Nancy's Notes From Florida

Get Cooking – Cool Weather Recipes
January 4, 2024

These are some good recipes to make during the cooler winter temperatures. They’re fairly simple to prepare and make a hearty meal for your family.

 

GARLIC CHEESE PUFFS 

These can be prepared ahead and refrigerated on the cookie sheet until ready for baking. They are best served warm. You can substitute fresh minced garlic for the powdered garlic if desired. 

Garlic Cheese Puffs Recipe

Ingredients

(2) 12 oz. tubes refrigerated biscuits, 10 count each
8 oz. mozzarella cheese brick
1/4 cup salted butter, melted
1.25 oz. package dry Ranch seasoning mix
2 tsp. garlic powder 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Cut cheese brick into bite-size cubes. Open tube of biscuits and place one at a time on a cutting board. Put one cube of cheese in the middle of each biscuit. Pinch seams to seal the cheese inside. Place balls on baking sheet about two inches apart.

Mix melted butter with garlic powder and 2 tsp. Ranch seasoning. Brush balls with butter. Bake cheese puffs for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 20 servings.


SLOW COOKER CHICKEN STEW 

This recipe calls for creativity. You can use any vegetables you have at home, including fresh potatoes instead of canned. It’s a good dish for a chilly day. A side salad makes a nice accompaniment.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Stew Recipe

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion, sliced
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups sliced zucchini
5 oz. can whole white potatoes, drained
½ cup dry red wine
14.5 oz. can chicken broth
1 tsp. poultry seasoning

Optional:
15.5 oz. can Cannellini beans
14.5 oz. can peas or lima beans
11 oz. can corn kernels

Directions

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Place chicken at bottom. Spread vegetables on top. Add red wine, chicken broth, and poultry seasoning. Cook on High for 4 hours. Serves 4-6.

SPIRITED ORANGE CAKE

This makes for a tempting dessert presentation to please your guests. For added color, serve with fresh berries.

Spirited Orange Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 box orange cake mix
3-3/4 oz. box instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
4 oz. Cointreau
4 oz. orange juice

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. Cointreau
1-2 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix and pudding in a large bowl. Add eggs, oil, 4 oz. Cointreau, and 4 oz. orange juice. Blend until smooth and thickened. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

Mix together ingredients for glaze until smooth. Drizzle over cake while still warm. Slice and serve.

What recipes do you like to make in the winter months?


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End of Year 2023 Recap
December 31, 2023

Happy New Year! As this year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on our accomplishments and what we want to do next. This year, I’ve checked these items off my list:

  • Published Star Tangled Murder, #18 in the Bad Hair Day Mysteries
  • Reissued all my eight backlist romance titles in new paperback editions and went wide with the e-books
  • Put Box Set Six up for Pre-Order
  • Started the process of updating Books 1-3 in my mystery series
  • Worked on a new WIP mystery novel tentatively titled Murder at Your Service 

Basically, I accomplished most of what I’d set out to do, and any unfinished items will carry over into the new year. I’ll list those goals in a separate post.

I hope my articles have entertained you and been educational as well. I enjoy relating my adventures in dining and in exploring the area. Did you know I’d kept travel journals since my childhood? I still have them stashed in a plastic bin, and I credit this journaling with getting me started in my writing career. My cross-country trips, our honeymoon to the South Pacific, a Eurail pass adventure across Europe, and a tour of Asia are only some of the entries.

Now instead, I share my explorations with you directly. However, it’s often hard to know if anyone is reading these articles unless you leave a comment.

As a test to see who’s here, I am offering anyone who reads this post a free book as a New Year’s gift. That’s right, if you got this far, then you can go to BookFunnel to download a copy of Hair Brained, my story that starts on New Years Day. Reviews are always welcome!  https://dl.bookfunnel.com/z51vot6b58

What would you like me to discuss in future topics? More writing advice? More posts about everyday life? Or a mixture of both? Please leave a comment so I know what you want and that it’s worthwhile for me to continue this blog.

Have a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year!
Nancy


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Sowing Secrets in a Mystery
December 26, 2023

It’s advisable for mystery writers to give each character a secret that may or may not relate to the murder victim. This makes them suspicious in the sleuth’s viewpoint until she can unravel what it is they’re hiding.

In Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas recent TV movie on Lifetime channel, five former soap stars reunite for a reunion show. But all isn’t as it seems in this character-driven story. (Spoiler Alert!) Two of the members have a long-standing feud. Once best friends, they broke apart when one of them moved to LA to pursue her career. As the group struggles to overcome their differences and make the reunion a success (with a budding romance between the producer and director), secrets come to light. These are the ones I remember (and any mistakes are mine):

The rich matriarch’s diamond jewelry is fake. Her ex-husband embezzled all her money and she’s broke.

