How To Bake The Perfect Christmas Cake by Gina Henning

How to Bake the Perfect Christmas CakeHow to Bake the Perfect Christmas Cake by Gina Henning

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How To Bake The Perfect Christmas Cake is an effervescent piece of chick lit, it’s fast pace whips you through the build-up to Christmas and beyond for Lauren Hauser. A highly successful worker in finance Lauren Hauser lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s just returned from Thanksgiving spent with her family in Texas where she met the delicious Jack Walker in the first book in the series “How To Bake The Perfect Pecan Pie”.

But Jack has let her down, he failed to arrive recently at the airport for a visit and Lauren questions if a long-distance relationship will ever work. A while later Jack surprises Lauren, he’s full of apologies, problems at Vintage Estates where he works needed to be sorted before he could come to Lauren. Determined to make up for his failings Jack begins to woo Lauren with a series of gifts related to the Twelve Days of Christmas.

With their relationship almost back on track Lauren makes it back home for Christmas in Texas with her family of crazy characters. Who else would bring the whole family dressed at Elves to meet you at the airport?

A fun light Christmas read with a large cast of film and celebrity mentions, enough to rival any top gossip magazine.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews On Goodreads

Apologies if this book is off-season, I just couldn’t get to it in time for Christmas.

How To Bake The Perfect Pecan Pie by Gina Henning

 

How to Bake The Perfect Pecan PieHow To Bake The Perfect Pecan Pie by Gina Henning

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a lovely easy read romance most suitable to be read with a glass of wine over Thanksgiving or just as easily as a beach read. Lauren gets a letter from her Grandmother with instructions on how to bake the family secret recipe for Pecan pie ready for Thanksgiving.

The recipe calls for only the best Pecans and they must be bought from Tibor’s Pecan Farm. This is a humorous tale told by Lauren who happily pokes fun at herself and her bad luck, as she tries to persuade another customer to share his hoard of Pecan’s when she arrives in time to find just one small pack left on the shelf and certainly not enough for Grandma’s recipe.

With Lauren’s bad luck continuing on the return journey she is in need of a serious rescue. Who can resist a damsel in distress? A sweet little romance with it’s share of fun characters.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Pecan Pie BLOG TOUR2

The How to Bake the Perfect Pecan Pie Blog Tour runs from November 7th until November 18th, each day of the tour a different character will share their favorite recipe for Thanksgiving.

Stop by and see what’s cooking in the Hauser kitchen and be sure and enter the giveaway for a $50 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card, just in time for Thanksgiving!
Brian Forrester’s Favorite Thanksgiving Recipe.
The back office at the Hauser home has been converted into a mini-video recording studio for each member of the Hauser family along with two special guests to share one of their favorite Thanksgiving recipes other than the pecan pie.
Hauser Family File: Brian Forrester is the husband of Megan and the brother-in-law of Lauren Hauser. Brian works in the insurance field but you would most likely find him roaming the aisles of Home Depot looking for inspiration on creating his latest gadget.
“Roll the tape.”
Brian meanders into the room. He’s wearing his Mr. Fix-it tool belt and has a hammer in his right hand. He squints his eyes at the camera and leans in to inspect the lens. He fiddles with a few of the buttons and makes his way to the couch.
“Here’s the thing, my mom used to always serve cranberry sauce from the can.” He bites his lip. “As a kid, this scared the crap out of me.” He throws open his hands. “I didn’t understand the lines of the sauce, it made no sense and I was afraid to eat it.” Brian blinks his eyes and shakes his head.
“My wife Megan is an excellent chef and like me she likes to improve things.” He nods his head. “My favorite recipe that she prepares for Thanksgiving is her cranberry relish.” Brian stands up and strides to the camera and turns it off.
Megan’s Cranberry Relish
2 pounds of fresh cranberries 1 cup sugar
¼ cup Grand Marnier liqueur 1 orange zested and juiced
Directions
Place all ingredients into pop and simmer on low heat until majority of cranberries have burst, stir continuously. Marinate in refrigerator for thirty minutes.
*Don’t miss the Hauser family Thanksgiving, available now from all these fine eBook Retailers:
Amazon US Amazon UK Nook US Nook GB Google Play Kobo

Williams-Sonoma $50 Gift Card Rafflecopter
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is also the link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d43499e02/
*Be sure to stop by these blogs for sneak peeks and secrets from the Hauser Family!
7th November – Candy’s Raves http://candysraves.com/2014/11/how-to-bake-the-perfect-pecan-pie-blog-tour-2014/

8th November – Avid Book Hoarder http://avidbookcollector.blogspot.com/

9th November – Krysten Lindsay http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

10th November – Aurelia Rowl http://www.aureliabrowl.com/

11th November – Rosie Amber https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/

12th November – Holly Martin http://hollymartinwriter.wordpress.com/

13th November – Karen Aldous http://www.karenaldous.co.uk/blog/

14th November – Rebecca Raisin http://rebeccaraisin.wordpress.com/

15th November – eBook Review Gal http://www.ebookreviewgal.com

16th November – Mika Jolie http://mikajolie.com/

17th November – Katie Oliverhttp://www.katieoliver.com/ko/blog

18th November – Gina Henning http://www.ginahenning.com/blog

Good Deeds Challenge Year 2 Week 23

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year, now I an into my second year.

New Good DeedsDuring my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

September 21st – Today my son and my Dad share a birthday. It made my Dad’s day when my tiny baby hung on for a few minutes longer and then rushed out to share his day with his Granddad. Funnily though my Dad always reckoned he’d play second best from then on, and try as I might, it’s always a last minute rush to either buy or deliver my Dad’s birthday gift while all the time I’m really organised with my son’s gifts. We are off out to tea with the other Granny and Uncle. Will take around a book I have just finished reading. We That Are Left by Juliet Greenwood, a fantastic book written around WWI and the strength of the women who were left to survive in England while the men went off to war.

September 22nd – Have got together with a couple of my girl friends to keep us all positive and to stop us all worrying ourselves to death about our kids and the future (Think 3 women heading towards the menopause) The Hormones go berserk and we find ourselves freaking out about all sorts of strange things. So we’ve got together for a little girl power and I’m shouting the loudest about having treats and “me time” and being busy with other things. So this week I’ve challenge us all to find out how to cook a dish of “pulled Pork” and to go out and get the ingredients and try out a recipe.

Last night I read “Baby Girl, Book 1 : The Beginning by Elle Klass. At just 38 pages I soon had it read and will write up the review in a few moments. My next book will be Going Pecans by Gina Henning

September 23rd – Having a chat with BrookCottage Books about helping out with some chicklit book reviews. Checking proofs for the October editions of the local magazines I write book reviews for. My copy and pasting skills were appalling this month and I have apologised to the editor about my mistakes which need changing in the proof.

September 24th – Organised a couple of my book review team to help out with reviews for the BrookCottage team. Make that 6 of my team, thanks for volunteering everyone. Blogging friend Diane Coto has been helping point me in the right direction towards some new to me authors for the mystery book tour.

In my endeavour to try out something new in my life, I got all the ingredients together for pulled pork. Found a recipe and away I went, well those who know me better, know I tend to wing a recipe when I don’t actually want to use all the list of recommended ingredients, so keen to get on, I forgot how long it would take to defrost my joint of pork. Then found it was larger that the recipe recommended. Marinaded  it for 30 minutes, covered in foil and bunged it in the oven at 2.30pm. Recipe said a slow cook for upto 5 hours. At 7pm it was still raw in the middle, at 9pm it was nearly cooked but no where near the pulled look. At 10.30 I went to bed, switched off the oven leaving the pork in the heat.

September 25th -Pulled pork continued: Got up at 6am, the oven and pork were still just warm and my pork was just about pulled. Not sure it’s the runaway success I planned. Will serve it up for tea tonight and see what the family think.

Just had a lovely book morning chatting over a coffee with fellow writer Alison Williams. Can’t go anywhere without recommending a book these days and added a few more to Alison’s TBR pile. Good Deeds received, drinks were on Alison, thank you.

September 26th – Went to the local market and bought homemade jams as a gift for my husband’s aunt. Been really busy on the blog writing up lots of post drafts. Reading Romancing My Love by Melissa Foster

September 27th – Helped a man at the Supermarket this morning.

Have bought a copy of “Why Does My Book Not Sell?” by Rayne Hall, I’m sure it will be as good as her last one “Twitter for Writers” which I keep recommending to people. I shall be reading and reviewing it in due course.

Today I’m reading Seaside Dreams by Melissa Foster.

Good Deeds Challenge, Year 2 Week 16

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year, now I an into my second year.

New Good DeedsDuring my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

This week I’ve been doing the following;

August 3rd – Dropped around to visit my parents and helped my Mum with a lesson on copy and paste on the computer. I love the fact that she keeps trying to learn new technical stuff. The August online versions of the two magazine I write reviews for went up today and I sent out e-mails and tweets to all the featured authors. Here’s a link to my post http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-5yH

August 4th – Today I’ve written a long over-due letter to an Aunt. I’ve picked up litter and I’ve helped out another friend with a phone number. Am reading Lost Souls by Penny de Byl

August 5th – Made sure I wished a friend’s son good luck with his driving test today.

August 6th – Took my son and a friend to the park to play cricket and picked up litter. Checked several friends had remembered we are going out for a meal tonight. Good deeds received: Being picked up tonight, so I don’t have to drive.

August 7th – Sent a return letter to the above aunt booking us in for a visit in September, she likes to keep with tradition and use pen and paper to communicate mostly, although she has a new laptop which she’s having trouble getting used to, so hopefully the kids can give her a hand if we can’t help her.

August 8th – Agreed to read and review a book by Gina Henning that is due out next week, although my review won’t be ready that quickly. Off out for tea with friends this afternoon. Taking them books to read.

August 9th – Sent off my review for Lost Souls. Out to tea at the in-laws this afternoon. Picked up litter. Began reading the second book in the Spirit Warriors series by Della Connor. Have been drafting up more Romancing September posts. Received my windfall of Amazon vouchers and have already purchased Bending the Boyne by J.S Dunn, a historical book about Ireland that I’ve been wanting to read for a while.