Supper Time - Quick Mexican Chicken

We love Mexican food, but so much of it takes a long time to make and seems a little, well, complicated. Last night, we found out at the last minute that hubby had to go to a meeting, so I needed to make a quick dinner. The following is one of our favorite meals because I can make it in 30 minutes (or less) and ironically, it is composed of recipes that I made up!

I kept thinking that there had to be an easier, faster way to make Mexican-like food. That notion, compounded with the fact that I've been watching cooking shows like Chopped, Good Eats, and a bunch of others, gave me the courage to try my hand at creating my own dish. Chopped is especially good for building your courage because frankly, if someone can take a basket of foods that really don't go together and make a cohesive dish, why maybe I can too!

When I have more time (or am better organized) I also make the corn tortillas to go with this because that's just water and the tortilla flour, which I stir together, roll out with a drinking glass, and cook quickly on my cast iron skillet. I didn't have time last night, though, and with the beans and rice, we really didn't need them.

So here is what we had for our quick supper last night. Note that you'll want to get the rice started first (unless you're using 5 minute rice) because it takes the longest to cook, depending upon the variety you select.

Black Beans - those were from a can, so I didn't do anything there except open a can. We like the black beans you can find in the Mexican food aisle, so that's what we had. See? I said this was an easy, fast meal.

Easy Mexican Chicken
2-3 (or more--you can increase/decrease as needed) skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut up into 1 or 2" pieces
2 tomatillos, chopped into large chunks
1 tsp minced garlic
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 (15 oz) can of chopped tomatoes (I like fire roasted)
1 handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, minced + 1 tsp of the sauce (I put the rest into a freezer bag and mush it into a thin layer so I can break off pieces later, and freeze it.)
2 Pinches of cloves per chicken breast
2 Pinches of cinnamon per chicken breast
1 tsp cumin (or more, to taste)

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with the cloves, cinnamon, and cumin, then cut up the chicken. Please note that you can add more or less of every ingredient to fit your tastes. We really like spices and garlic, so we tend to add a lot more than I've mentioned above. I don't measure it, I just sprinkle the spices directly on the breasts and then cut up the chicken.

In a frying pan over medium heat, melt 1 Tbsp butter and 1Tbsp olive oil together. When it is hot, add the chicken chunks and cook until the chicken loses its pinkness. Add the garlic, chipotle chili and adobo sauce. Stir for about a minute.

Remove the chicken to a bowl and add the onions and bell pepper to the same frying pan and cook until the onions are clear, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken and any juices that have accumulated in the bowl back into the frying pan with the veggies. Add the can of chopped tomatoes. Let this simmer over med/med low heat until the liquid is reduced by half. This takes about 5 minutes or so.  Right before serving, add the chopped, fresh cilantro.

You can "dress this up" with guacamole, or sour cream, or both, or neither. :) If you have time to make/buy tortillas, you can wrap this chicken up in the tortillas. You can even use this as the filling for chicken enchilladas, which are really good, too!

Yummy Rice
You can use any rice for this, including instant/five minute rice. I prefer brown jasmine rice, but we've used this recipe with every kind of rice there is.

1 minced shallot or 1 Tbps minced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp butter
1 c. rice
chicken broth (usually 2 1/2 c. but you should use the amount of broth listed on the rice package)

In a saucepan, melt the butter and then add the minced shallot/onion and garlic. Cook over med low heat until the shallot/onion turns clear. Add the cup of rice to the butter/shallot/garlic and cook over med to med/low heat until the rice starts to brown.

Add the appropriate amount of chicken broth using the proportions on the package of rice. Bring to a boil then put the lid on.

Finish cooking according to the package directions regarding time.

This makes a great rice that is super with Mexican food as well as curries, etc.
For curry, you can add things like diced apricots or raisins and add about 1/4 c. more broth than the rice package calls for, to allow for moisture absorption by the dried fruit.

That was "what was for supper" last night and it was tasty. :)
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My latest book, a paranormal romance called A Fall of Silver, is getting great reviews, too, so yesterday was a pretty good day!

A woman bent on the destruction of all vampires discovers redemption in the arms of an ex-priest determined to save the undead.   

BLURB

The only good vampire is a dead vampire: that’s Quicksilver’s philosophy and she sees no reason to change it. In fact, she’s about to kill one of the undead when Kethan Hilliard confronts her, promising peace and redemption for both vampires and humans in exchange for an end to the slaughter.

But Quicksilver knows that’s not going to happen.

Someone is killing humans and vampires, and sweet words aren’t going to end the nightmare.

The events awaken terrible secrets from Quicksilver’s past, and she’s not about to repeat her previous mistakes. This time, she’s going to end the madness and silence the horror, forever.

Note to readers who are curious about the title: The title has to do with the weapons the heroine, Quicksilver, carries. She uses specially crafted whips to defend herself against the undead and the "fall" is the part of a whip near the end. It's usually about 24" long and the "popper" or "cracker" at the very tip is attached to the fall. Whips are incredibly accurate and even deadly in the hands of an expert and Quicksilver is definitely an expert.

Guest Author: Liz Jasper

We have Liz Jasper, author of Underdead joining us today with an absolutely brilliant blog. She's an EPPIE award winning mystery writer and her books are a wonderfuly way to spend a few holiday moments. It was hilarious when I saw the title of her blog, since More magazine once featured a small tidbit about me called, the kid with the crayons. I'd like to say that great minds think alike, but I don't want to drag Liz down to my level.

Even more exciting, Liz has agreed to give an ebook version of one of her books to a lucky commenter, so be sure to leave a comment! 

What Vampire Mysteries Have to Do With...Crayons 

The genius about writing paranormals is, in theory, that you don't have to research the real world, you can just create your own. Aren't theories nice? The reality, however, is that I have to fact check all the time and the simplest things can send you off in wild-goose-chase land. Take this little section for example from Underdead In Denial:

"Dan Sterling—Drama Dan, as the students adoringly called him—had made another conquest. I tried to figure out what the big thrill was. I suppose Dan looked a little like Leonardo DiCaprio, if you imagined the famous actor redrawn with crayon colors. Dan Sterling’s eyes were sky blue, his cheeks were lightly flushed with pink sherbet and his hair was yellow straight out of the basic eight crayon box. He might be a little too boyishly handsome for my tastes, but that didn’t seem to be keeping just about everyone else from joining the Drama Dan fan club."

First off, I had to figure out how to spell crayon, because when I say "crayon" it actually comes out as "cran." Just a guess here, but if I said that Dan looked like he was fashioned from crans, no one would know what I was talking about.

That's not really research, of course, more of a spelling issue. But then I realized that I didn't know what crayon colors were in a box these days. So I had to do some research.

Now, I majored in Biology in college and I was a science teacher and I did ecological field research in China, Belize and Costa Rica. And let me tell you, being upside-down in the ocean with a snorkel, a ruler and an underwater tablet and trying to measure coral polyps before the next wave came or I was eaten by a pissed off eel was far easier than trying to understand the world of crayons.

When I was a kid all anyone had was the mongo box of 64 because it was a better deal than the few smaller boxes and our parents probably figured we'd stop asking them for crayons if they thrust a giant box of them at us every so often. And 64 does sound like a lot of crayons but let's be real. After about 3 days the box had been reduced to a fought-over stub of "sky blue", an untouched stick of burnt sienna, and a bewildering one called "flesh" that was...well let's just say I've never met anyone that particularly bright shade of yellowy-orange-beige.

Anyway, the deal with being a professional writer is that you do have to try to actually be right about things, which means that if I describe Dan using crayon colors, I need to become a crayon expert.

And yet, come on. It's crayons. How hard can it be?

