Blog Bash Day 13 with Gabi Stevens + Giveaway
Aug 17, 2011
Hey, Jo,Jo. Congrats on the two years for the Book Corner. I’m so excited to be here to help you celebrate. You gave me an assignment. I’m happy to announce I finished it and the results are here.
So first, you asked me if I have any pictures of hotties. I admit it. I rarely look for pictures of my heroes. I'd rather imagine all on my own, thank you very much. But with my latest novel, AS YOU WISH, I had a definite actor in mind as I wrote it. The actor? Simon Baker. Usually my heroes are dark haired (for whatever reason, I prefer dark haired men), but for Jonathan Bastion, Simon Baker wouldn't leave my mind. He and the way he plays Patrick Jane on THE MENTALIST were the perfect fit—the outwardly casual demeanor that covers a tortured interior, the confidence he exudes, and the looks don't hurt either.
This actor thing seems to be trending with me, because as I was writing the third book, WISHFUL THINKING (March 2012), in the trilogy, I found the perfect picture for my hero again. This time it was Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds). He looks the part of Hunter Merrick, right down to the dimple in his chin. I like the rugged look.
So now I'm working on something new and wondering if I again will find a pic for hero. I've decided that it's not a bad thing. Gives me a great excuse for looking at lovely men, even if I totally love my husband. But I may just not tell him.
Then you asked me to share a favorite recipe. Really? This to a woman who nearly burned the house down boiling water? (Okay, I was making hummingbird nectar, but essentially it’s just sugar and water, and I forgot I was making it until it was smoking up my kitchen.) But here’s one that’s nearly foolproof when you need something quick and don’t want to heat up the kitchen.
~ 1 bag Dole’s Classic Cole Slaw or any other brand that’s ready to go.
~ 1 pound already cooked chicken (breast works best)
~ 1 package chicken flavored Ramen noodles (the add hot water kind—just be careful when boiling water—see above)
~ 1 can Mandarin oranges
~ ¼ cup vinegar
~ ½ vegetable oil
~ 4 T Water
~ 4 T sugar
~ dash of soy sauce
~ Sliced almonds
Open the bag and dump into bowl big enough to hold all that slaw and still have room for tossing (I use a really big one—have I mentioned I’m not a great cook and bigger ensures it stays in the bowl when I toss?). Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Put in bowl. Drain oranges and add to bowl. Open noodles. Set aside flavor packet. Break up noodles and throw in bowl. In a large measuring cup, combine flavor packet, vinegar, oil, water, sugar, and say sauce. Mix thoroughly. You can add more water, or more vinegar or more sugar depending on how it tastes to you. This is your salad dressing. Pour thoroughly mixed dressing over salad and toss. Add slivered almonds it you wish. Eat. It’s surprisingly good and easy to make—a necessary criterion for me.
And third you wanted me to share one of my favorite reads that’s a little bit older. So here is my go-to comfort read:
Bewitching
by Jill Barnett.
It’s got magic, humor, a great story, and is just so wonderful. Sigh. I may have to go pull it off my shelf again right now.
So there you have it. Readers, I know I geared this blog to answer JoJo’s questions to me, but I want to hear from you too.
So here’s my question to you: What was your most embarrassing kitchen incident? I’ll relate more of mine in the comments. Believe me, I have plenty.
One lucky commenter will receive a copy of my book, AS YOU WISH (trust me, you do not want me sending you cookies or something). I’m donating ten percent of my royalties from AS YOU WISH to Best Buddies International, a group dedicated to building friendships for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Find out more about them at www.bestbuddies.org.
--Gabi Stevens
www.GabiStevens.com
www.GabiStevens.blogspot.com
Find me at Twitter and Facebook
 |
| Simon Baker |
This actor thing seems to be trending with me, because as I was writing the third book, WISHFUL THINKING (March 2012), in the trilogy, I found the perfect picture for my hero again. This time it was Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds). He looks the part of Hunter Merrick, right down to the dimple in his chin. I like the rugged look. So now I'm working on something new and wondering if I again will find a pic for hero. I've decided that it's not a bad thing. Gives me a great excuse for looking at lovely men, even if I totally love my husband. But I may just not tell him.
Then you asked me to share a favorite recipe. Really? This to a woman who nearly burned the house down boiling water? (Okay, I was making hummingbird nectar, but essentially it’s just sugar and water, and I forgot I was making it until it was smoking up my kitchen.) But here’s one that’s nearly foolproof when you need something quick and don’t want to heat up the kitchen.
Quick Chicken Salad
~ 1 bag Dole’s Classic Cole Slaw or any other brand that’s ready to go.
~ 1 pound already cooked chicken (breast works best)
~ 1 package chicken flavored Ramen noodles (the add hot water kind—just be careful when boiling water—see above)
~ 1 can Mandarin oranges
~ ¼ cup vinegar
~ ½ vegetable oil
~ 4 T Water
~ 4 T sugar
~ dash of soy sauce
~ Sliced almonds
Open the bag and dump into bowl big enough to hold all that slaw and still have room for tossing (I use a really big one—have I mentioned I’m not a great cook and bigger ensures it stays in the bowl when I toss?). Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Put in bowl. Drain oranges and add to bowl. Open noodles. Set aside flavor packet. Break up noodles and throw in bowl. In a large measuring cup, combine flavor packet, vinegar, oil, water, sugar, and say sauce. Mix thoroughly. You can add more water, or more vinegar or more sugar depending on how it tastes to you. This is your salad dressing. Pour thoroughly mixed dressing over salad and toss. Add slivered almonds it you wish. Eat. It’s surprisingly good and easy to make—a necessary criterion for me.
And third you wanted me to share one of my favorite reads that’s a little bit older. So here is my go-to comfort read:
Bewitching
by Jill Barnett.
It’s got magic, humor, a great story, and is just so wonderful. Sigh. I may have to go pull it off my shelf again right now.
So there you have it. Readers, I know I geared this blog to answer JoJo’s questions to me, but I want to hear from you too.
So here’s my question to you: What was your most embarrassing kitchen incident? I’ll relate more of mine in the comments. Believe me, I have plenty.
And I’d like to help JoJo celebrate some more with a
*~* Giveaway *~*
One lucky commenter will receive a copy of my book, AS YOU WISH (trust me, you do not want me sending you cookies or something). I’m donating ten percent of my royalties from AS YOU WISH to Best Buddies International, a group dedicated to building friendships for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Find out more about them at www.bestbuddies.org.
--Gabi Stevens
www.GabiStevens.com
www.GabiStevens.blogspot.com
Find me at Twitter and Facebook
To enter the giveaway Answer Gabi's question above
*** Giveaway ends tomorrow night 8-18 at midnight, winner named here
Don't forget to check out the
above, for all the giveaways, and ways to enter
to win prizes all week and all month
Posts
31 Hottie Follwers Thoughts:
Thats a really cool Chicken Salad recipe, I will have to try that.
Most embarassing kitchen ordeal and first date with a wonderful lady.
I was cooking for some friends. Homemade Spaghetti sauce and noodles with grilled ciabatta bread. I was dishing the sauce up which just happened to be very hot. Walking into the dining room I slipped and the sauce, hot sauce, went down her back, yes the first date lady, into her hair, on her very expensive dress, she screamed, I screamed, we all screamed. The date ended at the hospital. Think goodness no serious burns but it's something I will never forget in my life and has always been on my mind everytime I cook, and go to Italian resturant. Relationship did not work out but it's something in the long run we giggled about.
Well, it would have to be one my sister and I pulled off together. Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago we swore and cursed because the turkey appeared to contain no giblets. We searched hi and low in that bird, decided they were lost and popped it in the oven. Low and behold, when my husband made the first carve, they appeared. Ew..
Hmmm, well I don't really cook that much but I did help my mom one year making christmas desserts and I had to make this one dessert for my grandpa (who's diabetic) but I'm pretty sure I forgot an ingredient because it ended up tasting awful and no one ate it when we brought it to my cousin's house for Christmas. That's why I don't really cook all that much :) Thanks for the giveaway!!
teddybrgrrl@sbcglobal.net
It was last Thanksgiving dinner. I had pre-heated the oven for the turkey. When I returned to the kitchen it smelled like burning rubber. I opened the oven to find a large magnet had been inside and was now melted to the oven wall. It took me almost an hour to get it cleaned off. The smell finally faded after three hours of turkey cooking time. Our dinner was late but tasted fine. So i guess I really lucked out.
vsloboda(at)gmail(dot)com
I tried a piece of shark steak at a tasting and thought wow thats not bad. All they did was grill it, thats not hard. Got the steak, grilled it just fine. However the kitchen smelled like seafood for about a month, did not air it properly while cooking. After that didnt really want it ever again.
bacchus76 at myself dot com
Can't believe I am going to say but here we go.....A friend came into town that I haven't seen for a few years. We decided that spaghetti sounded good. I get the water all ready, it starts to boil and instead of putting the noodles in, I proceed to "drain" the water. LOL We laughed about that for hours later. Til this day she asks me how my "spaghetti making skills are". Lol Thanks for the chance.
sariahwalters at gmail dot com
Thanks for owning up, friends. I once offered to cook for my future father-in-law and his long-term girlfriend (they have since married). I decided to make a Hungarian meal of gulyas ( a hearty stew) and palacsinta (crepes). I was living in the college dorm at the time, so my husband brought his dad's crock pot for me (since that's how he knew stew was made). My mother has NEVER owned a crock pot and I had never used one, but I thought I would try. Eight hours later, the stew was still uncooked. The palacsinta attempt went just as well. I couldn't, for the life of me, get the batter to congeal (yes, congeal is the right word when speaking of my cooking) and all we ended up with was a mess. To this day my father-in-law says that's when he knew I was a keeper, and his (now) wife says she knew she liked me. I'm still mortified.
I don't really cook for others, I bring desserts.
The first turkey I ever cooked was eaten by my 6 lb., 14 year old cat. Just touching poultry grossed me out(still does)and I forgot to take out the giblets so there was a slightly weird smell. The cat was in heaven and finished it (12-14 lbs) in a 5 or 6 days.
I decided to grill fish. Apparently, not all fish are grillable. Who knew? The little fillets cooked all right, and disintegrated on the grill. We had fish bits, heavy on the charcoal that night. Gross. I already have this book, so no need to put me in the drawing. Good luck everyone.
I don't cook much so I don't have many embarrassing kitchen accidents. One time, when I was scooping up flour, I dropped the cup and flour splattered everywhere and into my hair as well.
angeldream3[AT]gmail[DOT]com
I don't cook all that much, so it's hard to think of my most embarrassing cooking accident, but I guess it was the last time I tried to bake a cake and it stuck to the pan and ended up all lopsided and no one wanted to eat it.
Barbed1951 at aol dot com
omg I once tried making Scones and they turned out so flat that my family called them Scookies, because they looked more like cookies then scones, my family still make fun of me for those - lets just say I have not tried to make them again :)
xander_316(at)hotmail(dot)com
I was trying to cook Chicken-N-Dumplings in my Slow Cooker. I added all my seasonings and lots of black pepper. It smelled good but was too hot because of the black pepper. I didn't think black pepper was like hot peppers. You add too much and it gets hot. I thought that you could add a lot and it not affect it. My bad. I was embarrassed. Everyone still rags on me every time I cook Chicken-N-Dumplings. It was a mistake I only made once.
I have to admit, xander_316, I laughed at the Scookies. I once made another Hungarian dish that's supposed to have a little burn as it goes down. I was bragging that I can eat spicy because I'm Hungarian (I really can't). I made it so spicy that it was inedible. My husband tried because he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but it was really inedible. Hubris.
I think the time I gave my friend food poisoning with shrimp. Yeah, I had it too. We have laughed about it for years.
jepebATverizonDOTnet
I was making cookies or brownies or something and the flour canister ran out. I decided to refill it myself - something I am not allowed to do. I was very careful opening the bag and easily upended it into the canister, only to find out that the canister can only hold about 2/3 of the bag. I had to call my mom down to help and she just stood there laughing at me for a moment. The most embarrassing thing? I was 26 at the time.
rickimc[at]aol[dot]com
When I was a teenager my mom put eggs on the stove to boil. She got a phone call and had to go pick up my brother.She reminded my to watch the eggs. Needless to say I got caught up in the tv and forgot about them. Next thing I know is I am hearing this popping sound kinda of like popcorn. You guessed it. The eggs ran out of water and kind of exploded. My mom has never let me forget that. Even as I boil eggs today I still laugh at what I did then.
koonie2888 at yahoo dot com
I was cooking Apricot Chicken for my then boyfriend. As I took it out of the oven I dropped it all over the floor. I knew the floor was clean & thought I could salvage it, until I saw his face as I did.
Not a keeper, too precious by half.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
What is it about kitchen disasters that will haunt us and be memorable throughout the years. As I have had a number of years there have been oops occurring for a while :) My furthest memory stems back to when I was a child and decided to make dinner for my daddy. I so wanted to impress him and considering it was the summer between second and third grade, I think I can be excused. I made him fried shrimp. These were special, beautiful shrimp, that I neglected to take the shells off before frying oops. My dad the trooper told me I might want to take the shells off the next time and ate the shrimp anyway. Thank you for sharing today and for the wonderful giveaway opportunity.
dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com
Hi Gabi, thanks for sharing with us all today. Simon Baker is looking mighty good there. :)
A kitchen disaster I had many years ago was when my 7 kids were little. My brothers and their wives were coming for dinner because I was a pretty good cook. I had had a stressful day since it rained and all the kids were antsy to say the least all day. Anyway, I was cooking spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausage and instead of putting in the Basil I wasn't looking and grabbed the Vanilla sugar instead. :) When we sat down and started to eat everyone started in and froze just about the same time as the kids continued to "eewe" all over the place. It was a disaster and we had to call for Pizza.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
I left a bowl or something on top of the stove and it caught fire. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
My most embarrassing moment in the kitchen....that's a tough one since my most embarrassing moment happened at school....so, I'm gonna tell that story.
