Cover for December Book

Pretty Cute Huh? As sweet as he looks, this dog takes up with the enemy--a right man who shows up at the wrong time.

If you like reading sweet romace, where falling is love is out of the question but happens anyway, ask for BED AND BREAKFAST BLUES at your library or buy a copy from Avalon Books or one of the on-line book sellers.

Happy Holidays

Susan Ralph

My December Book

I got a look at my cover for Bed and Breakfast Blues which will be out in December. It isn't what I pictured in my mind, but the covers never are. I have no credentials for cover art so I trust the judgment of those who do. I'll try to post the cover here in the next couple of days.

And maybe I'll post the recipe for salmon burgers that are incredibly declicious. I made them tonight, and I have to say they are "the bomb"-if that expression is still in use. Most of the time I am way behind the times on my expressions, but in this case I think "the bomb" fits. One of the ingredients is chipotle chile canned in adobo sauce which gives them a nice zing.

Another thing I've made recently is sliced fresh tomatos with slices of mozzrella, fresh basil, olive oil and salt. It always looked too simple to be delicious. But I found some good tomatoes and made it. It got raves from my husband and that is a real coup. Most of the time things don't get a much higher rating that its okay.

It's almost time for his birthday and I'll be baking a chocolate cake using brown sugar. I'm torn between frosting it with a cooked brown sugar frosting or the chocolate genache they used in the recipe.

Fall here is beautiful. Still not the flash of color on the trees one sees at higher latitudes but the weather is delightful. I hope if I can talk my hub into another beach trip before cold weather sets in?

From my ocean dreams to yours,

Susan

Time, where does it go?

Here we are in October and I am way behind on everything.

Time is not my friend. I do not manage it well. It always escapes me.

I gave my speech. It went well. I spent a lot of time writing and practicing it. All in all, the result was worth the effort. And to my great surprise, I wasn't nervous.

And then I've been traveling. Something I love to do. My darling hub and I went to upstate NY to visit a daughter. We had lunch at the Culinary Institute of America to celebrate her birthday. A real treat. The service was impeccable, much of the food was great, some super great, but not all of it rated an "A" in my opinion. However, being able to watch the work going on in the kitchens was fun and  the buildings and grounds are a treat.

We then went to West Point and had an hour long tour. Spectatcular views of the Hudson River, a lot of history, but the place felt claustrphobic to me. It would take a special type person to endure the limitations and the rigors of a military academy.

On this trip, we stayed with another daughter and her family in VA, coming and going. On the return trip, we had blue crabs and steamed jumbo shrimp at a great seafood shack not far from their house.

Since the weather has cooled off, my hub and I have been spending some time at the beach. The latest trip was last Friday and Saturday...two perfect beach days.

I'm reading another disappointing book. The beginning chapters were terrific and then blah. But, I'll finish it even though it hasn't gotten better. The reviews I've read say the end is great.

The thing is, between reading the new books in my "to read" stack, I have been buying more of Georgette Heyer's books to add to my collection. Reading them is such a treat. They are long books and not once have I ever been bored with the story or said blah. Her plots have logic, her pacing is right, and her characters are distinguishable and enchanting.

Now it's back to my own writing. At least I hope that's what I'll be concentrating on for the next couple of weeks.

From my incomplete book to yours.

Susan Ralph

Promises and Promise

Well, after promising to get my poor heroine out of the dungeon, she's still there. Stuck. Because I have been doing other things.

Guilt weighs on my shoulders.

But who can write, when the view out the front window is the Atlantic Ocean? Not I. And that was my view for the last three days.

"But, I've been stuck in this dank dark place with no window for weeks," shouts my heroine.

Remorse roils my heart. "Soon. It won't be much longer," I reply.

For some reason  which I cannot imagine, or perhaps in a moment of insanity, I agreed to speak to a group. Standing alone before an audience and talking for x number of minutes, is not a comfortable spot for me. Trying to figure out what to say to them has consumed my time for the last three weeks--except during the blissful three days I just spent at the Ocean.

I'm crazy about the Ocean.

