Live to Love on the Edge Blog

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Cuban Flan

So why is the first entry in this Cook’s Treat blog a Cuban flan?

Well, first, because I’m Cuban-American. Second, I have the world’s worst sweet tooth. I think meals should begin with dessert and only then proceed to anything else. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to convince others of that.

I learned to make flan from my grandmother and my sister learned from my mom. We both use different methods for making the caramel that is essential to a sweet flan. My mom and sis start with just sugar and melt the sugar sans water which has a tendency to produce a darker and slightly bitter tasting caramel. My grandma would dissolve the sugar in water first and then boil it down, kind of like making candy. The caramel this way is sweeter and lighter in color — actually clearless if you don’t want to push the cooking.

So here goes and for a little bit of family history — pictures of my abuelita (that’s Spanish for grandma) and mami (my mom!):

Basic Ingredients:

For the baking process: Large baking pan. 1 1/2 to 2 quart ovenproof baking dish (I use the same pan to make the caramel and then put the custard. Why wash two dishes? Corningware is da bomb for this. Hot water to fill large baking pan halfway up the sides.

For the caramel: 1 cup plain white sugar

For the custard:

  • 6 whole eggs
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 can Condensed Milk (Not evaporated, but Sweetened Condensed Milk. Magnolia or Eagle Brand are favorites!)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a large baking pan in the oven with hot, but not boiling water about half way up the side of the pan. This will make what is called a Bain Marie. The Bain Marie will help keep the flan from drying out and will allow it to cook evenly.

Step 2: Make the Caramel:

Mami’s Caramel!

Caridad's Mom as a teen

Start with 1 cup of sugar. Set it over medium heat in a heavy medium/small saucepan or preferably, an ovenproof 1 1/2 to 2 quart dish. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar is is melted and begins to turn golden. Keep on going until it is a dark dark brown. (Be very careful!! Cooked sugar is very hot and can burn the skin if it spatters.)

Abuelita’s Caramel (and guess who that is with grandma in the picture!)

Caridad and her abuelita in Cuba!

Start with 1/2 cup of sugar and dissolve it in 1/2 cup to 1 cup water. Make sure the sugar is fully dissolved before you begin to heat it (if you have any sugar left, it will form crystals and be gritty). Once the sugar is dissolved, set the pan with the sugar over medium heat in a heavy medium/small saucepan or preferably, an ovenproof dish. Use a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar water is reduced (it should get thicker as it cooks). Grandma liked it light, but you can let it get golden and keep on going until it is a dark brown. (Again, be very careful!! Cooked sugar is very hot and can burn the skin if it spatters.)

NEXT STEP regardless of how you made the caramel:

If you did not use an ovenproof pan/dish, quickly pour the hot caramel syrup into a baking dish (DO NOT GREASE THE PAN).

If you did use the ovenproof pan/dish — MAKE SURE TO PUT ON OVEN MITTS before proceeding!

Swirl the pan until the sugar coats the bottom and sides of the pan/dish. The caramel will start to harden at this point. When you cook the flan in the oven, the caramel will melt and make a delicious syrup that the flan will swim in. AGAIN be very careful. A sugar burn is quite painful!

Gently mix together the eggs and egg yolks. Do not create too much froth or bubbles as these will linger and ruin the texture of the flan. Add the condensed milk and gently mix a little more. Then finally add the rest of the regular whole milk (for ease and to get all the condensed milk, put the whole milk into the can and use it to wash out all of what lingers in the can from the thick condensed milk). Again, gently mix until the mixture is smooth.

Add the vanilla.

Pour this egg/milk custard mixture into the baking dish (make sure the caramel has set against the sides and bottom of the pan).

Set this baking dish into the larger baking pan with the hot water. Bake until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes or so. If it’s a little soft (but not runny), that’s okay as it will continue to cook for a bit. Be careful with the hot water in the bain marie (baking pan with water), but then let the flan cool in the water. After half an hour or so, remove the flan from the bain marie and refrigerate for at least an hour or more.

It’s actually preferable to make the flan and let it sit overnight so the caramel soaks into the outermost layer. Yum!

Before serving, run a sharp knife around the edge of the flan to release it from the baking dish. Place a larger serving plate (preferably with a small lip to keep the caramel liquid from spilling) over the baking dish and, invert the flan onto the serving platter.

Keep refrigerated until it’s time to serve.

For simple variations, you can add a little amaretto or grand marnier to both the caramel and the custard mix. For more complex variations, try a chocolate flan (which I’ve never made in my life!)

One thing that is delicious is to increase the number of egg yolks and eliminate the egg whites entirely. This will make a very thick rich egg custard called Toscinillo del Cielo.

Cuban Flan, made by my sister Carmen, is a staple at our Christmas Eve celebration. Why don’t you try it out as well!

Feliz Navidades,

Caridad

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The Amazon Addiction

This article first appeared in the October 2005 edition of the New Jersey Romance Writers’ Heartline Herald.  

            Come on, ‘fess up.  You do it.  A fan/friend/third cousin on your mother’s side of the family just e-mailed to let you know that your latest book is up on Amazon even though it isn’t going to be released for another six months. And so it begins — the Amazon Addiction.
            You immediately rush to the site and search out your release only to find your novel hasn’t generated enough interest to earn a sales rank.  So what’s an author to do about her unloved child?
            For some, it becomes a quest much like the Holy Grail, checking Amazon daily in the hopes of finally seeing some movement.  Querying authors of similar books to see how sales compare.
            Berta Platas, author of Cinderella Lopez which is slated for release in March 2006 and hit the Amazon list a few months ago confesses, “. . . I’m not addicted to the numbers.  Really, I’m not.  So . . . I’m tracking our anthology. It’s doing decently. But is it decent enough?  So I put in the ISBN for somebody who’s really racing. . . Then I add ISBNs for friend’s books, since I have 25 slots I can fill. Every day I log on to see how my book is doing. . .  But I’m not addicted. I can quit anytime. Honest.”
            Do the numbers change so radically that such frequent checking accomplishes anything?
            Amazon updates its numbers on an hourly basis so you may see the sales rank change quite often.  But the numbers at Amazon can be deceptive for a number of reasons.  First, it is my understanding that the sales rank number does not reflect just actual sales, but also popularity of the item based on searches conducted by users as well as the number of books ordered in one sale.
            I decided to test my understanding.  Checking the sales rank on my two latest releases, DANGER CALLS and TEMPTATION CALLS, I found that the books sat at 359469 and 418471 respectively.  Would my single order drastically change the rank?  After placing an order for 5 copies of TEMPTATION CALLS, I watched the number rise to 78605 by the next day (and this was nearly two months before its release date).
            Hmm?  What would multiple orders do to the sales rank on a book? I wondered.  DARKNESS CALLS is sold out and so only used copies are available.  When I began this exercise, DARKNESS CALLS had a sales rank of 244261.  After ordering five books from 5 different vendors at Amazon Marketplace, the sales rank jumped to 12181 within the hour.
           Amazon numbers are, therefore, apparently ephemeral and affected by an assortment of factors.  Agent Caren Johnson of the Peter Rubie Literary Agency notes, “I never check the numbers. . . Instead I check sales reports and royalty statements.”  This opinion was echoed by Editor Stacy Boyd of Silhouette.  “I tend to get my sales info from the point of sales data collected by our company, as well as figures from Waldenbooks and other chains.”
            What is clear is that with hourly updates, an author lucky enough to appear on television or have a news article featuring them can rush to Amazon and determine whether or not that appearance/article has achieved an increase in their Amazon number.  Caren Johnson concurs.  “Amazon numbers are a great way to gauge public interest in your book, which is helpful, especially when you have a marketing campaign you’re starting or the like.  Then you can see what is most effective for driving sales to your book.”
            Can the Amazon sales ranks be extrapolated as an indication of the actual position of your book in the marketplace?
            In his July 2000 article in Time magazine, Richard Corliss noted that “(t)he Amazon sample can be misleading since the taste of its buyers doesn’t always match that of bookstore browsers.  Self-improvement texts do better . . . romance novels far worse.”
            Does that principle still apply?
            A recent check of the New York Times Bestsellers versus the Amazon Top Sellers revealed that not one romance had apparently made it into the Amazon Top 50. So how did romances fare on the NYT Bestseller list compared to the Amazon Sales rank?  See for yourself in the following table: 

NYT Bestseller Rank

Amazon Sales Rank

            Title

           Author

#3 Hardcover

241

SLOW BURN

Julie Garwood

#5 Hardcover

205

POINT BLANK

Catherine Coulter

#1 Paperback

613

NIGHT TALES: NIGHT SHADE/NIGHT SMOKE

Nora Roberts

#3 Paperback

3008

PAYBACK

Fern Michaels

           In addition, it is my understanding that for category novels, most sales occur through bookstores and direct sales and not through Amazon.  What about other paperback novels?  Estimates from various sources indicate that anywhere from 5% of 15% of sales are generated through Amazon.  Silhouette Editor Jessica Alvarez notes, “Amazon numbers represent only a part of our distribution and the final national result is much more important to us.  Still, it is interesting to see how books perform at different retailers and how the rankings can shift from place to place. “
           So what’s the moral of this story?  Whether or not your book has sold well is best determined by the sales data and royalty sheets provided by your publisher.  However, Amazon can gauge increased activity related to your book.
           Not to mention that it is such a rush when your Amazon Addiction lets you see that the sales rank on your novel has broken through to the top 1000.  How do I know?  I’m a recovering Amazon Addict!

Copyright 2005 Caridad Pineiro Scordato

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Sexual Tension and a Poll on LOST

I’m going to spill a deep dark secret – I’m obsessive, especially about good writing which explains in part my interest in All Things Buffy.  Buffy probably had some of the best writing ever on television and with it gone, I’ve experienced a profound television viewing void.  Of course, I’m filling that void with programs like House, Veronica Mars, Supernatural and another cult favorite – LOST.

On the topic of LOST, somehow television executives have decided that we should go for weeks on end with no new shows, a phenomenon I can’t understand and a sure fire way to lose viewers in my humble opinion.  So, since we will apparently face weeks without a new show shortly–  and since I’m obsessive remember – what better way to pass the time than to conduct a scientific study on sexual tension on LOST!! How you ask?  We’ll I’ve set up a poll at my Newsletter/Contest loop and I’m asking you to vote on the question of:

Who would you like to see together on Lost?

Kate and Jack

Kate and Sawyer

Because I understand obsession, I’ve also added a few long shots like:

Kate and Locke

Kate and Hurley

and of course, Kate and Juliet for all of you into Slash Fiction out there.

If you’d like to offer your comments on the poll and/or the choices, please post them here!

Here’s a link to the Poll Blog:

Kate/Sawyer/Jack/Hurley/Locke/Juliet/LOST Poll 

Thanks for all your votes and comments in advance! Caridad

P.S. – For those of you who have visited the blog, you can also click on the link for Naughty Nibbles and see just how far my Buffy obsession goes!   

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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My Buffy Obsession

So if you’ve read the blog, you know I’ve got a Buffy Obsession.  How bad?  My husband joked that if I was the victim in a Law and Order Ripped from the Headlines story, Lennie Brisco would walk into my office, walk out and say to his partner “You gotta see this!”

So, here’s a photo from an Edison-Metuchen Sentinel article a few years back.  This is just a small section of my office.  In addition to what you see, I’ve got a collection of action figures, skateboard and even props from the show!

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Realms of Fantasy

I can’t tell you how excited I am about all the promotions that are going on for Harlequin’s new Nocturne line!

Look for the December issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine which has a free Nocturne sampler containing my short novella DESIRE CALLS which will be a free electronic read on eharlequin.com in April. In January, this magazine will have an interview with me about THE CALLING Vampire series.

Also check out the Realms of Fantasy Community Forum where I’ve posted some information about DESIRE CALLS! Come join me and ask some questions about this novella, my December release, Death Calls (Nocturne), or any of the other books in THE CALLING vampire series.

I was recently featured in the Detroit Free Press and here’s a link to the article:
PAGING ALL MONSTERS

Check out the cover of my January release, Devotion Calls (Nocturne). I’ve given you a change of pace since the blood-sucking demon in this book is a chupacabra! The hero, Ricardo Fernandez, is a psychic healer who is posing as a Santero in Spanish Harlem.

Thanks for all your support!
Caridad

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An America Encounter

I’m so excited to see how well UGLY BETTY is doing.

Plus, I love America Ferreira! She was great in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and my family had the opportunity of seeing her off-off Broadway in a show called DOG SEES GOD. The show also had Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Eddie Kaye Thomas (of American Pie fame and now on ‘Til Death on Fox) and Ian Somerholder (Boone from LOST).

We waited at the stage door to meet the stars of the show. Somerholder completely ignored his fans which totally disappointed my daughter. He ran out without stopping for pictures or autographs, but not America and Eddie Kaye Thomas.

Even though it was freezing, they both signed autographs, talked to the fans and posed for pictures. Here’s a cute one with America pre-Ugly Betty! Thanks for being so gracious, America!

America Ferreira - Ugly Better

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Mix One Part Mystery, One Part Action and How Many Parts Passion?

This Article was first published in August 2006 in the New Jersey Romance Writers Heartline Herald:

Mystery.  Action.  Passion.  These are the integral elements of the romance subgenre titled Romantic Suspense.  In the 2005 Romance Writers of America Market survey, “Mystery, Action and Thriller” were plot elements that nearly 48% of readers indicated that they enjoyed, a testament to the enduring appeal of the Romantic Suspense subgenre. According to industry statistics gathered by RWA, nearly 29.6% of popular fiction sales were for Mystery/Detective/Suspense novels.

But just how many parts of each of these elements do you need in order for a novel to be considered Romantic Suspense and not just a mystery, thriller or romance?

A balance of romance and mystery is key to creating a Romantic Suspense because readers of this subgenre expect two key things:  1) that there is some mystery that will need to be solved; and 2) that the protagonists will eventually fall in love.  With today’s trends toward stronger, more independent heroines, expect that many Romantic Suspenses may also have a fair share of action as part of the mystery subplot.  In addition, with the growing popularity of paranormals, you may also find paranormal elements creeping into Romantic Suspense.  For example, my first vampire novel, DARKNESS CALLS, was crafted to be predominantly a Romantic Suspense with a secondary vampire subplot.

What kinds of novels fit the mold of Romantic Suspense?  Single titles such as  BREAKWATER by Carla Neggers, CLOSE-UP by Virginia Kantra, and COLD TRUTH by Mariah Stewart exemplify the subgenre.  Single title novels generally run from 85,000 to 100,000 words and with the longer length thanks to this word count, both the mystery and romance elements may include secondary characters and plots, but key to having a Romantic Suspense will be the coexistence of both romance and mystery in the storyline and the resolution that Romantic Suspense readers expect, namely, a happily-ever-after for a hero and heroine who have found love along the way to solving the mystery.

Romantic Suspense single titles are being sought by publishers like Avon, Berkley/Jove, Dorchester and Harlequin just to name a few although there are many others (check out http://www.karenafox.com/publishers.htm for addtional information).

Series such as Silhouette Bombshell, Harlequin Intrigue and Silhouette Intimate Moments typify Romantic Suspense category novels.

Silhouette Bombshell personifies the trend toward action-packed novels with larger-than-life kick butt heroines.  Think Alias, Lara Croft and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all of which contained peril, mystery and of course, romance.  For Bombshell, keep in mind that the guidelines stress that the heroine’s savvy, sexiness and strength will help her get herself and others out of difficult situations and provide a thrill-ride for the reader.  The novels, however, “also contain an exciting romance subplot, and, in the end, the heroine always gets her man!”  The Bombshell word count is from 70,000 to 75,000.

So if Bombshell is one part mystery, two parts action and one part romance, how can we categorize Romantic Suspense lines such as Harlequin Intrigue and Silhouette Intimate Moments?

Silhouette Intimate Moments seems to have struggled with its identity in past years, but the rebranding that will begin in October and finish with the line being renamed Silhouette Romantic Suspense in February 2007 makes it clear what this line is all about – action, mystery and romance.  But are Silhouette Intimate Moments one part mystery and two parts romance?  The guidelines available at eharlequin.com make it clear that “(a) strong, compelling romance should dominate the book, but there must be a suspense plot. Silhouette Intimate Moments romances are fueled by the romance and not the suspense.”

The Capturing the Crown Series from Silhouette Intimate Moments is one example of a Romantic Suspense continuity series.  A continuity series is a set of novels written by several different authors, but with a story arc that spans all the novels.  This involves working with a detailed “bible” created by either the publisher or the authors.  The “bible” will detail the elements of each novel as well as the continuing story threads that each author must place in their novels in order to keep the story arc going from one novel to the next.

The Silhouette Intimate Moments/Romantic Suspense word count is from 60,000 to 65,000.

Harlequin Intrigue, on the other hand, clearly places its focus on having two parts peril to one part romance.  As noted in the guidelines at eharlequin.com, “(w)hether a murder mystery, psychological suspense or thriller, the love story must be inextricably bound to the mystery where all loose ends are tied up neatly…and shared dangers lead right to shared passions.”  Kathleen Long’s WHEN A STRANGER CALLS is one example of  the kind of Romantic Suspense in the Harlequin Intrigue line, which has a word count of 60,000 to 65,000.

So what is the perfect recipe for a Romantic Suspense?

Regardless of how many parts action, mystery or thriller you include in your recipe, there’s one element you can’t be without – romance.  It’s the spice providing the essential flavoring to all the other elements in the subgenre known as Romantic Suspense.

Copyright 2006 Caridad Pineiro Scordato

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