The social media fashionista wears a blond wig. She’s gone natural and has gray hair.

The actress who abandoned her best friend moved to LA because her career had bombed, and she was too humiliated to tell anyone.

The health and wellness author is a junk food addict.

In writing a mystery, it helps to give each character a secret. This can be a motive for murder, or it can be an innocent secret like the ones above. Say your suspect is making unexplained payments from a checking account. The sleuth might suspect this person is being blackmailed, but perhaps instead they are funding a beloved aunt’s elder care. Or a character might disappear on regular nights of the week while the sleuth suspects they’re up to something nefarious. But they could be attending cooking school and don’t want anyone to know they want to be a chef.

These are all great examples of good secrets. They’re important to the character but do not connect the suspect to the crime. So when plotting your story and developing your characters, add in some of these hidden foibles to fool the reader and the sleuth.

Can you remember any examples from mysteries you’ve read recently?

 


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December Doings 2023
December 19, 2023

Recently, we’ve enjoyed social events revolving around—what else?—eating. This being December, we had a Hanukkah celebration where we ate latkes and brisket and exchanged gifts. We’ve visited the Disney Parks, joined friends for a wine dinner at Carrabba’s and celebrated our anniversary. Here are a few photos to highlight these events for you.

Disney Dining

Since our last visit to Epcot with lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant that I’d reported on HERE, we’ve visited the three other main theme parks at Disney World.

Tusker House in Animal Kingdom offered a character buffet. Their African-themed food was delicious. I wish I’d had room to eat more than one plateful! We saw Mickey and Minnie and other favorites while we dined. The Lion King show in a nearby theater was amazing and we enjoyed the tropical foliage as we strolled around.

     

Next, we visited the Magic Kingdom, where we ate burgers at Starlite Café, rode the train, had ice cream on Main Street, and soaked in the magical atmosphere.

     

Most recently, we celebrated our 47th anniversary at Disney Springs. We began with lunch at Wolfgang Puck and finished with dessert at the Cookie Bar in Summer House on the Lake. It’s always fun to walk around among the shops and restaurants in this lively venue. Dining reservations are a must for the full-service eateries.

   

Around Town

Around town, we enjoyed the Caymus wine dinner at Carrabba’s with friends. This was a pre-fixed four-course meal. Each dish was accompanied by a different wine. I must gain several pounds each time I attend one of these events.

         

Our anniversary night found us at Christner’s, an elegant steak place where we dressed to impress. I had to get the filet mignon accompanied by asparagus, cheesy potatoes, and sauteed mushrooms. They gave us a slice of chocolate cake for a complimentary dessert. It was lovely and we look forward to eating the leftovers for several days.

         

All this eating isn’t good for the weight, so my first New Year’s resolution will be to get back on a healthy diet. These desserts are killing me, but who can pass them up? How are you faring food-wise this holiday season?


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Chocolate Emporium
November 29, 2023

For my birthday this year, I wanted to go somewhere new and different. When I read about the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium in City Walk at Universal Studios, I thought it sounded like fun. I enjoy themed restaurants and my mouth drooled for a chocolate sundae.

 

We arrived at City Walk after paying the $30 parking fee and traveling through the extensive parking garage. City Walk leads to the two Universal theme parks so it’s a busy place. A series of restaurants and shops circle around a lake and offer plenty of choices for everyone. There’s also a movie theater and an escape room for entertainment. As you can see, our grandson enjoyed Voodoo Doughnuts.

 

    

 

 

At the appointed hour, we got seated at the restaurant that has a cool steampunk theme. There’s even a costumed guy in a robot outfit that roams around greeting children. Milkshakes are a popular item here, but I passed. Getting dessert was more important to me.

  

 

 

We ordered a chocolate almond bread as an appetizer. It tasted like chocolate cake. Then Richard and I split the Monte Cristo sandwich with chips so we’d have room for dessert.

 

Dessert was a brownie sundae that came with a lit candle for my birthday. With two scoops of chocolate ice cream, it was enough to share.

  

I loved my gifts, like this figure of a woman reading a book, cookies with my book covers, and a cruise companion book, among other items. The best gift of all was the company of loved ones and merely being here to celebrate this birthday.

  

After our meal, we entered the gift shop filled with souvenir mugs, tee shirts and hats along with cotton candy and unique jars of colored sugar and other sweets.

    

An array of artisan chocolates and macarons tempts visitors in display cases.

 

Outside, we walked around the lake until we made it to the exit.

 

It was a wonderful day spent with family in a memorable setting. Put this restaurant on your list if you want a fun experience while in Orlando.

 


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