During the busy holiday season we all have many places to go, many appetizers to make, many pounds to gain. :-O (Just keeping it real, lol) Anyway, every year when these events start rolling my way, I’m always asked the same question–”Are you bringing the cheese ball?” And almost always, I am, because I can pull it together in about five minutes and it’s really, really good. I look like a culinary genuis and have not spent hours in the kitchen. Win, win. Here’s the recipe.

2 blocks cream cheese
1 small can of smoked ham
1 packet of dry Ranch dressing
1 cup of chopped pecans

Mix first three ingredients well. (At least a minute with the hand mixer.) Form into a ball and roll in chopped pecans. Serve with crackers. Weep with satisfaction.

What about you? Any easy go-to recipes you’re always asked to make around this time of year? I’ll pull five books from my shelf for five lucky commenters!

Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone! So, this is the weekend we celebrate our country’s Independence, the brave men and women who stand up and defend it, and the traditions are usually parades, fireworks and of course, food! I love the Fourth of July, as one of those holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving, that comes with very little pressure and expectation, and just a chance to get together with folks and have fun.

I have a love/hate relationship with fireworks. As a kid, I loved sparklers the best, especially the large or multi-colored ones, and those little weird tablets you could set a match to on the sidewalk, and it would explode into a long black snaky-thing. Too much fun. I never get tired of a big fireworks display, either, and try to see one each year, though we’re lucky enough to be able to see one of them from our house, so we can just peep out the window on years we don’t want to fight crowds and traffic. What I don’t like is when the neighborhoods are alive with the sound of firecrackers at 3am, or for several days, especially as it can spook pets. To that end, if you haven’t read it, check out this link to the Humane Society for how to keep your pets safe and comfortable this weekend.

I am not much of a parade fan, either, I have to say. I don’t go to them, but I do love the cookouts. We’ll have one with the family, but also, I have bought groceries with a mind to cooking out all weekend. Bring on the macaroni salad, the sausage sandwiches, and the lemonade! To that end, I want to share one really good dessert recipe we have made for years. I am not a Jell-O fan — it’s never been my favorite, but I love this particular dessert, so I’ll be making it this weekend. If you don’t like strawberries, you can use raspberries, too, and add in blueberries for a red, white, and blue theme! Enjoy!

Jell-O and Pretzel Dessert

Ingredients:
2 cups crushed pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tub (9 ounce size) Cool Whip
1 cup sugar
8 ounces cream cheese
2 packages (3 ounce size) strawberry Jello gelatin
1 package (16 ounce size) frozen sweetened strawberries
1 cup boiling water

Bottom Layer: Combine pretzels, butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Press into 9 x 13 baking dish and bake at 350F for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Middle Layer: Cream together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Fold in Cool Whip. Spread over pretzel crust.
Top Layer: Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in frozen strawberries, Chill until partially set, about 1 hour and spread over white layer. Chill until set and serve.

If you have any traditions, recipes, or favorite fireworks, please do share! And have a safe and wonderful weekend,

Sam

If you know me at all, you have some idea of how busy I am these days. Between writing books, the day job as a film and TV critic, and grad school, life is never short of insane. I seem to like it this way. The truth is I get bored easily, and I like a good challenge. But even I have my limits.

On top of everything I’m a wife and mom, and my one job in the house these days is to make sure there’s at least one good meal a day on the table. I used to hate to cook, but now I don’t mind so much. It’s time that is the problem. I’m working a lot of 19 hour days right now, and taking time to cook is tough. So I’ve developed some recipes that are so easy and make it look like I’ve been cooking forever. I thought I’d share some of them with you. Now mind you, I’m not into the whole lowfat, healthy thing, but here are some of my tricks.

Sunday Grilling: For two hours every Sunday I stand outside and grill enough to feed an army. I grill chicken breasts, hamburgers, hotdogs, pork chops and anything else we have in the freezer. I put these in baggies and we eat them throughout the week. I’ll add a sauce or gravy, boil some pasta (or brown rice) and throw in some veggies/salad and it’s a fast fix for those days when I’ve run out of time.

Chicken and Dumplings: This one impresses folks because it tastes like old-fashioned chicken and dumplings, but it’s the easiest meal you’ll ever make. Throw four chicken breasts in a big pot, add two cartons (6 cans) of chicken broth, and 1 tsp each of sage, cumin, minced garlic and then salt and pepper (those depend on you, but keep in mind the broth is salty already). When the chicken is cooked through (usually about 45 mins) shred it in the pot and let it cook a little more. Then put a can of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits on top of the soup and let them cook for about 10 minutes. Break the biscuits up as they boil and you’ll have bite sized dumplings. Good stuff.

Crockpot Saver: The crockpot is a busy woman’s friend. I use it at least twice a week. One of the easiest recipes I’ve made up is BBQ Chicken. Spray the crockpot with Pam to help with cleanup, then add four or five chicken breasts (depends on the size of your crowd), slice up an onion and throw that in. I like those banana peppers, but you can leave them out. Then I cover it all with about a third of a bottle of really good BBQ sauce. The good sauce is key. Then you can cook it on high for four hours, or low for six. shred it for sandwiches or leave it whole and you have some great BBQ chicken.

