Thursday, August 21, 2008

Favorite Things

So I have this list of some of my favorite things that I thought I'd share (warning: longish), and to humor me since today is my birthday and all, I'd like everyone to list some of their favorite things...as many as you like...okay, seriously, no more than say...41. Yeah, 41 favorite things is the limit...LOL

‘These Are A Few of My Favorite Things’ Lists By Liza James

Favorite Ice Cream – Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food...Chocolate ice cream, gooey marshmallow, swirls of caramel, yummy little chocolate fishies....ahhhh, it doesn’t get much better than that! I also recommend Karamel Sutra, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, New York Super Fudge Chunk & Coffee Heath Bar Crunch!

Favorite Fruit – Strawberries ‘n’ Cream...Okay, the cream isn’t technically ‘fruit’, but I can’t eat strawberries without it.

Mix well one 8 ounce cream cheese with one 7 -7 ½ ounce jar Marshmallow fluff and chill.

Favorite Vegetable – Zucchini...I love it baked with a savory mix of bread crumbs, mushrooms, tomatoes, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese. But nothing beats chocolate-chocolate chip zucchini bread. Here’s the recipe – enjoy!

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Mix together: 3 cups flour1 ½ teaspoons baking powder½ cup sugar1 teaspoon baking soda2/3 cup brown sugar1 teaspoon salt1/3 to ½ unsweetened cocoa powder Then add: 3 beaten eggs2 cups shredded zucchini¾ cup vegetable oil2 teaspoons vanilla1 cup chocolate chips

Mix well, divide between two greased bread pans, and bake at 325 for about an hour.

* * *

Favorite Soup – Cream of Potato...Nothing makes my husband happier than a bowl (or three) of homemade Cream of Potato Soup! The key is the leeks, I won’t make it without them.

Favorite Meal – Swedish Meatballs, and no, not the Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup kind! I like them over white rice, I like them over noodles, but nothing is yummier than Swedish Meatballs over mashed potatoes, baby!

Favorite Dessert – Chocolate Dreams...Which is exactly what they are, literally, since Piggly Wiggly’s bakery no longer carries them...:::sniff:::... Moist Chocolate cake, a huge dollop of real whipped cream, covered in a thick blanket of chocolate ganache. I miss you, my little darlings!

Favorite Food To Have Eaten Off Of Me – Hot Fudge...Because it’s nice and sticky and takes a lot of extra licks to get off. ;-)

Favorite TV Series (past) – Little House on the Prairie & Buffy the Vampire Slayer...Okay, yeah, from one end of the spectrum to the other...LOL But both of these shows were phenomenal in my book.

Smart, snappy dialogue, monsters galore, and two of the hottest vampires ever, Angel and Spike...sigh...Luckily, Santa Claus bought my daughter the whole series on DVD for Christmas last year, so mommy can get her Angel/Spike fix any time she needs it. ;-)

No one tugged at the heartstrings like Michael Landon in Little House on the Prairie. And those episodes were written with such emotion...something I try to incorporate in my own stories. I’ve seen each episode numerous times, yet if I’m flipping through the channels and I come across one, I can’t help but stop and watch (same with the movie Roadhouse starring Patrick Swayze ).

*side note – The pen name Liza James is a play on Walnut Grove’s school teacher/Laura’s sister-in-law, Eliza Jane.*

Favorite TV Series (present) – Bones & House

The only thing I’d ever seen Hugh Laurie in before House was the Stuart Little movies, so I wasn’t sure if this series would interest me. Boy, was I wrong! Hugh Laurie is not only funnier than I ever imagined he could be, but each episode manages to grab & hold my interest until the very end. I sure hope House has several more seasons in its future! I hate saying goodbye!

Bones is another homerun for me. Yes, I love me some David Boreanaz, but the whole cast is awesome. And the chemistry between Booth and Bones is undeniably hot!

Favorite Food Network Shows – Iron Chef (the original & America), all of the Food Network Challenges, and Good Eats! I could listen to Alton Brown talk all day...LOL

Favorite Soap Operas – All My Children, Days of Our Lives & One Life To Live.

Favorite Sitcom – Two & A Half Men...LOL Funny! I swear, some episodes I have to sit with my legs crossed I laugh so hard!

Favorite Publisher - *Warning-the following answer contains heavy sucking up* The Wild Rose Press.

Favorite Review – Branded - By Liza James Written by Chrissy Dionne, Romance Junkies"Liza James’ short story BRANDED will have readers’ toes tingling with the intensity of the sexual encounters between Troy and Lily. From the first page right through to the last there’s no doubt that this couple is meant to be together. What I hadn’t expected was to become so enraptured by the tale that I didn’t want it to end. At only nineteen pages BRANDED is an excellent short story that will satisfy your need for a hot story when you don’t have a whole lot of time to invest in reading. Wonderfully written Ms. James!”

Favorite Yahoo Group – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EroticCravings

EroticCravings is a group of erotic romance writers who are very close to my heart: KyAnn Waters, Meagan Hatfield, Eden Rivers, and me! I’m so lucky to be a part of them!

Favorite Season – Fall! Perfect weather, gorgeous foliage, pumpkin pie, and Halloween!

Favorite Holiday – *See Favorite Season*

Favorite Way To Relax – Reading a great book in a hot bubble bath!

Favorite Movie Genres – Horror & Comedy...some of my all-time favorites, just to name a few:

Horror: The Changeling, Dracula (1979), Salem’s Lot (1979 - what can I say, it was a good year), The Ring, The Exorcist, The Shining, The Omen, Christine, Carrie, My Bloody Valentine, Evilspeaks....wow, I could go on forever!

Comedy: Arthur, Just One of the Guys, Easy Money, Stir Crazy, Back To School, Porky’s, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Bachelor Party, National Lampoon’s Vacation (Okay, so I’m stuck in the 80s. )

Favorite Gangster Movies – Goodfellas & Scarface (I can’t decide!)

Favorite Song – All Right Now by Free (Yep, I’m a rocker!)

Favorite Sports – Football & Figure Skating...Yeah, I know, weird, right? LOL

Favorite Football Teams – I can’t choose between The Packers & Da Bears!

Favorite Ice Dancers – Torvill & Dean...1984 Olympics, All perfect 6.0s. J

Favorite Cartoon Character – Jimmy Neutron, much to the disgust of my daughters...LOL

Favorite Game Shows – Press Your Luck & The Gong Show...remember those?

Favorite Stooge – Curly! It’s not even a competition!

Favorite Vampires – The Black Dagger Brotherhood! What a sexy bunch of ass-kickin’ blood suckers...Thank you, J.R. Ward!

Favorite Authors (past & present, in no particular order) – Lori Foster, J.R. Ward, Lara Adrian, Janet Evanovich, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz, Judith McNaught, Dorothy Garlock, Rebecca Paisley, Julie Garwood, Catherine Hart, Johanna Lindsey, Karen Robards, Mary Jo Putney, Norah Hess, Catherine Coulter, Katherine Sutcliffe, Elizabeth Lowell...I could go on and on and on....

Favorite (or just plain memorable) Books – A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Dearly Beloved by Mary Jo Putney, A Fire in the Heart by Katherine Sutcliffe, Island Flame by Karen Robards, Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood, Cry No More by Linda Howard, Say No To Joe? by Lori Foster, Hawke’s Pride by Norah Hess, Angel by Johanna Lindsey, Angel In Scarlet by Jennifer Wilde, Nightrose, Wild, Sweet Wilderness, Annie Lash, Midnight Blue, and the River and Wind Trilogies by Dorothy Garlock, and anything written by Rebecca Paisley.

Favorite Anthology – Welcome To Redemption by Donna Marie Rogers & Stacey Joy NetzelJ

Favorite Stephanie Plum Book – Hard Eight, and all you Ranger fans will know why...LOL

Favorite Craft book – The Bald-Headed Hermit and the Artichoke, An Erotic Thesaurus by A.D. Peterkin...Okay, honestly, I just like the title, but it does have some interesting pictures...LOL

Favorite Heroes – Joe Winston (Say No To Joe? by Lori Foster), Royce Westmoreland/The Wolf (A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught), Ricardo Carlos Manoso aka Ranger (Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich).

Favorite Heroines – Lady Madelyne (Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood), Jennifer Merrick (A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught), Stephanie Plum (Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich), Peachy McGee (Midnight & Magnolias by Rebecca Paisley).

Favorite Liza James story – How am I supposed to choose just one of my babies? I love ‘em all!

Available from The Wild Rose Press:

~Only Man For the Job
~Branded
~Mischief in the Dark
~Game On
~Mischief in the Garage (Free Read)

12 comments:

DawnM said...

Super New York Fudge Chunk...yum, yum, yum. Only I can't get it any more. SOBS. None of my local stores stock it.

Helen Hardt said...

Happy Birthday!

I feel for you, Dawn. My favorite is Brownie Batter, and I can rarely find it. I can usually find NY Super Fudge Chunk, though, which is also awesome!

My favorite season is fall, like you, Liza. And I also love Little House, but the books, not the tv series. My all time favorite sitcom is I Love Lucy, followed by The George Lopez Show. Eclectic, I know, LOL.

Hero? Jamie Fraser in Outlander. Heroine? Evie Jenner in Devil in Winter.

Fun post!

Helen
www.helensheroes.blogspot.com

Donna Marie Rogers said...

Dawn, I feel your pain!

