In celebration of Fat Tuesday I decided to make a King Cake.Turns out the cake isn’t so much a cake as a bread, but that doesn’t stand in the way of the dessert being delicious.Here’s my version of King Cake.
Dough
Into the bread maker put:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
One cup milk less a tablespoon
¼ cup melted butter
2-1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast (which goes in your bread maker’s yeast dispenser)
When the dough is ready, roll it out into a long thing rectangle and then fill with:
Filling
¼ cup softened butter
¾ cup brown sugar.
Mix butter and sugar into a paste and then spread on the dough.Roll the dough up jellyroll fashion and then shape into a large circle.
Bake the King Cake for 15-18 minutes in a 350-degree oven.Ice with your favorite vanilla icing.My favorite go-to icing includes:
Icing
¼ cup softened cream cheese
¼ cup of softened butter
1-1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
Milk as needed (about a 1/2 cup)
Whisk cream cheese and butter together and then alternately add confectioner’s sugar and milk. I mix in just enough milk to make the icing easy to pour but not runny.
Decorate with yellow, green and blue colored sugars!
Keeping creativity nurtured and healthy can be a challenge for writers.The demands of deadlines, family and the day-to-day details of life can make it tough to come up with new and fresh ideas.Most writers who’ve been in the business a few years have learned ways to nurture and care for their muse.For some it’s reading, for others it’s gardening or sewing and for still others it’s painting.If my muse is a little too silent, I either head into the kitchen or I unroll my yoga mat.Both cooking and yoga are calming and they clear my head like nothing else.
I discovered yoga sometime around the deadline of book five or six.The demands of sitting at the computer for long hours were taking a toll on my back and sleepless nights were becoming the norm. I’d heard a few good things about yoga and decided I had nothing to lose.
Thinking back to my first yoga class makes me smile.My back, neck and hips were so tight I could barely sit comfortably on the mat.Child’s pose was uncomfortable.And mediation…well lets just say there was no quiet reflection happening.To Do Lists and worries cluttered my mind and I found myself impatient with the silence.
But I’m stubborn (not very Yoga of me) and I stuck with my practice.Now seven years later, I practice five days a week.I cannot only sit comfortably on the floor, but have become pretty good at headstands.I now love the silence of the class, and have found that “clearing the clutter” from my mind during meditation has been a gift to my creativity.
In honor of Yoga Day USA on January 24, I encourage everyone to try a couple of simple poses.Just give yourself a couple of minutes.Turn off the phone and computer, push away from the desk and take ten, slow deep breaths.If you’ve got more time to spare, shrug your shoulders, curl and uncurl your fingers and turn your head gently from side to side.And if you can find time for a full class, all the better!
Just returned from the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Buddy, Bella and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my aunts, uncles and cousins.Unlike most clans, our crew doesn’t just eat the big meal on turkey day.No, we have a three-day food extravaganza that starts at Aunt Lydia’s and Uncle Sam’s for the traditional Thursday Thanksgiving feast.We have it all—sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, creamed onions, and of course lots of gravy.On Friday the star is the Oyster Roast where neighbors and friends gather to enjoy each other’s company, dozens of cover dish delights and bushels of freshly steamed oysters. We wrap up the three day gathering at Aunt Sally’s and Uncle Mike’s for spare ribs, corn on the cob, corn bread and more deserts than I can name. Needless to say, I won’t miss Weight Watcher’s on Wednesday.
Aunt Lydia’s Lemon Graham Cracker Crust Pie
Aunt Lydia uses a store bought crust but if you want to make your own she's given directions.
Crust
2 c. graham crackers, crushed
1/3 c. butter
Filling
½ c lemon juice
1 t grated lemon or ¼ t lemon extract
1 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs separated (use the yolk in the filling and save white for the meringue)
4 T sugar
Meringue
¼ t Cream of Tartar
¼ t vanilla
2 reserved egg whites
Directions.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To make the crust, crush the Graham crackers and mix with melted butter.Line a pie shell with the mixture and refrigerate until cool. To mix pie filling, combine lemon juice and grated lemon rind or lemon extract and gradually stir in sweetened condensed milk.Add egg yokes and stir until well blended.Pour into pie shell. To make the meringue, add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat with a hand mixer or whisk until whites hold a peak).Add sugar and beat until stiff, but not dry.Gently fold in vanilla and then pile on top of filling.Bake for 15 minutes.Cool and serve.
Saturday morning Buddy, Bella and I headed downtown to cheer on the racers in the Sun Trust Richmond Marathon.Our first stop was the Mile 5 marker on Grove Avenue and our second stop was Mile 20 on the North Boulevard.At both locations we listened to local bands playing festive music and caught up with friends cheering on the racers as they passed.
Feline Pal Spooky checks out Buddy and Bella who "crashed" after a long morning at the marathon.
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?It’s a question every writer has heard.And the honest answer is that I’m not so sure.But I can tell you that the plotting process begins in my subconscious long before I sit down at the computer.Inevitably, I’m flipping through a magazine, glancing at the ads and articles and before I know it there are images from the magazine that just connect to characters buried in my imagination.I can’t tell you why an image fits a character only that it does.Over the years I’ve learned to trust the muse, rip out the pictures, paste them on a board and keep all the pictures close to my desk.
Little did I know that many writers do this. Called collaging it is an effective way to begin building story characters. I spoke to my writer/artist friend Elizabeth Holcombe who has taught seminars on collaging for writers. What does Elizabeth advise?
1. Tear out magazine images without thinking too much. Just tear out things that appeal to you. Go quickly. Sort through them later.
2. Lay out your images, overlapping them, cutting them, tearing them for rough edges, and look to see common ground in them. Do they relate to one another in some way?
3. Paste or tape images onto poster board, loosely putting them in groups (hero, heroine, setting, emotions–yes, some images may just evoke emotions). If you’ve done this without laboring over the process, freeing your mind, you will be happily surprised at what comes from your creative visual chaos.
Elizabeth has created some great works of collage art. I can’t claim the same. But I’ve come to love collaging and now can’t pick up a magazine without looking for characters. So if you’re stuck, looking for inspiration, or just want to have fun, grab a stack of magazines and start ripping.