And it didn't disappoint.

From my boogie board to yours.

The Fragrance of Rosemary

Piney, woodsy, and enough to make me conjure up all sorts of delights. When I'm in the backyard, I make sure to run my hand over a branch. Cheap perfume of the best kind.

Did you know you can strip the needles off a stem, leaving a few at the tip for presentation, then sharpen the other end and use the stem for a skewer for grilling? Shrimp and Chicken both work well.

In one of my books that has yet to spark a response from an editor, rosemary and lavender play a role in the meeting of the gentleman and lady who will fall in love in a very romantic way.

There are many herbs I love, lemon verbena and basil being two. Some lend their flavor best to cooked dishes, like oregano and thyme. Mint is another great one and comes in tons of flavors now including chocolate.

I once had several scented geraniums and made a pound cake with the leaves placed in the bottom on the pan so they came out on top. My family frowned at the idea of eating geranium leaves and they don't like chive blossoms in their salad. None of the geraniums were hardy enough to survive my less than great gardening skills  and the wonderful herb farm where I bought them went out of business after the death of the owners.

Heading north sometime this month. Having grown up in northern US, I miss the far vistas of fall's brilliant leaf colors.

From my heart to yours.

The Big Wind Didn't Blow Down The House

On Friday the dire predictions about Hurricane Irene cancelled our weekly grocery shopping. No sense in filling the freezer and frig with more stuff if we might lose power.

On Saturday Irene made landfall in an almost direct line to the West of us. Thank heavens the winds had slowed to a Cat One level. We got a few gusts, some rain, some downed trees and limbs, but it wasn't the Big Bad Wolf threatening to blow our house down.

My heart goes out to those who lost a loved one and to those who may have suffered damage to their abode.

This time we were blessed.

A Stunning Movie

The Help. It will make you laugh--more than once. And it will make you cry--more than once.

I did not read the book before seeing the movie. Which is always my preference when a book is made into a movie so my mental image of the book characters doesn't conflict with the movie characters.

My Saturday late afternoon was spent in a movie theater watching this incredible movie. Not sure if it is more of a chick film or not. I didn't take my husband as he ruins movies for me if he doesn't like them so I don't have his reaction to go by. But there were a lot of men in the audience. It's a long movie. I don't have the exact running length, but it started at 3:10 (not sure if that time includes the ads and the upcoming previews) and by the time I got back to my car (steps from the theater) it was after 6. The acting is incredible. And the movie never drags. At least it didn't for me.

For the first time in a long time, (although its may be my choice of movies or the times I attend) the theater was near full. A mixed race audience. And a very responsive (in a good way) audience.

I'm just glad I didn't see this movie with the two youngest of my four daughters. They both would have been sobbing--with no restraint.

Even when the days and times look dark, I pray that decent humans stand at their peril against wrong.

From my heart to yours.

Susan Ralph

Confessions of a Romance Writer

Steamy, spicy? Nah. My books are sweet and tender and short. At least for now.

But, about my Lady Aruleius, who has progressed no farther than she had the other day,  she may be a bit more scintillating than my previous heroines. A bit of wildness lies beneath her proper demeanor.

And about my chicken salad. I am really into Ina Garten's cooking. She made chicken salad (I think her dressing calls for tarragon which I don't like) one day. She recommended roasting the chicken breasts on the bone for flavor. Always before, I have poached the chicken. Yesterday, I roasted the chicken breasts and will use my forever favorite chicken salad dressing.

I also made her lemon chicken which calls for boneless breasts with the skin on. No such thing in my grocery so I had to bone out the breasts, a tedious and messy and, if your not careful, a painful job.

I seem to have recovered from whatever was affecting my ability to stay awake. Got in some good writing yesterday on my latest contemporary.

Winners never quit, and quitters never win, says this characters mother. Which is oh so very true in the fiction writing business. Writer's write for years, suffering rejections from many different agents and publishers and writing contests, but perseverance can result in one accomplishing the goal of having an agent or a publisher say we love your story and we want to represent or publish it.

