Tuesday Treats: Easy Crescent Danish

Crescent roll Cheese Danish

Ingredients:
2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk (I use soy or almond milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350* degrees. Grease a 13 X 9 baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with 1 package of Crescent Rolls, pressing the “corrugated” edges together. Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the Crescent Rolls evenly and then place the 2nd package of rolls, after pressing the edges together, on top of the cheese mixture. Brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

Alternatives:
Other cooks have made this recipe using low fat cream cheese and Splenda (sugar substitute) and say it is delicious. The amount of filling the original recipe calls for makes a VERY heavily filled Danish. You can halve the filling using 1 package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 whole egg, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Still yummy if lighter. Bake for 30-35 minutes if you halve the filling.

If icing glaze isn’t your thing, you can use this alternative topping:

1 stick butter or margarine
cinnamon and sugar to taste

Before baking, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar heavily on top. Pour melted butter over top and bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes (unless you are using less filling). Cut into squares when cooled. Good served warm.

This is tasty, pretty darn easy, and makes for yummy brunch snacks. Enjoy!

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May-day Monday

Monday again coffee girlI’m going to fire holidays. Or find Murphy and string him up by his thumbs until we can convene an international congress to repeal his Law! I did get lovely flowers for Mother’s Day. And bonding time with the granddog, which my furbabies didn’t appreciate. In fact, Adidas Cat disliked it so much, she ran away.

Long story. The kids were going to a medieval fair on the other side the state. Their dogsitter had to cancel and their vet’s boarding facility was full up. We tried to get Cooper and Boone to make friends with Dozer so he could just stay here for the weekend. Yeah…no. That was a bust so Friday night, I headed to the kids’ house to spend the weekend. Everything was great until yesterday.

And the story gets longer. I took my suitcase out to my car to move it out of the driveway so the kids could park in their own spot. Except I had a tire that was almost flat with a piece of metal in it that looked like a big Allen wrench–only sharp. So, they have a Firestone Tire store about 1/2 mile away. I limped there, with Only following. They could fix the tire but it would take a couple of hours. Only agreed to run me home. I texted Lawyer Guy with that bit of news, only to discover he was out trying to find Adidas, who either escaped through the garage when he was taking the trash out, or ripped through the screen in my office (because it was ripped in one corner large enough for a small-but-fat cat to get through. He saw her, tried to catch her, but she gave him the slip. As of the time I’m typing and posting this, no sign of her. It’s been several hours…and bad weather. I’m trying not to worry but…damn.

Did I mention I got pretty flowers? I did. Lawyer Guy and I are going to do a combined Mother’s/Father’s Day something sometime between then and now.

I also figured out some kinks in WINNING THE COWGIRL’s plot, figured out how to get Cash and Roxie face-to-face sooner, did some cutting/pasting/editing/new words and I’ll be finishing the new first two chapters probably today and sending them off to Mr. HQ Editor to see if we’re on the same page. Also doing the second pass on NIGHT MOVES before sending it out to betas. Crud. I need to write the blurb for it. Ack. *flail* I am all about the words and BICHOK for like the rest of my life! 😆

So, that was my weekend. How about y’all? What did you get up to?

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Friday News

I can finally share lots and lots of book news. I was offered and accepted a FIVE book deal with Harlequin Desire. That means FIVE more Red Dirt Royalty books–at a minimum. The next book is Cash Barron’s story, the last of the full brothers. The working title is WINNING THE COWGIRL. My deadline is June 14th. Yes…you read that right, just over a month away. Hello NaNoWriMo-type daily word count! Cash’s heroine is Roxie Rowland, the only daughter in a family of con artists who are targeting Barron properties. Oh, and she has a history with Cash. Fun times!

THE COWGIRL WAY (working title) is book #6 and it’s Kaden’s story. Poor Kade discovers that his worst nightmare is coming true and he might hook up with a pretty little debutante named Pippa Duncan. They get tangled up in all sorts of feels! Let’s just say there’s adoption, babies, and big secrets. 🙂

THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS COP (working title) is #7. We’ve run out of Barron brothers so it’s time to move on to the Tate boys. First up? Country star, Deacon Tate. All I’ll say is there’s a bundle of joy left on Deke’s tour bus, a feisty OHP trooper named Annie Kincaid, and a blizzard. At Christmas. Wheeeeee!

Hopefully, all three will release next year (2017)–Spring, Summer, and late fall in time for pre-Christmas buying.

I haven’t plotted ahead for books #8 and #9. There are a lot of Tate boys to consider. I’m thinking about a friends to lovers story with a female storm chaser for one. Not sure which cousin, though. I’ll have solid stories figured out before it’s time to write them next spring.

BeAWriterSo…I hope to have NIGHT MOVES edited, formatted, and released close to June 1st. Plus, I have the four Kindle World books: Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay/August (Hard Target), Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire & Rescue/October (Nightriders) and January (Moonstruck Alphas), and Susan Stoker’s Operation Alpha/November (Moonstruck Alphas). Plus Roman’s story for Penumbra. So yeah…this is pretty much what I look like these days, but you know what? I can’t imagine a job I love more! Thanks, y’all, for taking this crazy roller coaster of a ride with me! I hope you’ll love my new characters and their stories as much as I do!

Have a great weekend. I’ll give you three guesses what I’ll be doing and the first two don’t count!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Fun

universeI have nothing to say. I typed THE END on NIGHT MOVES last night. Today, I’m elbow deep in typesetting edits for CONVENIENT COWGIRL BRIDE. I have to get it finished and back to New York. Like, yesterday. Okay, today. Well, tomorrow at the latest but… Tomorrow, I start rewriting the opening chapters of WINNING THE COWGIRL, the working title for RDR#5. Shhh. Announcement on Friday. So, since my brain is essentially mush, I thought this was a good Univeral thought to share. Go have fun!

Do you know why koala bears are so cute, Silver? Why ospreys dance in flight? Why cheetahs run so fast? Arctic terns fly so far? Flowers smell so good? Blueberries taste so blue?

Butterflies flit? Parrots talk? Whales sing? And doves coo?

Because I was having fun… which is my greatest wish for you in all you do.

You can,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

And none of it cost me a dime, Silver!

What are y’all doin’ for fun?

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Wednesday Words: Pretty Is As Pretty Does

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupI had a lot of fun picking through snippets to find one for today’s #1lineWed theme, which if you haven’t guessed is: PRETTY. I should set this up. Lainey has been hurt and is in the hospital. She wakes up after surgery, finds a man at her bedside and wants to know who he is. And…here we go. Fun times!

Lainey

“I’m Hollywood.”

I went to wipe the crud stuck to my eyelashes, realized I couldn’t really move my right arm. My brain whirled like that little rainbow icon on a computer screen, spinning and spinning and spinning. I glanced around. Hospital. Broken arm. A man. A fight. Lug Nut. Private dance. Chasin’ Tail. Details fell into place.

My heart rate kicked up and the machine beside my bed beeped ominously. Then the pain washed over me again. My vision blacked out and white prickles danced across the darkness.

“Lainey?” That voice sounded far away. Who was calling me?

“Babe?” Oh. Yeah. Hollywood.

Warm hands eased me back against the pillow. More voices echoed from the shadows.

“What is wrong with her?”

“I don’t know, Russkie!”

“What did you do to her?”

“Back off, asshole.”

“Give me room. I’ve notified the on-call resident. I need to check her vitals.” A woman’s voice, no-nonsense and calm. “Everybody out.”

“Fuck that shit. I’m stayin’.”

“Are you family?”

“Damn straight I am.” Hollywood again. Wait. He wasn’t family. Where was my mom? Oh no! Who was looking after my little brothers? I clawed my way through the agonizing pain, found a speck of light and homed in on it.

“Easy, Lainey. Breathe, baby. Just breathe. I’ve got you.”

Something burned in my arm, shooting into my bloodstream.

“I’ve given her a sedative.” A different male voice. “The surgeon said she could have a morphine drip if she needs one. I’ll order it.”

“No.” Hollywood again. I wanted him to shut up. Morphine sounded really, really good at the moment.

I opened my eyes and focused on his face. Whatever drug they’d given me through the IV made me feel all floaty and a little bit drunk. At least the pain was easing back. I swallowed down the last of the bile, managed a deep breath.

“You’re pretty.”

A quick grin. “Yeah, I am.”

Oh, Hollywood was a devil. I’d have to be very careful…wait. I’d said that out loud? Well…shoot.

“Shhh, Lainey. Go back to sleep, darlin’. I’m here. Not goin’ anywhere. You’re safe.”

Safe. Now that was a concept that had eluded me lately. I hadn’t felt safe in a long, long time. Except here, in a hospital—a place I loathed—with a man who was a complete stranger but who didn’t feel like a stranger sitting next to me, and throbbing agony beyond anything my father had ever heaped on me, I did. Feel safe.
***
What about y’all? Any pretty words to share?

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Tuesday Treats: Bacon Breakfast Pie

Bacon breakfast pieI’d fix this for dinner. Just sayin’… And I did. My comments below, after the recipe.

Maple Bacon Breakfast Pie

Take all your favorite breakfast ingredients -– bacon, eggs, hash browns, cheese, milk – and combine them into a glorious breakfast pie. Then add a bacon lattice on top and the creation is complete!

INGREDIENTS
1 Pillsbury™ Refrigerated Pie Crust
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
3 green onions, sliced
1 cup shredded savory cheese (like Gouda or cheddar)
3 slices thick cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups cooked diced potatoes, drained, or frozen hash browns, thawed and drained
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
10 slices thick cut bacon
Maple syrup for brushing

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together in a large mixing bowl. Add the cheese, hash browns, green onions, and crumbled bacon and stir to combine.
Lay the pie crust in the bottom of a 9-inch pie dish.

Pour the egg mixture into the pie pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the quiche is firm enough to lay the bacon on. Remove the pie and increase the temperature to 450ºF.

Weave the bacon into a lattice on top of the pie. Brush each strip of bacon with maple syrup.
Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil to prevent burning. Note: The bacon will shrink a lot, so its fine that the bacon is hanging over the sides.Return the pie to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the bacon is done. Tip pie dish carefully to drain any bacon grease. (If you like extra crispy bacon you could put the pie under the broiler for a couple of minutes, or until the bacon has reached your preferred doneness.)

Let the pie sit for 5 minutes before serving.

For step by step instructions: http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/maple-bacon-breakfast-pie/9a0e457f-783a-4d79-a330-38d7f56c5221

Next time, I’ll “fry” the bacon lattice before putting it on the pie and browning it up. While yummy, it was awfully greasy and I had to put it under the broiler to get the bacon done enough. I will be making this again. I did mention yummy, right?

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A Monday In May

More weekendWelcome to May. Who remembers that old chestnut, “April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring?” Raise your hands…**

Let’s get to the roundup…

Writing: So…I have publishing news. Soon. I don’t mean to be a tease but while things are tentative, I want them carved in stone before I say anything. It does mean that I just thought I had a lot of words to write. I’m obviously a glutton for punishment–except writing normally isn’t awful. The operative word being “normally.” 😆 I wrote just over 10K words this weekend. I hope to get NIGHT MOVES finished very shortly. Beta readers will get it, then quick edits, formatting and uploading. I’ll reveal the cover on Friday. I have a MS due June 14th so I’ll be diving into Red Dirt Royalty for a quick turnaround. Hopefully, this will be one that pretty much writes itself. CONVENIENT COWGIRL BRIDE has a cover, author review edits done, with the last set of copyedits to come soon, for an October 16th release. I can’t want to get the final okay on the cover so I can reveal it, too! My writing career is starting to look like herding cats again!

TV: Those of you on Facebook probably caught my gritching about DirecTV and AT&T. We were ready to ditch cable and since my iPhone went wonky and I was replacing it in the AT&T store, and DirecTV had a great promotion going, we decided to go for it. I signed up, made the down payment, and set the appointment. The tech got here, wandered around the outside of my house for an hour, and decided there was no way to install the little satellite dish thingy in a place that would get reception. Yeah, we’d already “blanked” the three cable boxes in the house. Not a happy camper. Then I got an email saying that starting this month, if I exceed my internet limits, they’re going to charge me money UNLESS I have Uverse TV or DirecTV. Hello, stupid corporate types! If you try to charge me extra, I’m reporting your @$$e$ to the FCC and the state Corporation Commission because those services are not available to me! And yes, I’m complaining directly to the company, too. Yay. 🙄 Anyway, I’ve about given up TV but for baseball. And LUCIFER and NCIS but Luci had its finale and NCIS’s is coming up. Anyway, climbing off the soap box now. For now, we back to being stuck with cable. 😛

Reading: Doing RITA finalists. That slows down my Goodreads numbers because I can’t record the titles until AFTER the award ceremony in July. Still–free books, and so far, pretty good ones. What are y’all reading? I need suggestions for after the marathon read. 😉

That’s it for me today. Busy, busy, busy. Sure beats the alternative. What did y’all do this weekend? What’s on your agenda for the week?

**PILGRIMS! One of my OKRWA chapter mates and I were reciting that as we left the April meeting–as it was raining, and several people in the lobby of museum where we hold our meetings rolled their eyes at us. We still laughed.

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Friday Sinema: Where Is My Mind

This is the state of my mind while finishing author review edits at the same time as figuring out new deadlines, and working on three projects simultaneously. Click at your own risk. You have been warned. Also, it’s Friday…

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Home

universeWasn’t it Thomas Wolfe who once said, “You can never go home again.”? And yes, please ignore the punctuation. My brain exploded yesterday afternoon and I’m still putting the pieces back together. All sorts of “home” quotes are now in my head. “Home is where the heart is.” “A home without books is a body without a soul.” “Charity begins at home.” “Home is where one starts from.” The Universe is definitely on a stay-at-home kick. So, sit back, put your feet up, and make yourself at home.

One of the most comforting thoughts of all, Silver, is knowing that all roads lead “home.”

Even more comforting is understanding that you never left.

From all of us “back” home,
The Universe

© http://www.tut.com ®

Behold paradise, Silver, the Garden of Eden is at your very feet, where all things are possible, your thoughts become things, and you are having one heck of a dream.

What about y’all? Would you go “home” again if you could? Me? Not really. I’ve made a new home and a new family and it’s s’all good!

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Wednesday Words: Push Back

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupWednesday has once again rolled around. #1lineWed theme is “PUSH”. Oh, the places I could go. Instead, here’s a snippet that’s one of my favorite exchanges between Smoke and Leigh, from NIGHT FIRE. I don’t think I’ve shared it before but in case I have, tough. Enjoy it again! 😀

Smoke:

I watched her, making note of her sullen expression. What had I done to piss her off this time? “You gonna tell me?”

“Tell you about what?”

“Babe.”

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

Leigh threw her hands in the air. “You drive me nuts.”

“Okay.”

“No, not okay, babe.”

I ducked my head to hide the crooked grin threatening my mouth, knowing it would only piss her off even more. “So…taking a guess here, babe. You don’t like it when I do that. Whatever that is.”

“Exactly.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Argh! You are such a guy.”

I glanced down at the obvious bulge in my jeans and then raised my gaze to meet hers. “Babe.”

“See? This is exactly what I’m talking about. You say babe like it…like it explains everything.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No!”

“So…let me get this straight. I say babe, I’m such a guy, and this drives you nuts. Anything else?”

“That’s enough for now.”

“Good. Now c’mere.”

She backed off a step, watching me warily now. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea at the moment.”

“I think it’s an excellent idea. C’mere.”

“No.”

“Babe.”

As anticipated, she tossed her hands up, and I moved in before she could do anything else. Circling her body with my arms, I yanked her against my chest and sealed my mouth on hers. She broke the kiss, her hands pressed against my shoulders in an attempt to push me away.

“This is not the way to win an argument with me.”

“Babe.”
****

What pushes all your buttons? Or your characters’… 😉 Share!

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