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Halloween Recipe – Roasted Vegetable Quesadillas

Easy-Peasy, guys and dolls. These tasty roasted vegetable quesadillas are a great finger food for your Halloween gathering. I know, there’s no meat in them, but trust me, they’re good…and I am a gal who can sink her teeth in a steak.

Do NOT use canned corn. It will give your dish a weird, canned taste. Take it from me.

Prep: 15 min. Bake: 20 min. 12 Servings

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 tomato flour tortillas (10 inches)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
Guacamole, sour cream, salsa and sliced ripe olives, optional

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the vegetables, oil and cumin; toss to coat. Arrange in a single layer in an ungreased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Reduce heat to 350°.
Divide vegetable mixture evenly between two tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with remaining tortillas. Place on an ungreased baking sheet; bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Cut each quesadilla into six wedges. Garnish with guacamole, sour cream, salsa and olives if desired.
Yield:1 dozen.

In Case of Zombies, Don’t Break Glass

One of the movies that scared me to death when I was an adult (as you can tell I’m easily scared) was the original Night of the Living Dead.

“They’re going to get you, Barbara!”

That still makes me shiver. And the black and white film makes the whole thing even creepier. That film, and the slew of subsequent films that followed, were pretty scary to me.

Then came The Walking Dead. Great show, but the graphic novel (yeah, adult comic book) was even better. Once they got stuck on the farm for so long, I rather lost interest. However, I will give it another chance on the new season.

All the renewed interest in zombies made me start thinking about a plan, because when it comes to zombies, it’s all about the plan. I even have a board on Pinterest.

Top five things you need to survive a Zombie Attack
START NOW
1. Dehydrated food. Light and easy to carry. A lot can fit into a large backpack so you aren’t so distracted by looking for supplies, although you should do that also.
2. Water Purifier. Drops work well and you can tuck into a side pocket of your trusty backpack. If bottled water is available, by all means drink that

first.
3. Backpack with first aid kit. There’s no emergency rooms. Treat any cuts and scrapes you get with hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial ointment. Infections can kill.
4. Toilet Paper. For obvious reasons.
5. Weapons. Machete is my number one choice, but there’s value in a good handgun also. However, a machete doesn’t run out of bullets.

Certainly, my list isn’t the end-all and be-all of zombie survival lists, but it’s a pretty good start.

“Don’t you know what’s goin’ on out there? This is no Sunday School picnic!”

Halloween Music – The Classical Edition

Ah, it’s getting closer, isn’t it? My little ones’ costumes have arrived (via UPS, dahlings…Dahlia despises retail shopping and who would give up a chance to see the kinda hot UPS man dropping off a package?) and the candy corn is in the house. A chill is in the air and Blogtoberfest continues. Y’all still with me, I hope, because this is testing me to the limits. Blogging every day? Yikes! But it’s been 13 days and so far so good.

I’ve got on my big headphones today, you know the ones, and I’m sending you some intellectually spooky tunes to create the perfect background for you and your Halloween celebrations. Whether it’s playing in the background or you are actively listening, these pieces are sure to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

Shall we begin?

Franz Liszt: Fantasy and Fugue on “B-A-C-H”…..no not that Bach:

In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is written as H and the B flat as B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach‘s family name. (from Wikipedia)

GYÖRGY LIGETI – Volumina – Pieces of his music were used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This such a classic, I couldn’t ignore it:

Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

Another classic –

Mussorsky – Night on Bald Mountain

Last, but not least, one of my favorites…the trilling flutes, the ominous lower reeds and the muted brass give you the chill you desire…and don’t forget all those creepy broomsticks.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (HD)

Boo!

Dahlia

Blogtoberfest – Kitty Wishes

Given that it is Evernight’s two year anniversary, I wanted to take this time to pause, take a breath and reflect. My first book, Kitty Wishes was published a year ago this month. My first foray into the heady world of e-publishing.

Black Cat — Click the picture for Kitty Wishes
image courtesy of http://freedigitalphotos.net

I’m not a prolific writer. Piecing together a cohesive narrative with fully fleshed out characters is a painstaking process for and often as not, I’m dissatisfied with the final output. But I’ve learned to live with it, know that it’s NEVER going to be as good as I want to to be. Heck, I could go on tweaking the same paragraph forever.

But I don’t. I have to let the little stories out into the world where you, the reader, can enjoy them. And I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. I must admit, it IS fun. I wouldn’t endure the torture of creating if it wasn’t, you know?

I’ve been asked many times if there will be a sequel to Kitty Wishes and I’ve demurred on an answer because I truly did not know how to continue the story of Sakaria and Desmond. I mean.. SPOILER ALERT they’re together at the end right? Then I started thinking about it and with the help of a wonderful support system of author friends, I have begun tentative work on a sequel…..of sorts. Let’s just say Ms. Sakaria will be making an appearance.

For those of you who haven’t experience the magic of Kitty Wishes, here’s an old Six Sentence Sunday excerpt:

The setup is that our heroine, Sakaria has been cursed to be a shapeshifting cat, and needs a fella to break the spell for her. Luckily, she is dating a nice guy, but isn’t really sure how to up the ante so that he does what he’s supposed to do to break the spell, and she’s running out of time. Her friend Julie gives her a bit of tricky advice that Sakaria is reluctant to take.

Sakaria looked into her glass, the milky ice cubes staring blankly back at her. “It’s not bad at all,” she said, grinning. “But it just seems so…” she hitched her shoulders quickly. “Dishonest.”
“Once you’re blowing him, he’s not going to care.” Julie turned her glass up to get the last drop.

There you go, folks. And if you simply can’t wait to get Kitty Wishes in your hot little e-book readers, then mosey on over to All Romance e-Books. It is on sale for TWO DOLLARS. You can’t do better than that. TWO DOLLARS, right? Pick it up. I promise you will have fun with it.

Dahlia

Blogtoberfest – Vampire Sangria

Hello again! So glad to see y’all along with me for the ride of 31 days of Halloween blogging, or, as I call it……BLOGTOBERFEST……..

Today’s recipe is not a mocktail, but a straight up liquor fest. It was a choice between this and chocolate martinis. I chose this because it looks like fruit punch. (What, me drinking? Nah, this is fruit punch.) And I love sangria.

You can find the basic recipe here, but I added my own twists.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 (750 ml bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja reds, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
Strawberry or Kiwi slices
3 Tbsp sugar
2 shots brandy
1 shot gin
2 cups ginger ale or club soda

Preparation:

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

If you’d like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice.