Christina Hollis: International Cuisine, English Style...

I have dozens of cookery books, but after seeing a programme about Lebanese food on TV I couldn't resist buying one more. Saffron in the Souks by John Gregory-Smith is full of wonderful photos, and  its tactile cover makes it lovely to handle.  I read it straight through from cover to cover. Every recipe looked better than the last. I couldn't wait to try them all out, but that meant a frustrating wait. 

Our nearest "exotic" grocery shop is a forty-minute drive away, so I had to choose recipes which called for things from the garden, or that I could buy close to home. While we've got plenty of lemons and vine leaves here, it'll be weeks before our sour cherries and figs are ready to pick. 

Although that restricted my choice of recipe, I'm much luckier with my ingredients than my grandmother was. International cookery was a big challenge for her. Before her marriage, she was the cook in a real life, scaled-down version of Downton Abbey. In those days, women had to give up work when they married, so at the age of twenty-seven, she "retired". Her new husband was a career soldier. While he spent years on active service abroad, Gran stayed at home in Somerset, raising their family.

Feeding children is vital work, although it's often a thankless task. Gran missed her previous career, but Grampy came up with a solution. He sent home the recipes of his favourite local dishes so she could perfect them before he came home on leave.

Gran, with two of her four children

These days that would be—quite literally—a piece of cake. In rural England during the nineteen-thirties it was almost impossible. The local butcher couldn't get hold of goat meat, and citrus fruit was only available in winter. Gran grew the staple herbs of English cookery such as parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and mint, but brown dust sold in a box marked "curry powder" had to stand in for many of the ingredients. Cardamon, fresh ginger and even garlic bulbs were unknown to Gran's grocer. Coriander leaves had to be grown from seeds (when they were available). She had to adapt all the recipes using local ingredients and techniques.

At least I didn't suffer Gran's supply problems when trying out recipes from Saffron in the Souks. I've found it to be an almost perfect cookery book. Almost, because it recommends serving several of the dishes with flatbreads, but supplies no details. Luckily, one of Gran's Anglicised recipes came to my rescue. 

I mixed a cup of flour with a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of olive oil and enough warm water to make a soft dough. Kneading this well I then covered the bowl with a damp cloth and left it to stand for half an hour. After another good kneading, I divided the dough into twelve pieces and rolled each one out into a thin pancake. These cook in seconds in a dry frying pan. Like pancakes they are best eaten straight away, but the first ones can be stacked in a warm oven for a few minutes while you finish cooking the whole batch.

So this evening we'll be sitting down to shish taouk (chicken kebabs), served with genuine Somerset chapattis!

Christina Hollis's first non-fiction book, Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol is published by Pen and Sword Books. You can find out more about that here, catch up with her at https://christinahollisbooks.online, on Twitter, Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at christinahollis.com

Nicole Locke - A Medieval Feast...Sort Of.

My latest release, The Knight's Scarred Maiden, involves the heroine, Helissent, who is obsessed with cooking and baking. To understand her, I tried some of her recipes. Today, I'd like to share the Medieval Feast I, and my cousin, made (under no circumstances do I recommend trying this alone).
 
For the guests (I actually invited people over--or should I say: people actually came!), we made:

Fish with Sauce Verte

Roast Chicken with Peynreguson (raisin paste)
Fennel Soup
Rastons Bread (an egg bread, that is twice baked)
Dessert of Chardewardon (pear sauce) and Herbed Fritters

So how did it turn out?

The Sauce Verte (parsley, mint, betony, pellitory, and bread soaked in vinegar) tasted like vinegar and herbs. To save the day, my cousin added mayonnaise. It was yummy.

The Peynreguson (raisins, pepper, ginger, breadcrumbs, white wine), was ugly before and after it was cooked, but it was delicious with chicken. When I wasn’t looking my cousin added butter and champagne...as you do.

Then there was the fennel soup (water, fennel, and onions). It tasted like water, fennel, and onions. Asiago cheese was added to that.

