Category Archives for "Books"

0 Cooking From My Books: Peanut Butter Blossoms

I have a special treat for you all this week! Not only is it a new recipe from my upcoming release, Shadow Of Sin (Erin and CJ’s story, for those of you who have been waiting :)), it’s specially formatted into a recipe card so you can download it and print it out!

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. In the case of Erin Flannery and CJ Kovacs, the adage is only partially true. Though a teenage Erin first caught young CJ’s attention with the delicious Peanut Butter Blossom cookies she was selling, it was her big gray eyes and shy smile that kept him coming back for more. Bake up a batch of these cookies today. Who knows who you’ll attract?

Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe Card

Ingredients:
1 8 oz bag hershey’s kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (use something like Skippy or Jif – this is not a time to go healthy!)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg, 2 T milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
granulated sugar

Preparation:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from kisses
Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, beat well.
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on an uncreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Immediately press a Kiss into the center of each cookie. the cookie will crack around the edges.  Remove cookies from the cookie sheet and place on a wire rack to cool.

0 Cooking From My Books: “Crack” Chicken

Okay, I have a confession to make… this week I am not cooking from my books. That’s because *gasp* I’ve gone through almost all of the recipes from all of my books!
Never fear, there are more to come… in my next release which will be on sale soon!
In the meantime, I’ll continue to post my favorite recipes every Wednesday for you to enjoy.
This week I’m featuring “Crack” Chicken, so named because it’s so good it’s addictive. Crispy panko coated chicken tenders paired with a sweet and tangy sauce? Yes please!

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour
2 lb. chicken tenders
2 c. panko breadcrumbs
3 large Eggs, beaten
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 c. barbecue sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp. garlic powder
Ranch dressing, for serving (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large resealable Ziploc bag, combine flour and chicken. Shake until fully coated.
Set up a dredging station: In one bowl, add panko breadcrumbs and in another bowl whisk eggs and add 2 tablespoons water. Dip chicken in beaten eggs, then panko until fully coated. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and season generously with salt and pepper.
Bake until golden and crispy, 20 to 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat, warm barbecue sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, and garlic powder.
Coat baked chicken in sauce and serve with ranch, if desired

0 Cooking From My Books: Barbecue Beef Brisket Sandwich with Onion Rings

I’m going out for barbecue tonight so I decided to spread the love. This week’s recipe is another one of Brady’s from Walk On The Wild Side. This is a hearty, messy sandwich that will satisfy all the meat lovers in your life. Serve it with a side of crispy tempura onion rings, and prepare for the best food coma ever.

Barbecue Beef Brisket Sandwiches

Ingredients
1 (5 to 6-pound) beef brisket, point cut
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup ketchup
2/3 cup cider vinegar, plus more for seasoning
1/4 cup molasses
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard powder
3 tablespoons bourbon, plus more for seasoning
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
10 potato rolls, for serving

Directions
1. Adjust the oven racks to fit a large Dutch oven; preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Rub the brisket with the paprika, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the brisket and sear well on all sides, about 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the ketchup, vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, mustard powder, bourbon, Worcestershire, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 cup water. Pour the barbecue sauce over the brisket.
3. Cover the Dutch oven; transfer to the oven and cook, undisturbed, until the meat is tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Transfer the brisket to a large bowl. Meanwhile, skim excess fat from the sauce in the Dutch oven and bring to a boil over medium heat on the stovetop. Boil until the sauce is thickened (you should have about 2 cups sauce), about 10 minutes. Season with more vinegar, bourbon, and salt, if desired.
4. Pull the meat apart into large chunks and stir into about two-thirds of the sauce. Sandwich the meat on the potato rolls. Serve with extra sauce on the side.

Tempura Onion Rings

Ingredients
Oil, for frying
2 large sweet onions, cut into 1/2-inch thick rings, thin skins removed
1 1/2 cups rice flour, plus more, for dredging
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 egg yolk
1 cup beer (use enough until you get pancake batter consistency)
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Fill a large Dutch oven or fryer with oil and preheat to 350 degrees F.
Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Crack the egg yolk into a separate bowl and break it up with a fork. Add this to the well in the middle of the flour and slowly pour in the beer as you whisk. Gradually make wider circles with the whisk to incorporate the dry ingredients from the edges – this will minimize the chance of lumps. Continue until all the dry ingredients are mixed and the batter is of a smooth consistency.
Take the onion rings and remove the thin membrane found between the layers; (otherwise the batter won’t stick as well). In a large dish add some rice flour, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Coat each ring in the flour. Dip in the batter and fry in hot oil in batches until golden. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.

0 #4EvrLove @ForeverRomance romantic recipes, part 2

By the way, both this recipe and the last one are meant to serve 2. Also, a bonus about this recipe is that it’s relatively light, so even after stuffing yourselves silly you won’t be too sluggish to get a little, uh, romantic 😉 enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with Sauteed Spinach

1 lb sushi grade ahi tuna

1 T soy sauce (plus more for dipping)

1 T Sesame oil

3 T toasted sesame seeds

1 T vegetable or olive oil

1 lb fresh baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, cut into thin slices

soy sauce

1 T olive oil

To prepare tuna:

Combine soy sauce and sesame oil, and coat tuna with the mixture.  Spread the sesame seeds on a plate and turn the tuna in them to create an even coating.  In a cast iron or grill pan, heat vegetable oil over high heat.  Cook tuna, 1-2 minutes per side, set aside on a plate to rest.

To prepare the spinach:

In a sautee pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add garlic and cook until garlic is tender and just starting to brown, 3-5 minutes. It’s really important not to let the garlic burn!  Add spinach to pan and stir until it’s coated with the olive oil.  Cook until spinach is cooked down, about 5 minutes.  Season with soy sauce to taste.

To serve, pile the spinach on two plates and cut the tuna into thin slices. Be sure to cut against the grain of the fish, or the slices will be chewy. I like to serve mine with soy sauce and wasabi on the side to dip, just like sushi.

0 #4EvrLove Recipes to Melt a Man’s Heart

When my editor first asked me to join @Foreverromance’s Valentine’s day Twitter party and talk about romantic recipes, I immediately went to my husband.  I love to cook, and when he and I were first dating, I took the whole “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” seriously.  These are his 2 top picks for what we like to call “courting recipes.”

Grilled Flank Steak with Grilled Vegetable Salsa

Note – if you don’t want to mess with the grill, this can easily be done on the stovetop on a grill pan, or using your oven’s broiler

1 lb Flank steak

2 tsp each salt, pepper, and cumin

1 red onion, cut into eighths

4 firm fleshed tomatoes, (i.e. Romas) cut in half

1-2 jalepenos, depending on how much heat you like

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 avocado, cut into chunks

olive oil

Juice of 1-2 limes

salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

1 hour before you grill,season steak liberally with salt, pepper, and cumin.  Let it rest at room temperature for an hour before cooking. Coat grill or pan with olive oil, heat to high, and grill steak to desired doneness.  Let the steak rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

To prepare the salsa:

toss vegetables will in olive oil to coat.  Using a vegetable grill pan, or under your broiler, grill or broil vegetables until they are just starting to char, about 10 minutes.  If desired, remove seeds from the jalapeños before chopping.  Chop all the vegetables roughly – you want this to be a big, chunky salsa, and add the avocado.  Season with lime juice, salt and cumin, and serve with the thinly sliced steak. Serve tortillas on the side, and voila, you’ve got steak tacos!

0 LAST CHANCE TO WIN!

Hey everyone, today is your last chance to comment or tweet me with your #resolutions progress. 2 random commenters will be chosen to win an ARC of RUN FROM FEAR and a copy of the iTunes playlist that helped inspire me as I wrote.

As for my resolutions (eating more mindfully and lowering the volume on my inner critic), I would give myself a B- on both. While for the most part I’ve made a point to put everything I want to eat on a plate and actually sit down at the table to eat it, I still catch myself picking things off my boys’ plates and walking around the house with food in my hand. And yesterday there was a bit of a cheeto incident at the park…
My inner critic has taken a back seat, but I can’t decide if it’s because I’ve brought her back down to a manageable level, or because I’m just don’t care as much about certain things right now. Hmmm. things to ponder.

0 Don’t Forget to Send Me Your #Resolutions Tweets

It’s the last week to comment here or tweet me #resolutions to let me know what your New Years resolutions are this year and if what progress you’re making.  Mine were (are) to eat more mindfully, which is a lot harder that it seems like it should be. But just this past Sunday I had half a sandwich in one hand and was digging through basket of clean laundry with the other looking for socks for my son.  That being said, I have to say I now eat 75% of my meals at home from a plate or bowl and sitting down in a chair.  Trust me, this is a huge improvement.

My other resolution was (is) to get a ball gag for my inner critic.  I haven’t managed to fully silence her, but the the volume has been turned down.  When I beat myself up about work or start thinking that my WIP is such a pile of crap that I should just throw it out and start all over, I remind myself that I have written over 10 published works, and no matter how frustrating the process is or how much trouble I have figuring out my plots and characters, I somehow manage to pull it together.   There’s no reason to believe I won’t this time as well.

And if I’m feeling a little bloated, a little wrinkly and noticing that my arms are starting to resemble a couple of easter hams, I remind myself that a)I don’t have  sports illustrated swimsuit issue cover shoot coming up b) my husband is still pretty psyched when he catches me in the shower c) my body is strong and healthy and capable of walking for miles and lifting 40 and 60 pound boys to give them bear hugs and fish kisses, and d) I’m fueling said body with delicious, healthy, mindfully consumed food that I really enjoy, and unless I cut back on that, I’m never going to have anything approaching a six pack.

Frankly, I’d rather have my camembert.

Hope you are all doing well with your own resolutions, and those of you who’ve fallen off the wagon, tell your inner critic to shut the f$%^ up and get back on the wagon!

0 #Resolutions Progress Week 2

Just a quick update for this week. So far I’ve been pretty successful about being more mindful about my food. I even managed to mindfully eat my way through a weekend celebration for a friend’s 40th birthday.  My wine consumption? Uh, not so mindful.

And so far my inner critic has been mostly silent, but that’s because I’m sort of avoiding diving into my new WIP. Circling it like a shark, too chicken to actually dive right in yet.

Oops, I think IC just called me a chicken….

You have 3 more weeks to tweet or comment to win an ARC of RUN FROM FEAR and a copy of its accompanying playlist!

Have a great week!

0 And the Winners Are:

Thank you Amanda and Na S. for providing the most stomach turning recipes! Email me your snail mail addys at jami@jamialden.com and I will get the ARCs of RUN FROM FEAR out to you as quick as I can!

0 HIDE FROM EVIL Mood Music Day 32: Alice In Chains Rain When I Die

This is the last selection before HIDE FROM EVIL hits the shelves! So tonight I leave you with another selection from Alice in Chains, and tomorrow to commemorate the release I’ll post the entire playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMm0bpbOOkU