25 days of Christmas DONATIONS

In this season of giving, I'd like to challenge my readers to think about those who are less fortunate than we are. I find that around the holidays, most people are willing to give some assistance to others in need. 

But...I have often wondered what would happen if we extended that giving nature of ours to somehow spread that good-cheer throughout every day instead of saving it for the end of the year. Would it become a way of life, and would the world operate just a little more peacefully? Or would it become so commonplace that we should lose sight of the value that those gifts of generosity that we hold dear at Christmas time can be for the giver as well as the receiver?

For most of us who give what we can, when we can, the true treasure lies in knowing that we have benefited our fellow man in a positive way. That is why we cherish our giving season: to give back to society or to change a life.

However, when the year changes over and we promise ourselves a better year ahead, let us decide to hold true to our well-meant resolutions to make our world a better place and to be more generous of ourselves and our financial advantages. By doing so, it might just be our own lives that we end up improving.

PLEASE JOIN ME in raising money for the less fortunate during this Christmas by donating what you can to the online Salvation Army. The money we raise together will provide meals for hungry families, and gifts to CHILDREN who might not get a gift this Christmas without our generous donations. My goal is to raise TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($10,000)! Please HELP me reach that goal...

GO HERE TO DONATE NOW:

http://www.onlineredkettle.org/SamanthaBayarr?ch=1&frmfaf=1

ROASTED CHESTNUT STUFFING

Roasted Chestnut Stuffing
Ingredients

1 stick of butter

½ lb. pancetta

1 small onion

2 large carrots finely chopped

4 stalks celery hearts finely chopped

2 cups sliced Portobello mushrooms

3 tbsp fresh rosemary finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

¼ cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup canned chicken broth

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb day old ciabatta bread

10 oven-roasted chestnuts, broken into medium-small pieces

Melt 3 tbsp butter in a heavy skillet on medium heat.  Sauté pancetta until golden brown.  Set aside in a large bowl.  Melt 3 tbsp butter in same pan.  Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, rosemary and garlic, adding onions last.  Cook until onions are tender.  Stir in chestnuts and parsley.  Heat for a few minutes.  Transfer to bowl with pancetta.  Add cubed ciabatta and Parmesan.  Mix ingredients together and add broth.  Coat well and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Spoon into butter-coated 15 x 10 baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake additional 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

 Roasting Chestnuts

                                                           

                                           Cut across the round side of each chestnut to prevent exploding in oven.

  Arrange on a cookie sheet.  Roast them in a 425 degree oven until the

  skins have pulled back from the cuts and nut has softened (at least 15-20

  minutes).  After they cool slightly, pinch to remove from skin and break

  into bite-sized pieces.

Wanted: Dead or Alive-NEW COVER!

A Sheriff's Legacy: Book One

SAME BOOK!

NEW COVER!

ONLY 1.99 on Kindle or Nook!

Historical Romance

Logan Fisher arrives in Tombstone Arizona in the spring of 1885 to bury his estranged father after he was gunned down during a robbery of the Wells Fargo stage.

An experienced bounty hunter, Logan is determined to join the posse that will help bring the outlaws responsible to justice. But when the lovely school teacher becomes a distraction, Logan begins to rethink his dedication to the cause.

Daisy Mae Pinkerton is the beautiful school teacher and Preacher's daughter, who turns Logan's head and reminds him of his faith-inspired upbringing, hoping it will melt the ice that's formed over his heart and convince him to put his gun-slinging days behind him. But does she want more from him?


http://www.amazon.com/Wanted-Little-Flower-Romance-ebook/dp/B005XRPPCI/ref=sr_1_11?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1320599541&sr=1-11

From the best-selling author of Amish Romance series: Little Wild Flower

Spooktacular Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to:

Amy Wilde

ChulaV

Nate Miller

Congratulations to:

Courtney A. 

Britt 

Thanks to all who participated.

See you at Christmas for the next blog hop!

Becoming Amish

BECOMING AMISH

When I set out to write my first Amish romance, I wanted it to be out of the ordinary…one that would stand out in the crowd of Amish romance novels.

What I got was a re-write of my own history with a lot of imaginative twists!

Being my first Amish romance novel, I wanted to do what all the “experts” advised and write what I know…I came from a big family, and had spent a lot of time on my uncle’s farm as a young child, and I lived in Goshen, Indiana for several years and interacted with the Amish and observed their way of life, so I already had half the battle played out in my head.

Next came the romance portion…I always wondered what it would be like to be Amish, but never figured you could just walk into their group and say “Hi, I’m here. I want to join and become Amish”. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s where Jane, my main character, came into play. She had to be at just the right age to meet, and fall in love with “the Amish boy next door”.

Knowing that the chances of becoming Amish by marriage was a close impossibility as well, I decided to set the backdrop in the 1970’s, in a time of flower-power, hippies, and love, when that was the backdrop of America…so my end result is a story of a teenage hippie-chick falling in love with the teenage Amish boy next door.

The entire series started out as my own story, and how my life would have been if I’d married an Amish man, had a large family, and lived a great life doing so….but my life just wasn’t like that…so I threw in a bit of reality from my own life and mixed it with Jane’s to bring my readers the story of Little Wild Flower.

Book Four in this series deals with the reality that I lived through as a child of an alcoholic mother, but offers a happy ending filled with forgiveness and strong family bonds in the book (unfortunately not the true ending for me as a child), but I know that readers like a conclusion, where my conclusion and healing didn’t come until years later than it did for Jane, the imaginary me.

In the end, this series goes the direction I imagine my life would have gone if I’d married into an Amish family and experienced the strong bonds of love, faith, and loyalty that the Amish people represent as a whole.

My biggest hope for this series is that my readers enjoy reading them as much as I loved writing them.

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Flower-Amish-Romance-ebook/dp/B0047DWYOG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318520512&sr=1-1