TRAVEL WITH SERENA--VACATIONS ON A BUDGET

Vacations are expensive, but we all need to get away every so often to refresh and rejuvenate. One way to cut down on the cost of a trip is to book your stay at a vacation home or apartment rental instead of a hotel. There are options for all budgets. You can book anything from a spare bedroom to a multi-million dollar villa. Although, if you’re looking for a multi-million dollar villa, you’re probably not worrying about your budget! You can find listings for rentals online. Two to check out are airbnb.com and homeaway.com.

MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--WEDDING RECEPTION DISASTERS

Here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers we’re all about DIY and saving money. However, sometimes it’s best to hire experts. Such is the case with wedding receptions. Today we welcome back guest blogger Zain with tips to help avoid wedding reception disasters. Zain writes for Feast Your Eyes! Inc. They provide services such as catering weddings in Toronto as well as event design.

Catering Secrets: Avoiding A Wedding Reception Disaster

Weddings can be wonderful yet expensive occasions. They are most wonderful if planned and done effectively, including the reception and catering. Couples often easily use a good quarter of their wedding budget on food and alcohol for the reception. Since the average wedding budget is around $20,000, that amounts to at least $5,000. If you want to have a successful catered event for your wedding, making all the time and money put into it worthwhile, there are some common mistakes and mishaps you want to AVOID making that can cause a wedding reception disaster.

Mistake one, the DIY disaster. Unless you're a professional in such services and just have to be hands-on, it's best you avoid taking the catering into your own hands. There are many levels in the planning and execution of a wedding reception and its catering. Beyond the food itself, you have the decorations, storage, the serving, and the actual timing of it all, including the food preparation. So it's best to leave it to professionals and not let your inexperience lead to a major headache.

Another no-no for wedding catering is the overly elaborate menu. Some actually believe that having a big menu will make the event grander, but having an extensive menu can lead to a waste of food. So it's best to keep it simple. A little variety is good but not too much.

Nothing can leave a bad taste in the mouths of guests like less than tasty food. Be sure to have a taste testing and know what's in store from your caterer. The last thing you need is food that is way too dull in taste or way too salty. Guests may not remember the color of the decorations and clothing from the ceremony, but food is likely to stick with them, being either really good or bad. Also, be sure to give clear instructions to the caterers and lay down the terms of the service so all parties have a sure knowledge of what to expect. This can spare you from poor service and disputes.

Another possible disaster that can be catastrophic in terms of implications (including crowd control) is not having enough food. This is why careful planning is critical and you must work with experienced chefs that can calculate and accommodate needs based on the number of guests. You may want to have a backup plan just in case expected numbers happen to be exceeded.

For a successfully catered event, make sure you do your homework. Look closely at catering companies and cross examine them, knowing what to expect and knowing what you want. Keep communications clear and remember to have a taste test if possible, not doing so could be a disastrous mistake. Your wedding is probably one of, if not the biggest, day of your life, and it's something you may have dreamed of for years. If you want it to go smoothly and happily, be sure to avoid the mistakes we went over and do all necessary research.

COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR KATE WYLAND

 photo credit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0   

Kate Wyland is a life-long horse nut who started riding at three years old. After a varied equestrian career, she now has three semi-retired horses and can’t imagine life without them. A few years ago, she exchanged her tech writing “bug” hat for a fiction writing Stetson. Suspense, romance, horses and sometimes the paranormal are the themes she likes to explore in her books. And she delights in sharing her love of animals and country living. Today she shares a recipe for paella. Learn more about Kate and her books at her website and blog.

A couple of years ago, my husband and I spent a delightful week at Eaton Ranch, a dude ranch outside Sheridan, Wyoming. The people, the scenery, the horses, the accommodations were wonderful. Neither of us wanted to leave. At the time, I was working on a romantic suspense novel set in Arizona, but when I came home I found I really wanted to stay in Wyoming longer. So I set aside that book and started a new story, set on a dude ranch.

One incident during our stay provided a spark for my tale. The ranch cook had to leave due to a family emergency and several people who didn’t normally work in the kitchen filled in. As a result, some of our meals were quite creative. But nobody cared because we were all having so much fun. I figured the need for a cook would be a good way for someone on the run to end up at a dude ranch. And thus Wyoming Escape was born.

