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When I found out my Caprice mystery #3 was scheduled for February, that was the perfect time to create a plot that surrounded Valentine's Day! Hearts and Flowers might be the theme of Caprice's home staging, but murder is on the menu along with Caprice's sister Nikki's Valentine Day offerings.
As many of you know, Caprice has a penchant for attracting strays and finding them good homes. This little kitten shows up in Caprice's yard one cold winter night. I modeled the kitten in the mystery after our own London. She was a cutie!
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As I promised, here is the recipe for TRIPLE CHOCOLATE DIVINE cookies that I developed just for my readers with the release of GILT BY ASSOCIATION. Yummy at Valentine's Day and anytime of the year!
Triple Chocolate Divine Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2 sticks butter (softened)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
4 oz. Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate bar, broken into pieces
2 1/2 cups flour
12 oz. MILK-chocolate chocolate chips
Cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add baking soda, baking powder and cocoa. Mix until all ingredients are blended well and batter is smooth and velvety. Melt chocolate bar pieces in microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to heat in ten-second intervals until completely melted (My 1400 watt microwave takes 1 minute 40 seconds). Do not wait until cool. Stir again and add to mixer bowl. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Stir in chocolate chips.
Lightly grease cookie sheets. Drop batter in nicely rounded tablespoons.
Bake 11-13 minutes until set. Let stand one minute, then remove from cookie sheet. Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Makes about 40 cookies.
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Our household is different now with Mason and Tia settled in at their loving new homes. Both have adjusted beautifully. Mason has bonded with his new brother and his new parents. The two female cats in the household are taking their time getting acquainted, but I'm sure Mason will win them over. Tia has bonded with her new parents. A new older brother grooms her and cuddles with her. The other male in the household is taking longer but they all play. Here at the Smith household, Zoie and Paddington run up and down the condo and like to play hide and seek under the bedspread. Halo and Paddington are still close, cuddling and napping together. London is sometime "grumpy cat" but she waits for Halo and Paddington to emerge from my office every morning. She doesn't want to play herself, but I think she likes the company. Many afternoons she naps on the same bed as Halo and Paddington upstairs while Zoie stays with me downstairs.
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As you can see, we have a cedar shelter as one of the protective places stray cats can settle in. See my blog below on Feral and Stray Cat Shelters for other ideas. One of our strays, Sunnybud, actually comes into our basement to eat...but he won't stay. (When he started coming to our yard, he was gaunt and infested with fleas. After a few months of food and a flea treatment, he's looking so much better.) Since we don't know if he might have some kind of home, we don't want to keep him in against his will. But as our veterinarian says, one of these days he might decide he'd like to be warm and dry instead of cold! Two of our outside shelters have heated pads and we're hoping he stays in one of those.
New desserts this year for the holidays--pumpkin spice cream cheese pie and cranberry fluff!
We might have to leave the reindeer in our front yard throughout the winter to give the yard a little sparkle!
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Go to my FACEBOOK Author Page to to enter my Kitty Contest.
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NEW YEAR, NEW AUTHOR CONTEST
How awesome would it be to kick off the new year by winning thirty books from thirty different romance authors? Susan Mallery, who started out writing category romances and now rocks the bestseller lists with her women's fiction novels and the Fool's Gold romances, has invited me to participate in her "New Year, New Author" contest. One lucky reader will win a prize pack of 30 books.
To enter, visit the Contest Page at http://www.susanmallery.com/contest.php under the MEMBERS ONLY tab. If you're not a member yet, you can join for free in just a few seconds.
Good luck!!
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Eleven Authors will be giving away books as well as a $100 Amazon gift card! You can enter on my Facebook author page KarenRoseSmithBooks from February 1-7.
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