My Latest Book Is Live on Amazon

It's been two years and one month since I last uploaded a book on Amazon. That's too long in my opinion. While I want to release at least one book a year, I'm shooting for more like one per quarter. However, I do work as a copy editor, and those projects by other authors do take precedence over my own.

While this blog shows my progress on two of my WIPs (both planned to be fiction series), it was my third WIP, another series, but in the nonfiction genre, that just went live.

And, for the record, although Amazon stated it could be seventy-two hours for my book to appear online, it was only five hours and twenty minutes. Thank you, Amazon! The site is getting faster and faster. Amazing.

So here's my cover of my newest series, a menu-planning guide with recipes:


https://amzn.to/2PX2NwI

And here's my description, showing my purpose behind this goal:

Why I Wrote This Book

I wrote this planned series of books for me first (to gather all my favorite recipes into one collection of various books in both ebook and paperback form to eliminate the paper clutter of loose sheets of recipes in my home), for my son second (to pass down my family’s heirloom recipes), and to share with my readers third (to make your job of menu planning hopefully easier than it was for me).

Why Is It So Hard to Menu Plan? Or at Least It Was for Me …

As both an author and a copy editor, I find it is so much easier to tweak a written document than to create one from scratch. Since nobody’s menu plan will fit everyone’s tastes and lifestyles, it’s a given that any such offering should be personalized. And certainly other people were plagued with this menu-planning task, right?

So here is mine to help you out as you craft one better for you and yours.

NOTE: I am not a medical professional, but I offer my own insights and some findings from various internet searches here in my menu-planning guide in an effort to provide a convenient launching point for others to create their own menu plans. I have also included thirty-five recipes in this book.

Why a “Freelancer’s Guide” to Menu Planning, You May Ask?

From a freelancer’s point of view, it’s all about dealing with the lack of time and/or money when attacking the what’s-for-dinner question. Since I have juggled this time/money issue for over a decade of freelancing, I thought I’d share how I handle this. Therefore, my particular meal planning is flexible, based on available funds.

Why Almanac-Style?

I consider this an almanac-style book because I’ve added in so much more than just a thirty-day menu plan: appropriate quotes, various Top 10 lists, assorted issues (like emotional eating, healthier substitutions, creating convenience foods at home), all of which lend to a sense of diversity in this book. Therefore, being almanac in style.

***

Just getting this first book done has been freeing, a step toward organizing all my recipes. I had a cookbook in me, but it was so daunting to cull through 7,500+ recipes. And those are just the paper copies I have at home. That doesn't begin to count the saved recipes I have on various online sites.

Baby steps. Who would imagine how freeing this is for me on this one project? And this bit of organizing is infiltrating into other areas of my home. Simply wonderful!

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas lights popping up everywhere. Have a great week, everyone.

Welcome to My World, Where Every Day Is a Saturday

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

https://deniseannbarker.com

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

Cuban Sandwich, Anyone?

Today I ran into a steal at my local Aldi's: a bone-in ham shank for $0.89/pound (cheaper than Aldi's bologna for $0.99/pound). It took me more time to slice up my purchase than for my whole marketing trip (travel included). I bought the smallest one they had left. Apparently this sale had been going on since my last visit.

My 10.55# purchase makes for about eight one-gallon freezer bags of what should be more than two servings of ham, with some of the fat removed, that ring in at $1.18 per bag. They are just half full, but it's enough for a cooking session. I froze six and kept two in fridge (and marked them all with their contents and the current date—I'm so proud of myself). I also have an overflowing sandwich baggie full of ham fat to render as needed.

I'm already thinking of adding a piece of ham with red-eye gravy to my standard two-egg breakfast, or maybe cooking some grits instead to top with said ham and gravy, plus one night this week assembling a crustless ham and green onion quiche with cheese just sprinkled on top—I'm rationing cheese. Can you tell?—saving the cooking for the next morning. Yum.

Also I have some leftover rice that I could make into pork-fried rice. Sounds good to me. (It all sounds good to me.) Of course ham and potato casseroles come to mind, but I've got ten pounds of rice in my pantry, so I'm purposely not buying potatoes. I'll scour my recipe banks for something along that line too.

Have my ham bone already simmering with my saved cut ends of onions and celery and other veggies to make a broth that I'll strain to include in a ham and white bean and spinach soup soon. And for lunch today I browsed Yummly (love, love, love that site) for something other than the same old boring ham and cheese sandwich recipe.

I found a great one: the Cuban sandwich, with its amped-up mayo (spread on both sides of the bread) which sports the thinly sliced pickle spear inside, all seared and heated in a hot skillet. Here's the link for the recipe I used: http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Spicy-mexican-_cuban_-sandwiches-304210?columns=4&position=1%2F1.

Of course I made changes to the original recipe based on what I had here. Instead of Italian bread, I used the rye loaf that I found in my freezer (what a great surprise). For the chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, I opted for some deseeded, demembraned jalapenos. With no Swiss cheese in the house, I substituted Monterey Jack, which turned out to be a wonderful mix. And the cilantro? I just happened to pick it up during my morning trip to Aldi's. Talk about serendipity.

All these recipe searches are nagging at me to get to my own cookbook, to get it done. And I may have to work on said Nonfiction Book #4 Project sometime later this month. Fingers crossed.

Enjoy!

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

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What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

The Blood Sugar Solution Continued

If you are interested in my usual breakfast under TBSS guidelines, here's my simple and fast omelet. Two whisked omega-3 eggs in a nonstick pan coated with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Once they start to set, I add a tablespoon or two of Rotel tomatoes and a few cilantro leaves (no stems). Finish cooking, sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper and you are done.

Spices may well be our most overlooked and underused good-health component. Try to focus on adding more to your cooking.

I add the Rotel juice to my regular veggie juice to spice it up a bit, too.

If you have some time, or don't like spicy foods, caramelize chopped onions in EVOO in your pan. Once they are as brown as you like them (I actually like them crispy), top with your whisked eggs. Add diced fresh tomatoes and a diced avocado. Yum!

In the book, Dr. Hyman gives us two choices for breakfast: eggs or a protein drink (from hemp). I'm of the school that we can eat dinner at breakfast and vice versa. So I'm game for having leftover salmon and asparagus. Or steak and eggs.

Although the author advises us to purchase organic meats and produce, I'm not able to jump fully into that pricey adventure. But when funds allow, I'm there.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks