The big day is finally here. The third in the Lowcountry Romance novels, Dining with Joy.
This is a fun book with serious undertones about a cooking show host who can’t cook. In the video below, I talk how I came up with this concept and the process of writing the book.
Thomas Nelson is partnering with me to host a contest, for you, the reader! Post your comments below for a chance to win. See contest rules here.
What’s up for grabs? An KitchenAid Artisan Mixer is
the grand prize. The winner will be chosen randomly on December 3rd after the December 2nd deadline.
You can post a comment, or your own fun kitchen-cooking story. Stupid Cooking Tricks is an element on Joy’s show and we invite you to share your own stories.
I’ll be sharing mine this week.
Ten runner ups will receive a signed copy of Dining with Joy and the new Thomas Nelson cookbook, Second Helpings with Johnnie Gabriel.
I’m excited for this opportunity for you all!
Dining with Joy video
Comments 160
I’m so excited to read Dining With Joy! I’ve read all of your books and have been anxiously awaiting the release of this one. Congrats!!
Love your eye-catching cover. I’m sure it will fly off bookstore shelves.
loves_the_c(at)yahoo(dot)com
Can’t wait to read DINING WITH JOY – I purchased it for my snugly week of reading and sipping cocoa over Christmas. LOVE the cover!!!
This book looks like so much fun! The one mishap I remember was actually a story my mom told (and appropriate for the holiday). When she was a new bride, for the first Thanksgiving, she thought she was supposed to “cook and thicken” the canned pumpkin before putting it in the pie shell. What came out was this awful green glob in the crust. I never forgot that story she shared. 🙂
blissful63(at)gmail(dot)com
wow what an awesome contest!
aimymichelle[at]gmail[dot]com
I’m looking forward to reading Dining with Joy…I’ve heard some good things about it. 🙂
The one cooking mishap I can think of is when I cooked rice for the first time. I was making a soup that called for rice. If I remember correctly it called for 1/2 cup of rice. I didn’t think that would be enough so I added either half the bag or all. As you can imagine I didn’t end up with a pot of soup but a HUGE pot of rice. 😀
sundaisy920 at gmail dot com
Thanks for stopping by everyone! Spread the word.
Lauralee, that is too funny.
I need to get my cooking disaster story together. 🙂
Rachel
I’m not very patient when it comes to food so most of the mishaps are my fault; I’m better at slicing and dicing LOL I really don’t have any memorable ones – although I did attempt to make a Bob the Tomato birthday cake before and the icing ended up pink. That was interesting.
I love your books, you’re one of my favorite authors!
Sounds like a really good book. My first cooking blunder was in college. I tried to make gray for my boyfriend(now my husband). Actually he tried to help, but we used cornmeal instead of flour. LOL, that combined with having no idea what we were doing lead to fire alarms sounding and going out to eat!
Love the cover of Dining With Joy…great story!
As a new cook I was making chili. The recipe didn’t seem seem spicey so I added 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Let’s just say that after the first bite everyone ran for their water glasses!
Love your style, Rachel. Congrats on the new book. Kitchen mishaps? At the moment I’m just thinking about how badly I need that Kitchen Aid mixer … You see, my baby (now 22 months) LOVES playing with the mixer attachments to my Hamilton Beach one. Well, I’ve turned the house upside-down looking for the beater and dough hook – to no avail. (He also has an obsession with the garbage can … hmmm.)Needless to say, a mixer (no matter how nice) is proven useless without the attachments.
Oooh, YAY!! How fun! I love to cook. I love your books. I can’t wait to read this one!
Great clip, Rachel. Was that in your own kitchen? I remember when you first came up with the concept for Caroline & I thought it was a fun idea. I can’t wait to read the book.
Rachel, Congratulations on your latest release. I look forward to reading it. Blessings, dear one!
WOW! This is an AWESOME contest! Thank you so much for adding my name into the hat! 🙂
I really enjoyed the video, Rachel, and I look forward to reading this book (and trying the Bechamel sauce!)
The only funny cooking story that I can think of, is actually a little embarrassing, but I’ll share it anyway. One morning, I put all of my beef stew ingredients into the crock pot, then went about my day. My hubby and I went out to run some errands, and when we came back, I thought the house smelled really good. I kept saying, “wow, it smells so good in here! What is that smell?” It wasn’t until about a 1/2 hour later that it dawned on me that I was cooking stew in the crock pot. Needless to say, I felt very silly after that. :o)
Blessings,
Michelle
scraphappy71 at sbcglobal dot net
Awesome giveaway! Congrats on the release of Dining with Joy, Rachel-I can’t wait to read it!
lubell1106(at)gmail(dot)com
LOVED the new book! I’ve had plenty of cooking mishaps because I love to cook and sometimes get distracted. One day I made a complete meal and it was awful so I tossed it and started all over. My second attempt was no better so I threw that away too and that was when hubby decided to take me out to eat 🙂
I made pumpkin bread last night and forgot that it was in the oven. I try to only cook when nobody needs food. lol
Love the book cover!
Of course I am looking forward to reading this one. Congratulations, and happy birth-day to Dining With Joy. 🙂
My husband’s first lemon meringue pie didn’t set up right, for some reason. But his brother poured the filling into a glass and said it was the best pie he ever drank. My hubby is a phenomenal cook now, though! 🙂
Hey all, you warm my heart with your comments. Thank you so much. It’s motivating to keep writing when I don’t feel like anyone is “reading.”
Tissakay – cornmeal instead of flower. I tried something like that once. Blech!
Tammy – there’s a chili recipe incident in the book you will identify with!
Angela – then you needs a new mixer, girl!
Pamela, yeah, this idea has been around for awhile.
Michelle – LOL. I did the same thing with a pork roast. I kept smelling it when I walked through the kitchen, and kept asking my hubby, “Are the neighbors barbecuing?” LOL.
Norma – there’s a great banana bread recipe in the book.
Hugs!
A gourmet cook I am not. My most recent cooking disaster was just a few weeks ago when I tried to make bran muffins. I’m certain I saw somewhere that I could substitute almond flour for regular flour, so that’s what I did. Um, wrong. While they were baking I could see through the oven window as they rose beautifully. The next peek and they had fallen in on themselves. They never did bake right–it was like eating the dough. But, hey, the flavor was . . . okay. (We didn’t finish eating them, though.)
Please enter me:
pbphifer at gmail dot com
I can’t wait to read your new book. I would love to win this mixer. My old hand mixer is about to die. Plus yours is beautiful
I’ve always been a bit inept in the kitchen. When I was a young teen, my mom tried putting me in charge of starting dinner. I turned food odd colors, boiled the eggs until they exploded, put milk instead of water in the tea kettle (which created quite a disaster), turned the chicken soup into paste with too much rice (who knew those little bits would soak up so much water), and somehow managed to ruin simple baked potatoes.
Then my mom banned me from reading books during the cooking process. Since that just made dinner later and later, she finally passed the chore on to my younger sister.
I’m reading The Sweet By and By for an online Christian fiction book club. Already I can’t wait for the 2nd book! And Dining with Joy looks so charming. Please enter me in this giveaway. Blessings!
reneeasmith61 [at] yahoo [dot] com
I’ve been baking so much the past couple of months, I blew the motor on my hand electric mixer, the one that was given to me as a wedding present 19 years ago.
My stupid cooking story is a cautionary tale. Don’t try to bake with two completely different recipes side by side on the counter. You will confuse the two. Or maybe you won’t. But I did. I was making brownies and looking at the recipe for sugar cookies, which were on deck. The proportions of dry goods to wet are very, very different, which is why I realized something was very wrong with my batter. Add to that the fact that I was doubling the brownie recipe, which was actually half of the cookie recipe. Disaster!
I salvaged this goop, and remarkably, turned it into pretty tasty brownie-like confections by adding ingredients and tasting until it seemed about right. I was so embarrassed but my boys loved the end result.
I can’t wait to read Dining With Joy!
The latest and greatest cooking episode in my house was when I was making venison stew. I decided to add some Caribbean Jerk seasoning, and A LOT poured out accidentally. I did my best to salvage it, but it ended up being fed to the garbage disposal. It was a very sad dinner.
Love your books Rachel. My latest cooking disaster involved me starting to make cookies then realizing that I didn’t have the baking cocoa needed. I asked a friend to pick some up at the store and he came back with cocoa drink mix. So we didn’t have cookies that night–just nice big mugs of hot chocolate. I guess that’s not really a disaster, is it?
Can’t wait to read Dining with Joy, Rachel, but then again, you know how much I love your books!
Stupid cooking tricks? Mmmmm, I never use a double boiler, does that count?
Cooking disasters? Well, there was that time the meatloaf poured out of the pan. (We ate sandwiches that night.)
Picked up a copy of Dining with Joy to read over Thanksgiving break. Can’t wait!
I’m gonna keep it real and tell you I wouldn’t know what to do with that sparkling new kitchen appliance. I don’t have any fun in the kitchen unless it involves opening up the take out containers. So, please don’t enter me for the mixer.
I would LOVE to read your book though. Sounds like Joy and I have lots in common besides our name! 🙂
I’m looking forward to reading your book!
I can’t wait to get my hands on this book. It sounds so good!
This sounds like a great read for Thanksgiving break! 🙂
I can’t wait to read Dining with Joy! Love all your books Rachel and I am sure this one will be just as inspirational and entertaining!!
Congrats on the new book! I’m getting hungry…off I go for a snack (thanks a lot)…
I’m excited for a chance to read this book. My funny cooking story happened when I was 16 years old. I was responsible for making the pumpkin pie for our Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully, I tasted the batter before I dumped it into the pie shell–something was definitely off. I added more pumpkin pie spice–no improvement. I dumped more spice into the pie–still it was awful. My mom tasted it and casually asked whether I had remembered the sugar. Oops! I put the sugar in and crossed my fingers while the pie baked. I had put almost twice the pumpkin pie spice as was called for on the recipie. When we sat down the next afternoon, everyone raved about the pie. Ever since I have remembered that the secret to a killer pumpkin pie is to throw out the recipie and pour in the spice!
Looking forward to reading Dining with Joy!
I love this book and the whole series. I definitely would love the mixer!!!
cherryblossomchind(at)gmail[dot]com
This IS fun! (And I am so looking forward to reading Dining with Joy! YAY!) I think my cooking mishap would be the time in middle school when my best friend and I decided to make cookies… at two in the morning. So we pulled out the cookbook, picked Snickerdoodles, and set to work. Only we didn’t have all of the ingredients we needed, so we improvised and substituted… And the resulting goo that came out of the oven was green (to this day, we don’t know why it was green) and it bubbled. It never set up and looked a whole lot like a Gremlin when you expose it to light. Yuck.
The first time I baked fish! It came from the store, had eyes –head attached– and I baked it not knowing I was suppose to take out the yellow eggs inside first! It actually looked like one of those fish on a platter in a magazine….
I began reading Sweet Caroline this morning! Looking forward to reading about Joy’s cooking! Happy day today! November 16, 2010.
Oh let me tell all you young folks after you cook for 50 years for your family, I have made so many mistakes it is terrible. I can’t cook anything now that I don’t make a mess of, my poor old hubby just has to endure. Please enter me into the contest on thing I can do is read
mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net
Rachel, I’m so excited for you on the release of Dining With Joy. I can’t wait to read it! But first, I must read Love Starts With Elle (it just came in the mail, yay!) Sweet Caroline is one of my favorites!
I LOVE to cook! I love when my nieces come over and we get to cook something together. Most of the time we cook brownies haha! 🙂
Can’t wait to read Dining With Joy. =}
Can’t wait to read this! As a wife and mother, I like to think I’m a good cook…but I’m so not. I can (sometimes) follow an (easy) recipe, but that’s about it. However, I LOVE to bake…and I bake a lot.
Kitchen mishap? Well, let’s see…last week, I caught our oven on fire (flames, people!) while warming up some harmless taco shells.
We’re trying to go gluten free here because Abby (and I suspect myself) are allergic. So I’ve been making homemade gluten free bread. Well, I decided to try doing it by hand instead of with my bread machine–don’t ask why. I felt like I was channeling Lucy Ricardo. The dough was insanely sticky, and I kept telling Abby to add a little more flour, a little more flour, a little more flour, thinking that eventually it would absorb some of the stickiness, right? But no. Despite the fact that I’d buttered my hands, they were absolutely COVERED in bread dough. I finally just scraped it all into the loaf pan (real appetizing, eh?) and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to wash the rest off my hands. The best part–I’d forgotten to take off my wedding rings. Nearly lost them in the dough!
I just found about your book from Alison, but am so excited to read it–I love cooking shows, so this is right up my alley!
My biggest kitchen disaster was trying to cook too many meatballs in a pot with sauce–I could not stir them well and burned them onto the bottom of the pan, ruining the entire pot of sauce while 50 people were waiting to eat! Had to run to the store and fast!!
You guys are cracking me up with these stories.
I might have to have a sidebar contest for the best worst cooking moment. 🙂
Hey, Patricia, did you see the episode for friends when Rachel was making and English truffle dessert and she mixed up the recipe with a kidney pie.
It was so funny!
Alison, please, don’t channel Lucy Ricardo.
Leigh, I used your story of putting a pumpkin in the oven but not taking out the stem. And it caught on fire. LOL. It’s in the book.
I don’t need a kitchenaid, but I would love to be included in the book giveaway. A funny cooking story I have was an incident that happened when I was younger. I had to cook a cake for a classroom, and all was going well until the end when I sprinkled the cinnamon a little too hard and the top fell off. Cinnamon poured over the icing. I knifed it off and readjusted the icing but it was definitely a funny incident. We couldn’t quit laughing. gasweetheart211[at]netscape[dot]net
Can’t wait to read this book, Rach. I remember a time I was psyched about baking cornbread from scratch. Too bad I forgot to add sugar to the batter. Ugh. 😉
I love to cook and bake and have always dreamed of owning a Kitchenaid mixer. Thank you for the contest!
My biggest mistake haunts me to this day. Every time someone at a get together says chicken they look at me and laugh…..
I had my brother in law living with us and was making Lemon Chicken…the recipe called for 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I used the concentrated one…needless to say it was VERY lemony! I think it is the only dish I ever threw out.
The first time I fried chicken was for a picnic with a bunch of friends on vacation. Mom told me how to do it, but it seemed like it cooked forever and ever and was getting too brown. So it must be done. Off we went. When we started eating the chicken, it was done on the outside, but yeah, not too appetizing. Thank goodness for the side dishes! I haven’t had the courage to fry chicken on the bone since!
“Where am I suppose to be” has been on my mind a lot lately. Speaking to my senior Pastor today was a double whammy. I listen to you speak & you spoke to me.
Thank you.
By the way.I tried this recipe at home before, the one on your video. I thought I was just throwing stuff together to try something different. LOL
Enjoyed your blog.
🙂
Looking forward to the new book! My best kitchen foible (that comes instantly to memory; there are a few) would be the time I agreed to make a peach cobbler for the first session of a new bible study. I wanted to make a good impression, and set out to make a huge batch of cobbler – I think it was 2 1/2 times the usual amount.
Well…I misread the amount of butter by a lot – it was swimming in it. The next morning, I removed all of the peaches, washed them, threw them in a colander, and remade the cobbler-topping. I was twenty minutes late to bible study – but I had cobbler!
So looking forward to reading your new book!
A cooking “mishap” that I can remember: one of the first times I was cooking a Thanksgiving turkey on my own, I couldn’t find the neck and giblets in the turkey! I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, oh well, they aren’t in there, and proceeded to cook the turkey. I was very surprised, upon removing the fully cooked turkey from the oven, to find the bag of neck and giblets stuffed in the hole of the turkey. I recall going into another room, far from the guests, and calling my Mom to make sure it would be okay to serve the turkey after the plastic bag had cooked inside it! She was pretty sure it would be okay so my Thanksgiving meal was saved!
Would love to win the Kitchen-Aid -love, love their mixers!
Jen
moscowjlf at gmail dot com
Umm … I am actually one of those women that people joke about who can’t boil water!
When I was first married, I put some water on to boil, and then walked away to get ready for work. Big mistake!! I came back about 15 minutes later to the kitchen filled with smoke and an awful smell! The water in the pot had completely burned off and the bottom of the pan was black!!
I could share more stories, but I’ll stop at that one.
And I loved Dining with Joy. As I’ve shared before, Joy and Luke’s story kept me up until 1:30 AM!!
I can’t wait to read it 🙂 I just read Love Starts with Elle and LOL’ed and got teary-eyed so its a hit. When I was first learning to cook I mistakenly put baking SODA where I should have put baking POWDER and made rocks instead of biscuits 🙂 Even the chickens wouldn’t touch them! Hope I win!
xoxo melzie
What a fun contest! So great. Cant wait to read the book, looks wonderful 🙂
I am so looking forward to reading your new book. Loved the other 2 set in S. Carolina!
Looking forward to read your book…
i live in South Carolina and love the low country so this should be fun…
I love the cover of Dining With Joy and I can’t wait to read the book.
My kitchen mishap took place the first year of my marriage. I thought I put potatoes in the oven to bake when I actually put them in the refrigerator! Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find my potatoes in the oven!
Congratulations, again Rachel! How exciting to see the promo video and book cover. Can’t wait to settle in and read it!
Now, about that mixer. Does it come with a demonstration from the author? 🙂
What great stories. We can make a book of these!
Adge – I love cinnamon icing.
Annette, Nancy, Hillary, Melzie – isn’t that the classic cooking foible, too much, not enough, the wrong or forgotten ingredients. Once I left the lemon juice out of a cherries jubilee pie. I thought, “I don’t like lemon juice.” LOL. That pie never did gel. It was soupy after HOURS in the fridge.
Haidee – true French cooking is just throwing ingredients together. Seriously. 🙂
Jennifer – I think a lot of new cooks on Thanksgiving have done that.
Beth – if I ever visit you, we’re going out to eat.
Brenda and June, I hope you like this book. It’s a little different than the other two, but Elle and Caroline make a good appearance.
M – I have a character in the book named… M!
Judy – potatoes belong in the fridge, no?
Cheryl – LOL. No the KitchenAid doesn’t come with an author demo! That’s be fun though.
Spread the word, y’all. Thanks for participating in the contest!!
Enjoyed reading the comments. Rachel, once at Thanksgiving at my mil, she told me to mix up the stuff for congealed salad and told me the pineapple was in a small container, finely chopped. I happily mixed it up but when it was served, I immediately noticed a terrible taste! My mil said, Brenda, this is not pineapple, you got the container with the minced onions! Everyone laughed except me and my mil. She was downright furious with me for ruining her salad.
So happy to have found your books and looking forward to reading them on my Kindle!! I loved the video with your bechamel recipe and even though I rarely cook anymore, that one sure sure tempted me!
And thank you for the compliment on my name…it was my Great-Grandmother’s (she was French – the real deal!). I love it too!
Blessings,
Gigi
Oh how I need a Kitchenaid mixer! I could do so many things!
Anyway – a recent mishap in the kitchen was a result of my trying to be fancy. I was making a chocolate almond pithiviers.. the final step it to sprinkle the top with sugar and place on the top rack or broiler to caramelize. But I’d forgotten that I’d lined my tray with parchment paper.. which proceeded to catch fire… setting off the smoke alarms all over the house… JUST as my guests arrived.
They were very sweet about it and one of the guys even scraped the blackened crust off the top and ate the filling. He claimed it was still delicious.
Sounds like this will be a fun book. Love the cover – draws you in. One cooking trick I use is making a substitute for buttermilk in recipes because I never have buttermilk in my refrigerator. Just add one TBSP of vinegar to milk for the amount of buttermilk in recipe.
Sounds like this will be a fun book. Love the cover – draws you in. One cooking trick I use is making a substitute for buttermilk in recipes because I never have buttermilk in my refrigerator. Just add one TBSP of vinegar to milk for the amount of buttermilk in recipe.
I hope to be able to read it soon. I always enjoyed baking, but never knew how much fun it was until I started baking with my two year old. He gets really excited about mixing. Of course the whole process is a lot messier, but that is part of the fun.
teresasreadingcorner at gmail dot com
this book sounds adorable and what a wonderful related giveaway!
strandedhero(at)gmail(dot)com
Ooh a KitchenAid mixer. That makes my inner baker stand up a do a happy dance. I’m also really looking forward to reading Dining With Joy.
My baking mishap story actually happened last week. I was making cupcakes (Raspberry White Chocolate) and I added salt instead of sugar. The thing is, I didn’t taste them before I served them because I was in a rush. It was not good…it was funny but it was not good.
Grace
bookslikebreathing(at)gmail(dot)com
This book sounds great…I will have to check it out (perfect for me to read because I can’t cook :-).
dieg01991(at)yahoo(dot)com
(that’s a zero, not an o)
LOVE the mixer and the cookbook jacket!
All I have are cooking disaster stories! The most scarring (literally) time was when I was peeling carrots for a casserole and sliced my knuckle off.
Soooo I definitely need practice and would love a cookbook to guide me, or better yet – a blue mixer!
Brenda – pineapples are not a good onion substitute! LOL. I would be miserable of my MIL was furious at me.
Gigi – thanks for stopping by!
Deb – kitchen fires are the best stories.
Rivertree – GREAT tip. The Banana Bread recipe in the book calls for buttermilk, and while I love the recipe, I didn’t like the buttermilk part for the very reason who needs it otherwise. So add vinegar to your milk ladies.
Teresa – That would be fun… baking with the kids.
Zoe – Thanks for stopping by!
Grace – Noooo –too funny!
Amy – Thanks for posting.
Novelwhore – OUCH! But I think that makes you a real chef now!
Beautiful mixer = chefs porn.
I’m not a chef but I admire it too!
ruthiekb72ATyahooDOTcom
I love the “low country” novels & Dining With Joy met my expectations, it was a “joy” to read. Usually I can figure how a story will end but not this time . . . LOVED IT!! KUDOS Rachel
i cannot wait to read your latest masterpiece, rachel.
ps…go buckeyes 🙂
karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com
Read Dining with Joy and enjoyed it. Plan to check out your other books.
Cheryl
clbstitch at yahoo dot com
Dining with Joy sound wonderful.Please enter me in the giveaway.Thanks for the wonderful giveaway.augustlily06(at)aim(dot)com.
.
All of these comments are wonderful!! They make me feel better about the blunders I’ve made. I have so many cooking mishaps, I’m not sure where to start.
My family gets real cream from my uncle’s dairy cows. I was using my mom’s Kitchen Aid to help turn it into some really awesome butter. At the end the butter separates from the buttermilk and clumps into a yellow substance. Needless to say, you’re supposed to turn the mixer way down so it doesn’t slosh everywhere. Boy did I have a mess to clean up! The cabinets were dripping with buttermilk.
Or the time that I forgot to put sugar in my cheesecake and had it in the oven before I realized it. So I added the sugar as an afterthought and it didn’t get all mixed in.
The other one I haven’t lived down yet was making cinnamon rolls and using olive oil in the base of the pan instead of butter. The flavor wasn’t all that great, rather crunchy. And by the time I figured out the ratio of powered sugar to milk for the frosting. I had a good half gallon of the stuff.
Thank you Rachel for being God’s writer. Keep it up!
Jessica (^_^)
Congrats on the release, Rachel!
I probably shouldn’t admit this on a public forum…but I somehow managed to mess up instant mashed potatoes one time. So embarrassing! My family had a lot of fun with that one. 🙂
Please enter me in your contest!
missytippens [at] aol.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rachel, I can’t wait to read this book!!!! It’s going to be fabulous! I hope it’s full of recipes and pictures besides the wonderful story about Joy, the terrible cook. haha.
I have made so many flubs in the kitchen it’s not even funny. I dumped a bunch of scraps (peelings from onions, pototoes, carrots, etc.) in an empty Wheaties box one time, intending to throw it in the trash, but then I absently stuck the box back in the cupboard with the rest of the cereal boxes. Try to imagine hubbies yowl of “fright” when a week later he poured himself a bowl of “Wheaties” for a nighttime snack. He was totally grossed out, and so was I. Mold, smell, and just plain yuck.
He poured milk over it and ate it anyway.
Just kidding. haha
I’m so excited for this new book! I have loved the others in this series. Can’t wait to get & read it!
Missy, that’s funny!
Sharlene, that is hilarious.
Jessica, Ruthie, Sharon, Emma, Cheryl, Karenk and the Casady Clan thanks for posting!
Rachel
Excited to see your book! Blessings!
MyFathersBlessing(at)gmail(dot)com
Rachel, Suzanne cannot cook either, so this new book sounds like a good read for her. The mixer –well, that would be for me! Suzanne is reading all of your past books and loving them. Thanks for the great work you do. james_kimmel@comcast.net
*Gasp* I’ve never read any of your books! I have Love Starts With Elle but I holding off on it until I can read Sweet Caroline.
I don’t really have any cooking incidents since I’m a pro in the kitchen (LOL kidding) but I do have a favorite funny kitchen moment from tv. You’ve all probably seen the episode of I Love Lucy where the men take over kitchen duty while the women go to work and of course Ricky and Fred cook waaaaay to much rice and it explodes all over the kitchen. That’s almost as funny as Ethel and Lucy at the chocolate factory. I’m not sure if it gets any better than that!
XOXO~ Renee C.
steelergirl83(at)gmail(dot)com
p.s. Angie who commented earlier must not have seen that episode with the rice LOL!
Awesome giveaway!
I’m a new follower! thanks!
kmassmanATgmailDOTcom
Looking forward to reading “Dining With Joy”!
Ok, here’s my silly cooking story. A few short months after getting married, we moved to New Zealand for a couple years to fulfill my husband’s military commitment. It was a foreign country, but they did speak English!
I wanted to make spaghetti from scratch the way I had been taught, using 1 can tomato paste to three cans water, but when I went to the grocery store, they did not have tomato paste. What to do? Well, I could improvise and use tomato sauce and leave out the water. So I bought several cans and went home to get cooking, using the all the normal herbs and seasonings. I let is simmer for a while to let the flavor develop before tasting. Oh yuk! I was just awful, and everything I tried only made it worse. We could not eat it. I had to throw it out.
I found out later that what the Kiwis call tomato sauce is very close to what we call ketchup. No wonder! They might speak English there, but words can have very different meanings!
Loved this book! It made me hungry the whole way through. After reading, I couldn’t resist making some banana bread! Yumm! 🙂
thanks for the giveaway!
m8usi@yahoo.com
I really want this book and the giveaway ends on MY 30th birthday. Could I be so blessed to win it? Only God knows.
Here’s my story:
Years back, I despised cooking. I come from a HUGE Southern family and they have no idea why I did not like to cook. So, I invited my family to Christmas dinner. The house was beautiful, food was delicious and my families faces were shocked that *I* cooked.
Well, I never told them I slaved over a stove. I hired someone and left the receipt on my dresser which my cousins found and showed my family. I was not a foodie back then but I LOVE cooking now.
I am so excited to read your book. It looks great!!
megankyser at gmail dot com
I heard about this book and giveaway on Simply Stacie. The book sounds like something I would enjoy reading. I love to cook and am a food show celebrities fan.
Literary, another December baby? Me too. It’ll be a “O” birthday for me too. But not 30….
If you loved the book, please take time to write reviews. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂
Rachel, the banana bread recipe in the book is yummy!
Debbie, oh man! Blech. Yeah, I remember seeing stuff like that when I was in Australia, or was it Guatemala?
JMom, nice to meet you!
Jimmy, Renee, Kelly, Rachel, Janice and Megan, thanks for posting!
I’m just about to start reading Dining for Joy and can’t wait. My fun cooking story has to do with the time my boys wanted to cook dinner for me on Mother’s Day. They were in high school and jr. high at the time. I picked the menu and gave them the recipes. They were in the kitchen cooking for hours; as dinner time neared they yelled, “almost ready”. This was followed by a loud crash and a “don’t come in here”. I peeked around the corner and saw a plate of food upside down on the floor.
When we sat down to eat they didn’t say a word about what happened. To this day I don’t know who got the food that went on the floor(5 second rule).
missdeb1@earthlink.net
Don’t really have a fun kitchen story. Except that hubby sprung the “well, instead of a the big vacation we have been talking about for next spring/summer, I think we are going to remodel the kitchen” in front of his mom last weekend. Since she still owns the house (and we rent from her, part of her ‘retirement’) when we were talking about the remodel she just finished, this was an BAD way to tell me this!
vickykerr@sbcglobal.net
Haha, I’ve been desperately hunting for a KitchenAid mixer. It would be a dream to win this one.
As for my story, it actually relates to a mixer, or lack of! I was making meringues, and kept whipping with a WHISK until I felt like my wrist was about to fall off. I didn’t find out the salt trick until much later, so I just ended up with a bowl of half-whipped egg whites and a wasted afternoon. Shucks!
God, I would like to have this for the kitchen at the respite.
A friend of mine just told me about you, your blog, and your new book. Congratulations! What a great premise; this sounds like a book I would really enjoy. Of course, I would be thrilled to win the mixer or the cookbook; thank you for sharing this opportunity with us. 🙂
Deb, what a great memory. Don’t come in here made me laugh out loud.
Victoria, a remodeled kitchen needs new “aids” don’t you think? LOL. Good luck. I’d love a remodeled kitchen.
Melissa, see, that’s why I never make meringues.
Terribly Interesting, thanks for stopping by.
Pam, great to meet you!!
Rachel
What an awesome contest. Thank you for the opportunity to win the mixer and the books. Look forward to reading this book.
This sounds like such a fun book to read and can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on a copy of it. The one person in my household who we never thought would know how to cook has turned out to be such a good cook and didn’t even learn it from his dad who can cook.
Blessings,
Jo
ladijo40(at)aol(dot)com
I have just recently learned of you as an author and your books. Am anxious to read my first one!
Great contest!!!
I can’t wait to read it! I’m reading the 2 before it!! It was such an amazing chane to meet you earlier this year!!
~Kimberlee
Sorry forgot to put my name on the screen name thingy! lol!
Great contest!!!
