International Day of Happiness!

What a happy coincidence (or not), that this year, the first day of Spring coincides with the third annual International Day of Happiness! I'm celebrating the day by sharing my favorite "happy" quote (which I found after an hour of tearing my office apart but it was worth it!):

"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." W.B. Yeats

Today, I'm very happy to announce that my 3rd Irish novel, The Hopeful Romantic, is now on Amazon pre-order! I imagine that the angsty fellow Yeats was talking about, whoever he is, probably would not have appreciated today's festival of happiness. But I hope you're having a day full of joy, serendipity, and hopes for a fun Spring ahead!

Broth is the new Red Bull: The latest trend in energy drinks

Traditional bone broth, made with water, bones, meat and vegetables simmered together, is becoming the trendiest new health food since smoothies came along. When I read in a recent TIME article that there’s even a bone-broth boutique in (where else) New York City, it just goes to show: everything old is new again.

Whether the focus on meat is an offshoot of the Paleo diet, or extra cold winter weather has created a fresh appreciation for soup, I think homemade broth is a great cure for the mid-winter blahs. Here at Berryridge Farm, I’ve been on a real soup kick lately. While I’m not a big meat eater, I always make my soups with homemade poultry broth. Lots of recipes start with bones and uncooked meat (the TIME article included a recipe for chicken broth, using both) but for me, it’s easiest to use the carcass of a roasted chicken or turkey.

I roasted a 15-pound turkey for our New Year’s dinner, and did something a bit different this time. While I have long stuffed the bird cavity with onion and sprigs of sage and thyme from the garden, I took a chance and followed the suggestion of my sister Patricia, a splendid cook and baker (you can find her at www.comfortdish.blogspot.com). I rubbed the outside of the bird with olive oil and lots of herbs and spices before roasting as usual.

My homemade rub included not only Betty Crocker-approved salt and pepper, but loads of garlic powder, cumin, chili powder and Italian seasoning. Once I got the bird rubbed down, and set more sage leaves on the skin, I was like, with all these spices this bird is going to taste kinda…funky. But, I figured, no guts, no glory, so I went with it.

The meat turned out to be more flavorful than any turkey I’d ever roasted! Not at all over-seasoned. So I had high hopes for the broth. The next day, after picking the bird nearly clean I stuffed the carcass into my big Dutch oven, and filled the pot with water. After bringing the pot to a gentle boil, I turned the burner down to its lowest setting for a 2 ½ hour simmer.

The broth smelled fabulous. I strained out the solids and as soon as the broth had cooled, I stuck it in the fridge for soup making the next day. While John and I are as health conscious as any other Boomers, I did something entirely unprecedented: I used the broth without skimming off the thin layer of fat that had solidified on top.

My basic recipe: (amounts and prep are up to you)

Saute chopped onion, celery, peeled carrots and parsnips and fresh garlic in lots of olive until they start to get soft. If I have kale I cut it up that too (don’t use the tough center ribs). The soup is extra yummo if you do one additional step: Chop some potatoes (I use Yukon gold taters from the garden) and peeled sweet potatoes and roast them in the oven with a little olive oil until tender.

Next, pour in your homemade broth. Add a good quantity of cut-up turkey and a half cup of French lentils and bring the pot to a simmer for at least another half hour.

If I want a brothy soup, I precook the lentils. For a more stew-like dish, you can do as above. Because the roasted potatoes are likely to fall apart in the soup if you simmer them too long, I wait to add them until the last 10 minutes of cooking.

My fat-rich soup was hands-down, the absolute best soup I have ever made. The extra fat makes the soup far more filling and satisfying than any low-fat broth.  Given the cozy feeling and all-around sense of well-being you get from homemade soup, it seems to me a little turkey fat has to be good for you...especially now that full fat dairy foods have been removed from the “bad foods” list.

How I regret all those years I bought into the “saturated fat will kill you” mindset and ate margarine—margarine!—instead of butter! So in the spirit of being okay with wholesome fats in real food, I hope you’ll use full fat homemade broth in your next soup recipe…and I’d love to know how it turned out!  

Recipe for a Fairy Tale

Take a lifelong fairy fan...

Mix in a treasured photo of a baby girl dressed in a fairy costume, tiny wings on her shoulders. Add a bunch of fairy lore books, a fairy snow globe and other figurines, and make sure to include the ceramic fairy king with the bemused smile sitting on the bookshelf. Blend well and let let simmer for a few months. Then as the holidays approach, with a Eureka! moment, pour all the ingredients onto the page. The dish? Morgan Carey and The Mystery of the Christmas Fairies, a story of a magical woods and family bonding.

This gentle fantasy “novelette” for middle grade readers is set right here in the foothills. Here's more:

In Book 2 of the Morgan Carey series, Seattle fifth-grader Morgan makes a holiday visit to her grandparents’ house in the foothills of the Cascade mountains. While Morgan thinks her grandma and grandpa are great and everything, they live way out in the boonies, with no cable TV or even cell phones! Then on Christmas Eve, she’s stuck looking after the three young step-cousins she hardly knows.

Babysitting the unruly little kids during a jaunt in the woods, Morgan and her cousins are lured into an entrancing, mysterious forest, where they encounter unexpected adventures…and even dangers. Morgan must draw upon all her strength and ingenuity if they are to escape this magical world, and find their way back home for Christmas.

Now on Amazon, this heartwarming, family-friendly tale is for kids, grandparents, and anyone who is young at heart!

I hope you're having a wonderful holiday, and I wish you the best for the New Year!

Susan

Mystical Christmas

Do you enjoy stories that, while not really scary, make your spine tingle a little? I love collecting mystical stories myself, especially Irish ones. 

Here's my favorite: The mother of a creative writing student of mine had an Irish grandmother, whose surname was Quinn. This mother, an American, had recurring dreams all her life of an old castle ruin with crumbling steps. Later in life, she went to Ireland on a tour, and the bus stopped at a castle. She saw those same steps she’d seen in her dreams. The name of the castle? Castle Quinn.

And another one: a friend of mine, an Irish-American author, recently took her first trip to Ireland. Before the aircraft landed, she gazed down at the green hills of Ireland below and was completely overcome by the conviction that she belonged there. The sensation was so powerful, she said, she felt like she could have jumped right out of the plane.

I found another story I loved in the memoir Midlife Irish, by Irish-American journalist Joe Gannon. During his first trip to Ireland, Gannon says he felt this overwhelming sense that heaven, or the life beyond this one, was as close as the next room.

What do these stories have to do with Christmas, you may ask?

They remind me that Christmastime—and the entire holiday season (whatever holiday you may be celebrating)—is brimming with magic and mystery.  How else do you explain the story of St. Nicholas?  

He was a real-life bishop in 4^th century Turkey, who became the patron saint of children. Later, this historical figure became mythical—a benevolent spirit who left treasure and gifts in children’s shoes…or stockings. This mythical presence soon evolved to include Father Christmas, Santa Claus and other magical beings throughout other countries and other cultures—all of whom represent the spirit of love and generosity.

And children around the world believe in this magical spirit as strongly and as fervently as they believe in anything, long after they’re old enough to know the difference between reality and make believe. When I was 7 years old, I was sitting with my grandma in our basement rec room, watching The Laurence Welk show. I heard some thumping upstairs, and soon after, my dad called to us and said Santa had just left gifts for everyone. As I tore up the stairs, I believed…no, I knew it was Santa who’d made that noise and left those presents. There was simply no other explanation.

Which relates to the best holiday quote ever: “Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing.” (Judy the Elf, from the movie The Santa Clause).  Why not believe in the angels among us, in the messages from our ancestors, or in the miracles that took place in ancient times?

Charles Dickens wrote, “The dreams of childhood…its airy fables, its graceful, beautiful humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond; so good, to be believed in once, so good to be remembered when outgrown.”

So as long as you believe, believe that all things are possible, everywhere you look you’ll find the magic and mystery of the season…truly the holiday gifts that keep on giving.

Merry Christmas!

Day of the Dead movie, Irish Halloween Fairy Lore and the Oscar Wilde Connection

I just discovered a new Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos-themed movie, coming out this month! “The Book of Life” is an animated film that takes place on Dia de Los Muertos,  which is a joy-filled festival celebrated in Mexico right around Halloween.  Given the light and cheer of this festival,  I’m hoping this movie means more people, whatever their ancestry, will be drawn to celebrating both holidays!

You may ask, what does Oscar Wilde have to do with Halloween? Well, his mother, Lady Wilde, wrote a book called Irish Cures, Mystic Charms & Superstitions. The book, one the my favorites on my Irish book shelf, is full of Irish fairy lore. Lady Wilde depicts All Hallow's Eve as a very ghost-ridden and angsty time of the year--when the dead even have power over the living. I'm thinking the Irish traditions could add a bit of Day of the Dead joy to the gloom and doom of the olden days!

But count on famed Irish chef Darina Allen to lighten things up. She notes an old Irish tradition--you put out a bowl of champ (a mashed potato dish with scallions) for the fairies on Halloween, under a whitethorn or hawthorn tree if you can manage it. It's supposed to keep away the mischief-making fairies for the rest of the year!

With Halloween and the Day of the Dead fast approaching, it seems like a good time to share Morgan Carey and The Curse of the Corpse Bride, my Halloween and Day of the Dead “novelette” for middle-grade readers! It’s a gentle, heartwarming tale, perfect for all ages. Here’s more:

Morgan has chosen the coolest costume ever—a dead bride. But when she finds  a strange fortune-telling machine at the mall on Halloween, she has no way of knowing that she has encountered some powerful magic—and entered a world where her Halloween costume has become all too real…The next day, on the Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, she faces a terrible dilemma…

Will Morgan and her best friend Claire be able to break the spell? Or is Morgan doomed to be cursed by the Corpse Bride Forever?