Raston’s bread fascinated me because after the first bake, you’re required to slice off the top, scoop out the middle, saturate that in butter, put it back in, and reassemble it to bake again. I didn’t know how this would work without falling apart when you cut it. Guess what? It fell apart when I cut it. But at no time did the extremely buttered bread not taste good.

There was the delicious Chardewardon pear sauce that was supposed to be a burgundy broth with a jewel-like clarity. It looked and tasted liked spiced applesauce and the kids ate it all.

 

As for the Herbed Fritters. Out of everything, I doubted these the most. Flour, water, salt, herbs (thyme, sorrel, parsley, marjoram), fry, and slather with honey.  I was concerned the herbs would make it taste soapy. But I was wrong. The little dough balls could have handled a lot more herbs, and they were devoured by the pickiest eater.  

Will I do it again? Yes, but I won’t tell my family what they’re eating next time. Using the word Medieval made the children suspicious.

More importantly, did it give me a good idea of what Helissent shared with the hero Rhain in the story? Maybe. But I suspect she is a better cook than me….

 

You can read my other misadventures on different recipes on the Harlequin Blog May 25, June 2^nd and June 13th. http://harlequinblog.com. I've also shared recipes on my website. http://nicolelocke.com

Nicole

Nicole Locke is the author of Harlequin Lovers and Legends series. For more information about her and her writing, check out her website and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.



 

A Christmas Tasty Treat

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is taste-test. I do little drive-bys of the cookie tin, at parties I like to sample everything so my plates look like something an international food fair might have...well, you get the picture. One of my favorite snacks is one I make all for me (because RadioMan thinks it's too sweet and bebe has this thing about puddings. Sometimes, I swear that child cannot be related to me. Anywho.)

We're in the nitty-gritty of the Christmas eating fest, and I thought I'd share the recipe - because every holiday gathering could use one more dessert, don't you think? Yeah, me, too. Here we go:

Kristina's Fairy Pudding Recipe. Now, here's what you need to know about it: it's sweet. Seriously. Sweet. So don't forget a glass of milk, and make sure your take little bits at a time. Don't fill up a whole bowl, you'll never be able to finish it.

What you need:

1 cup sugar
1 envelope Knox gelatin - plain
1 cup milk
2 egg whites
2 beaten egg yolks
1 cup whipping cream - the actual cream, not Cool Whip or the canned Readi-Whip stuff
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs - I like to use actual graham crackers and smush then in a ziploc with my rolling pin, hence the picture above

Directions:
In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook the sugar, gelatin, milk and beaten egg yolks until it bubbles. Do not allow it to boil or the milk will scorch. Remove from heat and put into a mixing bowl, allowing it to cool. Once cooled, fold the beaten egg whites and whipping cream into the mix. Get over to your Ziploc-with-graham-crackers and rolling pin the heck out of 'em until only crumbs are left. Layer 3/4 of those crumbs in the bottom of a serving dish - I use a 9x11 Pyrex, but you could use pie plates or any pretty dish, really. Pour the pudding over the graham crackers and then sprinkle the remaining crumbs over the top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and serve!

Now, I gave you this warning above, but I'm not above repeating myself. This pudding is awesomely good, but it's also awesomely rich - small pieces are your friend. So is milk. Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite holiday treat? Share in the comments!

Kristina Knight's latest release, Protecting the Quarterback, is available now from Harlequin Superromance: 

This is more than just a game … to her.

Sports broadcaster Brooks Smith has always been more involved with the game than the players. But after she shares the spotlight at an awards ceremony with tabloid sensation Jonas Nash, one night of letting her guard down around the infamous quarterback spirals into many heated days and nights together when she gets assigned to the story of the year…

The hottest player in professional football is hiding a secret that could end his career for good. Now Brooks is caught on the sidelines between the job she loves and the man she is falling in love with.

