I recently turned _0, the age you remember your mom and thinking, “Wow. Mom is getting old.” At 20, we are anxious to get to 21, the age of majority aka Margaritaville. I celebrated the night of my 21^st birthday, and several more after that, as I recall. I think. There was alcohol involved.

At 29, I was so bummed that I’d be turning 30 that, when the actual date came and went, it just didn’t seem like a big deal! Plus, I had a new baby, was working  50+ hours a week, playing racquetball and running. I was busy living life.

My 40^th birthday was fun. I had a big birthday bash, and all of my friends kept saying, “Wow, you just don’t look 40!” And I didn’t feel it, either. My kids were 13, 8 and 3, and I felt like a young mother. The gray hair could be taken care of easily with Miss Clairol, and I was still playing softball, indoor soccer, and running, teaching high school, and actively involved with my church.

Frankly, I don’t remember my 50^th birthday. We were living in Georgia by then. I did NOT want a birthday party, so I think we celebrated alone, maybe with the kids. My maternal grandparents lived well into their 90’s, and my great-grandfather was 103 when he died. They were sharp as a tack when their bodies eventually gave out. So I thought, “I’m just starting the second half of my life. I’ve got a good 40 to 50 years to enjoy. No problem.”

Not so, this year. In the past 10 years, I’ve lost both my in-laws and my dad. My sister-in-law, who was the epitome of health and vitality, succumbed to a seizure after battling it for 5 years—at the age of 61. A dear friend in excellent health who was also 61 passed away last year from pancreatic cancer. Life seems more fragile to me now.

Not to mention the “signs” of growing older. Heaven help me if I lose my eyeglasses! I’m much more forgetful, the gray has overtaken the brown (but I’m not giving in just yet…thank you Revlon), I finally agreed to get hearing aids, but only after reading that the incidence of dementia is much greater for those with hearing loss. And the most horrifying? Those pesky chin hairs that seem to grow an inch overnight (where were they all these years?)

Life is a gift my parents gave me a minute of years ago. During that time, I have been blessed immeasurably with friends, family, love, talents that I’ve shared with others and opportunities to know the world around me. There have been sad times, yes, and there will continue to be. But there is a chance that I could have 40+ more years to experience. I can choose how to live them. Like they say, you can’t control what life throws at you, but you can control how you react to it. I choose love, laughter, and life!

So what is your favorite “decade” birthday? What were the circumstances that made it a special time for you? (If you are 19 or younger, no need to reply!)

When people ask, “Which is hotter…red or green?” they give themselves away! You can have spicy hot red chile and mild green chile, or vice-versa. It all depends on the chile. With my red chile sauce, I always add in the small, thin, pointed-end chiles, sometimes called chile de arbol or chile pequin, because I like my chile HOT! Just remember…the pointier the end of the chile, the hotter it is!

It is difficult to crank up the heat factor on green chile, so I always order mine ”hot” from Hatch, New Mexico, usually during the UNM Alumni Green Chile Roast in the fall. I have found authentic, New Mexico Bueno-brand, green chile in the frozen section of my local grocery store, but that is very unusual! If you happen to find it, grab a couple of containers for me!

Another learned preference is whether you like your enchiladas flat or rolled. If it’s part of a combination plate with only one enchilada, I don’t mind a rolled enchilada. But an enchilada plate in New Mexico is always served flat and layered.

After you read through the recipe, I hope you’ll give New Mexican red chile enchiladas a try. This particular recipe is quick to make, less than 30 minutes from start to finish. For those of you who have visited New Mexico and developed a taste for New Mexican cooking, you’ll want to keep this recipe (and a stash of red chile pods) on hand!

All of the items were purchased at Wal-Mart or Kroger in Cumming, GA. One bag of red chile pods will make several servings of red chile enchiladas.

So what is your comfort food? Please share!

New Mexican Red Chile Enchiladas

Recipe makes 2 servings of 3-stack flat enchiladas. Salt is added at the table to reduce sodium content of the dish.

Chile Sauce

Red chile pods, one-12 oz. package (make sure they are a deep red color, and not brown, which means they’ve been sitting too long)

2-5 thin, long chiles (may be under different names, chile de arbol…they are HOT!)

Garlic, 1-2 cloves, thinly sliced (to your taste)

Tomato sauce, 8 oz. can, for a sweeter taste, not necessary…but I like it!

Water or chicken stock (approximately 2-3 cups)

Thoroughly rinse about 10 chile pods and remove stem (you’ll have several left for another day.) Leave seeds in for a hotter sauce.

Place chile pods, sliced garlic and about 2 cups of water (or chicken stock) in a blender.

Blend at highest speed for about 3 minutes. If the chile sauce is too thick to blend, add more water in ¼ cup increments. Blend until you get a rich, red sauce.

Pour into a 2-quart saucepan, stir in tomato sauce, cover and place on stovetop at a medium setting.

At this point, you can add in cooked meat if you’d like, such as ground beef or shredded chicken. Bring to a slow boil, making sure to stir often once the sauce starts to boil. Lower heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Tortillas

Corn tortillas (2-3 for each serving)

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of cooking oil in a small fry pan and heat corn tortillas on both sides. Or you can spray canola oil spray on both sides of the tortillas. Heat quickly on both sides—make sure they are not crispy! Place on a paper towel after softening.

Filling

Package of mild cheddar or Mexican Mix cheese

Cut corn (you’ll use 3-4 tablespoons for each serving—frozen or canned is fine, heated thoroughly)

Assembly

Put softened corn tortilla into red chile sauce and scoop out with plenty of sauce.

Place on large plate. Add a tablespoon or more of corn and top with cheese.

Repeat for 2-3 layers, depending on how hungry you are! Cover finished plate with a paper towel and melt cheese in microwave for 30-60 seconds on high.

Salad Topping, Condiments

Top with shredded/chopped lettuce, tomato and onion. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Sides

I like fried potatoes, Spanish rice or refried pinto beans. A side of posole is also delicious!

Enjoy!

I am the gardening guru at my school, and with thirty-two raised garden beds, we have lots of space to grow new and enticing varieties of the standard spring fruits and vegetables. As an organic gardener, I find that it’s much safer, and infinitely more rewarding, to start our plants from seed.

But, oh, so many choices! I sent out an email to our gardening teachers inviting them to make their own selection of plants they’d like to grow in their classroom raised garden bed. As I was tallying the choices, I couldn’t help but get excited about the many and diverse varieties of tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, melons, corn and other vegetables we will be propagating from seed in just a few weeks.

The children will be watching for the first sign of green popping through the soil, waiting for the first leaves to form so that we can pop them under the fluorescent lights. Then we start the nurturing process—water, organic fertilizer, at least 14 hours of light, and a stable soil temperature for the growing root systems. At the same time, cold-hardy plants like spinach, peas, lettuce, broccoli and other brassicas will be directly seeded in the soil.

At last, the tender plants we’ve been growing inside can go out for a few hours at a time, getting a chance to “try out” the weather. In time they will stay outside overnight in the cold frame for a week or so to harden against the elements, getting ready for that shady afternoon when they are planted in the garden.

Unfortunately, not every plant will resemble the glossy picture on the cover of that seed catalogue we perused in December. And that “hardy producer” guaranteed to produce hundreds of pounds of delicious tomatoes may lose the battle against a lowly cutworm in the middle of the night. You pay your money (or plant the seed!) and take your chances.

This is where I am today. Planting that first seed in the garden of my self-publishing career. I’m optimistic that the time is right for my stories and my voice. I still carry that self-doubt that all writers do that the stories I want to tell, and how I write them, won’t resonate with a sufficient number of readers to make any money at it. But if you never put yourself out there, it’s a self-fulling prophesy. That I know, from experience.

So here goes! I hope you’ll follow my journey and will be sufficiently curious about my writing to give me a try. There will be a novella setting the stage for my Logan Springs series, and Carson’s story. I will re-release my first book, Sidelined by Love, with some changes, this spring, and Strike Three, You’re Mine will follow early this summer.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

For those commenting today, I am offering the chance to win a copy of When in Paris, a New Adult novel by my friend and fabulous author, Beverley Kendall. I read this book in one sitting…it is a phenomenal read!

Midnight Caller

by Leslie Tentler

http://leslietentler.com/

Mira
ISBN: 0778329348
EAN: 9780778329343
Romantic Thriller

Dr. Rain Sommers, host of a New Orleans late-night radio talk show that caters to the Goth community, is shaken up by a mysterious caller who is obsessed with her mother, the popular Goth singer, Desiree Sommers, murdered by Rain’s father when she was two years old

Trevor Rivette, a special agent with the FBI’s Violent Crimes Unit, has been following the serial killer dubbed “the Vampire”, also known as Dante, for eighteen months. It’s gotten personal, with Dante sending him mementos from each killing. Trevor returns to his hometown of New Orleans when victim number four turns up.

He gets involved with Rain, believing that the caller and his serial killer are in some way tied together. As they work together, the sexual heat builds between these two lonely souls, but horrid childhood memories from both of their pasts keeps them tentative about any kind of relationship. Not to mention that Dante now seems to be targeting BOTH of them.

If you like romantic thrillers with vampire-like elements that keep you on the edge of your seat, it’s a good bet you’ll love Leslie Tentler’s debut novel. There are very few novels that can keep this jaded reader turning the pages at three in the morning when she has to get up at six for work, but this one did it. The sexual tension between Rain and Trevor is intense throughout, and there are enough twists and turns and “gotchas” to keep your heart racing.

Reviewed by Anna Doll

Tamales are said to have originated in Mesoamerica as early as 5000 BCE. They derive their name from the Nahuatl word “tamalii” which means “wrapped food.” The people of the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico hybridized wild grasses to produce what we know today as corn (thank you, Mexico.) It eventually gained significance in the region as a sacred plant and the main source of food in Meso-American civilizations, particularly the Aztec and Maya civilizations. The Aztec and Maya, as well as the Olmeca and Tolteneca before them, used tamales as a portable food for feeding their armies, but hunters and travelers used them as well.

The making and consumption of tamales was well established by the 16th century in the Aztec empire, around which time the Spanish conqueror and explorer Hernan Cortes (c. 1485-1541) arrived in that section of the New World presently known today as Mexico (which includes a large portion of our Southwestern United States.) Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagun (c. 1499-1590) mentioned tamales in his 12-volume history series on the Aztec civilization, “Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana” (“General History of the Things in New Spain”). The Spanish spread the use of the tamal throughout their other colonies and in Spain after returning to their home country (along with corn seeds.)

A tamal (singular) is made of masa and steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper (banana in some regional areas of Latin America, corn husk in New Mexico and other Mexican-American areas of the United States.) The wrapping is discarded before eating (former President Gerald Ford, who wasn’t made aware of this well-known-to-tamale-eaters-everywhere fact, when asked what the great lesson of his 1976 election defeat to Jimmy Carter was, he answered, “Always shuck your tamales.”)

For years, the preparation and eating of tamales, known as the tamalada, was as much a Christmas family ritual for Mexican-American families as cutting down and decorating the Christmas tree, or making bizcochitos, a traditional anise and cinnamon-flavored Christmas cookie. While I have tried my hand at making bizcochitos over the years, making homemade tamales was a rite of passage for young girls in our family that has gone by the wayside for me, since it is rare I am with my family the days before Christmas Eve, when the tamale-making is at its peak. You do NOT want to attempt this feat alone!

‘’I think of it as the theology of la tamalada,’’ said Roberto Piña, program coordinator for the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas. ‘’It’s a process that begins with making the tamales, but ends up being a sharing of what’s gone on over the past year. It’s not just about making tamales. It’s a way of coming together, sharing and rejoicing.’’

Making homemade tamales, which can easily take eight hours, is definitely on the decline. But people still eat them at the meal following Midnight Mass and throughout the holiday season. They bring them to gatherings the way people elsewhere might bring fruitcakes. This Christmas I have promised myself that I will gather my daughter, daughter-in-law, hopefully-daughter-in-law-to-be, and close friends for an afternoon of tamale-making!

If you’re in the mood for making new traditions with your daughters, sisters or friends this Christmas, I’ve included a humorous account of my family’s tamales recipe on my personal blogspot, Chai Tea and Chocolate, where I’ve collected several tried-and-true family recipes. Gather four to ten “sisters” for a fun day of tamale-making! Everyone brings an appetizer to share and you offer to make the margaritas!

Are you a tamales connoisseur? If so, what are your favorites? Do you have Christmas family traditions you wish you’d kept to pass on to your children?

Conferences are the lifeblood of writing organizations like Romance Writers of America (RWA) and its local chapters. Publishers and editors, agents, published and wanna-be-published writers join together for a few days of exhilarating workshops, motivating keynotes, parties, celebration, and merriment surrounding our favorite pastime (after sitting at the keyboard for hours at a time, of course)—eating and drinking.

Georgia Romance Writers (GRW) are no exception. Our fall Moonlight and Magnolias Conference is considered one of the best in RWA circles. This year we’ll have Michael Hauge, a best-seller and story and script consultant in Hollywood, presenting a full-day workshop on “Master Your Story—Master Your Destiny”, NYT bestseller Allison Brennan will be the keynote speaker, and Psychologist and Author Kelly L. Stone will present her half-day workshop on Sunday morning, “The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind.” Oh, and we’ll also have 3 editors and 3 agents taking pitches. If you’ve been thinking of attending a writer’s conference, M&M 2010 is the place to be!

It is a big deal to be nominated for a Maggie (the chapter’s equivalent of the Rita, Oscar and Grammy…all rolled into one!), and members will bow down before you if you are fortunate enough to win the Maggie. Seriously. Two of our very own PFHT blog sisters, Debbie Kaufman and Sally Kilpatrick were named finalists in this year’s Maggie competition. Even more important is the opportunity to meet others on the road to publication and to rub elbows with those who have been successful in their quest to be published. The weekend is so inspiring you’ll find yourself racing home on Sunday evening to finish that manuscript that’s been languishing on your computer.

My very first writer’s conference was Moonlight and Magnolias. I can remember being awed by the number of published authors, agents and editors milling around, the quality of the workshops—it was where I learned of my tendency to “head hop”—and experienced the nurturing characteristic that romance writers seem to possess. After that first conference, I was hooked and I haven’t missed a conference yet. Last year, I even hit the dance floor after the Maggie presentation!

I’ve had some awesome experiences at conferences. Imagine my first RWA conference, where I found myself helping Nora Roberts set up her table for the RWA Book Signing in Dallas. She is irreverent, but friendly, and is known for her unfailing support of newbie writers. But do not doubt that she’ll give you a friendly kick in the butt if you show any sign of self-pity. “This is a job,” she said that year. “If you want to make it in this business, you need to treat it as such.” You want to know why she’s so successful? She writes every day, even when she’s traveling or attending conferences. She does her own research. And she still finds time to give unpublished writers advice on different blogs she frequents. Nora Roberts is my hero.

So what are your conference highlights? What wonderful advice would you give to someone considering attending their very first conference?

I posted a request on my Facebook page asking for suggestions on this month’s blog post. Several people made suggestions, which I am going to use for posts later in the year (so be looking for that authentic, family tamale recipe, Tami!)

But this particular request struck my fancy. It took a while, but I think I’ve come up with a good top ten list of things you should NEVER blog about:

10. Your politics. Unless you plan to alienate a minimum of 50% of your readership, including your in-laws, you really need to stay away from this topic.

9. Your in-laws. Because even if you plan to tell a “cute” story that happened, in-laws will never take what you write on face value.

8. Your in-laws who are outlaws.  No need in airing the dirty laundry, unless you’re using the opportunity to remove yourself from the Christmas card list—permanently.

7. Your dirty laundry. Literally as well as figuratively. Trust me, it’ll come back to haunt you. Blog posts have a half-life equivalent to that of radioactive isotopes.

6. Isotopes. Unless your readership is 90% GA Tech graduates, most of us don’t know diddley about isotopes.

5. Bo Diddley. The celebrated rhythm and blues performer from the 50s whose big hit was, strangely enough, Bo Diddley.

4. The 50s. Especially if your readership’s idea of an oldie is Madonna singing “Like a Virgin.”

3. Madonna. I mean, what’s the point? Pretty much everything you’d want to know, and a lot that you didn’t, has already been written.

2. Topics you’ve already written about. I know, I know, that’s a stretch, but I’m desperate here.

And the number one thing you shouldn’t blog about? Drum roll…please….

1. Top ten lists!

Do you have anything you’d add to the list? Any examples of simply horrid blog posts you wish someone hadn’t written?

I’m not as old as Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, both of whom were feisty young bucks by the time my mother gave birth to me. But ever since the day I hit 40, it seems as if that cute little saying, “She’s over the hill!” has evolved into “Watch the old lady tumble down the mountain!” Scary.

If the climb up the hill was rugged, trust me, it’s smooth as ice on the way down. Right now I’m on a ledge halfway down, I’ve got bruises and scrapes all over my body, sweaty fingers are gripping a clump of grass in a crevice, a tenuous hold at best, and my legs are flailing around, trying to find purchase.

It’s not pretty.

I have a t-shirt in my closet that says, “I got this shirt when I turned 40…I hate this shirt.” Two years ago, I crossed out the word “hate” and wrote in “love”. Yeah, 40 is a heck of a lot better than 5… Darn keyboard. Can’t seem to find that number…

But I digress.

I thought about my bucket list when my 20-year-old daughter, Jennifer, asked if I’d like to skydive with her this summer. “Skydive? You? Me? Are you CRAZY?”

After getting over the thought of watching my little baby girl hurtling toward earth at 55 meters per second, a niggling memory picked its way through my psyche and I remembered that I’d signed up at age 19 to skydive with a group of friends. Unfortunately I wound up having emergency surgery the week before, then pretty soon I got married; shortly afterward we were saddled with a mortgage, birthed three kids, now the grandkids…well, you get the picture. Responsibilities.

That dream of jumping out of an airplane only surfaced once—when I’d stepped outside for a few minutes and my two little boys locked themselves in the bathroom to test what would happen if they flushed a tennis ball down the toilet. Over and over they flushed, so many times that by the time I found them, the carpet was waterlogged halfway down the hallway and into three bedrooms. Oh, and hubby was out of town for a week. Of course.

Sorry. Some things you never forget, even at the ripe old age of 5…

I’ve been giving her proposal a lot of thought. School’s out. I’ve got good insurance. I’ve had a good life. And parachuting was on the original list, I reminded myself. Along with visiting New York City, several times—check; riding a camel to the Giza Pyramids in Egypt—check; sipping a glass of wine with friends at a restaurant somewhere along the Mediterranean (Alexandria)—check; roaming the Coliseum in Rome—check; watching a baseball game at every major league park (10 out of 30, not too bad); playing golf and enjoying a luau in Hawaii—check; publishing a novel—check. I’ve still got a few unchecked items on the list: traveling throughout Europe, sailing on the Atlantic, seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Great Wall of China.

Oh, and hitting the New York Times bestseller list. Gotta have a stretch goal on the old Bucket List, right?

I’ve crossed out several items, so I’ve decided to add to it. Carol Burnside’s cruise (see her blog from last Friday) is definitely on the list. And, yes, jumping out of an airplane with Jennifer this summer is on the list. I’ll let you know how it goes. If anything, it’s good research for my next book. Surely I can find somewhere to put in a scene of my heroine jumping out of an airplane.

Screaming bloody murder the entire way down.

Any suggestions? What would you put on your list?