BOOMERANG BOY’S APPLE CRISP

The original recipe for this fresh fruit apple crisp called for a modest sprinkling of the oatmeal-brown sugar topping. But we don’t DO modest around our house, so I quadrupled the original topping recipe. We like a thick, crunchy, cinnamon-laden blanket of topping on our apple crisp. And we like it baked until the crisp comes out a deep brown, nearly rock-hard consistency, so that you have to jackhammer the oatmeal goodness with the tip of your spoon to break through to the sweet-tart apples lying just beneath the lava loveliness. I wish I could tell you this recipe was inspired by a dessert we shared at a cozy bistro in Paris. The truth is that it is my own interpretation of the apple crisp served by the lunchroom ladies at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since Mr. MKA and I met at that high school, it does have a high nostalgia factor. Not to mention that it is freakin’ good. It’s also the beloved favorite recipe of our son Andy, aka Boomerang Boy, who has been known to polish off an entire pan of the stuff, late at night, with a spoon, directly from the baking dish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups oatmeal
• 2 cups packed brown sugar (light or dark, you choose)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• Dash salt
• 2 sticks softened margarine or butter
• 6 cups sliced peeled tart apples (we like Granny Smith)

INSTRUCTIONS:

In large mixing bowl, combine oats, sugar, flour, spices. Cut in softened butter until mixture is crumbly. In 9-by-13 buttered baking dish, place sliced apples. Sprinkle oat mixture over fruit. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or butterscotch topping. Serves 1 Boomerang Boy, or 6 deeply appreciative guests.

RENT THE BREEZE INN!

Did you know that MKA’s very own fixer upper—The Breeze Inn on Tybee Island—is available for rent?! You and yours can chillax in beautiful beach cottage comfort in the very spot where MKA’s most recent bestsellers have been penned, surrounded by junking treasures uncovered by the author herself. Call Diane at Mermaid Cottages and book yourself in for the full MKA experience! If your crew won’t all fit at the Breeze, Diane has 30+ one-of-a-kind cottages sprinkled around the island, all just a short ride on a beach cruiser away from each other. Get yourself on “Tybee time” and discover the magic of slowing down.

Dear Friends:

My fall newsletter isn’t as much newsletter as it is a love letter. Love? To you, dear readers, for letting me know you enjoy my stories. To you, book-buyers, for showing ME the love by putting my latest novel, SUMMER RENTAL, at Number 5 on the New York Times Best-seller list, and for helping keep it on the list for seven amazing weeks—my best showing ever. To you who came out to meet me during the SUMMER RENTAL book tour, especially those of you who waited more than two hours at Island Bookstore on NC’s Outer Banks back in June when my plane was delayed, and who celebrated along with me when my editor called with the fabulous news that SUMMER RENTAL had debuted at #5. Wow, did the champagne flow that day! From St. Simon’s Island, Georgia all the way to Nantucket and the Jersey Shore, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, over to Chicago and Houston and Raleigh and Fairhope, Alabama, and just about every bookstore in the Atlanta area, readers came out to show the love. As always, I had a great time meeting all of you. Somehow, I managed to fit in a stop-over in New Orleans for the American Library Association conference, where I caught up with my brother Johnny, at his restaurant/bar Parasol’s. Best roast-beef po’boy. Ever. And there was another stop in New York, for the Romance Writers of America conference, where we partied with my publishing peeps at St. Martin’s Press, and boogied down with 700 other romance writers at a Black and White Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. And I got to see The Book of Mormon on Broadway.

Hands-down the happiest event of the summer, of 2011, even, was the July 8 birth of my adorable grandson John Griffin. Griff, as we call him, is the sweetest, easiest baby ever, and his big sister Molly loves showing off “her” baby.

Check the upcoming appearances section on my website MaryKayAndrews.com for the latest in my signing schedule. I’ll be in Bristol, Va., on Nov. 5 and I have a hometown signing at the Avondale Estates Community Club on Dec. 11. I’m also thrilled to announce that the paperback edition of SUMMER RENTAL will be out May 8, just in time for Mother’s Day.

In the meantime, I’ve handed in next summer’s book, and although we’re still fussin’ and discussin’ the title, I can definitely tell you the release date is June 5. This is the book I literally dreamt up last summer, the story of Annajane Hudgens, who, while attending her ex-husband’s wedding, realizes she is SO not over him.

Since fall is the time when we start craving comfort food, I think it’s appropriate that we’re celebrating the season with a giveaway of FoodTV star and Southern cook extraordinaire Paula Deen’s new book, signed by Paula herself. Shoot us an e-mail telling us about your favorite comfort food. We’ll pick a lucky winner to receive an autographed copy of the just-released Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible.

And if you don’t already have a favorite comfort food, I’m sharing the recipe for my son Andrew’s favorite, which I call Boomerang Boy’s Apple Crisp.

Happy fall, y’all!

All my best,

MKA

Do you have a book club? If your club is reading one of my books, I would love to call in and join your discussion. You never know, I may even be able to drop by in person if it works out right. E-mail us with your request and we’ll see what we can do! Be sure to include a snail mail address and info about the size of your club.

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EVENT SCHEDULE

Sat, November 5, 12:00 PM

Luncheon

Bristol Bristol Public Library

701 Goode Street, Bristol, VA

Sun, December 11, 2:00 PM

Book signing

Holiday Tour of Homes and Market, Avondale Estates Community Club

Avondale Estates, GA

Visit the Events & Appearances page on the website to keep track of MKA’s whereabouts.

CONTEST

We have a great prize for you from my friend, the one and only Paula Deen. It’s fall and fall fare is all about comfort food. Since Paula Deen is the queen of southern cuisine—and what could be more therapy-on-a-plate than down home southern cookin’?—we have decided on a comfort-food themed contest. All you have to do to enter is write in to meg@marykayandrews.com with “Paula Deen Contest” in the subject field and tell us your all-time favorite comfort food and why. I will pick my favorite entry. The lucky winner will receive an autographed copy of Paula’s brand new book, Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible: The New Classic Guide to Delicious Dishes with More Than 300 Recipes.

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‘MATER TOTS

This easy-peasy recipe was inspired by one from Paula Deen. If you’re taking these to a party, fix them ahead of time on disposable foil baking sheets and pop in the oven when you get to the party. Warning: you will never be able to fix enough of these to satisfy your guests!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan, romano or mozzarella cheese
• 1 package mini phyllo shells—I find Athena brand in freezer case by frozen fruits or biscuits
• 3/4 cup peeled and finely diced fresh tomatoes
• 1 tsp. finely chopped fresh basil
• 2 tsp. finely minced onions—preferably Vidalia
• 1/4 tsp. each, fresh ground black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise—preferably Duke’s
• 2 Tbsp. bacon bits

INSTRUCTIONS:

Peel and dice tomatoes, sprinkle with seasoning mixture and let juices and seeds drain in colander. Mix onion and basil with tomatoes and spoon into mini phyllo shells. “Frost” top of tomato-filled cups with mayo piped from a plastic bag with the corner snipped out. Sprinkle with cheese, add bacon bits, bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or ‘til tops are lightly browned. Serve warm.

RENT THE BREEZE INN!

Did you know that MKA’s very own fixer upper—The Breeze Inn on Tybee Island—is available for rent?! You and yours can chillax in beautiful beach cottage comfort in the very spot where MKA’s most recent bestsellers have been penned, surrounded by junking treasures uncovered by the author herself. Call Diane at Mermaid Cottages and book yourself in for the full MKA experience! If your crew won’t all fit at the Breeze, Diane has 30+ one-of-a-kind cottages sprinkled around the island, all just a short ride on a beach cruiser away from each other. Get yourself on “Tybee time” and discover the magic of slowing down.

MKA Online

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Dear Friends:

For the rest of the world June means graduations and weddings and beach trips. For me? It’s the long-awaited (by me, anyway) publication of Summer Rental. Which means that starting with the official launch party in Decatur, Ga. on June 6, I’ll be off and running, touring, signing, Facebooking, Twittering, blogging and shouting about my 18th published novel.

Set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Summer Rental is the story of three lifelong friends from Savannah, who escape to a ramshackle rental house to reconnect, and inevitably, reshape their lives—all over the space of one magical month of August.

I had such a wonderful time researching and writing this, my first book set outside Georgia. I first travelled to the Outer Banks only two years ago, looking for just the right location for Ebbtide, the name of the house in the title.
I rented a tiny cottage called Windswept, two different times, in the fall and spring, and set off by bike and car to explore the area where “the girls” of Summer Rental—Ellis, Dorie and Julia—have their adventures. I’m looking forward to revisiting the area for signings in June.

The idea for Summer Rental was inspired by my own very close group of friends from my hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. Would you believe we met in junior high and have been running away for chick trips ever since? We started out celebrating those “big-0″ birthdays, but then realized we were having way too much fun to limit it to every ten years, so now we get together whenever we can—meeting recently in the Sonoma Valley wine country and the Gulf beaches in St. Pete.

If you know anything about me, you know that junking is my passion. It’s rare for a week to pass without me shopping at an estate sale, thrift store or antique shop. What do I do with all that junk? I utilize a practice I call catch and release. Some of it I keep in our restored Craftsman bungalow here in Atlanta, or at The Breeze Inn, our vacation home on Tybee island, Georgia. (Did you know that you can rent The Breeze Inn for your family or chick trip? Check here for the details.) Other junk gets distributed to family members, and the really good stuff goes to my antique booth at Seaside Sisters on Tybee.

In between all that junking, I’m working on next summer’s novel, which is due to my editor in July! Don’t want to give away too many secrets, but that one’s about a woman who attends her ex-husband’s wedding, only to realize maybe she’s not as over him as she thought.

But it’s not all work and no play. This summer I plan to read more beach books. If you’re like me maybe you got an eReader like a Kindle, Nook, iPad or Sony eReader for Mother’s Day or a birthday. Just for you–and just until June 7—we’ve slashed the price on one of my favorite earlier novels, HISSY FIT, to $1.99. Check it out. I’m also going to hang out with the family at the neighborhood pool and cook out with friends. One of our favorite summertime recipes is for ‘Mater Tots, an easy-peasy appetizer utilizing your ripest tomatoes and garden-fresh basil. It’d be perfect for your own Summer Rental beach getaway!

All my best,
MKA

Do you have a book club? If your club is reading one of my books, I would love to call in and join your discussion. You never know, I may even be able to drop by in person if it works out right. E-mail us with your request and we’ll see what we can do! Be sure to include a snail mail address and info about the size of your club.

ORDER NOW!

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Books-a-Million
• IndieBound

EVENT SCHEDULE

Mon, June 6th, 6:00 PM
Book Launch Party
FEAST RESTAURANT
314 East Howard Ave., Decatur, GA
Books sold by FoxTale Bookshop. $35 ticket includes book, swag bag, beer, wine, appies, and a donation to the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. Get your tickets here.

Tues., June 7, 7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE
2900 Peachtree Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA

Wed., June 8, 7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE 1716 Towne Centre Way, Mt. Pleasant, SC

Thurs., June 9, 7:30 PM
QUAIL RIDGE BOOKS & MUSIC 3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh, NC

Fri., June 10, 1:00 PM
Luncheon hosted by Page & Palette at: TAMARA’S DOWNTOWN 104 N. Section St., Fairhope, AL

Fri., June 10, 3:00 PM
PAGE & PALETTE
32 S. Section St., Fairhope, AL

Sat., June 11, 4:00 PM
BLUE WILLOW BOOKSTORE
14532 Memorial Dr.,
Houston, TX

Mon., June 13, 7:00 PM
BARBARA’S BOOKSTORE
1218 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL

Tues., June 14, 2:30 PM
WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
432 Main St., Chatham, MA

Wed., June 15, 2:00 PM
ISLAND BOOKS
1170 Duck Rd., Duck, NC

Wed., June 15, 7:00 PM
FRONT PORCH CAFÉ
2515 S. Croatan Hwy., Nags Head, NC

Thurs., June 16, 7:30 PM
RIVER ROAD BOOKSTORE
759 River Rd., Fair Haven, NJ

Fri., June 17, 5:00 PM
BROWSEABOUT BOOKS
133 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach, DE

Mon., June 20, 3:00 PM
SCOTT’S BOOKSTORE
28 S Court Sq., Newnan, GA

Tues., June 21, 5:30 PM
OMEGA BOOKSTORE
100 N. Peachtree Pkwy. # 13
Peachtree City, GA

Wed., June 22, 7:00 PM
EAGLE EYE BOOKS
2076 N. Decatur Rd., Decatur, GA

Thurs., June 23, 6:30 PM
BOOK EXCHANGE
2956 Canton Rd., Marietta, GA

Mon., June 27th, 7:30 PM
Book Club Bash: Talk & Booksigning
Marcus Jewish Community Ctr., 5342 Tilly Mill Rd., Dunwoody, GA

Tues., July 19th, 7:00 PM
BOOKS A MILLION at Discover Mills
5900 Sugarloaf Pkwy., Lawrenceville, GA

Thurs., July 21st, 3:00 PM
SEASIDE SISTERS,
1207 US Hwy. 80, Tybee Island, GA

Fri., July 22nd, 3:30 PM
E. SHAVER BOOKSELLERS,
326 Bull St., Savannah, GA

Saturday July 23rd, 1:00 PM
GJ FORD BOOKSHOP,
600 Sea Island Rd #6, St. Simons, GA

REAL DEAL ‘MENTER CHEESE

It’s a dip, it’s a sandwich spread, it’s great in a grilled cheese, or dolloped on top of a hamburger, and it’s the social glue that binds us down here in the South. Now don’t be afraid to take this to your next book club meeting—the real stuff is nothin’ like that neon orange junk you buy in a tub at WallyWorld. And don’t use the pre-shredded cheese for this recipe, cuz it just ain’t the same as when you shred it yourself. This makes a big crock of stuff, and sealed tightly in a container in the fridge, it’ll last a week or more.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1- 8-oz. pkg. extra sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
• 1- 8-oz. pkg. Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
• 2-4 oz. jars sliced pimentos, undrained
• ½ or more cup mayonnaise—Duke’s preferably
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. (or more) hot sauce
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS:

Let the cheese come to room temp before grating if possible. Combine grated cheese in large bowl, add pimentos with juice, and mix thoroughly with a fork. Add mayonnaise and seasonings and mix again. You can add more mayo if your mix doesn’t seem smooth enough. Make into sandwiches or use as a dip with raw carrots and celery sticks, or spread on buttery Club crackers.

RENT THE BREEZE INN!

Did you know that MKA’s very own fixer upper—The Breeze Inn on Tybee Islandmdash;is available for rent?! You and yours can chillax in beautiful beach cottage comfort in the very spot where MKA’s most recent bestsellers have been penned, surrounded by junking treasures uncovered by the author herself. Call Diane at Mermaid Cottages and book yourself in for the full MKA experience! If your crew won’t all fit at the Breeze, Diane has 30+ one-of-a-kind cottages sprinkled around the island, all just a short ride on a beach cruiser away from each other. Get yourself on “Tybee time” and discover the magic of slowing down.

Dear Friends:

If you’re reading this, the chances are very good you’re a member of a book club. I’ve been meeting with book clubs all over the map recently—including the famous Pulpwood Queens Book Club weekend in Jefferson, Texas in February, where I was one of a dozen authors sharing in the hijinks of a weekend-long party celebrating girlfriends and reading. At the Pulpwood Queens shindig, the authors acted as waiters and cooks serving dinner one night, and at two subsequent nights of parties, we dressed up as our favorite Barbie and characters from the Wizard of Oz.