Amazon  B&N  KOBO  iBooks  Harlequin

You can find out more the book and Kristina on her website, and feel free to stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Christina Hollis: Monkey See, Monkey Do, Choux...

Last week I had a real eureka moment, courtesy of the internet.

By Andrew Knowles

I learned to cook by watching my grandmother. In her day, women didn't work outside the home after marriage, so she went from creating dishes for aristocrats to catering for her own family on a fraction of the budget. When I was little, if I wanted to try making a recipe from one of her old books, it had to be something economical. One thing I always wanted to try but never did was choux pastry. Not only does it contain butter and eggs, it then gets filled with Chantilly cream or crème pâtissière and topped with  chocolate ganache. That was several extravagant steps too far for Gran!

Years later, once I’d left home, I tried making choux pastry.  It was an inedible disaster. I never got as far as experimenting with any classy fillings or toppings. Then the Great British Bake-Off started on TV and I decided to try again. I used the basic choux recipe from this Bake-Off challenge (I wasn’t mad enough to think I could construct religieuse, I just wanted to get the pastry part right!). The result was at least edible, but as DD said, they looked like “fried pinwheels”.  I adjusted the oven temperature, in case my oven wasn’t hot enough. Batch two was better, but still heavy and close textured so I gave up. Then OH reminded me that my home-made bread improved enormously after I watched Daniel Stevens baking on TV. Before that, I'd been following recipes to the letter but the texture of perfect dough was something I needed to see before I could get it exactly right. 

That sent me straight to YouTube, where I found this 101 on choux pastry...

and yes, there's a world of difference between following written instructions and actually watching someone work. I didn't use the quantities in the film, it was the consistency of the paste while cooking and when ready for piping that I needed to see. My next batch of choux pastry turned out perfectly, and was filled with crème pâtissière and topped with shiny chocolate ganache (though I still didn’t bother turning them into religieuse).  If only I’d been able to see Gran working with the right consistency of choux dough years ago, I could have saved myself a lot of time and effort.  

What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned online? There’s a signed book from my backlist for a comment drawn at random on Monday, 18th November.

Christina Hollis – Hedgerow Harvest

Coe's Golden Drop

After a practically non-existent harvest in 2012, we were hoping for a better year this year. It didn’t get off to a good start. Only two of my colonies of bees made it through to spring. Both were headed by new young queens, but the foul weather last summer meant neither had been properly fertilized. They couldn’t lay replacement workers, so those two hives soon died out as well.  It meant for the first time in  four years the hum of honeybees was missing from our garden. That was sad enough. Then forestry work out in the wood sent the deer in the direction of our garden.  All the lower branches of our cherry, plum and apple trees were nibbled to death. The lay of the land around  here means it’s impossible keep them out, so we resigned ourselves to having no fruit for a second year running. The orchard at Tottering Towers now resembles a Capability Brown landscape in miniature, with trees pruned drastically to livestock-height. We thought things horticultural couldn’t get any worse - until the rodent population exploded. Our cat can cope with the mice and voles, but with the garden encircled by trees, most of the squirrels can bounce out of his reach. When rabbits finally returned to our neck of the woods, it felt like the last straw. 

Damsons

Then unexpectedly, things began to look up. We finally shook off the cold, wet spell that lasted from winter right through to midsummer. The sun started to shine, and forgot to stop. Our local beekeeping group managed to raise enough new stock to sell replacement colonies to those who, like me, had lost all their bees.  Best of all, our garden went into overdrive.  The blackcurrant bushes produced about double their normal yield of fruit, while the remaining branches of  our fruit trees are bowed down with fruit. Even the damson tree my sister gave us for our wedding anniversary a few years ago rose to the challenge. Unusually, it didn’t have many flowers on it this spring, but just about every one it did have turned into a fruit. They looked ripe last week so I tried one. Big mistake. The taste was so sharp, it made me pucker up like a Siamese cat in a wind-tunnel. It’ll be a while before they’re even ready to turn into jam.

