Book Feature: A Groom for Mama
I'd like to welcome my first guest blogger, Catherine Castle! Her sweet romance A Groom for Mama was released by Soul Mate Publishing this week. Read on for a recipe and excerpt from the novel. Take it away, Catherine:
My poor heroine, Allison Walters, has her fair share of bad dates in my sweet romantic comedy, A Groom for Mama, and dinner is often part of the outing. Fortunately for Allison, the food she gets to eat is nowhere as unpleasant the company she must endure.
On one date, she goes to a fancy restaurant and is served mango raspberry cheesecake for dessert, and New York strip steak, baked potatoes, a house salad, and braised Brussel sprouts as an entree. Yum!
Brussel sprouts? Is that, “Yuck!” I hear swelling over the Internet?
Well, I, too, once turned my nose up at those tiny little cabbage-like veggies until I discovered a delicious way to fix them. Allison was served braised Brussel sprouts, which is basically a sautéed method of cooking. At our house we roast our sprouts. It’s a quick, simple method that even kids will like.
On vacation with friends we told the teens in the house we were serving roasted Brussel sprouts, and we got the common, and expected, “Bleech!” response. But when we talked them into taking a bite of the little green gems, they went back for seconds and thirds. Imagine that! Roasting Brussel sprouts removes the cabbage taste and turns them into sweet veggies that even the most ardent veggie haters like.
Here’s my simple method for roasting Brussel sprouts.
Trim the stem ends of as many Brussel sprouts as you think your family will eat. Then cut the sprouts in half. Stir them in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until the sprouts are lightly coated. Less is better as you only need enough to lightly coat the outside of the sprouts. Add a couple shakes of garlic salt and pepper to the sprouts and stir again. Lay sprouts cut side down on a lightly oiled pan and cook in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until sprouts are browned on top and easily pierced with a knife. Slide off the pan into a dish and enjoy.
I can’t say how much this recipe will feed. It depends on how well you like this dish. We never have any leftovers. It is a staple at our family holiday meals, along with roasted radishes, carrots and zucchini. Heck, you can roast almost any veggie and it tastes good. Use the above recipe or add herbs your family likes, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, or basil. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the herbs. Some veggies like carrots or potatoes take a bit longer to cook than the Brussel sprouts, so just start them sooner and add the faster cooking veggies later.
Now that I’ve filled your recipe needs, take a peek at an excerpt from A Groom for Mama.
A Groom for Mama
By Catherine Castle
Beverly Walters is dying, and before she goes she has one wish—to find a groom for her daughter. To get the deed done, Mama enlists the dating service of Jack Somerset, Allison’s former boyfriend.
The last thing corporate-climbing Allison wants is a husband. Furious with Mama’s meddling, and a bit more interested in Jack than she wants to admit, Allison agrees to the scheme as long as Mama promises to search for a cure for her terminal illness.
A cross-country trip from Nevada to Ohio ensues, with a string of disastrous dates along the way, as the trio hunts for treatment and A Groom For Mama.
Excerpt:
Bounding down the stairwell as the bell rang, Allison shouted, “I’m coming! I’m coming. Keep your pants on!” She threw the deadbolt off and jerked open the door.
Jack Somerset stood in front of her, his chin perched on top of a stack of Chinese take-out cartons. Shoving down her tingling gut reaction, she commanded her heart to stop jumping like an overexcited puppy.
Except for a few more laugh wrinkles around his eyes, Jack hadn’t changed a bit since college. His brown hair still dipped over his forehead in a shaggy mane. A lopsided smile spread across his face when he saw her. He winked at her, his green eyes twinkling.
“Well, if it isn’t the bride-to-be. Nice to see you again, Allison.” He jiggled the cartons balanced in his arms. “I brought Chinese. I remember it was your favorite. Moo shu pork, right?” He pushed past her and headed toward the kitchen, apparently as well acquainted with her childhood home as she.
Grabbing her head between her hands, she squeezed her temples.
Chinese. Of all the things he could have brought, he brought Chinese.
She’d broken it off with him in a Chinese restaurant . . . over moo shu pork. Very loudly and very violently. The pork and the pot of hot tea had landed in Jack’s lap when he tried to keep her from leaving the table. Did his choice of entrees mean Jack hadn’t forgotten the incident? She hadn’t, and she’d been unable to eat that particular Chinese dish since.
Want to read more? Check out A Groom for Mama at Amazon
About the Author:
Multi-award-winning author Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. Besides writing, Catherine loves traveling with her husband, singing, and attending theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.
Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. Her most recent release, A Groom for Mama, is a sweet romantic comedy from Soul Mate Publishing. Both books are available on Amazon.
Buy links for A Groom for Mama
Social Media links:
Catherine’s website: https://catherinecastle1.wordpress.com
Catherine’s blog: http://catherinecastle1.wordpress.com/blog/
Catherine’s Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/catherinecastle
Catherine’s Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7085414.Catherine_Castle
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorCCastle @AuthorCCastle
Stitches Thru Time: http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/
SMP authors blog site: http://smpauthors.wordpress.com/