I can’t wait to read it! I’m reading the 2 before it!! It was such an amazing chane to meet you earlier this year!!
~Kimberlee
So happy your newest book is out!
My stupid cooking trick:
As a newlywed I wanted to try out my new crock-pot and have dinner ready for our first EVER company to come over our apartment, a fellow co-worker of my husband’s. Well, the company showed up, we sat in anticipation as I took the lid off the steaming crock-pot of stew. It looked marvelous. Hunks of perfectly browned roast swam in a gravy filled with fresh hand-cut vegetables. My mouth was watering. I filled out bowls and waited in anticipation as my guest sampled his stew. His eyes bugged out. My husband took a spoonful of his stew and started coughing violently. Wondering how such a beautiful dish could be that bad, I took a huge bit and my mouth felt like it exploded in flames. The problem? I’d added a tablespoon of pepper instead of a teaspoon. The eight hours of cooking had intensified the heat!We ended up eating hotdogs.:-(
And, oh yeah I set my mother-in-law’s brand new oven on fire once. But that’s a story for another day 😉
Looking forward to reading this book. I have had some kitchen mishaps over the years…but the most recent one is where I was boiling water for tea in my favorite little pot..forgot about it and totally boiled it dry and ruined the pot. Does that mean I can’t boil water??
Thanks for the chance to win this awesome gift.
This is exciting! I’d love to win!
lgm52@hotmail.com
When I was younger I used to love “cooking” and “baking.” The only problem was I didn’t know how to do it.
So, here I was, about 12 years old, and I really wanted to make some Chex Mix. Back in the day, the Chex boxes used to put the recipe on it and then had a seasoning packet in the box in order for one to make the recipe.
The recipe called for half a stick of butter. So, I took a half of stick of butter and put it in the bowl. The only problem was, my mom had a 1 lb. block of butter and I didn’t know the difference. I hacked that 1 lb. block of butter in half, dumped it in the bowl, and proceeded to carry on with the recipe.
I didn’t understand why the Chex Mix came out of the oven all soggy so I just kept baking it thinking that it needed more time.
I ended up with a large batch of soggy, burnt butter with a hint of Chex. 🙂
The most recent one happened last night in the dining room when my sticky green cocktails spilled all over the DR table! What a mess!
Jo, sandra, Debi and Kimberlee, thanks for stopping by! And for entering.
Suzy, LOL, that’s the kind of stuff I was looking for while writing the book. Those little things you don’t think about until you’ve done them. Like simmering a tablespoon of pepper for 8 hours! And catching MIL oven on fire.
Susan, LOL, Yes, you are one of the official who can’t boil water. 🙂
Maggie, oh, those 12 year old mistakes. I caught the home ec oven on fire when I was 13, in junior hi.
Bunky, how did that happen? 🙂
Congratulations!
I keep repeating the same kitchen mistake over and over: breaking wine glasses. For some reason I can’t keep them in one piece.
What a perfect time of year for more cooking! My husband has been asking for a Kitchen Aid Mixer for months now… Maybe I’ll give it to him for Christmas. =)
Marcia
Perhaps I’ll share my significant other’s most recent kitchen nightmare since he would be the one most benefitting from a new mixer 🙂
We recently moved and he had to arive a week or so before me and the furniture in order to start a new job. Which meant he was alone in a kitchen for a whole week with nothing more than a small box of ‘essentials’ I had sent with him so he wouldn’t starve. Of course he immediately went to the grocery store and stocked up on cereal and hot pockets. Only he didn’t realize he had no microwave…..
He preheated the oven. Without seeing the new oven packet of registration paperwork that was inside. After putting out the raging fire in the stove he still had to wait 30 minutes for a hot pocket to cook. And he’s STILL getting plastic off the inside of the stove.
It’s like he’s in college 🙂
I think I’ll share the story of the Thanksgiving my husband and I spent with our son and DIL. The food looked and smelled so good. Then my son started carving the turkey. Can you imagine our surprise when we see that the bag of giblets is still in the bird!! She said she got the neck out but couldn’t feel the bag so thought they didn’t leave it in.
We made it through the meal ok and it was time for the pumpkin pie. Everyone’s mouth was watering. Until we bit into a piece. It had NO sugar in it. She thought there was sugar already in the can of pumpkin.
Poor girl!! We all felt bad that she felt so bad!
Alicia, breaking wine glasses? Do we need to know more…:)
Melissa, either way, you know what to get him for Christmas. I have a rule in my house, nothing for Christmas that plugs into the kitchen. 🙂
Lisa, LOL. Poor guy!
Vicki, that “leave the giblets in” is a classic one. And no sugar is a classic too. Well, you can eat an extra piece since it had no sugar! Less calories.
This is my first time reading your blog!! And I love every bit of it so far =)
A Kitchen Aid Mixer couldn’t come at a better time for the holidays!
Thanks for sharing with all your readers!
hpcoupons at gmail dot com
Sounds like a fun book.Please enter my name in your give aways.Thanks
Carmen sent me
Your book looks wonderful! I can’t wait to read it.
When it comes to kitchen disasters, the one instance that always comes to mind happened when I was about 17 or 18 years old and I was babysitting. The parents of the children I was watching were celebrating their anniversary and the kids desperately wanted to make them a cake. For future reference: When cooking in someone else’s kitchen, check the oven BEFORE you preheat. They stored their plastic cutting boards in the oven, so when I opened the oven to put the cake in, we found a huge mess! The plastic was dripping through the oven rack! NOT FUN! lol I have learned my lesson though and now, I always check the oven first, but it was a big disaster at the time and a hard way to learn the lesson!
Thanks for the giveaway!
dealia79(at)gmail(dot)com
I remember being engaged and cooking a wonderful lamb stew in the crock pot all day while we decorated the Christmas tree. When I picked up the ceramic part of the crock pot, the bottom fell out and the stew went everywhere! He still married me and we’ve had many Christmas trees and lamb stews since then!
Not long after I got married, I decided we’d have a casual lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. My first sandwiches were burnt too bad to eat. The second try stuck to the pan. I was devastated that even though I’d mastered casseroles and roasts, I couldn’t make an edible grilled cheese sandwich! Thankfully by the time we had children 4 years later, I’d figured it out!
