#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR ALLIE BONIFACE'S BERRY TRIFLE

USA Today bestselling author Allie Boniface has written over a dozen romances, mostly set in small towns. She enjoys traveling with her husband when not teaching high school English or working on her next novel. Learn more about Allie and her books at her website.

What better way to celebrate the dog days of summer than with a small-town romance series filled with heat and suspense? Summer’s Song, Book 1 in my Pine Point series, re-released yesterday with Entangled Publishing, so I’m celebrating today with one of my favorite sweet treats. I’ve always loved writing about the quirky wonderfulness of small towns, probably because I grew up in one (and I also currently live in one). They’re charming, often picturesque, and filled with characters who know, love, hate, and have all kinds of juicy gossip about each other – some that goes back generations!

One of the best things about a small-town summer, in my opinion, is the classic backyard BBQ. Fire up the grill, set up some chairs and lawn games, and invite your friends over to eat, drink, and enjoy the long, warm days and nights. My classic go-to recipe, if I’m a guest at a summer party, is this Berry Trifle. I originally found it in a Cool Whip cookbook years ago, but I’ve tweaked it a bit since then. If you have a sweet tooth and love a colorful dessert that’s a little bit different from the norm, give this one a try!

Berry Trifle

Ingredients:

3 cups cold milk

2 packages (4 oz each) chocolate instant pudding/pie filling

1 tub (12 oz) whipped topping, thawed (or you can make your own by whipping heavy cream and adding confectioner’s sugar to taste)

1 9-inch pan of brownies, cooked, cooled, & cut into 1-inch squares

1 cup each of sliced strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries

Pour cold milk into bowl. Add pudding mixes & beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in 2 cups of whipped topping.

Layer half the brownie cubes in the bottom of your serving dish (I like to use a glass trifle bowl, so you can see the colors). Top with half the pudding mixture, approximately one-third of the berries, and 2 cups whipped topping. Repeat layers and top with remaining berries and whipped topping.

Refrigerate if not serving immediately. Then enjoy!

In Summer’s Song, the heroine comes home to Pine Point after 10 long years away. She doesn’t have plans to stay, but that changes once she meets a local hunky handyman. But like almost every main character I seem to create, these two have secrets waiting for them. Each title in the Pine Point series is on sale for only $0.99 through August 27 so you can treat yourself to this entire collection for less than $4.00! Even better, I’ve joined with 7 other Entangled authors to create a Hot August Nights giveaway. 

Summer’s Song

Summer Thompson doesn’t remember the night her brother died, and she certainly doesn’t want to go back to Pine Point and face any memories that might be awoken there. But ten years after leaving her small hometown, she’s back to settle her estranged father’s estate and be rid of the half-renovated mansion she’s inherited. What she doesn’t expect is to find the house occupied by a hunky handyman reluctant to talk about his past.

Damian Knight has been helping his mother and sister hide from a brutal stalker, but now the peace and carefully guarded safety they’ve found in Pine Point is in danger. The refuge they live in is about to be sold out from under them by the lovely but haunted Summer, a woman who quickly finds her way through Damian’s defenses and steals his heart.

But in a small town full of powerful secrets, the past won’t remain buried. Summer has to face her memories and could lose the man she loves, and maybe even her life.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR VICTORIA ADAMS & EVERYTHING #CHOCOLATE

Victoria Adams has been penning stories since she was a little girl. Now she’s the published author of contemporary romances and contemporary new adult romances. She’s also the only author I’ve ever know who studies Raqs Sharqi, Egyptian belly dance, (unless some of our other guest authors have been holding out on me!) Learn more about Victoria and her books at her website. 

I’m a chocolate lover. I have books and books of the history of chocolate and how to work with chocolate and recipes dedicated to chocolate. I just love typing the word—chocolate. One of my special desserts that dinner guests ask for is Trinity Parfait—3 ingredients: chocolate,   whipping cream and sugar. You vary the amount of chocolate for the layers which rise up from the bottom: dark chocolate then a lighter chocolate and at the top - chocolate speckled whipped cream. (I think I just put on a pound typing this.)

For someone who might not be as addicted to theobroma cacao—food of the Gods—as I am (although I am shocked that there might be such a person!) here are a few fun facts about my favorite food.

1. Chocolate is in its own food group. Okay…maybe that’s my fact and not based in actual fact. But chocolate is good for you. It’s repudiated to be an antioxidant and does have trace amounts of the mineral copper which is good for our bodies. But this doesn’t mean gobbling down corner store chocolate bars.  A specialty store will offer designer chocolates of various percentages. Start low and build up your taste buds to the 80% range. It is an acquired taste.

2. There are three common species of Cacao trees: Criollo (Central America,) Forastero (West Africa, South America,) and Trinitario (all cacao regions.)

3. Cacao trees can only grow within a tight region 20 degrees north and south of the equator.

4. The top cacao production countries are Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.

5. White chocolate is NOT chocolate.  To be chocolate, it should have cocoa solids as well as cocoa butter. However, white chocolate has only cocoa butter, and no cocoa solids.

Where is this leading to? In my latest story, my hero and heroine have dinner at his mansion and he treats her to a fabulous dessert—Madagascar vanilla ice cream drizzled with a hot fudge sauce made with fifteen different kinds of cacao, and the whole thing is presented in a solid gold goblet topped off with edible gold!

Cacao is not a spelling mistake.  Cacao is what the base chocolate comes from. It is from the Olmec language (pre Mayan.) There is some train of thought in the chocolate world that cocoa is actually just a misspelling of the word cacao and since it is easier to pronounce that version stuck. But for a chocolate foodie the proper word is cacao.

Chocolate Trinity Parfait

Ingredients for all 3 layers

6-1/2 cups whipping cream

3 cups sugar

2 T. unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp. vanilla

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

Collect all the ingredients then divide into what is needed for each layer

Bottom Layer – Cocoa Cream

2 cups cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 T. unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Whip the cream until thick. Add the other 3 ingredients. Whip until incorporated. Pour into bottom of parfait glass and place in fridge. (I use 4 big ones.)

Middle Layer – Chocolate Cream

2-1/2 cups cream

8 oz. semisweet chocolate – melted

2 T. sugar

Melt the chocolate. Cool. Whip the cream. Add the sugar. Whip until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate. Divided inito parafait glasses. Return to fridge.

Top Layer – Speckled Cream

2 cups cream

2 T. sugar

4 oz. chocolate, grated

Whip the cream until thick. Add sugar. Whip until incorporated. Fold in grated chocolate. Fill the parfait glasses then refrigerate until served.

Red Tulip

Darcy O'Calahann, a junior gardener from a small mid-western town, is trying to make her way in the big city.

Shamus McRae is a wealthy bachelor with a mysterious family past.

Are Darcy's eyes playing tricks on her? Is she losing her mind? Or is there really a Red Tulip tying her and Shamus together?

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--AUTHOR RUBY MERRITT'S CREAMY FROZEN FRUIT SALAD

Today we’re featuring a recipe for Creamy Frozen Fruit Salad, courtesy of author Ruby Merritt. You’ll find this recipe and many more wonderful desserts in Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Loveand Writing.

Ruby Merritt is a teacher and an author who writes stories because they won’t leave her alone until she does. Her debut novel and first book in her Spirited Heart series, Ella’s Choice, takes place in 1870s Wyoming. Learn more about Ruby and her writing at her website.

Creamy Frozen Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of sour cream

2 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 banana, sliced

8 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained

1/4 cup sliced maraschino cherries

Mix all together and freeze in individual desserts cups. Thaw 5 minutes before serving.

Ella’s Choice

When Ella Hastings is captured by the Blackfeet Indians at age nine, then adopted by the Lakota Indians, she is thrust into a new way of life and transformed into Little Brave, adopted daughter of their revered and peaceful chief, Grey Owl. Ten years later the white man returns. Their soldiers storm her tribe’s village and bring reminders of a world she’d almost forgotten. Suddenly, she is confronted by the question: To which world does she now belong? Her only hope in discovering who she really is lies with the enigmatic army scout, Beech Richoux.

Son of a French trapper and Lakota mother, Beech Richoux was raised in a white man’s world after his mother’s death.  Acting as an army scout to raise money for his horse ranch, he’s unaware of the Army’s true intent to annihilate his mother’s people until it’s too late. And the white woman he finds living among the Lakota only adds to his desperation to save his people. Now the narrow path he has created to balance himself between these two worlds is tipped by the mysterious white woman known to the Lakota as Little Brave.

Can two people robbed of their own childhood learn to live together in such differing worlds? Can Little Brave and Beech forge a new path into a life where they both are finally set free?

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