bake – Noreen Lace

Successful Writing

Published on June 21, 2019June 21, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Okay, so not bragging, but….. I’ve been hard at work….

The Healer’s Daughter in The Ear

The Healer’s Daughter is a departure for me. It marks a turns in my writing that came about just this year. It’s more mystical. Risky, maybe. A woman’s daughter describes her mother’s gift and discovers she has her very own gift, but will she actually use it?

The Healer’s Daughter will be featured in my summer release of How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party. It’s a book of short stories, all of which have a special or surprising twist.

Friends, Lovers, and Liars in Home Renovation

Originally titled Deception, it didn’t find a home. In fact, the topic of lies and cheating offended one editor. I think it may have hit too close to home. It, too, will be released in the summer release of How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party.

How to Throw a Psychic Surprise Party in The Electric Press Magazine

The title story for the book of short stories. Inspired by a show in which I saw a television host throw a “surprise” party for a psychic. It struck me – How do you throw a psychic a surprise party?

This story may answer that question. Maybe not. How much empathy can you muster?

Hunger and other poems as well as some photography in Voices of Eve

Not in the book of short stories. But well worth the read. Hunger is one of my favorite poems.

Also in the book of short stories –

The Crier: In a time when emotions are unheard of, people need a release.

The Mirror People: Ever wondered what’s inside the mirror? You know there’s something, right? Here’s a woman who collects them – she knows.

Bowie and the Basket Case: Anna’s things keep disappearing and reappearing. At first she thinks she’s misplaced them, but then she’s sure she hasn’t!

How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party is available for Pre-order!

What makes good literature?

Published on May 11, 2019May 10, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

An extremely good conversation in my literature class about intelligence (Inspired by Ted Chiang’s The Great Silence). We talked about other species that fall under the definition of intelligence, which is “the ability to understand and apply knowledge.” Considering Alex the Parrot and Koko the Gorilla, and other species: crows are problem solvers and remember faces. We discussed dogs, cats, and others. Is love, as an abstract idea, understood and applied by animals? And then – is intelligence found in showing love?

This is what good literature should do. Teach, delight, and create wonder.

Read The Great Silence here

Food Crimes: Mesquite Choco-choco-choco cookies.

Published on December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Where have I been? A tad busy: End of semester biz, daughter about ready to burst with baby, and baking.

I wandered accidentally, whilst grading on the couch listening to background noise on the tele, into baking and cooking shows. They have reawakened my passion for dessert chemistry.

I’ve posted pictures of these cookies on my instagram and facebook and the original recipe ideas link on my pinterest page. These recipes are not mine – but I always do some this and that to make it my own and have been asked to share.

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These are Mesquite Chocolate Chip cookies (on my favorite Roscher porcelain).

Although they don’t seem very holiday-like, they are delicious. Softer in ways than a regular chocolate chip.

Here’s the original recipe from David Lebovitz

I wanted to halve the recipe; the original recipe makes 50 cookies. I didn’t need that many. I wanted to sample before I committed.

Here are the changes I made.

1 cup of flour

3/4 cup of Mesquite flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of oats

1 fully generous overflowing, maybe more cup or so of chocolate chips. I used semi-sweet and bittersweet. (My faves!)

Then I followed his directions, including the pat down which I originally thought of as strange – but they do get puffy. heaven

Of course, we ate them right out of the oven –

HEAVEN.

Some of the middles were stuffed with chocolate; this was definitely the winner. If/when I make them again, I may try to purposefully load the center.

We had more when they cooled, then more later, then more the next day. Fortunately, I have willing taste testers who will try them at all stages.

The mesquite flour makes them light and airy. (I intend to bread some chicken with it and see what that gets me).

The cookies were delish! I wonder what other types of cookies this flour would compliment?

I’m going to try to post a recipe a day for the next few weeks – if you’re interested, like, follow, favor. 🙂

Food Crimes: Is Death by Chocolate Real?

Published on October 29, 2018October 29, 2018 by Noreen Lace2 Comments

20181028_133526[1] I was inspired the other night while watching netflix; a character mentioned Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies. I put the show on pause and sought recipes.

I found the usual 2 cups of flower, 1 cup of sugar run-of-the-mill types of recipes; then I happened upon something exciting!

I have a habit of looking up a ton of recipes, then mixing and matching and making my own. It seems the author of this blog does something similar, researches others and then works in her own special touches.

This recipe uses only 6 tablespoons of flour. More room for the good stuff! 20181028_133637[1]

I used a little more than 1/3 a cup of baker’s chocolate and I replaced the bittersweet. Although I’m a fan of bittersweet, I decided to use semi-sweet in its place. This makes my cookies a little sweeter than the original recipe. If you like it more sweet and want to risk a trip to chocolate heaven, I suggest mine. If you are 20181028_133641[1] a less-sweet chocolate lover with a desire to live a long healthy life, try it as recommended on the blog.

I tried unsuccessfully a few weeks ago to use a double boiler method to melt chocolate, so I was hesitant to try again. However, I followed the instruction in the blog and used a bowl in a pan. It worked great.

I melted a cup of semi-sweet with the butter and baker’s chocolate, cooled it, then added the recommended amount of semi-sweet chips to the batter as suggested.

I also used regular chili powder and omitted the cayenne. The chili pepper doesn’t make it spicy; it just brings out the other flavors. I’d be willing to try it with cayenne and/or a little spicier – so if anyone does, let me know how it turns out!

Everything looked gorgeous and tasted so good, I had to share.

This recipe was to die for as announced by my taste-testing kids.

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Food Crimes: Why Americans hate my scones…

Published on October 1, 2018September 30, 2018 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

To be clear – yes, I’m American (sometimes I feel I need to apologize for that these days) – but my tastes run to the less sweet side of what we consider sweets.

Scones… for instance.

The things you get at Starbucks are not really “scones” per se. breakfast_sweets_decoden_by_thepocketkawaii-d6z14oo They are more like pastries, tarts, danishes, if you will.

True Scones are not made with a cup of sugar and jam already added.

The once Scottish, British usurped, Americanized scone became desirable as a more plain version of what we see in America. Although they’ve always been a touch sweeter and less flakier than biscuits, this pastry was more the base for slathering things on and siding with coffee or tea. The topping to the taste of the person, balanced with drink (sweetened or not) of choice.

The British scone, lightly brushed with egg, usually contains very little sugar, scones occasionally a few currents or raisins. But the point of a good scone is to have a choice of cream, lemon curd, or jam, not a mystery filled fun fest for which consumers risk diabetes.

I discovered the lovely less sweet version in England. As I rarely eat pastries for breakfast, I found this a nice, healthier alternative to what is usually served at the continental breakfast.

I developed a love of scones when I did time at Cal State Chico in pursuit of my MFA. There was a little cafe, no longer there, which served warm scones made with fresh fruit. My jaunt over in the morning became a regular stop as I picked up a black tea and fresh out of the oven mango or apricot scone. (Even these were more biscuit-like, but still less sweet).

I won’t bother you with my own experiments with scones. I’ve won some, I’ve lost some. But I will tell you the ones I made this past weekend, part traditional, part Americanized, were the bomb!

Pistachio fig scones: 42803096_2309289422433704_8343625948515532800_o