Welcome to my kitchen. Beware of the cats, who are geniuses at being underfoot at the least convenient time. ;-)
I write the Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series. It not only features shifters, but also fairies, elves, and other magical creatures who mostly stay hidden from the everyday human world. One exception is the magical sanctuary town of Kotoyeesinay in southern Wyoming.
Instead of concealing themselves, Kotoyeesinay hides in plain sight by using a fantasy theme as a tourist gimmick. Turn of the Cards sells tarot cards and souvenirs to the tourists and magical charms and artifacts to the locals. Low Country Elves Janitorial Service is a cute name for the tourists, and tells the locals who actually owns the business. The town is open to—and provides refuge for—anyone who can peaceably live and let live. Fairies, elves, shifters, wraiths, vampires, ogres, sorcerers, golems, hobgoblins, wizards, and more all call Kotoyeesinay home.
In Shifter Mate Magic, the main characters, Jackie and Trevor, are busy running for their lives and don’t have time to stop for a nice meal. In Shift of Destiny, Chance and Moira get to know one another over dinner at the Fairy Diner, where the chef is an actual magician who caters to the widely varying dietary needs of her customers.
Since I’m as ordinary a human as any slightly demented author can be, the Fairy Diner would offer me one of my comfort foods, sloppy joes. The human side of shifters would probably like them, too.
Sloppy Joes for Humans and Shifters
Serves 4 moderately hungry humans. Serves 2 shifters. Serves 1 teenager.
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef*
1 small onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, diced (green, if you’re going for aesthetic)
½-pound white or brown mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic (or to taste; we love garlic!)
1 bottle (12 oz.) chile sauce**
4 small hamburger buns
In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté the hamburger until browned, breaking it apart as it cooks. Set aside the beef on a large plate, but don’t drain the fat. Note: If it’s still too clumpy when you’re done, you could use a potato masher to help break it up.
Add the onions. Sauté them until soft and just beginning to brown. I like to do them first to save my eyes from watering so much; you could do the bell peppers first if you’d rather. Set aside the cooked onions with the cooked beef.
Add the bell peppers to the skillet and sauté until just starting to get soft. I like them on the crispy side for texture variation. Set aside the cooked peppers with the ground beef and onions.
Add a bit more butter to the skillet and raise the heat a little, then add the sliced mushrooms. Sauté until golden brown. The higher heat is to evaporate the moisture faster and prevent them from tasting like canned mushrooms.
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Optional: If you like your hamburger buns toasted, preheat the oven now so it will be ready.
Reduce the heat back to medium. Clear a space in the center of the skillet, then add the minced garlic. Sauté for no more than 30 seconds. Add the reserved ground beef, onions, and bell peppers and mix thoroughly so they all become acquainted and get nice and warm.
To your beef mixture, add the entire bottle of chile sauce. Yes, the whole bottle. Mix together thoroughly, then reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer together for about 5-10 minutes. Now is the perfect time to toast the buns. I like mine with butter slathered across the top, while the resident mad scientist prefers them plain.
When the buns are done to your liking, put them on plates, then spoon the sloppy joe mix on top of them. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you’re like the resident mad scientist, you’ll enjoy adding a dash or six of cayenne pepper to liven it up a bit.
Yes, there is a hamburger bun under there. This is probably why
they call it “sloppy.”
NOTES:
*Higher fat content in
the ground beef, e.g., 15-20%%, is tastier, but leaner, low-fat mixes work just
as well if you add olive oil or butter to the pan to sauté the vegetables.
**Don’t substitute
ketchup—it’s too sweet. If you can’t find chile sauce, you can substitute
tomato paste (not sun-dried, which is again too sweet) mixed with a tablespoon
or two of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, and
water to get an approximation. You’ll need about 1½ cups of mixture that’s
about the consistency of ketchup.
You can freeze leftover
sloppy joe mix if you don’t mind the bell peppers losing their crispness.
I’ve seen vegetarian
versions of this with protein substitute and/or lightly mashed and fried black
beans instead of ground beef, but you’d need to experiment to get the right
texture and moisture content.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shifter Mate Magic
Ice Age Shifters
Book One
Carol Van Natta
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Chavanch Press
Date of Publication: May 2018
ISBN: 978-1946165077
ASIN: B07C7NHNGD
Number of pages: 130
Word Count: 38,000
Cover Artist: Amanda Kelsey
Tagline: Pregnant and running for her life, a woman must trust a sexy bear shifter to get them both to a magical sanctuary town.
Book Description:
A lonely bear shifter meets his mate. She’s running for her life and doesn’t have time for romance.
Pregnant Jackie Breton just escaped from a corrupt feline pack intent on selling her half-shifter baby to the highest bidder. She’s smart, independent, and has a desperate plan to keep her baby safe: Get away from the pride as fast and far as possible.
Trevor Hammond, prehistoric bear shifter, has been rejected by everyone in his life for… being born, basically. Well, except for the beloved aunt who raised him. He’s built a career as an independent trucker, but life would be much better with someone he can hold in his arms and claim as his own.
When Jackie meets Trevor at a truck stop, his bear demands he help her. His aunt even calls with a dire warning: Get Jackie to the magical sanctuary town in Wyoming before she’s killed.
Jackie thinks he’s sexy as hell, but too good to be true. She doesn’t trust shifters. With the feline pride hot on her trail, however, Trevor and the quirky town of Kotoyeesinay might be her only chance for survival. Even Trevor’s indomitable bear may be no match for the dangerous enemy seeking retribution.
Discover the secret world of magic and true mates in Shifter Mate Magic, the first book in USA TODAY bestselling author Carol Van Natta's fun, action-filled, steamy-hot Ice Age Shifters® series.
Get eBook One
FREE at
Entire Series on Amazon
Shifter Mate Magic (Ice Age Shifters #1)
Lonely bear shifter Trevor meets his mate. Jackie is running for her life and doesn’t have time for romance. Can she trust the sexy bear shifter to get them both to a magical sanctuary town in time?
Shift of Destiny (Ice Age Shifters #2)
Moira doesn’t believe in magic, despite being chased by a crazy billionaire for her supposed “gifts.” Chance, prehistoric lion shifter, believes in Moira, his true mate. He’s determined to protect her and help her find the magic in her blood. But even a top predator can’t guess the lengths to which a desperate billionaire will go to get what he wants.
Heart of a Dire Wolf (Ice Age Shifters #3)
Skyla, dire wolf shifter, and Nic, sexy tiger shifter, recognize their true mate in each other. Problem is, they’re prisoners of an underground auction. To stay together, they must escape captivity, avoid ruthless hunters, and solve the mystery of a hidden sanctuary town before greedy wizards take everything—including them.
Dire Wolf Wanted (Ice Age Shifters #4)
The magical world stands on the brink of war, unless two extraordinary shifters can bridge the gulf between them. Dire wolf shifter Rayne Chekal works to take down an illegal auction house that trafficks in shifters. Arvik Inuktan, secret mythic shifter, infiltrated the auction staff with the same mission. The attraction is instant... and impossible. War is coming. When Rayne and Arvik meet on the battlefield, can they overcome their differences and work together to stop the evil, or will this war engulf the magical world?
Excerpt
Southern Wyoming
~ Summer 1993
Jackie nodded
and walked quickly, following the arrows. Luckily, she didn’t have to wait in
line or share the facilities. After the blessed relief of peeing, she used soap
and water from the sink to make herself look as presentable as possible under
the circumstances. Her light brown skin already made her stand out, because the
farther north she’d traveled, the fewer people she’d seen who looked like her.
She threw the soiled paper towels in the trash and eyed herself critically in
the mirror. At least now she didn’t look like a dangerous fugitive who’d
escaped a violent pack of leopard shifters who wanted her back alive or dead.
Despite the warmth of the restroom, she shivered.
“Get back to the
plan, Jackie,” she told her mirrored self. She couldn’t afford to fall apart,
or everything she was afraid of would come to pass. She bent over to drink
straight from the sink’s faucet, then wiped the water off her face. She
re-centered her her backpack and went out into the convenience store.
The smells of
warm bread and sizzling hamburgers drew her like a lodestone toward the
restaurant section, but she couldn’t afford to waste the time or the money. She
sternly made herself march into the back aisle and open the refrigerator door
for the lunch meats and cheeses.
She got a whiff
of a tantalizing scent as she pulled her selections off the hooks. Not food,
but something intensely interesting. Her sense of hearing and smell had
magnified with each passing week of her pregnancy. She wished she knew if that
was typical for a human woman carrying a shifter’s child but she had no one to
ask. Certainly not the lying son-of-a-bitch leopard who’d gotten her pregnant,
despite her precautions. She hoped he was roasting in hell, but he probably
wasn’t. Justice for the privileged rich, regardless of skin color or species,
had a whole different set of rules.
She let go of
the refrigerator door and turned toward the scent, only to run headlong into a
man who’d just turned down the aisle.
“Sorry,” she
said, even as he said the same word. She regained control of her suddenly
clumsy feet. She got the impression of chiseled cheekbones and a square jaw before
she dropped her gaze out of habit, one learned from living with volatile
shifters. His scent hit her like a freight train a moment later, all woodsy and
leathery and mouth-wateringly male.
No one, not even
the father of her baby, back when she’d thought she was in love with him and he
with her, had ever smelled that good. She took a step back, because if she
hadn’t, she’d have been tempted to stick her face in the vee of his
short-sleeved T-shirt and lick.
“My fault,” he
said. “Are you…” He trailed off and audibly swallowed.
She made the
mistake of looking up at him and confirmed that he was the sexiest man she’d
ever seen, even counting the handsome actors she’d thrilled over as a teenager.
His brown skin and features spoke of an ethnic heritage something like hers,
and his warm, coppery-brown eyes threatened to drown her on the spot. His wide
shoulders and arms looked strong enough to protect her from anything. The few
tight coils of hair on his muscled chest mirrored the close-cropped hair on his
head. His low-slung jeans and boots completed the mesmerizing package.
She swallowed
and took another step back, away from temptation. “I’m fine.”
Except she
wasn’t. She wanted to set fire to all her plans in favor of getting to know the
man standing in front of her. For his part, he looked stunned.
She shook
herself. Not, not, not happening. She was a pregnant fugitive with enough
secrets to write her own soap opera, and an implacable enemy on her tail. A
human, no matter how tall, broad-shouldered, and sexy, was no match for a
criminal cat-shifter pride with claws and teeth, and vengeance on their minds.
She clutched her
meat and cheese packages to her chest and turned away, even though her now
throbbing body and aching breasts begged her to get closer. She’d learned to
ride out the hormonal roller coaster of being pregnant, so she could damn well
ride this out, too.
About the Author:
Carol Van Natta is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. Series include the Central Galactic Concordance space opera series that starts with Overload Flux and Minder Rising, and the Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series that starts with Shifter Mate Magic and Shift of Destiny. She shares her Fort Collins, CO home with a resident mad scientist and just the right number of mad cats.
Chat with her on Facebook at https://facebook.com/CarolVanNattaAuthor, or visit her on the web at http://author.carolvannatta.com. Be the first to find out about new releases by signing up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/CVN-news.
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