We are so excited to CELEBRATE FALL with mouthwatering Thanksgiving recipes and delicious EXCERPTS from today’s hottest food-loving ROMANCE writers! Hop around and fill out the Rafflecopter form on each author’s site to enter our Grand PRIZE Giveaway: a Harry & David Crater Lake GIFT BASKET Classic!

In addition to the Grand Prize, one SWAG pack will be given away on Amanda Usen's blog on each day of the hop. Visit each day for an AUTHOR spotlight and more FALL GLEE.

When the seasons change, our hearts fill with GRATITUDE. Life is grand, isn’t it? Hop with us and share your love of all things food, fall, and THANKS-giving!

November 1st is my spotlight day! I'm Bringing Thanksgiving Back and talking about my latest release SOMETHING'S Cooking. I hope you'll stop in to enter the contest, which will run through November 14th. 

Hi Everyone. 

Thanksgiving is in the air, not to mention in the oven soon.  I'm so excited.  There is something magical to me about fall.  I love walking and scuffing the leaves in front of me, the sound of the dry leaves on the trees when the wind blow, and the sheer enthusiastic colors that blaze in the woods behind my house.  And, the food, of course.  I'm salivating over turkey, dressing, the almond green beans we make every year, and all of the recipes my writing friends have posted as part of the Hungry Hearts Holiday Hop.  I'm going to share one of my favorite recipes for a Thanksgiving buffet table.  It also makes a great addition to the table everyday.  

It's Donna's Macaroni Salad.  The recipe comes from my oldest daughter's mother-in-law, and it is without a doubt the best Macaroni Salad I've ever had.  Most macaroni salads are heavy and tasteless to me, not this one.  It's so simple and light that you can eat tons without realizing it.  You can serve this hot or cold.  The secret is the small amount of mayo used, and a generous adding of dill weed.  I love dill. It makes this recipe extra special.

Here it is.  Enjoy!

Donna's Macaroni Salad

This recipe is so simple, even I can make it!!!!  :)

Ingredients:

3 cups uncooked macaroni

2/3 cup mayonnaise (Hellman’s)

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp dill weed

½ tsp onion salt

1 tsp regular salt

4-5 green onions

1 small tomato

1 stalk of celery

Cook macaroni (al dente) and drain.  Chop vegetables and combine all ingredients.  Chill and listen to the raves from your family. Serves 8-10 people.  

Hint: make more for leftovers because there won't be anything left. 

Fill in the rafflecopter form to enter the Hungry Hearts Holiday Hop Giveaway, then hop around to the other authors' sites for more mouthwatering Thanksgiving recipes!

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Halloween Hop- Tell me about your Love Potion.

Welcome to the Entangled Publishing and Indulgence Books Halloween Hop.

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/somethings-cooking

Hi. I’m Tess Banyon, you know the lifestyle guru with the new TV show?  That's me in the picture above. I was asked to write a little something about Halloween, and I’m stoked. I love Halloween.  As far as I’m concerned Halloween is the best holiday of the year.  It’s a time when Something’s Cooking in my kitchen. 

Don’t worry, I’m not burning anything, not at the moment anyway. I’m making my prized Pumpkin Loaf Recipe.  It ‘s one of my absolute favorite Halloween recipes. It’s easy to make, but it tastes as if you’ve spent forever in the kitchen. Now I know that it’s rich, satisfying and probably off my diet, but I overcome that fact by telling myself that pumpkin is healthy and good for you. Naturally, I am ignoring the cream cheese and other delicious ingredients calories that make it taste like a dream.   

Do you know the other thing I love more about this time of year than my favorite pumpkin recipe?—dressing up, pretending to be someone, or something, I’m not.  I adore putting on a costume so the candy guzzlers at my door get a trick as well as a treat.  This year I’m going to dress as a witch, and I’ve been taking lessons from a real sorceress as well to make my performance more realistic.  I don’t care what my mother says about my over-achieving personality, if you're going to do something, you should do it well.  Myy witch studies are going well. I'm finding them fascinating and am learning some new recipes, too.  I did draw the line at adding eye of newt and Mexican red lizard gizzards to my stew, however.  There is another reason I’ve been studying witchcraft though.  I’ve been experimenting with a love potion that I’m planning to use on Josh Faraday, that pesty investigative reporter who keeps hanging around. If he weren't sex-on-a-stick with a fun personality I wouldn't bother, but the more I see of him, the more I like him.  I thought a love potion might speed things up a bit.  I hope it works! But if it doesn't perhaps you can all help.  

 If you were planning a love potion what would you put in it?  

PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS AND SHARE YOUR OWN LOVE POTION IDEAS.  AT THE END OF THE MONTH, I WILL BE CHOOSING A WINNER FROM THE COMMENTS AND WILL BE SENDING YOU A SPECIAL HALLOWEEN GIFT.  

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PUMPKIN LOAF 

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

2/3 cup of flour

2/3 cup of pumpkin pie mix (Can-Libby’s or your choice)

2 Tbs. butter

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

¾ tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, pumpkin, and flour.  Grease cookie sheet. Cover with wax paper.  Pour mixture over wax paper. Spread evenly. Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool.

Mix butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Spread on top of cake to cover completely. Wrap in foil and freeze. 

Something's Cooking - Slumgullion

Hi.  My recent book from Entangled Publishing is "Something's Cooking."  This is not just a fun romance, but also includes recipes described in or used as part of the plot.  One of my favorite recipes is Slumgullion.  I know what?

It is an actual recipe, but it's more than that. It's also a way to throw together almost anything in one pot.   Use leftovers, use vegetables and meat you've bought for the one pot dish.  The ability to create something of your own is only limited by your imagination...and your cooking skill.  It's the perfect recipe for Tess Banyon, the cooking guru in "Something's Cooking" to use because she really can't cook.  See below for some info about the book, and then keep going to see the recipe.

Tess Banyon has turned her brilliant recipe and crafting ideas into a multimedia empire. Landing her own TV show throws her into a panic. If she’s not careful, the public will discover she isn’t the domestic diva everyone thinks she is.

Investigative reporter Josh Faraday smells something smoking in Tess’s world. His goal to expose the real Tess goes into overdrive when she lands a television show deal. He secures an assignment to shadow her, reporting on her program, but what he’s really doing is getting dirt for his expose. Things get even stickier when Tess’s family play matchmaker. There’s no shortage of fire between them, and after an impulsive night together, Josh discovers a story he never expected–or bargained for.

You can see it here.  http://www.entangledpublishing.com/somethings-cooking/

SLUMGULLION

The interesting thing about Slumgullion is you can make your own recipe. At its most basic, it’s a casserole or a stew of some type.  My family also calls this a Mush-pot because you just mush it around on the plate after you’re thrown it together.  This recipe is one my sister-in-law Susan makes when the entire family is in town.

(A yummy go-to casserole that my sister-in-law makes. Slumgullion is an Irish word for an ‘everyday dinner’.  Basically it’s a thrown together mash of meat, vegetables, etc.  In Susan’s case it is a thrown together mash of pasta, ground beef, Italian sauce and Cheeses.  My German father-in-law loved this and named it Slumgullion, even though it was an Italian Dish, developed by a half-Norwegian.  Go Figure! )

Ingredients:

1 package of pasta shells

1 Onion

1 lb. ground beef (You can also use turkey or sausage for a spicier flavor.)

1 pt. ricotta Cheese

1 qt. jar of Italian Pasta sauce (such as Ragu, or choose your favorite                                                           )

Few tbs. of Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

Salt to taste

Directions:

Cook shells very very al dente (They will be going in the oven also, so undercook.)

Drain and set aside

Chop onion and add to ground beef, brown in olive oil.

Mix in baking dish, shells, ground beef and onions, add 1 pt. ricotta cheese, 3 tbs. of fresh grated mozzarella cheese, add tomato sauce

Dump in casserole dish, cover with mozzarella cheese

Bake 350 until cheese melts and bubbles.

 Visit Meg Lacey at her WEBSITE and learn more about Something’s Cooking, her smoking hot Indulgence HERE.

Million Dollar Mistake Review

Hi.

Million Dollar Mistake, the first book in the Million Dollar Men series from Samhain Publishing has just come out in print format.  It has and is out in ebook format already. I had so much fun writing this book about Raven Rutledge, a bad girl who loves to give the tabloids something to talk about; and Nicholas Demetrious, who is just as determined to stop her and make her commit to one man.  Add in a snowstorm that strands them in the Adirondacks in New York, and other complications and the mix is jumbled enough for a twisted rubber band.

http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Mistake-Men-ebook/dp/B008GWOIQ6

 Here's a recent review From Socrates Book Review:

This is the first book in the Million Dollar Men series and what a fun book!  The characters were likeable people you could root for.  I loved Jackson's grandmother...she was a wonderful addition to the book and added even more fun with her matchmaking ways.  Raven and Nicholas were so good together, even though I wanted to shake both of them a few times.  LOL   Even the secondary characters were special and the readers could truly care about them.  I totally enjoyed Meg Lacey's writing style, it was sassy, romantic and sexy.  I will definitely continue reading this series.