Tradition! and my recipe for Ofenschlupfer

As I write the word, tradition, I'm somehow channeling the Fiddler on the Roof, although this post has nothing to do with brokered brides, or Jewish traditions.  Nevertheless, the song is there.

As time marches on, traditions come and go.  For most of my life, we had a tradition of gathering the family together for Christmas at the old homestead.  The family grew from my sisters and my parents to my sisters and their spouses and my parents, to my sisters, their spouses their children and my parents . . . well you see where this is going.  A few years ago, my parents  moved from the old homestead, and with that move, the tradition that survived for all those years necessarily had to change.

Our children have grown and now have children of their own, and as this progression takes place, the tug of war that goes with who gets to spend time with which in-laws on which day has grown exponentially. And with the addition of the grandchildren/great grandchildren, it becomes increasingly more difficult to gather our families together for Christmas. Nevertheless, the initial group of us (my sisters, their spouses and my parents) still try to make the effort, a monumental feat some years.

During the writing process of Mist on the Meadow, I tapped into my German heritage which, like Christmas traditions, has become diluted with the number of years my ancestors have spent on this side of the ocean. Traditions have to change as circumstances, and locations, change. The main character, Marissa, is a baker, and she carries forward a traditional German dish for Christmas. For years, my family  made cinnamon dinner rolls, but I didn't feel that was German enough for the book, so I went in search of a more German dessert.  The result was Ofenschlupfer (you may have seen my guest post with fellow writer, +Terry Odell on one of her "What's Cookin' Wednesdays" posts about a month ago).

This year, gathering my family together has been a challenge. We are creating new traditions with our children and grandchildren, which makes it more difficult to celebrate the old traditions with my sisters and parents. But for the couple of hours that I saw my sisters and my parents, I decided to celebrate our German roots, and made Ofenschlupfer - Rockin Around the Christmas Tree in a New Old-Fashioned Way. Who knows? Maybe this will be a new tradition, either with my sisters and my parents, or with my children/grandchildren.  So here is my Christmas present to you: Ofenschlupfer.

Do you have any traditions that you hold onto? New traditions to accommodate the progression of time?

Prosit!

A German recipe for apple and bread pudding from Southern Germany. If you have apples and some stale bread, then bake this recipe for bread pudding.

Ofenschlupfer literally means sneaking into the oven. So if you are looking for an easy German dessert recipe, sneak my Ofenschlupfer into your oven. 

Recipe For Ofenschlupfer

(Apple Bread Pudding)

1-2 golden delicious apples, chopped
4 slices of bread (I used 4 Hawaiian rolls, sliced into thirds)
2 Tbls butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup raisins
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt
2-1/2 cups milk, scalded

Heat oven to 350 F. Toast bread slices lightly. Spread slices with butter (margarine).   Peel apples, cut in fine slices and toss with brown sugar and cinnamon. Arrange bread slices buttered side up in a 1-1/2 quart buttered casserole dish.  Top with apple mixture and raisins.  Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt. Slowly stir in milk.  Pour over bread. 

Place casserole dish in a square pan, 9x9x2, on oven rack. Pour very hot water (1 inch deep) into square pan. Bake until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean, 65-70 minutes. Remove casserole dish from pan of hot water.  Serve warm or cool  6-8 servings.

Enjoy this easy bread pudding recipe on its own or with a thick creamy vanilla sauce.

Let it snow

I live near Chicago, a city notorious for wintry weather, especially around Christmas. We haven’t had any “measureable” snow so far this year, in fact Tuesday was the first sign of flurries I’ve seen. We’re setting records for the longest time between snowfalls (going back to the beginning of the year) and the latest first snowfall of the season. Some people are good with that. Happy. Me? Well, if it’s going to be cold outside (granted, the temperatures have also been mild), I want the snow to go with it. And then there’s Christmas. Cue Irving Berlin.

Today, we are expecting an ugly storm which should dump 2-4 inches on us later today. Reports from the great white north (a.k.a. our neighboring state of Wisconsin) are that the snow is falling. Five inches reported from one source, eight-ish reported from another. Haven’t checked in with the Minnesota rellies, but news reports they’re getting feet as opposed to inches. I’m ready for a little of the white stuff – enough to make it feel festive. No, I don’t like driving in it, but yes, I like looking out, holding a cup of something warm and watching a blanket of white shroud the earth. Especially for Christmas. There’s something so peaceful about it. Quiet. Clean. Fresh.

