Garbage Casserole

--Adrienne Miller


There’s an old Miller family recipe--well not that old, we did come up with it when I was a kid--called Garbage Casserole. While the name isn’t all that appealing, I gotta admit the dish is one of my favorites, and the recipe is ridiculously simple. 

Take last night’s taco dinner leftovers and layer them in a gratin dish. Pile on the cheese. Heat and eat.

I can make Garbage Casseroles out of almost anything. Leftovers from roasts and poultry can become quickie pot pies. Extra hamburger can become cottage pie. And I have no idea why anyone on god’s green earth would even think of throwing away bacon. I would crumble that stuff on anything. 

Maybe it was my solidly blue-collar upbringing--or, let’s be honest, present--that gave me my mind set on leftovers. Waste not, want not. Hell, it’s more than a dish, it’s a philosophy.

I’ll admit, it’s a way of thinking that can get out of hand. My grandmother was hoarder. Not as extreme as some you see on tv, but still, pretty bad. Whole rooms were filled with old clothes and drawers stocked with those little soaps you get in hotels. The shed was packed with crumbling tools that were decades past their usefulness. 

I sympathized with her obsession with keeping things. She came from a poor I have a hard time understanding. A rural Upper Michigan during the depression kind of poor. Think Charles Dickens, only less populated.

It makes me sad to think that once she finally go to the point in her life where she did have stuff, she was so plagued by the fear of losing it. On the other hand, it kind of makes me sad to think of those who live in such abundance that they never know how precious those things that they thoughtlessly toss out are.

Maybe that’s why I like the idea of Garbage Casserole so much. You use it all up, but you don’t waste. Yeah, that’s a thought I like a lot.

Drown your Leftovers in Mole

--by Juliet

First: We have a winner of Rochelle Staab's debut novel, Who Do, Voodoo? Linda Jay, you're the winner! You'll be receiving your book and pen soon!
Now, on to leftovers...

They say all the stories have been told, and that our task as writers is to come up with fresh ways of telling them. I see leftovers in that light.

Unlike some other Pens I could mention, I was raised to use leftovers for something fun and exciting the next day. My mother was from a Cajun family, and boy could she turn just about anything into croquettes: fish, chicken, broccoli...she was gifted. And my father was the soup king -- everything went into the pot. And I mean, everything.

This was how I was taught to cook: not by finding a recipe and buying the ingredients -- that was cheating. No, we were trained to poke around the cupboard and the fridge and "come up with something." The challenge was to make the leftovers so interesting and tasty that no one recognized them.

So I have an idea for all those tedious post-Thanksgiving leftovers out there: Mole. Keep a jar or two on the shelf; it's as easy as, well, mole from a jar.

Mole (pronounced mole-AY) comes from mulli in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Though the Aztecs were devastated by the arrival of the Spaniards (and European diseases), they did not disappear. Their descendants, the Nahua Indians, survived, as did their language and much of their culture, especially culinary traditions.Mole simply means “sauce”--which is why it’s fun to see it referred to on menus as “mole sauce”. Guacamole, for example, literally means avocado sauce.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of different moles in Mexico. Like curries from India, In Mexico many a region or inventive cook (or family matriarch) maintains their own secret recipe, a complex combination of spices and ingredients.

The version most commonly known in the US is the poblano or “chocolate” mole, which includes unsweetened cocoa as one of its many ingredients. But there are also black, red, yellow, colorado, green, almendrado, and pipián (pumpkin seed) moles, just to name a few.

Moles might include walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin or other squash seeds, bread crumbs, sugar, orange juice, cilantro, fruit, plantains, garlic, onion, cinnamon, chocolate, and a variety of other spices. Most include several chili peppers, especially ancho, pasilla, mulato and chipotle.

Moles do what tasty, spicy, flavorful sauces all over the world are meant to do: they enhance -- or disguise-- whatever it is you’re eating. Bored with Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing and gravy? Shred or chop your turkey, mix it with mole, wrap it in a tortilla and it’s a whole new taste treat.

