I’m ready to load some new books on my Sony (really, I have 100s of unread books on there, but what does that matter?)

Here are the parameters:

It has to be from a digital publisher, not from a large press publisher. I want to support small presses this weekend.

Genre doesn’t matter.

Who’s got something amazing for me to read?

(and yes, I am alive. I’m just taking some time off from blogging. I’ll be back!)

As announced on Twitter this morning, I’m super excited to tell you that Samhain is going to start offering our front and backlist in DRM-free EPUB format starting in May. We’ve got a good jump on this, we just need to give our over-worked formatter time to get it all together. Many of you know that I’m a big fan of standard formats, like EPUB, and also a huge believer in not using DRM. Samhain (and really, most epublishers that I know of) don’t use DRM and never have so for us the big announcement is really the addition of the new format, not the DRM-free.

Did you know that Samhain editors are on Twitter? www.twitter.com/samhainpub You’ll find most of the Samhain editors Twittering there, as well as our submissions coordinator. They Twitter about submissions, edits, editing, and life in general. Plus, we’re going to start doing some Twitter contests coming soon!

In the conversations from Twitter file: this past weekend I asked for recommendations for political thrillers and action adventure novels in the vein of Nelson Demille, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. I got some great recommendations (and am always happy for more if you have them). I started with two recs. One from agent Deidre Knight for The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano. I bought it and loaded it onto the Sony last night. And devoured it. It’s a totally compelling read. The author has a very readable narrative voice and I had to keep turning the pages to see where the story would go next. The main character is interesting, though not entirely likeable, but that actually works for the book because she’s not a perfect character, but an entirely real one with real flaws. I don’t regret spending the $10 for this book and I highly recommend it!

The other recommendation that I followed up on was James Rollins. I decided to go with Sandstorm, the first in his Sigma Force series. I read the first few chapters after I finished The Girl She Used to Be and enjoyed them. I’m looking forward to this evening when I can pick Sandstorm up and keep reading!

The Twitter pitch (twitch) post is still going strong. I’m going to pull some of the favorites and highlight them in a blog post this week.

Last, unrelated to publishing but relevant, I’m going to be traveling a lot in the month of April. We just decided (today) to road trip to my parents’ in North Dakota for Easter. We’ll leave early next week and won’t come back until the following Wednesday. I’ll have a day to pack and regroup before I head to WRW retreat and from there to RT for a week! I’m a little tired just thinking of it but excited because we’ve never gotten to spend a holiday with them since we’ve been married (or since Brianna was born) because of the distance and work schedules. So yay!

Yesterday, when I realized TBR day was today, I also realized just how little I’ve read for pleasure in the last month. I think part of this is because I’ve gone through a huge number of submissions and read more fulls in the past few weeks than I did in the previous six months. Mostly due to the fact that I had a really large number of submissions to my shifter anthology.

So I was pretty well resigned to the fact that I hadn’t read anything that would qualify for the TBR challenge because every night I pick up my Sony Reader and page through the 200 books on there, start a few and stop reading. Depressing. In looking at my Library Thing while reading this post, I realized that yes, I hadn’t read a huge number of books, especially in the past two weeks, but in the past month since the last TBR day, I’d read at least two books that qualified and that I very much enjoyed: Pride (Werecats, Book 3) by Rachel Vincent and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (I’m still working on Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely) by Melissa Marr, it’s going a little more slowly for me).

But last night I decided on a whim to turn to my old standby: category. And more specifically, Harlequin Presents. Cheers to HP for always giving me mind candy that I can enjoy without investing too much time or thought (and I mean that in a purely complimentary way, honest!)

In browsing my Sony (hurray for being able to browse by collections I set up, like categories, rather than just the author/title)I found Price of Passion (Harlequin Presents: Pregnant Mistresses) by Susan Napier and decided to give it a go, though most anyone who knows me well will tell you I’m so not a fan of the secret baby trope (which doesn’t explain why I bought this. Maybe because it’s Susan Napier?)

