Friday Recipe ~ Brownies (with unique ingredients) by Nancy Lynn Jarvis!

Hi L.A., thanks for hosting me again. 

You asked why I love this recipe. It's because I realized when I take my copy of Cozy Food off the shelf, it flops open to contributor Joyce Oroz’s Sweet and chewy gluten-free brownies made with black beans!!

I don’t need to be gluten-free, although I have friends who do which is why I started making this recipe. I keep making it because it’s so good. The trick is to leave the brownies in the refrigerator overnight. I have no idea why this causes the flavors to blend into something delicious, but it does.

Sweet and chewy gluten-free brownies made with black beans from Joyce Oroz

"I am a gluten-intolerant mystery writer, so I love gluten-free recipes. I bake most of my sweet treats myself and pop them in the freezer for later. My protagonist, Josephine Stuart tends to follow suit, but she has little time to waste—with all the crime going on around her. She loves simple to make, but scrumptious baked items.

One of Josephine’s favorites is this recipe for chocolate brownies made out of black beans. She loves the whole idea of eating beans that taste like chocolate. It’s like eating dinner and dessert in the same bite, saves time too. She loves to bake them—so easy to make, and keeps a stash in the freezer for chocolate emergencies.Sweet and chewy gluten-free brownies made with black beans (but you'd never know it from the taste)! So simple and amazingly delicious!" ~Joyce

Yield: 16 squares

Ingredients
2 cups cooked black beans (or 1 can, rinsed and drained)
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup honey)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor bowl or blender, combine the black beans, eggs, melted butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, and sugar. Pulse or blend until smooth (or as smooth as possible).

2. Grease an 8x8-inch glass baking dish. Pour the batter into the greased dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts (if using) over the top and use a spatula to push them down into the batter just a little (but not too much; they will sink some while the brownies bake).

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, until brownies are set in the middle. Watch the edges for excess browning if you're not sure they're done. (Mine seem to take a full 50 minutes or more, and are still chewy but not gooey.)

Cool and then chill before serving! Store in fridge.

Blurb:
What happens when 128 cozy mystery writers get together to do a cookbook? You get more than 220 recipes that are as diverse and interesting as an amateur sleuth’s day job.

Regional recipes come from every part of the United States and England — a couple find their way from Australia and Italy, too — and from diverse times. There are recipes from people looking to keep gluten out of their lives, eat vegetarian, or make a treat or two for their furry four-legged friends. And yes, there are recipes that appeal to the sweet tooth, lots of them, in fact.

There’s no mystery about what happens when cozy writers get together. They bring the wit, inventiveness, and adventure found in their books right along with their recipes.

Buy:
Amazon | Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Bio: 
Nancy Lynn Jarvis left the real estate profession after she started having so much fun writing the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series that she let her license lapse. 

After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, Nancy worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz at UCSC.

Currently she’s enjoying working on a new series called PIP Inc., hosting Airbnb and getting ready to start having writer retreats at her house, and being a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Santa Cruz Women of Mystery.

Find Nancy Lynn:
Amazon | Facebook | Goodreads

Recipe Of The Month From Author Kathy L. Wheeler ~ Lasagna

I don't know about you, but anything with any kind of pasta in it 

is an instant hit.  Read on. 

Kathy’s Homemade Lasagna

The recipe and why you love making it:

Way back in 1978, I made this lasagna from a Betty Crocker cookbook my mother gave me. When I met my husband in 1992, I use to make spaghetti with a pouch mix. After a year of dating, he finally fessed up and told me he hated it. So I modified this recipe, which is completely natural, over the years for both spaghetti and lasagna, and occasionally as a marinara sauce.

I cook tomatoes in the instant pot for about 7 to 10 minutes with olive oil and salt, then drain off and blend in the blender for tomato sauce.

Part I

1 pound ground beef

1 cup of diced purple onion

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

Fresh garlic 2 or 3 cloves

1 ts salt

1 tbs sugar

1 or 2 tbs oregano

3 tbs parsley or chopped fresh

Butter

Olive oil

I use an iron skillet. With a dash of olive oil, I saute the mushrooms, garlic and onion. It works best to remove them from the skillet once they are cooked to your liking.

