Category Archives: Uncategorized

Probably you have some favorite old recipes that you like to make at the holidays. Here’s one of ours. The family calls it Elaine’s Jell-O Mold. My sister’s sister-in-law, Elaine, probably clipped it from a women’s magazine forty years ago. Elaine passed last year, but I’ve continued the tradition of making this dish of hers for holiday meals. I’ve put my own spin on it, adding and swapping out some ingredients and changing some proportions. When I first started making it, I used unflavored gelatin and fruit juice. Now I just go with the Jell-O version. I don’t make this in a mold. I simply put the ingredients into a 2 ½ quart casserole and serve from there.

Technical hint: To make the Jell-O set more quickly, use ice cubes instead of cold water for the second step. Because the dish is made a day or even two days before needed, it cuts the cooking you have to do on the day of your family gathering.

Elaine’s Jell-O Mold
1 6 oz package Jell-O (or 2 3oz packages)
1 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups ice cubes
1 14 oz can whole cranberry sauce
16 ounces plain yogurt, preferably Greek
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, including juice
1 large apple, cubed (I leave the peel on)
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 cup pecan or walnut pieces

1. Stir the boiling water into the Jell-O and stir to dissolve (about 2 minutes). When Jell-O is dissolved, stir in the ice cubes and keep stirring until they are completely melted.
2. Stir in the cranberry sauce, breaking it up with a fork to distribute evenly.
3. Stir in the yogurt and stir to combine well. When combined, stir in the pineapple.
4. Add the apple, celery, and nuts and stir to distribute.
5. Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally as the mixture jells to make sure the heavy ingredients do not sink to the bottom.
   This dish will keep in the refrigerator for three or four days.
   Serves 8

Gypsy Magic, the first of the Magic Trilogies I wrote with Ann Voss Peterson and Patricia Rosemoor is currently free on all platforms.

FIND AT YOUR FAVORITE EBOOKSTORE

Sign up for my newsletter at www.rebeccayork.com to be eligible for my Contest prizes.

Rebecca York

NY Times & USA Today best-seller, Rebecca York, is the author of over 150 books. She has written paranormal romantic thrillers for Berkley and romantic thrillers for Harlequin Intrigue. Her romantic-suspense series, Decorah Security, is set at a detective agency where agents have paranormal powers or work paranormal cases. She also writes an Off-World series where each story is a science fiction romance taking place on a distant planet in the far future.  She also writes the Unbound series for Changeling Press.
 View website

www.rebeccayork.com/%20

As a Canadian, I celebrate Thanksgiving the second Monday in October, not the fourth Thursday in November. What does that mean? Essentially, it gives me more time to get ready for Christmas since I don’t have another holiday feast to prepare in what’s basically a four-week period.

Whew! Since turkey is our traditional Christmas meal as well as our Thanksgiving one, we have a couple of months between each gargantuan meal. It also gives me more time to shop, but as the grandkids get older, there’s less of that involved and more e-transfers! In the picture on the right, this is me and my mother. A long tome has passed since then, but so far, I still have her with me.

Every year, Christmas is just a little bit different. Who can forget the COVID years? But, no matter what, our Christmas traditions remain the same. For example, our eldest son will come home for a week. We’ll go up to Upper Canada Village for Alight at Night. We’ll attend Christmas Eve Service, followed by a gift exchange since we can’t always be together on Christmas Day, and we’ll chat on the phone or through Facetime with those far away who can’t make it home. We’ll also visit my mother in the nursing home on Christmas morning. The baby in the third picture is the blonde in the second. She’s in the arms of her paternal great-grandmother who passed several years ago. Photographs keep memories alive. The last picture shows my grand-daughter in Norway. Memories, some sad, some happy are what we cling to all the days of our lives.

Starting on Friday, and for each ot the subsequent day until December 25th, my daughter’s family will removed one gift from the tree pictured here. Behind each gift is a thought for the day. Examples include, wash the dishes without being asked, or say hello to someone new, random acts of kindness that can brighten someone’s day. Of course they’ll be accompanied by a Christmas treat, but you get the idea. My seventeen-year-old grand-daughter painted this last year, and it’s now part of their family tradition.

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember the real reason we celebrate the season. I saw a meme that said, on Thanksgiving, we celebrate all that we have and for which we’re grateful. The next day, we’ll fight tooth and nail for something on sale, even when we don’t need it. We may not celebrate Thanksgiving here in Novemeber, but we certainly embrace and celebrate Black Friday.

Moving along … We all see the Salvation Army Santas with the bells and kettles. Some of us can afford to be generous while others, thanks to circumstances not always in their control, need that generosity. Sadly, this year more than ever, it’s important to do what we can for others. The world is an absolute mess. There are wars raging in more places than I can name, some being fought in the name of religion, others, for territory, and still more for a combination of the two. People are at one another’s throats all over the world. There are mass-shootings, racially motivated riots, brutal attacks on others based on their religion, color, or sexual identification and preference.

So here is my Christmas wish for this world!

Wishing you all peace and joy this holiday season. It doesn’t matter how or what you celebrate, what matters is that you do and remember to be kind to others..

If you’re looking for some great holiday reading, check out the ABB’s Chritmas collections including Irresistable Scrooges

And Unforgettable Christmas Wonders.

Susanne Matthews

I’m a retired high school English teacher turned author. I’m Canadian. My husband and I have been married 48 years and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren, as well as 2 step-grandchildren.  I enjoy traveling, especially somewhere warm in winter.

mhsusannematthews.ca/

When my husband and I were first married, we had just started our junior year at the University of WA. We had no extra money coming in and lived off what my husband had earned that summer working two construction jobs in Alaska (where the daylight lasts long enough you can do that.) I had kept my wedding costs to a minimum and we were able to live in a one-room home that his parents owned. We had a desk, table, three chairs, a hot plate and a hide-a-bed, as well as our wedding gifts. “Eating out” meant a picnic on a mountainside after a hike.

THE ESSENTIAL ITEM LIST:

There were lots of things we wanted and we made a list and prioritized it. A television set was on top as well as a clothes washer and dryer. I don’t remember what else was on the list, but the ranking of the different items kept changing. The list kept us on our budget. We never carried debt on a credit card, as we couldn’t afford it. It was easier to do without. The funny thing is, that many things we considered essential became non-essential over time and got crossed completely off the list.

We finally got the TV set when we moved to Hawaii six years later. At that time we also got a miniature clothes washer. Living in Hawaii, I hung the items out to dry (diapers on a clothesline, made soft by the wind). I bought my first full-sized washer and dryer after we moved back to the mainland. If we couldn’t pay cash for it, we didn’t buy it. We shopped yard sales and discount stores, especially for the children’s toys and clothes.

We bought used cars using money we had set aside for them, so we never had a car payment.

THE DAILY PROJECT LIST:

I also use lists to get projects done and books written that would never be finished if I hadn’t used a list. When the items are written down on a piece of paper, it helps me see what is important and what not so important. Then the items can be numbered, according to importance, which is the last step in prioritizing them. Do #1 first and so on.

I know I would never have built a house, raised three kids, and finished over 50 books if I hadn’t kept lists. I let my books slide this summer while I got other things done, but intend to finish two of them around the first of next year. One of them is #14 of the pioneer Trahern series and the other is the last Lucky Dog book. Both are done past half-way, they are just not high-priority at the moment.

The last complete Trahern book, #13, takes The Sunniest Gal from Tennessee on a train ride from Boston to Cheyenne, facing death and finding love.

Filled with heart, hope, and holiday traditions…it’s Christmas, the most magical time of the year.
So, what could be more romantic than breaking through the bah humbugs to find love with your own personal Scrooge? Check out Irresistible Scrooges!

Nancy Radke

A USA Today bestselling author, Nancy Radke grew up on a wheat and cattle ranch in SE Washinton State. She attended a one-room country school through the eighth grade. She learned to ride bareback at age 3 (Really! It was a common practice.) and when she got off or fell off, she would pull her horse’s nose to the ground, get on behind its ears, and the horse would lift its head so she could scoot down onto its back. Nancy spent most of her childhood exploring the Blue Mountain trails that bordered the ranchlands. She and a friend once took a trail that turned out to be a two day trip. They always rode with matches and pocket knives, so made camp and returned the next day. These long rides worried her parents, but provided plenty of time to make up stories. Her first novel was set in the Blues, and is entitled APPALOOSA BLUES. TURNAGAIN LOVE was the first one published. It rated a four star review from Affaire de Coeur. Scribes World said “Turnagain Love has some fascinating twists and turns, unexpected complications, and charming scenes.” It is light and humorous. Nancy currently has over 30 books written, both modern and western. All her stories are sweet and wholesome.
 View website

www.nancyradkeauthor.com/%20