April Cover Girl for Miss Millennia

Miss Millenia Magazine

April 2013

So, wow. I'm April's Lady Lennia and theme is Giving Back. I was chosen because of my UNICEF project with A Tale of Two Djinns. Totally humbled and honored. And grateful.

You do what you can and sometimes the Universe answers back in wonderful ways. If I had to be on the cover of a magazine (Lol, what a hardship...not!), I couldn't imagine a better one than Miss Millennia. It seeks to inspire, encourage and empower young women. Again, wow.

They asked me to blog with them for all of April. I'm going to use this opportunity to share about things that concern me: violence against women, human rights, poverty, equality, courage and community. I'm also going  to share about projects close to my heart: UNICEF, the Peace Ambassadors of West Texas, Valentines at the Soup Kitchen. And, of course, I'm going to share about people who inspire me.

Thank you, Universe!

If you are interested, here's my Miss Millennia interview. I'll keep you updated about the blogs.

Grill Me, Baby Giveaway

I met author Sophia Knightly online and was immediately floored by her friendliness and energy. She's a bundle of positiveness. So when I heard she was having a HOT special for her book, "Grill Me, Baby" I had to invite her to the blog.

The heat is on…

Raised among women who taught him to cook at his family’s Buenos Aires restaurant, master chef Paolo Santos deftly works his culinary wiles—and his gypsy charm—on posh Flamingo Island’s female clientele.

The tastiest tidbit on the island, though, is cool, elegant Michaela Willoughby. The redhead’s slender curves are as enticing as her rabbit-food menus are maddening. And she’s his main competition for the chance of a lifetime.

Michaela overcame her own weight issues to become Flamingo Island’s premiere spa chef. Now she has a chance to share her innovative recipes for healthy living on a new cooking show—if she can somehow outshine Paolo. His sizzling, Latin-lover looks are more heart stopping than his decadent cooking. And she’d love nothing better than to stick a fork in his outsized ego.

When the stage lights ignite, so does the competition…and a sexual chemistry no one—least of all Paolo and Michaela—saw coming. Suddenly, separating business from pleasure is as impossible as separating a scrambled egg. And the big question isn’t whose knife cuts fastest…it’s whose heart can take the most heat.

Warning: Contains two hot chefs duking it out in a lively showdown of sexy rivalry. Mix in family drama, luscious recipes and spicy mischief, and there’s more than just steam rising out of the kitchen. May cause lusty cravings for midnight indulgences. 

GRILL ME, BABY Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/6Y07iUPt3rg

I’m celebrating Samhain Publishing’s 1/2 PRICE COUPON for Grill Me, Baby from March 1 - March 31 with Grill Me, Baby custom aprons! TWELVE lucky winners will get an apron in this party! Winners will be contacted on April 1, 2013.

TO ENTER DRAWING:

Email me your Samhain proof of purchase at: sophiaknightly@gmail.com.

Buy link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/grill-baby-p-6830.html

Samhain Coupon Code: GRILLME

Amount Off: 50% Discount off of Grill Me, Baby

Duration: March 1st - March 31st, 2013

***

Sexy Argentine Chef Paolo Santos in Grill Me, Baby is particularly adept at grilling meats...among other talents. I wanted to share with you one of his favorites -- and mine -- churrasco steak. Add a drizzle of chimichurri sauce when it's ready and it's divine. As Paolo would say, "¡Buen Provecho!"

"What is your favorite type of grilled food?" 

Sophia is giving away a copy of "Grill Me, Baby" to one lucky reader. Answer her question in the comments section WITH your email (so we can contact you if you win)!!!

Grilled Churrasco (Skirt) Steak:

Ingredients

• 4 skirt steaks, trimmed
• Sea salt
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Brush with olive oil and rub salt and pepper all over steaks. Grill to your preference. Serve with Chimichurri sauce.

