Monday Miscellany: Family, Blogging, and Breakfast

My mother came to visit! She's here for two weeks and we're planning things like a day trip to Paris, another to Idar-Oberstein, bowling, swimming, and tomorrow we're going to the Fasching parade in a local village. Maybe I'll have some pictures to share next Monday. I enjoy my mother's visits. So, too, does my husband. Don't worry--I told him that it's weird. He said, and I quote, "But she cleans the house!" We all got a good laugh out of that. (My sister's husband is the same way. Something about Mom having an extra thirty years of experience keeping house and looking after kids means she's better at it.)

Needless to say, I'm not expecting to get much "work" done, but I am certainly hoping to. I have two posts in the pipeline: one on the reader as as customer, and one on self-publishing software essentials. These are both drafted, they just need some editing and links thrown in. I know I've been a bad blogger lately. I've been a bad writer and pretty much everything. Things will be back to normal soon, though.

In the meantime, I'm going to point you in the direction of a brunch cake recipe. I made this one last night and it is delicious. Light, not too sweet, and I am pretty sure the strawberry can be replaced with blueberry, blackberry, or apricot with results just as delicious.

Monday Miscellany

That is maybe not the best picture of the mushroom sauce I made one night last week, but it's the only one I took. I'm not a food blogger, can you tell? Anyway, because it's Monday and because I'm really proud of that recipe, I wanted to share it. We had it over plain grilled chicken (very plain, seasoned only with a bit of Worcestershire sauce, some liquid smoke, salt, and pepper) and my husband went back for seconds to have it over mashed potatoes. It's really, really good. I plan to try it this week or next over egg noodles. Maybe next time, I'll even add some Swedish meatballs or something.

Versatile Mushroom Sauce

1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped bunch onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups beef broth (can sub chicken/vegetable if desired)
3 teaspoons parsley
2 teaspoons dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons half & half (milk, cream, or sour cream if desired)
cornstarch or flour (if desired, for thickening)

Saute the mushrooms and bunch onions in the olive oil until tender. Add broth, parsley, dill, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat and let it simmer, allowing it to reduce. Add half & half and cornstarch, then allow the sauce to thicken to desired consistency.

This sauce was literally thrown together with what I had on hand. I wanted something to make my grilled chicken more interesting and this did the trick.

In other news, I'm up to chapter seven of the action draft of the WIP and I'm about 35% of the way through The Iron Admiral: Deception. I love this book so much, it's not even funny. It's all the best parts of the Star Wars Expanded Universe plus all the best parts of my favorite Harlequin novels. Allysha and Chaka are just so... That sound I just made that you couldn't hear was a happy sigh.

All in all, it was a pretty good Monday.

Monday Miscellany

Last night, I finished my "last" round of edits on The Cowboy Next Door. I then transferred the text to a new document and started the formatting process. I'm still waiting on four betas to get back to me with their notes, so I'll make changes once I get that crit; I'll also read it out loud one last time and make final line edits and change anything that sounds awkward. Right now, I'm pretty proud of it.

This article on Facebook statuses do-and-don't is pretty good. I think it goes along with something I tweeted last night. There's an author on Twitter--there may be more than one, but I have only encountered the one--who tweets at me with a link to his book. We've never interacted in any other way. That just seems like a huge NO to me.

I am so excited! Next Wednesday, September 28, I'm going to post an interview with the fantastic Ms. Greta van der Rol to help celebrate the release of her new book, The Iron Admiral: Deception. Here's what you should do to prepare: go download The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy, read it, and fangirl (or boy).

In my quest to incorporate new dishes into our dinner menu, I made beef fajita soup last night. It actually turned out pretty well. I winged it, but here's a recipe that looks pretty easy if you're interested.

This week, look for another post on writer's resources and one on Hootsuite. I'm still trying to decide what the others should be.