Tuesday Treats & Titles: Giant Snickerdoodles

Posted on November 7, 2023 by Silver James

Sometimes, a writer or a reader just needs to kick back with a big cup of coffee (or glass of milk) and a plate of warm cookies. This is Only’s favorite cookie. They come out huge and soft, as long as you don’t overbake them.

Giant Snickerdoodles

Dry Ingredients:
4 1/2 cup Flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

In bowl, stir dry ingredients together.

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup Crisco
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 cup buttermilk
(1/2 cup sugar & 2 tablespoon for coating)

In large bowl, beat Crisco with mixer on medium-to-high for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until mixed, scraping sides. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in vanilla and lemon.

Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Cover bowl and chill at least 4 hours. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Use a 1/4 cup measure or a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop. (Lightly coat scoop with non-stick spray to help prevent dough from sticking.) Scoop dough, roll in sugar/cinnamon mix to coat. Place 3″ apart on cookie sheet. Gently press cookie to 1/2″ thickness. Bake in preheated 375° for 12-14 minutes or until bottoms are a light gold. Transfer to rack to cool. Makes about 24.

This sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, the cookies are well worth the effort!

Tip:
You don’t want to overbake, but don’t underbake either. Underbaked cookies crumble. Just sayin’. The way to avoid this is to pretty much “precisely” measure the dough into “balls.” I use a rounded Kitchen Aid brand 1/4 cup measuring cup and don’t overfill it  This results in almost perfect 4″ cookies perfectly baked (in my old oven it takes a bit longer). I also use a thin metal spatula to move them from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

True story. Only called last week and asked me to bake these cookies for the dessert table of Stormy’s school auction. I found what was labled as a candy jar in the party supplies at Wallyworld for pretty cheap and grabbed some fall-themed wired ribbon when I went to buy the ingredients. I had great plans to take a picture to use today and then…life happened. I barely got the things out of the oven and cooled enough to pack in time for Baseball Boy to pick up on his way home. In bragging rights news, the dozen cookies I packed in the jar went for $60. So yeah, I’ll be baking them again next year. LOL In character news, I can see Jonah getting ready for bed and remembering that he needs cookies for school the next day. He goes running to his Aunt Sam because she can do anything! Good thing Easy likes these cookies too because he’d stay up late with Sam while she makes a couple of batches. Don’t tell any of the other Nightriders, but he’ll actually handle the dishes and kitchen clean-up. Of course, he has ulterior motives–he gets to be with his mate and when she’s done, there’s always…bedtime. 😉 If you like your paranormal romance on the dark and dirty side and haven’t tried my Nightriders series, you should. For real. Start with Easy and Sam’s story in NIGHT SHIFT. Just click on the pic or the title to get the Books2Read landing page with all the links. Enjoy the book AND the cookies!

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The Monday After

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Silver James

What’s wrong with just plain ol’ standard time. Like it is now. It’s natural. It doesn’t discriminate. It’s like when it’s supposed to be light and dark when it’s supposed to be dark. I’m older than dirt. I remember life before DST. And what really sucks, because we’ve been forced to adjust to DST, coming back to Standard Time also entails adjustment–and not just in the clocks. Which reminds me, I need to reset the clock in my SUV when I head to Wallyworld today. And the only over the fridge. I’ve done all the others.

There was a weekend. There were sports. PISTOLS FIREING! My OSU Cowboys beat the OU Sooners. It was the 118th Bedlam match-up and with OU moving out of the Big 12 to the SEC next year, there will be no more Bedlam. All things must come to an end. LIKE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, GOVERNMENT!!!!