Chimichurri Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 2 Tbsps. fresh oregano leaves or 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions:

Finely chop the parsley, fresh oregano, and garlic (or process in a food processor several pulses). Place in a small bowl and stir in the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve immediately or refrigerate it. If chilled, return to room temperature before serving. Will keep for 3-5 days refrigerated.


More About Sophia

Bestselling author Sophia Knightly loves to cook up hot romance and delicious humor in her feel-good stories. Whether it's romantic suspense, romantic comedy or chick lit, her books are fun and sexy contemporary romances that feature hot alpha heroes and strong, smart women. Her popular Tropical Heat Series books, Wild for You and Sold on You, have consistently been on multiple Amazon bestselling lists.

A two-time Maggie award finalist and a P&E Readers' Poll finalist, she believes in love-at-first sight and happy endings, and she always enjoys a good laugh. When not writing or reading, she finds pleasure in walking the beach, exploring museums, going to the theatre, enjoying good food, and watching movies. One of her favorite pastimes remains simply watching people, especially those in love! 

Visit her website at: http://www.sophiaknightly.com

"Like" her Facebook author page at: http://on.fb.me/vGfJ5t

Follow her on Twitter @SophiaKnightly

A Kitchen Poem by Joy Harjo

So one of my New Year's resolution for 2013 was to read more poetry. Fortunately, I followed through...and discovered this gem that I must share:

Perhaps The World Ends Here

by

Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat

to live.

The gifts of the earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has

been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. 

They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be

human. We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our

children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves

and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the

shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for 

burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and

remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing

and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

Finger Lickin' Good Curried Ribs

Football is to West Texas is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It's big. It's an annual event, a sacred time, full of pomp and festivities, rituals and superstition. Life is scheduled around games.

I, however, don't understand American football. Maybe it's because I grew up with real football (what American's refer to as soccer), where the players actually kick the ball with their feet or maybe I'm just too artistic to get into the sports mentality...whatever the reason, I'm clueless.

When I first started writing for a West Texas newspaper, I was told all reporters (especially new ones) had to help cover Friday night games. I gave it my best shot and worked a few Fridays, but inexplicably found myself to be exempt from the requirement and only having to worry about my regular beats -- business and City Hall (I think the area coaches begged the paper to take me off the schedule).

Then I married a West Texan and found myself having to attend Superbowl parties. It didn't help matters when the clueless Bengali chick won part of the winning pot (pure dumb luck as some said).  Anyhoo, my understanding of American football comes down to: It's a Texas/American thang.

So when my #Letslunch posse on twitter chose game-day food as the February theme, I had the perfect recipe. What could be better game-day TV eats than ribs? Can't get more Texas than beef...and it has my usual Bengali twist: finger lickin' good curried ribs!

Here take a look:

The best part is it's an easy recipe:

2 to 3 pounds ribs (beef or pork)
1 large onion, roughly sliced
8 to 12 garlic cloves, peeled, some smashed and others left whole
2 inch piece of ginger, cut into coins (I don't even peel them because you discard them after cooking)
(2 to 3 large sticks of cinnamon
5 cardamon pods, with tops broken open
6 cloves
8 to 10 whole pepper corns
OR you could replace the whole spices -- a tradition of Bengali cooking-- with 1 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala)
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
4 to 8 dried red chillies, broken in two (optional)
1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 14.5oz can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes

Directions:

Put the ribs and raw flavorings (onion to ginger) into a large cook pot.

Add the spices and salt:

Add the oil and mix it up good, so every rib is nicely coated:

Put on the stove at medium low heat to cook, covered. Check on it from time to time and give it a good stir. After about 6 or 8 minutes, add the can of diced tomatoes (juice and all) and let it all cook down. Keep an eye on it and stir from time to time to make sure nothings sticking to the bottom.

Cook it down until you end up with yummy ribs like in the first picture. Sorry, forgot to time it. You can serve this with warm naan bread or over cooked Basmati rice, and don't forget the cold beer!

 #Letslunch is a group of food bloggers, cookbook authors and foodies from around the globe who hold monthly virtual potlucks. It's a lot of fun!

Check out the other yummy posts:

Annabelle's Idiazabal and Black Pepper Gougeres at Glass of Fancy

Cheryl's Mongolian Buuz at A Tiger in the Kitchen

Grace's Taiwanese Beef Sliders at HapaMama

Jill's Spiced Pecans at Eating My Words

Karen's Sporting Eats at GeoFooding

Linda's Trio of Salsas from Oaxaca at Spicebox Travels

Lisa's Sausage Rolls at Monday Morning Cooking Club

Lucy's Crabcakes with Chipotle Mayo and Citrus Salad at A Cook and Her Books

1st New Year Kitchen Adventure: Making Parathas with Mom

Porottas/Paratha/Roti Parata/Roti Cannai, whatever name you choose to call them, are delicious. A South Asian bread with rich, flaky layers of buttery goodness. Y-U-M! Growing up, this was one of my favorite treats.

So much so that I knew the paratha-making time table of all the neighborhood cooks. One lady made paratthas as a Friday evening treat, another served them precisely at 5 p.m. every evening with tea to her son, while my mom reserved parathas for Saturday morning breakfast. Um, yes, whenever the craving hit, I'd show up at the appropriate house. Fortunately for me, Bengali hospitality is legendary and the neighbors happily set an extra plate for me.

At that point I was more interested in eating than cooking.

Then I took trips to Singapore and saw some of Indian restaurant and food stall cooks actually making them. They did some fancy dough-swinging to rival the most colorful pizza chefs. Can we say, intimidated?  So, though I loved parathas, I never attempted to make any myself.

RasaMalaysia has some gorgeous pictures of professional paratha makers.

However, a new year is a good time to try new things.   And, very appropriately, my #Letslunch buds, a global group of food bloggers, cookbook authors and food enthusiasts who hold virtual potlucks around monthly themes, chose "New Beginnings/a recipe you've always wanted to try" for January...well, parathas simply popped into my mind.

Since new things and intimidating recipes tend to be a bit scary, it's always nice to have someone experienced at your side. So I dragged my Mom into the kitchen. We got to spend some wonderful mother-daughter bonding time and I finally got to make my paratha and eat it too!

You can add all kinds of herbs and spices to the dough, or put in a filling of eggs, vegetables or ground meat to make different types of parathas. But for my first time I wanted to keep things simple. Here's the basic dough recipe:

1 cup atta or whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ghee/melted butter/vegetable oil
some flour on hand to dust

Directions:

1. Mix the two types of flours, salt and 1/4 cup of fat together to make a smooth dough. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

2. Divide the dough into 10 balls and let rest another 5 minutes.

3. Sprinkle some flour on your rolling surface, select a ball and flatten it. Using a rolling pin or your fingers roll out the ball into a thin sheet (don't worry if it looks like the state of Texas). Brush one side with ghee/fat.

4. Parathas can be folded in different ways and made into squares, triangles, spirals and more.

Here's the vid of Mom showing me one:

5. Roll out your folded paratha into the shape you want. Slightly larger than you want since it tends to shrink a bit.

6. Heat a pancake griddle or a frying pan over medium heat. Lower the heat & toast the paratha in the dry pan. After a minute or two, flip it over. Make sure to regulate the heat because you want the dough to be cooked through, but you don't want to burn the bread.

7. When the bread looks done, pour about 1/2 teaspoon of ghee/oil around the paratha. Lift up at the sides and tilt the pan to make sure the fat slips under the paratha as well. After half a minute, flip the paratha. Add another 1/2 teaspoon of ghee if you want.

8. When the parathas turns a beautiful golden color, it's ready to be served! Using the frying spatula or a spoon (because the bread is HOT), fold the paratha from different directions to break the top into crispy flakes.

Oh, here's a bonus paratha making video...the chef is bound to make you smile :) (put your cursor on "bonus" for some reason the link isn't showing up in a different color).

Also, now that I successfully made parathas, I think I'll spend this year exploring different South Asian breads. Yup, I'm on a roll! There are more than 80 different bread variations in India alone, and several Bengali ones...I think I'll busy playing with dough. Wishing you good health, good eats, and good company in 2013!

Check out the other yummy #Letslunch posts:

foodnutzz's beetroot and feta varenyky

Lisa's Da Bombe Alaska

Nancie's DIY Lemongrass

Linda's Caribbean Trip & Black-eyed peas

Lucy's Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Grace's Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Annabelle's Brown Butter Creamed Greens

Soup: A Bowl Full of Gratitude

Happy November everyone! I love this time of year because people (including myself) slow down in a good way. We stop in the middle of the mad rush called daily life and count our blessings, we reflect, we express thanks and we hope.

For November my #Letslunch group on twitter chose “gratitude” as the theme. How do you represent “gratitude” through food? I threw this question out to my knitting group and had the most interesting conversation.

Turkey came up, but we all agreed that’s because we associate the bird with Thanksgiving. One friend, Rebecca, said apple pies meant gratitude for her. And I can see that. A freshly baked homemade apple pie is made with a lot of love and smells heavenly…it’s definitely something to be grateful for.

I mentioned Khichuri, the Bengali lentil and rice risotto cooked with spices and sometimes veggies. I’m always grateful when someone cooks a pot and invites me over, and that’s what I cook when I want to love and comfort family.

After some more discussion, soup came up. Rebecca pointed out when people are sick, we tend to make soup, and if we are the one’s feeling under the weather, we are always grateful for soup. When the economy is down or a natural disaster strikes (my heart goes out to everyone suffering on the East Coast), people turn to soup kitchens. And then the Peace Ambassadors annual Valentine’s Lunch at the Soup Kitchen came up. I really love being part of that event…I mean there’s good food, music, chocolate and smiles…what’s not to love?

Yes, I’m grateful to be able to participate, and I’m grateful for everyone who helps make it happen – from the wonderful cook (Mr. Biggerstaff) to all the servers, cleaners, decorators, donors, performers, and all other helpers – and I’m grateful for every person who comes to the event and shares Valentine’s Day with us.

So in the end, we all agreed Soup represents Gratitude best…at least for our little group. And the best kind of soup is made with leftovers and what's handy in the pantry...throw it all together and you get a wonderful one-dish meal.

I used Paula Deen's Lady & Sons Beef Vegetable Soup recipe with some changes: 

a) I married into a hunting family, so I had ground venison sausage on hand and used it for the meat.

b) I omitted the okra and replaced it with zucchini squash I happened to have.

c) I replaced the black-eyed peas with red kidney beans.

d) Instead of elbow macaroni, I used rigatoni pasta.
e) I left out the potatoes because I thought it was too much starch.

This November is the first anniversary of my first published story, The Djinn's Dilemma. Woot! I'm thankful for all the family, friends and newly-met friends who helped bring me to this point. As a result I'm saying thank you by throwing the most AWESOME Birthday Bash I could come up with! :) So go check it out!

May this November find you surrounded by good friends and loving family, good books and, of course, good food!

Also, check out the other Gratitude entrees in today's #Letslunch:

Gratitude – A Cook and Her Books

Gratitude Fried Rice – Spicebox Travels

Gratitude = A Plumb Cake from the Old World – Monday Morning Cooking Club

Pain au levain – GrongarBlog

Enjoy the Moments -- In a Southern Kitchen

Stories By Mina Khan: The #DjinnsDilemma Birthday Bash & SurPrizes!

Stories By Mina Khan: The #DjinnsDilemma Birthday Bash & SurPrizes!: Remember when you were a kid and you used to love birthdays? Well, I still do…especially when it’s of my first published story. The Djinn's Dilemma just turned one Nov. 1. So we are going to CEL-A-BRATE! With a month-long Birthday Bash and Surprizes!!! So make sure you click the link above & check it out!

And here's the virtual cake I picked for the birthday bash:

The Chocolate Wrap Cake by Designer-Cakes

Happy November, y'all!