The holiday is less than a week away. With my latest completed work sitting on the agent’s desk (or, in her email), I’m taking a break from writing something new. I still have Epitaph on my radar, so there is a project to keep me fresh until the new year. For now, I’m going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the holiday season. I wish the same luxury to you.

Merry Christmas!

It's the end of the world as we know it

Today, I'd like to extend my sincerest sympathies to the familes who have lost children to violence.  Waking up this morning to the horrors in Connecticut, yesterday to the horrors in Vermont, I can only wonder when it will end.

I have friends who own guns.  They trap shoot.  They hunt. They use those guns for a purpose.  I know people who have guns in their homes for safety.  I don't necessarily agree with having a gun for the sake of having a gun, and for those people who own one for safety, my view is that it is more likely to get them killed or be used accidentally.  Is that going to stop the crazies who go on shooting sprees?  I don't think so.

I'm a pacifist.  Can't we all just get along?  Gun control controls guns, but not the crazies that use them.  I DO NOT UNDERSTAND what could motivate someone who is mad at a particular person to storm a school and kill dozens of innocent children, but then I don't suppose someone hell bent on murder cares much about who his victims are.

So my next point of contention is why the news continues to report these things.  Because it's news?  Yes. But when you publicize the killer's name, now you've given other people looking for that five minutes of fame an outlet. 

I can't watch the news anymore.  Pretty soon I'm going to be agoraphobic (that means I won't want to ever leave my house).

Someone mentioned that this is happening because people are stressed that the world is going to end next week. Okayyyyyy, so if you believe that, can't you wait for the world to kill off the people that you're mad at?

Peace on earth, goodwill to men.  God bless us, every one.

Grimm!

My husband is not a very imaginative fellow on the whole. Very smart. Very logical. Everything should make sense on some level. And yet, when he does exhibit those sparks of imagination, he can be very imaginative. Creative even.  Me? I have a very vivid imagination. I like ghost stories and things that stretch belief, things he often makes fun of me for. Can I just tell you how surprised I was when he told me that Grimm is one of his new favorite television shows?

And speaking of Grimm. Have you ever read Grimm's fairy tales? Many of them are the basis for old familiar stories we've all grown up with, but like many of those familiar stories, the original stories are much darker than the stories we know. This is where the TV show goes. Grimm's fairy tales are often bloody and frightening. But let's focus on the light-hearted, frivolous ones.

I mentioned a few weeks back that I'd pulled out my copy of said book. I was looking up the story of the Shoemaker and the Elves, which is actually a very short story and titled simply "The Elves." It is included in another group of similar stories which feature the little guys, and it plays a role in my latest flight of imagination. Yes, while I wait to send off Mist on the Meadow to my editor, I've discovered that even though I'm still fatigued with the efforts of editing and creating, there is no stopping my imagination.

Authors often go through bouts of self-doubt and are easily able to convince themselves that they have no talent and they are wasting their time, Yours Truly included. And yet, there's this bug inside that refuses to be ignored. So maybe my writing sucks. Maybe I'm stretching beyond my limits. (Making a point here, and let me thank those of you who have been so very complimentary and would contradict me.) That bug inside sees the world through a different filter (as has also been addressed in previous ramblings on this very blog). Something triggers my imagination and a story insists on playing in my head.

It's the dawn of a new day, and tired, fatigued, full of angst about my abilities to create a story, I can't resist the allure of a bright, shiny new idea. Like the sunrise this morning, there are clouds to  battle, but there's no denying the sunshine that always wins out.

And so begins the new book.

Free for the weekend!

This weekend I'm giving a Christmas present to my friends and followers.  Friday through Sunday, you can download a free e-book version (Kindle, Nook, Sony reader, etc.) of Living Canvas! Click here to download your copy! The only thing I ask in return is a review or a rating on your favorite book site (Amazon, BN, iBooks, Goodreads, etc.) when you've finished. Authors love feedback (good, bad or indifferent).

I've been adding lots of books to my "TBR" pile. Christmas is often when I stock up on new authors or books by my favorite authors.  Looking for a Christmas idea? Buy the reader in your life an Amazon Kindle gift card - that gives them the opportunity to pick and choose and take a chance on an author they might not otherwise buy because, in essence, they're getting the book as a gift (read "free"). Likewise, Barnes & Noble has gift cards, and there's always the iTunes gift cards. 

I'm excited to have finished edits for Mist on the Meadow, so it's ready when my editor is (she has me scheduled in January). I also did an outline for a new story (as yet untitled), but right now that feels like a climb up Mt. Everest. With the holidays upon us and life events happening, looking at another hike up a mountain is a little intimidating. It's always a thrill to start out, but with the rugged climb I just completed (metaphorically speaking, of course), I'm more inclined to revisit one of the manuscripts sitting on the shelf to push it forward (or throw it in the trash).  Epitaph is the story that is reaching out to me, and once that one finds its way either forward or lost forever, I will have moved the last of my shelved stories that I feel is workable. It's fun to pick it up again, re-read it and I still like it! Why did it go to the shelf instead of to an editor, you ask? There are some areas that need improvement, but fixing something that's already written feels more like climbing a hillock instead of a mountain. Much more manageable and slightly less brain power required.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I have much to be thankful for.

I'll start with the new baby in our family, 2 weeks early but definitely not premature. I'm thankful that mother and daughter came through the ordeal and both are doing well and are healthy.

I'm thankful for my Dear Husband, who gallantly protects me from the evils of the world (even when they aren't really evils). He is guilty of showering me with random acts of love (yes, he buys flowers, and candy, and he knows when I need a hug) and he wants to shelter me from all the things in the world that make me sad or unhappy.  Sometimes, you have to take your medicine, but its nice to know there's someone standing by with a chaser.

I'm thankful for my children. There are days as a mother where you feel like the birds have left, never to return. This morning at breakfast, I saw a young man who will never leave  his parent's nest and so I choose to be thankful that my baby birds are able to fly.

I'm thankful for my parents - what were they thinking having four children? And I'm so grateful they did. Sisters are a blessing, and there are many days I might not have gotten through without them.

I'm thankful for my gift of imagination. And I'm thankful for my readers who share it with me. I'm humbled by the kind words from the people who have read my stories and grateful for the opportunity to share those words.

I'm thankful for the day job. Through the years, they have provided me with the skills I needed to excel at my job. They have not only encouraged me, but have given me to the opportunity to grow and to be successful.

I'm thankful for my faith (this counts as another thank you to my parents). On those days when you feel you can't stand one more minute of things that can go wrong, I'm grateful for all the blessings in my life that make it "right."

Happy Thanksgiving.

Doing the happy dance

I've finished my editing checklist!

Does that mean edits are completed?  No, but the worst is over. I'll have to read through Mist on the Meadow one more time (maybe more than one more time) to make sure I haven't created new problems with the edits. That should all fall under the realm of misplaced words, though.  Easy-peasy.

There is something liberating about completing this process. I feel empowered! I have confidence in the story and in the strength of the writing (which may all come crashing to pieces once I finish re-reading, but let me enjoy the moment).

My horoscope for the day says to jump into new projects with my sleeves rolled up.  Yes, I feel like I could/should start the new story. And with that comes the resolve to write clean from the start.

Yeah, that'll last about two chapters.

We all have our obsessive/compulsive traits. Mine is to finish something that I've started. As much as I'm itching to start my French Spicevendor story, I need to finish Mist on the Meadow. And write a logline. And a synopsis. And a blurb. {sigh} Someone asked me at one of the book signings what the new book was about, and I had a hard time telling her (largely because I was focused on selling Living Canvas, mind fimly set on relaying that one clearly and concisely). Nothing like standing there saying, "ummm. . . . ahh . . . well . . . you see its about . . . well . . . "  So how about this . . .

"The way to this man's heart is through his head."

Marissa Maitland is your ordinary, run of the mill café owner, until her “Herr Drosselmeyer” great-uncle shows up for Christmas. He bestows on her a family legacy, a gift for her twenty-fifth birthday on the Winter Solstice. But this is no ordinary gift.


Wolf Harper has gotten along fine for the last eleven years without familial attachment. The only thing he has left is the family business – which his uncle is running into the ground. Upon his grandmother’s death, Wolf is compelled to honor an obscure “last request” which he hopes will save the company. It isn’t until after he’s rear-ended Marissa’s car that he discovers his grandmother’s last request is meant to save him.

No? Yeah. Well I'll keep working on it. Let's not spoil the moment. Right now, I'm doing the happy dance.