©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

And the daily winners of boxes of singed books by authors such as Eloisa James, Lorraine Heath, Julia Quinn, Tracy Anne Warren, Samantha James, Lori Wilde, Anna Campbell and many other fabulous authors are….

Day 4, Ivka V. of Mays Landing, NJ.
Day 5, Toni P. of Winthrop, MA.
Day 6, Colleen C. of Goodyear, AZ.
Day 7, Desiree L. of Mokena, IL.
Day 8, Melinda B. of Itasca, TX.
Day 9, Cathie M. of Buffalo, NY.
Day 10, Deidre D. of Alma, GA.
Day 11, Alison O. of Buena Park, CA.
Day 12, Beth S. of Xenia, OH.

Don’t forget to check back to see who wins the New Year’s Eve pearls!

Cheers.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

This is tweak on a Paula Deen recipe, which means, of course, plenty of butter. Yum!

Tart crust: (or be lazy and buy Pillsbury Pie Crust and then pinch to size. It’s not quite as sweet but it works in a pinch.)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. incorporate egg, then flour.

Pinch off a ball of dough and place into each mini-tart pan. form crust around sides with your fingers, the thinner the better, but be careful not to have any holes or tears. set aside.

Sinful pecan filling:

2 tbsps butter, softened
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
chopped pecans (about 2-2 1/2 cups)

Praline topping: (if you end up with extra, line a cookie sheet with foil and spray it with Pam. Place tablespoons of the Praline mixture on the sheet and cook at 350 degree for 7 or 8 minutes for real Southern Pralines.)

Fill uncooked crusts halfway with chopped nuts. using a squeeze bottle (or a Ziploc bag with a small hole cut in the tip, fill to top with the butter/sugar mix. Sprinkle more nuts on top.

~Makes 48 mini tarts. ~

Another helping of something sinful! As an extra treat, read the latest excerpt from To Sin With a Stranger by Kathryn Caskie, the first book in her brand new Seven Deadly Sins series–it’s in stores and available online now!

Try out another yummy pecan recipe on the Avon Authors’ Recipe Ring–Miranda Neville’s Irresistible Mocha Toffee Bars!

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Be sure to enter my next contest, beginning later today, for your chance to win one of my Twelve Days of Goodies packages.  Each box will contain books from my backlist as well as signed books (and other goodies) from my author friends such as Anna Campbell, Leanne Heath, Tracy Anne Warren, Christina Dodd, Eloisa James, Julia Quinn and many others!  One winner will be drawn December 1-12, and then on December 31st, a grand prize winner will be sent a pearl necklace.  You only need to enter once to be included for all of the drawings.

And now, In honor of Catherine in Massachusetts and Thanksgiving, I am including my super easy recipe for fresh cranberry relish.  Every year my family begs me to bring this cranberry dish.  It is so fast and simple to make, I always agree.

Fresh Cranberry Relish (serves 6)

10-minute preparation, 1-hour in refrigerator

12 oz  fresh cranberries (or 1 bag Ocean Spray fresh cranberries)
1 juice orange (they have thinner skins generally)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger (don’t use powdered, it won’t work)
1/2 cup pecans (optional)

Simple instructions:  Dump it all into a food processor and pulse. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Detailed instructions: Cut the orange into eighths, removing the seeds.  Drop four of the orange pieces, skin and all, into a food processor and pulse a couple of times (just so the orange is chopped but not pulverized.)  Set aside a few whole cranberries for garnishing later, and then pour half of the fresh cranberries into the food processor.  Add half of the pecans (optional), and then half of the sugar.  Pulse the food processor until the cranberries, orange and nuts are chopped (half pea size) but not turned to mush.  Scrape into a bowl.  Repeat the process with the other half portion of the ingredients.  Stir it up.

Everything might look a little pink from the sugar at this point, but it will become rich red in an hour.  Add more sugar to taste if you like a sweet cranberry relish, but as the juices mix with the sugar, the cranberry relish will naturally become a little sweeter.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Empty into a pretty serving bowl, and garnish with the reserved whole cranberries and a few pecan halves (I use one berry to three pecan halves for a holly leaf shape.)

Enjoy!

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Check out To Sin With a Stranger right now.

Read 100% of How to Seduce a Duke online.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Reviews will be posted as they come in, but meanwhile be sure to read the brand new excerpt for a taste of sins to come.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Sure, the book tour was a bit exhausting but it was also the most fun I have had in ages. And, with Levy crew at the helm and the Meijer staff in the stores, the tour was hands-down the best organized signing event I have ever attended.

Now, usually, when bands go on tour there are souvenir t-shirts to be had.  Levy and Meijer did one better–we were given very cool stocked bags with the tour name printed on it (because, I think, it was too long to print on t-shirts without going around the back.)  By the end of the tour, the bag was filled with books from the other authors.  You should see my To Be Read pile now!  I can’t wait to dig in.

Ever wanted to see what a book tour is really like? Here’s a little peek (I admit, I left out all of the pictures of us standing in line a Starbucks).

Kathryn and Sophia Nash waiting to board the bus.

Kathryn signing How To Propose to a Prince and How to Engage an Earl.

Kathryn Caskie, Chip St. Clair (on the Oprah short list!) and Allison Brennan trying to hide our assorted caffeine choices behind the books.

Cherry Adair, Jessica Andersen, Kathryn & Leslie Langtry resisting all the Halloween candy behind us.

Kathryn and Susan Mallery

Victoria Rowell and Kathryn

Kristin Higgins, Deanna Gist, Tom Grace, Kathryn, Victoria Rowell (writer, soap and television star) and Chip St. Clair. Kathryn’s favorite question: “So, who do YOU play on the Young and Restless?

Kathryn and Jordan Dane propping each other at the end of the day.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

©2009 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.