Friday, February 7, 2014

Guest Post & Giveaway: No Such Thing by A.M Arthur

I want to thank the wonderful folks here at Pants Off Reviews for hosting me today, as I count down to the release of my first book with Carina Press, NO SUCH THING, which releases February 17. It's virgin bookworm with a heart condition meets reformed bad boy with a past, with my own angsty spin. There's also a pretty hot dance club scene that's already gotten a few readers talking….

Folks familiar with my stories know that food always shows up in some way, shape, or form. NO SUCH THING is no different. Jaime's sister Shannon owns a bakery/breakfast joint called Baker's Dozen that offers breakfast until noon, and thirteen different varieties of freshly baked muffins each day. Baker's Dozen is also where Jaime and Alessandro quite literally walk into each other's lives.

Shannon bakes because it's something she loves to do and she's good at it. Her open-minded ability to look beyond Alessandro's sketchy past and hire him to wait tables is the good luck that Alessandro needs—and not only because it leads him to Jaime. The job gives him a chance to prove himself, to help provide for his foster mother, and awakens a passion for food he never knew he had. Sometimes you don't know how much you'll enjoy something until you take a chance on it—just like love.

Food is an important part of our lives, not only because it sustains our everyday existence, but also because of how it becomes part of our traditions and memories. As a child, baking Christmas cookies with my mother and sister was the highlight of the season. We'd spend an entire weekend elbows-deep in flour, sugar, eggs, and candy, making more cookies than we'd ever eat as a family. So we shared with others (but always made sure to keep a few for Santa). I have so many memories of those special weekends, and a lot of recipes I look at fondly each Christmas.

So in the spirit of good memories, I want to share a recipe. We're past the season for Christmas cookies, so I thought about muffins. Alas, I don't actually have any muffin recipes of my own, and I don't want to slap one up that I copied out of the Betty Crocker cookbook. Instead, I'm sharing a family recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits: Eastern Shore Style.

2 cups warm sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed

½ cup shortening

2 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

¾ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together warm sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, and shortening. Add the dry ingredients to it and mix thoroughly. Mixture will be sticky.

Flour a clean surface and roll dough to about one-half inch thickness. Cut with a circular biscuit cutter (or a floured, upside down glass). Bake on ungreased cookie sheets 12-15 minutes until set and barely browned.

Be sure to enjoy one while they're still warm! A friend also recently turned me on to slicing them in half and slathering cream cheese in between. YUM.


Blurb:
Twenty-two-year-old Alessandro Silva knows that returning to tiny Perch Creek to help his foster mother was the right thing to do. With no degree and a delinquent's reputation, he's lucky to have landed a job waiting tables. But not everyone is happy he's back, and the only thing keeping his move home from being a total bust is his boss's hot brother.

Jaime Winters spent most of his life watching the world go by, first from a series of hospitals and then from behind big stacks of textbooks. Studying is easier than facing the fact that years of heart failure means he's still a virgin at twenty-three. Until the new waiter in his sister's diner awakens desires he'd long ago given up on.

The last thing Alessandro wants is to fall for someone as fragile as Jaime. And Jaime may have a new heart, but he's scared of what giving it to another person would mean. Their no-strings-attached, instructional approach to sex keeps emotion safely at bay, until a secret from Alessandro's past forces them to confront their feelings in the present...



What are some of your favorite family food traditions? Share yours in the comments for a chance to win a digital copy of NO SUCH THING!

Giveaway

  • Must be 18yrs or older
  • Leave email along with comment
  • Winner has 48hrs to reply to my email or another winner will be chosen
  • Contest runs until February 12th 2014 11:59PM EST

14 comments:

  1. I'll have to try the biscuits! My mom and I are always cooking something, it seems (she's the pie person, while I do cakes and cookies), and my Croatian heritage usually means lamb is involved on major occasions...

    vitajex(at)Aol(Dot)com

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  2. Recipe sounds great! My kids love sweet potatoes and yams. We eat a lot Southwestern food in my house. Thanks for the giveaway!

    jen.f {at} mac {dot} com

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  3. Sweet Potato Biscuits...I'm so giving these a try! When I was little, my parents made banana donuts. Not sure why I don't make them because they were fantastic. I also bake my mom's favorite cake on her birthday every year. That's a real treat! Thanks for the recipe...your book sounds great! peachescon(at)gmail(dot)com

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  4. INtriguing recipe. I may try it out. Books sounds great!
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  5. This sounds great. Thanks for the recipe and the chance to win!

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  6. Thanks for the recipe and giveaway :)
    valeridavila@yahoo.com

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  7. Recipe sounds interesting. I like to make sweet biscuits by putting a little sugar in the dough and then dipping them in sugar before baking; great as shortcakes with strawberries or just great dollops of jam. My most favorite biscuit is savory with roasted garlic and cheese in the dough. Count me in on the book, it sounds great.

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  8. I love biscuits. Thank you for sharing your recipe, I've never had sweet potato biscuits before so this should be a treat.Thank you for the giveaway, too =)

    humhumbum AT yahoo DOT com

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  9. We actually don't have a lot of traditions centered around food, except during the holidays. There needs to be cranberry relish at Thanksgiving (along with the usual fare), and Christmas morning must absolutely have biscuits and gravy with sausage, or I don't even think time gets to keep moving forward. Thanks for sharing your recipe and the giveaway with us.

    caroaz [at] ymail [dot] com

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  10. The hubs would love those biscuits!!

    Kassandra
    sionedkla@gmail.com

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  11. In my grandma's birthday my family (except me) eat fish soup. Before New year we eat lentil and put lentil in the purses and ballet hopping to have much money in the new year,

    mevalem258 A T gmail D O T com

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  12. My family makes homemade biscotti at Christmas time. We give a lot away and everyone loves it.
    kimandpete(at)me(dot)com

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  13. We do something very similar to you every Christmas, but another favorite is making applesauce in the fall. It's a lot of work, but when you're with people you love, it can also be a lot of fun. Plus, that applesauce is soooo yummy. :)

    ashley.vanburen[at]gmail[dot]com

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  14. Well my mom always makes fruit cake at Christmas, which I don't like, but that means she makes candied citrus peel which I love! ;)
    OceanAkers @ aol.com

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