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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
"We'll pick you up at 6:30," I told our friends. "You'll get something to eat, but we're not having dinner at our house and we're not going to a restaurant. It's a surprise!" My husband and I wanted to do something special for our friends. They opened a retail store a few months ago, and for the past few weeks (and probably for a couple more months) the road in front of their store has been torn up. We knew they'd been working longer hours than usual, so we wanted to make our evening out together stress free. And besides, my husband and I love a project we can work on together. After brainstorming about something different to do for dinner, we decided on a picnic in the dark. Remember, we live in Florida. No snow, but it does start getting dark around 6:30, so we needed to find some place with ambiance and at least one street light.
We didn't need a picnic table because we'd packed our own lawn chairs and fold-up serving table. My husband even ironed a table cloth and we brought a small potted plant to set in the middle. Since the evening picnic was a spur-of-the-moment idea, there wasn't time for me to cook. Not even time to bake some of my chocolate chip cookies. But after stopping at two of our favorite delis, a bakery, and wine store, we put together an amazing feast. A variety of cheese, meats, salads, mango salsa (it was the hit of the evening), a variety of dinner rolls, strawberries, apples, oranges, grapes, deviled eggs, two slices of chocolate cake, and a miniature cherry pie for us all to share.
Our friends were amazed when my husband and I set up an instant gourmet picnic in a small waterfront park on Sarasota Bay. A tall gray heron (I'd hired for two hours, well that's what I told our friends) walked aimlessly back and forth nearby, and a slice of moonlight even shimmered over the water. It was one of those perfect, picturesque evenings, especially because we shared it with good friends.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE MARTYRED by Richard E. Kim. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin totebag. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/January12Classics
AUTHORBUZZ: BOCA DAZE (Mystery) by Steven M. Forman
It's 2006 and sixty one year old ex-cop Eddie Perlmutter still fights crime. In BOCA DAZE he confronts a Liberty City drug dealer, investigates an assault on a homeless man, attacks the pill mill industry and goes after the perpetrator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. In his spare time, he tries to save sea turtles--using his Glock.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader Click on BOCA DAZE to read more. Author Steven M. Forman would love to hear from you.
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