I was in 7th grade I went to this private school because I was undiagnosed ADHD and my parents knew I'd fall through the cracks in the public system. The kids told me the word "gullible" was no longer in the dictionary so I went to the library and got the dictionary can came back to show them the word. They all laughed saying that was an old edition and the word had been taken out of the newer edition and I believed them.
Alas, I'm still fairly gullible.
Great stories. One more from me. I needed to make Christmas cookies one year. They didn't work out, so last minute I bought Keebler Fudge Sticks, green icing and red hots, decorated the tops of the fudge sticks with a free-form Christmas Tree (my drawing is better than my cooking, but not by much), and served those.
My most embarrassing kitchen experience wasn't even when I was cooking. Well, kind of I guess. I had just got done cooking spaghetti (jar sauce so nothing special) I was carrying the sauce from the stove across the kitchen to the counter and the handle twisted sending the contents of the pan over the edge. Well I tried to correct it and ended up dumping the entire pan of spaghetti sauce all over the kitchen floor. My hubby had just walked into the kitchen when this happened and he was laughing so hard, I thought he was gonna land in the mess :D I didn't think it was too funny since dinner was ruined but when I look back in it...I tend to chuckle :)
My most embarrassing kitchen moment: I was in college, and hadn't learned how to cook yet (I've only just started that now, when I'm in my late twenties).
I was making ramen, as college kids do, and got distracted by a roach my cat found. I went off to kill the roach, forgetting that I had left the plastic spoon on top of the pot of boiling ramen, and the spoon started melting down the pot, on both the inside and the outside. I panicked, because it was a gas stove and I didn't want melting plastic to get into the flames, and grabbed a handful of paper towels to wipe it off. Of course, the paper towels caught fire. I ended up just dumping the whole mess - pan, plastic, spoon, and burning paper towels - in the sink and running water over them until everything went out. It smoked for a while, and the apartment smelled like burnt plastic for days.
My boyfriend at the time forbid me from cooking ever again.
No need to enter me in the giveaway, as I already have Gabi's books!
You know since I'm a terribel cook most my kitchen disasters are all embarrising! LOL! I burn toast to over cooking pasta all the time. I'm always dropping things too! I dropped my sisters grill cheese into a pot of boiling corn on the back burner once. I never told her! I just stuck it back on the hot the griddle to dry it out! LOL! Thanks for sharing with us!
evjochum[AT]aol[DOT]com
This one time I was frying something in a pan and the oil caught on fir. I was totally freaking out Because I couldn't put it out with water and the smoke alarm was going off and I was afraid of burning the house down. I ened up carrying the pan out back and piling dirt on top of it.
And there have been other times. For example, I have broken 3 microwaves before by catching them on fire.
ruby95660[at]yahoo[dot]com
I have gotten a lot better when it comes to cooking. My most embarrassing incident was screwing up hard boiled eggs. I had started making them and then forgot and left the house. All the water was gone from the pot and one egg had exploded. My mom wasn't too thrilled with me since I was still living at home at the time. Thanks for the giveaway!
beckerjo at verizon dot net
My dad and I were assigned the task of making the pumpkin crumb cake (a three layered cake) for Thanksgiving when I was about 17 or 18 and we had it all put together and ready to go in the oven. But as we went to place it in the oven it got dumped all over the oven door. It was too late to go buy more ingredients so we scraped it all back in the pan and cooked it up.
Later after dinner when everyone started eating it and commented it was the best pumpkin crumb cake EVER and asked what we did different...we about died of laughter!
mmafsmith at gmail dot com
I fixed country style steak for supper. The whole time I was frying the steak I kept getting a smell that wasn't quite right. I double checked the date from the pkg of meat and it was fine. The raw steak smelled fine.
Well, when my daughter and husband sat down to eat, both of them were like "what did you fry this steak in?" It did have a sweetish taste to it. Instead our flouring the steak in flour, I had floured it with powdered sugar. While my hubby ate it, he said he didn't think he wanted candied steak again.(lol) Went the next day and got my glasses updated.
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alterlisa AT yahoo DOT com
http://lisaslovesbooksofcourse.blogspot.com/
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