In other sports news, Stormy played in a Charlie Foxtrot of a soccer tournament Saturday and Sunday. The hosting soccer club accepted 300 tearms. The problem is, their “campus” doesn’t have even 300 parking spaces. People were pissed! As I was a bit under the weather Satruday, LG went for fhe first game and had to hike a mile. Literally. He came home after the game and siren test and hit the couch, in bad physical shape. We tried the Sunday afternoon game and it took us 45 minutes to get from the drive into the parking to the area of the parking near the field. Charlie Foxtrot. Also, a parent on the opposing team got red-carded for yelling the F-word and it turned out she was the coach’s wife so he argued with the referee for like 10 minutes, which ate into game time. The game was tied at that point and then they scored a quick goal. Our kids didn’t really get the chance to score again. It’s sucked. The good news is, they played well, as did Stormy. Sadly, it took us almost an hour to get OUT of the parking lot. Yeah, that would be a zero-star review on Yelp.

I didn’t get much writing done but I fully intend to be back on track this week.

The weather is gorgeous. No heat. No AC. Windows open. Cool temps to return later this week. That’s okay. It IS November.

Not much else going on. I’m off to Wallyworld and then words! How was your weekend and what’s on your agenda this week?

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Friday Sinema: Dance Off

Posted on November 3, 2023 by Silver James

I love it when stuff like this happens–whether it’s “live” or “Memorex!” This happened in Knoxville, TN so it must have been a UT Volunteers game. Fun times! Have a great weekend and if you watch college football, may your team win. Unless your team is playing my team, then my team should win! 🤣 Especially since this is the final Bedlam game, ending a 117-year tradition. Go POKES!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Bounce

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Silver James

Today is the second day of National Novel Writing Month 2023. I first “competed” back in 2006. For those not familiar, the impetus is to write 50K words (mostly equivalent to a novel) during the month of November. Since way back when, it has evolved. Now there’s 30 Covers on 30 Days, there’s the Young Writer’s program, 30 poems, screenwriting, short stories… The whole idea is to give an outlet and the nudge for people to write. Most of you know my first “entry” was SEASON OF THE WITCH. My 2021 project was….*drumroll*…MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. Then the war broke out in Ukraine and CROSSFIRE wanted to be written. And then Sade and the GHOSTS AND ANCIENT STONES demanded to be written–both of which finally got finished and published despite some down times along the. So now–finally– I’m back to Boston, which has turned out to be a much longer book than appreciated. Rather than get distracted by a new idea, I’m sticking with my Irish Wolves until their stories are told! And yeah, I think it’ll be another 50K words. As for the Univers’s message today, which sort of ties into my headspace. And my answer to the Bit U? Been there. Done that. Still wear the T-shirt.

Inquiring minds want to know, Silver:

Have you ever felt so down you wondered whether or not you’d bounce back?

Were you later surprised by how quickly you did bounce back?

And then were you surprised by how far you went?

Did you promise you’d never forget how amazing you are?

We did.

In awe,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. And did you really once celebrate by dancing on a tabletop, Silver, to Barry Manilow?

Actually, it was Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on top of a bar. Am I dating myself? Writers, have you ever tried NaNoWriMo? If so, did it help? Readers, what’s your current challenge?

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Wednesday Words: Scary Times

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Silver James

Happy All Saints Day aka All Hallows Day. From which came All Hallows Ever aka…Halloween. Fun fact of the day. Anyway, did everyone survive the ghosties and ghoulies out trick-r-treating? Since it’s now Wedenesday, it’s time for some words. New ones. And fun ones. Because I can be a big ol’ tease, I mentioned the snippet on my FB page on Saturday. There were pictures of Ronan. Y’all should check him out. Anyway, there was a reason I teased the snippet over there. *bwahaha* The #ThursdayThreads prompt from last week is: **”Try not to look so threatening.”** I don’t think this snippet needs a set up. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Also, it won an Honorable Mention last week so yay!

Maura backed up a step then chided herself mentally. Hot shot prosecutor, remember? Yes, yes she was and she refused to let this man intimidate her. Or scare the bejeezus out of the woman she’d come to question. This expedition would likely fail if he terrified her witness. “Worst idea ever,” she muttered. Louder, she said, “Can you do me a favor?”

Ronan stared but didn’t speak, waiting for her to continue. 
Ignoring the foreboding feeling, she sucked it up. “Try not to look so threatening.”