Blackberries

At the moment I’m busy trying to grab windfall apples before the deer can hoover them up. It’s been such a good year for brambles, the hedges are full of them. Here’s a really simple recipe for making the most of this hedgerow harvest. The amount and type of fruit can be varied according to what you have available. You just need to make sure you have about a pound and a half of prepared fruit in total. 

APPLE AND BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE

1.5lbs peeled, sliced cooking apples and washed blackberries

Sugar to taste

4oz flour

3oz butter or margarine

2oz demerara (brown) sugar

3oz rolled oats

Put the prepared fruit into an ovenproof dish with sugar to taste and a couple of tablespoons of water.

In another bowl, rub the fat into the flour. Stir in the sugar and oats. Spread this crumble mixture evenly over the fruit, making sure to cover it completely. Cook in the oven for around half an hour at 180°C, (fan oven 160°C) Gas Mark 4, or until the fruit is cooked and the topping is golden. Serve it hot or cold, with plenty of custard, cream or ice cream.

What’s your favourite fruit dish?

You can read Christina's blog at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com and see a complete list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com

What would we do without cranberries? : : Anne McAllister

I've been reading all these wonderful pieces here at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs and trying to figure out something useful to contribute to the discussion when, let's face it, I really should be doing revisions. They are due on Monday and I've got a fair amount left to do.

So . . . I decided that I would share a couple of easy recipes with you that I got from the side of a box and the food section of a newspaper so long ago that I can't remember when. But for years now I've used them and modified them and every year my kids -- and now grandkids -- and I make them whether we're together or apart.

Hope you'll give them a try if they sound appealing to you!


Cranberry & White Chocolate Biscotti

• 1 package cranberry quick bread mix (take your pick of brand) or you can make the dough from your favorite biscotti recipe and just add the other stuff. I go the quick route myself
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten (but not within an inch of their lives)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips -- whatever brand you can find. Some are marketed as vanilla chips. Um, no.
  
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds (I have dyslexia when it comes to almonds. I can't remember which are slivered and which are sliced. But logically you don't want the flat ones which seem sliced to me, you want the other ones. Unless you don't like the same kind I do. Suit yourself)
• extra flour as needed
• powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 or whatever the equivalent is in your country. Grease a large cookie sheet.
Combine the bread mix, melted butter and eggs, stirring them together (but again, not beating them to a pulp. Go gently here).

Work in enough flour that you can handle the dough without it sticking to your hands. Make a ball of the dough and cut it in half. Shape each half into a sort of flat loaf-like shape about 9" long and 3-4" wide. It should be maybe half an inch thick. Set both loaves on the cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. They spread. Make sure you have enough room.

Bake the loaves at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until light brown. Don't overbake. Removed from the oven and let cool at least 15 minutes. Go walk the dogs or write a page. Then come back and go to the next step.

Turn the oven down to 250. Cut the loaves into slices about 3/4" thick. Separate the slices on the sheet so that they are not touching, but leave them all upright. If you need another cookie sheet in order to give them space, use one.

Then put them back in the oven and go for another walk or go write several pages and come back at least half an hour later. If they are golden brown and looking crisp, they're ready. If not, leave them in longer. Go write some more. Go read a good book. Turn the oven off and let them sit there. Come back sometime and get them out and let them cool. This is an inexact science. If you like them really crispy leave them in the oven longer. If you want them slightly chewy, take them out sooner. When they are cool, dust them with powdered sugar.

If you think you'd like more cranberries than are in the quick bread mix, you can add dried or chopped fresh cranberries. The dried are probably better in terms of keeping the crisp dry texture. It depends on what texture you prefer.

Cranberry Cookies with Orange Frosting

These are seriously ambrosial if you are fond of cranberries and oranges. If not, go find some chocolate.

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 tsp grated orange peel
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• 1 egg

Mix all the above together using either spoon or electric mixer.
Then stir in:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Then stir in:

• 2 cups chopped cranberries (this is the annoying part. Chopping cranberries is one of my least favorite activities, so you know these have to be worth the effort of chasing cranberries all over the kitchen as they roll off the cutting board. No, I don't have a food processor. If you do, you'll like these even better.)

Heat the oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls on the cookie sheets. Keep about 2" between them. They spread. In fact, if your dough seems very sticky, add more flour or they will spread waaaaaay too much. If you have used butter you will have to watch them to be sure they don't burn. If you've used margarine, probably not so much, but it didn't say margarine, did it?

Bake 12-14 minutes. These get done fast, but you can't take them out too early or they simply crumble (but crumbs of course are calorie free, so there is an upside). Cool them on wire racks at least 30 minutes. Go write some more. Go jog. If you're going to eat very many of these you're going to want to work out in order to feel entitled to them.

When they are cool, frost them with a mixture of:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
• enough orange juice to make a soft spreadable frosting.

It's making me hungry just writing this. But I can't indulge until next week. Not until the revisions are gone.

What are some of your favorite holiday recipes? You don't have to give me all the ingredients -- just name some.

The one that makes my tastebuds leap up and head for the kitchen will win a copy of my January release, Antonides' Forbidden Wife -- in which PJ actually does cook for Ally, but they eat fresh pineapple for dessert. Sadly, not a cranberry in sight.

You can read an excerpt by clicking on the link.

Recipe Research - Mia King

Hi everyone! My name is Mia King and I am a women’s fiction/romance author of three novels, Good Things (Feb 2007), Sweet Life (Sept 2008), and Table Manners (Aug 2009), all published or to be published with Berkley Books.

My novels have a few things in common. My heroines are in their early 40’s, they all have a seemingly good life, and they all have their worlds turned upside down, usually by chapter three. As challenging as it might seem at first, it pushes them to discover who they really are and what matters most. I’m a big believer in relationships and HEA, so all my books have that in common, too, plus a dollop of humor. What else? Oh, right. My books all contain recipes.

Now, I have a great appreciation for people who cook, especially when they cook for me (one of my closest friends, Wynn, is one of these people), but I am quite the average cook when left to my own devices. Oh, I hit the jackpot every now and then (I make an amazing corn-meal crust pizza from scratch and can do a mean macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi with mango salsa), but the other times … well, let’s not go there.

With my first book, Good Things, I created the recipes on my own. I spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to get a recipe right versus actually writing and finishing my novel. It was beyond research; it was almost like another job.

With my second book, Sweet Life (out on September 2, 2008), I wised up. Sweet Life is based in Hawaii so I asked prominent local chefs, restaurateurs, vineyards, and foodies to contribute recipes that I could incorporate into the story line. It worked so beautifully that I did the same for my third novel, Table Manners (out next August 2009), which is based in Seattle with a short stint in Paris. The recipes are, to put it frank, amazing. Delicious. Delectable. And, for the benefit of my readers and myself, easy to make at home. Now this kind of food writing I can do (plus, can I tell you how cool these people are? They’re all so brilliant and passionate and talented. I am completely in awe of them!).

So now I’m thinking about book #4. Keep the recipes or change the format? Tell me your take on novels and recipes. Who are some of your favorite authors who include recipes with their stories?

"The ultimate 'escape-and-find-yourself' novel ... funny, poignant, and filled with home truths any woman can relate to. A delightful indulgence!" NYT Bestselling Author Susan Wiggs

What if you got away from it all—and then it all got away from you? Meet Marissa Price, a corporate exec turned full-time mom who trades in her stilettos for sandals when her husband is transferred to Hawaii. Read an excerpt and enter my amazing Hawaiian chocolate/baked goods and books basket giveaway (each basket is valued at $80) at www.miaking.com.

SWEET LIFE: A NOVEL (Berkley Books) is a featured alternate of the Doubleday, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month book clubs. In bookstores everywhere September 2, 2008.

“A fresh and thoroughly enjoyable story as enticing as the delectable recipes at the end of the book.” ALA Booklist

Living simply isn’t simple. Deidre McIntosh, Seattle lifestyle maven and TV show host, learns to practice what she preaches when her show is cancelled and her life is turned upside down. Read an excerpt and enter my amazing Hawaiian chocolate/baked goods and books basket giveaway (each basket is valued at $80) at www.miaking.com.

GOOD THINGS: A NOVEL (Berkely Books) is in its third printing and is a national bestseller.

Hot Cross Buns

Today is Good Friday. It is also the earliest Good Friday in living memory. Easter is set by the Jewish Passover celebration which in turn uses a lunar calender. Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of the Spring. The Spring Equinox happened yesterday. The moon is full tonight. Easter can only be one day earlier and the last time that happened was 1818 or for those lovers of historicals, smack dab in the middle of the Regency period.
Easter like Christmas is always a time of special foods. Lent was a time of fasting and so Easter became a time when food was once again available. One of most familiar cries in Regency and Victorian London, according Henry Matthew's London Labor and Lon Poor 1851 was One a penny, two a penny hot cross buns.
Hot cross buns are spiced currant buns with a cross cut on the top. Sometimes the cross is emphasised with a cross of pastry. I know in the US version, cut peel is often used, but not in the English version, according to Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) which is one of the definitive tomes on the subject.
Spiced buns start appearing in Tudor times and by Elizabeth I, decrees are being issued limiting bakers to making spiced cakes and buns only at Christmas and Easter. If you want such things at other times, the housewife has to make her own. This is the situation that pretty much exists up to the 20th century in Britain. And I will say that warm homemade hot cross buns taste far better than those in the shops.
This is the recipe that I have adapted from Elizabeth David. It makes about two dozen.
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon soft butter
2 large eggs (free range if possible and as fresh as possible)
1 cup milk warmed
1 packet yeast
1 tsp each -- ground allspice, cinnamon, nut meg, cloves or use 1 tablespoon mixed pumpkin pie spice
1 cup currants (or in a pinch raisins)
Soften the yeast in the milk. Add butter to milk and allow to melt. Add well beaten eggs to yeast mixture.
Mix flour, brown sugar, salt and spices together. Add yeast mixture. Stir until well mixed. Add currants. Mix until well distributed. The dough should be quite stiff.
Cover and allow to rise until double. This takes about an hour (gives you time to read a romance novel).
Divide into 24 balls. Place in a greased tray, allow to rise again (time for more reading of romance), make a cross on top of each with a knife, brush with a little milk. You can emphasise the cross by putting a cross made from either strips of candied peel or strips of short crust pastry (pie dough). Bake in 375 F- 400 F oven for twenty minutes. (Set timer in case you become engrossed in romance novel!)They should be lovely and brown when they come out. You can glaze them if you want. Best eaten warm, but can be split and toasted.
I hope whatever you do this weekend that you have a wonderful time.
all the best,
Michelle Styles

A Town Called Christmas

This is going to be a very Christmasy blog post. I thought it was too early to think about the holidays, but then...

It SNOWED.

About ten inches on November 6th! Even for Michigan, that's too much snow, way too early. :::shiver::: But the benefit is that now I'm in a winter holiday mood, just in time for the release of my new book, A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS.

There truly is a town called Christmas here in Upper Michigan, though my version has been fictionalized to suit my purposes. Ah, the joys of being an author--creating new worlds, inventing perfect men...such power!

It was great fun to write about mistletoe, holiday dinners, small town celebrations and especially one of my favorite activities....baking Christmas cookies. Here's the no-bake recipe for the cookies my heroine creates in the book (I remember making these a long time ago but they must have fallen out of fashion because I haven't seen any in years):

CHURCH WINDOW COOKIES

1 12 oz. pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 lb. (I stick) butter
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 10 oz. colored miniature marshmallows
flake coconut

Melt chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler. Cool. Add chopped walnuts and marshmallows. Mix. Sprinkle coconut on wax paper and spoon mixture onto coconut in log form. Sprinkle more coconut on top and sides as you roll wax paper over the log. Refrigerate until firm, then remove paper and cut into slices to serve.

The setting of the book is the heroine's family's Christmas tree farm. I didn't have to do too much research there, since my dad has been known as our town's Christmas Tree Man for decades. I've never cut a tree myself, but I've sold 'em! And cut the boughs that are made into wreaths and swags. My house always smells very piney during the holidays.


As an early Christmas present to Tote Bag readers, I'm giving away two copies of A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS. I'll choose the winners from the comment section of this blog and post the their names in my next blog, on November 20th.

Meanwhile, it's never too early to start on your holiday baking. What's your family's favorite Christmas cookie?

To read more about my latests releases, including excerpts, visit www.carriealexander.com

FRIENDS AND BOOKS, OR, BOOKS AND FRIENDS?

I’m so happy to be blogging on Tote Bags and Blogs... thanks, Lee, for letting me join the gang!

Reading recent posts and thinking about what I was going to say in my inaugural Tote Bags and Blogs appearance I’m left sitting on the fence (anyone who knows me will recognise this favoured form of seating, the splinters... now they’re another story.)

On one side of the fence there is my wish to wax lyrical about the fellowship of good friends. Most of my very best friends are fellow writers and authors and, to be honest, they keep me sane (okay, ladies... sort of sane!) After all, who else can understand and appreciate the highs and lows of striving for your dream, achieving your dream and maintaining your dream, other than someone who is on the same road as you, or who has already trod that road and knows what you’re going through. And that’s something special, isn’t it? That incredible fellowship and support we give and receive on our journeys through life, no matter what we’re doing in our lives. No matter what stage we’re at, e.g. meeting new potential partners, embarking on a new job, overseas experience, dissolution of a relationship; it’s our friends that bolster us up along the way. Who else can we cry with, mourn with and, best of all, laugh and celebrate with, without fear of judgement, censure or lack of understanding.

And then there’s the other side of the fence. Books.

I love books. All books. I love to just pick them up sometimes and smell the paper (okay, I did say ‘sort of sane’ before), I love to turn the pages without breaking back the spine (and yes, I’ve been known to buy myself a new book after loaning one out and it’s come back spine broken) but best of all I love to read. Each book is a journey in itself, no matter what genre, although obviously my preference is for romance. So what do you do when you get to combine friends and books, aside from a really great time?

Well, in the case of twenty six authors from Australia and New Zealand you get Sizzle, Seduce & Simmer—a sinfully sweet collection of short stories and recipes from an ever growing group of friends, released by Harlequin in Australia as a MIRA in trade paperback. The brain child of a group of awesome romance authors in Melbourne and collated by the incredibly clever and lovely Marion Lennox the idea grew and expanded to include authors from further afield and on 1 November the book will be launched in the big wide world. Well, initially in Australia and New Zealand but hey, with the internet the world’s our oyster, right? And it’s the perfect combination which allows you to read while cooking! So, if you’re Down Under based, look out for it at your favourite bookstore from 1 November and if you’re Up Over based, try this site, or this one, to have it sent to you.

Bon Appetit!

Actually, I'm beginning to think that seduction is very definitely a part of my life now I'm writing full time, and who could complain about that? So, while I'm here I'd also like to bring your attention to my first UK release (of my first sale book, and the first in my New Zealand Knight's mini-series--Yay!) THE BOSS'S CHRISTMAS SEDUCTION. It's a November release in the omnibus SEDUCED BY CHRISTMAS together with the gorgeous and talented Sandra Marton. I can't believe I'm saying this in October... but Jingle Bells! Everyone!

Ooh, is that a splinter?