Dahlia DeWinters – Author – Page 52 – Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Pot Luck Wednesday – Quiche

Yes. Quiche. What you make when you have eggs, bacon and cheese and no patience to make breakfast for dinner. It is so excellent even my picky eater seven-year-old, whose idea of a perfect dinner is a piece of buttered French bread, ate it.

And it can also be for breakfast!

I also make my own crust, but feel free to use a store bought one.

Ingredients
5 large eggs, beaten
1 cups milk (I use whole milk, because of the little ones)
Salt and pepper to your taset
1 cup frozen spinach (Thaw and squeeze the water out)
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled (try not to munch on the slices like I did.)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 (9-inch) refrigerated deep dish

Crust

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cold, cold water
1/2 cup butter FROZEN
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Crust:

Freeze the butter and grate it.

Using a spoon, mix all your ingredients until just combined and forms a ball. You may use more water if necessary, but make sure it’s cold. You do not want to melt the butter.

You may refrigerate for a few hours, but I kneaded mine for about three presses with my hand, rolled it out and pressed it into the pan. This gal’s not much of a planner and I had to get this baby into the oven :).

*Some say prebake the crust – I did not.*

Quiche:
Mix the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until fluffy. (I use a hand mixer)

Make layers of the spinach, bacon, and cheese in pie pan, then pour the egg mixture on top. Don’t worry, it will wiggle its way among the layered ingredients.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set.

Banish Envy

You: I’m engaged to get married!!! (runs around sprinkling white and pearl and pink glitter, pleased and happy)

Friend: That’s wonderful! I’m happy for you, but I am jealous.

You: (some joy gone)

Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it soothes their worries, and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and their greed until they believe these to be virtues. —Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game

Folks, this happens. We all have someone in our past, present or future to whom you cannot impart good news without them poking a hole in your glittery balloon. It is human nature to want to share good news, but unfortunately, it is also human nature to be envious of another. I call this “keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome. “Why do they XYZ and I don’t?”

We all had it at one time or another and boy, can it drag you down. The key to defeating it is to not refuse to wallow in it. Why? Because your envy will translate to negativity and that negativity will hold you back .

As a former teacher, I saw this a lot, especially among the female teachers. If one teacher’s class scored high on the state test or had a lot of students on the honor roll, it was rarely, “Oh wow, she must be a good teacher. She does work hard.” No and nope. It was almost always “She has an easy class. She made up the grades. She must have cheated.”

Sad, right? They never see that teacher staying until 4 pm working with the students, or creating games and other enrichment activities, or seeking out extra resources. Nope. They just assumed the worse and their jealously eats them from the inside out. Do they try to improve their teaching techniques or seek out new resources? No. Because they assumed that this “star” teacher cheated, they see no recourse for themselves.

I see it a lot from authors. “Why did such a badly written book make it to the best seller list while my well-written book didn’t?”

Let me tell you the answer: because people liked it and it caught their attention.

Does it mean that your book stinks? Maybe. It also may mean that it doesn’t suit the general population. Or no one has discovered it yet. Or people aren’t ready for it yet.

Point is, stop beating yourself up about what other books are doing. Stop checking Amazon and Novel Rank and all those stat places and beating yourself up about your numbers and how those other books are such terrible trash.

Let me let you in on another secret. I despise reality TV. The Real Housewives of whatever, Bad Girls Club, Survivor…anyone who still thinks those shows are true reality needs to take a sanity test. There is a guiding hand behind all this ramped up dramatics and fighting and “cussing out”.

But…. many people seem to enjoy it. They talk about who whomped whose ass, who pulled out whose hair and the reunion show where so and so fought so and so again.

Yeah, no thanks.

Does that make them terrible shows? Maybe. And maybe, right now, that’s what people like. It’s strange, I don’t understand it, but hey, that’s me.

Same with your book. Never mind with what other books are doing. You be sure that you wrote the book you wanted to read. That’s all that matters.

Create a space of positivity in your mind and your heart and shine on with blessings those who do well. I promise, it will keep you free and easy.

Beat the Critics – Seek Inner Peace

The public eye can be a very scary place. Just ask actors, musicians, singers and authors, just to name a few. Criticisms run rampant. You’re too fat, too tall, too boring, too skinny, too nasty, too quirky, too eccentric , too inaccessible. Yes, yes, poor us, right?

But remember that even as a person who is not in the public eye, you are still subject to critique, from bosses, family, friends and media. Every commercial is designed to sell something, and in order to get you to purchase the product, they first have to let you know that you have a problem that only their product can solve. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Too fat? Get a weight loss pill. Eyelashes too short? Get this mascara. Pores too large? Buy this facial toner. Too wrinkly? Buy this makeup, plus this cream, plus this treatment masque. Don’t you feel and look better already?

Writers have it the same way, only worse in some ways. As a woman, I am already too fat, too wrinkly, boobs too big, boobs too small, skin too dark, skin too light, teeth too yellow, lips too thin, lips too big, feet too big, feet too small, not enough jewelry, not organized enough, not pretty, too pretty, clothes not fresh enough, too many children, not enough children, no children, itchy crotch, smelly crotch.

I’m not telling you anything you haven’t seen on a commercial at one time or another.

As a writer? Well, let me list the ways: books too short, books too long, heroine too slutty, heroine too bitchy, stupid plot, not ‘multicultural’ enough, too ‘multicultural’, boring hero, heroine doesn’t act like I would act, far-fetched, “why is the hero this ethnicity”, too white-washed, not deep enough, too deep…

And that’s just the criticisms I’ve received as a writer. If I took the criticisms of the authors of just two other authors on this lovely blog, I’d have a complete blog post.

Stuff all that nonsense in the trash. Silence the outer critic.

Please note, I am NOT talking about criticisms that come from a place of love and caring. Consider the critic before you dismiss or condemn.

In order to silence the outer critic, you must silence the inner critic. It’s a judge, stealing you of your goodness and light.

Three ways I do it. Take notes, there will be a test and that test is life.

1. Stay positive- Monitor your thoughts – Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative if it doesn’t help you improve. Huffing and puffing climbing the stairs? You need to take off a few pounds. Now, if you’re festively plump and you can climb those steps like a champ, shimmy that size 18 bootie and tell Judgy Jane or Jimmy to suck it.

2. Stay Powerful – You CAN do this – Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. And if you can’t do it, seek assistance. Don’t be afraid to reach out. And remember, life is a journey. What you can’t today, strive to do tomorrow.

3. Stop swimming in past failures – Clear your mind of the negative. Maybe that last character you wrote was a little flat. Liven him up the next time. Kitchen not clean? Make a plan to clean it, don’t worry that dishes were left in the sink overnight. Focus on the future, not the past.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” ~William Shakespeare

Be fearless. Keep your head up. Be fierce. Go forth and conquer.

Dahlia, who the day after Halloween feels like that broken blossom on the floor of the garden center.

Five More Halloween Movie Favorites – Seventies Version

I’m not going to even start this post by saying I love movies. Readers, you already know this. But did you know just how MUCH? This……..much! Here are some of my seventies horror movies that scared the mess out of me as a child, but that I probably wouldn’t blink at now. Mind you, I’m not going to take that risk if I’m alone at night….a woman’s got to know her limitations.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Note: Many of these movies, you can’t get anymore, unless you happen to run upon a VHS copy or obtain them by unscrupulous means. But, if you do run upon them at a reasonable price, they are worth looking at, even if it is just to see how well-made television movies were in the 1970s – 1980s. I dare say that they were made better than some of the theatrical releases today.

5. Audrey Rose

A stranger attempts to convince a happily married couple that their daughter is actually his daughter reincarnated.

Director: Robert Wise
Writer: Frank De Felitta (screenplay)
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Marsha Mason, John Beck

Not exactly a horror/scary movie, but it contains supernatural elements. One of Sir Anthony Hopkins’s early films.

4. Burnt Offerings

Haunted house chiller from Dan Curtis has Oliver Reed and Karen Black as summer caretakers moving into gothic house with their young son. The catch? The house rejuvenates a part of itself with each death that occurs on its premises.

Director:              Dan Curtis
Writers:               Robert Marasco (novel), William F. Nolan (screenplay), 1 more credit »
Stars:                     Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith

Creepy, scary with Karen Black, who does creepy the best. This house is really haunted.

3. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

A young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.

Director: John Newland
Writer: Nigel McKeand
Stars: Kim Darby, Jim Hutton, Barbara Anderson

I think I’m still rather scared by this movie, at least by the memory of it. The creepy whispers and the eyes…and the ending is just ….I have no words.

2. Don’t Go to Sleep

A young girl begins seeing the ghost of her sister who died in an accident a year earlier.

Director:   Richard Lang
Writer:   Ned Wynn
Stars:   Dennis Weaver, Valerie Harper, Robin Ignico

It’s actually a movie that holds up across the time warp. Dennis Weaver (Gunsmoke) is a good actor and we all know Valerie Harper. If you are able to ignore the cheesy 70s clothes and a little overwrought drama, it’s an interesting and scary movie.

1. Trilogy of Terror

Three bizarre horror stories all of which star Karen Black in four different roles playing tormented women.

Director: Dan Curtis
Writers: William F. Nolan (teleplay), Richard Matheson (story), 4 more credits »
Stars: Karen Black, Robert Burton, John Karlen

Just a great movie. The last story, with the little scary doll is the best one. Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) is simply brilliant in his storytelling and William Nolan does his stories justice. This one holds up over time, that doll is SCARY.

Mind you, don’t go into watching these movies with the expectation of gore and slashing and Saw type storylines. Though the movies didn’t have a lot of gore to throw around, it’s the good writing and the psychological aspect that was scary. These movies sneak up on you.

Pleasant dreams, muahahahahah!!

Need more of my crazy Halloween movies? Click here. Or here.

Mulled Apple Cider – Hard Version

You can always count on me to be the liquor to your parties. That was me with the Long Island Iced Tea and the Vampire Sangria. So, I’m back with hard mulled cider. Plain cider is nice, but adding a kick is even nicer. Prepare to enjoy.

Ingredients

2 quarts apple cider
Dried apple slices
Thinly sliced orange
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg (pinch)
1 cup dark rum
cinnamon sticks for stirrin’

In a large pot, combine all ingredients except the rum and bring to a simmer over low heat. Allow mixture to remain for about ten minutes. Remove from the heat, add the rum. Serve in mugs with a cinnamon stick and enjoy.

If you want to make ahead, put the mixture in a slow-cooker on “keep warm” and add the rum just before serving.