With the Day of the Dead weekend approaching, I'm offering Morgan Carey and The Curse of the Corpse Bride  as a free ebook on Amazon November     1-2.  I would love to hear about your Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos celebrations!

Wild Critters and Harvest Time: Grin and Bear It

Now that fall is underway, the harvest is in full swing. You name it, it needs picking: zucchini, kale, potatoes, and carrots—the sweetest treat you can eat without sugar!  

With the harvest, however, I start asking two questions: 1) When is too much of a good thing not good? And 2) How full we can cram our two refrigerators and still close the doors? Since we don’t have a root cellar yet, and there are so many mice around our place we don’t dare put anything in the crawl space, it’s refrigeration or nada. One fridge is already full of Akane apples, and yesterday, we discovered the Elstars are ready. Actually, we should have seen it coming: when the tree fruits are ripe, the yard fills with robins. It’s like they fly in carrying a banner that says, Hey, the apples are ready!  And while we’re not looking, they peck mercilessly at our fruit. With the robin predation comes these super-annoying tiny flies that swarm everywhere. At luck would have it, they’re small enough to sneak through your window screens and soon your house is full of ‘em.

The fall bounty has brought out another of our wild “friends”…namely the bears. A tract located a few hundred yards from us was clearcut this past spring, and has apparently brought the neighborhood bears out into the open. I’ve never seen so much bear scat on our road—we’ve been seeing a fresh pile of their “stuff” nearly every day. Needless to say, when I take a walk these days, I’m not daydreaming about the story I’m writing, or working out plots. I’m watching my surroundings.  Vigilantly.

With bears so close by, folks around here advise that you pick up any fruit falls and dispose of them. Meaning, don’t leave fruit out in the open, tempting Mama Bear and her cubs to climb your deer fence to sample it. That’s when your garden bounty can a problem, because conventional wisdom says don’t put fruit in your compost. My guess is, fruit makes the pile too acidic, and it doesn’t decompose as it should. Disclosure: I’m guilty: I do put fruit peelings in the pile, and it works okay.  I’m even guiltier: we also dispose of whole, spoiled fruits improperly… But we make sure we toss it way, waaaayyy back in the woods. Okay, we know it will attract bears, but we know they’re back there anyway.

Needless to say, what with the bears, when Halloween comes, there’s no trick-or-treating on our streetlight-free road. But I am celebrating All Hallow’s Eve with a Goodreads Giveaway of my kids’ Halloween story, Morgan Carey and The Curse of the Corpse Bride, starting October 1! I hope you'll check it out!

"An entertaining light romance that is full of Irish humor and family fun..."

A lovely review of "Mother Love" just came in, from Chanticleer Book Reviews...

Mother Love, written by Susan Colleen Browne, is a romantic Irish story set in the colorful Village of Ballydara. She vividly portrays a written slice of contemporary life in Ireland with its pubs, puddings, pals and mams. Hers is a story of love, growth, and healing. It has just the right amount of chaos and family conflict, along with a good dose of  Irish humor,  to make it a fun and entertaining read.

Grainne knows exactly what her perfect man is like, down to each little detail—the problem is her perfect man is getting married just as this book,  and Grainne’s story, have begun. Grainne sadly acknowledges and grimly accepts the fact that her perfect man is about to become permanently unavailable. However, her biological clock is ticking and, on the eve of her 30^th birthday, she is anything but reasonable.

A complex and realistic protagonist, Grainne is plagued by her own family conflicts. Grainne’s relationship with her mam is strained to say the least. Having grown up feeling that she was less important than her sisters, Grainne does her best to avoid visiting her family home more than she deems necessary. She can’t even be in the same room as her mam without making the entire situation uncomfortable for everyone around. Yet for a young woman who avoids her mother, Grainne spends more time wishing for her mam’s acceptance and attention than not.

Despite her tumultuous family life, Grainne is a devoted and doting nanny to three rambunctious kids whose own mother is too busy running a newspaper to pay them much attention. She finds happiness in her work as she dotes on the kids, but her wanting her own family cannot be ignored.

Grainne’s mam is keen to turn her home into a B and B and Grainne’s sister has guilted our protagonist into helping out with the venture. Grainne grudgingly helps out, thinking this may be a good way for her to get to spend some time with Rafe—the one that got away. Grainne and Rafe’s story seems destined to end before it ever begins, but sometimes you never know what life has in store.

Rafe isn’t the only man in Grainne’s life. She’s also got good-guy Joe, a nice man with a decent job and only minor flaws and he has his eyes set on Grainne. And with all the family drama and emotional stress it’s a good thing Grainne has Justine—her best friend and flatmate—who spends her free time cooking and baking delicious food along with obsessing with the blog “Girl Talk.”

Grainne must navigate her way through this crazy and tumultuous life if she is to find happiness.  Mother Love is a novel that lives up to the lore of Irish tales. If you like an entertaining light romance that is full of Irish humor and family fun, Browne’s story telling will not disappoint.

www.ChantiReviews.com