Tag Archives: kami garcia

Beautiful Creatures’ Nestle Cookie Pie

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Special thanks to BEAUTIFUL CREATURES authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl for giving us Amma’s yummy recipe. Amma is the protagonist Ethan’s caregiver in the book and quite a cook! I’ll be making these for my next book party. You?

smMG_3663Amma’s Nestle Toll House Cookie Pie

• 2 eggs
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup unbleached flour
• 1 cup melted butter (2 sticks), cooled
• 1 cup Nestle Toll House semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts
• 1 prepared or homemade, unbaked pie shell (9-inches) *

* If you are using a frozen pie shell, use a deep-dish style and thaw it completely. Place pie on a cookie sheet & bake 10 minutes longer.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, beat the eggs until they foam. Add the sugars and flour & beat again until mixed. Gently blend in the butter. Then stir in the nuts & chips. Pour the mixture into the pie shell.

3. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until lightly browned on top & a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. (There may be melted chocolate on the knife; as long as there is no batter, the pie is done.)

4. Serve warm or cooled, with vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings.

Today is also WINE WEDNESDAY and since we don’t recommend mixing wine with cookies, we do want you to join us for our next Wine & Book Chat with HOW TO SEW A BUTTON author Erin Bried tomorrow on Twitter! See our event list in the sidebar for more details and come back tomorrow for more on BUTTON.

Side Dish with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

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Tips for Entertaining by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, authors of Beautiful Creatures

KGarcia_MStohl_BeautifulCreaturesBW(sm)Entertaining can be easy—or it can be like trying to build a raft with scotch tape. It’s all in the preparation. Gatlin, our town in Beautiful Creatures, is full of women who know their way around the kitchen (and more than a few who only think they do).

So what’s the formula for easy entertaining, Gatlin-style?
Amma, the best cook in Gatlin, would say: a whole lotta sugar, a good helpin’ a casserole, and some good old-fashioned Southern hospitality.

Here are our tips for stress-free entertaining, Amma’s way:
1. Invite people you like. We know this isn’t always practical. So if you have to invite a few nitpicky ladies from your _______________ (Fill in the blank: family, book club, church, PTA, or volunteer organization), be sure to keep them busy. Give them jobs. These ladies love to be in charge. Ask them to bring or do something that doesn’t require cooking (unless they can actually cook). Some harmless, but helpful choices are:
• Bringing drinks, paper goods, or flowers. If you’re picky, be specific. And it’s always a good idea to stay away from white paper napkins. They usually look like you “borrowed” them from your local KFC or Bojangles.
• Handling the RSVP list. Let someone else send out hundreds of e-mails to confirm if ten people or twelve are showing up at your house.
• If one of these ladies is famous (not infamous) for a particular recipe, ask her to bring it. You can ask her to bring two portions and freeze one for yourself (just don’t let her see you packing it up for your freezer).

2. Choose simple, crowd-pleasing recipes you can make ahead. There’s nothing worse than trying to make a table full of elaborate recipes right before your guests arrive. And here’s a secret: Everyone loves comfort food. Don’t bother with the latest recipe in Gourmet Magazine. Paula Dean will do just fine.
Here are a few dishes that never fail:
• Fruit salad (use fresh fruit & toss with a little orange juice or sparkling cider).
• Casseroles: ham ’n’ apple, green bean, and mac & cheese are favorites. You can also get yourself a copy of Bake until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook by Clifford A. Wright, and you’ll never run out of options.
• Pies, pies, pies! Everyone loves pie. (At least, we think they do.) If you like to bake, try Amma’s Toll House Cookie Pie recipe. Buttermilk, pecan, and apple are always good Southern choices. Although it isn’t technically pie, a cobbler is easier to make and a perfect stand-in if you aren’t ready to take on a pie.
• If you want to be the talk of the town, try making Bread Pudding. You can get the recipe, and watch a video of Kami making it here: http://castergirls.com/kooking-with-kami-bread-pudding/

3. Buy attractive paper products, unless you are hosting a formal event or holiday dinner. It will make you life so much easier. On the same note, you can also use disposable aluminum baking dishes to make casseroles = easy clean up!

4. Last, but not least… if anything goes wrong, act like it was part of the plan. If you don’t freak out when things go wrong, your guests won’t either. And they probably won’t know the difference, as long as there is pie!
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Thanks, ladies!
Book babes, haven’t gotten your copy of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES yet? Um, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? Kidding. (Sort of.) Grab a copy by clicking on the link in the sidebar or at your favorite bookseller.

More ways to connect with the authors and Beautiful Creatures:
www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com
www.Castergirls.com
www.SomeLovesAreCursed.com

Beautiful Creatures Pics

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Have you ever wondered about settings and author’s research? Special thanks to our January Top Pick authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (@kamigarcia and @mstohl on Twitter) for sharing her pictures of South Carolina, the setting for BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.

Don’t forget to join us THIS SUNDAY at 5 p.m. PST on Twitter for our Wine and Book Chat hour with Kami and Margaret. We’ll be giving away FOUR signed bookplates so there will be four winners at the end of the hour. Here’s a reminder on how to do it.

If you’d like to start an account to get in on the action, go to www.twitter.com. It’s free to sign up. You just pick a username and password and you can start tweetin’.

To participate in the Tweet Chat, the easiest way is to go to www.tweetchat.com and sign in, then add the hashtag #bebabes. It’s a way for people to follow one stream of conversation. It automatically adds that hashtag behind every post you do so it saves time. Simply ask questions and you can respond to @replies. You’ll get the hang of it after a bit. If you decide not to use TweetChat, you can still follow on Twitter as long as you click on the hashtag and follow the stream and remember to add that hashtag when YOU reply or ask the author a question.
Have a fab Friday, babes! Hope to tweet with you on Sunday.

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