First Winner of a copy of Her Inheritance Forever is...

Happy Sunday! We attended church last night. (Since we live in a tourist area, our church holds an extra service during the summers.) So after a lovely breakfast with my dh and a pleasant time out on our porch, I decided I'd better find out who won the first free copy of my latest book. I let my dh choose the name.

And the winner is (drum roll) Vintage fan! She along with Edna, Aldriges, Abi, Sandee 61, and Laura's reviews made comments and thereby were entered into the drawing. Vintage Fan, you have till Friday to contact me. If I don't hear from you, I'll have to choose another name.

I'd also like to thank the authors and some readers for posting such delectable Mexican-style recipes, such as

Lenora Worth's Mexican Dressing

Laurie Kingery's Taco Casserole

Abi's Taco Bake

Sandee61's Bunuelos

Laura's Taco Dip

Frankly they all sound delicious. And I am going to be trying them when the opportunity presents itself. Remember I will be gathering these and the July recipes into a PDF cookbooklet that you will be able to download sometime in September.

On a personal note: My dh, daughter and I will be driving south to the Chicago area on Wednesday. My mother-in-law who is approaching 90 has failing health. I feel very sad about it but am trying to keep a good thought, hope. I don't know how long we will be there, so if you notice me missing a blog post, you will know why.

But on a happy note, the weather is warmer today and it feels like summer at last!

Please remember that I will be giving away a copy of Her Inheritance Forever again this week. To be entered in the weekly drawing, just comment or share a Mexican style Recipe this week.

Hope you're having a blessed Sunday!

Author Donita K. Paul & Her Fruity Cheesecake

My guest today is Donita K Paul!

Here is a recipe from her DragonKnight. It is delicious as a summer treat.

Mistress Maye Ghint’s Fruity Cheesecake

from the menu of The Goose & The Gander (A tavern in DragonKnight)

1/2 C. crushed nuts, pecan or almonds are best
1/2 C. boiling water
1 package (4 serving size) of any flavor sugar free gelatin dessert
1 C. cottage cheese
8 oz. cream cheese
2 C. thawed whipped non-dairy topping (one 8 oz. bowl)
Spray the bottom and sides of a spring form pan, or 9 inch pie plate, with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle with 2/3 of crushed nuts.

Stir boiling water into gelatin in large bowl for about two minutes until powder is completely dissolved. Pour into blender container. Add cheeses. Blend on medium speed until smooth.

Pour into large bowl and gently fold in whipped topping.

Pour into prepared pan, smoothing the top, and sprinkling the remaining crushed nuts around the outer edge.

Refrigerate for four hours or until set.

Garnish with fruit if desired.

Donita's current release is The Vanishing Sculptor, WaterBrook Press, June 2009

Meet Tipper, a young emerlindian who's responsible for the upkeep of her family's estate during her sculptor father's absence. Tipper soon discovers that her actions have unbalanced the whole foundation of her world, and she must act quickly to undo the calamitous threat. But how can she save her father and her world on her own? The task is too huge for one person, so she gathers the help of some unlikely companions-including the nearly five-foot tall parrot Beccaroon-and eventually witnesses the loving care and miraculous resources of Wulder. Through Tipper's breathtaking story, readers will discover the beauty of knowing and serving God.

After an early retirement from teaching, Donita K. Paul dove into a second career of writing. Her stories have captured the imagination of the students she left behind plus their parents and grandparents. Donita lives in a hobbit hole not far from Pikes Peak in Colorado. She enjoys cooking, beading, stamping, knitting, and her grandsons. Not necessarily in that order.

Visit Donita's website to purchase her books.

Author DiAnn Mills & Peanut Butter Pie

My guest today is Author DiAnn Mills, a sweetheart with a sweet tooth. I can't wait to try out her pie!

Award-winning author, DiAnn Mills, launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has over forty books in print and has sold more than 1.5 million copies.

DiAnn believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels. Visit her website.


DiAnn Mill's latest novel:

Paige Rogers thought she had buried her past when she became the librarian in small town Split Creek, Oklahoma. But her growing relationship with high school football coach Miles Laird and the political ambitions of her former boss threaten to unmask her. Will she risk everything---even love---to expose the would-be governor's past misdeeds?

Recipe:

Peanut Butter Pie – the best!

1 8oz package softened cream cheese

1 T. butter

1 cup peanut butter – creamy

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat until smooth

In a separate bowl, whip 1 cup whipping cream until thick.

Fold into peanut butter mixture – do not beat.

Fill graham cracker crust

Grate chocolate

Chill but don’t freeze.

Author Lyn Cote's Mom's Nameless Summer Recipe

I am a foodie and I married a foodie and we raised two foodies. My son is engaged to be married and he and his fiance are coming up to visit us at the lake this coming weekend. So I asked him what her favorite foods were so I would make what she liked. His reply; "She doesn't really have any favorites."

I'm afraid that there was a very pregnant pause. The thought that someone didn't have a favorite food dumbfounded me.

My favorite food is of course watermelon. Always has been, always will be. If you want a chunk of watermelon, my refrigerator is the place to go. We eat at least 1 a week. My brother and I used to go through 2 a week as kids!

For every celebration, our family has favorite foods. Also for every season we have favorite foods.

But my family was outclassed by my husband's clan.

I remember when I married my dh that I was a bit astounded that his family celebrated each birthday with not one, but two birthday cakes and with one or two kinds of ice cream. And then I figured out why!

The Cote family motto is "I'll have a little bit of each." I've threatened to cross stitch that and hang it on the wall of --where else?--our kitchen!

Well, I will love my new daughter-in-law even if she isn't a foodie. But she is marrying a Cote, so I think she'll have to get used to us foodies!

So here's one of my favorite summer desserts which was an original recipe by my mom. Therefore it doesn't have a fancy title. Maybe you'll post a suggested title for me.

Ingredients:
2 small packages of orange JELLO
1-2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 to 1 pint of fresh washed blueberries
1/2 cantaloupe, cubed or balled

Prepare JELLO according to package directions. Then while still warm, stir in ice cream, then berries, then melon. Chill and serve. If served as salad, plain. If served as dessert, top with whipped cream.

This is beautiful to the eye, takes advantage of some of the in season summer fruits and it's delicious.

So what should we call it? I need a name for it.

Down-Under Author Mary Hawkins & Her Mum's "Biscuit" Recipe

One of the wonderful thing about being an author in this time is the Internet which allows us to have "friends" around the world. Mary Hawkins and I met on the "net" in the mid-90's when we were helping get Faith, Hope & Love the inspirational romance chapter of Romance Writers of America started. I have always found Mary a delight.
Now to help Mary out, would you please look in your local bookstore for her new books? If you do, let me know and I'll enter your name in a drawing for one of my September books. OKAY? Here's Mary:

"A strong woman. My mum.
For many weeks there was only a tent on the new grain farm on the black soil plains in Queensland nearly two thousands miles away from their comfortable home and family in South Australia. Her seven month old baby nearly died from heat exhaustion on the rough roads across the continent in an old truck. When her second baby was born only a barn had been built and one section became the living quarters. Sometimes she longed to see her mother and family so far away but World War II had come, making the three to four day journey by train even harder. Sometimes she was so lonely to see another woman she held a mirror up to her face and said “hello.”

Two more children were born and, over all the ups and downs of making the farm prosper, she worked hard side by side with her husband ploughing, reaping, caring for the animals. Most of all her love for her husband, their four children and her Lord never faltered. The children learnt about faith in God from the moment they were born – in fact even while in the womb through all those early, difficult days she prayed for each child.

Then tragedy struck. A widow at thirty-nine years old there was only the eldest boy just eighteen to help her run the farm, a daughter in senior High School, another daughter and the youngest just turned ten at school. Death duties simply left very little money to survive. She took all kinds of menial jobs for the family to manage during the next few difficult years that followed but her children hardly knew until years later just how poor they were. Over the years as her children became adults, she wept with them when they wept, rejoiced with them when they rejoiced and just kept on praying for them and her grandchildren until the day she died last year at the age of ninety-two years.

Today all four of her children love the Lord and I am so proud of that strong, beautiful and loving woman who was my mother. She showed and taught me so much about the joy and peace that can only truly come from a life lived as the Christ of the Cross would have us live.

A favourite question readers like to ask of authors is “are your characters based on real people?” My immediate response is usually “no” but over the years I am realising more and more that we can only portray authentic characters from “real” people that we have met or known intimately over the years. Sure, the settings may be different, their appearance different, but sometimes people we know do creep into our stories. Without deliberately doing so, somehow over the years my dear mother’s nature has crept into some of my books. My first Heartsong Presents, Search For Tomorrow, is set in the farming area I grew up in. The hero’s mother is a widow with a strong faith. She teaches the heroine to cook as my mother tried to teach me.

After I had finished writing it, I realised somehow Mum’s faith had crept also into this recent book just released in America, Return to Baragula. She is mirrored in the reaction of the heroine’s mother to her daughter’s crisis of faith. I am just so thankful I never experienced what Emily did after the wrong choice she made as a teenager that so hurt her mother, but if I had I know Mum would still have cried for and with me – even as she told me what she thought about my actions!

I still have many of Mum’s favourite recipes. One she made very regularly was an economical, quick, easy and nutritious biscuit – or cookie in U.S.A. language! ANZAC biscuits are even for sale now days in our shops here. Although they are no where near as moist or tasty as Mum’s, each time I see them there - or make them myself - I remember my mother.
Great for your summer or my winter here Downunder to pack for a picnic, something to nibble on a walk in the sunshine or to munch on while reading your favourite book.

ANZAC Biscuits

Put in a basin and mix:-
1cup rolled oats
1 cup finely shredded coconut
1 cup Self-Raising flour
1 cup sugar (may use brown)
Melt:
¼ lb margarine
1 large tablespoon golden syrup – or honey

Dissolve 1 teaspoon bi-carbonate soda in 2 tablespoons boiling water
Add to melted ingredients, stir and quickly pour over dry ingredients.
Mix thoroughly and put a teaspoon full on a greased tray. Press with a floured fork and cook in moderate oven until golden brown.
(Hint: may add a little more flour if too moist.) --Mary"

Now about Mary's books!


Return to Baragula is an Australian story of love, forgiveness and a past that threatens to destroy it all. It is Mary's 17th title but first by an Australian publisher, Ark House Press. Book One in her Baragula series, it was released in Australia in 2008 but not available to shops in the U.S. until this month. Book Two, Outback From Baragula, was also released to shops in Australasia, March 2009, but so far only available in America through the publisher. However, if you can be in Denver September 19th and visit the booksigning at the American Christian Fiction Writers' Conference, you might just be able to get a copy there and have it signed by Mary! Currently she is working hard to try and finish Book Three, Justice at Baragula, before her trip overseas.
Read more about Mary and her books, including where to see the video trailer of Return to Baragula, on her website http://www.mary-hawkins.com




Mary, the recipe sounds easy and delicious. I will be trying it soon! And your books have beautiful covers and I will be looking for them! Remember, look for Mary's books. Even if you don't find them, let me know and I'll enter you in a drawing for my September book.--Lyn

Debut Author Christina Berry & Chicken Chalupas ala Grandma!

My guest today is Author Christina Berry whose first novel The Familiar Stranger will be available soon. This sounds like a delicious recipe I plan to try out! Here's Christina:

"Doritos chips, cream soups, and green chilies—doesn’t sound like the most appetizing mix of ingredients, does it?

My grandmother made this dish decades ago, passing the recipe down to my mother, and then to me. She labeled it Chicken Chalupas, though it’s nothing like what you’d receive if you ordered a dish by the same name in a Mexican restaurant.
Chicken Chalupas
Nacho Cheese Doritos
4 chicken breasts, baked and shredded
1 c. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
½ c. chicken broth (I use what’s left from cooking the breasts)
1 small can diced green chilies (I use mild)
½ c. chopped onion
grated cheddar cheese ( as much as you prefer)

Grease a 9 x 13 pan, cover bottom with several layers of broken chips. Sprinkle shredded chicken evenly over the chips. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream, soups, broth, chilies, and onion. Pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 35-40 mins, until chips begin to blacken. Serve with tomato wedge garnishes.

Both my mother and grandmother have handed down quite a lot of things to me besides recipes: faith in Jesus, the ability to go through hard times with trust in an Ultimate Good, a love of card games, a slightly risqué sense of humor … but they’ve shown me how to be a strong woman.

