Post by Dew on the Kudzu.
Excerpt and Contest information below!
A fun-filled, small town, stubborn set of women fixin' to correct wrongs done to them novel. Perfect for the upcoming summer pool/beach reading. Escape into someone else's messy life for a while and snicker while doing so! FB Link Post below for entry!
The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off
by Carolyn Brown
Southern Women’s Fiction, April 2014
It’s
Fried Green Tomatoes meets Bridget Jones’s Diary in Carolyn Brown’s latest women’s fiction novel:
The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off (April 2014)! With her unique
Texas drawl and cast of quirky characters, Brown brings laugh-out-loud
humor to a poignant women’s fiction novel, centered around three cousins
working through some of life’s toughest situations…
In
the small town of Cadillac, Texas, business is booming at Bless My
Bloomers, the fancy lingerie shop run by Carlene
Lovelle and her cousins, Alma Ray and Emma Grace. But irony strikes
when Carlene discovers another woman’s silk bikini underwear in her
husband’s briefcase. Carlene recognized them, not because they were
hers, but because the hussy had bought them in her shop!
Lenny Joe had crossed the line and no one, not even the Good Lord, can
help him out of the fix he’d put himself into.
For ten years, Lenny Joe’s team has dominated Cadillac’s Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off. But with Carlene’s Bless My Bloomers
team now in the ring, it’s anyone’s game—and when there’s pride and food involved, things are bound to get messy!
With a cast of eccentric characters inhabiting the small tight knit town, Carolyn Brown’s signature wit is tinged with
a Texas twang you won’t forget. At its heart, The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off
showcases the poignant side of female friendship… and the unexpected power of a big bowl of award-winning chili.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carolyn Brown is a
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more
than sixty books published. She writes bestselling single title cowboy
and country music mass market romances, as well as women’s fiction. Born
in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma,
Carolyn and her husband now make their home in the town of Davis,
Oklahoma. For more information, please visit
www.CarolynLBrown.com.
__________________________________________________________________________
Excerpt and Recipe from the Book:
Post by Dew on the Kudzu.
Contest - 2 winners!
Follow this Link to Share a recipe of a similar nature to the one in this review by Carolyn at the Dew's FB Page (https://www.facebook.com/dewonthekudzu) to enter to win:
o
Prize #1: a print copy of The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off
o
Prize #2: A Carolyn Brown Prize Pack
§
Print copy of The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee
§
Print copy of The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off
§
Cute recipe card set—so the winner can save the recipes shared along the tour!
Names will be drawn Friday Morning - April 4th!
______________________________________________________________Names will be drawn Friday Morning - April 4th!
April 2, 2014 Dew on the Kudzu Guest Blog – The Red-Hot
Chili Cook-Off by Carolyn Brown
Good mornin’ to
everyone! Thank you so much for inviting me to stop by here on my recipe tour
for The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off. Down
here in the south we think food cures everything from broken hearts to ingrown
toenails. So it wasn’t any wonder when Lenny Joe showed the whole world that he
was afflicted with an acute case of stupidity and Carlene left his sorry ass,
that the first thing Miz Beulah thought about was food. She was definitely not
a culinary artist but she sure knew where to go to get decent pecan tarts.
Before I share the
wonderful pecan tarts with you, here’s the excerpt where all this happened.
Remember now Carlene, Alma Grace and Patrice are the cousins who own and
operate Bless My Bloomers, a fancy lingerie shop in Cadillac, Texas. Josie is
the elderly lady who helps with the sewing part of the business.
“I
can’t believe you are so stupid that you married him. Everyone knew he was a
skirt chaser,” Josie fussed.
“Well,
I can’t believe you aren’t going to live up to the vows you said before all
three of our mamas and God. And the fact that the trophies didn’t break is a
sign that your marriage isn’t broken, just cracked, and that it can be mended,”
Alma Grace sniffed.
“I
thought he meant it when he said his womanizing days were over, Josie. I hear
the front door. Let’s go to work,” Carlene said, walking out of the kitchen.
“And
he broke more vows than Carlene did, Alma Grace, so stop your sanctimonious
shit. I hear the front door,” Patrice said.
“It’s
going to be the ruin of us. The church didn’t like it when I threw in with
y’all to put in a lingerie shop but a divorced woman in the mix? I don’t know
what’s going to happen to me,” Alma Grace whispered.
“We’ve
done got past the fifties, cousin. Divorce happens. Get over it and you better
not ever let me hear you praying for that bastard again or I’ll snatch you
baldheaded,” Patrice said.
Carlene
returned with a white carryout box and opened it before she set it in the
middle of the table. “That was Beulah from across the street. She ran over to
Miss Clawdy’s and brought us a dozen pecan tarts. Said that she’d heard the bad
news and would be praying that me and Lenny could work things out. Don’t you even roll your eyes at the ceiling Alma Grace! She said
that she hoped that the tarts would help us get through the morning.”
“Bad
news travels fast,” Josie said.
“Fat
chance of working it out,” Patrice said. “Lenny Joe has treated you horrible,
Carlene. It’s over.”
Alma
Grace reached for a tart. “You had these at your wedding. All arranged on a
silver platter on the groom’s table. You want one? Remember all the good times,
Carlene. God wants you to forgive Lenny.”
“I’d
rather lick the white tops off of chicken shit.” Carlene marched out of the
room before she had another emotional outbreak just thinking about her wedding
day.
Do you have a favorite recipe that you go to when you
need something to take to a friend whose heart is broken? Share it with us,
please!
MISS CLAWDY’S PECAN
TARTS
Pastry:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Dash of salt
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese,
softened
2 tablespoons butter or stick
margarine, softened
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
Cooking spray
Filling:
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup light-colored corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg white
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
- To prepare pastry, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, and dash of salt in a small bowl. Combine cream cheese, butter, and milk in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until blended (mixture will be crumbly). Press flour mixture into a ball.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 3 to 4 times. Divide dough into 24 portions. Place 1 dough portion into each of 24 miniature muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Press dough into bottom and up sides of cups, using lightly floured fingers.
- To prepare filling, divide pecans evenly among muffin cups. Combine brown sugar and remaining ingredients; spoon about 2 teaspoons filling over pecans in each muffin cup.
- Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned and filling is puffy. Cool in cups for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Run a knife around outside edge of each tassie; remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Be sure to follow along on The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off Recipe Sharing Tour!
April 1: Carolyn
Brown’s Facebook Page
April 2: Dew
on the Kudzu
April 3: Fresh Fiction
April 4: Book’d Out
April 7: Book Reviews & More by
Kathy
April 9: Satisfaction for Insatiable
Readers
April 10: Bitten By Love Reviews
April 11: From the TBR Pile
Learn
more about The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off
and find out some delicious recipes from Carolyn and other readers along the
way. Chances to win at each stop!