Still Cooking With Teeny

Welcome!

Have some cookies and let me tell you

about one of my favorite southern authors,

Michael Lee West.

"It started Monday, the first week in June, when I thought I'd gotten the dates wrong for my cake baking class. Numbers don't usually stick in my mind. This one did because it was my twenty-ninth birthday, and my fiancé, Bing Jackson, surprised me with the darlingest gifts --pastry bags, a fifty-three-piece Wilton Supreme Cake Decorating Set, and eight prepaid classes at the Vivenne Beaumont School of Cake Design." GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

Have I mentioned that I'm a fan?

Yes, Michael Lee West has done it again.

Teeny Templeton is yet another lovable southern

belle who cooks her way through the pages of

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN.

Teeny arrived at HFTS on April 12,

and that girl has had me baking ever since.

I do believe the "chef" thinks he's lost his kitchen.

"What are you making?"

"Shortbread."

"How clever of you. Lavender,

to calm the stomach and the mind."

"I cut the warm shortbread into wedges . . .

and put it on a tray with the mugs."

"We settled in Uncle Elmer's library. It was a cozy room, with butternut paneling and cherry antiques. Uncle Elmer's porcelain bird collection was lined up on the mantel. Pink-and-green plaid curtains hung on the windows. Through the wavy bubbled glass, I saw the garden. I set the tray on the coffee table. Ava curled on the settee and reached for a shortbread wedge. I lifted a mug and sat down in a chair."

Lavender Shortbread

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch or rice flour

1 cup all-purpose white flour *

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons fresh lavender flowers,

finely chopped or 2 T dried lavender

Cream butter and sugars. Add flours a few tablespoons at a time and salt. Mix until crumbly. (You can mix by hand or put the ingredients into a food processor.) If dough is too thick, add 1 to 2 teaspoons cream. Add lavender. Chill mixture for an hour. Pat into a shortbread mold, or gently roll and cut dough with a cookie cutter. You can also shape the dough into a circle. If you aren't using a mold, place dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Prick the surface with a fork. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool; cut into bars.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Preheat oven

to 325 degrees.

(* I doubled the amount of flour)

If you enjoy humor, spunky characters,

and pages

laced with culinary delights

pick up a copy of

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

Or any of the works of Michael Lee West.

Michael Lee West is the author of six novels.

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

CRAZY LADIES

MAD GIRLS IN LOVE

AMERICAN PIE

SHE FLEW THE COOP

MERMAIDS IN THE BASEMENT

CONSUMING PASSIONS, A FOOD MEMOIR

Click here to view a previous review of

MERMAIDS IN THE BASEMENT.

Linked To

Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum

A Few Of My Favorite Things @

Bargain Hunting & Chatting With Laurie

Pink Saturday @ How Sweet The Sound

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

It's Here!

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

By Michael Lee West

Available here on Amazon.

I've been eager to read Michael Lee West's latest book,

so I was tickled pink when Michael Lee sent a copy of

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN

to arrive on my doorstep April 12.

Any character who turns to

Easter Peeps to calm her nerves has to be interesting.

I've read all of Michael Lee's books, and her characters jump off the pages of her novels right into my heart. Michael Lee said, "A few summers ago, I began searching for the perfect recipe for Red Velvet Cake. I measured, baked, and consumed until I couldn't fit into my clothes and my fingers were permanently stained by food coloring. But the recipe eluded me.....I was just about to start a novel about wacky Tennessee sisters, and normally I like to stay home and eat Twizzlers while thinking about my characters-to-be. But off we went to Charleston."

"That night , tucked into my rented bed by the sea, a character named Teeny Templeton wandered into my dreams. She was a sassy, brown-eyed blonde with a penchant for throwing fruit at wayward boyfriends.......I thought Teeny would tell me a story about her quirky aunts or offer a Red Velvet recipe that somehow incorporated peaches, but she had other plans. Her boyfriend had turned up dead and all fingers pointed at Teeny. Plus, the body count was rising."

"I brought Teeny home, then I made her aunt's Red Velvet cake. I cut a huge slice, then opened a notebook and wrote Gone With a Handsomer Man on the first page. I held on for dear life while she whirled through adventures and unusual recipes."

RED VELVET CAKE

If you haven't heard by now, Teeny Templeton

cooks her way through "love, death, and Red Velvet cakes."

You are going to want to read this book, and you just

might find yourself cooking a Red Velvet Cake of your own.

I'm a child of the 50s.

Red Velvet Cake was a favorite in my youth.

The recipe I'm sharing is from my mother.

Red Velvet Cake

Cream 1/2 cup Crisco, 1 1/2 cup sugar; add 2 eggs.

sift 3 times: 2 cups flour, 1 T. cocoa, 1/2 t. salt.

Add alternately with 1 cup buttermilk, 2 oz. red food coloring.

Beat well. Fold in 1 t. soda dissolved in 1 T. vinegar.

Bake in two layers at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Frosting

1 cup milk, 1/4 cup flour, dash of salt --- cook over low

flame to a pudding stage. Set off to cool. Cream 1/2 cup Crisco,

1 stick Oleo, 1 cup sugar, and 1 t. vanilla. Add to the pudding

mixture; beat well until smooth. Spread on cake.

Sprinkle fresh coconut over cake.

Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

All direct quotes are from the author, Michael Lee West. You can find a copy of her complete statement on her web site here.

"Celebrating Fictional Food in

Gone With A Handsomer Man"

April 22 & April 29

Click the link below to join others

celebrating the release of Michael Lee's newest novel.

Foodie Friday @ Designs by Gollum

Michael Lee is offering Special Give Aways

to Celebrate at the following blogs.

Don't miss out on the fun!

Between Naps on the Porch

Stone Gable

Cuisine Kathleen

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Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound