Freckles says "Howdy y'all."

Howdy from a real Texas Longhorn.  She's one of my dad's cows and always has a knack for being there if food is involved.  She and I have a bit in common.  I tend to show up whenever food is involved.

I think I need more than just 24 hours in a day to get everything done.  The last week has been great.  I've been lounging at the lake, happily typing away on my current WIP and enjoying my Kindle while my kids do their best to terrify the fish, both with rod & reel and swimming attempts. It was good fun, but now I'm back to reality. Gack!

Reality is that I have a ridiculous number of things to get done this month.  Ack!  Okay, first some fun things.  I came back to find that not only am I up on my publisher's coming soon pages, but I'm on their blog, and best of all, there is an interview with me up at the new Aurora Regency blog! Everything you ever wanted to know, but was afraid to ask is there.  Okay, maybe it's just a mini-interview, but it definitely tells you a bit more about my projects. 

I don't know about you, but this weather makes me want to eat, but not to cook.  One of the awesome things about camping is that the husband feels the need to be all manly and run the grill for every meal.  This means good eating with very little effort on my part.  Win!  So in honor of laziness, I have two--that's right TWO--recipes. 

The first is for my Aunt Doris' Icebox pickles.  These are the sweetest, most addictive pickles you will ever love.  Even the onions become mild and delicious.

Start with about 16 cups of cucumber slices and 6 large onions, sliced 1/8 inch thick
1 TBS celery seed
1 TBS mustard seed
1 TBS tumeric
1 Cup pickling salt
8 Cups sugar
8 Cups water

The recipe is simple.  Mix all these spices together and stir until the salt and sugar are fully disolved.  Pack your cucumber and onion slices into containers and pour the pickling solution over them until they are fully covered.  It's important for all parts of the veggies to be submerged.  Then just put them in the fridge and let them sit for five days.  They keep for about a year, but are their best for about 3 mos.

My second gift to you is my Aunt Dottie's Unbaked Cookies (Aunt Dottie was named for the above Aunt Doris who is actually my great aunt).  There is a teeny bit of cooking involved in this, but no baking.

Take:
1 stick of butter
4 TBS of cocoa
2 Cups sugar
1/2 cup milk

Mix these together and boil for 1 1/2 minutes.  Then stir in:

3 cups oatmeal
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and let dry for an hour or two.  If you live in a humid climate, it takes a bit longer, but you can eat them anyway, even if they don't dry fully.  I have trouble keeping mine on the wax paper until they're dry.  They just keep disappearing.

Writing is the fun part, but now I have laundry and dishes and a camper to unpack and loads of dayjob stuff waiting for me.  I think I need cookies.