Hey US friends, have you entered to win a copy of BIRTHDAYS AND BACHELORS on Goodreads? The contest closes on August 25th!
Giveaway ends August 25, 2023.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
There are several zucchini recipes in here (we really need them, these days), and every other recipe you can imagine - from Cranberry Breakfast Cake for Christmas to Parmesan Roasted Green Beans as your family holiday meal side dish. All three books are only 99¢ each until August 25th, so grab your copies today!
Brunch - Amazon - All vendors
Mains and Sides - Amazon - All vendors
Holiday Table - Amazon - All vendors
Pre-order today and wake up to the party of the summer on August 29th.
Are you on Goodreads? If you are and you are in the USA, you can enter to win one of 50 copies of BIRTHDAYS AND BACHELORS. Click here for your chance to win a Kindle copy. And don't forget to add it to your Goodreads "To Read" list.
Makes 2 loaves
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (can use 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup oil)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup canned pineapple, well drained. (Tidbits are a great size)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raisins (You can also use blueberries, dried cranberries, or cherries.)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Beat together eggs, vegetable oil, sugar, and vanilla until thick and foamy. (It will not be foamy if you use the applesauce version.)
Add zucchini and pineapple. Mix.
Add all remaining ingredients. Mix well.
Bake at 350F for 60 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before flipping onto wire racks to cool.
Makes two loaves.
These loaves freeze very well.
I hope my friends south of the border are enjoying America's birthday.
(Don't forget that I have a 4th of July sweet romance you can read today.)
Wishing you lots of sunshine and barbecue weather on Canada's birthday. We aren't perfect but we're working hard to be better.
It doesn't look like Canada's birthday (July 1) or America's birthday (July 4) will give either country a long weekend this year, but that doesn't matter because I'm bringing the party to you on a Friday!
Welcome to Romance Bookworms, where the offerings are plenty and the books are free! You have over 1000 free romance books to choose from! From historical to sci-fi, from sweet to spicy, there is something for every reader.
The coordinator has separated the books into various genres, so if you'd like, you can go to
1) your preferred e-reader and
2) scroll down to CATEGORIES
3) then select SWEET CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE.
Or, if you want to check out some of the other genres, just get to the ROMANCE BOOKWORMS site, select your e-reader, and view them all.
The summer is just getting started. Make sure you have enough books to get you through.
We're approaching the halfway point to 2023 on the calendar, but it's Christmas All Year on Facebook! Today is the day that I'm participating in a Facebook Live with five other amazing Christmas romance authors at 8pm EST / 7pm CST / 5pm PST. Join us here for fun and prizes, including a chance to win a Kindle Paperwhite!
In a separate offer, you can also get six free Christmas romances, including my North Pole Unlimited Collection 3, which has never been on sale before! It does require a newsletter sign-up, but if you are a big Christmas romance reader, you might already be getting some of them. Try them out - most of these authors offer a free book for signing up, so that's up to a dozen free books that you can get!
When it comes to flowers, the two boxes out front and the low-lying brown bed in back were completely new. We had been using the two boxes for veggies, so we lost a little space, but we made up for some of it with some strategic planning.
This is the "bad bed". It's in a weird location with poor soil that is awkwardly shaded. We can't do much with it. The peonies are perennials. The bleeding hearts started in another location but sent out runners and now sprout wherever they want. We are trying to move the perennial ferns over so they surround the cedar and provide ground cover to make it look a little nicer, but we obviously missed some that will get moved in the fall. In the gap, I planted an echinacea (cone flower) that we grew from seed this spring. If it roots well, it will be another perennial in that garden. The tall, thin green plants are garlic; I planted them late last October and they all came up. If they are successful, I might use that area as my annual garlic bed.
I plant herbs in our other two deck beds. I have not yet had any luck overwintering oregano or thyme, but I keep trying. In the first are chives (perennial), sage, rosemary, and lavender. I hear lavender can be a perennial, so we'll see. In the other I have basil, thyme, and oregano. And more garlic. I didn't know if the garlic would sprout, but both locations came up. If it works, we'll have eleven bulbs. The brown planters at the side have tomatoes in them - we are trying container tomatoes for the first time.
These yellow boxes are all about our peppers and cherry tomatoes. The first box has five bell peppers and the Numex Orange Suave hot pepper that we overwintered in the house. The centre box has three red cherry and two yellow cherry tomatoes, and the banana pepper we planted on a whim. The right hand box has three jalapeño peppers, and three different hot peppers that we bought from a nursery to try some new varieties. We planted the peppers in 2-gallon pails as an experiment. Cross your fingers for us.
This roughly modified potato box was our last-minute box. We had two peppers that we started from seed that did not look very healthy. One Numex Orange Suave, and a Cajun Belle. We've harvested seeds from our Cajun Belle peppers for four years. This year, we had one sprout from about eight attempts. And I think it died the day after we planted it. (At least it made it into the box, unlike last year's lavender seedling.) This box also has two parsleys that I started from seed. Honestly, I don't think it's worth it to try to do herbs from seed unless you have a full garden/grow room set up. The small box on the ground is a different matter. It's a dill box. Dill is another perennial herb, so once it takes off, it will be a permanent fixture. Ross's pickle-loving heart will be delighted if it works.
And now, the main event!
We planted potatoes in mid-May, twelve of them, and they are all up. Then we have twenty corn, then a variety of tomatoes ( three Pruden's Giant Staking tomatoes, and two Superfantastics), then six zucchinis. At the end of the row, we have a watermelon seedling and two planted Sugar Baby watermelon seeds, two butternut squashes, and two spaghetti squashes. The hope is that the vines will trail out of the garden into the walkway behind the garden and the fence. Then we have three field cucumbers, four pickling cucumbers, and thirty-six purple beans planted in the various frames and trellises. In front of those are fifty yellow onions, then the rhubarb (which will need picking and processing next week already.) Then we have two short rows of beets and carrots, half a row of leaf lettuce, and three celery plants.
As you can see, we had a busy May. Now we wait and we weed. Then, we eat!