Before you get started preheat the over to 375 degrees.

Let the roast come close to room temperature before you put it in the oven. It is quicker for the roast to get to the desired temperature if it starts closer to room temperature.

Heat up a skillet with a tablespoon of oil. Then when the skillet is screaming hot you can sear the roast in the oven. This will give it a lot of extra flavor to the mix and it will help get the roast started as well.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a small cup or bowl. Put the roast on the rack fatty side up. Do not cut all the fat off, this will render in the oven and provide a lot of great flavor. spread all the seasoning over the roast and then put it in the preheated oven.

The roast should cook for about an hour. After an hour turn the oven off and just let the roast come up to temperature without any extra heat. Be sure to leave the door shut as much as possible so any extra heat does not get out. 30 minutes before serving turn the oven back on to finish a nice crust on the roast. When you take the roast out of the oven let it sit for about 10 minutes so all the juices can redistribute evenly. The internal temperature you are looking for is around 145 degrees.

If you want to make a gravy you can take the drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan and you can heat them in a skillet. You can then vigorously stir in a tablespoon of flour at a time until it is all mixed in until you get a gravy consistency.

I love to cook. I have been cooking for a long time, and recently the new wave of interest in organic food has been an exciting development for me. Organic foods are not only better for one’s body and the environment, I believe they also taste better. I decided to grow a garden in my backyard recently. My garden is grown without the use of any synthetic pesticides or industrial fertilizers. Instead, I choose to grow my vegetables the all-natural way- using ladybugs against mites and aphids, and worms to essentially “till” the soil, aerating it and allowing water drainage. I only use pesticides when absolutely necessary.

Home grown organic produce is a great way to be environmentally friendly. My limited use of synthetic pesticides do little damage to the soil, and there is no harmful runoff to any streams or other water sources. I am very careful as to how much water I feed the plants, trying to avoid the hottest times of the day. The tomatoes and lettuce I grow may be smaller than the ones sold at the local supermarket, but they are a noticeably brighter color, and since they are picked when ripe, have a fuller taste.

I love using home-grown produce. I also use the hydroponics growing method for other vegetables and fruits. I have been trying to grow peppers as well. Since peppers require nutrient-rich soil that is well-draining, I purchased a grow tent and all the necessary equipment, and set the tent up in my garage. The grow tent I chose is of average size- I didn’t want one that was too large, and I wanted to grow a variety of peppers, so it couldn’t be too small, either.

So far, with a lot of tender loving care, the lettuce and tomatoes in my garden are growing beautifully. The peppers in my grow tent are also growing, but the red bells seem to need a little more attention. They take a lot more of certain nutrients, and I need to water them regularly and consistently. Fortunately, the grow tent provides the right amount of heat and light, and since I’m home most of the time, I can water them fairly consistently.

After spending all the time and effort on growing and harvesting the home-grown produce, it’s very exciting to be able to use them in my recipes. After almost three and half months of being inside a grow tent, the peppers emit a sweet odor, and are smooth and a bright red in color. I like to make different kinds of salads and appetizers. My friends and family do notice the difference in taste. They admit that the peppers I grow are much sweeter than the average peppers from the supermarket. It’s very rewarding to see my loved ones enjoy, literally, the fruits of my labor.

The rise in popularity of organic foods also makes it easier for me to purchase organic foods. Since there is a market for them, a lot more markets do seem to carry organic produce, and there are more Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods around these days than there were ten years ago.

Though I do understand the need for conventional farming methods, since cost and production is always a cause for concern, as a cook and as a person who cares deeply about the environment, I would love to see more demand for sustainable farming methods, and more widespread consumption of organic foods. I believe that families with children should consider the impact of consuming foods with chemical residue in them, especially when the health and safety of children are involved.

I have found that growing my own produce- both by outdoor gardening and indoor using the hydroponics method- I have been able to harvest and enjoy healthy, chemical-free fruits and vegetables. And as someone who really loves cooking- I enjoy the fresh taste, and seeing the beautiful color of a fully ripe tomato and pepper.

The author invites you to visit http://www.greenthumbdepot.com for more information on hydroponics and indoor gardening.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Miles_Owens

Just as Cirque du Soleil redefined what a circus act is, magician Joel Ward has brought contemporary style to the venerable show biz art of magic.His high-energy, highly original actcombines classical magic with modern touches, running the gamut from comic audience participation to interactive sleight of hand to flashy Vegas-type illusions.

Introduced to magic at the age of six when a magician at a school assembly chose him to be his on-stage assistant, Joel began performing at children’s birthday parties when he was 10. By age 15, Joel became the Current World Champion Teen Magician after placing 1st at the International Brotherhood of Magicians annual competition, the World’s Largest Magic Organization. That same year Joel was picked out of hundreds of magicians to appear on television with Master Magician, Lance Burton. The show, “Lance Burton-Young Magicians Showcase,” was filmed at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Joel currently performs hundreds of shows a year, including a gig this week at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach.

GFG:Do you cook?Can you make magic in the kitchen?

JW:I do cook! My dad was the cook in the family growing up, so I learned form him. As far as making MAGIC in the Kitchen? Maybe not. I think it’s pretty good when I am hungry, but I stick with standards. My favorite things to cook are breakfast foods.

GFG:You were born and raised in California.Are there any foods that take you back to your childhood?

JW:Yes! I grew up with my Dad’s cooking, and love the Southern California favorite, Mexican Food. The town I grew up in, Cardiff by the Sea, had this Mexican Restaurant called, Las Olas, and it has the best Mexican Food around. Other things I remember are my dad’s beef jerky, probably the best in the world, VG Donuts in Cardiff, and the world famous, “Pipes,” home of the Breakfast Burrito. You go there after your done with a morning surf and it just fills your body will greatness.

GFG:Any food you crave that you can’t get when you’re ordering from room service?

JW:All the time. Room service only has a few good things. I was living in Tahoe for a year where I was performing my show at the Horizon Casino & Resort. Since I lived at the Casino, I ordered Room Service all the time. I wish they had had better steaks and Fish, and Caviar, oh ya, and Sherbet Ice Cream. Ya that’s good. And a good fettuccini Alfredo is never a bad thing. I just remember the boring food like burgers, and chicken fingers. I think I lived off the fruit bowls for the year.

GFG:What do you eat on the days you’re performing?Do you eat before or after a show?

JW:I try to eat light on performing days. There is nothing worse then eating something heavy and wanting to fall asleep during the show. I normally start the day with a cup of coffee and something light to fill my stomach like an omelet or a bagel. Then in the afternoon I like a healthy sandwich from a place like Wholefoods or Henry’s. They have fresh avocado and good breads. Then before a show I usually have a small salad or sometimes just an orange. The orange gives me natural sugar, which I like because it gives me this burst of energy when I run out on stage.

GFG:You’re on the road a lot.Are audiences different in different cities?Countries?

JW:Yes! Every city has a different vibe. I just got back form doing a run of shows in a small town of Savanna, IL. The audiences were very quiet and conservative. Vegas has crazy audiences, mainly drunk, Lake Tahoe had a mix of the two, California usually has very fun crowds, depends on where you perform. But I think I loved performing down in Brazil the best. The audiences down there were not use to seeing magic performed live. So when it happened right in front of their eyes they were super excited. I love watching the reactions of people. It brings me back to when I was six years old watching magic for the first time.

GFG: You just got done performing in Illinois.Any favorite restaurants you hit while you were there?

JW:There are two restaurants that stood out. Dominick and Maria’s, and Poopy’s. D&M’s is a family owned Italian restaurant. It has good everything. Poopy’s is an American restaurant, but everything you order form the menu has distinctive name: The Poop Burger, etc. It’s funny!

GFG: Your performing style is simultaneously casual and elegant (You make it look so easy).How did your style evolve?

JW:I started doing magic when I was six years old. As a kid I performed as the Kid’s-Kid Show Magician. I was able to mess up tricks and just smile because I was so young that no one cared. If I mess up now, people just laugh at me. As I grew up my style has changed. As a teenager I was able to incorporate things that I liked at the time. Today I can’t wear a tuxedo and bow tie because I wouldn’t actually wear that out. Instead I wear a nice sports jacket, a pair of True Religion Jeans, a Seven Shirt, and some Aldo’s. My style now is upbeat and fun. I don’t like to be the serious type that convinces my audience that I am doing real magic. I am up there entertaining, having fun with what I do.

GFG:You’ve been performing since you were a kid.What was your most memorable show (so far)?

JW:I have done so many shows, but I think that best one I can think of was for an Orphanage in Mexico. I was dating my girlfriend at the time who is a female magician, and we both went down there to donate a show for these kids. There were about 750 people there. We had a translator because my Spanish is not perfect. It was so much fun. These kids were so happy. I loved that show. Watching people who actually really enjoy what I do makes it all worth it, even when I am not getting paid.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Make sure oven rack is in the middle rack position. If you do not you can burn either the top or bottom of your lamb.

In a mixing bowl stir in the bread crumbs, rosemary and thyme, the garlic, salt, and pepper, mix well with the olive oil in order to create a sticky consistency. Set this aside for later.

Salt and Pepper the rack of lamb generously. Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a skillet, once it is hot you can sear the meat on all sides. this step is important because a lot of flavor lies in the crust and browned parts of the meat. Once you have a good crust going you can remove the meat from the skillet, let it rest for a few moments, then apply the mustard to the meat and then roll it in the bread crumbs and seasonings. After this step you may want to cover the exposed bones with tin foil in order to prevent charring during cooking.

Make sure to put the roast bone side down in the skillet, it will take anywhere from 10-20 minutes in the oven depending on the amount of doneness you are looking for. Feel free to use a thermometer to make sure the middle is done to your liking. Once you remove the roast from the oven be sure to give it 5-10 minutes loosely covered in order to let the meat rest. This is another important step that some people skip. This allows the juices to redistribute evenly.

Being a sugar, honey has been in the awkward position of being labelled a food product with “dubious health benefits.” Sugars, flour and salt are, after all, considered man’s worst enemies or so the saying goes. Chemically speaking and under a microscope, honey does not look different from white sugar.

The scientists have begun to look at honey with more enthusiasm recently after honey’s healing properties have been confirmed with regard to a number of medical conditions.

What exactly are they?

Honey reinforces your immune system. It attacks bad bacteria and it does it with great efficiency because many micro-organisms cannot grow in an environment with low water activity. Honey helps to produce red blood cells and hemoglobin. It helps to soothe the work of the liver, the stomach and the digestive tract. It is highly recommended for stomach pains and the dysfunction of vital human organs.

Honey lowers and balances the blood pressure. It is good for your blood circulation. It helps to lower bad cholesterol. It is good for acne. It is good for skin problems in general: cuts, burns and all kinds of wounds heal faster after you apply some honey on them.

Anything else?

Yes, honey is good for the nervous system; it is recommended for depression, schizophrenia and in situations that are highly stressful.

Taken regularly, honey with milk or warm water prevents you from catching a cold. It does away with a headache and a sore throat, too.

What exactly makes it so healthy?

It is not so obvious but it is probably a combination of things: honey is produced by bees that collect nectar from many different types of flowers. It has a number of micro-elements and vitamins such as A, B1, B2, B6, B12 and C. Honey does possess anti-oxidants such as catalase, vitamin C and chrisin.

Honey is classified according to the floral source. Most honey that is produced commercially comes from, at least, two floral sources. Its colour, flavour and density are then greatly affected.

Honey is reported to have even greater health benefits when it is diluted in warm water and left overnight. It is recommended that you take it in the morning because its healing properties are then hugely magnified.

J Rom is a writer who specializes in writing about issues as controversial as politics, religion, networking companies and ways of producing passive income at reputable and trustworthy companies with a solid track record.

In his free time he also devotes some time to writing on the subject of honey and its health benefits.
You can visit his website at http://honey and money.ws where he writes about HONEY AND MONEY, health benefits of honey and a SIMPLE WAY you can also produce residual income on the same website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Rom

My Favorite Chili Recipe

Makes 12 Servings – Cooking time 2 hours

1 lb Skirt Steak (or substitute with your favorite meat)
1 Can Dark Red Kidney Beans
1 Can White Beans
1 Whole white onion
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Green Pepper
Chili Powder
Spanish Paprika
1 Zucchini
3 Cups Favorite Tomato Soup (I use a store bought soup)
1 Can Diced Tomatoes (sometimes these come with jalapeños)
1 Can Whole Peeled Tomatoes
1 Jalapeño
Pepper
Salt

Add olive oil to pot and heat until hot. Add skirt steak and cook over medium to high heat until slightly browned. Slice garlic and onion and add to chili pot, stir in with meat and cook 3 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder and paprika. Add green pepper and zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Stir every other minute or so making sure that vegetables cook evenly. Add red beans and white beans and stir in evenly. Add whole peeled tomatoes and diced tomatoes. Cut Jalepeno into slices and add to chili. Add tomato soup and bring to a boil. After chili has boiled lower heat to low, cover and continue to cook on low for 45 minutes. Add salt & pepper to desired taste.

When I first heard about the Bacon Explosion after reading about it on The BBQ Addicts site I knew it was a stroke of genius. Meat sushi…how brilliant! At the time, I never thought I’d ever make one. But life is full of unexpected surprises. Before long, I found myself thinking about it constantly. On a daily basis actually. I thought about how relatively boring the BBQ Addicts made theirs. They were the originators so I have to hand them that but I couldn’t help but feel the Bacon Explosion could be improved. So when my friend OJ told me he was coming out to visit from NYC (he loves to eat) I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to get a few other people together and make this glorious log of meat with our own little spin on it. I expected it to be good but let me tell you, the end result was fantastic!

The Ingredients:
2 pounds of thick cut style bacon (2 packages)
2 pounds of sausage (we used beer brats)
Your Favorite BBQ sauce
Your Favorite pork rub seasoning
Pepperoni (Deli sliced thin)
Prosciutto (Deli sliced thin)
Capiccola Ham (Deli sliced thin)
Velveeta Cheese
Jalapenos (Diced Marinated)

The first step is to weave the bacon mat. You can use any brand of bacon you want but I think it’s fairly important to use thick cut bacon so that you can weave it well. Otherwise the strips are too thin. It looks more complicated than it really is…It’s relatively simple. You just lay out 6 strips of bacon going in one direction and then weave another 6 strips horizontally to form a mat.

Try to get the mat as tight as possible but don’t worry if it’s a little bit loose.

Next throw some pork rub seasoning on the mat to give it some flavor. I used some Famous Dave’s Pork Rub.

Now it’s time to add the sausage layer. We used Johnsonville Beer Brats for the sausage. All you have to do is take a sharp knife and slit the casing lengthwise down the sausage so you can peel it off.

Once the casing is peeled off you can start pressing the brats down on to the bacon mat. One sausage actually fills up the mat from end to end so it’s perfect.

Fill up the mat with a thin layer of sausage. I left the last sausage whole in this picture just to show you what the sausage looks like before it’s smashed.

Next step, add the pepporoni layer.

Then a layer of the prosciutto…

and finally a layer of Capicolla…

Now here comes the fun part. The original recipe calls for pre-cooking the second pound of bacon and crumbling it up on top of the sausage layer. Instead, I decided to pre-cook a second bacon weave and lay it down on top. This weave was 5×5 instead of 6×6 like the outer weave.

Next is the cheese. I knew I wanted to do some kind of cheese when I first started pondering my own bacon explosion but I wasn’t sure what kind to do. I finally decided on Velveeta cheese because the thought of nacho cheese dripping out of my bacon explosion was just too orgasmic to pass up. I sliced two pieces of cheese and laid them down side by side horizontally on the cooked bacon mat.

Then last but not least I add a generous amount of diced pickled japlapeno’s on top of the cheese. I have to say, the jalapenos added a really nice kick to the bacon explosion. Not too hot but not to mild either. Like a jalapeno popper in my bacon explosion. The vinegar from the pickling juice soaked nicely into the meat and added some nice flavor to the explosion.

Now that we were done adding the toppings it was time to start rolling the explosion. I was worried about this part because I didn’t want any of the meat to fall off or cheese to come dripping out. That being said, I didn’t have any issues…everything stayed intact nicely. The trick is to roll the sausage layer first with all of the filling inside. Seal everything up inside nicely with the sausage since the sausage is pretty much like play-doh. Then roll the outside bacon weave seperately over the sausage roll.

Next, roll the bacon weave over the sausage roll.

Now that the whole thing is rolled up, sprinkle some more pork rub on top of the bacon explosion to give it some more color and flavor on the outside. I don’t know why, but I thought it would be a good idea to measure the finished product before I cooked it. This thing packed a solid 3″ from top to bottom.

