What’s Cooking? with Kate Meader #giveaway

Where authors, friends and fellow bloggers share their favorite receipes!

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Kate Meader writes contemporary romance that serves up delicious food, sexy heroes, and heroines with a dash of sass. Originally from Ireland, she now makes her home in Chicago, a city made for food, romance, and laughter—and where she met her own sexy hero. When not writing about men who cook and the women who drool over them, she works in an academic library. Visit her website at http://katemeader.com and follow her on Twitter @kittymeader

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I cook, he bakes. It’s the perfect match.
-- Kate Meader

Over the years at Chez Meader, my husband and I have fallen into a natural division of labor. He takes care of the dishes, I clean the bathroom. He makes weekend breakfasts, I make our weekday dinners. He shields me from bugs, I scream like a girly-girl. Hey, it works for us.

You know what else works? I like to cook, he likes to bake. And I mean, he really likes it. Pound cakes, tarts, muffins, brownies, cookies – you name it, my husband loves to make it. When we host Thanksgiving, he spends hours making the pies, usually one per person. He picked up his fabulous skills (and sweet tooth) from his mother who taught him all the tricks he needed to be a great baker. He even considered making it a career for a while before deciding that of all the chef categories, pastry chefs are probably more likely to be early risers. Mr. Meader is not a morning person, so that was that.

In my latest contemporary romance, ALL FIRED UP, the hero is an Irish pastry chef whose words are as sweet as the confections he bakes, but he has a problem. Cara DeLuca, the uptight sister-in-law of his boss. This isn’t a spoiler because it’s in the blurb, but these two get hitched under the influence in Las Vegas and now need to deal with the consequences. Should they cut their losses and get that annulment or should they reach deep for whatever underlying impulse drove them to do such a crazy thing? Again, it’s not a spoiler if I tell you they pick Door #2! However, Cara’s not like other girls who melt at the sight of Shane’s decadent chocolate tarts and mouthwatering cookies. She’s in recovery from anorexia and the thought of sustaining a relationship with a man whose life and career revolves around the kitchen horrifies her. Unable to employ his usual seduction-by-sugar methods, Shane has to draw on all his resources… a sweet-talking brogue, even sweeter kisses, and the sure hands that make him an award-winning chef.

Go, Shane, you can do it!

Shane might have his work cut out for him, but my real-life hero, Mr. Meader, didn’t—and still doesn’t. One taste of his sweet treats and I’m a goner. Here’s one of his mother’s recipes, and one of the delicious desserts I’m happy to make if he’s not around. I’m pretty sure this treat would be in Shane’s repertoire as well.

Chocolate Pixies

These are cake-like cookies with a soft center and slightly crunch crust.

The goods

4 one-ounce squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate, melted
½ cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 ½ cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup of powdered sugar

The steps to cookie nirvana

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine chocolate, oil, and sugar. Mix well.
3. Stir in eggs, one at a time.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Slowly add flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend thoroughly.
6. Chill in refrigerator for several hours (overnight is okay).
7. With a cookie scoop, measure out and roll dough into balls.
8. Dip cookie dough balls in powdered sugar.
9. Bake 10-12 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cookie comes out clean.

Her sweetest mistake . . .

Cool as a Chicago winter, private events planner Cara DeLuca is a model of self-control . . . until she meets the one temptation she can't resist: Shane Doyle. The sexy, Irish pastry chef is too hot, too sure, too young, and after a crazy night in Vegas—her new husband. While at first Cara wants nothing more than a way out of her sham marriage to Shane, she soon finds that beneath his farm boy demeanor lies a man who can match her drive, both in and out of the bedroom. How can the wrong guy feel so deliciously right?

. . . Tastes so, so good

Shane has carefully structured his career and life around one goal: connecting with the family that doesn't know he exists. Marrying a woman with more issues than a magazine stand wasn't part of the plan, but melting Cara's icy exterior is so worth the detour. Now as the annulment date nears and long-buried secrets are revealed, Shane will have to fight for the one thing guaranteeing the perfect life he craves . . . the current Mrs. Shane Doyle.

Buy Links for ALL FIRED UP:

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