FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD FROM KINDLE--TODAY ONLY!

Hi Readers! Today my publisher is offering  FREE  on Amazon Kindle my (one and only) nonfiction book, DEVOTED TO COOKING. (Usually $2.99 ) Today (January 28, 2012) it's FREE!

http://www.amazon.com/Devoted-Cooking-Inspiration-Aspiring-ebook/dp/B003UNLC24/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1327769275&sr=1-1

Not a mystery, but true and written straight from my heart. In my writing, I always tell the truth as I see it.

DEVOTED TO COOKING is a sharing of family stories and individual lives and of cooking food needed to get through each day, whether happy, tragic or just mundane. Everyone deserves a proper serving of both love and food; all it takes is a little determination, a bit of planning, and regular prayer.

The book is written with Jennifer Sohl, chef and caterer, who happens to be my youngest daughter. Her passion is cooking and mine is writing, so we combined our talents for this book.

Jennifer shares hard-learned secrets of creative artistlry in cooking that will delight families and mystify friends. She tells how to organize your time so your family can eat home-cooked meals. She has collected and mastered quick and easy-to-prepare recipes necessary to balance the family budget and at the same time to provide tasty, healthy and attractive meals for her family.

She also tells how she started her business on a shoe string, and gives helpful advice and encouragement for anyone interested in striking out your own.

I share my life's path through divorce, death of a beloved son, and single living.

Today's impossible schedules with overworked parents, harried children, and fast-food eaten on the run, are flaws of our technological society. Although some meals-on-the run can't be avoided, you can learn to prepare and serve beautiful, tasty and simple meals for yourself and/or your family. A new demension of love and devotion is added to life when families eat together with everyone present and with the television turned off.

I hope you each enjoy your free e-book copy of DEVOTED TO COOKING. Available January 28, 2012 FREE on Amazon Kindle.

Hugs,

Jackie

THE MOST WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER

The following story was told me by June Butts, and made tears come to my eyes. Picture a very poor family in the 1950's in South Texas, down on their luck, but filled with love and courage. June is speaking:

Daddy sat on the floor and gathered us eleven kids around him in a circle. I remember that he had tears in his eyes, so I knew what he was going to tell us was really important.

“Santa can’t come to visit you this year at Christmas,” Daddy said. “But he said to tell you that he could come in the spring. He promised you that.”

Times had been hard since Daddy had been hurt on the job and us kids were really looking forward to getting something special from Santa. But now Daddy was saying that a few reindeer had gone lame and Santa was rescheduling delivering some children’s toys until springtime. We all felt real bad about that, but we knew that it wasn’t our Daddy’s fault.

Then on Christmas Eve, Daddy stuck his hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out a single bill. “I have one dollar left,” he said to Mama. “I’m going down to the dime-store to get something for these kids.” Then he left the house.

A dollar seemed like a lot back then, but I knew that it couldn’t buy presents for so many kids. I also knew that my daddy could do about anything.

When Daddy came home he had bought a package of jacks. He gathered us kids around him on the floor, and played jacks with us for most of that night. And that was the best Christmas we ever had.

***

June’s story made my eyes sting with tears, and I blinked them away. I pictured this sweet man, sitting with his children around him, celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus with an inexpensive package of jacks. How appropriate, I thought. Jesus came from a humble and hardworking family. Our Lord was born in a lowly manger. A thrill of joy filled my heart at a poor man offering all he had to his family on that special night. His offering must have pleased our Savior. June’s Daddy gave everything he had—his last dollar, his time, and most of all his loving heart.

And for your palate:

Heavenly Coconut-Meringue Kisses

Contributed by Nadine Cravello

3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons sugar or Splenda
½ teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons shredded coconut.

Heat oven to 275 degrees (slow oven). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat 3 Egg whites with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in 3 Tablespoon of sugar or Splenda a little at a time. Continue beating until stiff. Fold in ½ teaspoon of vanilla. Gradually fold in 3 tablespoons of shredded Coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper. Bake until delicately brown (about 30 minutes). Cool gradually away from drafts.

Enjoy with your family.

Published in DEVOTED TO COOKING by Jacqueline King and Jennifer Sohl. Publisher: Devoted Books an imprint of AWOC.COM Publishing. 2008

Available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook.