#COOKING WITH CLORIS--AUTHOR KRIS BOCK WHIPS UP CHERRY SCONES AND A CAT CAFE SWEET ROMANCE

Kris Bock writes romance, mystery, and suspense. Her Furrever Friends Sweet Romance series features the employees and customers at a cat café. Her romantic suspense novels, set in the Southwest, feature treasure hunting and archeology, along with intrigue. Learn more about Kris and her books at her website where you can also learn how to get a free Furrever Friends short story and printable copies of the recipes mentioned in future cat café novels. 

Have you heard about the growing trend of cat cafés? They're a recent phenomenon, but now you can find several hundred around the world. Each café partners with local shelters, choosing 15 to 20 healthy, sociable cats to house at the café. People can spend time with cats if they can't have a cat for some reason, or if they simply love the idea of hanging out with a bunch of cats. 

If you happen to fall in love with one, all the cats are available for adoption. For example, Catopia Cat Café in Albuquerque has had over 100 adoptions in its first year.

Some cafés charge an hourly fee, while others require a minimum food and drink purchase. In case you’re worried about health codes, no cats are allowed in the food prep areas. Either the café has a separate room for the cats, or all food is made and wrapped elsewhere.

My cat café series features a bakery, so I'm collecting wonderful recipes for baked goods. Each book has a recipe at the end, and I'll eventually put together a collection.

The recipe below is something my mother made on Christmas morning for many years. We have it for breakfast along with Mexican hot chocolate. Of course, it's good at any time of year. Now that the busy holiday season is over, but it's still cold in most places, how about curling up with a good book, a cup of hot tea, and one of these lovely scones?

Cherry Scones 

(featured in Coffee and Crushes at the Cat Café)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or currents

approx. 1/2-cup apple or grape juice

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup cold butter

1 egg

1/2 cup plain yogurt (full-fat preferred)

1 tsp. lemon or orange zest

Preheat oven to 375°. 

Soak cherries in juice for at least 10 minutes while you mix other ingredients.

Mix the flour and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Blend in the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. 

Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture has fine crumbs. 

Stir in the egg, yogurt, and zest. Drain the cherries or other dried fruit well. Mix them in.

Spray a baking sheet lightly with oil. Turn the dough onto the baking sheet. Pat it down into a 9-inch circle. Cut the dough into 8 wedges. Separate them slightly. Sprinkle with additional sugar if you want them to sparkle a bit.

Bake until golden and firm, about 20 minutes. 

Serve warm with butter, clotted cream, orange marmalade, or jam.

What would you serve at your cat café?

Coffee and Crushes at the Cat Café

A Furrever Friends Sweet Romance

What do you do when you meet the guy of your dreams? Set him up with your sister, of course.

Kari doesn't have time for love when she's opening her new cat café. Renovating an old restaurant, hiring employees, fighting with the health inspector – oh, and welcoming 16 shelter cats – keeps her plenty busy. She's doing this for the cats, the community, and most of all her family. The café will give her sister, Marley, a job worthy of her baking skills.

Then a tattooed military vet wanders in claiming to be a master baker himself. The café doesn't need another baker, but maybe Marley needs a man. Surely she'll fall for a guy this sweet, this sexy, this tasty.

Colin has other ideas. It's Kari who makes him want to pour on the sugar and turn up the heat. But he's spent the last two years recovering from physical and psychological wounds. Is he really ready for a relationship? He's not even sure he should commit to Samson, the fluffy marshmallow of a cat who steals his heart.

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