Tasty Tuesday Strawberry Cream Cheese Bites!

These are a few pictures I took on the way home. This first pic represents just about all I was able to see of Texas. We had a lovely flight from Anaheim to Houston and saw a fun movie, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." I was on the aisle and watching the movie, so Texas kinda got past me. Plus, I was having such a pleasant time, I almost forgot I was on a plane. Therefore, I highly recommend the Boeing 757!

We didn't have much time in the Houston airport either time we were there, so Willy and I had to make the best of the time we had. He wanted his picture taken in Texas, and I wanted Texas food, so while Mellanie and Sandy went to Subway, I did the next best thing and got Louisiana chicken from Popeyes. To make up for the lack of Texan cuisine, I bought a bottle of Famous Dave's Texas Pit barbecue sauce at the IGA in Bloomfield yesterday. Not sure what I'll put it on, though. Hamburger, maybe.

While waiting for the flight to Indy, I took several pictures of this plane which was as interesting for its size as its designation. I mean, how often do you see a plane from Singapore????

This illustrates the difference in size from the plane we flew on from Houston to Indianapolis versus the plane to Singapore. It looked kinda like a toy next to that one, and there was a KLM 747 on the other side of the Singapore plane which was HUGE!

Speaking of huge, Suzy sent me this recipe a while back. Unfortunately, although I bought some really big strawberries at the IGA yesterday, I didn't think to buy any cream cheese. :(

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bites

Super simple delicious FUN!!

1# large strawberries
8 oz softened cream cheese, or mascarpone
4 T powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
graham cracker crumbs

Rinse berries and cut out the hulls, hollowing out if necessary
Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until creamy, then put mix into a ziplock with the corner snipped off...fill strawberries with cream cheese mixture, then roll top in graham cracker crumbs.  Refrigerate until served. 

I'm sure you can come up with all sorts of ways to gild the lily here...dipping the end of the berries in white chocolate to make them stand up...drizzling them with melted chocolate...etc, but the basic recipe is delicious enough to make your taste buds sit up and holler YAHOOOO without any extras.  ENJOY!!

 I think this fellow would probably have plenty of cream filling...

 Can I have a volunteer to check him out?

Happy Birthday Monday Moons!

Better hurry. It's 11:58 and I don't have a blog up yet. Got home at about 10:00, been talking to my DH ever since.

I'll post the rest of my Anaheim pics on tomorrow or Wednesday. Right now, I need a shower and bed and some nice moons to wake up to tomorrow morning!

And I see from my calendar that this is Mary G's birthday! How appropriate that it falls on a Monday....

 Hope it's the best ever, Mary! Have fun!!!

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

The last day at RWA started off with me dragging myself out of bed and going down to buy breakfast at Starbucks without even combing my hair. I felt a little more human after a large cup of tea, got cleaned up and went to the Sourcebooks Spotlight.That's Danielle Jackson (our publicist) on the left and my editor Deb Werksman on the right.

I had lunch with Tracey Devlin and Terry Spear after the spotlight, then went back to the room to rest a bit and get ready for the Sourcebooks Booksigning.

Willy helped me set up!

Carolyn Brown signing her new cowboy book.

Amelia Grey and Terry Spear before the signing.

Tracey Devlin at the signing.

Amanda Forrester at the signing.

And me at the signing. I gave away 100 books!


















Then again, when you ask ladies if they would like a STUD, hardly anyone ever says no...


































My Sextet buddies Annie Morgan and Mellanie Szerto before the Rita/Golden Heart ceremony.

And me and Mellanie.

None of the Sourcebooks nominees won, :(  but we enjoyed the festivities just the same. Gotta go to bed now so I can catch the flight home. We've had a lot of fun here in Anaheim and we never even set foot in Disneyland. RWA is such a great organization, and if there are any aspiring authors out there, I encourage you to join. You will never regret it!

Friday at RWA Nationals!

I actually took a few pictures yesterday so I'd have something to post besides "I'm so tired I could die." Feeling better today. Sandy and I ate leftovers in the room for breakfast, meandered down to the lobby to hang out with fellow Sexteter Annie Morgan while Sandy was pitching to a new agent--which went quite well, apparently.

















Kate Douglas stopped by and met Willy.

Me and Kate.

 Sandy and I had signed up for massages at 11:30. This is Sandy and her guy. Looks relaxed, doesn't she?

And me and Luke. Very cute, very good hands, and very strong. He wants to be on one of my covers. I told him he had all the right stuff! You can't see it here, but he has a ponytail!

Then we went to the awards luncheon and heard Robin Carr give lots of inspirational words to us newbie authors...

Where I sat with my buddy Marie Force and the IRWA gang.

Then Marie and I went to the bar and sat at a table by the pool, talking with Sharon Lathan and Grace Burrowes.

While I had a margarita and Marie had a taste of Willy!

They picked us up for the Sourcebooks dinner in the lobby at 6 and took us to in a party bus to Mastro's Ocean Club in Newport Beach. From left to right, Amelia Grey, me, Terry Spear, Sharon Lathan, and Sara Humphreys.

