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…