Secret Guests and Pure Protein

I blogged at Writes of Passage today about a visitor I had this weekend. Can you guess who it was from the picture to the right? Click over and see if you were right!

While you're there, you're going to see a picture of this Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pie…

Never fear, Stacey Sanders Daniel provided us with the recipe. And it's delicious!!! I made it last night and gracious! I'm thinking of having it for breakfast too. 

I'm sure the low-fat peanut butter qualifies the pie as "pure protein" now. (Oh please, let me dream.) But truly, Stacey let me know that a slice of this is only 7 points on Weight Watchers. So come on over and join me.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup reduced-fat peanut butter
4 oz light cream cheese
4 oz fat-free cream cheese
12 oz fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup lite whipped topping, thawed if frozen
5 Tbsp mini chocolate chips, divided
6 oz pie crust

Directions:
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together peanut butter and both types of cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in milk and lemon juice; fold in whipped topping and 4 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips.
Spoon peanut butter mixture into prepared pie crust; sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips over top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Slice into 10 pieces and serve. Dig in!
Weight Watchers Points = 7 (WW Points)

And Stacey adds: Let me tell you how awesome this is! I will confess that I often just get the light cream cheese and use that instead of getting two different kinds and only using half of each. It still tastes awesome! 

Off to grab some protein, friends… Thank you, Stacey, for sharing your recipe.

So, what are YOU having for breakfast this morning? ; )

2011 RITA Finalists announced

Congrats to all the 2011 RITA Finalists for Inspirational Romance! I'm honored to have Within My Heart listed among them. Writing Within My Heart came at a difficult time in my life, while Mom was struggling with cancer (and then after she passed), and many of our last moments and conversations made their way into these pages. So Within My Heart was both a precious and yet especially hard-to-write story.

Mom was with me in Dallas in 2007 when I won my first RITA for Revealed (didn't she look pretty in pink!), so finaling with Within My Heart  this year feels like coming full circle, in a way. I'll be attending the RWA Conference in NYC at the end of June (with my daughter Kelsey!) and hope to see many of the other finalists there and at the RITA award ceremony.

Check out the other finalists, clicking on the title to be taken to the link for that book. And if there's one you haven't read yet, why not download the FREE Kindle Sample of those books (remember, you don't have to own a Kindle to read Kindle books, just download the software), and check out some of these wonderful authors.

• A Convenient Wife by Anna Schmidt (Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical; Tina James, editor)
• Doctor in Petticoats by Mary Connealy (Barbour Publishing; Rebecca Germany, editor)
• Finding Her Way Home by Linda Goodnight (Steeple Hill Love Inspired; Allison Lyons, editor)
• In Harm's Way by Irene Hannon (Revell; Jennifer Leep, editor)
• Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist (Bethany House Publishers; David Long and Julie Klassen, editors)
• Shades of Morning by Marlo M. Schalesky (WaterBrook Multnomah; Shannon Marchese, editor)
• The Wedding Garden by Linda Goodnight (Steeple Hill Love Inspired; Allison Lyons, editor)
• Whisper on the Wind by Maureen Lang (Tyndale House Publishers; Stephanie Broene, editor)
• Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House Publishers; Karen Schurrer and Charlene Patterson, editors)

Deb's Peanut Butter Pie

Ready for a delicious treat this weekend? Dear friend, author, and my oh-so-wonderful writing critique partner, Deborah Raney, made a pie this week that looks to die for! I'm looking forward to making it this weekend when another writing buddy comes to visit (more on that next week, with pics!). 

It's Deb's Peanut Butter Pie (which she had for breakfast this morning, ahem…). Breakfast of champions, I'm sure. And I'm happy to share it with you here. Enjoy!

And if you haven't caught Francine Rivers' blog this week. DO!! I really identified with what she said, and always, always appreciate that woman's transparency. But um, the woman is SO not an apprentice. Not in my book anyway. But let's not tell her… ;)

Back to rewrites for A Lasting Impression due out this fall.

Dancin' Shoes and Key Lime Pie

What do the two have in common? Well, check out this post over at Writes of Passage today, and then come back here to grab this great recipe for the Weight Watcher's version of Key Lime Pie. Really is good!

1 reduced fat graham cracker crust

1 small package sugar-free lime gelatin

1/4 cup boiling water

1 (8 ounce) container fat-free whipped topping (I used sugar-free too)

2 (6 ounce) key lime pie yogurt (I used one Lemon Yogurt and one Yoplait Pineapple Upside Down Cake Yogurt)

1 In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

2 Stir in yogurt with wire whisk.

3 Fold in whipped topping with wooden spoon.

4 Spread in crust.

5 Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 

6 Eat quickly before your daughter comes over to watch Dancing with the Stars and you have to share. ;)

Read more on the recipe here. And enjoy!

And now, for a day of editing A Lasting Impression…

Is it OK to "Pray for Your Future Spouse"?

Great question posed by Andrea Lucado on her blog, and she has some great thoughts. Check it out!

Seeing the forest AND the trees

I'm SO incredibly grateful for (and love!) the rewrite stage of a writing a novel. When people ask me what my next book is about (and I haven't started writing it yet), I often hear myself talking in circles. Because I honestly only have a glimmer of what the book is going to be about at the stage.

Oh I know the characters. Somewhat. And I know the plot. A little. And I know the location. Fairly well, actually, since I'll have been reading up on that for a while by then. But the actual theme of the novel? And the specific journey the characters will take (their character arc)? That's not nearly so clear.

As I write…all of this comes.

But it's during the rewrite phase when I'm blessed with the insightful perspective and counsel of my editors and my agent, that everything finally comes together. Where things I've written about––but might not have even seen at the time [insert pounding of head here]––start rising to the surface. Start making more sense. Become far more real.

I truly have come to love the characters in A Lasting Impression––Sutton, Claire and Adelicia, and others––and hope you will to.

With a partially frozen Diet Dr. Pepper at hand and my office windows open to allow in the spring breeze, I'm back to it…

Plan B…in action

When I finish a book, I clean. If something isn't moving, I'm cleaning it. And if it does move, I'm chasing it down to clean it. Last Sunday my husband and I had worked on taxes, then we moved to reorganizing my office (something I've needed to do since we moved into this house last May). We were both in our sweats, just laughing and working away…when the doorbell rang.

I opened the door and there stood our friends Larry and Linda, a couple in the Bible Study that we host in our home…every two weeks! Joe and I totally forgot. Just flat spaced it, the wonderfully spiritual people we are.

Thankfully, and I truly am grateful for this, Larry and Linda forgave the stunned looks on our faces and came on in. Then when Matt and Ali arrived, and Bill and Mel, we shared the Lord's Supper together and discussed our Plan B chapters (great book, btw). And we laughed, of course, at the Plan B for our Sunday afternoon. It was such a rich time of sharing and being together in the Lord, and as we sat there, praying and discussing God's Word and His mysterious ways, I kept thanking God over and over that we have such wonderful friends. Such acceptance and fellowship with each other.

It didn't matter that the house was an absolute mess or that my desk was piled high with bills that needed to be paid and filed, and all the books were off the shelves, and other stuff out of the cabinets (honey, when I clean, I clean!). I didn't feel the least bit uncomfortable because I knew they came to study the Word, not look at this silly house.

Oh! And just the day before, I'd had a craving for chocolate chip walnut cookies so made up a batch but only baked 3 or 4 cookies then put the rest of the dough in the fridge. So…voila! In 9 minutes we had warm cookies and milk to accompany our Bible study. (I told Joe that God had wanted me to make those cookies!)

People truly are what matter most.

I think of all the ways that people in Japan are suffering right now and it's heartbreaking. Yet I know without a doubt that the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel is aware of every hurt. And not only is He aware but He's working amidst the hurt and grief.

"He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, "This is the way you should go," whether to the right or to the left." (Isaiah 30:19b-21)

I love that passage. And along with you, I'm praying for these hurting people continually.

And speaking of people… I got the greatest surprise in the mail yesterday evening! It was so fun! I checked my mail box around 7:30 and a dear friend had sent me a care package and also included some goodies for Jack! He was thrilled and so was I! Now I have goodies to see me through my entire rewrite of A Lasting Impression. Woohoo! (Bless you, sweet Patti Jo!)

And…I received my substantive edit from my editors so now the real fun begins! I LOVE the rewrite stage. I love the perspective that time away from the book gives me, and I'm especially appreciative of the suggestions and comments from my editors. My stories are so much stronger with their perspective and partnership.

So now, off for some M&Ms and rewrites…

Spring forward and Grab a Muffin!

Did you know that we turn our clock forward one hour this Saturday? I love having an hour more of light in the afternoons. Just as I love watching the sunrise, which will be easier to do after this weekend too. At least for a while. :)

Do you know the history behind Daylight Savings Time? And that it hearkens back to Benjamin Franklin and his days as an American delegate in Paris in the late 1700s?  Here's an excerpt from a great website that gives an extensive history:

At the age of 78, in a moment of whimsey, Benjamin Franklin wrote An Economical Project, a discourse on the thrift of natural versus artificial lighting. He included several funny regulations that Paris might adopt to help. Over two centuries later, nations around the world use a variation of his concept to conserve energy and more fully enjoy the benefits of daylight.

The idea was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett (1857-1915) in the pamphlet, "Waste of Daylight" (1907), that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. 

As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen. When questioned as to why he didn't simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What?" In his pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" he wrote:

"Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used."

So before turning in on Saturday, turn that clock ahead an hour and whisper a word of thanks to Benjamin and William. And about grabbing a muffin…

Last night Joe looked over at me and said, "You know, some of those bran muffins would be really good about now…" So dutiful wife that I am (Judy Miller, stop gagging over there in Kansas), I hopped right up and made some. I'm not sure if I've shared this recipe here or not, but in case not, here it is. And one of the best things is that it keeps in the fridge for up to three weeks and just gets better as it goes!

JoAnna's Bran Muffins

JoAnna White is a dear friend of mine (and was Mom's too) from years back

2 1/2 cups Wheat Flour for Baking (the 50/50 blend)

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp soda

3 1/4 cups Raisin Bran cereal

2 cups Buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 cup pecans or walnuts, if desired (yum!)

Mix together dry ingredients, then blend in the wet ingredients. Mix until blended then dollop into sprayed muffin tins (or paper lined) and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes for large muffins or 12 minutes for mini-muffins, depending on your oven. Delicious!

And lastly, thanks to Stacey Sanders Daniel for letting us know about some Free Kindle Books:

The Secret by Beverly Lewis
Michal: A Novel by Jill Eileen Smith
She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell
Love Me If You Must by Nicole Young
Circle of Friends Slowcooker Recipes
Best Little Stories from the Civil War: More than 100 True Stories (non-fiction) by C. Brian Kelley*

*Thanks to Robin Lee Hatcher who told me about this one too.
Moms' Ultimate Guide to the Tween Girl World by Nancy Rue (5 star reviews) 

And you don't have to have a Kindle to enjoy Kindle books. Download the software for your Mac or PC here.

Oh! And it's Jack's Bday! He's five years old. We'll party later…

Sleeping Dogs and Author Office Tours

Check out Rachel McRae's Author Office Tours! She caught me when my office was in total chaos, but oh well… It was deadline season!

Also, I posted at Writes of Passage today too. Sweet little Jack was dreaming last night as I was writing. Video here.