Thanksgiving according to Denise

This year's Thanksgiving is looking to be both exciting and bittersweet. My previously planned 4 person dinner has turned into a wonderfully blessed 20 some odd people. I'm so excited to have family here. You see, our family's matriarc is ill, so family members are coming in from MI, NJ, TN, and GA to fellowship and visit with her. We have a lot to be thankful for and on many occasions we forget to say the words. So here you go, I thank God for my family and friends. I decided to share with you my menu for the day. Wow, I can't wait.
Appetizers:
Hot artichoke spinach dip and veggie tray with dip
Dinner:
Turkey and dressing with gravy
Ham
Pot Roast with carrots
Candied yams
Potatoe Salad
Stringbeans
Greens
Mac and cheese
Squash casserole
Home made cranberry sauce
Rolls and cornbread
Dessert:
Sweet potatoe pie
7-up pound cake
Apple pie
Now the interesting thing, I had surgery on my wrist two weeks ago and has limited use of it at present time. LOL. Again, thank God for family. Every family is bringing something. Yeah! Now take a minute and give thanks for we never know when we won't be able to. And if you like, stop on by. After all, you are family!

Rocking Turkey Dressing

Denise’s Rocking Turkey Dressing

INGREDIENTS

½ Bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned corn bread dressing
½ bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned bread dressing
1 tube Jimmy Dean Sage sausage
1 stick margarine
3-4 stalks of celery, washed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1&1/2 apples, cored and chopped (red delicious or other)
1 c walnuts, chopped
1 cup water (approximate)
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Garlic powder

1. Crumble and cook sausage until done, set aside. (Make sure you break the sausage up into tiny pieces)
2. Melt margarine over low heat in large sauce pan, add onions and celery and sauté until tender or as us cooks say, translucent. Add apples, walnuts and sausage. Turn off heat.
3. In separate bowl toss together the two dressing mixes. Add sausage/margarine mixture. Toss until combined. Add a couple shakes of pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic powder and salt. (Not too much. The bread is already seasoned and less is more)
4. Drizzle water 1/3 cup at a time and mix. You only need a little water to bind. If you add too much it will be too wet once it combines with the juice from the turkey. (and yes, we are stuffing the turkey, no self respecting cook wouldn't)
5. Spoon into turkey (don’t forget that strange hole at the butt) but don’t over stuff or pack too tightly. There will be enough left over for an extra pan. You are going to need it. It’s just that good.
Now enjoy the best dang dressing in the whole wide world.

How it all began:
I married my husband 13 years ago. The first Thanksgiving after we tied the knot, my husband keep telling me how good his mother's dressing was. She made corn bread dressing. I didn't know anything about corn bread dressing because my mother was famous for her bread dressing. I remember sitting at the kitchen counter breaking up the loafs of bread into the large bowl. I fought the urge to tell my hubby to stuff it because I wasn't his mother and actually called her for the recipe. Well, just like my mother she didn't use recipes. No self respecting cook from the old school did. At least that's what my mother told me. I tried to make her dressing the best I could, really I did. It was okay but 'not his momma's'. The next year we traveled to Chattanooga, TN for the holidays and I got a chance to taste that famous dressing. Oh my God! It was beyond good and I knew immediately, I would never be able to emulate it, so why even try. The next holiday, I decided to experiment and I combined what I thought was the best of two worlds, my mother's bread dressing with my mother in law's corn bread. I then tossed in my own flavor because neither of them used the sausage and apples and walnuts. Well, damn, I had a hit. People were scrapping the poor turkey's carcus for the last bit of dressing and fussing when it was all gone. So there you have it. Denise's Rocking Turkey Dressing! Enjoy!

Crown and Glory

My book, Crown and Glory is now available as an e-book from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. This book was inspired by my best girl friend, Pindi who died from breast cancer in 2008. She was 39. The story tells of a breast cancer survivor trying to get her life back after a double mastectomy. Also, all proceeds from this book go towards the fight against breast cancer. Will you help and buy a book? Tell your friends and tell your friends to tell their friends. Forward this email to eveyone you know. Women and men alike are stricken by breast cancer every day. 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. We need to stomp it out. Just think, one book, one step closer to finding the cure.

Blurb:

There are three things Charlice Darrett wants... life, hair and to be left alone. The last thing she needs is interference from a man she doesn't know, however, he's stirring emotions in her she thought were no longer within her reach. Tyree Crawford wants only one thing... Charlice. Will he be able to convince her there is more to life than hair? As emotions collide, and doubts escalate, who will win?

An amazing journey!

Dearest family and friends,



I'm doing it again. Please support me as I take an amazing journey in the fight to end breast cancer! The Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure® is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. In 2008, my bestest best girlfriend died from breast cancer. She was diagnosed when she had her preliminary mammogram at age 37. This is such a horrible disease. It affects so many people. Women and men are diagnosed each year. If you have a mother, sister, aunt, niece, daughter, father, son, brother, nephew, cousin or grandparent then you understand the importance of stomping out this disease. Won't you help? Won't you take a step with me towards the fight against breast cancer? If its for no other reason than this, everyone deserves a lifetime. Don't delay, donate today! there are several ways you can help me reach my goal.