“I don’t look threatening.”

Was he amused? She had seen one corner of his mouth twitch. “You look like a serial killer.”

“But this is my happy face,” he said, completely deadpan.

A gigglesnort erupted and she covered her mouth and nose with her hand. “That’s it, bucko. No more Tommy Lee Jones movies for you.”

This time, there was no doubt that the corners of his mouth curled up and she caught the twinkle in his blue eyes.

He leaned in close and murmured in her ear. “And how are ya gonna keep me from watchin’ ’em? Ya plannin’ on bein’ shackled t’me twenty-four seven?”

And why did that idea send excited shivers through her whole body?  She turned her head just enough to whisper in his ear. “I’d prefer to just see you handcuffed to the bed.”

She stepped back just in time to catch the flash of feral red followed by gold in his eyes. It wasn’t a trick of light. No like she had convinced herself every previous occurence. “What are you?” she asked, not for the first time.

The door jerked open before Ronan answered her. Maura didn’t know whether to be relieved or apprehensive. Ignoring the warring emotions, she turned to face the woman who’d opened the door. She had her ID wallet open but the woman only had eyes for Ronan.

“You’re Ronan O’Connor,” she said.

“I am.”

“Are you here to do something about what happened?”

“I am.”

“Good.” The woman opened the door wider to let them in. She gave Maura the barest once-over. “Cop?” she asked Ronan.

“Better,” he said. “Attorney.”

This scene actually has abou 1,000 more words but 1) that’s a long snippet and 2) it’s gets into spoiler territory. Now, as mentioned in the beginning, y’all who check out my FB page will have seen two pics of Ronan on Saturday, and Maura’s pic on Sunday. And hopefully, you’ll remember that I mentioned keeping his pic in mind when reading this snippet. So, my question is, do you agree with Maura? 😉

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Kitchen Witch Magic Dough

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Silver James

Happy Halloween! Today you get treats with no tricks. And no hawking of books. Our recipe is for all you kitchen witches and wizards out there. You can create some monster goodies with this bread dough. You can make buns. You can use it for pizza or calzone dough. You can use it for a variation on a pirogi-type stuffed bun. And the best part is that it’s pretty quick from start to finish. What you do with this dough is more for “intuitive” bakers but beginners can make it and use it, too.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Rest time: 25minutes
Bake time: 20 minutes
Yields: 12 buns (more or less)

Ingredients:
6 cups all purpose flour
1 cups warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 egg optional (more fluffy)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive or corn oil

How to make it:

  • Sift the flour.
  • In a large mixing bowl, pour warm water and milk, yeast, sugar and two and half cups of sifted flour. Combine well using the paddle beater. Don’t over mix. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 10 minutes.
  • Heat oven to 150F and turn it off when that temperature is reached
  • Uncover the bowl and add remaining flour, salt and oil and knead until elastic and non-sticky dough. Put a little oil on your hands and work the ball of dough away from the sides and bottom of the bowl, coating the dough with the oil on your hands. You don’t want the dough to stick to the bowl. Cover it again
  • Let dough proof in in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it doubled in size. Take dough out.
  • After dough is removed from oven, preheat to 350F.
  • Punch down the dough to release the gas and shape it as desired.
  • Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. (I’d suggest using cooking sprat on parchment paper for easy clean-up

Tips:

  • Buns: Pinch off dough and make 12 balls. Stretch the dough to desired shape–round, sub, hoagie, etc. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with cheese, herbs, whatever you desire.
  • Pizza: You can roll or hand toss dough to the size you want–1 large, 2 medium, 4 individual. Use whatever sauce and toppings appeal.
  • Calzone: I’d make four. Roll out dough to desired size. Put “toppings” on one half and fold the other half over to cover. Pinch edges together.
  • Stuffed buns: Sweet or savory. Meaty or veggie. Stir up your favorite stuffing. Shape the buns, put the good stuff in the middle and fold half over. You might want to let them rise for about 20 minutes to get super soft and puffy around the filling. Cover them with a light cloth if you do this.