Well, you try it. Wikipedia has a list of 133 Crayola crayon colors with the year they were introduced and retired. But that should make it even easier, right?

Hah.

In my mind Dan has that yellowy sort of blond hair. Which means the possible crayons that would match are: Yellow, Unmellow Yellow, Sunglow, Orange Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Laser Lemon, Goldenrod, Gold, Dandelion, Canary and Banana Mania.

Whatever. Pick the closest one and move on.

Okay. Lemon Yellow then. I remember Lemon Yellow. I think I drew a few hundred seriously awesome stick figures with Lemon Yellow hair when I was a girl.

Wait, whoops, Lemon Yellow was retired in 1990. Hmmm. Looks like Orange Yellow is out, too.

Laser Lemon is too day glow for hair. How about Dandelion? "Dan's hair was Dandelion..." Yikes. Way too cutesy. Canary? "Dan's hair was Canary..." it sounds like a bird not a crayon and is confusing. Banana Mania--is sort of fun but when I read "Banana Mania" I don't think crayon, do you?

How about Goldenrod? It's still around. It sounds like a crayon color to me without a lot of need further explanation. Except... it's really more strawberry blonde than blonde And would Jo, who is 22-years-old, have used Goldenrod, the hot color of 1958? I don't know. I kinda think she'd have been coloring with Banana Mania and Laser Lemon.

So we're left with... yellow. Okay, basic old yellow. Fine. "His hair was yellow." How do you know I'm talking about a yellow crayon and not just saying his hair is yellow? I need context.

Easy enough. I just have to reference a crayon box. Except... what size? All I know is the ratty, fought over 64 count box. Now I have to go to Amazon and look up bestselling current crayon box sizes and hope they've been the bestselling sizes for years so that the reference rings true for most readers.

At this point, I'm mostly aware that I've spent a ridiculous amount of time over crayons. I'm having a wild argument with myself. Why in the world did I ever come up with this stupid idea of describing a character in crayons? Just say he has blond hair and blue eyes and move on! Look how much time I've spent researching this one stupid paragraph! I could've brokered world peace by now.

And yet wait. There on Amazon is the eight count crayon box. Perfect in it's simplicity. A small, compact box of happiness and joy. And suddenly I'm done.

"... his hair was yellow straight out of the basic eight crayon box."

Except I still have to talk about his eyes and cheeks. But that can wait until after I've had some milk and cookies and maybe taken a little nap.

BIO

Liz Jasper is the award-winning author of the humorous UNDERDEAD mysteries about beleaguered science teacher Jo Gartner who is bitten by a vampire--sort of. If you don't usually read books with vampires in them, well, neither does Jo, so these are for you! Available now in ebook and trade paperback. The first in the series, UNDERDEAD, is on ebook special for 99 cents for the holidays.

Liz's website and blog: http://lizjasper.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AuthorLizJasper
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LizJasperAuthor   (She's nearing the facebook max so has, reluctantly and resentfully, started a page.)

Underdead

Liz Jasper

EPPIE Award winning mystery about newbie teacher Jo Gartner who thinks teaching eighth graders is deadly…until she’s bitten by a vampire. Sort of. And then things really get out of control. Dead bodies. Police. Undead. Outrageous lies to her mother. But then someone wants Jo dead…the traditional way!

Underdead in Denial

Almost undead teacher Jo Gartner is having a good year until she volunteers for the Haunted House fundraiser. That's just asking for the vampires to show up! And then there's another dead body. And more cops. And Jo is forced to decide which side she's on before someone gets rid of her permanently.

* * * * *
Thank you, Liz, and as a special holiday treat, we'll be giving away an ebook verison of one of Liz's books to a randomly selected person who leaves a comment.

So make sure you stop and say, Hi!

Happy Holidays!

If Publishing a Mystery Were Only as Easy as They Think

I'd like to welcome Peg Herring to my blog. She's a mystery writer and has successfully combined mystery with the paranormal, which is something I just love. So let me turn it over to Peg...

People other than published authors tend to see writing as a life of ease rewarded by huge paychecks, the adulation of millions, and one’s name on the NYT best-seller list every other year. Let’s talk about the life of ease part.

All my life I was told I had writing talent. I went to a good college and studied writing with excellent instructors. Then I spent three decades teaching others about writing. Despite all that apparent talent and actual experience, writing a book--at least a good book--is hard, very hard. It takes a long time, a lot of effort, a sense of organization, and a dedications to one’s readers that is hard to describe. They say everyone has a book in his/her head. Yeah, well, come and see me when you’ve got something on paper, and not just the first three chapters!

My April 1 release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, took months to write and self-edit. (I have a system that is fairly complex, but it works for me:

reading for a single facet, like characterization, and then reading again for a different facet, like sensory detail). When I had done what I could for the time being, I had a couple of friends read the story. They loved the premise, the fun I had mixing life with afterlife. That was good, but they had suggestions, too, so I read it again, taking my friends’ comments into serious consideration. Then I had my son read the manuscript, because the setting is an investments firm and he is in that business. I wanted to make sure I didn’t say something dumb about a business I don’t have much experience with. That meant more changes, reading through the whole thing again and fixing areas he commented on.

Once the book was accepted by a publisher, it went through several more editions. The first editor and I haggled over terms (are they “slacks” or “pants” nowadays?) At her suggestion I expanded some characters and minimized others. She wanted more information on the setting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, so I had to do more research to make sure the details I added were correct. She helped me clarify my portrayal of the afterlife at the beginning of the book so the reader would not be confused later about what can and can’t happen there. All in all, that was three more edits, three more times through the story with a pen and a microscope.

Then the “big” editor took a turn through the book. She made suggestions to further clarify details. She asked questions about what my intentions were in certain spots. In short, she fine-tuned the book so that the humor comes through better and the reader never feels left behind.

Finally, the copy editor had me take a last look through to find the itsy-bitsy things that drive readers crazy: punctuation/spelling errors, extra spaces, etc.

Now the book is ready for release. My publisher is very supportive, and my editor arranged a Cyber-Launch on Author Island (authorisland.com: stop by and ask a question or make a comment!) for April 1. She also found a respected reviewer willing to read a book by a fairly unknown author, and the review is positive (YAY!). My part is to tell the world I have contact with about the book, hence this guest blog, a Blog Tour, a Facebook ad, and lots of trips/mailings to bookstores.

So where is this life of ease? Writing is work, real work, and promoting is work piled on top of the original work. Authors do not have it easy, although I don’t know a single one who doesn’t feel that it’s all worth it when just one person says, “I loved your book.”

People often ask me what it takes to get published. Unless you already have a platform (some sort of fame attached to your name), it takes

persistence: persistence to write the best book you are capable of, persistence to get it published professionally, and persistence in getting the word out that, among the million others out there, there’s this great little mystery called THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY.

Bio
Peg Herring is a Michigan author whose 2010 historical mystery, Her Highness’ First Murder, received very positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, the Historical Novel Society, and BookList. Read more about Peg’s books at http://pegherring.com When not reading or writing, Peg loves travel and music. She and her husband also garden, mostly for the benefit of elk, deer, rabbits, and birds.

Peg’s April release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, is available in print or e-book form at http://www.ll-publications.com/deaddetectiveagency.html and will soon be at most e-book retailers. Tori Van Camp awakens one morning on a cruise ship. She seems to be a welcome guest, and the ships offers anything she might require or request. But why does she have a clear memory of being murdered, and how can she find out why someone wanted her dead?

“The Dead Detective Agency combines belief in the afterlife with the paradoxical uncertainty of survival in the present, and is full of wickedly dark humor combined with regular laugh-out-loud moments.” —Sam Millar, New York Journal of Books

Thank you, Peg!