Loved reading all your comments and wishes for a happy New Year. May 2014 be your best year, ever, in every way.
Some of you asked for the Smoked Oyster Spread recipe:
2 Cans Bumble Bee Smoked Oysters, drained and chopped
2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
2 TBS mayonnaise
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Combine cream cheese, mayo, Worcestershire and garlic powder. Lightly coat a 15 inch piece of wax paper with cooking spray. Spread mixture evenly on paper to a 10×6 inch rectangle. Place oysters evenly over mixture; roll up jelly-roll fashion, starting with long side. Cover and chill. To serve, slice roll into approximately 1/2 inch slices, sprinkle with parsley. Garnish platter as desired. Serves 18 to 20. (Not around here it wouldn’t. 🙂 )
I’m sure there are more wonderful recipes on the BumbleBee site, too.
If anybody tries this, please be sure to comment, so we can all experience it vicariously. (Those of us who like smoked oysters, of course. I happen to LOVE oysters, served just about any way but raw. Whenever I’m at SeaTac (Seattle Tacoma International Airport) and have enough time for a sit-down meal, I stop by Anthony’s for their fried oysters…yum!
RE: Margie’s paintings: they’re great! Marge, who belongs to Wendy and Jeremy, is one smart dog and, like most Goldens, she’s just one big hairy ball of pure love. Evidently, W & J got the idea for the paintings from a book called “100 Things to Teach Your Dog”, or some similar title.
I will definitely have Jen post pictures to my Facebook page, but it will probably be next week. Everybody is off work until after tomorrow, and then there will be a whole lot of catching up to do.
The giveaway copies of THE DESIRE MAP EXPERIENCE (Danielle Laporte) have arrived. I’m so excited to share this with all of you.
I’m also VERY grateful for your kind words about BIG SKY SECRETS and the other books in the Big Sky series. Even after all these years, I still get a little nervous when a new book is released.
I’m loving the new book, and have been working in one-hour increments to help myself focus. I actually set a timer, and I don’t stop writing until the bell rings, pretty much no matter what. I take 15 minute breaks in between, and this seems to work really well for me.
I’ll be setting my 2014 goals this evening–Debbie Macomber challenged me to pick really audacious ones this year–she says if they don’t seem impossible, they’re not big enough. Considering some of the amazing things my dear and long-time friend has accomplished, I’m definitely a believer! Desire mapping is a little different from regular goal-setting, as I’ve mentioned. The basic premise of the book is that we want the feeling a particular achievement or acquisition would give us, more than the actual object or whatever. Thus, as we frame our goals, we ask ourselves an important question: How do I want to feel?
IMAGINE that you’ve met one of your goals. How does it feel?
HAPPY NEW YEAR, one and all.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