Keep going. Learn. Improve. Stay focused.

From my heart to yours.

Susan

"Help!" Shouts Lady Aruleius

"Wait, wait, I'm on my way," I reply.

How cruel of me to have put a fictional female in danger and then abandoned her to the wiles of an attractive fictional male.

Sometimes the way to move a story forward seems too difficult, too tedious.

However, I am determined to get to the HEA this romance story requires. And to save the fair maiden at the same time.

Right now, my Lady Aruleius has been kidnapped and is imprisoned in a dark, musty dungeon--for her own good, of course. Or so her captor, the arrogant and insufferable Viscount Randell tells her.

Did I mention, she is a beauty and not quite the proper lady she pretends, and he is handsome and not quite the altruist he pretends? So what does he want from her, and what is she willing to give him?

Sunk into ennui, I edit and re-edit already written pages and then escape into one of my new Georgette Heyer books. But guilt clouds my pleasure.

So today, I pledge to the muse of writers, I will write one new page. Tomorrow I will confess my success or failure.

From my story to yours.

Susan

An overcooked chicken save

My attempt to salvage my dry pesto slathered chicken breasts worked....YAY!

I scrapped off some of the pesto and then diced them into small cubes.

And here is the dressing recipe that is the key.

6 TBS fat-free mayonnaise--okay I don't have fat free and used full fat
2 TBS fresh lemon juice (and do use fresh)
2 tsp Dijon mustard (yummy)
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1/8 tsp white pepper (black would work fine)
3 cups cooked chicken breasts
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil.

This recipe calls for 6 cups of fresh spinach as a base for the chicken salad. I used a mix of lettuces dressed with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. And the recipe also says 1 1/2 TBS pine nuts (optional). I used walnuts.

This is my forever chicken salad recipe when there is fresh basil in my garden--probably even better with properly cooked chicken.

From my kitchen to yours.

I really have to stop cooking and start writing.

Susan

Basil Pesto: One success-One failure

I love the herby frangrance of my basil pesto. The leftover portion from my successful use catches my eye whenever I open the refrigerator door.

Must use it. Must use it pretty soon. But for what? I'm low carbing except on Wednesdays. Pasta sauce is the logical choice, but I also have a batch of fresh tomato sauce with lots of garlic and lots of fresh basil. 

Then I remembered a couple of years ago I'd slathered chicken breasts in pesto and cooked them. So I google it and get a couple of recipes with instructions. Unfortuantely the cooking time on the one I followed was way too long and they were dry. I'm pondering trying to remedy this by making a basil chicken salad with them.

The first use of my first batch of the season pesto, I used in a Rachael Ray recipe....good grief that girl can cook. Haven't tired one of her recipies yet that wasn't great.

The day I saw her do this on her TV show, I went to the food network site to get the full insturctions. Turns out it is a shortened (faster) version of a recipie she'd made before.

Here is the basic idea. You get pesto (commercial). But I made mine this time. You get Italian sausage (ground or links that you open up and take out the meat). I got mild. You get tiny mozzarella balls (they have an Italian name). I couldn't find them at the store I was in so I got a good quality mozzarella and than cut off small chuncks. Now the idea is, you encase a piece of the cheese in a portion of the meat (I think she made twelve for four servings) and form a meatball. These bake in the oven. In the meantime, you mix basil pesto into a can of tomatoes for the sauce and heat it up. She made some cheesey mashed potatoes and roasted garlicky broccoli to go with it. Me, who is low carbing and it wasn't Wed. didn't make the potatoes.

These meatballs with the sauce were delish. And one of the fastest things I every cooked. If you want the real recipe, you can find it on FN site.

And pesto slathered chicken breasts can be delish too, but not if they are overcooked.

From my stove to yours.

Susan

RWA Conference 2011

Back home from my ninth RWA Conference. This year it was held in NYC. The conference hotel, Times Square Mariott Marquis was fab. The location is full of attractions.

This year two of my four daughters and two of my five grands came along. They had a blast. As the eight year old said when asked about the Broadway show, Mary Poppins, "Awesome."

I took it a bit easy this year. Attended the Literacy signing on Tuesday night. It was jam packed. I think the room was samll for 500 seated authors and the number of people who came to meet the authors and get signed copies of their books. But it was a hoot. Met up with fellow Avalon authors Wednesday morning and then went to the lunch. The PAN retreat took up the remainder of the afternoon and then there was a fab cocktail party for the Avalon authors at the Avalon office.

On Thursday, I attended Michael Hauge's workshops. Two hours in the morning and then two more hours in the afternoon. I had heard him speak twice before, but what he offers is so important I need it to soak in and become automatic.

Thursday night I joined my family for pizza and pasta at Johns, cheesecake from Juniors, and a seat on the red steps in Times Square. Lot of fun, lot of light, lot of noise.

This year I left the morning of the last day. Family had a huge and delicious breakfast at Juniors, then we said goodbye to one daughter and the rest of us headed for the train station and the trip back.

We got home to find another daughter and her husband here painting interior doors. When she lived with us, she got a rabbit who removed much of the paint from the bottom of several doors. Somehow she persuaded her husband to paint them. He did a super great job. They stayed for the fourth of July celebration and were joined by our oldest daughter and three grands. Hectic but fun.

Getting back to writing will take some real discipline on my part.

How lucky we are to live in the USA. Other countries have a much longer history and many splendors, but we who claim the USA as home are priviledged.

Pray for our troops. They are still putting and often giving their life to protect us from those whose desire is to destory us.

Best,

Susan

Pesto Recipe

There are many variations of the basic basil pesto recipe. You can use other herbs or combine herbs. You can use nuts other than the pine nuts (which aren't really nuts).

However, my preference is for the straight forward all basil recipe. I do substitute walnuts for the pine nuts sometimes as they are much cheaper.

You really should have a food processor to make this. Back in the day, they used a motar and pestle which one still could but it might take you awhile to grind all this into a paste.

Basil Pesto

2 packed cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Put basil and pine nuts into the bowl of the food processor and pluse a few times. Add the gralic and pluse a few more times.

With the machine running, add the olive oil in a slow steady stream. If you need to, stop and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to get everything incorporated.

Add the grated cheese and pulse a few more times. Add a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

If you plan on freezing this, do not add the cheese until you are ready to use it.

Here is  a quick and delicious way to use the pesto in a dip.

Mix 1 cup sour cream with 1/2 cup pesto and 2 Tbs. parmesan cheese.  Then chill before serving.

From my basil patch to yours. Yummy!

Basil

A simple and delicious recipe using fresh basil.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Paint a a prepared pizza shell (the small size) with olive oil. Place it on a middle rack in the hot oven.

Leave it a few minutes. You basically want it a bit crispy sort of like toast.

In the meantime, slice fresh roma tomatoes (medium thick) and salt them. To peel or not to peel is your choice.

Take out the pizza shells. Put sliced tomatoes on top. Then add slices of fresh mozzarella cheese--I like the soft balls that you can find in the grocery groumet cheese but others might do.

Finally top with whole fresh basil leaves and return to oven to let the cheese melt.

Can be cut for appetizers or one would make an entree for lunch or dinner.

Basil on my mind.

Susan

Basil and other herbs in my garden

Planted my yearly supply of basil. Love this stuff. I think I will look up a recipe using basil in the next few days and post it. Pesto is of course, the biggie, but there are other things to make with fresh basil.

My chives have blossomed. People in my family are reluctant to eat flowers so I don't include them in salads.

I'm going to harvest some of my new crop of Lemon Balm and make tea.

My rosemary bush is in bad shape. My husband purned it to within an inch of its life. Now that I have a charcoal grill again, I think I will fire it up and use the stems of the rosemary to make shrimp kabobs.

I should be able to harvest a few sprigs of lavender this year, but I need to replace the plant. The automatic yard water sprayers drown my plantings.

From my herb garden to yours.

