Dear Blaze Babes,

I am in a fabulous mood, because I just, literally, like five minutes ago, finished the second book of my Friends With Benefits trilogy, Light Me Up and sent it off to my editor. There is nothing like that feeling. It’s like giving birth, only you don’t have to get up every two hours for the next couple of months.

So what is better for a festive mood than thinking about dessert? Nothing! Okay, maybe champagne, but I’ll get to that as soon as I finish this blog.

Every year, I buy a box of peppermint candy canes for our Christmas tree, partly because I like the way they look, but mostly because of the following dessert, which is a January tradition in our house. If you have an ice cream maker, go for the full Monty: Make your favorite vanilla ice cream recipe, reducing the sugar by about 1/4 cup, and just before you pour the custard into the maker, stir in candy canes (12 to a box) crushed to powder in a food processor, plus 1 tsp. peppermint extract and enough red food coloring to get the pink shade you prefer.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker or don’t feel like making the ice cream from scratch, buy peppermint ice cream or stir pink food coloring and crushed candy canes and extract into your favorite vanilla. Then serve it up and pour over it The Best Chocolate Sauce in the World.

I’ve tried them all, trust me. Neither too sweet, too rich or too gummy, no matter how many recipes I try, this is the one I keep coming back to. If I’ve already given it to you on this site, sorry, but it’s good enough to give to you again.

Ready? I’ve adapted this from an old Baker’s chocolate recipe my mom copied out. Bear in mind I don’t like overly sweet desserts. If you do, add a little more sugar.

Isabel’s Favorite Chocolate Sauce

2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
dash of salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Melt the chocolate in the water on low heat, stirring until smooth. Add sugar and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in salt, butter and vanilla. Pour over peppermint ice cream and break every diet resolution you’ve ever made by having seconds and third helpings immediately upon finishing.

Happy New Year to all! Wishing you the best for 2012.

Cheers,

Isabel
www.IsabelSharpe.com

Happy December to everyone. Holidays . . . well my shopping is done, so that’s a relief. We do travel over the season so it’s a bit of extra stress, made up for by being together with family and old friends, always wonderful.

In writing news, I have a title for book #2 of the Friends With Benefits trilogy I’m working on: Light Me Up. It works well because the hero is a photographer, get it, get it?. And of course, he lights the heroine up in, um, other ways, too. It’s been interesting writing it because I’m a verbal person, not visual, but photography and writing have a lot in common, as I suppose all creative endeavors do, so while if you give me a camera, I will fail completely in producing anything you’d want to look at, my process of choosing a subject, and the emotions that go into that creation will probably be pretty valid.

I did realize to my horror, that the last photographer hero I wrote was also for Blaze and he was also named Jack. This is what happens when names and situations pop into your head. Sometimes it’s not divine inspiration, it’s memory. Oops.

Today’s addition to our fall meal is a really easy and delicious and refreshing salad of arugula and Belgian endive with orange sections and walnuts. If you don’t like arugula and can’t see spending a gazillion dollars on Belgian endive, use whatever lettuces or vegetables you like. It will still taste great.

Here is the recipe, brought to you by that most holy of all sites, epicurious.com!

Endive, Arugula and Orange Salad

Have wonderful holidays all!

Isabel
www.IsabelSharpe.com

Greetings, Blaze Babes! November, how did this happen? Thanksgiving this year will again be me and my two sons, one of whom is a vegetarian. I thought a twenty pound turkey would work well. Or a twenty-pound tofurkey. No, no, we’re going with a duck for the meat-eater duo and lots of sides for my veggie son. The only part that makes me cranky is stuffing with vegetable broth. It doesn’t cut it. I did find a great mushroom vegetarian gravy, believe it or not. Such challenges.

Of course I launched right into talking about food when I’m supposed to at least mention that I write for Blaze. It’s right before lunch when I’m writing this, think there’s a correlation? Me too.

I’m working on the second book for my Blaze Trilogy, Friends with Benefits. My wonderful editor had to nudge me (gently!) because for whatever reason I’d come up with this dark and somber plot, which is soooo not like me. So we gave it sparkle with a great opposites-sister relationship and a wedding to plan, which should help.

This month we’ll follow our elegant mushroom tart with a beef stew. Beef stew can taste a bit one-note, but this one has a secret ingredient: ginger. And before you wrinkle your nose and say what is this, a stir fry? I will swear to you that the ginger adds really lively and interesting flavor, but it doesn’t taste like an Asian dish.

I got this recipe from Food & Wine years ago. Serve it with cooked rice or grain, bread or pasta. It will shine with anything.

Gingered Beef Stew with Root Vegetables

4 servings

3 T (T=tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 T vegetable oil
1 lb stewing beef in 1″ cubes
Salt and Pepper
3 T flour
2 ½ cups dry red wine (I buy the 4-pack mini reds and whites for cooking)
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium leeks, white and tender green part, washed and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
3 medium parsnips, peeled, and sliced into disks.
3 medium carrots, ditto (you can slice diagonally if you want bigger pieces, parsnips too)
1 ½-lb celeriac (celery root) peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 T finely grated fresh ginger
½ cup chopped fresh basil or parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350. In large enameled cast-iron casserole (or any heavy oven-proof pot that can also go on the stove) melt 2 T of the butter in 2 T of the oil. Season beef with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. In 2 batches, brown meat all over, 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a large plate.

2. Return all meat to the casserole, add red wine and bring to a boil. Cook, scraping up browned bits, until the liquid is reduced to about 1 cup. Transfer meat and liquid to a large bowl.

3. In the casserole, melt the remaining 1 T butter in 1 T oil. Cook onions and leeks over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally until just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir 2 more minutes.

4. Add beef to casserole along with parsnips, carrots, celery root, ginger and 4 cups of water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to boil over moderately high heat. Cover and bake in oven 1 ½ hours, until the beef is very tender and the sauce has thickened. (The stew can be prepared up to 2 days ahead; cover and refrigerate. Rewarm gently before serving). Stir in the basil or parsley. Serve.

Enjoy! And see you next month.

Cheers,

Isabel
www.IsabelSharpe.com

Happy halfway-through-October Blaze babes! This is one of my favorite months, not really cold yet, but no longer hot. Leaves are turning but still on the trees. And of course we can stop with the salads and grilled whatever and get down to some serious eating.

First, Blaze news, I turned in the first book, Just One Kiss, of my trilogy Friends with Benefits at the beginning of the month. I’ll be starting the second book soon. Any day now. Ahem. Yes, well, one doesn’t want to burn out, does one? I was appalled at how many tasks had built up and then I had a non-fiction article to write and yadda yadda. Yeah, get cracking, Isabel.

For our fall menu I say we thumb our noses at calorie counters and have some good food. Our opener for this meal is a mushroom tart. Before you panic, trust me, this is one of those recipes I live for. It’s the most elegant sophisticated thing and it’s so easy your kid could do it. Maybe. If you have a smart kid. The point is, you can fool everyone at your table into thinking you’re a culinary genius, when you’re just following simple directions. If you can’t find or afford the exact assortment of fancy mushrooms they call for, just buy whatever you can find. Either way, you will be able to be wildly proud of yourself as you casually serve this and watch guests’ jaws drop in awe.

This is from a Gourmet Magazine recipe I cut out in 1996, but you find it oh-so-conveniently on Epicurious.com, that most hallowed of all websites.

Three-Mushroom Tart

Cheers,

Isabel

www.IsabelSharpe.com

Hi, Blaze Babes!

September is one of my favorite months, and if you’ve listened to me whining all summer about the heat, you’ll understand why. It’s beautiful today, sunny, cool and dry, perfect except for the smoke wafting down from the Minnesota forest fires, yikes! Fire is scary stuff, as you in Texas know well (and too many other states!).

I’m speeding along on a tight deadline for the first book of my Blaze Trilogy, about friends and fellow business owners in Seattle, whose businesses represent the five senses (touch, massage; smell, florist; taste, bakery; sight, photographer; sound, music studio). The series has just been titled Friends with Benefits. The first book will be called Just One Kiss. That’s all I know now!

This month we’re finishing summer and finishing our summertime menu with the best course, dessert! I have a terrific and not-too hard recipe for a dessert new to me, Lemonade Pie. I made it today, snuck a taste and boy, I’ll tell you, I could have cheerfully dived face down into the filling and sucked it up straight. It takes a can of lemonade concentrate or you can make your own concentrate from scratch. I opted for a can of concentrate and added the juice of 1.5 lemons (which I had in my refrigerator) just to punch up the taste and because I don’t care for super-sweet desserts. Only warning: This is not low-calorie food, so make it when you have lots of people coming over or you’ll get in trouble finishing it by yourself.

The recipe is from one of my (too many) food magazine subscriptions, Cuisine At Home. I did do a couple of shortcuts. Raspberry seeds don’t bother me, so I didn’t bother straining them out. And I didn’t remember to chill the condensed milk, but it got cold when I mixed it with the concentrate, so it will probably be okay. The dessert looks gorgeous, too!

I found the recipe all written out beautifully on someone’s blog, so I’m posting the link to that.

Enjoy!

Lemonade Pie with Raspberry Sauce

See you next month!

Isabel

www.IsabelSharpe.com

Hey, Blaze Babes, happy August!

Amazingly, after July from Hell, it’s not too hot here in Wisconsin and won’t be for at least the next ten days. I’m doing my second sprint triathlon on Sunday the 21st. The first one, in July, was held on a 90+ degree day, bleaaaah. For this next one, the high predicted so far is 76! Cross fingers it stays that low.

Good news from Harlequin Blaze editorial, my “senses” trilogy idea has been approved. Five friends buy a building and each has his or her own business, which together represent the five senses. A bakery for taste, music studio for sound, flower shop for smell, etc. I’ll be starting to write the first one this coming week.

Now, continuing our summery meal with an oven-free main dish. I recently tried this and really enjoyed it. It’s a lightly spiced grilled steak and an unusual side salad of tomatoes with an assortment of seasonings supposed to imitate the flavors of a bloody Mary. Not sure about that, but it was really delicious and complemented the meat beautifully. Don’t feel limited by flank steak unless your budget is like mine . . . Any type of grillable cut will do.

Enjoy!

Flank Steak with Bloody Mary Tomato Salad

See you next month.

Isabel

 www.IsabelSharpe.com

Greetings, Blaze Babes!

I’m waiting to hear on a new Blaze trilogy proposal, but in the meantime I’m writing a non-fiction article (gasp) for a local magazine. This is different. And no sex scenes. Also this month my kids and I are driving off into the sunset—not literally, we’re heading east—to my family’s summer house in Maine, where the thermometer isn’t going to be anywhere near ninety degrees and the ocean beckons 24/7. (Not to swim in, you’ll turn to ice and crack apart.)

When it’s hot and summery out, no one wants to be near the stove, and no one wants to put hot food in her body. So let’s make an easy cool summer meal, starting with this delicious soup I tried for the first time the other day. Now that asparagus are, ho-hum, available all year round (doesn’t it kind of kill the romance?), you can make this anytime. It does take a little work at the stove, but is make-ahead and chilled for serving. If you’re having an outdoor party, try serving in coffee mugs with spoons. Easier to pick up and put down, and they don’t take much room on a tray or patio table. The recipe doesn’t say so, but I made the soup a day ahead and the mint cream shortly before serving, and both turned out fine.

And by the way, though the French language seems to be one big excuse to ignore letters when pronouncing, you do voice that final “S” with a Z sound. Not Vishee-swah, but Vishee-swaz.

Asparagus Vichyssoise with Mint

See you in the dog days of August.

Isabel

www.IsabelSharpe.com

Hi there, Blaze Babes! It was a high of nintey-something yesterday, today it’s not even getting up to sixty. Oh, Wisconsin . . . (said through gritted teeth).

I have a book out this month, the third in my Checking E-Males trilogy, Hot to the Touch, Darcy’s story. She’s the I-Hate-Men owner and chef of her own restaurant. Guess how much she hates men by the end? Hint: Not as much. The series was really fun to write and cathartic since I was putting myself through the torture of online dating at the same time.

So this month for our Chinese meal, we have dessert. I’m going to cheat a little because the Chinese aren’t big on dessert and I am. How does cheesecake sound? Yes, I thought so. But this is cheesecake that stays in the far East by being flavored with matcha which is the green-tea powder the Japanese use to flavor their green tea ice cream. Warning: It is not cheap. But if you are feeling adventurous, you can track it down in an Oriental market or find it online. The recipe comes from our old friend epicurious.com.

And for those of you who aren’t like me, that is, not willing to call all over town and then drive miles and miles to find some weird ingredient, you can be fairly authentic to the meal by serving sliced oranges and Chinese ginger almond cookies instead. Note: these aren’t gingerbread cookies, they’re serious ginger. And by the way, it’s worth buying herbs and spices from a real spice store. I shop at Penzey’s. Very reasonable prices, cheaper in many instances, and one sniff of their ginger or cinnamon or vanilla, yum! You’ll never buy them at a supermarket again.