Next, with another dash of olive oil, I brown the ground beef (93%/7% fat). I then add the oregano, the salt, some pepper, the sugar, the parsley. Then I add a tbs of butter and brown it a tad, before adding the sauted mushrooms, garlic and onion back in. Pour in about 2 cups of your cooked tomatoes and simmer, 20 minutes or so. Add water, or more tomatoes, if need be.

The last package of noodles I used were wide fresh pasta from Smith Brothers. Drop in boiling water for 1 to 3 minutes, then rinse.

Part II

16 oz Ricotta or Cottage cheese

Oregano

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

In a mixing bowl, add the Ricotta Cheese, add more oregano, salt, pepper, and parmesan (about a cup)

Part III

Mozzarella Cheese – just regular, no prep…😊

Part IV

Now we put it all together. Layer a baking dish with wide noodles. Spread your ricotta cheese over the noodles (this doesn’t need to be perfect, and it you can drop balls of it, it will melt down. There will be three layers so make sure you don’t use all this mixture on the lowest layer.

Next, layer the mozzarella over the ricotta mixture.

Next, layer the meat sauce.

Do this 3 times. It will take 4 layers of noodles.

After you lay the 4^th layer of noodle(s), you will use the last bit of the sauce on top. Then sprinkle more parmesan on the very top.

Bake

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.

Voilá, you have a fabulous lasagna!

Mail Order Bride: The Counterfeit 

After a disastrous first marriage, Will Jeffers hasn’t the stomach for another emotionally entailed union. All he needs is a wife to cook, nurse his mother, and look after the homestead. But good women are few and far between in Colorado mining country. A mail order bride is the perfect solution.

Amelia Johannasen is running for her life. Her mother has decided it’s time her daughter joined the family business, shattering Amy’s dreams of marrying for love. Imagine her surprise when she is mistaken for Will Jeffers mail order bride. She’ll take it

With a head for numbers and talent for spinning tall-tales but no notion of how to cook or nurse a manipulative old woman how can she reach the heart of a man once burned so badly, he’s sworn off love?

Buy:
Amazon

Mail Order Bride: The Breakaway

Tragedy sent Sherman Elias McHuay west twelve years ago. But his troubled past barrels in like a runaway train or—more appropriately—smacks him over the head in the form of a violet-eyed miss without a lick of common sense to her name. If one could actually determine her name.

Amaris Johnston’s carefully laid plans to head west as a mail order bride ratchet up when an announcement for her impending nuptials to the son of a prominent US Senator are set to go public. Not that she’d agreed to marry in the first place. A forced engagement and her family—a conniving slew of ambitious and power-hungry tyrants—send her running for the Colorado hills.

Can a slow talking sheriff and a headstrong girl bent on recklessness outwit her powerful family?

Buy: 

Amazon

Bio: 

Kathy L Wheeler (a.k.a. Kae Elle Wheeler for her Cinderella Series) has a BA in Management Information Systems from the University of Central Oklahoma that includes over forty credit hours of vocal music. 

She was a computer programmer for the Hertz Corporation for over fifteen years and utilizes karaoke for her vocal music talents. Other passions include the NFL, the NBA, travel, musical theatre, painting, reading, and writing.

She is a member of several Romance Writers of America chapters: Greater Seattle, Olympia, and Eastside chapters, The Beau Monde and Hearts Through History.

Her main sources of inspiration come from a mostly an over-active imagination. She currently resides in the Seattle area with her musically talented husband, Al, and their bossy cat, Carly, and sweet dog, Angel.

Find Kathy: 

Website| Facebook | Bookbub | Amazon

Friday Recipe and New Release From Author Theresa Fuller

Broccoli From Theresa Fuller

Hi, L.A. Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog.

I love broccoli. Easy. Healthy. And cooking broccoli each time affirms my belief that anything can become a feast.

But first a little story.

I did 2 years of domestic science in high school and if it had not been for camouflage, I would have failed. I was supposed to cook sausage rolls for the test. I knew I would burn them because I was new to ovens. Most Singaporean homes even today do not have ovens. Ovens were these mysterious objects that Europeans possessed or only the rich.

As expected, I burnt the sausage rolls. Not too badly though. Scorched sections here and there. But then I knew I would. And I was prepared.

On the day of the test, I brought a heap of parsley. I also made little hors d'oeuvre. I raided my Mum’s fridge for anything I could find to make them. The parsley hid the burnt bits of sausage rolls and the little things on toothpicks distracted the teacher.

I passed. Thankfully there was no taste test involved!😊

Back then I thought I hated cooking, but I discovered when I left for university and I had to cook for myself, that I loved cooking.

I learned. Not through cooking classes but by watching my relatives, friends, and neighbors.

So here is broccoli like you have never seen it before. Sounds boring, right? Just you wait! Broccoli is just one of these super vegetables you need to see in a different light. All you need are:

Broccoli
Sesame Oil
Water
Oyster Sauce


If you are like me and like your broccoli firm, then you probably don’t even need to cook it. Just get a large pot or glass bowl.

Chop the broccoli into bits. You can use the stem. Just cut off the outer hard bits and you will find the soft and succulent inner stem which is absolutely delicious!

Combine water and broccoli in the pot or glass bowl

Boil water.

When water is boiled pour the water over the broccoli making sure that everything is immersed.
Wait.

After about 5 minutes the broccoli should be done. See no cooking!

If, however, you prefer your broccoli a little more tender, then pop the broccoli into a pot and bring the pot to the boil. Boil until you get the softness you prefer.

Remove and drain.

Add roughly 1 spoonful of sesame oil and 1 spoonful of oyster sauce to taste.

Stir.

You’re done!

Now taste.

How easy was that!

Blurb:

The Girl Who Became a Goddess is more than just a book of fables, it is a tribute to the childhood stories of someone who has experienced multiple cultures and learned to love them all. These are tales passed on from generation to generation, some to delight, some to terrify, all to enlighten. As a girl, a mother, and a teacher, Theresa Fuller retells her favorite folk stories through the lens of her own life experiences in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, putting a unique spin on ageless classics.

A foolish animal discovers that the Rainforest is a dangerous place.

A ghostly boogeyman haunts a fishing village.

A beautiful princess learns that words have power.

A young boy is willing to sacrifice everything for his family.

A woman must decide between the man she loves and the human race.

The Girl Who Became a Goddess is more than a collection of stories, it is a glimpse into childhood memories and a love letter to a young girl from the adult she has become.

Buy:
Amazon | Kobo

Bio:

Theresa Fuller grew up with ghosts outside her front door. They haunted dark trees and cemeteries and were the spirits of young girls betrayed by lovers. These stories were made real by her cousins who were always recounting how just last year a child around her age had been snatched by one of these ghosts – Pontianaks. And never seen again…

Born in Singapore to Peranakan parents, Theresa was often brought to Haw Par Villa, originally a venue for teaching traditional Chinese values, as a treat. Here children are shown the ten views of Hell. She had nightmares for a week after each visit. Even today, she can visualize the demons as they tortured liars by pulling their tongues, elongating them grotesquely.

This is probably why she never wanted to be a writer. Initially.

Writers bend the truth. A little.

Theresa came to Australia for her education, met her husband, married and stayed. She worked as an analyst/programmer and later as a high school teacher. When her first son was born, she read him stories. And somehow something stirred. She remembered her grandfather and how he would tell fairy tale after fairy tale, at least ten per night until in frustration he would record them to be spared reading the same stories repeatedly.

Thus, in a strange land far away from her own family and what was familiar, she began to write. And in her stories, she could come home. To a land where boys turn into crickets and mousedeer dance laughing upon the backs of crocodiles.

Her first short story THE CRICKET SON was published in VOICES OF THE PAST, An Anthology of Stories Passed Down In Australian Families.

Her breakthrough novel is the Steampunk YA THE GHOST ENGINE, published in March 2018. It won a mentorship at the Australasian Horror Writers’ Association. THE GHOST ENGINE combines her love of technology with her enthusiasm for Victorian England.

Her second novel, The Girl who became a Goddess, is a collection of folktales from Singapore. Malaysia and China published in May 2019. For this collection, Theresa drew heavily on her parents’ arranged marriage.

Theresa currently resides with her family in Sydney, Australia.

Find Theresa:
Website | Facebook | Goodreads