Now, it’s time to cook it. The recommended method for cooking the bacon explosion is to cook it in a smoker. I personally don’t own a smoker but I do own a grill so I turned my grill into a smoker. I never smoked anything on my grill before but I found that it was pretty easy to do. You get some hickory wood chips from your local supermarket or hardware store, put them into a piece of foil and wrap the foil up. Poke some holes in the top of the foil and put it on one side of the grill. Then you turn up the heat under the wood chips so that they start smoking in the foil. Once they start smoking you turn off all the burners except for one underneath the wood chips. Put the bacon explosion on the side that has no burners on underneath so that it cooks indirectly. I also added a foil pan underneath so that it catches any drippings from the bacon explosion. Also, if you notice I put the bacon explosion on one of those grill plates that you use to cook vegetables on the grill so they don’t fall through. I found that was a nice platform for transporting the explosion so that it doesn’t do anything crazy like fall apart or fall down into the grill.

Now you close the grill cover and let that baby cook low and slow. Make sure that it doesn’t get too hot in there. You want to keep it between 250-275 degrees in there. If it gets to hot, turn down your burner. My grill has an internal thermometer so I used that to keep track. For every inch of meat you need to cook it for about an hour. So mine took about 3 hours to cook since it was 3″ thick. . You’ll know it’s done when you stick a meat thermometer in and it reaches 165 degrees.

Here’s the finished product.

The cheese came out perfect and it actually complemented the meat very well. Notice the swirly layers of meat. Perfect.

We cut it up into thin sushi like slices.

You can eat the meat alone or you can serve it on a piece of bread. Enjoy!

GFG:Where did you experience your most memorable meal?

JR:It was at the Ciudad de Tui, on the Viejo de Cizur in Madrid.It was the last night in Spain for me and my friend Erika, and we’d had a long and exciting trip traveling around Andalusia and Castile (with a day’s excursion into Morocco as well).We’d been eating thriftily during the entire trip; so for our last supper we wantedto go all out, with sangria, tapas, the whole shebang.

GFG:What was on the menu?

JR:We ordered their tapas menu, and small little plates of empanadas (stuffed pastry), croquettes (fried cheese and ham), jamon Serrano and iberico, fried calamari, and patatas bravas.They brought bread and olives for our table along with an entire pitcher of sangria.The waiting staff was very friendly.They obliged our crazy American wishes, not clearing the table until I sketched everything and Erika took pictures with her digital camera.

This is the sketch of the dinner I drew:

It was really delicious, and we stuffed ourselves.The staff winked at us repeatedly while bringing back the check and gave us 10 euro extra when we asked for change.

GFG:How’d you meet your dining companion Erika Vause?

JR:We met because we’re both interested in the French Revolution.(Yes, the French Rev has spawned its own fannish subculture.)She is currently a grad student in Paris, studying debt imprisonment.She also has turned into a major foodie.She was just telling me the other day how she was enjoying cooking doe meat and boar.

GFG:You just provided the cover art for Joan Betty Stuchner’s book Honey Cake, which is at its heart a story about traditions and family and food.If you had only one recipe to pass on to posterity, what would it be? And why?

JR:Well, I know I wouldn’t pass on Mom’s old recipe for broccoli tuna roll-ups.Ugh.Her ginger beef recipe was pretty good though, although I haven’t had it in ages.The one recipe that I’ve always been obsessed with actually came from my sister’s ex-roommate.It’s a Japanese chicken curry dish, and it’s delicious.

GFG:When you’re working, do you ever forget to eat?

JR:Occasionally, although it doesn’t happen very often.

GFG: If you could share a meal with an artist, who would they be?

JR:The one artist I would really love to share a meal with Trina Schart Hyman, my favorite illustrator growing up.She passed away from cancer a few years ago, sadly.

GFG: You seem to be a fan of Roman history. Who among the Romans would you like to break bread with?

JR:Nero, of course!We could discuss the difference between liquamen (Roman fish sauce) and nam pla (Thai fish sauce).I could tell him that he looked fabulous, and he’d play something catchy on the citharaa.Then we would watch bad toga porn movies and make snarky remarks about the terrible costumes… Hopefully I’d stay on his good side so he wouldn’t poison me, what with his family’s penchant for killer mushrooms and all.

GFG:Do you have a favorite comfort food?

JR: Mrs. Grass’s noodle soup, with its golden nugget of awesomeness!I can eat it for days on end and not get tired of it.The only thing it lacks is matzo balls.

GFG: What was your staple diet when you were in art school? Were you a Ramen noodles and cigarettes girl?

JR:Not really.For the first few years I ate a lot of Art Center cafeteria food, then got sick of it.During my senior year, I started eating healthier, and became a major Trader Joes’ convert.I lost a lot of weight that way, but I wasn’t really thinking of that when I changed my eating habits; I wanted to eat foods that tasted good and made me feel better.

