Kristan Higgins - Love in the Mix: A Cookbook for Romance Readers to Benefit ProLiteracy

To the readers, of course.

And to those who are hungry to learn.

Kristan Higgins

At our state fair, there s a baking contest. One of the categories is Grandma s Best basically, a recipe you inherited. I won the blue ribbon the year I entered this, and, years later, so did my daughter when she was only 8 years old! We make it every Christmas Eve so we can enjoy it on Christmas morning, but it s great any time of year.

1. Preheat oven to 350; grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.

1. Sift together 2 cups of all-purpose or gluten-free flour; 1 tablespoon of baking powder; teaspoon salt. Set aside.

1. In mixer, beat together 2 sticks of softened butter and 2 cups of sugar. Add 2 beaten eggs, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and 1 cup of sour cream. Beat well. Fold in the dry ingredients by hand and mix well.

1. In separate bowl, combine cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. You can add a cup of nuts (pecans, almonds or walnuts) if you like. I think they re better if you toast them first.

1. Put in Bundt pan in the following order:

1. Just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan.

1. One third of the cinnamon mixture.

1. Two-thirds of the batter.

1. Two-thirds of the cinnamon mixture

1. The remainder of the batter.

1. Bake for 60 minutes.

1. Let sit for 10 minutes, then loosen with a butter knife, lifting the cake up to get air underneath. Invert, and voila!

Serve warm with a nice cuppa joe or glass of milk.

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Kristan Higgins is the New York Times , USA TODAY , Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of 19 novels, which have been translated into more than two dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Her books have received dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Kirkus, The New York Journal of Books, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, People and Booklist. If you want to keep up with Kristan's new releases and get a free short story, sign up for her mailing list at www.kristanhiggins.com.

Her books regularly appear on the lists for best novels of the year. Kristan is also a cohost of the Crappy Friends podcast, which discusses the often complex dynamics of female friendships, with her friend and fellow writer, Joss Dey.

The proud descendant of a butcher and a laundress, Kristan lives in Connecticut with her heroic firefighter husband. They own several badly behaved pets and are often visited by their entertaining and long-lashed children.

Cathy McDavid

I remember the first time my husband found me standing at the sink eating straight out of a plastic storage container. He asked, What are you doing? The question was a rhetorical one, of course. He could clearly see I was standing at the sink and eating. Hmm. What he really meant was, Why aren t you sitting at the table? My answer, I don t want to dirty any dishes, earned me a baffled look.

What? You have to ask the reason I don t transfer my food onto a plate or into a bowl? I get it, dirtying one dish and a couple of utensils doesn t sound like a lot. It s a habit, I suppose, one formed from spending two decades raising kids and caring for a family. All that in addition to working full time and attempting to launch a writing career. Believe me, I hoarded my free minutes like a miser and reduced every chore to the least amount of time possible.

As a result, I learned to eat on the run. As a result of that, I developed a list of favorite foods to devour at the sink with either my fingers, a spoon out of the bowl, or a fork straight from the pan. And if you re wondering, yes, I still do this despite my kids no longer living at home. My husband still hasn t stopped asking why while giving me baffled looks. Laugh if you will, I just picked up three extra minutes at lunch earlier today.

Fixing meals for a family with very different tastes wasn t easy. From an early age, like, a really early age, my daughter decided she didn t like meat. To this day, she only eats a nibble of fish now and then and maybe a couple bites of turkey at Thanksgiving. That s it. This made meal preparation a real challenge for a lot of years.

One thing she and the whole family always loved was eggs and dairy, especially cheese. Early on, I figured out quiche made a quick, easy meal that earned me no complaints. I often prepared two, one with bacon or ham or sausage or even chorizo and the other with no meat. I found this potato crust version years ago and have to say, it s spud-tastic! And nothing like eating a warmed leftover wedge of quiche with my fingers at the sink right before I rush out the door.