Book Contest Winner

Anyone who posted from the start of this blog through Nov 22 was eligible to win a copy of one of my books. And the winner is........Tam. Please email me and let me know what book you would like. Thanks to everyone for checking in here. Keep the comments coming!

Silvia

My Second Print Book Available Now!

My erotic Regency historical, A Carnal Agreement is now available in print. You can find it at
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Carnal-Agreement-Silvia-Violet/dp/1599982943/sr=1-1/qid=1164453590/ref=sr_1_1/104-9897808-3710349?ie=UTF8&s=books

Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781599982946&itm=1

or My Bookstore and More (Samhain Publishing's online store): http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/product_info.php?products_id=290&osCsid=7c30c67a6907eda26dcc2efb0312afe1

To read an excerpt, follow this link to my website: http://violet.chaosnet.org/excerpts/aca2.shtml
*Warning: This excerpt contains adult content. 18 and over only please.*

Oatmeal Muffins with Dates and Walnuts

I love muffins, and I have a lot of fun creating new combinations both sweet and savory. Because I bake frequently and I keep all my baking supplies together in two bins on a shelf in the kitchen, I can pull these muffins together in ten minutes, pop them in the oven, and hbave them ready 15-20 minutes later. So I can make them for breakfast even on weekday mornings. I love the smell of warm muffins baking while I get dressed. Then I can sit down with a fresh baked muffin, a cup of coffee and some butter and pretend I'm having a calm, peaceful Martha Stewart-like breakfast experience even if my daughter is whining and my husband just rushed out the door to work.

You can use this muffin base to make oatmaeal muffins with almost any combinations of add-ins - nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc. Add up to 1.5 cups of whatever you like. If you prefer a sweeter muffin, you can use 1/4-1/2 cup sugar and increased milk to 1 cup. Maple syrup can also be used in place of the honey.

Oatmeal Muffins with Dates and Walnuts

1 cup flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 cup chopped dates

Mix all ingredients together. Fill lined or greased muffin cups and bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes. Makes 10-12 muffin depending on how full you fill the cups.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

I subscribe to Everyday Food magazine, and I always make several recipes from each month's edition. It is by far the most useful cooking magazine I've ever read. The December issue included a recipe for peppermint hot chocolate and I made myself a cup yesterday while my daughter was taking a nap. It was sinfully delicious, smooth and minty and rich. I could barely finish my cup, and for me that says a lot. I usually out eat everyone when it comes to rich, chocolately items. This cocoa is definitely a drink to savor. I sat on the couch in my unusually quiet house and sipped and was in heaven. Here's what to do to make a single serving:

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

1 cup milk
1T plus 1t cocoa powder
1/8 cup chocolate chips
1 peppermint stick crushed

Add milk to a small saucepan and whisk in cocoa until combined. Add chips and crushed peppermint candy and cook over medium heat until chips and candy have melted and milk is as warm as you like it.

Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentiis

I don't watch much TV, but well over 50% of what I do watch is on the Food Network. My favorite show is Everyday Italian starring Giada de Laurentiis. The way she describes food evokes everything that is sensual about cooking. I love how she gushes over the food she's preparing and find myself running a similar commentary in my head when I'm cooking something particularly rich or aromatic.

I have both her cookbooks, and I highly recommend them, particulary Everyday Italian. I often buy cookbooks that look delightful but only end up making a few recipes out of them, but I find myself returning to hers routinely when I'm planning meals for the week. Her marinara sauce has become a staple in my kitchen. And talk about food porn. The photos in the book would make anyone salivate. Giada knows beautiful food, and she is as lovely as her creations.

Just watching this show was easily enough to give any one a foodgasm, and it airs again today at 1:30.

Making Gingerbread

Yesterday was a cold, gray, rainy day, and I wanted something nice and comforting to go with a cup of afternoon coffee. When my daughter got up from her nap, I asked her if she'd like to make gingerbread. She inquired if we could use our new boy and girl cookie cutters but I explained that we were going to make the cakey kind of gingerbread, not the dough that you roll out for cookies. She thought the idea of cake sounded nice, as long as I promised to make the cookies soon too, which of course I did.

So with her standing in the "helping chair" we mixed up the very simple batter, practiced counting while the mixer whipped it up, and then sampled batter before I got it in the oven. (Yes, eating batter with raw eggs is a risky practice, but we only use local organic eggs and I take that risk.) When the gingerbread came out of the oven, we sat down at the table and enjoyed a nice warm piece.

The recipe I used comes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My mom had an older version of it and used it often when I was growing up, and the red plaid cover is comforting to me. When I'd just gotten old enough to use the oven, I started making this gingerbread recipe on my own, and it became traditional for me to make it for my family on Christmas Eve so sharing it with my daughter brightened an otherwise dismal day.

Here's the recipe:

Gingerbread

1.5 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4t cinnamon
3/4t ground ginger
1/2t baking soda
1/2t baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 cup hot water

Stir all ingredients together and use an electric mixer on low until combined. Then mix on high speed for 2 minutes (medium speed if using a stand mixer). Pour batter into a greased and floured 8x8 pan and cook at 350F for 25 minutes.

Venison Burgers aka Deer Burgers

As promised I'm reporting back on the venison burgers I made last night. My husband loved them and I was pleased with how juicy and well-flavored they were, but the meat was a little rich and gamey for me. I would eat them again, but I prefer beef. When I first mixed up the burgers they were too wet and wouldn't hold together so I added bread crumbs and the texture came out perfect. I don't have precise measurements for my recipes, but here are my ingredients and my estimates of how much I used:

Venison Burgers
1.25 lb ground venison
1 egg
1T prepared horseradish
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fine bread crumbs
2t paprika
2t black pepper

Mix all ingredients by hand. Form into patties (I made 7 quarter pound ones) and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Silvia

This Week's Menu

I thought I would kick things off by sharing what I'm cooking this week:

Last night I made Rachael Ray's Chicken with Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Cream Sauce. The sauce turned out rich and creamy and yummy, but I didn't suceed in making it in thirty minutes despite watching Rachael make it herself last week. I think the absence of a preschooler begging for attention greatly improves Rachael's speed in the kitchen!

Tonight I'm going to try my hand at Venison Burgers. One of my husband's friends bagged a deer last week, and we got 15lbs of the meat. I've never cooked venison before so this will be a fun experiment. I'll let you know what I ultimately decide to put in the burgers and how they turn out. I'll serve them with Sweet Potato Fries which I make by slicing a few large sweet potatoes lengthwise into thin strips, spreading them in a jelly roll pan, drizzling with olive oil, sprinkling with salt and cumin, and roasting at 400F for about 45 minutes.

The other meal I've got planned this week is Lemon Fish Roll-Ups. My mom used to make something similar, and it was the only fish dish I would eat growing up. Here's the recipe:

Lemon Fish Roll-Ups
1/3 c butter
1/3 c lemon juice
2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper
1-1/3 c cooked rice
1 c cheddar cheese, grated
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen broccoli, thawed
8 fish fillets (I'm using tilapia)
paprika

Melt butter. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, combine rice, cheese, broccoli and 1/4 cup of lemon juice mixture. Divide among 8 fillets, roll up and place, seam side down in a 11 x 7" baking dish. Top with remaining sauce & paprika. Bake 375° F. for 25 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

I'll serve this with a spinach salad. I'd love to hear what some of you are cooking this week!

Silvia

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone! I'm Silvia Violet and for the last 6 months or so I've been writing a Passionate Kitchen column for Changeling Press's free ezine, A Cheeky Changeling. I've enjoyed sharing my love for food with readers of Changeling's erotic fiction, and my column serves as my inspiration for this blog.

I love food - cooking it, eating it, looking through cookbooks and magazines, watching my favorite Food Network chefs at work. Cooking and eating are sensual experiences for me. My husband has often looked at me askance when I've suggested that a certain culinary concoction was as good as sex or at least damn close.

Several years ago, I was given a copy of the Death by Chocolate cookbook for Christmas and as I flipped the glossy pages filled with pictures of luscious chocolate desserts I felt hot and tingly all over. This was my first experience of what foodies refer to as food porn. Now I have a much larger collection of sensual cookbooks, and I see my work as a writer of erotica as a natural pairing with my love of preparing food that delights the senses.

I'm looking forward to sharing my love of food as well as tempting you with tidbits from my stories.

Silvia