I’ll give you a treat. One of my favorite dishes AND my famous Cheesecake for dessert.
Shoyu Chicken (Hawaiian Style)
Ingredients:
2 cups Aloha Shoyu (Its all about the soy sauce)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 good size piece of ginger – crushed and peeled
2 cloves garlic – crushed and peeled
1 tbs oyster sauce
½ cup of pineapple juice
At least 1 lb chicken thighs (more if you want more).
Steps:
1. Peel and crush both ginger and garlic. Put aside.
2. In large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. Mix well.
3. Add in the ginger and garlic. Mix well again.
4. Place chicken in bowl and cover. Marinate for about 4 hours. Too much marinating time can make the chicken very salty and this needs to be sweet and salty.
5. Before baking, preheat oven to 325 degrees.
6. Place chicken in baking dish. Add sauce to dish – cover the chicken with this sauce.
7. Bake in oven for 60-75 minutes. About every 30 minutes, check the chicken and flip over, sprinkling sauce from dish over chicken.
8. When done, serve with white rice and macraroni salad for that typical Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken dish.
Note: Same marinate mix can be used to make teriyaki beef, etc.
Now, for dessert…. DEEP CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT CHEESECAKE
Ingredients:
Crust –
24 chocolate cookies, crumbled
4 tbs butter melted
Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake –
24 oz Cream Cheese, softened (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
6 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled (dark chocolate is best)
2/3 cup sour cream (room temp)
3 large eggs (room temp)
1-2 teaspoons peppermint extract (this is a preference to how much of a peppermint flavor you want)
OPTIONAL: splash of peppermint schnapps (again, it is a preference to how much peppermint you want)
Topping –
6 oz dark chocolate chopped
½ cup whipping cream
2 teaspoon corn syrup
Crushed candy canes, andes mints or other toppings
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using a food processor or other tool to crush the cookies, add the cookies to crush.
3. Add the melted butter into the cookie crumbs.
4. Press the cookie crumbs onto the cheesecake pan. Bring the crumbs all the way to the sides and press together with a fork. Place in freezer only until the filling is made and ready.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy.
6. Mix in the melted chocolate, blending and scraping the sides to keep the texture smooth and creamy.
7. Add the sour cream and peppermint extract (add the schnapps too). Continue to blend and scrape the sides as necessary.
8. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Do not overdue the mixing at this point. This is key!
9. Take out the cheesecake pan from the freezer.
10. Using a wooden spoon, fold over the cheesecake filling about 1-2 times to ensure smoothness and its creaminess.
11. Pour the cheesecake filling on top of the crust. Smooth the top of filling with a clean spatula.
12. Place the cheesecake pan in the middle of a large roasting dish but add ½ inch of water to the roasting pan, making sure the water does not go above that.
13. Bake in oven for about 60 minutes. Top should look set and it may have a little wiggle when you shake it.
14. Cool at room temperature in the roasting dish. Water should be at room temperature before removing cheesecake pan.
15. Chill in the fridge, covered, for a minimum of 5 hours but overnight is always best. This also helps to prevent cracks.
Topping
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place in a heatproof bowl.
2. Add the cream to saucepan and over low/medium heat, bring to a simmer.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the heatproof bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy.
4. Whisk in corn syrup.
5. Remove the cheesecake from the fridge. Unclamp the ring. Remove the ring.
6. Pour the chocolate ganache over the cheesecake. Smooth the chocolate if necessary.
7. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes or layer the Andes mints around the cheesecake.
8. Add mint leaves for garnishment. Serve with whipped cream on top or sides.
Shoyu Chicken (Hawaiian Style)
Ingredients:
2 cups Aloha Shoyu (Its all about the soy sauce)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 good size piece of ginger – crushed and peeled
2 cloves garlic – crushed and peeled
1 tbs oyster sauce
½ cup of pineapple juice
At least 1 lb chicken thighs (more if you want more).
Steps:
1. Peel and crush both ginger and garlic. Put aside.
2. In large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. Mix well.
3. Add in the ginger and garlic. Mix well again.
4. Place chicken in bowl and cover. Marinate for about 4 hours. Too much marinating time can make the chicken very salty and this needs to be sweet and salty.
5. Before baking, preheat oven to 325 degrees.
6. Place chicken in baking dish. Add sauce to dish – cover the chicken with this sauce.
7. Bake in oven for 60-75 minutes. About every 30 minutes, check the chicken and flip over, sprinkling sauce from dish over chicken.
8. When done, serve with white rice and macraroni salad for that typical Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken dish.
Note: Same marinate mix can be used to make teriyaki beef, etc.
Now, for dessert…. DEEP CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT CHEESECAKE
Ingredients:
Crust –
24 chocolate cookies, crumbled
4 tbs butter melted
Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake –
24 oz Cream Cheese, softened (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
6 oz dark chocolate, melted and cooled (dark chocolate is best)
2/3 cup sour cream (room temp)
3 large eggs (room temp)
1-2 teaspoons peppermint extract (this is a preference to how much of a peppermint flavor you want)
OPTIONAL: splash of peppermint schnapps (again, it is a preference to how much peppermint you want)
Topping –
6 oz dark chocolate chopped
½ cup whipping cream
2 teaspoon corn syrup
Crushed candy canes, andes mints or other toppings
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using a food processor or other tool to crush the cookies, add the cookies to crush.
3. Add the melted butter into the cookie crumbs.
4. Press the cookie crumbs onto the cheesecake pan. Bring the crumbs all the way to the sides and press together with a fork. Place in freezer only until the filling is made and ready.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy.
6. Mix in the melted chocolate, blending and scraping the sides to keep the texture smooth and creamy.
7. Add the sour cream and peppermint extract (add the schnapps too). Continue to blend and scrape the sides as necessary.
8. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Do not overdue the mixing at this point. This is key!
9. Take out the cheesecake pan from the freezer.
10. Using a wooden spoon, fold over the cheesecake filling about 1-2 times to ensure smoothness and its creaminess.
11. Pour the cheesecake filling on top of the crust. Smooth the top of filling with a clean spatula.
12. Place the cheesecake pan in the middle of a large roasting dish but add ½ inch of water to the roasting pan, making sure the water does not go above that.
13. Bake in oven for about 60 minutes. Top should look set and it may have a little wiggle when you shake it.
14. Cool at room temperature in the roasting dish. Water should be at room temperature before removing cheesecake pan.
15. Chill in the fridge, covered, for a minimum of 5 hours but overnight is always best. This also helps to prevent cracks.
Topping
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place in a heatproof bowl.
2. Add the cream to saucepan and over low/medium heat, bring to a simmer.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the heatproof bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy.
4. Whisk in corn syrup.
5. Remove the cheesecake from the fridge. Unclamp the ring. Remove the ring.
6. Pour the chocolate ganache over the cheesecake. Smooth the chocolate if necessary.
7. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes or layer the Andes mints around the cheesecake.
8. Add mint leaves for garnishment. Serve with whipped cream on top or sides.
Queen’s Ascension
Blood Prophecy
Book Three
Barb Jones
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: World Castle
Date of Publication: August 17, 2020
ISBN: 9781953271013
Blood Prophecy
Book Three
Barb Jones
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: World Castle
Date of Publication: August 17, 2020
ISBN: 9781953271013
ISBN: 9781953271020
ASIN: B08DKK66PM
Number of pages: 236 pages
Word Count: 86107 words
Cover Artist: Steven J. Catizone
Tagline: Bloodshed. Heartbreak. Revelation.
Book Description:
When the darkness was compelling and the heart knew no bounds, was there really a right choice? With Michael’s life hanging in the balance, Amber had a choice: save her star-fated love or keep on the crusade to unite the magical community.
For Amber, her fate was sealed even before her birth and it was her destiny to fight the great battle ahead of her. But, when it came to her heart -- her friends, her great love -- Amber’s torn. Not only was she the Queen, but she was a human in every sense of the word. She was vulnerable. And so the very people -- Chloe and Michael -- that gave her strength, quickly became her weakness. It wasn’t her fault she loved too much, was it?
Nevertheless, the Tall Dark Man had set a plan in motion that could threaten the very existence of the Blood Prophecy. Would he gather his dark forces and succeed in destroying Amber once and for all? Or, would she assemble her powerful friends and save the world?
Excerpt:
Malakai,
Seattle, Present Day
With the
betterment of both Michael and Rae, Malakai was glad that they were well and
fine; nevertheless, he needed some time to decompress. All the magical
commotions that had occurred were too overwhelming for him. He needed some sort
of release.
He enjoyed the
brisk jog in the park, as he cut through the sharp wind of the cold night. But
this did nothing to lift his spirits. He was happy that Amber’s smile finally
met her eyes. That was all he’d ever wanted for her: happiness, that’s it.