A Decrease in the Royal Funds

Here is the link to an article which comfirms my dismay stated in the previous post. The Royals get a huge chunk of money for what? Perhaps the Queen could have her wedding cake hats, spray painted to cut down on her wardrobe expense.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8500765/Royal-family-braced-for-cut-in-funding.html

The Royals and Their Weddings

Ever since William's mother got treated with utter disdain by his father, I have been way way over seeing anything worthy in the current British Royals.

They do have spectacular residences, and costumes and staff, all paid for by those who pay British taxes or fees or land rents or whatever. And I suppose they generate a certain input to the British treasury as a tourist attraction.  But my point is, they do nothing of real value to earn one cent as far as I can tell.

When Elizabeth last came to the US on an official visit and went down  a line of Congress people (and I am no fan of Nancy Polosi who well may still have had visible knife cuts from her last face lift), Elizabeth greeted her, Polosi introduced her husband, which was probably not good protocol, and then Elizabeth walked forward but kept her head turned staring at Polosi for a long period of time. I thought it quite rude on Elizabeth's part. I suppose having been deferred to since birth by simmpering staff and every want immediately produced, she feels no need to forgo being rude.

As far as I am concerned, the posh wedding was sad. How fascinated I was watching the wedding of Diana and Charles only to learn later the whole thing was a sham. He never loved her. He needed a virgin (?) bride to supply the crown with an heir and a spare. She did her job and was then humiliated by the man she had once gazed at with such adoration.

So now the British Royals, one of the wealthiest families on earth, produce another wedding spectacle costing millions attended by family and guests wearing the most outlandish outfits any designer could dream up. With the exception of the Middleton girls who dressed with great style. Many of the young women relatives were made up to look like tarts. See Beatrice and Eugenie. Amazing.

I wish the newlyweds well, but am pessimistic about the long term. I hope I am wrong.

My problem is Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, gazes at William in the same way his tragic mother once gazed at his father.

Good Weather for Reading

Wow. Rocky weather churning stuff up around here for the past week.

Parts of the area I live in are smashed  by the tornadoes that came through earlier, a number of people are digging out and trying to recover. We were lucky that in this immediate area no one lost their life but a lot of people lost their house and possessions.

Today we have had thunderstorms all day.

I'm staying inside. I finished reading a stack of books I got from the library and since I'm not venturing far from home, I went through my "not yet read pile" and found a Meg Cabot. It's about vampires--not my favorite characters--but she is a great writer.

Being able to download books from my library to an e-reader kind of makes having one seem practical. Maybe I'll be able to wean myself off of paper soon...LOL.

Hope you are not under seige from threatening weather conditions or floods whereever you may be.

From my book to yours,

Susan

Rio - the movie

Today with a grandkid visiting we went to see Rio, the 3-D version. Pretty good, but not my favorite of the recent 3-D moives that have come out in the last couple of years.

It was, however, at the heart of it, a story about pairing up and falling in love. For a romance writer it is always about getting to this happy ending.

And is what I wish for everyone to experience.

Social Networking

Like a person afraid of heights who takes up mountain climbing, I'm afraid of plunging into the canyon of the social networking scene.

The people I know who are facile with the ins and outs of these sites seem to have jumped and instead of falling, took flight.

Still, being a solitary person by nature, I resist. And am thinking more and more about getting off both the electronic and cyber grid altogether.

The First Rose of Summer

Our one rose bush, a climbing variety that spreads across the side fence I can see from my writing area, has presented its first rose of the season. On the back fence, the Rhododendrons, probably my favorite of the southern shrubs, are in full bud. I eagerly await their unraveling.

Having grown up in an area of the country where blowsy beautiful peonies bloomed and the enticing smell of lilac purfumed the air, I miss them even after all these years away.

If I were an avid gardener perhaps I could find an adequate replacement for these two flowers, but I am not.

A Beautiful Day

The dogwood blossoms are almost gone. My resident robins are back and chirupping from the branches of the pine tree. Other birds, whose names I have to look up each year,  have been dining in my backyard.

Outside the Loop

Just learned a friend is dealing with a serious illness. Praying for them and if you pray, I hope you will give them a shout out in a biblical sense.

Susan