The Amazon blurb:

Kate had learned certain lessons as Drake Daniels’s lover:
Lesson number one: the price of loving Drake was not to love him.
Lesson number two: never give him what he expected.
Discovering she was pregnant certainly fulfilled lesson number two. Drake had made it clear commitment and children were not on his menu. Now Kate must break her news. But when she sees Drake, passion kicks in, begging to be indulged again…

Category is often hard for me to write a review of, because I don’t always have a lot to say. But I did enjoy this book, particularly the heroine. I didn’t find her dense, silly, to suddenly lose brain cells or some of the other things that sometimes prevent my enjoyment of category books. She was smart, she stuck up for herself, she didn’t let the hero walk all over her and she was likable. The book is entirely in her POV, so it was harder to feel close to the hero, but he wasn’t a total asshole and I never wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze it like a tube of toothpaste. So clearly the book was a win for me!

I should say that I particularly liked the opening, and I did enjoy the setup/plot of the book and the progression of the story. It just felt very well-structured and oddly believable (oddly because that doesn’t always happen in HP). If you’re a fan of category, I do recommend this one!

And since I had brain freeze and forgot I’d read the other two books that would qualify for this month’s TBR challenge (even if I’ve yet to actually meet the genre/category goal) I will say that I also recommend Pride (Werecats, Book 3) by Rachel Vincent and Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

It seems like over half of what I read these days would qualify for this challenge, so now that I find myself in the airport with a delayed flight and a Bloody Mary in front of me, I’m not sure which book to write about. Included in the books I could have written about that I read from my TBR pile include Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich (which I followed with Plum Spooky) and Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts. I’m a fan of both Janet Evanovich and Nora Roberts, so these are pretty easy recommends for me. Even though I constantly tell myself I’m going to quit Evanovich because her books never seem to move forward with anything, I still find myself going back to them because they’re light and fluffy and never fail to make me giggle. And let’s face it, Ranger and Joe are hot.

But I think my favorite TBR book this month was Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy. This is one I picked up on the recommendation of Jane from Dear Author. I’ve been trying to branch out my reading to more genres other than just fantasy and paranormal, and contemporary is one I don’t read as much of. Plus, this book seems right up my alley because, hello! Nascar!

So the blurb:

“One of the romance writing industry’s brightest stars”(Romance Reviews Today) returns with a flat-out delightful, new, and sexy contemporary romance about a woman who’s happy being single—and the man determined to change her mind.

Independent single mother Tamara Briggs wanted to find a new, sexy, no-strings-attached man—just not one as young as NASCAR driver Elec Monroe. But he sure does get her heart racing. And after she’s tricked into a blind date with him, Tamara gives in to her passion. Things screech to a halt, though, when he asks to meet her children. Whatever happened to wham-bam-thank-youma’am? Suddenly Tamara has to decide how much risk she’s willing to take to experience the power of true love.

I’ll be honest, for whatever reason I didn’t expect to like this book, I think partly because of the widowed mom aspect of the heroine and the younger hero. Also, I have liked but not loved some of Erin’s previous books. But to my surprise, I liked both the hero and the heroine quite a bit. I enjoyed the relationship between them and found the conflict, while not overly complicated, to be both believable and relevant. I’m not an overly huge fan of children in romance but I didn’t find them to be either intrusive or just wallpaper either. I think that with this contemporary series, the author has found both her niche and a powerful storytelling voice.

To make this brief (because my battery is dying), the characters have wonderful chemistry, but also a really believable growth in both their relationships and their own personal demons. The secondary characters add a depth to both the characters’ relationship and the book itself. There wasn’t anything concrete I would point to and say that I overly disliked about the book and I’m very much looking forward to the next release, Hard and Fast, which releases in May.

I’m posting this on the heels of the Roast chicken recipe because this is a great recipe for the leftovers. I made it this past week the day after making the chicken. You know who admits that when he first saw the chili, he was skeptical (in truth, pretty much convinced he wouldn’t like it but willing to give it a try). He was surprised to find that he liked it quite a bit!

