Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

One inescapable sign of autumn is the appearance of pumpkin-flavored everything on the market shelves. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasta, pumpkin spice coffee… the list is seemingly endless! With all due respect to fans of the currently ubiquitous orange vegetable, I’ve always associated autumn with apples: tart, sweet, and spicy. Apple cider, apple dumplings, apple and walnut dressing, and, on weekend mornings, apple pancakes. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with the baked apple pancake, sometimes called a Dutch baby, ever since trying one at a local pancake restaurant in San Diego during last summer’s RWA.   Now that fall weather is finally here—after a long and protracted summer—I’m delving into recipes, comparing and tweaking proportions and ingredients to come up with one that produces the most satisfying results: not too wet, not too dry, not too sweet, and loaded with tender spiced apples. So, straight from Casa Sherwood’s tes...

November may not be the shortest month of the year, but it always seems to fly past--possibly because it’s one of the busiest. Holidays, elections, shopping at its most insane (Black Friday, anyone?), personal challenges like the Great American Smoke-Out and National Novel Writing Month . . . finding the time to relax, reflect, and simply be in November is an ongoing challenge, even with that extra hour we regain when Standard Time resumes. This year, after a challenging summer, I’m trying to take autumn slow and easy. That doesn’t mean being less productive--while I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo, I am on course to finish my WiP this month--but rather to enjoy the journey and not stress out so much about the destination or how fast I get there. And to savor whatever comforts the season has to offer. I count cooking among those comforts. As the weather cools and the days grow shorter and darker, I find the kitchen one of the pleasantest places to be. Especially when someth...

The cloudless skies and climbing thermostat may suggest otherwise, but it’s autumn in Southern California. I can tell by the sweaters and long-sleeved shirts displayed in the department stores, the presence of pumpkin-flavored everything on supermarket shelves, and the hints of yellow and orange in predominantly green foliage. Most of all, I can tell by the appearance of Halloween decorations in my neck of the woods--er, suburbs. For years, several of my more creative neighbors, in the spirit of friendly competition, have gone all-out for October 31. (In my house, we’re lucky if we have time to carve a jack-o’-lantern.) Front lawns sprout graveyards, boasting tombstones with macabre epitaphs, skeletons in various states of assembly, and occasionally, the scythe-bearing figure of the Grim Reaper himself. Giant spiders with glowing eyes, crouching in their webs of cotton batting, are also common fixtures. And inflatables--ghosts, witches, skulls, black cats--have bec...

from Mia Marlowe... I'm so tired of summer. It's been hot and sticky and busy. I'm ready for crisp days and shivery nights. I want to see the winter constellations begin to peek over the horizon. I'm ready to break out my sweaters and woolly socks. Something about autumn just calls for a stack of books and cocooning and evenings spent before a crackling fire. Of course, it also means that winter is coming, but I'll put up with that for the glory of fall.   Of course, autumn promises to be as busy as summer as far as writing goes. I have new books coming out in both October and November. On October 7th, Once Upon a Plaid hits the bookstore shelves. It's the story of William and Kat, two people who love each other dearly, but what is a couple to do in 16th century Scotland when a laird needs an heir and his beloved wife is barren? Many tears fell on the keyboard while I was writing this Christmas story. I'm thrilled to share that Publishers Weekly gave i...

For someone who has repeatedly mentioned how much she enjoys cooking, it seems odd in retrospect that I have yet to share any recipes here.   With autumn settling in, temperatures dropping, Thanksgiving just around the corner, and people beginning to crave hearty, savory fare, now is the perfect time to remedy that. So here are three favorite, flavorful recipes that will stick to your ribs in cold autumn weather and make the house smell wonderful as they cook. (DISCLAIMER: I can't claim to have invented these recipes so much as added my own touches and innovations here and there. But I'm certainly prepared to give credit where credit is due.)     Rosemary White Bean Soup (Adapted from Ina Garten's recipe) INGREDIENTS 1/2   lb. dried white beans (Garten uses cannellini beans, but as I've always had difficulty finding those, I substitute Great Northern Beans) 2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (I usually find half a large on...

September 19 marks this year's Mid-Autumn Festival. Held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, during the full moon, this traditional Chinese festival celebrates a successful harvest, close family ties, and hopes for the future. Friends and family gather together to express thanks for their good fortune and (being only human) to pray for a little bit more, whether in conceptual or material form (wealth,  health, longevity, a spouse, children, a book contract . . . well, you get the idea!) Lotus Seed Mooncake with Egg Yolk, photo by a vlxyz Chinese culture being what it is, food is, of course, involved. Particularly mooncakes--rich, dense pastries boasting a variety of fillings, including lotus paste, red bean paste, taro, nuts and seeds, ham, and candied melon. Some also contain yolks of salted duck eggs for additional richness, though those are something of an acquired taste! Insanely caloric, mooncakes are traditionally cut into pieces, distributed among a ...

by Amanda Forester I love the beginning of autumn. I know we’re not quite there yet, but yesterday when I took a walk in the beautiful sunshine there was a certain snap to the cold breeze that told me cooler weather is on the way. I believe autumn is the most beautiful season of them all. Here in the Northwest the trees light up with blazing colors of yellow, orange, gold, and red. Of course we always have the steady evergreen trees mixed in for added color. We are not there yet, but it’s coming, and I love it! I always get excited this time of year. Maybe it is because I went to school for sooooo long I’ve been trained to consider the fall as the beginning of the year. The few days before school starts are ripe with possibility. These are the glory days before I’ve made my first mistake or gotten so far behind I crackle with anxiety. The beginning of school is always an adventure, a fresh start, a new beginning. Even when I (finally) stopped going to school, I went back and taught cl...