Thanks for the opportunity to win!
I have no luck making jelly candies…disaster after disaster…just going to have buy them instead of making them!
littleone AT shaw DOT ca
What an amazing giveaway! I can usually cook, but every so often, I get into a funk, and it’s just one wrong thing after the next…it actually just happened last week, and even though I’ve been cooking for myself for years, if you had watched me in the kitchen last week, you would have sworn I’d never even BEEN in a kitchen. Oy. Back to the basic of basics for me…
Super giveaway! The book sounds really fun, I hope to read it soon! Might make me feel better about my kitchen mess ups 🙂
Thanks for the giveaway- I’ve always dreamt of owning one of these wonderful mixers 🙂
onehotstove AT gmail DOT com
Warmest congrats on your new book, Rachel! The only thing more fun than baking or cooking is reading a novel that centers around doing those things.
As far as kitchen mishaps, I used to have a very adversarial relationship with yeast. For years we didn’t get along well and I had no luck with recipes calling for it. One day I tried a simple white bread recipe and must have allowed the loaf to proof too much before baking it. Not only did the top of the loaf ultimately deflate, but it sort of lapped over the side of the pan just like the flap on an envelope! The whole thing just looked hilarious when it was done. In fact, I wrote a blog post full of such mishaps that includes a couple pictures of that awful loaf (that can be found here, if you want to see it: http://janessweets.blogspot.com/2010/01/janes-sweets-out-takes-from-2009.html
Sounds like a great giveaway!
🙂 Jane
Congratulations on the publication!
Just last week I brought over a pan of lasagna and bread to a new mother. I made my own tomato sauce for the dish but forgot to taste it first……the second pan that we ate that night was so salty my sweet husband said that he didn’t think he could eat it. I was so embarrassed that I had brought that over to her home!
shannoncarman at yahoo dot com
My mother could not even boil water. I remember one time she made a prune whip pie. I can’t even imagine who would think it could be good. The one thing that did come out of it, is that I learned to cook at 12, and have been cooking ever since.
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Congrats on your latest release. I look forward to reading it. My most recent cooking mishap was when I was trying to make a Rue using butter and flour but grabbed powdered sugar instead.
Heather P., Sheila (shout out to you Carmen), Jodi, Misha, Michelle, PoCoKat, Jenna, Julie, Nupur, Jane, Shannon, Debbie, Cuzinlogic, thanks for stopping by and posting! Great stories. Had me laughing.
I got behind on responding over Thanksgiving and NCAA rivalry day for college football!
Blessings to you all!
I can’t wait to read your book, it sounds great! Congratulations!!
My recent mishap was a carrot cake I was making for Thanksgiving dessert last week. Two of my three layers broke when I was unmolding them from the pan. I just made a trifle 😉 It was delicious!
My cooking mishap was forgetting to add eggs to the cookies I was making. They didn’t turn out very well. Had to start over, but the second round was worth the repeat!
Jennifer- andrewsjen26@yahoo.com
Great contest, Great prize. One of my favorite cooking stories involved my dear daughter. She was, and is, always very curious and whenever she ‘helped’ me in the kitchen, she would get right into whatever I was doing. This particular day we were making a cake. I had the hand mixer going (note – not a Kitchenaid – couldn’t afford that), stirring the batter. My daughter had just dropped an egg in the mix and was bending over to check it out. Did I mention she had really long hair? Before I could do anything about it, her really long hair dropped into the batter and got wound up in the beaters. Yells and cries and commotions ensued. I yanked out the plug but it was too late. Hair and batter and tears and tangles – we got it all sorted out, washed out and thrown out. Then I tied up my daughter’s hair in a ponytail and we tried again. Cake turned out perfect!
A friend introduced me to your books, Rachel and I am LOVING them!! I can not wait for this one 🙂
Hmm..the only cooking mishap I can think of off the top of my head is when I was helping my cousin make her mom’s pea soup recipe. She asked me to use the blender to puree the peas. Can you guess what happened?? Yep..the top somehow never made it on before I pushed the button!! Oh, that was not fun to clean up!! There was green pea goop everywhere…even on the ceiling!! I’ll never live that one down! 🙂
Met you on Facebook and am reading your Steeple Hill Cafe book from my Library. Yea, another terrific author to add to my list of books to read! If I win the grand prize, my Mom will be getting one awesome Christmas gift as she does not have a Kitchen Aid mixer. Thank you for writing wholesome books that point us to our dear Savior!
I look forward to reading “Dining With Joy”. My cooking mishap occurred when I was about 13 years old. My Dad and I decided to bake a cake, I was mixing the ingredients with a hand mixer when all of a sudden the glass cake pan that was sitting on the top of the stove exploded. (We didn’t realize the stove top was on). We weren’t hurt but there was glass every where. I turned the hand mixer off and just propped it on the bowl. I turned around to look at the mess when all of a sudden the bowl with the cake mix in it turned over and fell off the counter onto the floor and cake mix flew every where. It was a huge mess. We still talk about this many many many years later.
Second Helping looks yummy. Kitchen Aid mixers are the best.
kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com
Hi Rachel, I just found your blog, I finished reading Dining With Joy last week and I loved it! Your books keep getting better and better, I can’t wait for you next one! =D
I can’t think of any kitchen mishaps that I have had, except the time I forgot to add baking soda to my pumpkin muffins (They tasted awful!) I do all the baking at our house, but last Thanksgiving my mom decided to make an apple pie and grabbed a bag of what she ‘thought’ was flour out of the cupboard. Anyways, the pie crust was NOT coming together, and was really powdery and icky. She finally bakes the pie, and we cut into it, and it tastes awful! Turns out she grabbed the buttermilk pancake mix! She thought it was some kind of wheat flour! My mom ended up having to make another pie, this time it was excellent!
My worst cooking moment was actually a birthday gift from my husband. We were fixing breakfast to enjoy together on my birthday. I turned my back and the next thing I knew he was juggling a pan and a ball of fire. Luckily, we were able to prevent things from getting worse and no one was hurt. However, he no longer has the right to tell others how much I can’t cook! 🙂
I’ve been married about 30 years now and have done LOTS of cooking since for our four sons and my hubby and lots of family and friends. BUT when I first got married, my husband was in school and we lived on scant groceries and creativity. One night I was in a big hurry to get supper on after teaching all day. I had chili powder, but for some reason as I mixed chili ingredients, I got the cinnamon! I dumped out the cinnamon before I realized what I had, so frantically I scraped as much of the cinnamon off as possible. It wasn’t even an option to start over!
I gave the chili extra chili seasoning, as I knew some of that cinnamon soaked in. Then, I got out some applesauce and sprinkled generous cinnamon on top. I set that next to my husband’s bowl and hoped he wouldn’t notice. Back in those days I was still sensitive about my cooking, so no way would I admit what I’d done.
Hubby took a bite and then put down his spoon. Little did I know I’d married a man who would could discern every ingredient, could taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi, Lay’s Potato Chips and Seyfert’s. He says to me, “Is there cinnamon in this chili??”
And I’m alarmed but still not wanting to own up to my mistake. I say, “You have cinnamon on your applesauce.” (See? Not really lying….) He puts the applesauce on the other side of our table and takes another bite.
“Yup. Tastes like cinnamon. New recipe?”
At that point I broke down. We laugh about it now….
I can’t wait to read Dining with Joy! Love stories like that.
crystal.mrsinewaATgmailDOTcom
The story that I have to listen to every year we share Thanksgiving with in-laws has to do with me purchasing a frozen turkey after work on the day preceeding Thanksgiving. Twenty-two people were coming for dinner; I stayed up most of the night running the shower on the bird to defrost in time to get in the oven.This was long ago and far away, when fresh turkeys had to be ordered in advance(which I learned that day, my mother hadn’t told me that!)
Oh boy. I think I have too many stories…I can’t remember any of them right now. Oh, wait, there was a recent one! I was making a number of pies for a family get-together. I was on a roll making one after the other and thought they all turned out great! Realized when I was cutting into them that some of the crusts were great, some stuck to the pan like raw dough! I had forgotten to bake the crust of the coconut cream pie first! Just did the same and I was doing with the others! At least the Cherry turned out amazing! 🙂
Fell in love with the kitchen aid mixer back in high school. We used this mixer in our Chef’s Club.
atlmuzikfanzinc at gmail dot com
I really enjoyed Dining With Joy. I love to cook but it is kind hard to do for one person, so I don’t do it too often.
My kitchen story is my mom basically wants to kill me every time I cook at her house. I can’t cook without making a huge mess. And it is usually after she has just cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom.
My worst cooking disaster??? As a young teen, I LOVED baking! I was always making cakes or cookies or something. Well, when my mom’s birthday rolled around, I wanted to surprise her with a birthday cake. All was going well until I discovered we were out of oil. I grabbed the used oil and measured out the right amount. Now usually we only kept oil that had been used once or twice for french fries or something… Not a great idea to use this for a cake, but I was in a bind and not old enough to go to the store. So, I start baking this cake and the house starts smelling pretty bad. Turns out the oil had been used to fry FISH. That cake not only smelled horrible, but it was NASTY! My dad tried to eat it to make me feel better but it was too bad. Luckily I’ve never made such a bad judgement call again while cooking.
I love cooking, but I always use recipes. I admire those who can taste a dish and say “it needs cilantro” or something like that. Cooking and baking are a creative expression for me and I enjoy trying out new recipes. This book sounds like a lot of fun–and I love the cover too.
My husband likes me to think he can’t cook and sabotages meals so I don’t ask him to cook for me. He will use the worst combinations. One of my earliest memories was when he decided to cook me Kraft dinner and hot dogs.
Ok, not too difficult. When he served it to me he cooked everything in green food colouring
Disgusting.
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
Oh! Can’t wait to read it!
I live in my kitchen and love cooking shows! I love the entire idea!!!
The cover is scrumptious!
xoxo
Robin
All Things Heart and Home
My 2 worst cooking mishaps were when I tried to make fudge out of granulated sugar and when I tried to authentic Chinese Lemon Chicken. I had invited my parents, brother, and boyfriend over. I cooked and cut up a chicken, then added the lemon, which I didn’t think was enough, so I added just a bit more. To this day (over 25 years ago). none of them will eat lemony foods.
I’m looking forward to reading Dining with Joy!
I can’t wait to read this book – I love anything to do with cooking – but truly am awful at it! Cheers!
-Renee
renee.soriano@caltech.edu
ooh i’d love to win this book!
my biggest cooking mistake was when I thought that Baking POWDER could be swapped for Baking SODA in a recipe. needless to say, the cookies were inedible. lol
What a fun book. I can’t wait to read it.
I am a fairly good cook, but I am accident prone. My kids call me “the walking blister” as I have found more ways to burn myself in the kitchen than there are recipes in a cookbook. One summer while making mashed potatoes, I dropped hot potatoes on my toes. The sandals were no protection and the sticky potatoes just clung to the skin. I quickly put my foot in the kitchen sink! The kids still laugh about it and I still have the scar.
Thanks for the contest!
I really enjoyed Dining with Joy! My biggest kitchen mishap was when I was in college in a food service class. We had to make enough of a certain item to feed hungry students in the dorms. My group was making chocolate revel bars and somehow we forgot to put in the flour. The huge sheet pan exploded all over the inside of the deck oven and oozed chocolate everywhere. It was a giant mess.
The blue kitchaid is the coolest thing ever. I would bake double chocolate chip cookies in time for the holidays..sit in front of my fire with my doggy and thank rachel for the beautiful mixer!
Congrat Rachel. Great contest and nice post! I’d use this kitchen aid to learn how to bake finaly.
nolagirl727@yahoo.com
Hey everyone, thanks for posting! I loved all these stories. I’m just in from a weekend out of town and I didn’t get to comment on the last few posts, but I did read them!
Hugs, Rachel
I don’t recongize the kitchen, the kid or the cat in the video, but I recognize those pots and knives and garlic press and…I could go on 🙂
Elizabeth,
LOL! It’s Jeremy and Holly’s kitchen. 😉 But the garlic press is mine!
Rachel