Readers' Pick #1 – Sept – Nov 2011

And the countdown continues. The most visited post in Sept – Nov 2011 was Lena Nelson Dooley’s bread pudding recipe along with her real life romantic interview. Hope you enjoy the recap, plus winners’ choice of 3 of my books: White Doves, Rodeo Dust, or Rodeo Hero. Deadline: August 25th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Lena:

Lena’s Bread Pudding
3/4 – package King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread white rolls
3/4 – package King’s Hawaiian Honey Wheat rolls
1 – stick real butter
1 3/4 – Cup sugar (we use raw sugar)
4 – eggs
Milk
2 – teaspoons Mexican vanilla
1/2 – teaspoon Mace
1 – bottle San Saba Pecan Company’s Peach, Pecan, and Amaretto sauce
Set oven at 350 degrees. Grease a rectangular cake pan. I use the kind that has a snap-on plastic lid. It’s best if the bread is slightly stale. In a large mixing bowl, break up the rolls into small pieces. Wisk the eggs until well beaten, then set aside.
In a 2 quart saucepan, melt the stick of butter along with the sugar and about a couple cups of milk, stirring frequently. When it is all melted and combined, stir in the eggs a little at a time. Set off the burner and add vanilla and mace. Then stir in more milk until the saucepan is about 3/4 full.
Pour over the bread and stir until all the bread is thoroughly saturated. Transfer the mixture to the prepared cake pan. Bake about 35 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes.
Empty bottle of sauce onto top of cake and spread until all the top of the bread pudding is glazed. Can serve 20 or more people, according to how you cut it.
INTERVIEW
1.   What’s the most romantic thing your spouse has ever done for you?
My husband used to not buy flowers, because they die. He would buy a potted plant. When he started buying me flowers for no special reason besides that he knew I loved them, it blessed my heart.
2.   What’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done for your spouse?
I like to buy him silk underwear and pajamas, because he likes the way they feel.
3.   Where is the most romantic place you and your spouse have ever been?
On a Caribbean cruise.
4.   How soon after meeting your spouse did you know he/she was the one?
Actually, we had one of those love-at-first-sight meetings. Three and a half months later, we were married.
5.   What is the most caring thing your spouse has ever done for you?
When we married, he was 25 and had been on his own for several years. At first, he wasn’t that attentive, but as we’ve been together longer and longer, he cherishes me and protects me more and more. He’s very attune to my desires and often meets them before I have ever had a chance to even voice them.
6.   Who said, “I love you” first, you or your spouse?
Always in relationships before James, I wouldn’t say I love you until after the man did, because I was afraid of being hurt. And I was always the one hurt in the breakup. So I didn’t say I love you to him first either. But this time, it was genuine.
7.   Where did you and your spouse go for your honeymoon?
Don’t laugh. We spent our wedding night at the Desert Inn in Ballinger, Texas, a tiny town not far from San Angelo. Since I was a first-year teacher, we didn’t want any high school or junior high students finding out where we would be. So we didn’t make reservations. Unbeknown to us, it was San Angelo College homecoming weekend and there was a major rodeo in town. When we got to town, every available room in San Angelo was taken. One man took pity on us and called ahead to this new motel which had been built primarily for deer hunters.
 About Lena: Lena Nelson Dooley is an award-winning author with more than 675,000 books in print. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers—where she received the Mentor of the Year award in 2006—DFW Ready Writers, CROWN Marketing and Christian Authors Network. She recently won the Will Rogers Medallion Award for excellence in western fiction. She lives in Hurst, Texas, with her husband of 47 years. http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
About Maggie’s Journey: A girl who’s been lied to her whole life…
Near her eighteenth birthday, Margaret Lenora Caine finds a chest hidden in the attic containing proof that she was adopted. The daughter of wealthy merchants in Seattle, she feels betrayed both by her real parents and by the ones who raised her.
Maggie desires a place where she belongs. But her mother’s constant criticism and reminders that she doesn’t fit the mold of a young woman of their social standing have already created tension in their home. With the discovery of the family secret, all sense of her identity is lost.
When Maggie asks to visit her grandmother in Arkansas, her father agrees on the condition that she take her Aunt Georgia as a chaperone and his young partner, Charles Stanton, as protection on the journey. Will she discover who she really is and, more importantly, what truly matters most in life?
Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616383585?ie=UTF8&tag=lenneldoochaw-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1616383585
Come back August 17th for the complete top ten list and see if your fave made the list.