Thanks for dropping by

Many thanks to those of you who stopped by the Harlequin Open House yesterday. And especially, the Harlequin American authors' chat last night. If I missed you during the chat, I'm sorry. Things were flying across the screen, weren't they? But it was so much fun that I can't wait to do it again!

Harlequin Open House this Wednesday

Harlequin is hosting an Open House—with prizes and give-aways—Wednesday, December 15th. Details for this all-day event are at www.eharlequin.com, but I wanted to let you know about my part in this wonderful party. I’ll be joining a couple of other Harlequin American Romance authors in the chat room from 7-8 pm EST Wednesday. I hope you can join me there. This is my first on-line chat, and I'm so excited that I've been invited to the party! Won't you join me there, too? I'd love to see some familiar names!

Accessing the chat room is as easy as, well, pie! Just get onto the internet and type http://chat.eharlequin.com in the browser line. A log-in sheet will appear momentarily and you’ll be asked to Log in. Type whatever name you want to be “known by” in the chat room. It’d be nice if you made it something I could recognize so I can give you a shout-out. Though the screen asks for a password, there’s no password necessary. Yay!

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be placed in a Waiting Room. From there, use the pull down menu (click on the Waiting Room bar at the top of the page and other chat rooms will appear), to select the chat room you want to visit. Hopefully, there will be one that says “Harlequin American Romance”. Look at the bottom of the screen. That’s where you’ll type your comments/ask questions/etc.

So, come on over to the Harlequin party! See you there!

Awesome Corn Pudding Recipe

I treasure my grandmother's recipes. She was born, raised, and lived most of her life on a farm in southern Alabama. Though I try very hard to follow her recipes, my results always fall short of hers. I think it has to do with the eggs she gathered from nests that morning, or the unpasturized, un-whatevered, milk and butter that came from a cow she milked herself.

But one recipe I have had success with came, not from my grandmother, but from my husband's great aunt. She used to fix this Corn Pudding dish every time we visited. Preparing it yesterday for my local RWA chapter's holiday party brought back so many good memories.

Oh, and the pudding? Several at the party--including the fabulous Roxanne St. Claire and the amazing Kristen Painter--said it was to-die-for. Enjoy!

Awesome Corn Pudding a la Leigh Duncan

1/4 cup butter
3 eggs
3 tbs. flour
1/2 cup sugar (or less, if you like)
2 cups milk (I use 1 can evaporated and add enough reduced fat milk to make the 2 cups)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups creamed corn (I buy a frozen "roll" of creamed corn and defrost it)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Melt butter in 9" square pan or oven-safe casserole.

Whisk eggs in large bowl. Whisk in flour, sugar, milk and salt until smooth.

Stir in corn. Immediately pour into prepared pan.

Bake 45 min. - 1 hour, until pudding is firm or doesn't slosh when the pan is gently shaken.

If the top starts looking too brown, tent aluminum foil over the casserole until it finishes baking. Do not let the aluminum rest on the pudding or it will rip off the beautiful crust.

Flash Mob at the Mall

According to Wikepedia, a flash mob occurs when a rather large group of people gather in a public place—like a mall or a stadium—where they put on an unexpected performance…and then disperse. Of course, it’d be pointless without someone there to record the event and post it on YouTube.

In this case, I’m so glad they did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE