Beef and Bean Burritos This burrito recipe can be made in advance without garnishes and frozen, then heated in the microwave to serve. I freeze the burritos on a cookie sheet then wrap in foil and store in food storage bags. List of 13 items • 1 pound lean ground beef • 1/2 cup chopped onion • 1 clove garlic, minced • 2 teaspoons chili powder • 1 teaspoon dried whole oregano • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon pepper • 1 can (16 ounces) refried beans • 1 can (10 ounces) enchilada sauce, divided • 6 flour tortillas, 8-inch size • shredded lettuce • Optional garnishes: shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, sliced ripe olives, shredded cheese list end
In a large skillet cook ground beef, onion, and garlic until ground beef is no longer pink, stirring to break up meat. Drain well.
Add chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper; simmer for 5 minutes. Add refried beans and 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce. Cook until heated through; keep warm.
Wrap tortillas in foil; bake at 350° for 10 minutes, or until thoroughly heated. Spoon about 1/2 cup ground beef mixture on each warm tortilla. Roll tightly and place seam-side down on a shredded lettuce-lined serving platter. When all burritos are made, spoon remaining enchilada sauce over the burritos. Garnish with your choice of toppings.
I celebrated my graduation a month ago & shared photos taken by family members. I recently received the professional video & the pics! I’m sharing with all! Thanks for all the kind words, gifts, and congrats for my major accomplishment!
I hope all of you have been enjoying the first couple of weeks in the New Year!
Thursday was a bit strange in our neck of the woods. Our power went out due to a car accident. I believe someone hit a pole or something.
I’ve been working remotely since the beginning of Covid.
Since I need internet access for my day job, I drove to my workplace – just as I pulled up to my workplace, my son texted me. He told me the power was back on!
So, I ended up returning home. My workplace is only five miles from my house, so, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
But, later, that same day, we lost our internet connection. The lost connection is only affecting our household – our neighbors still have their connection. We can’t watch TV or connect to the internet. What a drag!
We called our provider and was told that something short-circuited and that the earliest they could come out was Sunday.
We’ve been using a hot spot to connect.
It’s funny how you don’t appreciate the simple day-to-day pleasures that are taken for granted, until they are broken or gone.
Working Late & Butterscotch Bliss
My day job continues to be hectic. Yes, it’s great that I’m finally done with my Master’s Degree, but work continues to take up a lot of my free time. I’ve been working 12-hour days and I’m ready for a break!
Some of you have asked what ever happened to Butterscotch Bliss, the free story that I was working on that will only be available to newsletter subscribers. I plan on getting that done later this year. I will keep you posted.
Stress Eating!
Since things have been so hectic lately, I’ve been doing some stress eating. Since I was sick over the holidays, I didn’t get a chance to do any baking.
I made THE BEST CAKE! The cake is so buttery. The recipe calls for 4 sticks of butter – 2 for the cake – 2 for the frosting.
I wish the icing looked smoother. I might take a cake decorating class, when I have time, to learn simple decorating techniques. I googled some methods to smooth the icing – but I was too tired to try! I made this cake on a weekday!
I’m sharing the recipe. If you try it, let me know if you like it! I gobbled 4 pieces of cake in one day! I’m not kidding! This cake was so addictive!
Yellow Butter Cake:
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans or line them with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder until well combined.
Add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, ensuring each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Pour in the milk and vanilla extract, then beat the batter on medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Frosting:
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt to the butter, mixing on low speed until combined.
Add the vanilla extract and 4 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add more cream or milk if needed to achieve the desired consistency.
Assembly:
Once the cakes have cooled completely, place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread a layer of chocolate frosting evenly over the top. Place the second cake layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining chocolate frosting.
Decorate as desired and enjoy your delicious moist buttery yellow cake with chocolate frosting!
Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend
I hope all of you enjoy your 3-day weekend. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is so special. Take some time to relax, think and reflect on this special day.
If you have a craving for a book, keep The Candy Beach Series in mind. So many nice reviews have been posted on Amazon for this series. All of them are available in both paperback and e-book. Treat yourself, and if you’ve already read them, then purchase copies for your friends!
5-star Amazon review for Bittersweet Dreams – book 3 in the series:
This book was so good I had to read it to the end before I could stop. I even read while eating lunch and supper. This author knows how to write a fantastic story. Great job!!
Have a blessed week! Let me know if you try the cake recipe! If you’ve read The Candy Beach Series, I’d love to know which novel was your favorite! I love hearing from all of you!
As mentioned in my last newsletter, we had cornbread, black-eyed peas, greens, and chicken for New Year’s.
Here’s a picture of our meal! It was delicious! I had purchased a huge bag of greens from the store. The bag was about twice the size of what I’d normally purchase. I don’t think I’ve ever made such a big pot of greens in my life! We were eating greens for days. They were delicious!
We cooked the chicken in the air fryer.
Now that Christmas is over, and winter is here, many of you may have time to settle down and read a good book during the cold winter months!
I wanted to share how I came up with the premise for my novella Sugar and Spice.
Have you ever known anybody who stutters? Do you know what they did to overcome their stutter?
When my son was young, between the ages of 3-7, he suffered from stuttering. His stutter was quite strong, and we had to go to speech therapy for years. We ended up seeing three different therapists for long blocks of time.
When my son was having sessions with his last therapist, I was speaking with her. I asked her if she’d ever had any male adult patients who stuttered. She told me that she had one. She said that this man had stuttered his entire life. The only reason he was seeking help was because he had a high-level corporate job and they required that he get help for his stutter. I believe she said he had to speak to many people, and his stutter caused issues.
Of course, she didn’t tell me the identity of this person. She may not have been at liberty to share the details outlined above.
After our conversation, I thought about it. I thought, how terrible for this poor man! What if he wanted to go out on a date with someone? What if he stuttered so badly that he couldn’t even ask a woman out?
That thought stayed planted in the background of my mind for years. Sometimes, I might get a kernel of an idea and it’s rooted into my head for a long time. I might not even realize I’m actually thinking of a story until years later.
My one conversation with my son’s speech therapist grew into Sugar and Spice. In Sugar and Spice, Mason is a stutterer. He’s also an identical twin. Here are more details about this amazing love story:
Sheila Parks is stunned when Mason Smith, the identical twin brother of her ex-boyfriend Reese, moves to Blue Spring and opens a bakery. Reese’s cruel breakup still bothers her and seeing somebody who looks just like him is a painful reminder of her predicament. Unemployed, Sheila needs financial help and it appears that Mason can assist her with her problem. Can she learn to trust a man who looks just like her ex?
Mason is stunned when Sheila storms into his bakery, mistakenly thinking that he’s Reese. Mason is used to comforting his womanizing brother’s ex-girlfriends. A stutterer, Mason has always had a hard time socializing with others. However, he finds himself smitten with beautiful Sheila. Can he control his stutter so that he can ask Sheila to be his date to his grandmother’s Christmas birthday party?
Both Sheila and Mason deal with past pains as they work together during the Christmas season.
Sugar and Spice is a sweet, emotional Christmas romance that you will always remember! Download now! This is a nice treat for you and all of your friends!
Have you ever known anybody who stutters? Do you know what they did to overcome their stutter?
Have a blessed week! Let me know if there’s anything exciting or troublesome going on in your life right now! I love hearing from all of you!
This blog post was sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like stories featuring food and recipes then you must read Loving Luke by Cecelia Dowdy. Loving Luke is about a reunion between Luke and Kim, two childhood sweethearts. It’s a Christmas novel full of love, regrets, and second chances. There’s also a bakery and plenty of delicious desserts wrapped within this amazing story. Can Luke and Kim find the courage to overcome their hang-ups and learn to love again? Loving Luke has been an Amazon bestselling novel with several 5-star reviews! Purchase today and tell your friends by sharing this blog post! The purchase link for Loving Luke is ceceliadowdy.com/loving-luke. The purchase link is also at the end of this blog post.
Do you know of a cornbread recipe that tastes better than cornbread mix?
This blog post is about cornbread. Recently, I decided to make some cornbread from scratch. I normally use a mix, but since I didn’t have one on hand, I used the recipe on the back of the Indian Head Yellow Corn Meal. (The only reason I keep cornmeal on hand is because I use it to dust my pizza peel when making my homemade sourdough pizza.)
Anyhow, when I made the Indian Head recipe, I was highly disappointed. The cornbread was crumbly, not fluffy at all, and it was so bland!
Determined to make a good pan of cornbread from scratch, I decided to try a recipe from one of my cookbooks.
The cookbook recipe differed from the Indian Head recipe – the major difference was that flour was not used. Instead of a cup of flour & a cup of corn meal, this recipe called for 2 ¼ cups of cornmeal. I found the texture for this recipe to be crumbly, as well. It was also bland!
My experimenting with cornbread recipes caused me to think about my childhood. We ate cornbread quite often. Since we had cornbread so much, I never gave it much thought when I was a child. I do recall that we’d crumble up the leftover cornbread and eat it in cold milk – kind of like a cornbread cereal. As I think about it, it’s possible that the cornbread that I ate as a child may have been bland. Since we mostly ate it with chili, or with a pot of beans, the taste and texture may not have bothered me.
If my mom were still living, I’d ask her how she made our cornbread. I don’t recall watching her make it. I was thinking about it, and wondered if cornbread has somehow evolved into the moist, fluffy, sometimes sweet concoction that we enjoy today. In other words, I wonder if cornbread has changed over the years, just as muffins have changed.
Decades ago, my sister was visiting me for the weekend at my apartment. She had a taste for some blueberry muffins. We had some fresh blueberries on hand. So, she cracked open my Betty Crocker cookbook and made the muffins. She was so disappointed. We agreed that the muffins were bland, and they weren’t sweet at all. I looked at some other muffin recipes in old cookbooks. I noticed that long ago, muffins were not the sweet, fluffy concoctions that we enjoy nowadays. Muffins were a quickbread that you ate along with your eggs and bacon – sort of like a substitute for toast – so they weren’t overloaded with sugar. The muffins we enjoy nowadays are just a few steps away from being a cupcake, in my opinion. I’ve actually seen muffin recipes that use cake mix as a base, which emphasizes my point.
Regarding cornbread morphing into a dessert-like concoction – I remember eating at a café with my family about ten years ago while visiting a museum. One of my sisters mentioned that the café served cornbread that was sweet and that it had a glaze. I don’t recall trying this cornbread. I thought that the glazed cornbread sound too dessert-like to eat with my meal. I would have rather eaten it afterwards – as if it were a piece of cake!
Regarding cornbread mixes, this is one of my favorites.
I love this cornbread mix! It tastes so much better than the recipes mentioned earlier.
Coincidentally, my sister texted me about Dolly Parton’s Cornbread Mix the other day. I decided to purchase a box. I haven’t tried it yet – so I don’t know how it compares to Krusteaz’s mix.
I wonder if there’s a cornbread recipe that tastes better than cornbread mix?
If you know of such a recipe, be sure to let me know! I’d love to try it!
This blog post was sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like stories featuring food and recipes then you must read Loving Luke by Cecelia Dowdy. Loving Luke is about a reunion between Luke and Kim, two childhood sweethearts. It’s a Christmas novel full of love, regrets, and second chances. There’s also a bakery and plenty of delicious desserts wrapped within this amazing story. Can Luke and Kim find the courage to overcome their hang-ups and learn to love again? Loving Luke has been an Amazon bestselling novel with several 5-star reviews! Purchase today and tell your friends by sharing this blog post! The purchase link for Loving Luke is ceceliadowdy.com/loving-luke. The purchase link is also at the end of this blog post.
I’m writing this from a hotel room in Durham North Carolina.
Do you have favorite Christmas shows that you watch each year?
I didn’t celebrate Christmas as a child, so, I embrace traditions as an adult. Some of these shows, I’ve been watching since I was a kid. Although Christmas was not celebrated, we were allowed to watch Christmas shows.
Here’s a list of a few of my favorite movies.
A Charlie Brown Christmas – I love this cute short Christmas show! I especially like it when Linus tells Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas! Plus, the music is wonderful. Charlie Brown has some nice jazzy tunes!
The Polar Express. I love this magical story. From the very beginning of my childhood, I was told that Santa didn’t exist. I’ve often wondered what it would’ve been like to believe in Santa. I believe this movie gives us a taste of what it’s like to believe in Santa as a child! This belief even grows into adulthood!
Home Alone 1 & 2. I love both of these because they are hilarious!
Here’s the rest of my list:
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Nutcracker – The Ballet – NOT the Disney Movie. I watch several versions of this. One of my favorites was made in the seventies and features Mikhail Baryshnikov.
I Believe in Santa – this is one of the newer additions to my list – since it was just made in 2022. It’s about a grown man, a lawyer, who believes in Santa Claus!
This list includes some of my faves. There are others, too. However, those are at the top of my list.
So, what are your favorite Christmas shows? Email me & tell me about them!
Our son made it home for Christmas! How wonderful to have his company for a month!
Since I’m finished with graduate school, I can focus on getting him prepared to take his driving test to get his license. He got his learner’s permit over a year ago, but I was so focused on school and work, we never found the time to take him for his driving test!
Speaking of people coming home for Christmas – Jamal in Cinnamon Kisses has returned home for Christmas! He has a dream! His dream is to own his own bakery – and he’s anxious to pursue it! As a professional cruise-ship pastry chef he shares his passion by creating delicious desserts! I think all of us can relate to Jamal. We might have dreams, and we’d love to see those dreams come true. Christmas is a time for love, baking, and good times with family. It’s also a time to re-connect with old friends. Cinnamon Kisses is a sweet, delicious Christmas novel – it will warm your heart and soul during the holiday season. When Jamal returns home – he finds out that his mom is sick & struggling. He wants to help her and take care of her. Worried, he prays for his mom’s healing as he runs into Kelly, his first love. Kelly has always resented her overbearing father – and longs to escape from her home. She’s never lived on her own. She feels that it’s time to make some important changes in her life. She reconnects with Jamal. He’s like a breath of fresh air that brightens up her life. Jamal has a problem, and it appears that Kelly is one of the few people who can help him to solve it. Cinnamon Kisses is a novel that will tug at your heartstrings. If you’ve already read it, then purchase a copy for a friend! Download all of my Christmas novels for fun, emotional holiday reading!
Have you ever had a dream that you wanted to pursue?
On Friday, December 15th, I officially graduated from The University of Maryland Global Campus!
As mentioned previously, my degree is a Master of Science in Accounting and Finance!
I want to encourage all of you to follow your dreams! It’s never too late.
I wanted to initially go to graduate school when I was in my twenties, but, the timing never seemed to be right.
I pursued my writing career, and it was joyous to see my books distributed in bookstores & megastores such as Walmart & Target, all over the world!
Although the writing somewhat pacified me, I always felt a gentle tug, internally, whenever someone mentioned graduate school. I always felt as if I never finished my education.
That gentle tug intensified sometime after my mom had her stroke. I realized that life is short, and if we want to pursue something, we just need to buckle down and do it, no matter what age we are!
I’m 57 and I’m finally receiving my degree! (They did not officially bestow our degrees yet – I’m supposed to receive my degree in the mail in January! I will post a pic when I receive it!)
What a glorious feeling to finally accomplish this!
So, have you ever had a dream that you wanted to pursue? Did you pursue your dream(s)? If you haven’t yet pursued your dream – do you plan to do so? Email me! I want to hear all about it!
Celebrating graduation with hubby & family! Later, hubby and I went to Blues Alley! We ate blackened catfish, beans, rice, & bread pudding & chocolate cake for dessert! I forgot to take pics of the food – so here’s my cleaned plate & hubby enjoying his drink!
Speaking of pursing dreams – Jamal in Cinnamon Kisses has a dream! His dream is to own his own bakery – and he’s anxious to pursue it!
As a professional cruise-ship pastry chef he shares his passion by creating delicious desserts! I think all of us can relate to Jamal. We might have dreams, and we’d love to see those dreams come true.
Christmas is a time for love, baking, and good times with family. It’s also a time to re-connect with old friends.
Cinnamon Kisses is a sweet, delicious Christmas novel – it will warm your heart and soul during the holiday season.
When Jamal returns home – he finds out that his mom is sick & struggling. He wants to help her and take care of her. Worried, he prays for his mom’s healing as he runs into Kelly, his first love.
Kelly has always resented her overbearing father – and longs to escape from her home. She’s never lived on her own. She feels that it’s time to make some important changes in her life. She reconnects with Jamal. He’s like a breath of fresh air that brightens up her life.
Jamal has a problem, and it appears that Kelly is one of the few people who can help him to solve it.
Cinnamon Kisses is a novel that will tug at your heartstrings. If you’ve already read it, then purchase a copy for a friend!
Download all of my Christmas novels for fun, emotional holiday reading!
Have a blessed week! If/when you decorate your home for Christmas, please share pics! I love Christmas decorations!
