Allie Pleiter on Snickers Bar Salad Day!

Guess what I had for breakfast recently?

Long-time Allie fans know November 1 calls for only one thing for breakfast: Snickers Bar Salad.  For over ten years I've been giving fans the perfect way to use up all those Halloween fun-sized Snickers Bars in the world's most indulgent breakfast.  Or lunch.  Or mid day snack. Or hey, all three--I won't judge.  

Why shouldn't you get in on the fun?  Here's the super-easy recipe:

Snickers Bar Salad

6 (or more--go ahead, you've earned it...) fun-sized Snickers bars, chopped into small bits
3 Granny Smith Apples, diced
one 5-oz package vanilla instant pudding mix
8 oz cool whip
1 c. milk

In a bowl, mix pudding mix and milk. Fold in Cool Whip. Mix in
apples and Snicker Bars. Cool and enjoy.

If you like, you can munch on this while you enjoy my upcoming release, A RANGER FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Allie Pleiter's Favorite Recipe

November 1 is a different kind of holiday at my house.  For almost fifteen years, November 1 has been "Snickers Bar Salad Day."  Quite frankly, it's the breakfast of choice for me on that particular day.  I thought I'd share it with you:

Snickers Bar Salad
6 bite-sized Snickers bars, chopped into small bits (more are permissible if it's been a bad week or PMS is involved!!)
3 Granny Smith Apples, diced
one 5-oz package vanilla instant pudding mix
8 oz cool whip
1 c. milk
In a bowl, mix pudding mix and milk. Fold in Cool Whip. Mix in apples and Snickers Bars. Cool and enjoy.

Lots of people have "extra" fun-sized Snickers bars hanging around this time of year, so this is the perfect way to use them up.

My hero and heroine Jesse and Charlotte have some wonderfully romantic food scenes in my current book SAVED BY THE FIREMAN.  Don't you want to know why Charlotte changes her mind to view Brussels Srouts as "the chocolate cake of vegetables"?  Chapter 10 will give you all the juicy details (pun intended!).

What about you?  What's your favorite indulgent breakfast?

After the Candy, Cards, Flower and Jewelry

This is Merrillee who is thinking about this day after Valentine's Day. The holiday meant for romance has become rather commercialized with the card, candy, jewelry and flower companies all vying for our money. So how do we show romance the other 364, or in the case of a leap year, 365 days of the year? I think romance sometimes comes down to the "little" thoughtful things we do for the people we love.



Here is a photo of an elevator, not the big fancy kind you find in hotels and office buildings, but the kind you might find in a small apartment building. This looks much like the elevator my daughter got stuck in while she lived in Boston. I'm mentioning this because I want to tell you about it as an illustration of doing things for the people we love. At the time, my daughter was dating a young man who spent a couple of hours talking to her through the closed door of the elevator until someone came to let her out. That fellow is now her husband.




You are probably wondering what the above image has to do with romance. I have another daughter, who has Crohn's disease, and she has a good number of medicines she must take in order to keep the disease in remission. Her sweet husband is faithful to remind her about taking her medicine, even when they were dating.




Here is an image of something we might associate with romance and Valentine's Day, but they can be a real delight when they are completely unexpected. My husband gave me a bouquet of red roses when I received a rejection on the first manuscript that I submitted to a publisher. What a special treat! Another bouquet of roses I'll never forget is the bouquet my kids gave me when I won the Golden Heart at RWA in 2003. They weren't at the ceremony because I didn't think there was a chance that I would win, but my husband called them. They were in NY just so the family could get together while I was there. They showed up at the conference hotel with a beautiful bouquet of orange roses that lasted for nearly two weeks even after traveling on a plane all the way from NY to Florida.

So here are some examples of every day things that on the surface don't spell romance, but they are all about love. Do you have a special memory or incident that spells romance to you? Tell us about it.