Recipe Friday--Sushi in a Bowl

If you were expecting What are You Reading? we hope that it's a pleasant surprise that you've found Recipe Friday. We are bored with What Are You Reading? That is to say, we are bored with posting what we're reading. If you want to tell us what you're reading, we are delighted to hear it.

Let me say that I announced early on in my sushi eating career that I was not learning to make sushi. I learned my lesson over the fajitas and the chicken tikki masala. Okay, I didn't learn my lesson over one, or the other wouldn't have happened, but what's important is I can produce a better product than what can be had in the local restaurants. The result: cooking—yes; going out for fajitas and chicken tikki masala—no. And I can't blame it on The Guy. Even I don't want to eat theirs.

Anyway. I digress. That's my hobby.

I wasn't going to let it happen to me over sushi. After all, I didn't have the little mat or access to sushi grade raw fish. And there was no way, I was going to stand there and chop, roll, and hope stuff didn't fall apart. I've held to that. However, a few hot summers ago, I ran across a recipe for Sushi in a Bowl. (That recipe has only a nodding acquaintance with what I am about to give you.) It's not sushi, so much as a salad with some of the elements of sushi. It's easy and won't cost you trips to the Japanese restaurant.

Apparently Precious Angel thinks it's good for breakfast. Two summers ago, before he could drive, I picked him up one morning at 8 a.m. after football weight training, which had started at 6 a.m. "Do you want to go to the grocery store with me?" I asked. "Or do you want to go home to rest until you have to be back for practice at 10?"

"Home, please" he said. "I just really need a shower, some food, and a nap."

This made me a little sad. This is the first time I can ever remember him turning down a trip to the grocery store. That child loved the grocery store. The man-child, not so much. Which, come to think of it, I'm glad about. I don't want him, as an adult man, to love the grocery store. That's just weird.

Anyway, I threw him out at my house and went about my business. I hadn't given much thought to what he would eat. There was cereal, fruit, English muffins, and he can scramble an egg. However, when I returned, there was a trail of rice, wasabi, and smoked salmon from the sink to the refrigerator. And the orange juice was gone.

I prefer it for lunch or a light dinner.

Enjoy!

Sushi in a Bowl

For the Sushi Mayonnaise

• ½ cup of light mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1-2 tablespoons chopped pickled ginger
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

For the Rice

• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups (one cup dry) cooked and cooled rice (I use brown rice, but you can use sushi rice.)
• salt to taste

For the Rest

• Half an English cucumber, chopped
  
• 2 sheets of nori, torn into small pieces
• 6 ounces chopped smoked salmon
• 8 ounces boiled salad shrimp
• one chopped avocado that has been sprinkled with lemon juice
• wasabi and soy sauce

Combine ingredients for sushi mayonnaise and refrigerate.

Mix vinegar and sugar and toss with rice. Add salt.

Salt chopped cucumber and let drain on paper towels while you tear the nori and chop the salmon. Mix rice, cucumber, nori, salmon, and shrimp. Toss with mayonnaise and chill. Just before serving, add avocado. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi.

You can put anything in it you like. Red bell pepper and roasted asparagus is good. Little chopped up cubes of cream cheese is an idea. Not a good idea, as far as I am concerned because I don't like plain cream cheese, but I'll let you have it.

Serves four, provided a teenage boy is not involved.

State of Done

The goal was achieved!!

As many of you know from reading Pantster's blog on Monday, we are done with some things.  Most notably, we have just finished our latest work in progress.  Oh, there are just a few minor corrections to be made and one very, very, very  short scene to be added but other than that we can say it is a wrap!   We have reached the goal line!!! We  wanted to finish this project by the first of June and by golly we have made it!

I am  also done with the fabulous Heart of  Dixie Luncheon. It was especially fabulous this year to meet the wonderful and entertaining Barbara Vey and Kerreyn Sparks.  And  I  always love to work together with our chapter to make this event happen.  This year our very own Okay, Listen Here blog sisters, Katherine Bone and Cheryl Crisona, were Chair and Assistant Chair on this event, plus Pantster was on the committee, so I am very  proud and excited about how hard they worked to help create another great Reader's Luncheon--especially with all of the craziness that went on down here in Alabama with the tornadoes and subsequent damages.  Way to go Ladies!!!

 
Ok, I will go ahead and admit that I am very excited to move on to our next project.   I have held out for as long as I can and now I must ask, "Are you ready for some FOOTBALL??"  That's right, I know it is still baseball season. I know  it isn't football season in other parts of the country but in Alabama it is always football season.  Maybe one day Maven Linda can explain the actual four seasons of football to you but for now it is enough to know that I am done with going without football.  Our new story features a football coach hero and I can't wait one minute  longer to get into some football so here are some football pictures and images to get us through the long hot summer to the cool crisp days spent with the Boys of Fall!!

Marcell Dareus, the Rookie

This is the mascot of my new favorite professional football team!  The Buffalo Bills.  They drafted one of my favorite football players from the University of Alabama. They were very, very smart to take him with their first round draft pick. Smart move, Buffalo!

So I am done with the luncheon, practically done with filling the new ballot of officers to run for the open positions in RWA, done with new book, done with baseball, and done making myself live in a football free world!  Done, done, done!  I am very excited to be moving into the Free State of Done!

To celebrate all of this doneness I am going to order myself a new hat--just like the one Marcell Dareus got when he was drafted by the Buffalo Bills and I am going to wear it to watch them go back to the Super Bowl!

It always feels great to achieve a goal or to accomplish a difficult task.
How do you reward yourself when you achieve a goal or for a job well done?

What Challenges You?

We just finished the final touches on HOD's Annual Romance Readers' Luncheon. A lot of planning goes into this event every year and there are so many people involved. As luncheon coordinator, I'm always thrilled when another successful luncheon has seen its day. To pull this off, after such horrific weather and the loss of one of our dearest authors, took lots of determination this year. But we did it! HOD presented the best luncheon yet.

After such a whirlwind, what does one do with their time? Aha! The fact that there is time to spare is absolutely unheard of around here. ;)

I've actually been working on entering the Maggie's this year, a contest given by the Georgia Romance Writers. But instead of just entering one, I decided to enter four manuscripts. Ack! What grandiose goals took over my mind? I've been knee deep in luncheon business, the deadline is Friday and I've still got two entries to submit.

So, even though the luncheon is over, my life is still just as hectic these days. Apparently, I'm a glutton for punishment. I've entered contests before. Some brought me enlightenment, others disappointment and criticism. But who are we if we cannot learn and grow along the way to meeting our goals?

I've given a short craft corner on contests. Contests are tricky monsters. But when you final, as I finaled in the Romance Through the Ages contest in the Legend Award category this year, the rewards are bountiful.

So it is, with hope swelling my breast, that I submit these books to the Maggie's this week. Maybe my entries will cancel each other out. Maybe none of them will final. But if I don't try, I will never know.

Is there something you're willing to go out on a limb for these days? If so, let us know. We'd love to hear what challenges you!

The Meaning of Love

Romance writers – that’s what we are, what we call ourselves. I looked around the room during the luncheon last Saturday, at the readers and the writers, and a thought struck me. All these people are here because they like reading and writing romance novels. And what is at the root of all those novels? LOVE. But how do we define love? What is it? What does it mean to all of us? What causes humans to lose all sanity and all reason to find that emotion? WHAT IS LOVE?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, love, when used as a noun, is (1) strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties – a mother’s love (2) attraction based on sexual desire – affection and tenderness felt by lovers. When love is used as a verb it is defined as (1) to hold dear as in cherish (2) to feel a lover’s passion, devotion or tenderness for. But what does all that mean? How do we, as writers, convey what love is between the heroine and the hero? How do we tell the reader those thoughts so that she/he can understand the romance, the feelings, the overall need to be with that one human being which will make the characters complete? We struggle to write down those feelings and let the reader know that these two people are meant for each other, through all adversity and conflict. But what does it truly mean when they say “I love you” ?

The thought intrigued me. I think that the feelings and yearnings behind the emotion are intangible passions which are felt differently by different people. That is what makes love. Aristotle captured the true definition, for me, in one sentence: Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. The Ying and the Yang of each other. Without one the other is incomplete. The irresistible need exists in both people to be with the other, to fulfill each other and become one soul. So there you have it, my definition of love. But how do we write that? How do we convey that compulsion and explain it to our readers? It is a hard process.

In my search for the definition of love, I looked at many quotes, trying to find meaning in other people’s words. How did they define it? Here are a few which spoke to me:

When you love a man, he becomes more than a body. His physical limbs expand, and his outline recedes, vanishes. He is rich and sweet and right. He is part of the world, the atmosphere, the blue sky and the blue water. - Gwendolyn Brooks

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. – Judy Garland

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. – Robert Frost

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

And the one that I think captures the essence of love –

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

So how do you define love? What do you think makes you love one person and not another? Do you think it’s as Aristotle says, the unification of one soul split between two people? Tell me your thoughts on what defines LOVE.

Stick Me With a Fork

What do you do when you're done?

That is, done as in finished with a book or another big project. Those who know me well know that when I say out loud, "I'm done," in a certain tone, it means walking away from a person or a situation that has frustrated me beyond my bounds and I will not be turning around. But that's not the kind of done I'm talking about. That's another blog.

I am a hit-and-miss disciplined person—that is, I don't seem to muster up much discipline about some things but am like a laser beam on others. Lucky for me—and Stephanie—I'm disciplined about my work. That doesn't make me better. It makes me the person with no children and no day job. Still, it takes some effort and it takes saying no. It used to be impossible for me to ignore a ringing phone because who knew what treasure could lie on the other side? Well, now, thanks to caller ID, I do know and I will return calls—at least if it's a treasure. And there are some people I answer the phone for no matter what, Baby Girl and Precious Angel among a few others.

Okay, I'm rambling and there's a reason for it.

I’m done.

And that's what I do when I'm done. I ramble, sit around in my pajamas, and listen to music by Lobo and the Jeff Healey Band on YouTube. I call people who don't have time to talk to me and should be screening their calls like I have learned to do. I search ESPN's website for clips about my beloved Crimson Tide and yell at them when they don't say glowing things. I work crossword puzzles in super easy books that a six-year-old could do.

After some solid gold advice from a successful published author friend, we have been rewriting a book that is close to our hearts. We gave ourselves a reasonable finish deadline so we could give it a really good read through by conference at the end of June. We beat our deadline by three days and Stephanie said, "Send me the full so I can read for typos and inconsistencies." These are things I can't help with right after I'm done. I can't find them until it gets cold.

So I sent it to her. Now, it's almost noon and I'm still wearing what I slept in. My house is clean, but my bed isn't made. (This is unlike me.) I am contemplating sending Precious Angel a message on Facebook to boss him around about something. I don't know what yet. I ordered new panties online instead of going to the store to buy them. Who does that?

Me, when I'm done. Because these things keep me from doing what I want to do, which is getting on with what we were working on before we went back to what we just finished rewriting. I can't do that, because Stephanie has a big old rule about not moving on until we are completely done. Which means reading for typos and inconsistencies, and getting the pitch written, and all those other pesky little unfun things. "KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THIS PROJECT," she says. "I NEED YOUR HEAD RIGHT HERE."

Okay, Stephanie. I'm right here. See? Not thinking about Nathan and Tolly from our other project, who we left in temporal stasis, miserable and confused. Not one little bit.

Hey, maybe I'll go back though my blogs and find all the ones where I've said, "That's another blog," and make a list of future blog topics. Yeah. Or I'll order some socks online.

What do you do when you're done?

Luncheon Week

This is it! The big week!  It is finally here...the always fabulous Heart of Dixie Readers Luncheon is this Saturday at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville.  This year it has been very tough to bring the luncheon to fruition, even Mother Nature seemed to be out to get us. 


As most of you know our chapter recently suffered the loss of a charter member and a true pillar of our chapter with the sudden, heart wrenching passing of Beverly Barton.  She was such a supporter and encourager that she is greatly missed and many of us feel going into the luncheon that the absence of her sparkling personality will leave a huge hole that no one will ever be able to fill in our hearts.  That said, she loved the Heart of Dixie Chapter and I believe that she would be proud of the fact that we were able to carry on our traditions gracefully no matter what the adversity, especially if we could devise a way to do so wearing tiaras.