In the last five months I’ve gone through a divorce, a close loved one’s arrest, entering the part-time work force, placing my home up for sale, and moving forward to adopt a foster child. Add to this my first book release EVER coming in less than two months. I’m so thankful to have a legacy of strong women to emulate!

Kind of reminds me of my heroine. She doesn’t think of herself as a strong woman at first. Just like this recipe, Denise Littleton’s marriage has ingredients that don’t seem to go together.

Poky chips of uncertainty concerning her husband’s love, spicy chilies of unrest about finances, stinky onions of bad circumstances … but when it’s all baked together in the oven of hard times, though the end product isn’t fabulously good-looking, the flavors have melded in a marvelous way.

Happy cooking! And please come by AshberryLane and subscribe to my infrequent, humorous newsletter for a chance to win an autographed copy of The Familiar Stranger. Or drop by my blog or my editing services.

Thanks Christina. You sound like you've been on the "dartboard in hell." That's how I always describe those periods when it's just one thing after another and none of them happy.

I'm thrilled about your first book. Now that's something to be happy about! I wish you much success and many happy readers!--Lyn

To pre-order The Familiar Stranger, click ChristianBook.com

Author Ruth Axtell Morren & Her Colombian Mother's Apple Pie

These days, as I weather the storms of having three teenagers, I think more and more of my mother when my older brother and I were teenagers. I find myself thinking, “Now, I understood what she must have gone through.”

My mother is Colombian and I grew up on all kinds of Spanish proverbs. Now, that I am around her age when we were teenagers, I also find myself repeating those sayings in so many situations. Here are a few, which lose something in the translation, but at least you'll get the gist:

* He was left without the goat or the rope
* There is no bad from which some good doesn't come forth
* Don't look for the three legs on the cat (meaning, don't look for trouble)
* For a good time, there's always a good fright (this one rhymes in Spanish)

Anyway, you get the idea.

My mother is not doing too well these days. She suffered a stroke a few years ago and slowly is declining. But she was a strong woman, who had to do a lot on her own in a strange country, to give us a good start in life. I know I'll have to say a temporary goodbye to her soon, but I know when we next see each other, it'll be better, when we're not weighed down by these mortal bodies.

My mother was a very good cook. She never read recipes much. Instead, she watched someone make a dish, and the next time, she was able to make it herself. This is the way she learned how to cook traditional New England dishes when she first came to the U.S.

She made the best apple pie—as well as pumpkin, blueberry and strawberry rhubarb. She didn't have as much opportunity to cook her own native dishes, but her most famous dish which we did enjoy often was Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice), which was like paella but without the seafood.

Here's her apple pie recipe, which she learned from a little old lady in Maine:

Apple Pie

6-8 sour apples

½ to ¾ c. sugar

¼ teas. cinnamon

1/8 teas. salt

½ tbsp. butter

2 teas. lemon juice

2 tbsp. corn starch

Plain Pastry

1 ½ cups flour

½ c. lard or other shortening (incl. Butter)

½ teas. Salt

ice water (about 3/8 cup)

Add salt to flour and work in lard with fingertips or pastry knife until shortening is evenly mixed in bits the size of peas. Moisten with ice water. Chill.

Toss onto board or cloth dredged sparingly with flour, pat and roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness.

Line pie plate with pastry. Pare, core, and cut apples into slices. Sprinke lemon juice over them. Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt and corn starch. Sprinkle a tablespoon on bottom of pan. Line with apples, then sprinkle more of the sugar mixture over these. Continue layering apples and sugar mixture till pie plate is heaping. Dot with butter. Cover with pastry and crimp edges. Cut a whole in center top of pastry and/or make slashes around it with a knife.

Cover pie edges loosely with foil and place in preheated 425o oven for 10 min. Lower heat to 350o and bake 45 minutes more or until juices are bubbling and apples are tender if pricked with fork.

For more about Ruth's books:

www.RuthAxtellMorren.com
http://ruthaxtellmorren.blogspot.com

The Making of a Gentleman, Steeple Hill mass market.,Aug.'08
A Man Most Worthy, Love Inspired Historical, Oct.'08

Thanks, Ruth. But I'd like your mother's Arroz con Pollo recipe too! Anybody else?--Lyn