First, a quick reminder: the Goodreads awards are in their final round, so last chance to vote for your favorites.
The Thanksgiving went well. Everyone was fed, everyone took a plate home. The kids cooked, especially Kid 1, who delivered a bonanza of deserts and deliciousness. The turkey and the duck are gone, but we still have an epic amount of ham. I may have to figure something out there.
Also we have a lot of cranberry sauce left over. Ok, so Kid 2 followed the recipe exactly, but I have to tell you, it’s less a sauce and more like delicious cranberry jam. I put it into my green tea last night and it was to die for.
I bought myself and Gordon a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It is the best thing ever. Ever. I love it. I had no idea it had so many roleplaying elements. The voice acting and character animation is to die for. So now I pirate the high seas and hide in the bushes to assassinate bandits in my spare time.
Today I’m beginning a long and terrible task of overhauling the Hidden Legacy website. The original website needed to be put up quickly, so I had used Divi. When you attempt to switch from that theme, it leaves a massive amount of shortcodes behind. Shortcodes are little snippets of code and so the entire site will look like a mess. I’ve delayed as long as I could, but the new updates are coming, and so there is no escape.
I will be spending the day making various magic circles. Oy. I wonder if I should invest in Adobe Illustrator to save myself some time. Mostly, I do it in Photoshop.
SAPPHIRE FLAMES is progressing. It’s fun, but we are very behind. Also, when you guys buy things sight unseen it’s enormously flattering, but also creates a lot of pressure. Like have nightmares at night pressure. Yesterday my husband told me to get dressed and then we went out on a nice date. We went to Outback and then ended up at our outlet mall, which is the second largest in US, at Kay jewelers. They had a sale and we picked out some wedding bands. They were sent to be resized.
Mine is very pretty and I am mildly terrified that I will somehow ruin it.
PS. I’ve read the comments on the last Innkeeper post. You guys sure are bloodthirsty. Maybe it should be Blood Demanding Horde instead of Book Devouring Horde. 😉
Great to hear your Thanksgiving went well! I was wondering how that smoked turkey came out. Now that you have a smoker you may want to try tea smoked duck one of these days. I always order it at chinese restaurants.
As for the leftover ham — RUSSIAN SALAD!!
Omg TEA SMOKED stuff! It’s ansolutely delicious!
Our favourite here (that we get from the supermarket) is Earl Grey Smoked Salmon. Insanely delicious.
Can“t BDH be both at the same time? 😉
Regarding pressure: well, it‘s too late for the next one (already preordered), but when would be the ideal moment to order?
(Seeing that Amazon actually cancelled my preorder when Diamond Fire came out due to some German book price law nonsense, I probably should order nearer to release date anyway.)
I’m going to agree with the definition of BDH being both at once. Also with the pressure thing, you do great work, this is just our way of showing appreciation. If there is a better time to buy for you though, tell us! Happier writers = happier readers!
I love to order at the release date. You buy it and it will be delivered immediately. IMMEDIATELY! You do not have to wait at all! 🙂
You should invest in Illustrator! It’s a little scary to learn at first, but the pathfinder tools are sure to make your life a little easier if you’re combining shapes. Just be sure to save often. It’s favorite thing to do is crash when you’re in the middle of an intensive project (it’s got auto-recovery, but you can never be too safe)
And for leftover ham…try a soup! Leftover Ham Soup (what I call it, don’t try looking for a legit recipe) is one of my favorite-post thanksgiving meals.
I call that junk soup. Ham and throw everything in. The ham bone makes a wonderful stock.
Cranberry sauce on ice cream! With dark chocolate
My God, this sounds good!! And I’m not a chocolate eater!
With shortbread or butter cookies. Let the holiday indulgence continue!
Especially for those not normally a dark chocolate person, just a light dusting of bitter cocoa powder. Or Matcha powder for both flavor and looks.
Congratulations on the wedding bands. I sold jewelry at a Kay’s for ages and wedding band sales were always so much fun, especially for couples who had been together awhile. Much less pressure. Unless there are lots of little diamonds in the band they are darned hard to ruin. If they do have diamonds, you have their warranty, right? So relax, and enjoy. I’m a compulsive gardener and one of the world’s most minor accident prone individuals; if it can be wrecked I’m the one to do it. So far the bands have held up for decades. Ah, just one thing. If these are nice gold bands, take them off when dealing with pool chemicals. Strong chlorine reacts with gold. You probably already know that, but I felt I had to be sure you knew.