The Luncheon Committee has been headed up by our own Katherine Bone and her co-chair has been our Cheryl Crisona.   They have done a fantastic job getting the luncheon rescheduled and getting everything put back together. It has been a lot like trying to get Humpty Dumpty back together again but they have done it and done it well!  LeaAnn Schafer and Danniele Worsham have done a wonderful job on getting the publicity taken care of and as always Danniele has been the Raffle Basket Goddess!  We are going to have tons of fun, tons of door prizes, and even more than tons of raffle baskets!  It is really going to be a great event! 


All of us here under the Tulip tree will be away from our computers off and on for the rest of the weekend.
I know that many of you are planning on attending the Luncheon and we look forward to seeing you there.


Have you ever attended the Heart of Dixie Reader's Luncheon?
If so what is your favorite part?  If not, what keeps you away?

Writing As Only A Billboard Knows How

Life has uncertain ways of meeting you head on. Then again, life is a head-on process of cyclic turns and somersaults. Oftentimes, in life, what you think works is usually bound to take a 180 degree turn just when you’ve finally gotten a foothold on your dreams. What you think would never work, could turn out to be a Pulitzer idea. The best idea could wind up wadded up in the trash.

As I was driving about town today, I found myself attracted to billboards dotting the landscape. Most are food advertisements, which make drivers crave a Coke or a Big Mac. Some are designed to make drivers desire sparkly finger-ware. And then there are the hospital signs, insurance signs, hotels, restaurants, and so forth. All basically attempting to persuade the average American to change the way they go about their lives, or believe that one way is better than another.

Are you led astray by advertisements? Or can you see beyond the image, zeroing in on what matters most?

Let’s take a fast food billboard, for instance. Image is a gigantic hamburger. Not just any burger but a multi-layered hamburger with the works, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion and cheese. Large font declares this is the best burger known to man. The image is crisp, lifelike. The purpose is to make the tummy growl and the mind to steer into the next quick lane for a dose of chow. (Sometimes I find myself looking for Australian herders.)

I admit I’m a sucker for a large, sparkling glass of Coke. There’s nothing like the large Coke logo, giant polar bears or a large bottle with condensation glistening off of the glass. On a good billboard, I can almost feel the effervescent bubbles tickle my face as I put the glass up to my mouth, eager to sip the dark, sweetened brew. Coke with ice… a good thing.

So it was today, as I drove around, I began to ponder — yes, my friends, that ‘daring-do-thang’ I frequently do — ponder. Oddly enough, the billboards I passed did not make me hunger for food. Like Pirate’s of the Caribbean’s Barbossa craving apples, unable to gratify himself with anything else, I found myself yearning for mental foodstuffs that satisfy.

Here’s what I saw on the billboard:

Bun = The segmented part of writing most people are willing to strive for… interaction with other writers, people who think alike and, thankfully, understand the voices occupying our heads.

Lettuce = Crisp black words upon the page, which bond a reader to a story and forge a writer’s deepest secrets to the fore.

Onion = Zing that flavors each story and the brainstorming forces of storyboards, plotting parties, and advice given to anyone who seeks to reveal the oasis inside.

Tomato = Acid that burns when rejections fill the mailbox/inbox. Here also lingers the sweet essence of acceptance, the flavorful appeal of success, contributions that assure us the days of bland writing are over.

Cheese = The maturing voice/style which provides a writer with confidence, for all that has come before has hardened the writer’s skin and forged within a fermented flavor/armor of steel that can only herd the writer toward an even greater goal— the beef— success.

Meat = The pinnacle! Here is the center of our cuisine, the purpose of every ingredient… to give the writer protein and balance. This is the goal, the heart of every writer’s aura, selling the product when all the other things have been put into place. Savvy?

Hamburger = Successful writer. The final product enhanced by every nuance above and below it.

Remember the commercial, “Where’s the beef?” Like ‘No wine before its time,’ writers must prepare, share, beware, and not compare. Every writer’s journey is different. Just as every burger can be created to anyone’s taste, there will always be room for another burger in the world.

Bunless burgers are a completely different story. ;)

Can you think of another billboard that reminds you of writing?