HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Tasty Tuesday - Banana Bread

When you are cleaning the kitchen don't throw those brown bananas away!

I found a super easy banana bread recipe.

Heat oven to 350'. Grease 9"x5" loaf pan.
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups Jiffy or any baking mix
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 medium)
1/3 cup chopped nuts - optional

Cream shortening and sugar. Combine remaining ingredients and mix until well blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake about 55 minutes. Cool on a rack before slicing.

While cleaning the kitchen this morning, I found several bananas left over from last weekend's camping trip. Ewe! I don't like throwing food away and this is a great recipe to use. It's simple and my family loves it. For fun I add a little nutmeg and brown sugar on the top before placing it into the oven.

I like to use farm fresh eggs. Visit your local Farmers' Market or watch for signs along country roads. They run about $2 a dozen.

Thursday Thirteen - Find Time for Love

In a recent weekly poll, statistics showed that most people believed a typical couple should have sex three times a week if not every day.   How does this compare to you and your significant other?

If you feel you'd like to improve the amount of sensual time you spend with your partner here are a few ideas to help you!

1. Make it a point to go to bed at least an hour to a half-hour before you normally do.
2. If you're a morning person, try getting up an hour to half-hour earlier.
3. On days you have an hour or so lunch or mid-day break, meet each other at home or at a hotel for a fun quickie!
4. When you or your partner comes home, don't speak to them. Just grab their hand, drag them to the bedroom (or stay where you are) and make love.
5. Take your showers together.
6. Order out for dinner and make love before your food arrives.
7. While your children are taking a nap or engrossed watching a movie, steal your partner away and make love.
8. Hire a housekeeper to free up "needless" time.
9. Take a "sick" day from work and spend the day recovering together!  (My personal fav!)
10. Clean the house together while sipping wine, and then relax.
11. Go for a drive and park.  Just be careful not to get caught.
12. Send your kids off to a sports event with an older child, friend or relative.  That will give you at least 2-3 hours alone.
13. Whenever you're alone together... make love!

 

Pup Needs Our Help

 

 

Please help Rascy have the surgery he needs.

 

13 yr old Alison rescued Rascy at 8 weeks from the pound. (pronounced rass-key). This 2 yr old lab is the light of her life. I've had the pleasure of knowing this sweet fella. 


His life changed drastically when he was hit by a speeding car. He might lose his left eye and needs surgery on his left leg.


The family has put alot of money into this pups care already and are really not in a financial position to continue. They are currently looking for a vet who could do the surgery at a discount rate or free in Mid-Michigan.
 
A ChipIn page has been set up if you'd like to donate.









Tasty Tuesday

Refreshing popsicles served in a glass of prosecco.

Thursday 13 - Reasons You Should Attend the Montrose Blueberry Festival

I live in a small community in Mid-Michigan and every year during the third weekend in August we host the Montrose Blueberry Festival. (Yes, we do have many places to pick berries!) But for those who have never attended our festival, here are a few reasons to zip into my town for a visit.

1. Blueberries… everything blueberries! Blueberry doughnuts at the Montrose Orchards. Blueberry ice cream at Carie's Caboose Yummy! Pie eating contest!

2. Blueberry pancake breakfast on Sat & Sun. We serve 4,000 hungry folks. The sausages are the kids favorites. My family has been working the breakfast for years, so come to it and I’ll take a break to chat. (If you have teen girls in your family, the Montrose Football team will be working on Sunday. wink, wink)

3. Medieval Village & Renaissance Faire. Montrose is Scottish for “mountain of roses”. In this hilly farming community, many wild roses grow around fields and in ditches. Celebrating our Scottish heritage along with members from the greater Renaissance Festival folk from the Shiabruck Medieval Village, we’ve put together an amazing village and faire. Stop by and meet my special friends, Gypsy and Hagrid. Gypsy made the original necklace Mike McAlister wears in my book "Lonely Soul".


4. The awesome parade. Saturday at 1:00. Find your spot after you've finished eatting your blueberry pancakes.

5. The Carnival and Midway are a blast! Lemonade, Rootbeer, and Elephant Ears.

6. Flea Market and craft show. I lose myself in there every year; the boys have to lure me out with chocolate.

7. Classic Car Show.

8. Mud Drag & Mud Bog for those who still enjoy playing in the mud.

9. Elf Khurafeh Shriners Pig Roast.

10. Live music and a karaoke contest. No way… you won’t hear me sing!

11. Softball Tournaments, horseshoes, Tug-of-War Challenge!

12. Montrose historical & Telephone Pioneer Museum will be open. FREE. Donations welcome.

13. Getting together with old and new friends in the beer tent. Live band.

And of course, this is a Romance Writer's Blog,

sooooooooo.....

there will be great opportunities to see some shirtless men!

This rural farming comuntiy produces some nice lookin' fellas.

Throughout the town and township, there are a ton of rummage sales offering wonderful treasures and parties galore! I hope many of you take a break from your busy schedule and visit. If I’m available, I’ll let you know where the best "goodies" are. Hugs!