Mikela Richards, a chef and a city girl, is hiding out on a Wyoming Dude Ranch, working as a cook. To her surprise, she finds she enjoys the experience—when she isn’t looking over her shoulder for the dirty cop who is after her. She encounters the nephew of the ranch owner, and the attraction is instant and totally wrong. The last thing she needs is to be distracted by a handsome Marine, who makes her want to hide in his arms.

Shawn Saunders recognizes the fear in Mikela’s eyes. He’s seen the same look many times during his tours in Afghanistan. He’s home to heal both physical and emotional wounds and knows he has no business getting involved with a woman with problems. But his protective instincts and his fascination with Mikela swamp his common sense, and he campaigns to penetrate her defenses.

Celia, Shawn’s mother, curious about the woman who has entranced him, invites Mikela to dinner.

Excerpt from Wyoming Escape:

“Want to supervise while I make dinner?” Celia asked. “Unless, of course, you’re tired of cooking and would rather talk about anything else.”

“Cooking is my life. I definitely want to see what you’re brewing up.”

“Paella. I decided to try something a little sophisticated. Something other than meat and potatoes.” She sent a wry glance Shawn’s way.

“Okay, okay,” he said, backing away with his palms up. “I know when I’m not wanted. I’ll be in the den watching the baseball game. Call me when, or if, you want me to join you.”

Celia led the way into a bright, west-facing kitchen. Blue and yellow plaid wallpaper peeked out from over the stove and between the white cabinets. Not modern or fancy, the room had a warm, homey feel.

“Have a seat.” Celia motioned toward the stools in front of the bar that set off the dining area. “Help yourself to some wine and olives. I'll start sautéing the veggies now. The chicken and chorizo are already browned.” She nodded at a large bowl on the counter.

Mikela watched the older woman's efficient movements with pleasure. She always enjoyed seeing a competent chef who liked what they did. When the onions were soft and starting to caramelize, Celia added tomatoes, letting them brown for a few minutes. Next came rice, which she stir-fried for a brief time to coat with oil. As she started to pour in chicken broth, Mikela spoke up.

“Did you know if you put the saffron in the liquid and let it soak for a minute or two, you'll spread the flavor and color better? Just a suggestion, in case you're interested.”

“Thank you. Great idea.” Matching actions to words, Celia crumbled a generous pinch of saffron threads into the broth. After a couple of minutes, she poured in the liquid and started the rice simmering. “Now I can sit and gab for a bit.”

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Paella

(serves 2-4)

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs
2 chicken legs
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons smoky paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Spanish chorizo sausage, thickly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Spanish onion, chopped
Bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, reserve some for garnish
1 (16-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed
1 cup short grain Spanish rice, preferably Valencia or bomba
1 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
3 cups chicken broth
4 jumbo shrimp
6 littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed
Fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for serving

Add the crushed saffron threads to the chicken broth and set aside.

Mix together the paprika, oregano and a little salt and pepper. Rub the spice mixture all over the pieces of chicken; marinate for 30-60 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or wide shallow skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken on all sides. Add the chorizo and continue to cook until it is browned too. Remove the chicken and sausage to a platter lined with paper towels.

Return the pan to the stove and lower the heat to medium. Saute the garlic, onion, and parsley for 2-3 minutes until the onions soften and start to carmelize. Add the tomatoes and let them brown slightly. Fold in the rice, stir-frying to coat the grains. Pour in the chicken broth with saffron and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Do not cover or stir.

Add the shrimp, clams, the reserved chicken, and chorizo. Simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, about 10 minutes. Scatter the peas on top and continue to cook for 5 minutes, until the paella looks fluffy and moist. Turn heat to high for 1-2 minutes to create the socarrat, a toasted rice bottom. Cover and allow to rest, off the heat for 5 minutes, and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--COILED MAGAZINE TRIVET

A few weeks ago I showed you how to make a decorative bowl from magazine pages. I had so much fun making that project that I thought I’d do another. Follow these simple directions to make a trivet from those magazines you’d otherwise toss in recycling.

Materials:

magazine with colorful pages, scissors, low-temp glue gun, felt square slightly smaller than diameter of finished trivet, tacky glue

1. Tear pages from the magazine. Cut each page in half, lengthwise.

2. Fold each half page in half lengthwise. Fold the cut edge under 3/8” and continue folding the strip. (Note: this fold method is a slightly different from the one for the bowl in order to create wider strips.)

3. Apply dab of glue to one end of one strip and form into a tight coil. Glue the end in place.

4. Continue adding strips to enlarge the coil until it measures 2” in diameter. This is the center of the trivet. Adhere strips with a dab of glue as you add to the coil and glue the end of each strip to the coil.

5. Make 1/2” diameter coils from individual strips of paper. Glue 14 smaller coils around the outer edge of the large coil.

6. Make 1” diameter coils from two strips of paper. Glue 14 of these around the outer edge of the trivet. This will make a 5” diameter trivet. If you’d like a larger trivet, continue adding rows of coiled magazine pages until you’ve reached the desired size.

7. Cut a circle from felt to fit the bottom of the  trivet. Glue to bottom with tacky glue.

BOOKS 4 REALITY TV FANS

Do you love to read? Do you enjoy watching reality TV shows, or any kind of television show? Then you won't want to miss the Books For Reality TV Fans list of 15 novels that explore the world of television behind the scenes. These books represent a variety of genres including mystery, suspense, romance, young adult, and middle grade books, and they explore dance shows, a soap opera, a morning show, dating shows, a food show, adventure shows, and lots more.  

The list is hosted by Sink or Swim author Stacy Juba on her One Stop Reading Blog and you can find it here.

Death by Killer Mop Doll, the second book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series by Lois Winston, is included on the list.

Overdue bills and constant mother vs. mother-in-law battles at home are bad enough. But crafts editor Anastasia Pollack's stress level is maxed out when she and her fellow American Woman editors get roped into unpaid gigs for a revamped morning TV show. Before the glue is dry on Anastasia's mop dolls, morning TV turns crime drama when the studio is trashed and the producer is murdered. Former co-hosts Vince and Monica—sleazy D-list celebrities—stand out among a lengthy lineup of suspects, all furious over the show's new format. And Anastasia has no clue her snooping has landed her directly in the killer's unforgiving spotlight.

The full list of authors is:

Stacy Juba

Gemma Halliday

Amanda Brice

Leslie Langtry

Chanta Rand

Karl Fields

Christi Barth

Kimberly Kinkaid

Lois Winston

Elaine Raco Chase

Liz Talley

We may also be expanding the list of books and authors in the future. In the meantime, with summer reruns just around the corner, we hope you'll check out our books for some fun entertainment.  Stacy will be featuring spotlights of each book, as well as hosting interviews with contestants from hit shows such as Survivor, Big Brother, Top Chef, Bachelor Pad, So You Think You Can Dance, and lots more. Some of the authors will also be chatting about books and reality shows on various blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Do you know a reader who loves reality TV? Do you know someone who needs to get AWAY from the television and pick up a book? Then please help us to spread the word. 

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR KAYE GEORGE

Kaye George, the author of four mystery series, has been nominated for Agatha awards twice. She writes short stories, mysteries, and a bit of horror. She also reviews for "Suspense Magazine", writes for several newsletters and blogs, and gives workshops on short story writing and promotion. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog. – AP 

What is accessible?

What do I mean by that? I picked up that word from a fellow musician. When our string quartet would attempt to play something that we had a tough time with, she would say that the piece was not accessible. I guess that means it’s too hard. Very accessible pieces are very easy.

How does that translate to literature? Some writing is accessible for the reader and some isn’t. I’m sure you’ve read things that you had to slog through, maybe for a class, or maybe because you’ve heard it’s a worthwhile work of literature and you should read it. Life’s too short, now that I’m out of school, for that sort of thing!

On the other hand, I don’t like music or reading that is TOO easy. Our church choir recently performed two pieces, Mozart’s “Te Deum” and Puccini’s “Credo”. Our choir had to work hard on both of them and I thought it was great fun. I get tired of singing things that take no thought at all. I also like reading books that teach me something. If there’s a word I don’t know, I like it best when I pick up the meaning from the context. Then I feel I’ve learned a new word on my own. I’m not above looking up rare, obscure words, but I don’t like the text to be full of them. I can’t get anything out of reading a bunch of words I don’t know and can’t derive!

Do you think this book title is accessible: Eine Kleine Wassermusick? OK, I thought it was really, really cool, but was told that it wasn’t. This book started life as Eine Kleine Wassermusick. The series features a sleuth who is a classical musician, as I am. To keep to the theme, I came up with that title as a cross between the names of two pieces of classical music, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” by Mozart and “Watermusic” by Handel. The German means “A Little Night Music.”

No one liked the title. It was inaccessible.

So I changed it to Song of Death. My publisher wanted to change that name, so I cast around for something they would like. They vetoed every title I thought of that contained the word “death” so I twigged to the fact that many of their mysteries contained the word “murder” in the title instead.  My clever daughter came up with Eine Kleine Murder. They say each generation gets smarter than their parents. Thank goodness.

People who know a little about music, and who know Mozart’s piece (or least the name of it) like the title a lot. I wonder, how does this title strike other people? If they don’t understand it, I hope they’re curious enough to check out the story and see if they’d like to read it. It IS a standard murder mystery, just enhanced by a few musical references that I hope enrich the work.

Eine Kleine Murder

Aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother’s cabin at a rural Illinois lake resort, hoping to find some peace and quiet so she can finish composing the symphony she needs to earn her master’s degree in composition. Instead, she finds her grandmother’s corpse in the lake. The authorities dismiss the death as an accidental drowning, but when Gram’s best friend drowns in the exact same spot, Cressa just knows something is off-key in this idyllic setting. Convinced that her grandmother’s death was anything but an accident, she fights her instinct to flee and starts looking into things herself. There are lots of people and facts to consider, from the self-important property manager and his brow-beaten wife, to their salacious son, to the elderly widow who may be lacing her home-baked cookies with a dash of poison. As the body count rises, Cressa doesn’t know which will be finished first—her symphony or her life.

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FASHION WITH TESSA--GUEST AUTHOR KAY KENDALL

Along with having written a mystery set during the Vietnam War, author Kay Kendall is an international award-winning public relations executive and a woman with a penchant for fashion, something she shares with us today. Learn more about Kay at her website.  

I adore fashion. I can’t help it. It’s genetic. Both my grandmothers and my mother enjoyed clothes, jewelry, and dressing up. At the age of ten I had a weekly hair appointment at a salon. Shopping trips to the big city of Wichita from my hometown of 12,000 were a monthly highlight. In early years Mother and I even donned gloves for the 25-mile trip. When my Texas grandmother took me to the original Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas, I almost swooned.

Flash forward to the eighties. Shoulder pads make the scene. Love at first sight! They helped balance my proportions, counteracting my hips. My mother, however, distained shoulder pads. “They’re from the forties, and I can’t get excited about styles I wore before.”

I didn’t understand. How could she be so stuffy?

Flash forward to this new millennium. Boho chic arrives. But it’s all sixties fashion to me. Retro hippie would be an even better name.

The first time I saw bellbottom trousers in an issue of Vogue several years back, I groaned. Oh, that will never catch on again, I mused to myself, throwing the magazine aside in disgust. Then came the beads, the peasant blouses and all the other hippie accoutrements. The only thing I’ve not seen in redux-land is a version of my old macramé purse. (Note from Anastasia: be on the lookout for a macramé comeback.)

Soon celebrities in the under thirty-five age group staked out hippie chic as their own look. Try an online search of images for Nicole Richie, Sienna Miller, and fashion stylist and designer Rachel Zoe. Every image of them is heavily influenced by the sixties. Nicole even wears macramé occasionally. (Another note from Anastasia: See?)

At first, like my mother twenty-five years ago, I spurned the return of styles I’d worn before. But boho chic gained strength and crept into more and more clothes.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Stairway Press of Seattle just published my debut mystery set in the sixties. Desolation Row—An Austin Starr Mystery features a young woman who gets swept along by the tides of history during that turbulent time.  The choice of cover was tricky. The design had to evoke the Vietnam War era without turning off potential readers. Real photos from the period are too grungy, but countless current pictures are for sale of young women dressed like hippies. We picked one of those, and the result has drawn raves.

To get in the right mood to discuss my book at signings, I always wear blouses just like I wore back then and throw on some beads and ethnic-y earrings to complete the effect. Lucky for me, these days there’s no dearth of such clothes and jewelry to choose from.

Desolation Row—An Austin Starr Mystery

Austin Starr, homesick Texas bride of a Vietnam War activist, must prove her husband didn’t murder a fellow draft resister in Canada, the black-sheep son of a U.S. Senator. When the Mounties are convinced David Starr is guilty and jail him, Austin must find the real killer or risk losing everything.

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