I attended the ICE display at the Gaylord at the National Harbor. The theme was Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer! I love watching Rudolph each year. So nostalgic for me. We didn’t celebrate Christmas in my household, so I embraced my own Christmas fun by watching cute, Christmas-themed shows.
Rudolph really resonates with me because Hermey wanted to be a dentist, which went against the mold of being an elf! Being a romance writer doesn’t exactly fit within the mold of working a nine to five job. Although I’ve still had to work over the years, I really feel that writing is what I’m supposed to be doing – kind of like how Hermey feels that he should be a dentist.
All of the sculptures were made totally out of ice! It was so pretty!
At the end, there was a religious display of ice sculptures that included Mary, Joseph, Jesus, & an angel. The ending was so pretty and emotional. The religious sculptures didn’t contain color such as the other ones.
Have you ever seen a real ice sculpture? If so, where did you see it? Were you able to watch them create the sculpture live?
Here’s a few pics from yesterday’s excursion!
Me, when I first arrived at the Gaylord.
This is me touring the ice sculpture display! It was obviously FREEZING in there! They gave us a special parka to wear during the tour.
Speaking of Christmas – be sure to check out some of my Christmas novels for some fun, emotional holiday reading!
Jamal in Cinnamon Kisses returns home for the holidays. As a professional cruise-ship pastry chef he shares his passion by creating delicious desserts! A dreamer – he longs to own his own bakery. I think all of us can relate to Jamal. We might have dreams, and we’d love to see those dreams come true.
Christmas is a time for love, baking, and good times with family. It’s also a time to re-connect with old friends.
Cinnamon Kisses is a sweet, delicious Christmas novel – it will warm your heart and soul during the holiday season.
When Jamal returns home – he finds out that his mom is sick & struggling. He wants to help her and take care of her. Worried, he prays for his mom’s healing as he runs into Kelly, his first love.
Kelly has always resented her overbearing father – and longs to escape from her home. She’s never lived on her own. She feels that it’s time to make some important changes in her life. She reconnects with Jamal. He’s like a breath of fresh air that brightens up her life.
Jamal has a problem, and it appears that Kelly is one of the few people who can help him to solve it.
Cinnamon Kisses is a novel that will tug at your heartstrings. If you’ve already read it, then purchase a copy for a friend!
Have a blessed week! If/when you decorate your home for Christmas, please share pics! I love Christmas decorations!
The movie is about a young woman who has amnesia. Since she can’t remember her identity & has no ID, they call her Jane. Jane is troubled about not knowing about her past – I’m sure most would feel this way if they couldn’t remember their identity.
I’ve noticed amnesia is a popular trope used in romance novels and romance movies. Although it is often used, I seldom hear about such an illness in real life.
Have you, or someone you know, ever suffered from amnesia? How long did it take for the memories to come back – if such memories came back at all?
I’ve noticed in films and books that usually amnesia occurs because of some sort of accident, like a blow to the head, which rattles the brain.
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing an amnesia story some day, so, thought I’d ask.
Here’s a few pics of our son playing in the band! He’ll be home for Christmas in a few weeks!
Speaking of Christmas homecomings – Jamal in Cinnamon Kisses loves returns home for the holidays. As a professional cruise-ship pastry chef he shares his passion by creating delicious desserts! A dreamer – he longs to own his own bakery. I think all of us can relate to Jamal. We might have dreams, and we’d love to see those dreams come true.
Christmas is a time for love, baking, and good times with family. It’s also a time to re-connect with old friends.
Cinnamon Kisses is a sweet, delicious Christmas novel – it will warm your heart and soul during the holiday season.
When Jamal returns home – he finds out that his mom is sick & struggling. He wants to help her and take care of her. Worried, he prays for his mom’s healing as he runs into Kelly, his first love.
Kelly has always resented her overbearing father – and longs to escape from her home. She’s never lived on her own. She feels that it’s time to make some important changes in her life. She reconnects with Jamal. He’s like a breath of fresh air that brightens up her life.
Jamal has a problem, and it appears that Kelly is one of the few people who can help him to solve it.
Cinnamon Kisses is a novel that will tug at your heartstrings. If you’ve already read it, then purchase a copy for a friend!
Have a blessed week! If/when you decorate your home for Christmas, please share pics! I love Christmas decorations!