1.Go to my home page at the Susan G Komen 3 Day for the Cure website and donate there.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/2011/General?px=4730646&pg=personal&fr_id=1772

2.Mail in your donation using the Donation form available on my participate page

3.Join my ‘Mile High Club’, ask me how.

No matter how you donate or how much it will count towards the fight against breast cancer.

Thanks
Denise

Chaos

Oh wow! My mind is boggled at the time that passed since my last blog entry. I'm not sure what happend. No, that's not true. I am fully aware of what happened. Life happened and because my life has been so crazy over the past months, I've renamed it chaos. So, when you hear me talking about chaos, I'm talking about my life. Lets see, where should I start. Work, family, writing, family, work, writing. Okay, maybe not so much of the writing. I haven't gotten too much of the writing done. I really need to get back on the boat before my readers toss me into the deep end of the ocean. LOL. Naw, I don't think they'll do that. I have wonderful readers and author friends who are very supportive and totally understandable when chaos gets in the way. I did attend Author's After Dark in August in Philadelphia, PA. Totally awesome and I can't wait to go to New Orleans next year. Romance Slam Jam will be hosted by Little Rock, AK in 2011. Can't wait to go there as well. This year was in Baltimore, MD, my old stomping ground. Such memories. I love visiting places I haven't been to before. So Little Rock, here I come. I've been to New Orleans but it was back in the 80's. I know, such a long time. I can't wait. My hubby, Leon, even said he'd like to join me. Now that will be a treat. I've had some really great things happen lately as well as the stressful stuff. Alexis Ke's newest release, Invisible Love hit the e-book circuit this week and should be in print very quickly. Its in the 'What White Boyz Desire' anthology with Bridget Midway, Yvette Hines, Aliyah Burk and Kelley Nyrae. Also Alexis has another book release scheduled for November 1 with Red Sage. The Shadow Box. Both are IR erotic romances and totally hot. I'm hoping to stay on this trail and keep up the writing. Hopefully, I can keep chaos at bay and get it done.

A Hurricanes ah comin!

What a week, what a week! First we had an earth quake registering 5.8. A first of this magnatude in the state of Virginia since the 1800s. We have had smaller tremors but most people don't remember them. Who would? And now we have the storm of the century bearing down on us and the entire east coast is in a freazy. I'm guessing a 700 mile wide catagory 2-3 hurricane, who they've so nicely named Irene, could make you nervous. Shoot, I'm nervous. Irene is coming up from the south while another storm front is coming down from the north. Put all of that in a pot and what do you get when two storms collade with one carrying cool air and the other carrying warm. You got it, the perfect storm. The only problem, we are so not prepared for this. And I don't think we ever will be. Which takes me to my next thought. Conspiracy theory. Now don't get me wrong. Mother Nature has been very pissed at the world this year. From earth quakes to heat waves with 120 plus temperatures to brush fires bellowing smoke across multiple states to dust storms to floods. What's a person to do? Now there is the perfect storm heading your way. Batteries-yes. Non parishable food-yes. water-yes. Flash lights-yes. Cars filled with gas-yes. Did I miss anything. Oh yeah, my bottle of wine. Hey, somethings gotta keep me happy when the power goes out. Could Mother Nature be dealing with the secret leaders of the conspiracy theorist to make us spend money. The store shelves are empty. The pumps have dried up. Yes, I think Mother Nature made a deal with someone and we are paying the price. Hopefully she will repay us for kicking up the economy by leaving us alone.

Remembering Leslie (LA Banks)

As I stand in front of my book shelf and stare at the multitude of books catching dust, I pause and run my fingers across a few of the many books I have by LA Banks. From her Rivers of the Soul 1991 were she signed it 'sisters of the soul' to her Vampire Huntress series to her cop books. Each book, just like Leslie has a special place in my heart.
I remember when we first met. It was my very first Romance Slam Jam conferance in Raliegh-Durham NC. I was traveling with Felicia Mason who'd hipped me onto the conferance and was wondering through the hotel meeting and greeting readers and fellow authors.
She walked up to me, introduced herself and asked me about myself. After my tiny bip blurb she grabbed me, hugged me and convinced me that selling one book or 10k was fantastic when we are doing something we love. She told me to keep on writing and to never stop. A multitude of knowledge went into those words.
Leslie is one of the most prolific authors I know, always paving the way for the person walking with her and always paying it forward.
Even though we talked more via email than phone, it was a treat if you could actually get her on the phone, each time was special. From just catching up to seeking info on poisons. I remember calling her in the distant past, fussing, when Damali grew fangs. She laughed and only said, sista, finish the book, to earlier in the year telling her I was gonna be in Philly for the Author's After Dark Con in August, hoping she'd come out. She will be with me in my heart and soul forever.
Leslie Esdaile Bank aka LA Banks aka Leslie Banks will be forever loved, forever remembered, forever missed.