What are YOUR comfort foods?

Comfort Foods

by Tracy Ruckman

Saturdays are now fun days, so you’ll read many different subjects in the coming weeks. As I was thinking about the today's topic, food kept coming to mind, and I decided that “comfort food” is something we all identify with.

What are your comfort foods? Making most people's lists are mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, banana pudding. But one day years ago, my mom, siblings, and I were discussing our own comfort foods and I realized the only thing our lists had in common were none of our choices were the same as others!

Top comfort foods for me are:

• my homemade spaghetti (recipe and photo below)


• pizza - all different kinds, but I especially like thin crispy crusts with double pepperoni!


• Chinese food from Peking Palace – specifically Moo Goo Gai Pan, Wonton Soup, and an egg roll. When I'm in Georgia visiting my boys, I try to get by Ming Moon in Cartersville - Tony makes the BEST Chinese food ever made!


• Russia tea (recipe below)


• My “Italy” hot chocolate (recipe below)

Hope you enjoy my recipes. Share with us some of your own comfort foods, and I may be in touch with you to share YOUR recipes!

Tracy’s Homemade Spaghetti

1 lb. ground beef
1 onion,chopped
Garlic Powder
Basil
Oregano
2 cans, 14-15 oz., diced tomatoes
2 cans, 14-15 oz., tomato sauce
Salt & pepper, to taste



Brown and drain the ground beef, add onion, and cook until soft. Add the seasonings next. I purposely didn’t put amounts, because I don’t use regular measures. For the garlic powder, sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons over the ground beef and onions. Add more if you like lots of flavor. For basil and oregano, pour about a teaspoon of each, one at a time, into the palm of your hand, and crush before putting in the pot. I do this three times for each herb. Crushing the dried herbs brings out more flavor, and heating them quickly with the browning meat flavors the meat before mixing in the sauces. After the seasonings have been added, stir for a couple of minutes to mix and heat, then add tomatoes and sauce. Stir well, then cook on low heat a minimum of two hours, but three to four is even better. Longer than that, you’ll want to add about ¾ of a can of water when you add the tomatoes, otherwise the sauce will get too thick. Serve over your choice of pasta.



Grandma’s Russian Tea

½ cup instant tea (I try to get lemon-flavored, unsweetened if possible – not just sugar-free, but completely unsweet)
2 cups Tang
1 package of Country Time lemonade (or equivalent powder from canister to make 2 quarts)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix all ingredients together and store in airtight container. For each serving, place 2-3 teaspoons of mixture in cup and add boiling water. Stir until mixed well.



When I visited Venice, Italy several years ago, I chose hot chocolate for breakfast the very first morning and I was hooked. Their version was so rich, so thick, so creamy – I could ALMOST stand my spoon up in it. Every day for a week, I drank it, and when I got home, I started having withdrawals.

I searched online for recipes and went to work in my testing lab. Nothing compared. I do realize atmosphere might have something to do with it, but FINALLY, I created a version very close in taste to the original. I realize the only resemblance to the real thing is the heat, but the taste satisfies me just the same.

Tracy’s “Italy” Hot Chocolate

½ cup Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup Splenda
Heavy whipping cream

Mix the cocoa and Splenda together in a container or plastic bag to use as needed. For each cup of hot chocolate, put 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa mixture in a pot and one tablespoon of water. Stir over low heat until blended well. Add one cup (I usually measure it in the cup I’ll drink out of so the amount of milk is just right) of heavy cream for each serving, and heat to desired temperature, stirring frequently.

Hope you enjoy my recipes. If you try them, let me know what you think!

Share with us some of YOUR comfort foods in the comments below, and I may feature you and your recipes in an upcoming column!

First Impressions

First Impressions

© 2008 by Virginia Smith

Last year I critiqued a novel for someone I’d never worked with before. When he sent me his manuscript, he warned me in the cover letter, “It starts out a little slow, but the story really gets going in chapter 5.” I told him, “Throw away the first four chapters. Your story begins with chapter 5.”

As writers, we have only a few seconds to grab a reader’s attention and pull them into our stories. In his book, The Art of Fiction, John Gardner says of readers:

We read five words on the first page of a really good novel and we begin to forget that we are reading printed words on a page; we begin to see images…

Five words! That’s how quickly our readers begin forming impressions of our stories. Our job as fiction writers is to make the first words of our novel the best we can write. Some authors go so far as to say the first line of a book should be the best in the entire book, and they spend hours crafting the perfect opening.

You’ve probably heard the ‘bookstore shopper’ talk. Put yourself in the shoes of a reader. (And if you’re a writer, I certainly hope you’re an avid reader, too!) You go into the bookstore, scan the shelf, and pick up a book that catches your eye for one reason or another. You read the back cover to see if the story sounds interesting, and then you open it up to the first page.

Your impression of the story begins with the first sentence. If the story grabs you immediately, there’s a good possibility you’re going to buy the book. If it’s a little slow starting, you might read a paragraph or two before you make your decision. You do not, however, read half the book to see where the story really gets going. If it doesn’t engage your interest right away, you’re going to put the book back on the shelf and pick up another one.

How does a writer make a good first impression? First, let’s talk about what not to do:

Don’t start with backstory.

A common mistake of beginning writers is spending the first few pages, or even chapters, trying to give all the background. They indulge in an information dump to describe how the main character got to the point where the story starts. This doesn’t create a good first impression. Consider a story that begins with an airplane trip. Do you really want to read about the plane being fueled, the passengers filing on to find their seats, the flight attendant giving the ‘how to fasten your seatbelt’ talk, the plane rolling down the runway, gaining speed, lifting off, and finally, soaring into the clouds? Of course not. Skip the boring details! Instead, begin with the plane at 32000 feet when the main character glances out the window and notices flames shooting out of the right engine, the oxygen masks drop from above, and the lady in row three screams, “We’re all going to die!”

Don’t start with a biography.

The reader does not need to know everything about your character’s past right up front. Nor do they need a physical description immediately. Instead, consider starting with a statement that relays the character’s personality or current intriguing situation. Then you can relay those other details naturally, a few at a time, as the story unfolds.

Don’t start with a weather report.

Do you remember when Snoopy sat down at his typewriter to write the great American novel? How did he begin? It was a dark and stormy night… Starting with the weather has been done over and over, until it’s now considered cliché, and boring. Above all, you want to avoid boring your reader.

So, now that you know what not to do, how should you start your story? From our airplane illustration, we’ve seen how effective plunging the reader immediately into the story’s action can be. But what about that critical first sentence?

Introduce the character’s personality.

You don’t want to slow the story down with dull biographical details, but you may want your reader to feel drawn to your main character right up front. Angela Hunt’s Christy nominated novel, Doesn’t She Look Natural, begins with this sentence:

A grieving woman, I’ve decided, is like a crème brulee: she begins in a liquid state, endures a period of searing heat, and eventually develops a scablike crust.

That opening line grabs our interest. It makes us curious about the kind of woman who would make a statement like that. We wonder what loss she is grieving, and what the period of searing heat was for her. And it also gives us an idea of this character’s tongue-in-cheek humor, which establishes the tone of the book. A good beginning!

Set the tone.

In Crimson Eve, Brandilyn Collins starts with this piece of dialogue:

“Really, is a heinous murder any reason to devalue such a glorious piece of real estate?”

This is a totally different feeling than Hunt’s book – we immediately know we’re in for a different type of story with this one. The phrase heinous murder tells us that. We’re curious to know about the piece of real estate that was the setting of such a gruesome crime. We want to know more about the character who made this chilling statement – who could dismiss this crime so casually? It’s a good beginning!

Pique the reader’s curiosity.

One of my all-time favorite beginnings comes from C.S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

In that opening we’re introduced to one of the main characters, and we see right up front that we’re not going like him very much. There’s a touch of dry humor apparent in the statement that I find appealing. I’m eager to meet this boy, to find out what he could possibly have done to deserve such a horrible name. Another good beginning!

If I pick up any of those books in a bookstore, I’m hooked. I might buy the book based on that first sentence alone. If not, I’m at least going to keep reading to see if the rest of the writing appeals to me. But that first sentence has served its purpose – it has snagged my interest.

Spend some time on your opening. Consider the tone, the character, the feeling you want to relay to your reader right off the bat. First impressions do count!

Virginia Smith left her twenty-year career as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am. Earlier this year she was honored to be named Writer of the Year at Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. She writes mystery/suspense novels, such as her upcoming A Taste of Murder, as well as humorous heart-touching stories like Stuck in the Middle and Sincerely, Mayla. Visit her website at www.VirginiaSmith.org.

Entry #1: White Wolf

This entry comes from Pixel Debbie Roome:

Brian and Tommy make a plan to go out for the day and track down Windwalker as they want to hear more about the legend of the white wolf. They leave a note for their parents saying they have gone for a hike in the woods. As dawn breaks they set off with backpacks and enough food to last the day. Brian is unsure of where Windwalker’s cabin is but eventually the boys stumble across it.

Windwalker tells the boys he knows they have come to hear more about the white wolf. They share a meal as he tells many stories about this ancient legend. As mid-afternoon approaches, Brian says they need to set off on their return journey.

He chooses the wrong path and soon they are lost in a thick forest area. After hours of walking, they are tired and distraught. Brian admits he doesn’t know what to do next so they sit down to have a snack and discuss the options. Night falls and they decide to seek shelter and resume their search the next morning. They find a cave and enter, not realizing it is home to a vicious bear. She corners the boys and after throwing their provisions to her, Brian cries out for the white wolf to save them.

It appears and distracts the bear while they escape. It then leads them through the trees until they hear a search party calling their names. The wolf melts quietly into the midnight darkness.

Don't Forget Your Manual

By Suzanne Williams

I bought a new camera this year, an Olympus SP 550 UZ. As do all digital cameras, it has its good points and bad points. Its good point would be the 18x zoom capabilities. I have been able to capture photographs that I could not with my previous digital camera. There is nothing like standing a great distance away and taking a photograph that looks like you were much closer. On the other hand, one of its bad points involves automatic focus.

I probably don’t need to point out that focus is extremely important in a photograph. The choice of what gets the sharpest focus can make or break a photo. Well, I realized early on that given a small subject in front of a busy background, this camera becomes incredibly confused. The background will be sharp while the actual subject matter is totally lost.

I suppose one shouldn’t give inanimate objects a personality, but somehow my new camera has taken on one. It’s either hopped up on zoom, “Yeah! Awesome!” or incredibly confused by where to focus, “I can’t find it. Where’d it go?”

I am all about buying the latest gear, the best camera, the longest lens. DSLRs for the masses, I say. But even given you own one, which I do not, all cameras have their flaws. A good photographer will always learn to work around their camera’s capabilities. If your camera has a situation that it particularly doesn’t do well, then focus your attention on what it does do well instead. However, there will always be times when you just “have to have” an image, but you find that your camera won’t let you have it.

So I asked myself how I could overcome my camera’s shortfall; how can I help it overcome its confusion? And as a result, I began playing around with manual focusing settings. Now to go from being able to stand 10 feet away and still zoom in macro close to that dragonfly, to using manual zoom takes quite an adjustment, and the biggest adjustment is body position.

Whenever you are using manual focus, you will have to move your physical location. To put it simply, walk backwards or forwards until the subject is in focus. Sometimes it is only a matter of leaning your torso and at others you have to physically get up. I soon discovered that this turns photography into a physical sport. After an hour in the grass chasing the tiniest of damselflies, I was exhausted, my knees hurt, and my back ached.

But I will say this, I just can’t argue with the results. I would never have been able to capture this damselfly wheel without using manual focus. By fixing the focus distance at about 3 feet, adjusting where I was sitting in the grass, and paying close attention to my LCD screen, I was able to take a photograph I would have missed otherwise.

This method also works well for moving objects. One afternoon I sat and photographed bees nectaring on pickerel blossoms. Using manual focus enabled me to not worry about focus at all, but concentrate instead on the movement of the bees to and from particular flowers. And it eliminated the waiting time I would ordinarily have between photographs.

I feel like we have overcome a great obstacle, my camera and I, and she is grateful to me. Okay, maybe not, but I did learn something. There is a reason the manufacturer puts all those manual settings in there. And as a photographer, I need to learn to use them and, more importantly, remember to use them because sometimes they are the best way to achieve optimum results.

Rambur's Forktail Damselflies in a mating wheel

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Suzanne
Suzanne Williams Photography
Florida, USA

Blog Tour: All Through the Night

I haven't yet finished this book, but I'm loving it so far, and I've NEVER been disappointed with a Davis Bunn novel! At one point several years ago, I'd read every one of his books that the library owned in the town where I lived - I used to beg them to hurry and get more!

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

All Through The Night

(Bethany House - July 1, 2008)

by

Davis Bunn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Davis Bunn is an internationally-acclaimed author who has sold more than six million books in fifteen languages. His audiences spans reading genres from high drama and action thrillers to heartwarming relationship stories, in both contemporary and historical settings.

Honored with three Christy Awards for excellence in historical and suspense fiction, his bestsellers include My Soul To Keep, and Full Circle . A sought-after lecturer in the art of writing, Bunn was named Novelist in Residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University.

He and his wife, Isabella, make their home in Florida for some of each year, and spend the rest near Oxford, England, where they each teach and write.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

A loner, trying to forget. A community--and a woman--who need for him to remember...

Broken relationships and unfulfilled promises scatter themselves across Wayne's past like burned-out craters. His background in military special-ops is something he's trying to forget. But when he gets himself sweet-talked into helping a quirky group of seniors who've been scammed, he discovers it will take a lot more than muscle and nerve. Breach a conman's high-security estate to recover stolen money? No problem. Become part of community? Love again? Not on your life.

A lawyer with her own painful past is intrigued by Wayne and asks him to take on another unusual case--Tatanya's wealthy employer believes he's been visited by...an angel? Did a messenger from God in a pinstripe suit truly bring a divine warning, or is this merely another cruel hoax? Tatanya is willing to trust Wayne with her boss's life, but she's not sure she's ready to trust him with her own wounded heart.

With a financial analyst's skills and a warrior's tenacity, Wayne races to unmask dangerous forces hiding behind a corporate veil. But he will need all his resources--and then some--against an unseen enemy bent on destroying his fragile bid for a second chance at life...and love.

All he wanted was to put his past behind him.

But now it's the only thing that will save them...

To read the first chapter of All Through The Night, click HERE.