This is a super easy and very tasty recipe. As I mentioned in my Friday Confessional, Allrecipes.com now has a paid subscription service that allows you to customize the recipes and save them, so that’s what I’m going to post here. The original recipe is here but please be warned: it is super spicy and won’t be as thick because I adapted it per the reviews to thicken it as well as cut back on some of the extreme heat by leaving out the jalapenos. You could easily add those back in if you have a family of spicy-food lovers.

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
3 Tbsp flour
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth**
3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
3 (15 ounce) cans white beans (Northern)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

DIRECTIONS
1 Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion until tender.

2. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes.

3. Mix in the chicken broth and flour, bring to a boil.

4. Puree one can of beans, then mix in chicken and all three cans of beans. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Remove the mixture from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Serve warm.

**I don’t keep chicken broth in the house. Instead, I keep a jar of chicken base in the fridge and then mix up “broth” (hot water and the base) as needed. It’s a lot more cost effective, as I can get a large jar of the base at Sam’s Club for $4.30.

And see the Obamas take their first presidential dance to Beyonce singing “At Last” by Etta James? Stunning, beautiful moment.

You can get the song here:

At Last

*happy sigh* It was a good day.

ETA: Link to video of their dance http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/20/the-obamas-first-inaugura_n_159522.html

I made this yesterday for dinner (and had leftovers today for lunch). It was pretty yummy both times. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com but of course made some adjustments.

Original recipe:

INGREDIENTS

* 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
* 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
* 1 1/4 cups water
* 5 1/2 pounds pot roast

DIRECTIONS

1. In a slow cooker, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water. Place pot roast in slow cooker and coat with soup mixture.
2. Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
* 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
* 3/4 cups water
* 3 pound pot roast
* 1/2 lb of baby carrots
*1/2 onion cut into thirds
*halved baby potatoes (because that’s what I had, cubed potatoes would work too)
*sliced mushrooms (because that’s what I had, whole would work too)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a separate bowl, mix cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix and water.
2. Layer potatoes, onions, mushrooms and baby carrots in bottom of slow cooker. Put roast on top of veggies. Pour soup mixture over top of roast. Cover.
2. Cook on High setting for 3 to 4 hours, or on Low setting for 8 to 9 hours. (I cooked mine on High for 3 hours and then switched it to low for the last three)

I only checked it once, and spooned some gravy over the top of the roast, but if you needed to leave this unattended for the whole time, that wouldn’t be a problem at all. This makes its own gravy and is very tasty. The roast was tender and pulled apart easily. Yum! I’ll definitely use this recipe again.

Via SciFiGuy

Eos is offering a free look at the first book in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife series. I’m a big fan of these books and highly recommend them to fantasy readers.

You can read the whole book by clicking on the browse inside image below. It doesn’t appear, unfortunately, that you can download it. But it’s a great opportunity to get a look at the series and see if you’d like it. The Sharing Knife, Volume Four: Horizon releases this month!

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Two things happened a few weeks ago. First, I got this amazing free sample from Muir Glen. It was four cans of tomatoes delivered in this beautiful wood crate. Very fancy. I was impressed. In the box was fire roasted tomatoes and organic tomatoes. I use a lot of canned tomatoes, so I was excited about the sample and put them in the cupboard for future use. Then, Christmas Eve we went to dinner at Carrabba’s and I had a bowl of the most amazing Fire Roasted Tomato Soup. Brianna ate as much of it as I did, and Josh tested it and declared it a winner. Well, as any parent of a toddler knows, when you find something made nearly entirely of vegetables, you add it to your meal rotation. And as anyone who knows my husband knows, he’s a slightly picky eater so in this case…treat it like a toddler said they liked it!

So I immediately went on the hunt for a Carrabba’s clone of the Fire Roasted Tomato Soup. I didn’t find one, exactly, but I did find a recipe on the Muir Glen website and since they had sent me fire roasted tomatoes, I figured it was destiny! So this week I made this soup for my family. Josh and I both really liked it, and it was easy to make. Brianna was willing to eat it but even with the minimal amount of spices in it, it turned out too spicy for her, which is a huge bummer. I’ll do it different next time to avoid that, because Josh and I can spice it later if needed. Regardless, I highly recommend this recipe! One note, this doesn’t make a huge pot of soup. This is a recipe that’s just right for three to four adults, as it says before, so if you’re feeding more you’ll want to double the recipe.

I served this with homemade Italian Bread, recipe from allrecipes.com but pasted below the soup recipe. Using the bread machine, this was also very easy, though it takes a little planning ahead in your day since the dough needs to go through the dough cycle plus rise than bake. But it takes little effort on your part to make. Score!

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
Fire roasted tomatoes and a touch of cream add a richness to this tomato soup.

Prep Time:20 min
Start to Finish:50 min
Makes:4 servings (1 1/3 cups each)

1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz each) Muir Glen® organic fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (14 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves, cilantro leaves or Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup whipping cream

1. In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until onion is crisp-tender.
2. Stir in tomatoes, broth, 1 tablespoon of the basil, the sugar and pepper flakes. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat; pour mixture into large heatproof bowl; cool slightly, about 15 minutes.
3. In blender, place half of the mixture. Cover; blend until pureed. Return to saucepan. Repeat with remaining mixture. Heat over medium heat until hot. Remove from heat. Stir in cream and remaining 1 tablespoon basil.

Bread Machine Italian Bread

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
* 1 1/3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (per the reviews I cut this to 1 tsp of salt and it was fine)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
*
* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoon water
* 2 tablespoons cornmeal

DIRECTIONS

1. Place flour, brown sugar, warm water, salt, olive oil and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Form dough into two loaves. Place the loaves seam side down on a cutting board generously sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise, until doubled in volume about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
3. In a small bowl, beat together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Brush the risen loaves with egg mixture. Make a single long, quick cut down the center of the loaves with a sharp knife. Gently shake the cutting board to make sure that the loaves are not sticking. If they stick, use a spatula or pastry knife to loosen. Slide the loaves onto a baking sheet with one quick but careful motion.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

*note about the bread. I used a baking stone and baked them side by side. Rather than move them around, I just let them rise right on the baking stone, which worked out very well. I covered the baking stone with parchment paper, and skipped the cornmeal. This is a slightly denser bread (more like an artisan bread, a little more chewy, like they’d serve at Carabba’s) but not too dense.

This is the second recipe I made to use up some of the leftover ham. As it happened, I had half a bag of refrigerator hash browns leftover from this past weekend, so it was a double whammy of using up leftovers. Since I used refrigerated hash browns (Simply Potato hash browns) and not frozen ones, it was even easier (no thawing and squeezing out of excess water needed). I tried this both right when I made it and again reheated the next day, and it was good. Excellent dinner or breakfast option. Also, this would be super easy to adapt and add different veggies or meats to it. Ours had a small amount of crumbled bacon added in.

My only note would be that with the ham, bacon and cheese, it was salty enough on its own, I don’t think it would have needed the seasoning salt. I’ll skip that next time and use other spices. I did add chives in with my egg mixture, because I love chives, and I doubled the egg mixture as well (I’m sure there was more than a cup of ham thrown in there). I baked mine in an 8×8 glass casserole dish because my pie pan is currently in use for a pecan pie and like I said, it was great.

Hash Brown Quiche

* 3 cups shredded hash brown potatoes
* 1/3 cup butter, melted
* seasoning salt to taste
* 1 cup diced cooked ham
* 1/4 cup chopped onion
* 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup milk
* salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Press hash browns onto the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie dish. Drizzle with melted butter, and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until beginning to brown.
3. In a small bowl, combine ham, onion and shredded cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and a little seasoning salt. When crust is ready, spread ham mixture on the bottom, then cover with egg mixture.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until filling is puffed and golden brown.

FOOTNOTE
You can bake this quiche, and refrigerate for up to 2 days in advance, then reheat in the microwave. It also freezes well.