Today
I have the privilage of hosting Vanessa
Morgan, author of GPS With Benefits! She's going to share some awesome recipes of her fall favs. I’m going to hand over the spotlight
without further ado.
The
main reason I love fall is because it’s just so… cozy. Fall stands for reading
and writing in bed, for endless movie marathons and for the following treats
and drinks…
Roasted
butternut squash
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the squash, cut it
in half long-ways, remove the seeds and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Grease a
baking pan with cooking spray. Place the squash on pan with ½ teaspoon salt and
2 teaspoons cinnamon and toss it around. Bake for 45 minutes (flipping squash
at around 20 minutes). Remove squash from oven and add 3 tablespoons maple
syrup and 2-4 crushed walnuts. Toss it all together and bake for 5 more
minutes.
Spicy
pumpkin soup
Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and cut into cubes. Put 4 red chilies,
4 shallots, 1 garlic clove, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Szechuan
pepper and the zest of two limes in the food processor. Bring 800ml coconut
milk to boil. Add pumpkin and mix to pan. Then reduce the heat and simmer until
pumpkin is tender. Garnish with Thai basil.
Hot
apple juice with cinnamon
Combine 4 cups apple juice, 1 cup water, 1 thinly
sliced orange and 1 stick cinnamon in a large saucepan and bring to boil.
Reduce heat to simmer; continue cooking for 10 minutes. Strain and serve in
warm mugs. Garnish with orange slices.
Pumpkin
spice milkshake
Put 1 glass of vanilla-flavored soy milk, 1 banana
and 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice in the food processor. Serve chilled. Some
people also add canned pumpkin puree.
What
do you like about fall? Do you have any favorite fall drinks or treats?
When Vanessa Morgan’s first novel of supernatural suspense, Drowned Sorrow, came out in 2009, critics all over the world praised her as the ‘female version of Stephen King’. In 2010 followed a short YA story: The Strangers Outside. Both books quickly became Amazon bestsellers and are currently being turned into movies.
Suko’s Notebook called her writing “Everything horror fiction should be: creepy, scary, suspenseful, and yet also touching”, horror director Lucky McKee said Vanessa is “a startling new voice in horror”, and author Scott Nicholson has hailed her as a “talent of pacing and spookiness”.
Vanessa Morgan was born May 24, 1975 in Vilvoorde, Belgium. She graduated from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and she first worked as a freelance journalist, a language teacher and a pet supply store manager before becoming a full-time writer. Her native language is Dutch, but she loves to write in other languages such as English and French.
Vanessa Morgan lives in Brussels, Belgium, where she is at work on a French vampire screenplay for Radowski Films and a comic book series starring her beloved cat Avalon.
Suko’s Notebook called her writing “Everything horror fiction should be: creepy, scary, suspenseful, and yet also touching”, horror director Lucky McKee said Vanessa is “a startling new voice in horror”, and author Scott Nicholson has hailed her as a “talent of pacing and spookiness”.
Vanessa Morgan was born May 24, 1975 in Vilvoorde, Belgium. She graduated from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and she first worked as a freelance journalist, a language teacher and a pet supply store manager before becoming a full-time writer. Her native language is Dutch, but she loves to write in other languages such as English and French.
Vanessa Morgan lives in Brussels, Belgium, where she is at work on a French vampire screenplay for Radowski Films and a comic book series starring her beloved cat Avalon.
Stalk Vanessa:
Those recipes look scrumptious. I, too, enjoy the flavours of the season - pumpkin or squash and spice is a delight. But, it's of the colour and magic of this season that I am most fond. I am biased, after all. I was named for the most beautiful, the most colourful, the most romantic and passionate of the seasons. Autumn is vibrant and in this season I feel most myself. The glorious contradictions - a celebration of life and death, the tempestuous unpredictability, the riot of colour, everything is old and new - I love it all - and, I suppose, this song that I wrote about it says it a whole lot better than I am saying it here: http://autumndawnleader.bandcamp.com/track/gloriously-autumnal
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