So here are the two recipes.

Green Tea Cheesecake

and

Ginger Almond Wafers

We’ll start a new meal next month, happy summer!

Isabel

Hi Blaze Babes! Hope those of you in cooler climes are enjoying a beautiful spring. For those affected by the horrible recent storms and flooding, I send you many wishes for comfort and strength, and a return to life-as-you-knew-it as soon as possible.

Professionally, I’m pulling together plots for a new Blaze trilogy which should be out in 2012. It’s so fun to play Goddess and mess with imaginary people’s lives—make them suffer and then fix everything. I’m having a ball.

Food-wise, this month we’re continuing our Chinese-themed dinner begun in April with the recipe for Potsticker dumplings. (Who tried them and how were they?) I have a vegetable recipe, one of my favorites and a huge surprise: Lettuce with Oyster sauce.

I’m not kidding, romaine lettuce wilted and mixed with oyster sauce (which doesn’t taste like oysters in case any of you are scared of those). If you’re prefer, try bok choy sauteed with garlic and soy sauce, and if you’re feeling very adventurous, try sauteed peeled cucumbers with garlic and fermented black beans. But those might be too wacky, due to the (delicious) slightly skanky taste of the beans. Yum.

Here is the lettuce recipe, from Ken Hom’s fabulous book Chinese Cookery. I bought it wa-a-a-ay back in the 80s, so he might have come out with several even more fabulous books since then, but this is the one I own and I love it.

Lettuce with Oyster Sauce

1 head romaine lettuce (about 1.5 pounds)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon oil

Separate the lettuce leaves and blanch them in a pot of boiling salted water for about 30 seconds, or until they have wilted slightly. Remove them and drain well. Mix the oyster sauce with the oil. Arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving dish, pour the oyster sauce mixture over it, and serve immediately.

Well you can’t get much more simple than that. And it’s really delicious.

Until next month!

Isabel
www.IsabelSharpe.com

Greetings, Blaze Babes!

Spring sprung yesterday, temperatures in the sixties, and today it barely hit forty. Ah well. I got my June release today in the mail, the last book of my Checking E-Males trilogy, called Hot to the Touch. The cover gods were kind. You can probably see it online. Let me check. Yes, here it is:

Isabel’s Cover.

This month we’re starting another menu, from China this time! When I lived in Boston, someone gave me a Chinese cookbook, Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery. My brother and I ventured into the city’s Chinatown and bought ingredients that have become familiar, but which were totally exotic and strange to us at the time. Fermented black beans. Szechuan peppercorns. Chili bean sauce. We were in heaven, experimenting with nearly every recipe in the book and gorging ourselves regularly.

The recipe I have made more than any other is Potstickers, which I’ve adapted for ease and my own taste. The dumplings are a bit time-consuming to fill, but nothing about them is hard, and they taste sooooo good. I’ve served them to friends many times and they mostly sit there shoveling them in and grunting.

Give them a try!

Chinese Potsticker Dumplings

Filling:
3/4 lb ground turkey
1/4 cup chopped spinach or bok choy leaves
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 finely chopped scallion
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon sugar

Wonton wrappers

Dipping Sauce:
Equal parts soy sauce and unseasoned rice vinegar, with a splash of chili oil if you like heat

Instructions:
Mix filling ingredients together. Fill a glass with water, sit down and get comfortable. Take a wonton wrapper and put a teaspoon of filling on one side. Dip your finger in the water, moisten two sides of the square to make it sticky, and fold the wrapper over to make a triangle, pressing with your fingers to seal. Then take the two corners at the end of the long side of the triangle and bring them together, kind of like straitjacket arms behind the filling’s back. Moisten one tip and press both together to seal. Repeat until the filling is used up.

Heat a tablespoon of oil (canola or peanut) in each of a couple of frying pans, preferably non-stick with lids. Fry the dumplings on medium-high heat for three minutes or until brown. Turn and fry for two more minutes. Pour 2/3 of a cup of water in each pan and put on lids. Turn heat down to medium low or whatever temperature on your stove will let the dumplings simmer for 12 minutes. Take off lids and turn up heat until all the water is evaporated. Serve with the dipping sauce. If you’re serving a lot of people, pile the dumplings on a platter and pour the sauce over. Your family/friends will be very, very happy.

Until next month!

Isabel
www.IsabelSharpe.com