HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE--COCONUT, THE NEW KALE?

photo by Tom Woodward

Is coconut the new miracle health food? Every year it seems there’s a new “super” food being touted. Lately it’s coconut. It’s everywhere. There’s coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut water, and of course, shredded coconut. Coconut apparently is the new kale.

Recent research shows that coconut is good for you from head-to-toe. According to the research, coconut can help prevent obesity by speeding up metabolism. It can improve heart health by providing the right type of fatty acids. It’s high in dietary fiber. Coconut can regulate your blood sugar, reduce your craving for sweets, improve your digestion, and give you a quick energy boost.

Some claim coconut has anti-aging properties. It can prevent hair damage, moisturize your skin, and act as a sunscreen.

Coconut can help you lose weight, and even make your brain function better. Other claim coconut has healing properties and aids and supports our immune system functions.

Is this all hype or fact? Lots of foods once touted as being good for us have later been found to be not so good. However, coconut has no trans-fats and is gluten-free. And one thing is certain, populations that eat lots of coconut are some of the healthiest people in the world.

Besides, coconut tastes good, and how many things that taste good are also good for us?

COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR JACQUIE BIGGAR & PUMPKIN BREAD PUDDING

Jacquie Biggar knew from the time she was twelve years old, that she wanted one day to be a writer. But she grew up, got married, raised a family and left her writing urges to simmer in the background unattended. Now she’s ready to take up the writing reins and see how far she can travel. Learn more about Jacquie and her writing at her website. 

Fifteen years ago I was waitressing in small local café in our hometown of Edson Alberta, Canada. One day the owner, a family friend, announced she had to give up the restaurant due to bad knees. I went home, talked it over with DH, and next thing you know, we were the proud owners of the Bluejay Café.

Only problem was, I didn’t know how to cook! I mean I could cook, but my nickname was Hamburger Helper Queen. That should tell you something right there. Thank God I had my mom, who stayed by my side, and taught me how to do everything from making soup stock to gravy, to desserts. I would’ve been lost without her.

Those were some of the longest days of my life. Between learning the kitchen, trying to figure out the menus, and print them myself. Configuring the till to accept the proper tax amounts, finding the right staff (one of THE most important components of a successful restaurant,) setting up accounts with suppliers, and oh yeah, the books, oy!

Not to mention a young daughter and a hubby that put in long hours of his own and expected a good meal on the table when he arrived home. But I learned. And I’m proud to say we turned that café into one of the most popular places in town. I was even noticed by a couple of food critics traveling the province who featured us in their book, The Food Lover’s Trail Guide to Alberta, an honor for sure.

One of the most popular desserts we made was bread pudding. Then one day I thought, why not kick this up a notch? Hence the creation of Pumpkin Bread Pudding. My book, Tidal Falls, centers largely on a local café, Grits and Grace, kind of catchy, don’t you think?

Grace’s Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

Assorted bread cubes (I save my crusts of white, brown and cinnamon raisin, then rip them into bite size pieces.)

handful of raisins

6-8 large eggs

4 cups sugar

cinnamon

shake of salt

1 can pumpkin puree

milk, approximately 1 litre

margarine

brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Fill Dutch oven with mixed bread cubes and raisins.

In a separate large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon and shake of salt. Add pumpkin puree. Mix. Slowly add milk until mixture is loose. Pour mix over bread and stir, should be soupy—not too loose, though—just so you see the liquid through the bread. If not, add a couple more eggs and milk blended together to the mix. When you have a nice consistency sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon and small dollops of margarine over the top.

Bake 60-90 minutes. Top will gain a nice crunchy golden look. Take a knife and spread the center apart to tell if done. Drizzle some of your favorite caramel sundae sauce over the top and enjoy.

Tidal Falls

Sara Reed is on the run from an abusive ex who happens to have ties to a Mexican cartel. Mistakenly thinking she and her daughter would be safer if she had some kind of leverage, she takes a copy of some valuable files, files that make her a target.

Nick Kelley is an ex-marine trying to find his place now that his career is over due to injuries suffered from an IED. When the two of them meet in the pretty little town of Tidal Falls, the experience is explosive.

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CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--CROSS STITCHED SNOWMAN

It's never to early to start thinking about Christmas crafts. This counted cross stitch snowman is 2-5/8" x 3-1/2" when stitched on 14-ct. fabric. (click pattern to enlarge.)