Helen, my 4 year-old daughter the other day said, "Mom, I hate George Lopez, turn him off!" LOL No idea where her dislike of Georg Lopez came from. I have the LHOTP books, but haven't read them. I've heard the TV program was VERY different than the books.

Lara Dien said...

Liza--you are such a midwesterner. I was looking for the green-bean casserole topped with potato chips...

Okay, here's a short list of my favorite things:

To do (out of a bedroom, lol): talk (who'da thunk); tell stories; read stories; hike/canoe/all that wilderness crap. Except not here in Florida--snakes and gators are NOT on the favorite things list!

Ice cream: Ben and Jerry's classics: chunky monkey, cherry garcia, occasionally a new one for a switch--love the dublin mudslide and full vermonty....Publix (store) brand Peppermint Stick.

Authors: Karen Rose, Charles de Lint, William Bernhardt, James Rollins, Christopher Moore, Georgette Heyer, Rachel Gibson, Marianne Stillings...the list goes on, I'm tired, I'm at work, I'm not looking at my bookshelf LOL

Actors: George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Gerard Butler (but that's purely based on looks!)

Favorite Movies: Casablanca, Bloodbath at the House of Death (horror spoof; UK; 1983 or -4; Vincent Price....'nuff said); Celestine Prophecy; Frequency; P&P (BBC version preferred); Sense & Sensibility

Season: also fall; and my birthday is on Halloween....

Foods: sushi! Also Thai, Vietnamese, Indian....I was 18 or 20 before I learned how to grill a steak LOL

Favorite wines: red! Zinfandel, Malbec, some Rhones...big, juicy reds...oh, and champagne, of course.

Radio programs: Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (on NPR)

Music: rock, folk, Celtic, classical

I think that's more than 41, Liza, but not by much LOL

Lara

PS Happy Birthday!

Donna Marie Rogers said...

*Liza--you are such a midwesterner. I was looking for the green-bean casserole topped with potato chips...*

What gave me away? LOL And Green Bean casserole is topped with French's onions or tator tots...sheesh...LOL

Man, Lara, we couldn't any more different if we tried! ;-) I mean, ice cream with fruit in it??? BLECH! Okay, I do love Vincent Price (remember the shrunken heads made with apples back in the 70s? Didn't Vincent Price voice the commerical? *G*). And a Halloween baby, now that would be so freakin' cool! LOVE Halloween!

Lara Dien said...

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention I LOATHE LHOTP--read the books as a kid and liked them, but when the show started, I was a little old for it, and it was the only television my parents thought was wholesome enough to watch. Really, by the time you were, say, 12, did you like ANYTHING adults thought was good for you?

BTW, you do realize that B&J puts chocolate in almost everything, right? LOL I like contrasting flavors in my food....I can easily be pursuaded to go for pizza, though :-)

Sorry about the casserole faux pas--my youngest sis moved to Wisconsin almost 18 years ago to please her born-and-bred husband and I swear he made her put potato chips on everything.

TamiC said...

Oh my goodness, that is a lot of favorites! Happy Birthday, Just out of curiosity did you pick 41 because thats your age? I don't have anywhere close to 41 favorite anythings. Since everyone mentioned ice cream, mine is rocky road with caramel sauce on it.

Anonymous said...

my fav things are my family i have a big one mum and dad are both one of 6 im one of 5 i have 3 sons and 20 nieces and nephews including foster one (they are just as much ours) as the blood ones
my fav time is the time i spend with my sons
and studing towards a law degree

my other fav time is making friends from all over the world

angie

Unknown said...

hmm one of my favorites... godiva dark chocolate truffles..
isnt dark chocolate a food staple of life? lol...
gotta love midwesterners.. and i may be 40 years old but i still love to watch little house..

Donna Marie Rogers said...

Heck, I hated LHOTP when I was a kid. My mom would watch it and cry...LOL Not something an angsty kid wants to do. *G* I didn't become addicted until maybe 5 years ago.

And hey, I grew in the south suburbs of Chicago; I never even heard of green bean casserole till I moved up here...LOL So you may be right about the potato chips, I just haven't seen it yet.

Yep, Tami, I'm 41 today. And rocky road w/caramel sounds heavenly!

Angie, you're a kind soul, I'm happy to 'know' you. :-)

Hey, nascarandbeans....well, I wish I knew your name...LOL But yeah, Godiva dark chocolate (or milk) and LHOTP, sounds good to me. ;-)

Danetteb said...

Happy Birthday!

We spent yesturday celebrating my youngest daughter's 5th.

One of my favorite sitcom's is Two and a half Men, Charlie and his mom crack me up :D

I watch Bones to see David,but my favorite drama show is Heroes.

Have a sweet birthday.

Hugs, Danette

Donna Marie Rogers said...

Thanks, Danette! Yeah, that Charlie Sheen's a riot a minute. :-)