I make all kinds of chicken dishes this way. Add some kind soup/sauce to the chicken breasts and you have a wonderful meal in a few hours.

Well, those are just a few of my secrets. I promise to share more later. Maybe you guys could share some of your fast recipes. Oh, I forgot my favorite. Open one of those salad bags and throw in some of my grilled chicken. That one is healthy and easy.

I love Thanksgiving. I know those of you in other parts of the world may not understand, but in America it’s big holiday that is focused on two things – eating and sleeping. I don’t know about you, but those happen to be two of my favorite things. Oh, I know, it’s also supposed to be about giving thanks. And I am thankful for so many things my family, my friends and my career. Oh, my dog Gizmo just jumped in my lap. Yes, I’m grateful for my dogs too. (He’s so pushy.) In fact, I feel so blessed that it’s hard for me to sleep sometimes, which is why I need those naps on Thanksgiving day.

Seriously, how can you not nap on Thanksgiving Day? The food, from those carbs in the yams to the Tryptophan in the turkey is tailor made for snoozing. And it forces one of those drooling-on-the -pillows-zombie kind of zonks. You know what I’m talking about. If you wake up and you don’t have serious pillow case lines on your face, it wasn’t a real nap. It’s the only time I’m rude when there are guests in the house. If they aren’t gone an hour and half after Thanksgiving lunch, I have to excuse myself with a headache (all that stress of preparing the meal, ya know), curl up with a good book and then get my nap on. (It’s important to get as much rest as possible on Thanksgiving Day, because the next day is all about shopping. I’ll talk more about that in another post.)

So here’s how it usually goes down here in the Havens house:

If we’re having the meal here, and we usually are, I’m up early to make sure the turkey and the roast are on. Then I start preparing all the side dishes. I don’t have to do many of those, because it’s pot luck and the rest of the family brings sides and desserts. There are HAVENS STAPLES for every holiday. These include Cheezy Green Beans, cranberry sauce (I’ll share the recipe for my favorite in a bit) and some kind of sweet potato/yam dish. The food is put out in a banquet style, because at the minimum we’ll have 20 peeps to feed, and it’s usually more. We have family spread out all over the downstairs at various tables and it’s a blast. The more people eat, the sillier they get. My face usually hurts I laugh so much. And then everyone leaves and it’s nap time. It’s a really wonderful day.

I want to hear about how you spend your Thanksgiving Day. Do you help out at a soup kitchen? Do you have favorite foods? What traditions do you have?

To show my thanks for you guys hanging out on the Blaze Blog here’s one of my favorite recipes for Cranberry Sauce. I found it in the November 2007 issue of Domino Magazine.

Cranberry-Clementine Sauce
Serves 8-10
2 clementines
2 packages (12 oz) fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
Slice clementines thin (with skin on) and then place in a sauce pan with the cranberries, sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool before serving.

It’s so easy, and so tasty! People will think it took you forever to make.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya’ll

You’d think it was the 4th of July… This time of year brings to mind the Chicago song that embraces all that is summer. The sound of mellow music. Soft laughter. Quiet conversation. The clink of ice cubes in tall glasses. The 4th of July and family bbqs. The picture is so uniquely American. Yet there is always room for a little ethnic color, isn’t there? Say, a fresh tray of baklava placed just so between the red-white-and-blue frosted cake and hotdogs. Or Greek souvlaki served alongside hamburgers and potato salad. You can find recipes for both dishes at our www.sofiemetro.com site. Just click here if you’d like to add a little Greek flavor to this very American Holiday.

This is also the time of year for kicking back between grilling sessions to indulge in a little summer reading. And boy do we have a couple of options for you there as well! This month, www.eHarlequin.com is offering up a reprint of our Code Red title TOTAL EXPOSURE. Sinclair Reid of Romance Reviews Today had this to say about the original release, “Tori Carrington writes a riveting story with potent characters and an attention grabbing storyline. TOTAL EXPOSURE is…a must read.” Click here for more info and to order the title in both book and ebook format from www.eHarlequin.com.

Wait! That’s not all. This month our August Harlequin Blaze UNBRIDLED is also available from www.eHarlequin.com. Here’s the blurb:

Shamelessly sexy. Totally irresistible…

Carter Southard is cooling his heels in jail when classy attorney Laney Cartwright strides in on her mile-long legs to spring him. Uh-oh. This naughty bad boy’s got even bigger trouble…. Because their attorney-client privilege is about to take a sizzling detour!

The sex is hot and wild—totally unbridled! But scorching the sheets is all this guy from the wrong side of the tracks has in common with an uptown girl…right?

Romantic Times gave it a 4 1/2 star review and says, “A sexy, wonderful hero, a smart, strong heroine and a terribly interesting story combine for a book readers won’t want to put down.”

Click here to read an excerpt and for ordering info.

Finally, on this sizzling 4th, we’d like to offer you a chance to be the first to enter our July on-line drawing for a Rustic Bucket Bath Set! The info is not even up on our website yet. To enter, just send an email to toricarrington2@aol.com with the word “Drawing” in the subject line. That’s it!

Here’s wishing you and yours an explosive holiday weekend! If you have a special memory you’d like to share, or an unusual recipe, we’d love to hear it…