And once you've eaten your full, get back to writing that story: add some new spices, give it a little kick, and tell it in your own unique way.
Because guajolote en mole might start out with Thanksgiving leftovers, but it ends up being so much more.

El Sobrante

When I was young (very young, the kind of young that remembers looking up at the phone hung on the wall), we lived in El Sobrante, California. I remember practicing it: Ell So-BRAWN-tay. It was Spanish, my parents told me, for the Leftover. The land was the leftover bit of a ranch, parceled off after Mexico gained independence from Spain.

This fascinated me. Unless it was twice-baked spaghetti with a golden cheese crust, I could spot a meal on its second time around from twenty paces. No one liked leftovers. No one could.

So why then was my pretty little town called the leftover? Didn't they know about our library with the tall dark stacks full of books I would someday read? Didn't they know that our house had the best climbing tree ever? And that our school had the crunchiest tater tots I'd ever had in my whole life?

We didn't live in El Sobrante for long, not more than three or four years, I think, but it stuck in my mind as firmly as the phone number we had there, the very first number I ever memorized. And I wasn't the only one affected. When we moved overseas to Saipan when I was a teenager, my father decided to build a boat. Now, he's a talented man, a good builder. But no matter what, building a boat is…tricky. And he was doing it on the cheap with parts gleaned from wherever he could beg, borrow or steal them. So when the boat was finally put together in a form that looked like it might repel water, he christened it the El Sobrante (redundant article and all). He loved it, and the family spent many happy hours on the lagoon bailing water using old milk jugs.

And when SuperTyphoon Kim smashed the island and left slivers of his boat literally hanging from the trees on the Garapan beach, my mother put screwdrivers into my and my sisters' hands, sending us to rummage under palm fronds. "Watch out for scorpions," she said. "Bring back the metal. The bolts and screws, anything you can find."

That Christmas, Dad unwrapped his present from us. In a plain white envelope, he found the hardware of his boat. The label said, "Seeds of the El Sobrante II."

Leftovers. They can surprise you.

Leftovers? Not On My Watch!

by Sophie

LEFTOVERS

Here is something you'll almost never see at my house - a full refrigerator. This photo was taken after Thanksgiving, before I'd had time to sneak in and toss it all in the trash.



I hate leftovers.

I used to be afraid to admit this. I've encountered too many people who find it a moral failing, akin to throwing pop cans into the trash instead of recycling, or killing weeds with kerosene - disrespectful to a struggling planet. And I suppose there's something to be said for that point of view, because if I'd just eat the damn things instead of getting rid of them the minute the rest of the household isn't looking, I suppose I could save time and money and more than a few bags of potato chips.

But trust me, any gains to be had from ingesting last week's lasagna or yesterday's chinese food are FAR, FAR outweighed by my discomfort - nay, revulsion - at the prospect.

I know exactly why I feel this way. Suffice it to say it's highly personal, dating back to formative years with people who either allowed food castoffs to grow into colonies of mold, or else worked hard to wedge recycled cottage cheese and yogurt containers full of foodstuffs into every square inch of the fridge (sorry, Dad! very proud of you for being an early Greenie! But YUCK!)

Bliss, to me, is a clean fridge with no discernible odor and so few items on the shelves that it looks like an art installation. Over time I found out I'm not alone. Like so many emotionally weighted issues, it all seems to trace back to one's past, and to skip generations. Those reared with abundance (or out and out visual/olfactory assault, as the case may be) seem to prefer paucity. Those who had to deal with barren shelves (like my own poor children) grow up to hoard vast stores, comforted, I suppose, by the prospect of never running out.

Remember that back page of Bon Appetit - for all I know they're still doing it - where they ask a celebrity what three things are always in her fridge? And how everyone always mentions champagne? Seriously it was like, "tempeh, green peppercorns, and CHAMPAGNE" or "bacon fat, canned frosting, and CHAMPAGNE" or even "spermicidal gel, larvae, and CHAMPAGNE"....well, honestly, my fridge always, always has a bottle of champagne rolling around somewhere. My other two items would be heavy whipping cream (for my coffee) and butter. What about y'all?

Staindrop Winners!

Thanks to those of you who commented last Monday! You all win a copy of my paranormal erotic romance novella, Staindrop! So toni in florida, William Doonan, and fishgirl182 please send your email addresses to lgcsmith@lgcsmith.com and tell me what format you'd like: Kindle, Nook, or anything else.

To everyone who bought a copy, thank you so much!

Who Do, Voodoo? Welcome Rochelle Staab!

Today we're happy to invite Rochelle Staab to join us here at the Pensfatales -- Rochelle's debut novel, WHO DO, VOODOO? has been garnering praise left and right. Leave a comment (with your email address, please) for a chance to win a copy of her new book, and a nifty pen!

Rochelle's a hoot in person, too, though as we always say...what happens at the Bouchercon bar, stays at the Bouchercon bar...

In Who Do, Voodoo? psychologist Liz Cooper dismisses the supernatural until her best friend discovers mysterious tarot cards tacked to her front door—the same cards drawn in a tarot reading the night before a death two years earlier. Liz teams up with an occult expert to track the harasser, a journey that leads them to murder and a voodoo curse, challenging Liz to question logic and set aside her doubts to unravel otherworldly secrets—or risk being outwitted by a cunning killer.

Happy Holidays! Thank you, Pens Fatales, and especially Juliet Blackwell for inviting me here to talk about presents and my new novel, Who Do, Voodoo?

Today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Thousands of people are flooding the malls (the streets, parking spaces, freeways, and check-out lines) to shop. Heading out with a list to scour for bargains is a noble and fearless move, and hurray to those who braved the crowds this morning and are already home wrapping presents while sipping spiked eggnog.

Me? Just pass me the nog. I’m already so far behind on the holidays that I’m double tasking and creating my list of presents as we speak. As a book lover and a writer, I like turning people on to my favorite novels. Books are the presents that keep on giving long after the tinsel is in the trash. And with a little coupling, books create presents with a fun theme.

For example, my recently divorced and overworked friend Beth would love Sophie Littlefield’s A Bad Day For Scandal wrapped with a 2012 calendar For Women Who Do Too Much.

A pink tool kit and a copy of Juliet Blackwell’s Dead Bolt would be perfect for Marcia, my femme fixer-upper cousin who swears there’s a friendly ghost in her house.

Best friend Trish just took up knitting, so a great present for her would be Rachel Herron’s Wishes and Stitches tucked inside a new knitting bag.

Niece Mandy loves vintage clothing. How fun to pop Juliet’s Hexes And Hemlines into an antique clutch as a holiday present.

The theme theory works for guys and eReaders too. My nephew Matt likes politics, golf, and his Kindle so I think I’ll wrap up a box of golf balls with a note that Pete Morin’s political thriller Diary of a Small Fish will be delivered to his eReader on Christmas Day. Neighbor Brant likes jazz and mystery, making him a perfect combo for a Michael Connelly Harry Bosch novel plus a John Coltrane CD (one of Bosch’s favorite jazz musicians.) Steve is a hockey nut, so I can tuck a pair of tickets into one of Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar novels.

And if anyone asks for my novel, Who Do, Voodoo? I may add a batch of brownies, a Bell, Book and Candle DVD, or a deck of tarot cards to the present for fun.

Ah, I feel better already. Pass the nog again, will you?

Do you have any clever ideas for good book/gift combos? Comment below for a chance to win a copy of Who Do, Voodoo? and a nifty Who Do, Voodoo? pen. US residents only.

Rochelle Staab, a former award-winning radio programmer and music industry marketing executive, blends her fascination with the supernatural and her love for mystery in Who Do, Voodoo? the best-selling first novel in her Mind for Murder Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Bruja Brouhaha, the second novel in the series will be released in August 2012.