Me and Amelia,

Sharon and Sara

The dinner was awesome, but WAY too much food. I had the swordfish, which was wonderful. Unfortunately, I was drunk as a skunk on the dirty martini Tammy Falkner talked me into drinking. The olives stuffed with blue cheese were delicious, but that martini was STRONG!!!!

But best of all, I actually got to see the Pacific Ocean. Didn't dabble my toes in it, but at least I can say I've seen it. 

We got back on the bus and went back to the hotel at 11, had a mojito on the patio, and then called it a night. Now I'm here in the dark blogging while Sandy sleeps. Tomorrow--actually, it's now today--is the Sourcebooks spotlight in the morning, then the book signings in the afternoon and the Rita/Golden Heart awards that night. Right now, I'm going to drag my sorry ass off to bed, but first, I must post a hunk.

I flipped him over so you could get the full effect!

Enjoy your Saturday!

Friday Fun!

It's been a very tiring day at RWA Nationals. I met with my agent, went to a couple of workshops and the keynote luncheon--which, as always, made me cry. I've talked until I'm hoarse and had dinner at the steak house here in the hotel. We were going to get a drink afterward, but I was so tired I figured if I drank a margarita, I'd never make it back to my room to blog. Unfortunately, I can't even think of anything funny to post, and I couldn't find the picture I was looking for.

So here's one for all you lovers of fur.

And blue eyes.

And tattoos.

And nice, non-scary YDs.

He's got all that. And he's cute.
Nope. Not gonna complain....

Thursday Thoughts from Anaheim!

Hello from Anaheim! The flight wasn't too bad, as you can see, Willy enjoyed his window seat.

We landed at the John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, then took a nice shuttle service ride to the hotel.

Willy took a dip in the surf!

Wednesday after breakfast Sandy and I took a walk around town. California is beautiful and the weather is very pleasant! I can see why people love it here.

Our hotel, taken from the main road.

And this is the view out our window!

Had a meeting with my editor after we got back from our walk. She seemed interested in the three book series I was planning to self-pub. Not sure how that's going to play out. We'll see!

Enjoyed a nice chat with my buddies Marie Force and Sharon Lathan. I wish we could get together more often. The Literacy signing went well.

Despite the riots in Anaheim which significantly reduced attendance, I sold more books than I ever have at a Literacy Signing.

This is me with my agent, Melissa Jeglinski of The Knight Agency.

With the new seating arrangement, I met some nice ladies at my table--Kathy Altman and Rachel Bailey. Rachel was from Australia and thought I had an interesting accent. I told her I didn't have an accent, but that hers was really cool. There were lots of RWA members from Australian and New Zealand. I hadn't thought about it, but having the conference on the west coast made it easier for them to attend.

After the signing, my IRWA cohorts had dinner at the Hilton across the street. Damn good food, but I'm beat. So here's today's hunk. A little older for those of you who like them more, ahem, mature...

Whopping Weasel Wednesday!

The Literacy signing is tonight from 5 to 8 PM. I'll be at table 101 if anyone happens to be at the Anaheim Convention Center. I'd love to see some CBEBers there!

Meanwhile...

Here's today's whopper!

Tasty Tuesday Zucchini Pancakes!

I can hardly believe I haven't posted this recipe before. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it until lunchtime this past Friday when my DH was at Boy Scout camp and I could fix anything I like, either.
He's not real crazy about anything with veggies in it (this from a man who once tried to go vegan) so it's a treat I keep for myself when the basil, oregano, and zucchini are growing in my garden. You can use dried herbs, but OMG, when they're fresh...YUMMO!
The original recipe for this comes from the King Arthur Flour Cookbook, but I use a lot more of the herbs than their recipe calls for.

Zucchini Pancakes

Ingredients

2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp or more fresh oregano leaves
1 tbsp or more fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 tbsp minced onions or chives (the dried ones work fine)
2 eggs
3/4 to 1 cup flour (I've used the white whole wheat variety and it works fine)
extra virgin olive oil for frying

Directions

Mix all ingredients together, starting with 3/4 cup of flour. You can add more if needed to achieve a good consistency. You want it slightly thick, but not runny. I find that after the first batch is fried and the remainder has been sitting for a while, it gets a little soupy and I have to add more flour.
Heat olive oil (about 1/4 inch deep) in a large skillet. Add the batter in large spoonfuls to make pancakes about 3 to 5 inches in diameter. Fry until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.
These are good plain, but they're REALLY good with a little butter or pesto!

And an Italian hunk goes well with them too!

Monday Moons!

Getting ready to head to Anaheim tomorrow. I tried on some clothes a few days ago, and I think they'll do--as long as nobody takes pictures of me. Why is it that you always look better in your mirror than you do on film? That additional 5 pounds the camera is supposed to add always seems more like 15 to me.

Oh, well... I'm sure this guy doesn't have that problem.

Enjoy your Monday!

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

Wow. Just two more days before I leave for California with Sextet pals Mellanie Szereto, Elizabeth Raines, and Annie Morgan.

Can. NOT. WAIT!!!

But in the meantime, this fellow should keep me busy...

Wonder if he'll be in Anaheim???

Saturday's Hunk of the Day!

Stole this one from Facebook a while back.

Have fun getting him out of those sweats!