Sunday Snippets #12/27/15 #Cookin’ with Celebs

Since this is a holiday season that is a whirlwind of parties, gift giving, and food—I’d thought I focus on the food today.

I am certain everyone has a favorite T.V. chef.  You may not admit to it, but I know you have watched “Iron Chef,” “Chopped,” “Emeril” or “Cake Boss”.  I often go online and search Food Network, America’s Test Kitchen, Pinterest, etc. for an inspiration for the dinner menu.  Last week I was watching a popular country cook’s network show.  I watch her show several times a week while I’m getting ready to go to the gym.  I find with her recipes, it’s hit and miss.  I rate them A+ or ‘never will I make this again’—there is never any middle ground. 

I thought I’d share a “Bacon Appetizer” that this chef said was popular in the 1980s.  I am taking these appetizers to my brother’s Christmas Eve party tonight.  I hope that these will be appetizers will be a hit.

Prep

I purchased a Nordic ware cookie sheet with a rack (on sale at Smart & Final).  I also did not skimp on the ingredients, purchasing name-brand labels to give the recipe its best chance for success.

Cooking time: 2 hours                    Temperature: 250 degrees

Ingredients

1 box of Club Crackers (I used 1.5 sleeves)

1 lb. of thin sliced bacon

1 container of Parmesan Cheese (the type in the green container near the spaghetti sauce)

1 box of light brown sugar

While the oven preheats, separate the crackers and place on the cooking sheet rack.

These are two types of appetizers. Half are savory (Parmesan cheese); half are sweet (brown sugar).

With a teaspoon (use a measuring spoon), top the crackers.

Now take your pound of bacon cut the slab in ½.  The recipe says wrap one ½ slice of bacon over each cracker. *I found this to be too much bacon*.  I did make six this way and then cut the slab into quarters.  My finished product was more of a blanket rather than a complete wrap around a cracker.

By adjusting the amount of bacon, by appetizers did cook in 2 hours.  The six crackers with the ½ slice too almost 30 minutes longer to brown the bacon.  *30 minutes may not seem like a great deal of time.  However, when you have a time crunch, it is a very big deal.

Findings

My husband liked the cracker lesser amount of bacon.  He liked both the savory and sweet.

I did not like the appetizers.  However, I found the sweet more palatable.  Overall, I found the bacon appetizers dry and rather tasteless.

What did the party guests say?

Twenty-five guest (including children) loved the appetizers. 

Which goes to prove why I am a novelist and not a chef for the masses :-).

Thank you for stopping by for today’s Sunday Snippets.

Remember to stop by my talent author friends’ blogs and see what snippets are there for you!

http://yesterrdayrevisitedhere.blogspot.com/

http://mizging.blogspot.com/

http://triciamg.blogspot.com/

Happy Reading,

Connie

Sunday Snippets 12/20/15 #SundaySnippets

For today's Sunday Snippet is from "Brede" Rodeo Romance Book, 2.
This is my Romantic Suspense and this snippet features my heroine, who left for dead, has no memory of the trauma--or who she is.

"Remember your name and everything else should fall back in place." Her head pounded and her chest felt tight.  Physical excursion brought on a coughing spell and she wondered if crawling across the room might not have been a better course of action.

All of her discomfort receded into the background when she found herself standing in front of the bathroom mirror.

She was staring at a woman's reflection.  She touched the cold glass with her fingertips, as if the contact could trigger a forgotten memory.

Surely, the tall, thin woman sporting a nasty purple bruise on the side of her face had a name.

She ran her trembling fingers through her shoulder-length dark read hair and traced the cut above her left eyebrow.

Funny, she never imagined she'd be so attractive.  She swallowed and did a second take.

How could this possibly be real?

If this was really happening to her, she'd be short and average looking; that was how fate was, fickle and capricious.

Instead, she found the woman before her possessed an almost hypnotic beauty, intense and alluring.  Was it also they type of beauty that kept women at arms' distance?  She glanced at the bruise that marked her cheek and jaw.  But what about the men?

Did her looks bring out the best or worst in the men she encountered in life, or had a jealous boyfriend been the one who injured her?