Visit Rochelle at www.rochellestaab.com, or on
Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads

PRAISE FOR WHO DO, VOODOO? --

"The first in the Mind for Murder mystery series set in Los Angeles grabs your attention from the start with creepy tarot cards, voodoo priestesses and cursed spell books. A fresh and entertaining premise for a new series that is cleverly plotted and executed."
 —RT Reviews (4 stars)

Let Staab's debut cast a spell over your readers with its spirited pace, likable heroine, and Los Angeles backdrop. VERDICT: Staab sets her fairly sophisticated blend of the occult in a flashy West Coast locale for great escape reading. Fans of Juliet Blackwell and Rebecca M. Hale will get a kick out of this one. ~ Library Journal

“Didn't need my crystal ball to see into the future of this wonderful debut. A sexy, funny, and engaging whodunit set in Tinsel Town, Who do, Voodoo? is a winner.” ~ Lesley Kagen, NY Times Bestselling author of Good Graces

"A spellbinding blend of voodoo and tarot traditions, Who Do, Voodoo? is a superlative supernatural mystery." ~ Cleo Coyle, author of the national bestselling Haunted Bookshop and Coffeehouse Mysteries

“Whoo hoo! Smart, sophisticated and utterly spellbinding. This magical mystery is captivatingly clever, completely charming, and compelling from its irresistible beginning to its unpredictable end. (Who do loves it? I do!)” ~ Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning author

Presents for Me and You

by Gigi

I finished my last chemotherapy treatment last week, so I bought myself these fantastic Emma Peel style silver boots as a present to myself to celebrate.

The rest of this blog post has nothing to do with boots or awesome 1960s TV characters, but one has to get the important things out of the way first.

Instead, I'm going to explain why I've never purchased a single present off of a registry list.

I'm sorry, but I can't do it. It's too impersonal. If you're my friend and you've gotten married or had a baby since I've known you, you already know this to be the case. I might have found a gift for you on Etsy or designed something for you myself—but whatever it was, I thought of you when I saw it. That's important to me.

I realize there's a point to gift registries when people get married and have babies. People need specific items at these life-changing junctures. But in the modern world and the reality I live in, nobody was living with their parents until they got married; everyone had already accumulated more than enough stuff by the time they got married and started having babies. I want to be a part of the lives of my friends, but I don't want it to be through buying them a random product for their kitchen that has no significance except that it looked nice while they were walking around Crate and Barrel with a registry scanner.

Don't get me wrong. If one of my friends needed something they couldn't afford, I would act differently. But living in such an affluent society, this hasn't been the case. I'm spoiled with far too many objects that I don't really need, as are the people around me. Did I need those silver boots? Of course not. But they're special to me because when I was diagnosed with cancer I told myself I'd survive it and come out stronger than ever—and feeling strong and sexy like a kick-ass heroine helps me get there.

If I'm buying a present either for myself or for a friend, I want it to be personal like that. Often it's even an experience rather than a physical object. For the holidays, I take the same approach. It takes a while to find what I'm looking for, but it's worth it.

Martha's Present To You

You know how at Thanksgiving dinner you go around the table and say what you're thankful for and the pressure is high and they always start at the furthest point from you at the table and you're thinking "family" but then someone else says "family" and then crap, you have to come up with a new answer but then someone else steals "this meal" and "my friends" and "my health" and "you all at this table" and you're thinking CRAP, PEOPLE, STOP STEALING MY ANSWERS!

My gift to you this holiday season: a kick-ass list of backup gratefulness!

Things to be Thankful For If You Are Lucky Enough To Have Them

- potable water
- literacy
- indoor plumbing
- the internet
- Adele's Someone Like You
- free speech
- your adorable (insert pet name here)
- the right to vote
- Timothy Olyphant
- a job
- equality
- The Vampire Diaries
- access to first rate healthcare
- a safe place to sleep
- any first world problem

Can I also stick in a personal gratefulness plug for Gigi going into the holiday season healthy? Sure I can...it's my blog entry.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

Lisa presents...presents

My views on presents are the same as everyone else's. I like to give. I'm not so great on the receiving. But I really, really love to give presents. I spend a lot of time thinking about what the person likes. I keep notes in my phone all year long. And I frequently give books as presents.