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR SHANNON BAKER

Shannon Baker is the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ 2014 Writer of the Year and the author of the Nora Abbott Mystery Series, which includes Tainted Mountain, a 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award finalist, Broken Trust, and Tattered Legacy, slated for a March 2105 release. Learn more about Shannon and her books at her website. 

Fact versus Fiction

I am not the kind of writer who can make up whole worlds from my imagination. My plots always come from real stuff, the cool facts I read about. For instance, when I moved to Flagstaff and found out about the controversy to pump manmade snow on the San Francisco Peaks—land sacred to 12 tribes—I had to write a story about it

I needed a protagonist in the center of the storm who had everything at stake. That turned out to be Nora Abbott, owner of the ski resort. Driven, insecure, timid and ferocious in equal measure, Nora sprang onto the pages.

In my research about the tribes involved, I stumbled across the Hopi. Suddenly, my book took off in a whole new direction that lent itself to a mystery series. My Hopi research turned up so many intriguing aspects of their history, culture, and beliefs I couldn’t address even a fraction in one book. So I was excited when I was offered a three-book deal. Tainted Mountain delves into the Hopi prophesies and explains a little bit about their ceremonies. It introduces kachinas and their role in Hopi lives.

For Broken Trust, I wanted to focus on a different aspect of Hopi’s connection with the world. Hopi are concerned about end times. According to Hopi beliefs, we now live in the fourth world and we’ve just about messed it up so badly we’re approaching the end of this world and emergence to the fifth world. Sad news for most of us, since not very many will survive to start the fifth world.

In Broken Trust, Nora returns to her favorite place, Boulder, and lands a job at an environmental trust. (Coincidently, I also moved back to Boulder while I was working on this book.) But all is not as it seems. The trust is a hotbed of conflict and corruption. Nearly a half million dollars is missing and Nora’s predecessor is murdered.

Nora’s mother pops onto the scene with her own drama. She is determined to hook Nora up with handsome Cole Huntsman. Cole has been waiting for a year to let Nora get over the death of her husband and the traumatic events in Flagstaff, but he’s ready to start a relationship with her. In the meantime, with the help of quirky staffers at the Trust and an Ecuadorian hunk, Nora uncovers a plot that could destroy one of the most pristine locations on the planet. 

And how, you might or might not be asking, is such monumental destruction possible? That was the really fun part for me. I got to research conspiracy theories surrounding HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research) and using weather as a weapon of mass destruction. This stuff is scary/interesting. I spent hours watching Jessie Ventura and others present the case that the shadowy Powers That Be are planning to control our minds/kill us all/wreak havoc on the environment. I dabbled in learning a little (very little) about Tesla towers and the potential for sustainable energy.

When I sold Tainted Mountain I was happy and proud of my new baby. We all know the analogies of writing and publishing books to having babies. I don’t know if anyone else felt this way, but when I was expecting my second baby, I worried I’d never be able to love it as much as I loved my first one. And even though I’d planned and wanted the baby with all my heart, part of me was jealous it would come between me and my firstborn. Weird, I know. But I kind of had the same misgivings about creating a series and wondering if I’d love the second book as much as the first.

The book is here and, just as it was with my kids, I do love book two as much! I learned a lot between book one and two and even more between two and three. It turns out I like writing a series and I’m glad Nora got to live on.

What about you? What is the most interesting or fun fact you learned while reading fiction?

Broken Trust

Nora moves to Boulder and  lands a job as an accountant at an environmental non-profit. But the trust is rife with deceit and corruption. Nearly half a million dollars is missing and one person has already been killed for knowing too much. Complicating matters are Nora's uninvited visitors: her mother, Cole Huntsman, and a Hopi kachina that technically doesn't exist. As the body count climbs, Nora races to stop a deadly plot to decimate one of the planet's greatest natural resources.

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PAYING MY RESPECTS...

On the evening of May 17^th I had the honor of touring the 9/11 Memorial Museum before it opened to the public the following week. I wasn’t sure at first whether I wanted to attend. The wounds of that fateful day thirteen years ago will never heal. It’s hard enough dealing with the memories when confronted by them on television. It’s quite another thing to stand at Ground Zero on the spot where so much of the horror occurred and even more difficult to enter the memorial building and confront the faces of all who were lost that day.

However, another part of me needed to be there. After all, this is more than just a museum; it’s a memorial to both the victims of the most horrific terrorist attack ever to occur on our homeland and to the brave police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty that day. In the end I went out of a need to pay my respects.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum is built on hallowed ground within steps of the two reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the two original World Trade Center towers. The walls that surround each reflecting pool are inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives that day. The impact is powerful, sobering, and gut wrenching.

From the moment I entered the building I was struck by the solemnity and reverence of the place. Much care has been taken to present the exhibits in a way that demonstrates you’ve entered a space that is a memorial. The atmosphere is subdued and respectful but at the same time even more powerful, more sobering, and more gut wrenching than the reflecting pools.

As difficult as it was to stand inches from the portraits of those who lost their lives, and the artifacts that survived the attack and view the various tributes created in response to that day, in the end I was glad I had the chance to pay my respects.

DECORATING WITH JEANIE--GUEST AUTHOR DARLENE DELUCA SUGGEST SUNFLOWERS FOR YOUR GARDEN

Darlene Deluca writes women’s fiction and contemporary romance, and likes to explore relationships—what brings people together or keeps them apart. Her characters seem like real people with real issues that readers can relate to. Her debut novel, Unexpected Legacy, advanced to the quarter-finals in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award. Learn more about Darlene at her website. 

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but flowers come in a close second. Flowers are the language of love—and what can cheer a girl up faster than a bright and colorful bouquet of fresh flowers? Okay, chocolate and a massage might be up there as well, but today, we’re talking about flowers!

As a gardener and florist, Megan Monroe, the heroine in my sweet contemporary romance, Meetings of Chance, is surrounded by flowers. But since her mother’s death, cheer is hard to come by. Not only was her mother the force behind the beautiful Monroe gardens, she was Megan’s business partner in Fresh Flowers, the floral business they operate from their charming turn-of-the-century farmhouse.

Without her mother, doubts creep in. Can Megan and her grieving father keep up the gardens? Can she run the business alone? Does she even want to? Confused and saddened, she wrestles with those questions—until a bride-to-be and her mother arrive to interview Megan for a wedding job. That’s when she learns there’s a rumor going around town that Megan’s mother was the real talent behind the business. With pride and reputation at stake, Megan sets out to prove them wrong. The answer? Flowers, of course! And not just any flower – sunflowers, one of the cheeriest flowers of all.

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.” —Helen Keller

While her mother was partial to the myriad shades of roses growing in their gardens, Megan has an affinity for the whimsical, less formal blooms. The bride’s swatches of eggplant-colored fabric for her bridesmaid dresses ignite Megan’s imagination. Sunflowers against that deep purple hue equal instant impact!

On the day of the wedding, Megan rises before dawn to clip stems of sunflowers, snapdragons and zinnias. Starting with sunflowers as the central focal point, she crafts dramatic and eye-popping centerpieces and bouquets.

The result, in spite of the bride’s anxiety, a cut finger and a lost spool of ribbon? A gorgeous wedding, renewed confidence, and a much-needed spray of cheer!

A Few Facts About Sunflowers . . .

~The scientific name of the sunflower is Helianthus, Helia for sun and Anthus for flower.

~Sunflowers are a great choice for planting to attract birds to your yard.

~A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun's movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.

~Sunflower plants can stand from 3 to 18 feet tall, and can grow easily in many types of soil as long as they have direct sunlight and a constant source of water.

~There are two kinds of sunflower seeds -- black and striped. Oil is made from black seeds; snacks are made from striped seeds.

~There is only one flower on each sunflower stem, and each head can contain as many as 2,000 seeds.

~Sunflowers originated in North America. Today, there are more than sixty different kinds of sunflowers growing in the United States, Europe, Japan and Russia. Some aren’t even yellow!

Additionally, sunflowers are the state flower of Kansas, my home state. Many times while driving from Kansas to Colorado I’ve had the pleasure of seeing fields of crop sunflowers—rows and rows of big yellow blooms that stretch as far as the eyes can see. It really is a spectacular site. And a sure way to put a smile on your face!

Meeting of Chance

She wants her old life back . . . He wants to leave his behind.

After her mother’s death, Megan Monroe is convinced her life has been tossed into a high-speed blender. Normal is long gone. While dealing with a grieving father, single-handedly running the family’s floral business and trying to re-shape her own career, she’s suddenly confronted with a troublesome new neighbor and an explosive secret from her mother’s past.

She can’t tell her father, and her sister refuses to believe, so Megan presses on alone, forced to carry a secret she didn’t even want to know. Determined to uncover the truth, she finds herself turning to a man she’s not sure she can trust.

Tom Blake has fled his city life to escape the publicity of a high-profile divorce. Planning to lie low, he has no intention of being drawn into someone else’s family angst. But he runs into more than he bargained for when he meets his new neighbors. In an unexpected turn of events, he finds himself thrust into the role of confidante and on the last path he wanted to travel – a path that threatens his plans for the future.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR M.S. SPENCER MAKES JELLY

Although she has lived or traveled in every continent except Antarctica and Australia (bucket list), romance author M. S. Spencer has spent the last thirty years mostly in Washington, D.C. as a librarian, Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, editor, birdwatcher, kayaker, policy wonk, non-profit director and parent. She currently divides her time between the Gulf coast of Florida and a tiny village in Maine. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Up until my thirties, I traveled a great deal, living in many countries with amenities that many would consider below standard. So it wasn't until I married and settled down in an old farmhouse with an acre of land that I could indulge my fantasy of growing my own food. We planted apple, plum, peach, fig, hazelnut, and cherry trees; gooseberries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries; all kinds of vegetables, including an ill-fated attempt to grow artichokes; and finally, lots and lots of herbs. I built a formal herb garden and planted thyme, lovage, rosemary, chives, tarragon, sage, and lemon balm. The one thing I couldn't get to grow was mint. Yes, the gardeners among you will scoff, but it took me years to get a plot to flourish. When it did, I had to do something or it would take over the entire acre.

So I called upon my sister-in-law, to whom Whirlwind Romance is dedicated. She directed me to an old recipe for mint jelly. Once the mint invasion was under control and I'd mastered the technique, I spent whole summers working up recipes for herb jellies. It was great fun. Despite the fact that I'm not really fond of jelly, they made excellent Christmas gifts.

As I started Whirlwind Romance, I thought about what my heroine, Lacey Delahaye, would do for a living. She lives alone in Florida, her one son grown. I thought of the innumerable ecosystems in Florida, from pine uplands, to coastal plains, to palm hammocks—all of which are host to many wild fruits, most of which can be made into jelly. Ah hah! She'd be a jelly maker.

For fun, I added the recipes to each chapter. I hope you enjoy them as much as you do Lacey and Armand's love story.

Cocoplum

Cocoplum Jelly

The cocoplum is native to South Florida and occurs naturally in cypress hammocks and wetland areas. Evergreen, it forms a dense, clumping bush. The fruit is a dark purple drupe one to two inches in diameter, and ripens May through August. The nut is also edible.

Ingredients:

200 cocoplums to make 2 cups juice

2 cinnamon sticks

4 cups brown sugar

1 box (1.75 oz.) powdered pectin

Place peeled plums and cinnamon sticks in water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1-1/2 hours, or until liquid is dark purple. Remove from heat and strain, reserving the nuts. Add water if necessary to make two cups of liquid.

Shell the nuts and chop. In a jelly pan add the juice, nuts, and pectin and bring to a rolling boil. Pour sugar in all at once and bring back to a rolling boil. Boil exactly one minute.

Standard Procedure: Remove pot from heat, skim off any foam, and ladle into hot, sterilized jelly jars to within ¼ inch of the top. Wipe rims and place the two-piece canning lids on the jars but do not tighten completely. Turn the jars over and leave upside down for five minutes on a padded rack. Turn upright and tighten the lids completely. Makes about 4 pints.

Alternate method: Process filled, tightly closed jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. Cool.

Whirlwind Romance

In the aftermath of a hurricane, Lacey Delahaye finds herself marooned on the Gulf coast of Florida with a mysterious man. They are immediately drawn to each other, but before Armand can confess his identity, they are kidnapped and taken far from civilization to a tiny, remarkable island in the western Caribbean. With the help of her son Crispin, a small, but proud young boy named Inigo, and a cadre of extraordinary characters, Lacey and Armand must confront pirates, power-mad ideologues, and palace intrigue if they are to restore the once idyllic tropical paradise to its former serenity and find lasting happiness.

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