There was nothing more he could ask for—she was his priority. Yet, in the back
of his mind, as in his heart, he couldn’t help but believe the ancient legend
that he’d heard so long ago was the certifiable truth, as it was written in
Eschmun’s scroll.
…her fate is
tied to the true alpha of the wolves. A blood drinker will stand formidable,
but it is the nature of the child to call upon the true alpha and bring him to
the queen’s inner heart.
Could this be
the truth? he often wondered as he traveled the world collecting artifacts and
evidence supporting this notion. Yes, he’d crafted a reliquary, quite
accidentally, and people assumed it was to keep the magic insulated, away from
the humans. But that wasn’t the case, at least not for him. He so wanted to believe, just from the sheer
fact that it was said in the scroll. But Malakai was a man of logic, driven by
cold hard data. Although wanting to romanticize that his destiny was tied with
Amber’s, he needed confirmation. He wanted validation for the strong emotions
he was feeling.
***
Zaraquel,
Seattle, Present Day
Walking the
cemetery grounds as she so often did without the knowledge of her parents,
Zaraquel wandered at a leisurely pace. She whipped out her phone and checked
the time, which read midnight. Her brow quirked in confusion, as she had expected
Loquiel some time ago. With her long hair styled in two braids and her bright
red coat to keep her warm, she sat down on a bench.
She was elated
that her best friend, other than the one that was currently running late, was
alive and breathing. Rae had given Zaraquel a terrible fright, for she had
never known the death of someone close to her heart. She shook, not from the
cold, but from remembering the tragic vision she had of Rae’s demise.
A throaty growl
awoke her from her thoughts. She heard the fast footfalls of someone,
something, running toward her, and she put her fight training to use. Zaraquel
spun around, so much so that her wings unfurled. But that did not deter the
undead man from attacking her. His decaying flesh was a sight she instantly
wished she could unsee, but she had to fulfill her duty and protect the people,
which meant ridding the world of this monster.
She punched him
in the stomach as her father had taught her, but that did nothing to stop him
from throwing his fists at her. She dodged his poor attempts at aiming for her
and grabbed his arm, twisting him around so he fell to his knees. Her weight on
his back caused the corpse to fall to the ground. It growled in anger, shaking
its head savagely, as if it couldn’t wait to get back to its feet. Zaraquel,
however, had plans of her own. She stood briefly to step on his neck to keep
him from moving, and whispered a spell she’d learned from a book.
“Capite
obtruncato intestinisque extractis.”
She heard the
cracking of his bones, the stretching of his skin; with a pop! his head flew
off, gore spattering in every direction. His body went limp, as it was before
he had risen from the ground.
Zaraquel sighed
in frustration as she walked off, disappointed from another unnecessary and unjustified
kill. She continued to walk the grounds and felt a rush of warm wind, the kind
she felt every time Loquiel was near. She turned and there he was, right behind
her.
About the Author:
Barb Jones was born in Hawaii, a place rich with culture and storytellers. As a little girl, scary tales about vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and witches were her favorite kind — much to her mother's dismay. Her love for the supernatural never went away, even after moving to Seattle, far from Hawaii's majestic beaches with unusual colors. Despite the unmatched beauty in Hawaii, Seattle stole Barb’s heart and it’s here where her stories took on a new form, in a book of her own: The Adventures of Little Arthur and Merlin the Magnificent.
Then, the idea for The Blood Prophecy came while she was sleeping. In a dream, Barb saw a unique storyline involving all the races and an epic battle of good versus evil. It was a modern-day plot with a three-thousand-year-old prophecy, The Blood Prophecy. Barb finished the first book in 2014, The Queen's Destiny. Two years later, she released The Queen's Enemy, and the third book in the series, The Queen's Ascension, arrives on August 17, 2020.
She is not only a paranormal thriller author but an IT professional and mother of two fantastic children. Today, she resides in Florida but is still a Seattle girl at heart.
Then, the idea for The Blood Prophecy came while she was sleeping. In a dream, Barb saw a unique storyline involving all the races and an epic battle of good versus evil. It was a modern-day plot with a three-thousand-year-old prophecy, The Blood Prophecy. Barb finished the first book in 2014, The Queen's Destiny. Two years later, she released The Queen's Enemy, and the third book in the series, The Queen's Ascension, arrives on August 17, 2020.
She is not only a paranormal thriller author but an IT professional and mother of two fantastic children. Today, she resides in Florida but is still a Seattle girl at heart.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Blood_Prophecy1
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