I love books. Non-fiction, fiction (romance, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, YA), cookbooks, decorating books, coffee table books, picture books, how-to books. You name it and I probably have one (or fifty) lying around.

I literally have books in every room in my house (except the bathrooms and that's because they're too small). I have stacks on the floor in the living room and family. Bookshelves in all the bedrooms (because my kids have lots of books too). Plus bookshelves in the office and the kitchen and the family room. The Pens are getting more and more prolific so I've just about got space cleared in the office for an exclusive Pens Fatales shelf.

And since we're talking about presents, I'm going to give you a list of the most recent Pens releases so if you're so inclined you can give one this holiday season. Or if you've got a few minutes between cooking side dishes and turkey to curl up with a book or an e-reader....

LGC Smith:

Staindrop

Juliet Blackwell:

Hexes and Hemlines
Deadbolt (coming December 6th)

Sophie Littlefield:

Unforsaken
Rebirth
Bad Day for Scandal

Nicole Peeler:

Eye of the Tempest

Rachael Herron:

Wishes and Stitches
A Life in Stitches

Lisa Hughey:

Blowback

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Lisa

ps. My present for this week is the presence of my son who is home from college. I haven't seen him for ten weeks. That's a long time. I am really looking forward to spending time with him and guess what? I've got a book for him. :)

Staindrop by L. G. C. Smith

I’m very pleased to present my first ebook, Staindrop (A Paranormal Erotic Romance Novella) by L. G. C. Smith. This is an erotic ghost story that I started working on the last time I was in England. The heroine is caught between two lovers, the ghost of an Anglo-Saxon king and a very much alive English duke.


Elizabeth Jory is in love with a ghost, which kind of sucks when it comes to sex.

Rafe Crosfield, the hot physics professor she meets in York, might be the man to tempt her back into the land of the living. But when he’s making her scream and melt, who’s driving her to such mindless pleasure? Just Rafe, or is her ghost there, too?

Rafe has secrets of his own. His sexual inclinations make it hard to find the right woman. Can he convince Elizabeth, who seems perfect for him, to stay long enough to find out?

It’s a little naughty—in all the best ways. Until December 15th, you can buy it for $.99 at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and other places fine ebooks are sold. After that it will be $1.99.

It’s exciting to have a book in the marketplace again. After all, it’s been a long time since my earlier books, written under the pseudonym Allison Hayes, were published. I thought I could happily write forever in obscurity without publishing. I love writing. The process of crafting imagination, research, language and creative juice into a story fulfills me like nothing else. It’s enough.

Then things changed in my life. My husband, a teacher, is being forced into early retirement. Our income, never impressive, is going to take a killing blow pretty quick here. I no longer have the luxury of writing to please myself alone. I need the marketplace. I need readers.

Fortunately, I love readers. Readers are family. I come from an actual family of dedicated popular fiction readers, but whenever I talk to a reader I don’t know, if we read romance, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, mystery, horror, or any subgenre or combination of these, we have something to talk about. Something fun. The connection is instant. Like with family. I love readers.

As an author, my goal is to give readers a satisfying book. No going commando on editing or anything like that for me. Fellow Pens Lisa and Adrienne have read and critiqued Staindrop. The incomparable Alicia Rasley edited, and then Lisa proofread. My beautiful cover was designed by our very own Gigi Pandian’s Gargoyle Girl Productions. She did a fabulous job, don’t you think? Martha and The Alpha Division coached me, held my hand and did the file conversions that would have taken me way too long on my own. Every one of the other Pens inspires me to share my books with readers again instead of sitting on my hoard of stories like an agoraphobic dragon.


After Staindrop, I will be publishing another novella, this one a historical fantasy, Eve of All Hallows, about a young Northumbrian king looking for the Welsh witch said to possess the power to grant kingship over all of Britain. Look for Eve of All Hallows in January 2012.

I’d like to give two copies of Staindrop to readers who comment on this post. I’ll draw at random on Saturday, November 26th and announce the winners here.