Fantasy

A Chocolate Recipe and A Short Book Rant

Hi Readers,

I wanted to tell you that the book is done, but it’s not, and this time, it’s not my fault. All my scenes are drafted. Who’s the character stalling the ending of the book?

Well, he’s about five foot nothing with frizzy dark hair, and he’s obsessed with dragons. He’s also taking a vacation of unknown length to chase a mother dragon and her son.

(The son is my best friend, Saveen. I found out he’s a dragon in Curse Breaker Falls or Curse Breaker Sundered, but I might have forgotten to mention that to anyone. It wasn’t my secret to tell, so I’m not bothered by this. And if you hadn’t guessed, this is Ran, Sarn’s son, and your usual narrator.)

Have you guessed who’s stalling the book with his stunning last-minute mid-climax appearance?

Yup, it’s Jerlo.

He did something that requires extra chapters, and I’m not happy about that. But you’ll probably enjoy it.

How did this happen?

Well, there was an outline, but we set fire to it months ago. Undeterred by this, the Scribe made another outline, and I didn’t set fire to it because some of the bullet points included such gems as:

  • Let Ran do whatever he wants
  • Let Ran do what he wants here too
  • Just follow Ran and write what he does

There are some awesome plot points, right?

I thought so too. And as you might expect from that brief glimpse at the surviving outline, I have a lot of chapters all to myself.

I share some with Furball because every hero needs a sidekick.

But wait! Aren’t I Papa’s sidekick?

Usually, yes, but in Curse BreakerTrapped, someone put this idea in his head that if he stays out of trouble, (which is impossible), he’ll earn some respect from Jerlo. I just don’t see that happening.

But Papa’s convinced, and he tries really hard not to get into trouble, so any adventuring I do, must be without him until he realizes that staying out of trouble is boring.

(As you know from previous Curse Breaker books, Sarn can’t stay out of trouble. So there are plenty of chapters of him failing hard at being boring because he’s not, and hopefully, he’ll realize that by the book’s end. If not, then I may need to take drastic measures in the sequel. *Evil grin* <-But I’m not evil. I just smile like a villain sometimes.)

Despite all this or in spite of all this? I’m not sure about the wording there, and I don’t want to interrupt the Scribe to ask. Melinda’s trying to work out how many chapters Jerlo needs for the left turn his story took. But Jerlo doesn’t even know.

If you’re on Patreon, then you probably read the chapter where he makes a spectacularly bad decision. If not, then oh boy do you have some fun reading ahead of you when Curse Breaker Trapped comes out. I’ll say this, then stop because I don’t want to spoil it. Never mess with an angel, especially one that’s fading away to go who knows where.

Just don’t do it. That’s my magical tip for the week.

I hope next week, the whole book will be drafted and in editing or on its way to that. Melinda already cut out the two queens’ chapters and moved them to the sequel, so we’ll have more room for their story. Maybe Jerlo’s story needs to go to the sequel too.

Don’t shout at the screen. I know you don’t like when we leave the dragon-obsessed commander out. Melinda hasn’t done that, and she hasn’t even considered that. So his side story is still in, but he’d better wrap it up real quick or I might move it for her.

I know how to cut and paste. *evil laugh*

Besides, this is my moment in the sun. I shouldn’t have to share it.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

–This is Ran, signing off, so I can go bother Jerlo. He needs some bothering. And to all the Mothers out there, Happy Mother’s day a week early.

The Scribe made a chocolate thing that’s supposed to be a truffle for her mother. Since I’ve never had that before, I can’t say whether it’s at all similar. But it was creamy, chocolatey, nutty, and melt-in-your-mouth yummy.

We don’t usually put recipes in here because I’m usually not on hand when things are made to see how they’re made, so I can’t share the recipe in those cases. But I was there for the creation of these sweet things. There are only 5 ingredients and a handful of steps, so even I can’t forget what we did.

And we repeated this recipe 6 times because Melinda couldn’t decide which flavor to make, so she made them all. This is what Scribes do when not writing or working for their day jobs. They make things.

(Melinda says making candy is a zen experience. I don’t know about that since I was drafted to perform hard labor.)

So here is the recipe. It’s so simple, even a Scribe with several fictional characters underfoot and multiple plot lines in her head couldn’t destroy it. And that’s saying something since we’ve helped to turn many recipes from delicious dishes to dangerous disasters. But not this one.

Melinda’s Truffle Things

Ingredients:

  • 1 pint of chocolate ice cream (or vanilla if you’re using a chocolate nut butter) (You can use light ice cream or whatever you want.)
  • 1 regular-sized jar of nut butter of your choice
  • 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 8 oz container or block of cream cheese or 8-12 oz of your favorite yogurt
  • 1-2 tablespoons of shortening or oil

Method:

  • Put all the nut butter, yogurt/cream cheese, and melted ice cream in a bowl and mix it until combined.
    • (If you have a blender or mixer, use that. If you have fictional characters asking for page time, hand them the bowl and instruct them to mix it for their life.)
  • In a saucepan, put the oil/shortening and cover the bottom of the pan thinly. Heat on low heat, then dump the whole bag of chocolate chips in. Stir until melted. Then remove the saucepan from the heat, so it doesn’t burn and smell horrible.
    • (Please use a large enough saucepan for this. Don’t be Melinda. She used a small one and waves of chocolate kept rolling over the edge and dripping on the thing the fire shoots out of, thus sparking little fires and making stinky smoke. I didn’t like that. No appliances were harmed in the making of these candies. I should have put that disclaimer at the beginning.)
  • Add the melted chocolate to the bowl with the nut butter, yogurt/cream cheese, and ice cream and mix it for your life, or draft a fictional character to mix it for you if you don’t have a mixer or blender. (I don’t know why the Scribe doesn’t have any of these appliances.)
  • Once everything is mixed, either get out your silicone molds and spoon the mixture in or put the bowl in the fridge to cool down and get tacky so you can roll spoonfuls of chocolate yumminess into balls or whatever shape you desire.
    • (The Scribe had molds, but we ran out and had to get inventive with wax paper and cookie sheets. That part was fun and delicious. Some of the mixture went into my belly instead of the molds, but I digress.)
  • When you have your candies in a mold or have made balls of them on wax paper covered cookie sheets, put them in the fridge or if like our Scribe, your fridge is full of vegetables and healthy stuff, hide the candies in the freezer
  • When they’re hard, remove them from the wax paper or the molds and put them in a container. Make sure to refrigerate or keep them in the freezer.
  • We have no idea how long they last because the Scribe likes to bag up samples and hand them out to random people at her office or her apartment building, and we, characters, might also eat them. Adventuring is a hungry business!

One last thing, you can make this dairy-free. Just make sure the yogurt/cream cheese and ice cream substitute is not full of water since oil and water don’t stay mixed when you stop mixing them. And you do have to stop mixing them unless you own a walk-in freezer.

You’ll end up with some separation and weird textures in your candy if you have too much water in your mixture. (The Scribe tried this once, and it wasn’t tasty.) A little water will be okay. So read the ingredients and find substitutes that have no more water than their dairy counterparts, and this recipe will work for you.

Happy Mother’s Day a week early.

Please try not to set your kitchen on fire if you make the candies. We’re not responsible if they become habit-forming. See you next week!


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