh. She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

I also love Nalini’s books, and you’ve heard me singing their praises her before, especially her Psy/Changeling series.

Blaze of Memory is the newest book about to release from that series. I’m reading it now and like usual Nalini sucks me into her world with memorable characters and gripping emotion.

Read on about Blaze of Memory and how you can win one of Nalini’s books:

BLAZE OF MEMORY
BERKLEY BOOKS
Out 3 November 2009

Nalini Singh returns to the Psy/Changeling world and its “breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal” as a woman without a past becomes the pawn of a man who controls her future…

Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete…until he finds himself drawn to a woman who might yet prove the enemy’s most insidious weapon.

Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor, and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity itself. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For in this game, one must die…

Excerpt of Blaze of Memory here

Reviews

“…When it comes to delivering stories that grab you by the throat and don’t let go, Singh is in a class by herself!” - Romantic Times

“…An outstanding November read!” ~ Fresh Fiction

“…BLAZE OF MEMORY had me in tears with the tenderness that Dev and Katya exposed in each other. This story adds immensely to the series…You will want to revisit this love story again and again.” - Romance Junkies

Contest

Leave a comment here on the blog with your answer to the question below in the next 24 hours to go into the draw to win a signed copy of Branded By Fire, the previous book in the series. (Or if you prefer, you can choose a mass market copy of the An Enchanted Season anthology).

Excerpts:
Enchanted Season Excerpt
Branded by Fire Excerpt (warning, excerpt may singe your eyebrows off).

Contest Question: Which book are you most looking forward to in the next few months?

~~~~~~~
I’ll choose a winner Friday and Nalini will provide the winner’s choice of either of the books indicated above. Good luck!

Okay so it wasn’t really cooking since we ate out last night. But it was vegetarian so I must share.

One of THE best pizza joints in Oklahoma is HIDEAWAY PIZZA. If you ever come here, you have to eat at Hideaway. Their menu is amazing. Seriously. Here’s the link to their menu but it does have music so hit the mute button.

We started with salad. Lettuce, tomato, eggs, olives. yum.

We had Pizza Of The Gods (Yes, that’s what it’s called) - Olive oil, Garlic Glaze with Provolone and Mozzarella Cheese, roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Fabulous!

And look…I even included pictures again. Heh.

Now I’m hungry.

This is one of my favorite recipes that required very little adaptation for vegeterian (It calls for bacon which I ommitted).

Cheese Soup

Ingredients

1 stick butter
8 T Flour
3 cups grated cheddar cheese
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups Milk, scalded
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup warm cream
4 slices bacon, diced and cooked (I ommitted the bacon last night for Vegetarian week)
Dash Cayenne Pepper

Melt butter. Add flour, stir til smooth. Add cheese & broth, stirring constantly. Add milk & onions, simmer til cheese is melted. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Add cream, cayenne pepper and taste for seasoning. Top with bacon.

Beer Bread

Ingredients

3 cups Self Rising Flour
3 T Sugar
1 Can of Beer
Sesame Seeds (optional)

Mix the flour, sugar and beer together. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds (optional). Bake at 350 for 1 hour. After the first 45 minutes pour 1/4 c melted butter over top of loaf and continue baking for last 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack out of the pan.

Since I’ve made this meal plenty of times before, no complaints from Biker Dude. He loves it.

Big thanks to Larissa Ione, my vegetarian expert, for this recipe!

And as a side note, my friend Angie pointed out that photography is not one of my awesome skills. If you want gorgeous pictures of food, see The Pioneer Woman’s blog. It’s definitely her forte and will make you drool. You won’t see pretty pictures of food here. But I will put up photos of what I cook and my camera isn’t the best out there. So there you have it. And Angie…..

Yesterday I fixed Ziti Pasta with Mushrooms and Sharp Cheddar Cheese. Biker Dude loved it and took some leftovers with him to work today. Yay! I loved it too and I’ll be having some leftovers for lunch today as well. Yummm.

Ingredients
3 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 celery rib, finely chopped
8 oz mushrooms, chopped
2 leeks, white parts only, quartered and sliced thinly
1/4 c. flour
3 c. warmed milk
salt and pepper
1 heaping tblsp mustard
1 pound ziti or macaroni
2 c. grated sharp cheddar (I used 3 cups instead)
1 c fresh bread crumbs

Melt butter in saucepan, add celery, mushrooms, leeks. Cook over med. heat for about 5 min. Stir in flour, cook for 1 min. then quickly whisk in the milk. Simmer 15 min., stirring frequently. Season w/tsp. salt, pepper to taste, and mustard.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cooked past w/ sauce and cheese, then pour into baking dish, cover w/bread crumbs, bake until bubbling and browned, about 30 mins.

Commencing with ugly pictures now:

We started our week of vegetarian cooking Saturday night with a recipe I adapted from Rachael Ray’s magazine. This is actually a Bacon and Egg Caesar Salad, so I just left the bacon out and it still tasted great.

I found this recipe a couple years ago in Rachael Ray’s magazine and fell in love with it. Sometimes I like a salad for dinner. The bacon and egg in it is a unique twist and I love the dressing. Like I said, for Vegetarian Week I left the bacon out but I’ll go ahead and include the full recipe here for those who are interested in the original recipe:

Bacon and Egg Caesar (From Everyday With Rachael Ray Magazine)

4 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes

Ingredients:

6 to 8 strips thick-cut bacon
1 large clove garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (Note: I omitted the anchovy paste because I don’t like anchovies. It doesn’t seem to affect the dressing at all)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
14 ounces baby romaine leaves or 2 small heads romaine lettuce, cut crosswise 1 inch wide
One 2- to 4-ounce piece parmesan cheese, cut into shavings
4 slices pumpernickel-rye bread, toasted and cut into cubes
4 eggs, hard-boiled and chopped

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium-low heat, turning, until crispy, about 6 minutes. Drain on paper towels, then break into 1-inch pieces.

Rub the inside of a large salad bowl with the garlic; discard the garlic. Add the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and anchovy paste and mix until blended. Mix in the oil and season with salt and pepper.

Add the lettuce and bacon to the bowl and toss gently to coat with the dressing. add the cheese and croutons and toss again. Divide among plates and top with the chopped eggs.

Note: I tend to add a little more Red Wine Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Dijon and Olive Oil than the recipe calls for, otherwise I find there’s more ’salad’ than there is dressing and the salad is a little dry. You can experiment and taste for yourself and adjust accordingly.

Biker Dude the meat eater really likes this salad

Welcome to Snippet Saturday, where authors share snippets of their work.

This week we’re doing emotional scenes. And hey, isn’t that what romance is all about? Emotion? Fun stuff!

Here’s a scene from RIDING WILD, the first book in my Wild Riders series. Mac and Lily have a past…and ten years of emotional baggage to wade through together.

Hope you enjoy!

He pulled away from her embrace. “You have to trust me on this, Lily.”

She hooked her thumbs in the belt loops of her jeans and blew out a breath of utter frustration. She’d held enough inside. “I want to trust you. God, you have no idea how much I want to. After what Jessie told me about you, I know you care about people. I know you wouldn’t deliberately do anything to harm millions of people.”

“You’re right.”

“Then why can’t you have enough faith in me to talk to me? Why is that so hard to do? Why has it always been so hard for you to be straight with me?”

He brushed his fingers through his hair. “It’s too dangerous for you to know.”

“Bullshit. It’s too dangerous for me to be with you. You didn’t have any trouble dragging me along, though.”
He didn’t answer her. Of course he didn’t, because there was no answer. “This is just like ten years ago.” The reality of it slapped her across the face like an ice cold hand.

He frowned. “What?”

“Ten years ago, you pushed me away. You didn’t trust me.”

He shook his head. “No, you’re the one who thinks I’m going to sell the virus to some terrorist organization. The issue of trust is with you, Lily.”

“Is it? Ten years ago you didn’t believe in my feelings for you, or my faith in you. You didn’t trust that I knew what I was doing when I said I loved you and wanted to be with you. You always thought you knew what was best for me. You thought you knew better than I did. Just like now.”

“That’s not true.”

His voice went low and he looked away, no longer meeting her eyes. She knew Mac. That meant he was lying.
Why did this have to happen? Every time they got close something happened to pull them apart. Maybe they weren’t meant to be together. Her head knew that. Logic told her that. She was on the good side of law enforcement. Mac was…God only knew what he was, but he wasn’t eager to share it with her, and that meant trouble.

Maybe it was time her heart caught up to cold reality. They had great chemistry together, but beyond that, they couldn’t sustain more than a couple hours worth of happiness without it dissolving into an argument. They were polar opposites in thinking and values.

Maybe her father had been right all those years ago. She and Mac didn’t belong together. They had nothing in common, no shared belief systems.

He didn’t believe in her.

And right now, she didn’t believe in him.

She went to the door and threw open the dead bolt. Mac’s hand covered hers.

“Where are you going?”

“Out. The air in here is stifling.”

“Then we go together. I don’t want you to go out there alone.”

She half turned, making sure he could read the expression on her face.

“You don’t trust me. You’re not being solicitous or looking out for my welfare. You just think I’m going to find the nearest phone and turn you in.” She pivoted all the way around. “I could have done that the night at the museum, you know.”

At his wide-eyed look, she nodded. “Oh yeah. I saw you break in. My hand was on my cell phone. I could have had the cops there waiting the moment you stepped out of the museum with the artifact in your hand.”

He stared at her, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“Why didn’t you?”

She blinked back the welling tears, refusing to let him see her cry. “Because instinctively I knew it was you. The sounds of the motorcycle, something about the way you stood. My heart told me it was you. I compromised my job, probably my career, for you. Because I couldn’t bear to see you fail. How stupid was that?”

She turned and walked out the door.

This time, Mac didn’t follow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be sure to check out snippets from the following authors:

Eliza Gayle
Michelle Pillow
Mandy Roth
Juliana Stone
Lacey Savage
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Sasha White
Ashley Ladd
Victoria Janssen
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane
Beth Kery
Leah Braemel

I’m married to a rabid meat eater. Meat has to be present in every meal, and if isn’t then there’d better be some serious protein, like eggs.

So when Biker Dude agreed to let me experiment next week by cooking a week’s worth of vegetarian dinners, I was excited.

Believe me, neither of us is going to become vegetarians, but we eat entirely too much meat, especially red meat, so a week without it is going to be good for us.

I still intend to use eggs and plenty of cheese in my cooking next week (oh how we love cheese. Or at least I do )

If any of you have any awesome vegetarian dinner recipes, lay them on me. I’m toying with the idea of sharing what I cook each night for dinner next week here on the blog.

Hopefully we’ll make it all week without a run to our favorite burger joint. Heh.

In other words I’m busily editing RIDING THE NIGHT so I can turn it into my editor, and I’ve got nothing of importance to say. So how about some pics of my granddaughter who turns 2 weeks old today?

Here’s Kaylynn with her big sister Michelle:

Here she is sleeping (hmmmm for some reason she does this a lot)

And one of those rare shots of her with her eyes actually open

We think she’s pretty beautiful, just like her big sister.