Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Red-Hot Chili Cook-off

Excerpt and Contest information below!

Idgie Says:
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.
 
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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!
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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 3: Fresh Fiction
April 4: Book’d Out


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!