Strong chlorine reacts with gold.
I did not know that, even though my first adult job was in a jewelry store. But it was a family business (not my family, alas), and therefore lacked a swimming pool. 😉
And now, thanks to you, we all know. My learning for the day!
It’s your fault. You guys are just to terrific at your job.
We freeze our leftover ham. Then we can either have an extra ham dinner, but usually se just put it in soups or casseroles during the year.
I’m not a big ham eater, but I enjoy it sometimes in sandwiches. I agree, freezing will take it out of sight.
Thank you to Gordon. That date idea sounded great. And the wedding bands! We’ve changed ours three times. It’s fun and a bit startling to see a new one on your finger.
Sapphire Flames will sort itself out. You need sleep. Please take care of yourself.
Hugs.
You’re just now realizing just how bloodthirsty we, the BDH, can be? We can be both. 😀 I needed a good laugh today. I must have picked up whatever it is going around. It’s mild, but I am so tired and coughing (with nothing coming up) when I laugh.
As to Sapphire Fire: please (on bended knee) don’t stress out about it. When it comes to us, it comes to us. I have not pre-ordered it since Barnes and Noble doesn’t let me until a known publish date is set. I agree with others that we can’t help it that you guys write so well (even when you think it’s crap).
So that is why I couldn’t preorder! Thanks for the info.
What Patricia says. Please don’t let us put you under pressure. We love your work, we know you always deliver your best, and we’re prepared to wait. Slot in as many date nights and Game nights as you need to relax along the way. We want to enjoy your gift for the next sixty years at least ? and we can’t do that if you burn out or get sick from the stress.
Hugs from New Zealand.
Happy to hear that you had a nice Thanksgiving. My Mother-in-law sent us home on Friday with leftovers, which I turned into Thanksgiving part two last night. I agree with the other posters about freezing the leftover ham. Good luck with the website!
I keep imagining that you ordered Hugh and Elara’s wedding bands. They sounded so beautiful.
Glad to hear you had the time & health to have what sounds like a good Thanksgiving. And that you are having some couple time.
Happy Holidays. Glad your Thanksgiving went well and you had a nice date and new wedding bands! Don’t feel pressure – just do what you do as you normally do it and the BBDH (Bloody Book Devouring Horde) will love what you two write.
I’ve been walking my dog around the city to all the NYC holiday spots – Rockefeller Center, the holiday markets in Bryant Park and Union Square, Times Square – lots of fun and she gets lots of attention from everyone. I’ve taken pics of her in all the spots, 4 of which will comprise the Holiday Card that is getting sent out this year. She is much more photogenic than I am!
It’s been 5 days of bliss at home with hubby and the dog. Normally when I have that much time off we travel but it has been so nice being at home with the 2 of them.
Hope you had a relaxing holiday.
Is Kid 1 enjoying her new place? Wasn’t her old place the looked-great-but-had-lots-of-problems type?
If you need an idea for the ham, you could use it and make a big batch of pento beans and cornbread. It’s something my mom does with her leftover ham.
Leftover ham was always made into ham and cabbage soup in our household! It sounds so good right now I may have to go and make some myself…
Now that you have ordered your new wedding bands, the old ones should be nearly ready to show up. Good luck.
We were in school when we got married and could only afford 10 k gold ones. When I had my daughter 9 years later, I became allergic to metals in the hospital. Started with my stainless watch band. Then sterling silver stuff Then the wedding rings. Then 14k gold. Then white gold. Then 18k gold.Then 24 k gold. Then platinum. Then titanium. Basically I can’t wear any jewellery with metal. Which sucks
Allergy to metal is a trait passed down in my family on my dad’s side. Grandma and two aunts have it. I can’t wear metals either – no watches, bracelets or earrings. I can wear sterling silver and gold necklaces though. If it is not I can only wear the necklace once and then not again for a while. I hope I got my grandma’s longevity genetics (she was 103 and mentally sharp as a tack and quite healthy) along with the metal allergy 🙂
Have y’all tried painting the skin side of your jewelry with clear nail polish? That works for some people as a barrier.
Ham salad is very good. Just chopped up ham, mayo and dill pickles.
Cranberry sauce is good on waffles too.
Or dressing waffles. Yum
That fight scene was so good.
Thank you
Yes the BDH is blood thirsty. We were all waiting for the vampirates to get their comeuppance & boy howdy did they 😀
How about split pea soup? My mom used to put a ham bone in the pot…but who says you can’t add ham chunks instead? There were the usual casseroles & sandwiches too.
Split pea is my favorite soup! Load it up with the ham, baby! Especially if it’s got that yummy smoked flavor. Glad your Thanksgiving went well and that everyone seems over the ickies. Don’t stress over the pre-orders – just know that the BDH is always looking forward to new blood – I mean, books – and we don’t want y’all to feel pressured, just to enjoy writing the action packed, family & friend centric stories that make us laugh, cry, and cheer. We’d rather wait and re-read other things while we’re waiting than stress you out. Here’s to a happy, healthy holiday season!
Sorry you are feeling pressured about the pre-orders. I only bought mine this far in advance because I know that if I don’t I might forget (I have young kids, life gets busy, what can I say?).
As for the ham, I usually buy extras specifically to dice up, freeze and use in soups, with alfredo pasta and nights where nothing but a ham & cheese (preferably smoked) panini will do. for those quick and easy dinner nights. 🙂
And finally, care to share the recipe for cranberry sauce? I bought a batch of cranberries at Costco I haven’t used yet.
I’ve never used a recipe*. But I probably have a recipe for cranberry orange bread around if you’d like that.
* My sister asked me whether I can actually follow recipes, which kind of smarts because a) not only can I follow them, I can turn random shit I make up into them, which is actually harder and b) yo, bench work. But it smarts because I know why she’d ask.
My Dad is that way, he can walk into a kitchen and make something delicious out of what’s there, no recipe needed. I need the recipe as a starting point. I can alter per taste, but I don’t have a clue how to put things together without it.
I think the last time around I basically simmered the cranberries in a simple syrup with orange peel? and maybe star anise? Seriously, I would have to go digging through my memory, and it’s going to be a mess because I was cooking a bunch of other things, getting ready for a multi-course meal and managing the questions of other guests, the oven schedule, and what everyone was bringing. And it’s totally not indexed.
Ring adventure sounds lovely. So glad you found something you like.
I agree on the name! I’ve actually been calling this group the Battle Desperate Horde in my head given all the comments in the last several chapters. You guys do write great battle / fight scenes – both visually engaging and with characters we are emotionally invested in.
I am glad your Thanksgiving went well. Yeah, freeze the ham for chicken cordon bleu, homemade ham salad, and (my favorite) dry off the ham slice, spread with thin amount of cream cheese and then put sweet gherkins on one end and roll the up. Seal and cover and refrigerate, take them out and slice into pinwheels. Al alternative is to put a whole scallion in there instead of the pickle.
Enjoy the game and get some rest. We will be here when you are ready.
I can’t remember exactly how many books, novellas, short stories and scenes of yours I’ve read (anything I have heard about) and not once have I thought: “meh. Could have spent my time better”. This is a book with characters we already adore. Please don’t have anxiety nightmares over it. Unless they fuel your creativity.
Thanks for the Assasin Creed tip: now I know what to get hubster for Xmas.
Happily surprised to see the last chapter. Nice to know you had a great Thanksgiving even with leftover food. I’m visiting my son and painting granddaughter’s dresser and desk. So nice to have entire days to work on a project instead of weeks of odd hours. I’m waiting to order the next book, no pressure.
Glad you guys had a good thanksgiving. No more turkey and duck left is definitely good. Now is the time to post a good recipe for leftover turkey.
I can be the Blood Demanding Horde. So long there’s a new installment… ?
Your very creative world building and interesting plots along with kick #ss action is what I love about your writing!
Thank you for entertaining us so well.
Glad you had a great Thanksgiving and yay for new wedding bands. We are only so blood thirsty because Maud displayed such restraint in avoid bloody conflict with the vampirates leading up to this that it was sooooo hugely cathartic (plus, we just want to see The Sariv in action and see Seveline and Onda get what’s has been a loooooong time coming).
Vampirates and battlestations and Marland kicking ass, oh my!!
Cranberry sauce on yogurt! My favorite way to eat the leftovers.
Will Kid 2 share the cranberry recipe ? Love cranberry anything.
So happy you guys got some quiet time, and new wedding bands as a bonus! You deserve all the happiness.
In addition to the lovely suggestions above, if I’m lucky enough to have leftover ham I like to dice up a few slices and freeze them. Then they’re available to toss into scrambled eggs, a favorite from my (long ago) formative years.
My mom puts cranberry jam onto her cottage cheese or into plain yogurt. My husband just eats it right out of the jar.
Oh and I use leftover ham for soup. Or sauté with green beans or cabbage
I made cranberry sauce too and am looking for stuff to eat it on cuz I’ll burn out on turkey soon. Please don’t stress….we’ll be ready when you are. Glad you guys had a good Thanksgiving!
I don’t have any insights on graphic software…although there are new apps for IPADS that use a stylus to draw with. Don’t ask me which ones…I can’t draw a straight line to save my life!
Back to work tomorrow for me, but its been nice having time off even if I didn’t go anywhere. Got lots done around the house.
Have a great week!
I keep getting confused and thinking maybe I missed a round of Goodreads and going back… nope, okay, yup, that’s still my my vote.
If you’re not up to committing to an Illustrator investment you might try Inkscape? Free and open source, incredible rich (people use it to produce photo realistic graphics not infrequently) it is also a vector graphics program, and it exports to .svg as well, which is the standard vector graphics format. Like everything, there’s a learning curve, which is the disadvantage of learning it if you move to Illustrator – but then, you might decide not to bother. I switch back and forth between it and the GIMP, which is more or less open source Photoshop, as they each do different things better. (And I mostly do scientific illustrations and the occasional cartoon.)
Isn’t ham kind of the all purpose food additive? I mean, the one that’s not bacon? (Friends back home were frying up five pounds of bacon for drop biscuits and I’m still wondering how many biscuits were involved…) Juk! Greens. Mac and Cheese.
Omelets. Quiche. Random casseroles. Tossed with green beans, pasta, and the dressing of your choice.
See, if we were local, we could start the best brunch / dinner club!
Cheesy Potatoes with ham, best comfort food casserole ever! So glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. Loved the latest and agree that after watching Maud have to bite her tongue so long, the blood-fest was awesome. Thank you!
BD2H??
Ps ham freezes well…x
Glad Thanksgiving went well. I have to say, my favorite way to eat cranberry “jam” is on a sandwich with almost any meat. It is a surprising and refreshing taste treat.
Also, it’s worth saying that I don’t buy books sight unseen to pressure you, but to help you feel supported. Don’t obsess on my behalf. Feel loved and know that I’ll wait however long it takes.
+1
Cranberry sauce… in green tea?? ?
In Eastern Europe/Russia we habitually sweeten our tea with fruit preserve. Bitter cherry confiture is a particular favourite but cranberry comes close too.
Wow I’ve never heard of that before, I’ll have to try it! I guess I never imagined jam would be able to mix into water, but it is hot water after all. That’s a whole new world of flavors I never knew existed 😉
Raspberry jam or jelly, or pumpkin butter in hot chocolate are particular favorites of mine. (I don’t habitually sweeten my tea, but perhaps I should try it.)
Okay. I need someone to explain this jam-in-tea thing. I got some homemade lavender- lime jam which the maker said I could use in tea. I tried it and to add enough flavor, I added a quarter of the jar, and it was awful. It sounded really good, though. What did I do wrong?
Way too much, unless you were adding it to a pitcher. Remember that it’s full of sugar. Add about as much as you would honey. Lime-lavender is also a tricky combination and would probably do better with some teas than others, I would think. It would be awesome with a ginger tisane, for instance, or maybe a floral black like Earl Grey. Others may have more experience with this than I do.
I am totally with you. Lavender is a wonderful aromatic, but as a taste it can go bitter with these weird dry metallic undertones. Throw in lime and I can imagine it being quite wonderful, but clashing easily. (A lot of lavender foods aren’t that palatable to me, really, it has to be handled with a light touch. *munch* *munch* Mmm… powdery sweet soap!)
BDH- can’t we be both? And don’t stress on our behalf. I would patiently wait to order Sapphire Flames if it caused you less stress.
I really want to know what Dina and Sean are doing while Maud is off killing/kissing vampires. PLEASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Two recommendations for leftovers. One – ham into split pea soup…is wonderful if you like split pea soup. I am sure there are hundreds of casseroles and such that call for ham… Okay that was longer than I expected….