GFG: You studied in Ireland and have traveled widely. Do you have a favorite city?

JR:My favorite city in Ireland would be Belfast!Thereare hundreds of cheap eateries across the city that serves the Ulster Fry (a glorious way to clog your arteries) and my personal favorite, the curry and chip.

Outside Ireland, I’m very fond of both Glasgow (home of the Ashoka West End restaurant, where one can sample haggis pakora) and Madrid.Stateside, I like New York a lot.I try not to go crazy eating out whenever I go there.My favorite restaurants there include Il Corallo Trattoria in Soho, the Mill Korean restaurant near Columbia, and Mexican Radio in the Bowery.And speaking of nam pla, there are lots of great Thai restaurants in Queens, especially Sripraphai.Try the papaya salad, or the kao-soy with chicken.

Honey Cake by Joan Betty Stuchner (Random House) is available in bookstores today.

To see more of Joanne Renaud’s art, check out:

http://www.joannerenaud.com/
http://www.tugeau2.com/

http://suburbanbeatnik.deviantart.com

I was looking for my mother’s recipe for Mincemeat Cake. It was not in the yellow binder where I keep the family recipes copied out by my sister in her meticulous art school handwriting and decorated with whimsical drawings.

The recipe wasn’t in the manila folder where I keep the loose recipe cards and the torn magazine pages and the newspaper clippings and the scribbled instructions on the backs of envelopes, school notebook paper and old invoice forms from my grandfather’s general store. (There’s even a recipe copied out on a soft paper napkin worn to the consistency of Kleenex.)

My mother had a recipe box like all good mid-century housewives and she kept many recipes in that box, but the ones she cherished the most and used the most often were in an old school binder with a coarse cloth cover that was rubbed through to the cardboard beneath. When I inherited the binder in the late 80s, it was falling apart and I transferred the contents over to the aforementioned yellow binder.

A lot of the loose recipes in the folder are starting to fade with age. Some of the oldest date back to the early 50s and the paper has browned and the ink lightened until you almost need to be a forensic documents examiner to piece together the instructions. My mother’s recipes are written out the way she talked and almost seem interactive with their asterisks and inserted comments. “I usually use twice the amount of ginger,” she notes on a recipe for ginger snaps, making me wonder why she didn’t just write out her version of the recipe.

Sometimes she addresses the recipient of the recipe directly as she did with all the family recipes she typed out and sent to me in Los Angeles when I first moved here. (“Will feed six unless they are Tomlinsons,” she wrote on her recipe for macaroni and cheese, which was the best I’ve ever had.)

Reading some of the recipes is like traveling in a culinary time machine—all those references to “oleo” and directions to melt chocolate in a double boiler, instructions rendered obsolete by the invention of the microwave. The recipes also show a high degree of brand loyalty. It was always “Pet” Evaporated Milk and the 10X brand of confectioner’s sugar. (In fact, that’s what it’s called in all my mother’s recipes—10X sugar.)

When I finally found the recipe—stuck between the pages of Jane and Michael Stern’s Square Meals, I realized two things right away. It was the recipe I remembered my mother making but it was not her recipe. The instructions were written out in a hand unfamiliar to me. It’s fussy writing, with little circles dotting the Is.

My mother had two kinds of handwriting—the elegant, grown-up penmanship she used to sign her canvases and our report cards and the messy scrawl she used to communicate with herself in grocery lists and refrigerator reminders and notes. She doodled on her notes, a habit my sister inherited.

I’ll never know the name of the woman who passed this recipe on to my mother, but she would have been a friend. Because sharing the food you love is one of the things friends do.

Somebody’s Mincemeat Cake Recipe

2 cups (1 jar) prepared mincemeat

2 cups chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¼ cup rum or cognac

1 tbsp. grated orange rind

¼ cup orange juice

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup mayonnaise

3 cups flour

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, mix the mincemeat, walnuts, vanilla, rum (or cognac), orange rind, orange juice, buttermilk and mayonnaise.

Combine dry ingredients and sift into the wet mixture. Blend thoroughly.

Pour into a greased and floured tube pan (or use one that’s been sprayed with Pam) and bake at 325 degrees for two hours.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Frost with buttercream icing using a cookie press.