She looked into the green eyes shadowed with fatigue, and her entire being filled with sorrow and hopelessness.  Something terrible had happened, but she was terrified that the perpetrator would come back and hurt her again.  Or maybe, this next time, he'd succeed in killing her.

If you have enjoyed this snippet and find out how the story end, please click through to you fave ebook vendor.

Also, please visit my friends blogs and enjoy more snippets.

Happy Reading!

Connie

http://yesterrdayrevisitedhere.blogspot.com/  (Janet Waldron)

http://mizging.blogspot.com/  (Ginger Simpson)

http://triciamg.blogspot.com/  (Tricia McGill)


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Writing During the Hectic Holidays #Round Robin

Topic: During the sometimes hectic holidays do you find it hard to find writing time? If not, how do you handle it with the expectations of others to visit and share time together? Or do you appreciate taking a vacation from fiction to enjoy time with family and friends?

Thank you, Rhobin for this month’s topic. 

Since my day job is in education, I have sixteen days of vacation (if you count weekends) during our winter break.  Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Sixteen days at the keyboard, a cup of coffee nearby, music streaming via my iPhone—I’ll whip that novel on in no time.

Oh, wait.  I have one problem.  Winter break lands smack dab in the center of the holidays, doesn’t it? 

Ah, gingersnap! 

Today, I snagged gift cards from the rack at Smart & Final while filling my cart with grocery items for a Christmas Eve Party and a Christmas potluck at my son’s house.  Later, after writing this blog post, I yanked dinner out of the oven, before leaving to view Christmas hula recital.  I was able to enjoy an array of Christmas lights blur by as whipped along in 5 p.m. traffic.  Yes, it’s holiday time!

An energy during the holidays (aka semi-organized chaos) seems to increase my creativity. 

How can that be?  Since I am an introvert, this is usually not the case.  I think it’s because good creative writing as always about people.  During the holidays, we spend time with people.  Since these people are talking about themselves, past events, feelings, and ‘festive’, it is more of an observation experience for a writer.  Paying attention to people during this time could inspire dozens of new stories, or at the very least, an interesting character or two.

Holidays transform people.  Christmas and Hanukkah are periods of liminality.  Liminal space is called the space between betwixt and between, which means that is a special time, a period when all transformation occurs.

Fiction is about the growth of a character.  We love reading about people who change.  I think we pay more attention to the details during the holidays.  Be it because we are reminiscing about our childhood, the moment before us we notice details and we recall details from the past.  We also recall scents and emotions.

To get back on topic-- do I find it hard to write during the holidays?

I think it is easy to write but in unconventional ways.  Obviously, while in the middle of a gathering I can’t whip out my laptop and begin typing.  I can, however, take a reporter’s notebook from my handbag and jot down notes.  Or, create a note or two via Siri on my iPhone.  Nevertheless, during the holidays I focus on enjoying my time with family and friends; on spiritual growth and on giving. 

Somehow, everything seems to fall into place.  I may not complete my novel, but my interrupted writing time always materializes and my muse visits me in my dreams.

Merry Christmas,

Connie

Please visit the participating writers for this month’s round robin. 

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Bob Rich       http://wp.me/p3Xihq-A9
Hollie Glover  http://www.hollieglover.co.uk
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Sunday Snippets #12/6/2016

Welcome to Sunday Snippets!

Today I will take a snip from my Rodeo Romance, Book 2, Brede.

"You saved my life," she said.

He raised a hand to her hair and stroked its softness.

"Do you realize how close you came to dying?"

"No," she whispered.  Yet she did know how close she'd com to death--she saw the truth in the stark expression on his face.

She'd felt his strength, his determination.  He'd been the one who'd pulled her back from the edge of death and willed her to survive.


Please stop by and visit my fellow Sunday Snippets authors.

Remember Bred is on sale of 99 cents this month!

Be sure and Hop to these Sunday Snippets Blogs:

Juliet Waldron

Trisha McGill

(Ginger Simpson should be back next week.)

See you next Sunday,

Connie

                                    Remember to stuff those eReaders with BWL Holiday Bargains!                           

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