Two- leftover cranberry sauce. Years ago I ran across a recipe for leftover cranberry sauce crostata. It was marvelous. I failed to save the original and the blog went away….so improv a butter pie crust (or use an actual crostata crust recipe) …and put that sauce in there. Fold over the sides…it looks very rustic. If you do not have enough sauce left you can throw some apples or even jam in with the sauce…add some sugar, butter dabs, and bake. It is very yummy. Sorta like this minus the almonds…. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/trisha-yearwood/cranberry-sauce-quick-crostata-with-almond-crumble-5496908 Of course if you have ’em on hand…what the heck…toss them in!
I am loving the serial Innkeeper Chronicles! Thank you for sharing!
I don’t know if Kate not loving soup and boiled limp veg was a way of Ilona getting out her hatred of them, but I’ve always pictured it to be so ?. But I agree, smoked ham based soups are yum! Split pea and potatoes especially.
I’ve been obsessing about your stuffing, and the waffles made from stuffing from the Serious Eats website. Now I’m obsessing about stuffing waffles topped with cranberry sauce with a side of ham.
If you haven’t used illustrator before, it will not save you time until after you’ve put in a bunch of time learning the way the tools work and going through the tutorials. It’s incredibly powerful, and after you’ve put in a week or two practicing you’ll be able to whip out infinitely resizable magic circles.
Mac and cheese with ham. Ham in biscuits to make little sandwiches- turkey and cranberry sauce in biscuits is also tasty. And last year I found a great recipe for cranberrry sauce muffins, which were awesome.
We went out of state for Thanksgiving this year so have no leftovers. I’m seriously considering cooking a turkey next weekend to get the leftovers. Boil the carcass and bones to get stock, then pick off all the extra bits of meat that loosen up and make turkey rice porridge (congee). I’m totally into winter cooking & hibernation mode…
And if you make stock using both the bones of a chicken (or turkey, I imagine) and the ham bone you end up with a fabulous stock for something like Wonton Soup…. Then add in some wontons (premade from Costco work fine) to the stock and chopped ham for a good winter meal.
Honestly, pre-ordering makes it simpler. Purchase and you don’t have to worry about publishing dates or checking book sites. It just auto pops up in your email… “Your book, blank blank whatever, was delivered to your reading app or ereader such and such. It is a no brainer that we are going to read whatever it is you put out since we are the fans following your blog…. lmao
I thought continuously asking for Mauds kill count was a really big hint into our character. we make a cranberry salad that we call candy surprise.
LOL!
Happy thanksgiving! Sounds like you had a great time – us too. 🙂
Please don’t give yourselves anxiety over Sapphire Flames. You deserve every bit of our confidence. Frankly, we were all going to buy the book on Day 1 anyway, we’re just proactively getting our shopping out of the way and encouraging your publishers to shower you guys with big advances. The book will take the time it takes – enjoy your holiday season!!
Love, the Blood Demanding Horde <3
EXACTLY!! I pre-ordered to indicate to the publisher that you guys deserve big advances on anything you write, because it is a guaranteed seller. I am more than happy to wait for you to release your books on the date and time that works for you, so please don’t feel pressured by pre-orders. Believe me, if you wrote the phone book I would pre-order it, and be confident that you could make it funny and character driven. ? I’m glad you had a nice Thanksgiving, and my vote goes to split pea soup with ham!
+1 “Believe me, if you wrote the phone book I would pre-order it, and be confident that you could make it funny and character driven.”
ROFL!
Yes, we are happily both. Do not feel pressured by your crazy but loving readers. We’ll wait and eat soup….
Split pea soup: pop in ham bone while you’re cooking the peas with a lot of carrots and seasoning. When soft, blend the soup (having removed the bone?) then add evaporated milk for creaminess and chunks of ham. Can be frozen when you’ve had enough for awhile.
I make a cranberry sauce with candied orange peel… And always make extra because it makes yummy jam. Weird with peanut butter tho. Don’t worry about us, we’ll wait for the book… If we have too…
Enjoy your leftovers.
Cranberry strawberry jello salad:
Start with red jello- your choice of flavor or mix of flavors. Use a little less water than instructions say.
Add cranberry sauce or jelly
Add thawed frozen strawberries
Add pecan halves/pieces
After jello is half set, add more nuts and strawberries on top.
You can either mix the jello thoroughly, and have it be a little thicker than regular jello, or let the cranberry sauce settle towards the bottom and have a somewhat layered salad.
This is a family holiday favorite salad.
I like using ham in baked potato soup and it uses up leftover potAtoes too. Also good in other soups too.