Eazy Cheezy Dip

Ever just need a good, old fashioned bowl of queso? The kind that gives you a hug from the inside and doesn’t take much time or effort? I know I do. This recipe is quick and easy, so you can get back to your book in no time. This can be easily made dairy or non-dairy to suit your preference and dietary needs. If you make this with dairy products, no need to add the lactic acid. If you make it non-dairy, the lactic acid is still optional, but I think it gives the dish that extra zing.

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter (I use a non dairy Country Crock)
1 tbsp flour
1/2 c milk
1/2 heaping cup of cheese (I use Follow Your Heart cheddar shreds)
2 tbsp fave salsa
Salt and paper to taste
1/4 tsp lactic acid (optional) 

First, melt the butter. Add in flour after melted and whisk to form the roux. Gradually add in milk while whisking to thicken. Add in your cheese and stir to combine. As this is melting, add in your salsa and seasonings. For easiest access, eat it straight out of the pan with your favorite tortilla chips. Best paired with an entire day of reading.

Courtney’s Wedding Chili

Please note, this is adapted from this recipe here. I made this for my wedding and it was a crowd pleaser! This is Gabi approved.

For bonus points, double this recipe and save half in your freezer. Pull it out for a day when you want to do NO cooking and GET BACK YOUR WRITING TIME. Just dump it back in your crockpot, turn it on low, and get clicking on your keyboard.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 medium red onion, chopped

• 1 package (12 oz) of ground meat of your choice (I use Impossible meat)

• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped

• 2 medium carrots, chopped

• 1 rib of celery, chopped

• ½ teaspoon salt, divided

• 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced (LOL YOU KNOW WE COVER THE PAN WITH THIS. But if you are more of a moderate garlic lover, do this. If you’re like me and Gabi, measure with your heart)

• 2 tablespoon chili powder

• 2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 large can (28 ounce) or 2 small cans (15 ounce each) diced tomatoes with their juices

• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

• 2 cup vegetable broth or water

• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnishing

• 1 to 2 teaspoons lime juice, to taste

• Optional garnishes: chopped cilantro, sliced avocado, tortilla chips, sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, etc.

Heat up the oil in a pan. Dump your onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery, 1/4 tsp salt. After the veggies start to do their thing, dump the Impossible meat in. Cook until brown. Dump it in your crockpot.

Now that you’ve got that, dump everything else (make sure all the tomato cans with their juices go in) in the crockpot. Add in 1/4 tsp you have left. If you need more salt or spice, you do you. You know what you like. Cook on low for a few hours.

While you wait, go write.

Make sure when you take breaks you go to taste it frequently. For fun.

Pistachio muffins with coffee glaze

This is one my favourite treats! Sharing here after our wonderful conversation with Ken Liu, who loves both pistachios and coffee.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Muffins

1 1/3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup blended pistachios

juice of half a lemon

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup greek yoghurt (or coconut milk)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping

thick greek yoghurt

1/2 cup roughly chopped pistachios

honey

Glaze

3/4 cups caster sugar

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup espresso

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Muffins

Preheat oven to 200deg C.

Combine dry ingredients, make a well in the middle and add wet ingredients into the well.

Stir through until combined.

Spoon into muffin cases in tray.

Bake for 5 mins @200deg C and then for 15 mins @180deg C.

Allow to cool before topping.

For glaze

Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat, stir continuously until caramelized.

Remove from heat.

Add espresso and vanilla.

Allow to cool.

Topping

Spoon Greek yoghurt onto cooled muffins.

Sprinkle with roughly chopped pistachios.

Drizzle with coffee glaze and honey.

Black cherry, beetroot & lentil salad

This is probably one of my favourite salads I ever invented. I used to hate beetroot as a kid because I only ever knew it in it’s pickled form — but have no fear! This calls for boiled (or baked, if you prefer) beets.

I should also preface this by saying I make up amounts as I go along, so I’ll give approximations in the ingredients list, but if you want more or less of anything, go for it.

Ingredients:

6 little beetroots or 1 extremely large beetroot*, cooked till tender, peeled and sliced into chunks

1 to 1.5 cups beluga or brown lentils, cooked**

500g pitted and halved black cherries

500g swiss chard (or the beetroot leaves if you have them)

500g baby spinach

1.5 cups coconut milk keffir or thick greek yoghurt

juice, pulp, and zest of one lime

1 handful of chopped mint

pinch of salt

Method:

Toss the cooked lentils and beets with the cherries and greens. You might want to add a little salt if the lentils and beets need a smidge more.

Stir the mint, salt, and lime goodies into the yoghurt.

Serve the salad with the yoghurt on the side.

*if you find those vacuum sealed pre-cooked ones with no junk in them, that’s what I usually use so I don’t have to take five years to boil and peel them.

**I soak the lentils with a mixture of water and generous teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to break down the saponins before cooking. Rinse the well before transferring to a pot with plain water. Add salt after.

South African Malva Pudding

For all the sweet-toothed story lovers.

Ingredients:

Cake:

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 heaped tablespoon apricot jam

150 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil / butter (vegan butter also works great)

1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

1⁄3 cup coconut milk

Sauce:

200 ml coconut milk (you can use fresh cream if you like)

100 g vegan butter

90g honey

1 heaped tablespoon smooth apricot jam

1⁄3 cup hot water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius (350 deg F).

Grease a medium sized oven dish. (18 x 18 x 4 1/2 cm)

Sift dry ingredients, make a well, add the wet ingredients and whisk till smooth.

Pour into dish and bake until brown and risen (about 30-40 minutes).

Melt sauce ingredients on the stove. Remove cake, poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork or skewer, and pour sauce while cake and sauce are still hot.

Place pudding in still hot (but off) oven for sauce to soak in. It’ll be sticky and joyful. It needs to be eaten warm and you can have it with vanilla ice cream, if you like. I recommend it with dark, unsweetened coffee because we’re all about balance over here.

Beet Root Latte

Have this in your favorite Blood of My Enemies mug for an extra boost.

1 and a half cups of milk of choice (I prefer oat milk, extra creamy)
1 tsp of beet root powder
1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
Maple syrup to taste

Put milk in a pan to heat up. Add in vanilla. Whisk together your beet root powder in a cup or bowl with a bit of the milk until combined with no clumps. Combine into your pan until the color is a pleasant pink with no powder popping up (if you listened to the episode on feedback, you will know that I alliterated for a special someone). Pour into your mug of choice. Add in maple syrup. I prefer 1 tsp to 1.5 tsp in mine. Now time to gobble it up.

In case you were wondering, this has an earthy undertone from the beets and a satisfying fullness from the extra creamy oat milk. A hint of sweetness exists, most likely from the natural sugars of the root vegetable. I enjoy having this steaming just underneath my face as I hunch over my keyboard late at night dreaming of magic. Best enjoyed with a friend either virtually or in person, whose bloodlust is fiercely equal to yours and friendship is irreplaceable.

Be brave, stay beastly, and—if you don’t eat them—drink your beets.

Beast Bite 4: BAYMTGO

BAYMTGO. What is that, do you say? Beginning as you mean to go on.

That doesn’t mean you need to turn your life upside down and shake it until it’s squeezed into something unrecognizable and uncomfortable. Instead of turning your world on its head in a way that feels impossible, I challenge you to find ten minutes today, sit down, and begin as you mean to go on. Do the thing. Go on. Ten minutes.

Let’s do it.

Small steps create amazing journeys. As they say, if you mean to go fast, you can go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. For me, it is not a race, even as I feel myself wanting to make it into one.

Here is how I mean to go on. Intensely. Lovingly. And in community.

Yes, probably with adverbs. We can cut some of those in revision.

Be brave, stay beastly, friends.

Beast Bite 3: Being present and finding inspiration

As the year draws to a close, it’s easy to look back and remember all the beacons — the big things that marked our time in light or dark spots. But most of our lives take place in the in between spaces. The quiet moments that perhaps you won’t think about ever again: when your tea was just the right temperature when you sipped it; the way the light hit the wall in shimmying rainbows first thing in the morning; a quiet compliment that made the moment’s weight a little lighter.

We often create in much the same way that we remember — working towards the big moments, but it’s my belief that story is born in the liminal spaces. The slow burns and the failures, the passing snark and the long waits that build true tension. And so, inspiration can be found anywhere, in every small act, even the mundane, if only we know to look.

Where do you draw your story inspiration from?

Beast Bite 2: Building Community

Before finding a writing community, this whole business of sitting behind a screen was very lonely indeed. I tend to think of my life in a series of Befores and Afters, and one of the pivotal ones for me is Before Finding My Writing Community and After.

Both Courtney and I were lucky to land a spot in Adrienne Young’s Writing With the Soul Workshop, where we met, but there are many (many!) ways to build a community for yourself too, no matter where you are in your journey.

We recommend:

• following the #findmywritingcommunity hashtag on Instagram

• talking about being a writer! You’d be surprised how many secret writers there are out there, waiting for someone to whisper “I write”.

• Share tiny snippets of your work/process on social media. Invite people to reach out if it resonates with them.

• Attend local book fairs and readings in your local bookstores.

• Say hi to people whose work you love (I know it’s scary, but often, it leads to great conversations, and sometimes wonderful friendships).

• Come say hi to us at Y’allfest!

You’ll notice the main theme is having to put yourself out there, which can be terrifying for most people. All we can promise is that it is absolutely, definitely, worth it.

Beast Bite 1: Atmosphere

Atmosphere, the je ne sais quoi of all riveting tales that reach right into our bones and stay with us long after the words have faded. What better theme for spooky October?

This month, we read ONE DARK WINDOW by Rachel Gillig and WATCH OUT FOR HER by Samantha M. Bailey.

With misty woods, curses, magic cards, and monsters, ONE DARK WINDOW ticks every dark fantasy box. Gillig’s prose is lush and poetic, delivering a strong sense of atmosphere, characters that connect through their shared struggle with pain, and a cliff-hanger that will make you itch for the next book. We’re hooked!

WATCH OUT FOR HER delivers psychological thriller chills at their best. From page one, Bailey sets a tone that will have you riding the undercurrent of fear and suspense throughout this page turner. As with the very best of thrillers, the characters could be our neighbours, our friends…us. MC, Sarah, really hit home for us with her balance of daring and vulnerability, questionable actions and unquestionable love. The perfect atmospheric read for this Autumn.