Visit the Blueberry Website for more info.

Happy Humpday

Boys of fall are getting in shape.  Here's a little teaser to get you over the hump of the week.

Happy Humnpday!

Thursday Thirteen – 13 Reasons to Smile

1.       To show you’re happy.

2.       Like yawns, smiles are contagious.

3.       To do a simple act of kindness.

4.       Because you are wearing a new shade of lipstick.  (After all, a girl cannot have too many shades of lipstick.)

5.       You know your best girlfriend will tell you if you have something stuck in your teeth.

6.       Because that piece of chocolate cheesecake was amazing.

7.       You feel very blessed.

8.       You feel joy in your heart and love energizes you.  (Was that an oversized pink bunny that just went by?)

9.       If you smile enough, you’ll start to believe your face.

10.   You just took a deep breath and realized life is grand.

11.   Because happiness is the result of being too busy to be miserable.

12.   My favorite reason:  Always smile… because others will think you are up to something.  And maybe you are.

13.   Need I say more?

Visit Romance Writers Behaving Badly for today's T-13 list of Most Romantic Movie Kisses. CLICK HERE

Humpday Help - Dishwashing 101

Seeing a man on his own accord washing dishes is HOT.

Tips:

1.      Dishes wash easily if you keep them under the water while scrubbing them. Particles lift away. Bring the dish out of the water to check for missed spots.

2.      Stacking a few dishes in the sink at a time allows dishes a few minutes of soaking time while you work on washing another dish.

3.      Try drying pots and pans with a paper towel to reduce residue from the pan staining the dishcloth.

4.      Don't allow aluminum to soak while dishwashing. Doing so can darken the finish.

5.      Dish washing silverware can be tricky. Use a lint free cloth for drying silverware.

 “ Wanted a man who empties the dishwasher. And if you want to really sweep me off my feet load it too …..then baby I’m all yours. The sight of you with those plates in your hand has me tingling from head to toe. Oh I’m all yours darlin’ and I ain’t ever gonna let you go.”

Tasty Tuesday - A Matter of Lust

Blurb:

Trask is a lust demon on the hunt for a playmate, a human exceptional enough to sate some of his ravenous hunger. When he finds Rena, he knows that she is the one he must have. He makes it his business to seduce her.

Rena is immediately drawn to Trask. She could easily fall for the dangerously sexy bad boy who makes her scream every time he makes her come, but the problem with bad boys is that they’re actually bad. They break girls’ hearts and hers has been broken too many times already. One more crack might shatter it forever.

Trask claims Rena for his own, but she needs more than just sizzling sex. She wants to trust him, but can they ever share anything more than lust?

An Excerpt From: A MATTER OF LUST

Copyright © LISA FOX, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chapter One

The deep, melodic trance music vibrated through Trask’s body as he prowled the crowded dance floor. He was hungry, so very, very hungry, and the time had come for him to find a willing partner for the night. Any one of the mortals undulating around him would have sufficed, but so far none of them appealed to him. The need gnawed at his insides, but he waited, searching for the one. Over his long years among the humans, he’d learned that it always paid to be a little bit discriminating. It made the feast so much more gratifying.

He sidestepped around a young woman, his shoulder accidentally brushing against hers. He felt her body temperature rise as he passed, the lust that had been simmering just below the surface swelling to a fevered pitch within her. She grabbed her companion and kissed him ferociously, shamelessly rubbing herself against him. She wasn’t the only one affected by his presence either. Potent waves of raw sexual energy radiated from him, infecting the air around him, threatening to turn the club into one giant orgy. Trask smiled at the thought.

He cruised the dance floor, reveling in the exquisite thrill of his hunt. Human lust was such a decadent treat, so very different from the desperate lust of the damned in hell, and it filled this ordinarily dull world with brilliant light and added depth to the darkest shadows. He could feel it oozing from the dancers, the men and the women, sweating and panting, touching and grinding, their bodies writhing in time with the music. Tension built in his groin and he welcomed the pure, straining delight.

He stopped suddenly, the prickling at the base of his spine alerting him to the presence of another demon nearby. Not a lust demon like himself, but something similar. Pride maybe, or perhaps wrath? He couldn’t quite get a fix on it. He waited, wondering if it was going to make contact. Often other demons haunting and hunting the human realm wanted to meet, to plot and plan and scheme, to “raise some hell” or whatever, but he got the impression that it was occupied with something else entirely. Which was just fine with him. He’d never been the social sort.

The music changed and a thumping bass beat poured out of the speakers. Trask shook off the psychic residue of the other and worked his way toward the bar. He ordered a bourbon on the rocks and leaned back, happily absorbing the intoxicating atmosphere while scanning the crowd for his potential playmate.

His gaze fell upon a woman on the edge of the dance floor in a short, black dress that hugged every curve of her luscious body. Her violently dyed red hair was piled high on her head and sexy tendrils escaped to frame her heart-shaped face. There was a hint of rosy flush on her smooth, round cheeks and the way her hips swayed to the music made his cock stir.

Trask placed his drink aside and unconsciously ran his tongue over his teeth as he glided toward her. She was tall, probably close to six feet in her heels, but he still had to lean down to whisper close to her ear. “Hello,” he purred, breathing in her clean scent of shampoo and roses and woman.

She turned slowly toward him, her gaze roaming over his face, his body, and he got the distinct impression that she was mentally undressing him. He certainly hoped she was. She obviously liked what she saw because a smile blossomed on her glossy, pink lips. “Hi.”

The instant, piercing sexual tension between them made his blood surge. He reached out with a fine strand of psychic energy and lightly dipped into her primal core. Trask hissed as desire coiled in his groin. She was sweet ambrosia, a succulent feast just waiting to happen and his cock ached to sink inside her, to make her come again and again while he fed on all that glorious lust. “You are very beautiful,” he said, savoring the tiny taste of her fire.

“Uh-huh,” she said, mischief and humor making her eyes sparkle. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Trask laughed. He liked this woman. “I think I might be in love with you,” he said, beginning the game. It was a line that had worked many times before—the humans always seemed enchanted and amused by the concept, but it was a hollow sentiment, something meant to elicit a grin and nothing more. But as the words left his mouth, they felt different this time, almost as if they had…weight.

“Are you sure it’s love you feel?” she asked, a smile dancing along the corners of her mouth. Her eyes flicked down to his crotch. “Or something else entirely?”

“Now I know I’m in love,” he replied, the lust coursing through his veins. She was perfect. Fun. Bold. Smoking hot. And she was going to be his. All night long. He reached out and traced the curve of her cheek with his index finger. Her skin was flawless, warm and silky. “What’s your name?”

She paused and an odd, little smile formed on her lips. “Does it matter?”

Normally it wouldn’t matter—in fact, there was no reason why it should matter, but for some reason it did matter. It mattered a lot. “Yes.”

Her smile changed, softened, and Trask was awestruck by just how simply beautiful she was. “Rena. My name is Rena.”

“Rena.” He liked the way it rolled off his tongue.

“And what about you?” she asked, leaning closer to him. He looked straight down into her very ample cleavage and took his time enjoying that magnificent view. His fingers itched to caress that soft skin, to feel the weight of her full, round breasts in his hands. “Do you have a name? Or should I just call you the sexy Darkman of my dreams?”

“I do like the sound of that.” He wondered if his presence was affecting her, making her more daring than she’d normally be or if this was just her nature. He had the power to inspire humans to say and do outrageous things simply by standing beside them. His gaze touched on her flamboyant red hair and he thought—hoped—that it was her and not a consequence of his influence. “But Trask is so much shorter and to the point.”

“Trask,” she said, and he had to admit, he liked the way his name sounded on her lips. He couldn’t wait to hear her scream it. Her eyes trailed over him, her gaze a provocative caress that sent hot, tingling ripples down his spine. “So, now that you’ve declared your love, what happens next?”

“Oh, you know, the usual.” He caught hold of a loose strand of her hair and twined it around his fingers. The tension between them rocketed up a few notches and he inhaled the essence of her arousal, breathing it deep into his body, relishing the flavor of her. “A whirlwind romance, storybook marriage, honeymoon in Paris.”

“Followed swiftly by a quickie divorce in Mexico, right?”

Her voice was tinged with unmistakable venom and the bitterness sliced through the hazy, plush cloud of their lust. Startled by the mental slap in the face, Trask dropped his hand back to his side. Darkness deepened around him as anger settled in. He did not like this turn of events at all. “What makes you think I’d do anything quick with you?”

“I see,” she said, and he watched her features soften as her mood shifted. Humans were so extraordinarily complex. He didn’t think he’d ever understand their ability to feel so much, so quickly and thoroughly, even when those emotions were completely contradictory. Demons were defined by their desires, embodiments of the thing they hungered after. There was never a reason for a demon to feel anything more than his driving need. Everything else just got in the way of the goal.

Her bitterness ebbed away, gone almost as quickly as it had come, and she favored him with a dazzling, flirtatious smile. “You’re a slow-and-steady kind of guy then?”
“Oh yes,” he said, returning her grin. “And I always win in the end.”

She laughed, a lovely, musical sound that tugged at his insides. She leaned into him, a whisper of space between them and he could feel the heat of her body on his skin. “Hmm,” she said, and bit down on her lower lip. Her fingers flitted over his collarbone. “I do like confidence.”

He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “Then you’re definitely going to like me.”

BUY HERE 

About the Author:

World-renowned neurosurgeon, jet fighter pilot, secret member of American royalty, seducer of legions of beautiful, outrageously sexy angels and demons and vampires and werewolves and the occasional pirate, Lisa Fox has done it all…in her own mind. In reality, she can generally be found at her desk with a cup of coffee close at hand. Or maybe a martini. It really depends on the day.

Feedback, comments, opinions, words of wisdom, chocolate cake and the addresses of super hot men are always appreciated and encouraged. Please feel free to contact Lisa any time.

Email: lisa@lisafoxromance.com

Website: www.lisafoxromance.com

Twitter: @LisaFoxRomance