Welcome Beverley Bateman, Exquisite Christmas + Quick Bread #HolidayRecipe @kelownawriter

Please welcome Beverley Bateman, one of the 21 authors of the Exquisite Christmas anthology, who has a recipe for Christmas Quick Bread to share with us. It looks delicious.

Exquisite Christmas AdExquisite Christmas: 21 Romance Authors Share Stories and Recipes

I am so proud to be part of the wonderful anthology. Rose Anderson, a great author, suggested it to one of my groups. She handled everything for us. The authors wrote a holiday story, sometimes two stories along with a recipe. They’ve all been edited and Rose did our beautiful cover, which I love.

I also love the stories in the book. Each is so different. They’re romantic and positive. And trust me, the recipes are yummy. I’ve read all of them and tried several. This book would make a great Christmas gift.

Get one or yourself and maybe a couple for gifts. Here are the buy links.

E-book available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and coming soon to iBooks and other retailers. Print anthology available at Amazon.

Beverley BatemanI’m a Canadian author and live in the Okanagan valley in British Columbia. I write romantic suspense. For the anthology I wrote two stories. Christmas Traditions is about a young couple who move to a small town just before Christmas. She left family, friends and their Christmas traditions behind and is feeling lonely. I included a recipe for my rum balls.

The second story is The Christmas Risk. A small town doctor in Montana is doing Christmas Eve home visits and gets caught in a blizzard. With the possibility she might not make it home she realizes the important things in her life.

Christmas Quick Bread

Christmas Quick Bread

Here’s my recipe for Christmas Quick Bread

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup salad oil
1 egg
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup maraschino cherries (cut in quarters)
1/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
Additional almonds and cherries for topping.

Directions:
You will need a large mixing bowl, small mixing bowl, a 9”x5” loaf pan, and a cooling rack.

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Grease and flour loaf pan.
3. Blend dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
4. Combine milk, oil, and egg in a small bowl. Beat slightly.
5. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until moistened.
6. Stir in pineapple, cherries, and almonds.
7. Pour batter in a greased 9” x 5” x 3” loaf pan.
8. Let rest for 20 minutes.
9. Bake 65-70 minutes. When golden and sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom, turn out on cooling rack.
10. To decorate top, pierce a cherry with an almond and press into cake. Continue with the remaining cherries and almonds.
Makes 12-14 1/2-inch slices.

Find Beverley at:
Website – http://www.beverleybateman.com
Blog – http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Twitter @kelownawriter
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/beverley.bateman.18?fref=ts
Facebook Authorpage – http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeverleyBateman?ref=hl
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/okwriter
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Beverley-Bateman/e/B008M01F5E
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7052567.Beverley_Bateman

Happy Holidays and enjoy the book.

Beverley

The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen #review

12 Clues coverThe Twelve Clues of Christmas: A Royal Spyness Mystery
(The Royal Spyness Series Book 6)
by Rhys Bowen

I’ve reviewed books in this series before. In this outing, Lady Georgianna takes a position as a party planner at an English house party to escape spending Christmas with her sister-in-law’s dreary family. Little does she expect to land right in the middle of a killing spree and a search for three convicts who escaped from Dartmoor Prison. The fun of a traditional English Christmas is spoiled by the fact that people in the quaint village of Tiddleton-Under-Lovey are dying by the day, starting with a man named Freddie Partridge, who seems to have committed suicide with his own gun… in a pear tree!

Thanks to the title, it’s obvious to the reader long before it dawns on Georgie (and Darcy who is conveniently related to the hostess of the house party) that a clever serial killer is at work.

White swans mating.

Swans a-swimming…

Familiar characters turn up, of course: Georgie’s self-centered mother, her lovable grandfather, and her clueless maid Queenie.

This series is marvelous and I’ve enjoyed each one of the mysteries. This is my new favorite though. Most of the books are notable for the humor and the quirky characters. But the plot of this mystery is particularly clever and intricate, and Bowen kept me guessing until the end. Great fun reading for the holidays, despite the high body count. But then there are twelve days of Christmas, right?

What are you reading over the holidays?

Linda

PS: Dear FCC, I bought a copy of the book for my Kindle.