Enjoy a little Romance When You Need It from Harlequin Books

Even though I don't have a recipe to share with you today, it's still getting a little hot in here as I join TLC Book Tours to help Harlequin kick off their "Romance When You Need It" campaign this month with the fun video you see below. Whether you're looking for an escape from her hectic day or a happened upon a little unexpected time to yourself, count on Harlequin to bring a little romance right when you need it—wherever you are!

To get you started, when you sign up to receive the Harlequin Newsletter, you'll receive 17 FREE e-books!

Thrill Me by Susan Mallery: Excerpt

I'm so excited to share something new with you. I often host book tour stops, but today marks the first time I host an excerpt tour today! If you're not familiar, you can probably guess that each host on a tour shares an excerpt from a book. Start at the beginning of the tour, then follow along each day to keep reading. How fun is that!?

I know a lot of you like to see the food or drink that a particular book inspired me to make, or hear little foodie-bites from the book—and that won't change. It may not be in-your-face, but this excert is fueled by caffeine. Hopefully it'll give you incentive to come back on August 20th, when I'll be sharing a review and recipe inspired by Thrill Me, as well.

Until then, welcome Susan Mallery and excerpt #5 from Thrill Me, part of the Fool's Gold series!

Pomegranate Salad

Are you knee-deep in holiday sweets yet? Since it's already two weeks into December, that scenario is almost impossible to avoid. It can be easy to forget that life is not all about the butter...the sugar...the chocolate...the glacé fruit (okay, maybe nobody ever thinks it's about the glacé fruit). That is why I'm sharing this salad with you today. Okay, that and the fact that I'm today's stop for the Sharing Morocco blog tour!

The thing is, looking at this salad, you don't necessarily think healthy. You think beautiful—or at least I do. The deep, rich reds and greens that come straight from the earth rather than a tube. Busting out this salad in the middle of the holiday madness is like bringing home somebody to meet your family for the first time. Everybody's nervous and wondering if they'll fit in. But instead of being awkward, it's like they were supposed to have been there all along. They just fit.

Aside from the colors that just scream winter, I think it has a lot to do with the addition of lightly candied nuts and nature's own little sugar bursts, dates. This salad is just one of the many vibrant dishes lining the pages of the new (released in October) cookbook by Ruth Barnes, otherwise known as The Petite Gourmande.

Lemongrass Chicken Dumpling Soup, a Dumplings All Day Wong tour stop

I'll be the first to admit that my dumping technique (or lack of) needs work. Fortunately, there's plenty of opportunity for learning how to fold dumplings of all sorts in the new cookbook by Lee Anne Wong, Dumplings All Day Wong. Not does she show technique, she also shares recipes for several types of dumpling dough; perfect for those who can't find dumpling wrappers in the store (raising hand). Also perfect for those who like to try making their own everything—at least once.

Wong not only shares dough recipes, how-to make dumpling tutorials, and some classic dumpling dishes, the book is packed with fun and unusual combinations and dishes throughout. Plus, I'm pretty sure this is the best name for a cookbook EVER.

The dish that I'm sharing from the book today looks simple...and it is fairly simple. If you've never made dumplings before, pleating the dough is the only semi-difficult process in the recipe, and even that isn't too bad once you've fumbled through half of them. But don't let that fool you into thinking the flavors in this dish are also simple. They're not. They're in-your-face loud! Lemongrass screams from both the bright yellow (turmeric) chicken filling of the dumpling and from the unassuming broth.

Smack 'n Cheese Pizza + Homemade Pizza Dough

Pizza. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Seriously. It's a bit of a tradition in our house; we eat pizza once a week. Fortunately pizza is entirely versatile and customizable. Sometimes it's take-out, sometimes it's frozen (there's some good ones out there), and as often as possible, it's from scratch. It's funny, because every person in the house has a favorite crust or topping or combination thereof, so it's rare that we please everybody (entirely) in one meal. Good thing we do it once a week.

So when asked if I'd like to be a part of the Revolutionary Pizza book tour, the obvious answer was "psssshh, YES!". This cookbook is all sorts of fun. If you're a traditional pepperoni or just-cheese kind of pizza-eater, this cookbook is definitely too much fun for you. It's for the bold and adventurous eaters, and the daring of mouth! It's for those who aren't afraid to enjoy their meal and their cocktail all in one bite. It's for those who welcome crazy combinations and deconstructed favorites.

And yes, it's definitely for the people who've thrown back a few over the course of the day. Or night.

Lemonates Patates (Lemon Potatoes)

I have a bucket list. It's extremely long. I can think of fewer places that I don't want to visit, than ones that I do. High on that list is Greece. Stark white houses on a hilly landscape against a brilliant blue ocean backdrop. Or the colorful homes jammed into a rocky outcropping. And the food. OOOOHHHHH, THE FOOD!

Well, until I can physically set foot on one its numerous islands, I will have to live vicariously through photographs, books, and best of all food and cookbooks.

Today, the tour stops here on a virtual trip to Greece with Debbie Matenopoulos, via her recently released cookbook, It's All Greek to Me. If you're like me, you'll probably recognize Debbie from shows like The View, The Insider, and Entertainment Tonight (or one of her many others), but what I didn't know was that she comes from a Greek family that instilled in her "a passion for bringing friends, family, and even strangers together over the dinner table for meals made with love". Otherwise termed "philoxenia".