Buttercream Icing

¼ cup butter, unsalted

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp. milk

Beat ingredients together. The mixture will be very stiff.
Put into a cookie press and press frosting designs on top of cake.

Garnish with candied fruit.

Since then, she’s been a Waldenbooks Mass Market bestseller, a Bookscan bestseller and won the Bookbuyers Best Award for Best Historical Romance. She also helped launch the Avon Red line under her Jess Michaels name.

In addition, she has run The Passionate Pen since 1999. This popular site for aspiring authors gets nearly 200,000 hits per month and contains information on literary agents, publishing houses, articles about writing and the industry, links and Jenna’s Diary toward and beyond publication. This year the site celebrates its ten-year anniversary with events and prizes each month.

GFG:Shakespeare called music “the food of love.”Do you listen to music when you write?(I can only listen to music without words, otherwise I get distracted)

JP: I don’t, actually. Like you, I can only listen to music without words and after a while, even that becomes too distracting. So I generally don’t write with anything, though I have been inspired by songs.

GFG:Flowers and candy are the traditional Valentine’s Day gifts.What’s your favorite flower?Your favorite sweet?

JP: I love lilacs for their beautiful color and heady scent. And… really any kind of chocolate is good for a sweet. I’m a traditional romance writer in that way.

GFG:What made you sit down and write your first novel?How long did it take you to finish?How long did it take you to find a publisher?

JP:I had some crackpot notion that it would be “easy” to write a romance. I was disabused of that fact very quickly. It took me about three years to actually finish it, though I wasn’t writing the whole time. That book has never been published and will never be. It took me five years and over 15 books to get published from the time when I actually started writing full-time.

GFG:You just published A RED HOT VALENTINE’S DAY in January and you have another book coming out in March.What’s next after that?

JP: Yes, my book HER NOTORIOUS VISCOUNT comes out on March 31 (it’s actually counted as an April release). Then on April 21, my next Jess Michaels release comes out, TABOO. And in November another Jenna Petersen release, WHAT THE DUKE DESIRES. Currently I’m writing a book that will come out in February 2010. It’s a Jess Michaels release but it’s untitled. So lots of being busy and travel coming up. I’ll be all over the place in the next few months. Readers can always check the News section of http://www.jennapetersen.com for more info on where I’ll be and when.

GFG:Who are your favorite authors?

JP:In romance, Kathryn Smith, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas. Also Neil Gaiman, LM Montgomery and Thomas Harris.

GFG:Tell us how you met your husband!Is he a romantic?

JP: My husband and I went to high school together, actually. So we’ve known each other a long time (we’ll celebrate 12 years married on March 21). He is very romantic. Not only is affectionate and a gift giver, but he has supported me in pursuing publication from the very start, even when it was very hard. So I definitely give him props for that.

GFG:Is he jealous of the hot heroes you create for your books?

JP: I don’t think so. No one compares to him.

GFG:What was served at your wedding reception?(If you had one.)What flavor was your wedding cake?Did you keep a slice to eat on your first anniversary?

JP: We didn’t have a wedding reception or cake. We were married in a hot pink house in Burien WA with a woman in a weird robe for witness. It wasn’t exactly a traditional wedding (but it is a good story).

GFG:Where’s the most romantic place you’ve ever eaten?Was it romantic because of the setting or because of the company?

JP: Actually this year my husband took me to a wonderful Japanese restaurant called Nishino’s in Seattle. We were back there for my brother’s wedding (which was the day before my birthday) so earlier in the week just the two of us slipped away from the family. He had made special plans for a six course meal there and it was lovely. Especially since he’d put so much special thought into it.

GFG:If you were planning an intimate Valentine’s Day dinner, what would you serve?

JP: Actually this year my husband made me dinner for Valentine’s Day. He made a wonderful filet mignon with roasted vegetables and mashed cauliflower. Not only was it healthy, but it was so tasty.

GFG:If you could double-date with any couple in history, who would it be?

JP: You know, most of the most interesting couples in history didn’t seem to get along that well. I’m not sure I’d actually WANT to spend time with them.

GFG:How about breakfast in bed?Does that ever happen at your house?

JP:My husband LOVES breakfast in bed, so this is usually my territory. I’ll make him pancakes or French toast or eggs and bring them up for him on a Saturday or Sunday morning. There’s something so nice about having yummy food just arrive and you don’t even have to get up.

You can find Jenna online at jennapetersen.com and passionatepen.com.