by jphilo | Mar 7, 2025 | Recipes
Kookie Brittle’s an eggless winner among kids and adults at this house for a several good reasons.
(Before I run through the reasons, you should know that this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. They don’t make your costs go up, but Amazon shares a small percentage of what you pay with me.)
Now, back to the regularly scheduled reasons and recipe.
- It contains chocolate chips, and everyone who lives here loves chocolate.
- The recipe is easy and quick recipe so the baker (that would be me) likes that.
- The kids and adults who live here agree it’s delicious. The 9-year-old thought it was a little “grainy” as he put it. Even so, I had to hide the remaining Kookie Brittle in a bag in the freezer so he wouldn’t keep sneaking pieces.
- The recipe is eggless which is important until the most recent bird flu outbreak can be contained.
- Our household has several members with dairy allergies. The recipe is easy to adapt by using dairy-free chocolate chips (we like Enjoy Life brand which can be purchased through Amazon and many local grocery stores. Instead of butter I use half lard and half Earth Balance Baking Sticks, which are also available through Amazon, health food grocers, and some local grocery stores.
- My “healthy snack” conscience is somewhat appeased by using half whole wheat flour and half white flour and also cutting back on the sugar. Even with the alterations, Kookie Brittle isn’t all that healthy, but make believe is always fun, right?
Without further ado, here is the recipe for Kookie Brittle, a recipe my mother brought home and taught my sister and me to make. For the life of me, I don’t know why I never made it when my kids were little. It’s so tasty.
Kookie Brittle
1 cup softened butter (or a half cup lard and one Earth Balance Baking Stick)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream the first 3 ingredients and gradually add sugar until all are thoroughly mixed. Mix in the flour. Then add the chocolate chips and nuts (optional). Press into a well-greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Cut into bars immediately after taking pan out of the oven. Or let them cool and break them into irregular shards (like peanut brittle) and serve. They freeze well, in case you need to hide them so they last longer.
by jphilo | Feb 27, 2025 | Daily Life
Pie advice from a seven-year-old has become a regular thing at our house. Our granddaughter, who always has a lot to say about pie in general and cherry pie in particular, turned seven in January. Between that momentous occasion and many recent opportunities for pie making and baking, our newly minted seven-year-old has been cranking out pie pronouncements at record speed. Here’s a recap:
- In late January I made and froze six unbaked pies. Then I made the scraps of crusts into what we call “pie crispies.” The seven-year-old smelled them baking and came up to declare, with a sparkle in her eye, “I know what we’re having for dessert tonight––pie!” After I explained dessert was not on the menu, she shot me a look that would have killed had she not been offered some of the aforementioned pie crispies as a snack.
- Hiram and I hauled our camper home from points south on Valentine’s Day. We spent the rest of that day and all of the next unpacking, doing laundry, and recovering. On the 16th I baked a cherry pie as part of a late holiday celebration with the family. “It’s delicious,” the seven-year-old said after eating two pieces. “When are you making another one?”
- Last weekend I took four of the six frozen pies out to thaw and then baked them for my niece’s baby shower. (This is the same niece who asked my sister and to make over 20 pies for her high school graduation party and several years later, more than 40 for her wedding.) Two of the pies were cherry and two were apple. When we brought the leftovers home afterwards, the seven-year-old declared, “Can I have all the cherry?” The answer was “You can have one, just like everyone else in your family.” She looked at me and advised, “Next time, make more cherry.”
- The Monday after the baby shower, I took the final frozen pies out to thaw––one cherry and one apple––and baked them to serve at our church small group that evening. When the seven-year-old came home and learned they wouldn’t be served for our family’s dessert, she had this advice. “Next time. make an apple, a cherry, and one other kind like maybe strawberry. Give your friends the apple and strawberry, but save the cherry for us.”
So there you have it. Pie advice from a seven-year-old. Her advice has created within me a huge well of gratitude toward a sovereign God who scheduled her arrival in this world for 2018. I mean, can you imagine the free advice she would have bestowed during the pie baking extravaganzas before my niece’s graduation and wedding pie extravaganzas?
I shudder just thinking about it.
by jphilo | Jan 29, 2025 | Mystery Update, South Dakota, West River Mystery Series
Yesterday the plot thickened.
You may be asking yourself how can that be? Just last week, Jolene revealed the See Jane Ride! cover and said the manuscript was now in the concept editor’s hands for review. Does that mean the editor wants a total plot revision? Say it ain’t so!
Rest easy readers. It ain’t so.
The plot being referred to in this post’s title is for the yet-to-be-written sixth book in the West River Mystery series. To stay on track for its release in October of 2026, my handful of notecards about a mystery that takes place during prairie fire season needed a lot of thickening. That handful of cards was also intended to contribute to the overall arc of series and its overarching mystery. That needed some thickening too.
Yesterday afternoon’s plot workshop with Midwestern Book’s concept editor and I was thick enough to accomplish both aims.
I’m not gonna lie. It was a brutal afternoon. Mainly because the concept editor kept asking hard questions like:
- Why would such-and-such a character do that?
- What possible reason could there be for Velma to stay overnight this time?
- Is that concern big enough for Jane’s mom to get her underwear in a bunch?
- How will Jane’s students contribute to solving the mystery?
- What spiritual growth will Jane experience?
- What’s the community event that gathers the town together?
- What about Dick and Jane?
My initial answers to such unreasonable questions were:
- I haven’t thought that through yet. I just thought it would be funny.
- I’m not sure yet, but Dick is going to agree with Velma.
- Everything gets her Mom’s underwear in a bunch.
- Still working on that, but they will.
- Still working on that, but she will.
- I assumed coming together to fight prairie fires was a community event.
- What about them?
To which my diabolical editor replied:
- Think harder.
- Let’s brainstorm until we figure it out.
- True, but be more specific.
- We’re not moving on until you come up with something.
- Ditto.
- Wrong assumption.
- Time to brainstorm again.
Thanks to the editor’s uncanny ability to spot plot holes and not move on until they were plugged, we worked on thickening the plot for almost 4 hours.* The picture at the top of the page shows that by the end of the 4 hours, my handful of notecards had expanded to almost 50 and categorized into 5 “acts.” The feat is actually more impressive considering the number of cards we torn up and rewrote. They’re the messy pile visible in the bottom middle of the table.
At that point the diabolical editor abandoned me, citing a flimsy excuse. Something about frosting a birthday cake for her daughter who turned 7 yesterday. After she left I used the calendars ,also visible on the table, to fit the plot into a three week mid-September 1978 through early October 1978 timeline. Then I stacked and rubber banded the cards for each act in chronological order and then banded the acts together into one thick and beautiful plot outline.
Oh, the burden the brutal workshop afternoon lifted from my shoulders!
Oh, the joy!
Oh, the freedom!
Oh, to begin writing the first draft of Book 6** and doing research to keep the story historically accurate!
All this because yesterday, the plot thickened.
*Minus 1 potty break per person and 1 session each at the espresso machine.
**The name of the next See Jane book will be announced in a few months.
by jphilo | Jan 14, 2025 | Mystery Update
See Jane Ride! cover reveal time has arrived. I love the way the design captures the atmosphere of the book and hints at the reason “ride” is in the title.
Jane’s fans may be shaking their heads at the idea of her sporting a doo-rag and black leather. That attire was not worn by the average country school teacher in the late 1970s. Then again, readers of the first four West River Mystery books can tell you that Jane is not your average country school teacher. In case you doubt that, here’s a view of the full cover.
Though See Jane Ride! won’t be released until October 7, 2025, rest assured that your favorite Little Missourians will grace its pages: the sheriff and his hungry deputy, Jane’s boyfriend, the cranky school janitor, the couple who own and run the phone company, Jane’s students and their families, and her sewing partner. New characters run the gambit from family members who come for a South Dakota vacation to seedy-looking ne er do wells passing through town. Put them all together and you’ve got one wild ride!
The second draft of the manuscript is finished, which means the hardest part of the writing process is behind me. With that out of the way, you may be wondering why the book won’t be available until October. Here’s a quick rundown of what remains to be done:
- The manuscript is in the hands of the concept editor at Midwestern Books. Her job is to make sure the plot hangs together and that the writing is clear. She’ll suggest changes (revisions, additions, deletions) to improve the story.
- The concept editor will send her edits to me to look through. I either incorporate her suggestions into the manuscript or, in rare cases, don’t.
- The revised manuscript goes back to the concept editor who sends it to the line editor.
- The line editor proofreads for mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, spacing, omitted words, etc.). She also researches for historical accuracy, character consistency (physical descriptions, work place, kind of vehicle, etc.), and references to previous books in the series.
- She sends the revised document to me to either approve and make changes or not.
- Then I send my revisions to the publisher for typesetting.
- The editor sends me a digital copy of typeset book, which I send to possible endorsers.
- The publisher sends the book to several other proofreaders to catch the mechanical errors missed by the line editor, myself, and the typesetter.
- They send their error catches to the publisher who corrects the typeset copy.
- I collect and send the back cover endorsements to publisher.
All that gets done by June so the publisher has time to get the book on Amazon and work on marketing. In between all that, I do research for the next book and start its rough draft.
Telling you all this is making me very tired, so I’ll sign off before becoming completely overwhelmed. You, on the other hand, are invited to let See Jane Ride! cover reveal fire up your imagination, speculate on what Jane will be riding and what could possibly go wrong, and then share your ideas in the comment section below. Ready…set…go!
by jphilo | Jan 7, 2025 | Book Updates, See Jane Run!, West River Mystery Series
Midwestern Books lost its renaissance man and founder, Tom Walker, this past December. Tom succumbed to pancreatic cancer just two months after his diagnosis. Those who knew and loved him––his wife Kris, his three children, his eight grandchildren, his siblings, his nieces and nephews, and many more––are still reeling.
Our family was among those who attended his funeral. Tom’s brother-in-law gave the eulogy and described him as a renaissance man, a person who is educated and knowledgeable in a number of fields. That was certainly true of Tom. He assembled his own computer when they were just coming onto the scene. He was a musician, an athlete, a theologian, a pastor, and an avid fisherman. He operated a sawmill, constructed several buildings, read widely, was an IT director, and founded a publishing company. He was a lover of books, and was both a reader and a = writer.
He wrote sermons, seminary curriculum, and computer code. He created elaborate Dungeons and Dragons back stories in his role as a Dungeon Master. He helped his parents write books about their lives and wrote children’s books for his grandkids. When he retired, he started Midwestern Books to showcase writers who represented the values and stories from a poorly represented area of the United States. See Jane Run! was the first manuscript he acquired.
Tom was more than the renaissance man who published The West River Mystery Series. He was also my husband’s cousin and an appreciator of my daughter’s editorial talents. To that end, he asked her to become his partner at Midwestern Books. She accepted and they worked closely together for five years. After his cancer diagnosis, he signed the business over to her at no cost.
Midwestern Books lost its renaissance man and founder. In the midst of our grief, Anne and her husband, as well as Hiram and I, are aware of the opportunity he created for our daughter’s family before he died. Our hearts testify that Tom Walker exemplified more than a renaissance man. He exemplified Christ. We were blessed to know him and grateful beyond words.
In loving memory of Thomas “Tom” Hayes Walker,
November 7, 1953 – December 22, 2024