There you have it. Mess around with it and have fun. Make some kitchen magic happen. As I mentioned above, not hawking any of my books or characters today though I will note that several who actually…you know…cook are making not of this recipe. LOL Since today is Halloween, I thought I’d ask you this: What’s your favorite Halloween movie and/or book? My movie is PRACTICAL MAGIC. I enjoy the book, too, but the movie just hits all the feels for me. I may have to check to see if some channel is streaming it this afternoon. Tonight is reserved for the World Serious! No tricking or treating for us tonight. It’s too blasted cold out! How about y’all?

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Monday Monsters

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Silver James

Happy Halloween Eve! And Happy Birthday to Only! She almost waited long enough to make her entrance to be our little Halloween Witch. As she won’t be embarrassed, I’ll also say that for years, she thought Halloween was all about her birthday. As a result, I have TUBS of Halloween decorations but now I’m too lazy to put them up.

In other news, good thing there was no soccer this weekend. Brrrr. 🥶 There was rain. Drizzle. And falling temps. Our high on Fridazy was 73, which occurred at about 3 a.m. When the blue norther blew through, our temps dropped steadily over the next hour into the low 50s and then into the 40s. Yesterday, we didn’t get out of the 30s, with windchills in the 20s, and more rain. We need the rain so no gritching there. And the hard freeze last night will help with the bugs though it mean putting out suet for some of the birds.

In sports news, the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks split the first two games in Texas. Sunday was a travel day and the third game is tonight. I don’t care who wins and I’m really happy to be watching some outstanding baseball. Fingers crossed the World Series goes the full seven games! 🤞🏼 In closer to home, sports news, my Cowboys from the real OSU won their homecoming game in excellent fashion. OU played a close game up in Kansas. The Jayhawks beat the Sooner by a touchdown. Bedlam is this coming Friday. OU vs. OSU. And since OU moves to the SEC next year, this will be the last Bedlam game. It ought to be a crazy game!

I finished listening to Kate Carlisle’s THE TWELVE BOOKS OF CHRISTMAS. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with romantic elements, I highly recommend her Brooklyn Wainwright Bibliophile series. I’m currently listening to Jayne Ann Krentz’s DREAM EYES, which is a book peripheral to her Arcane Society series. Once I finish it, I’m not sure what I’ll grab. I have holds on two books at the library–THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN and THE STARLING HOUSE–but they looks to be 3-5 weeks away. There are a couple of books from my auto-buy authors out there but haven’t dropped in audio yet. Maybe I’ll just follow on with the Arcane series as it rolls into the Jayne Castle FutureRom books. That’s a term I just coined for paranormal romances that are technically science fiction because they happen in either the future or the very far future on a different planet but they don’t “read” like a true science fiction story. Anyway…

The Boston Wolves continue to take up my time though I do with they’d stop dragging me dow nthe occasional rabbit hole. Procrastinating is easy enough for me without their help! Still, new scenes, moving chapters forward, and the enhanced snippet for this Wednesday Words post got me an honorable mention in the flash fiction challenge I do every week.

That’s pretty much the new and round-up of the weekend. I’ll be bundling up to head to Wallyworld this morning. I did mention the hard freeze overnight, yeah? It’s still below freezing and the forecast is for a high of 43. At least it’s not that cold drizzly rain like yesterday. What’s the new from your neck of the woods?

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Friday Sinema: Talk to the Halloween Candy

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Silver James

Halloween is next Tuesday. Just in case you have haven’t grabbed your candy yet, here’s an “insiders” peek at what goes on after the trick-r-treating, a la Matt Mitchell of #ItsASouthernThing. Have a great weekend!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Words

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Silver James

Thursday snuck up on me. Actually, I knew it was coming but yesterday afternoon, when I normally think about setting up the next day’s blog post, I was elbow deep in a rabbit hole grabbing for the time line. I think I got it untangled but I’ve made a note to myself to double-check that whole continuity thing when I reread the whole thing in preparation for edits and revisions. And during all that, I did manage some new words, which is the topic of today’s nudge from the Universe.

Your word, Silver, is one of the most powerful forces of nature.

Listen to yours to find out what you really think.

And speak them wisely to pave the path before you in gold.

So be it,
  The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Remember, Silver, first there was the word, and ever since then… “just” more words.

The message today has two meanings for me. Growing up, my dad impressed on my brother and me that a person’s word is important. Giving your word–like making a promise–is something that shouldn’t be broken. Dad was old school. He did a lot of business on a handshake and very seldom got burned. In the second sense, as a writer, words are important to me. They tell my story (the what) and describe the who, the when, the where, the why, and the how. When I sit down to write a new book, I’m making a promise to my readers (and myself) to write the best book I’m capable of writing. To do that, I have to choose the right story and the right characters. I have to set those things in the right place at the right time. The things that happen and why they happen are just as important. Picking the right words is me keeping my word to all of you. If none of this makes sense, blame it on the time. It’s dark outside. It’s past my bed time and my brain is still circling that rabbit hole like a beagle on a hot scent. While I may never make a best seller list, I hope my words do pave the way to a good story in something that at least resembles gold. After all, we should occasionally follow the yellow brick road, right? Where’s your road leading you today?

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Wednesday Words: What’s Next?

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Silver James

It’s still raining. Yay! There’s something about rainy days that make me want to curl up and write a good book. Or listen to one. 😉 Today’s #ThursdayThreads prompt asks a very serious question. **“So what do I do next?”** This time last week, there were several of the ladies who could have–and probably should have asked that question about their relationships. As Mick and Shannon were on my mind, she got the call. And since I featured both of them last Saturday and Sunday on my FB author page, you can see why Mick is a doofus and Shannon is facing a decision. For context, I’m not sure how this crew ended up together for a “girl’s night in” but they did and as we all know, the conversaton turned to men and relationships. LOL

****

Shannon looked up when no one spoke. “So what do I do next?” 
Fiona looked at Bridget, who looked at Sophie. In turn, Sophie looked at Maura, who threw up her hands. “Don’t look at me. I’m no expert.” She recognized the incredulity on their faces. “I’m serious. I’ve never had more than a handful of dates with any one guy.” 

“But what about Ronan?” The other women all asked the same question simultaneously.  

“What about Ronan? We aren’t dating.” She rolled her eyes with an inelegant snort to emphasis her words. “We’re not even friends.” She held up a finger, glaring the four into silence. In her best courtroom summation voice, she launched into the internal debate she’d been having all evening. “Ronan is what a psychologist would call an alpha male. He is also a control freak.” And a criminal mastermind, but she didn’t speak that part aloud. “He appeared in my life, decided I belonged to him, and here I sit. I had no input and he did not ask my opinion or my permission to take over my life.” She focused on Shannon. “From my observations, Mick is Ronan’s mini-me. He also is, for all intents and purposes, an alpha male. If this was a wolf pack, he would be the beta male. As we all know, he is Ronan’s right hand, as well as his brother. He does not appear to be a man who cannot make up his mind.” 

That statement got a round of nods and murmuring agreement but Maura did not pick up on the telling glances passed between the other women. 

“Look, I don’t want to be brutal here, Shannon, because I know you think you love him, but if it were me? I’d walk away.” 

There it was. The stark truth staring Shannon in the eye.

****

What’s a girl to do? I’m not giving any hints away because there are scenes (some of which are not yet written) leading up to this scene that would be spoilers. *bwahaha* For some reason, Mick is the stubborn one in the bunch. All the other guys are quite happy to jump right in and take over their ladies’ lives. As Maura is learning, much to her chagrin. And Shannon is coming from a place of knowledge given hers is a Wolf family. Trust me, there are some awesome scenes with these two–some written, some just scribbled notes on the white board at present. Writers, take the prompt and run if it helps. Readers, what are you doing next? Me? I’m moving on to the next chapter. Happy Hump Day!

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