Not every book club function I attend is that elaborate—or that far-flung. In February, I met with the Outlaw book club in Decatur, only a few miles from my home, where the members played a cutthroat dice game to determine the winners of the door prize autographed books I’d provided. That same month I spoke to a slightly more sedate book club luncheon in Dataw Island, S.C. Just this week I met with two clubs here in Georgia, on Wednesday with a book club in LaGrange, and on Thursday, I met with women from The Ridgerunner book clubs in the Big Canoe community north of Atlanta.

Of course, with a June deadline looming for my next book, I’m not always able to travel to meet with clubs in person, but when that happens, I usually try to arrange a phone chat. The way this works is that the book club hostess calls me up on the night of the pre-arranged club meeting, hooks me up to a speaker-phone, and we proceed as usual—except I don’t get to sample their wine or appetizers!

I’d love to do more book club appearances, so if you’d like me to join your club—either in person or on a phone chat, send a request to the book club sign-up form on my website and we’ll see if we can get you scheduled.

I happen to be a member of not one, but two book clubs, one here in Atlanta, that’s been going strong for 12 years, and another, in Ohio, The Goddesses, that’s been in existence for nine years. Both clubs celebrate the strong bonds of friendship and our shared love of books by arranging outings and field trips. The Goddesses are particularly imaginative with themed outings. When we read SEABISCUIT, for instance, the hostess borrowed a van and ferried everybody to a nearby racetrack—even doling out $2 to each member to place their bets. When a book club selection is made into a movie, our Atlanta club tries to attend as a group, as we did recently for JULIE AND JULIA. But our favorite gatherings have been the getaway weekends to members’ beach homes and mountain cabins.

It’s no coincidence that my next book, tentatively titled SUMMER RENTAL is about three lifelong friends who plan a month-long summer getaway to a beach house on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

When we were undertaking the restoration of my family’s beach house on Tybee Island, Georgia, we made plans for it to also be the perfect spot for a book club getaway, since it is in a rental program with the awesome Mermaid Cottage Vacation Rentals. The Breeze Inn has bookshelves brimming with beach reads, board games and a selection of chick flick DVDs to watch on the big screen TV. The kitchen is outfitted with everything you’d need to whip up breakfast for a bunch, or just appetizers, before heading out to one of Tybee’s great casual restaurants. The screen porch is the perfect place to gather for aprés beach cocktails, and all the beds are made with high thread-count all-cotton linens—and good reading lamps by every bedside. We’ve already hosted a few book club gatherings, and hope many more will be able to experience The Breeze Inn in the months to come. Look for a feature about the Breeze, written by yours truly, with scads of mouth-watering photos in the June issue of BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, which goes on sale in Mid-May.

This month’s contest is all about you women in book clubs. See the details in the right-hand column, and make sure all your friends enter too.

In the meantime, happy spring and happy reading.

All my best,

MKA

Do you have a book club? If your club is reading one of my books, I would love to call in and join your discussion. You never know, I may even be able to drop by in person if it works out right. E-mail us with your request and we’ll see what we can do! Be sure to include a snail mail address and info about the size of your club.

IN STORES NOW!

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Books-a-Million
• IndieBound

CONTEST!

I want to hear all about your book club. Tell me…What is the most fun you’ve had? Did you take a trip together? Have a great dinner party? A fascinating discussion that took you to some unexpected places? Or did one of your gatherings just become “one of those nights” that you’ll never forget for one reason or another? Share your tales with me. As usual I’ll publish some of my favorites on my blog. The winner gets a fab summer-themed basket full of goodies to share with their book club—autographed copies of The Fixer Upper, beach towels, cocktail mixes, and a stack of Fixer Upper cups to mix ‘em in. The winner’s next book club gathering could be the most fun yet!

BEFORE & AFTER

The Breeze Inn has come a long way! Check out this video for more about the transformation.

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