“The Bookstore” won the long form Rhysling Award!
Wow. This was a shock. My poem “The Bookstore,” originally published in NewMyths #56/57, was recently announced as the winner of the long poem Rhysling Award. You can read the poem here.
This is a fictional autobiographical piece. I wrote it soon after my grandma died. I couldn’t go to the funeral. This poem imagines my visit to a very special bookstore, but many of the details throughout are true to my life. I wrote this in a single sitting, and it was an exercise of grief. That makes this level of recognition all the more extraordinary.
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Read MoreBready or Not: Peppermint Truffle Bars
These Peppermint Truffle Bars are loaded with peppermint flavor, perfect for the holiday season or year-round!
If you like chocolate peppermint (or know someone who does), this is the recipe for you. A shortbread base is topped with a dense layer of soft chocolaty goodness infused with peppermint extract.
As with many chocolate recipes, this one has a deeper flavor if you make it a day ahead. Build that info your baking plans.
To make for neat bars, I cut off the edges. These are not to be wasted, of course–set them aside for select people to enjoy, and present the neatly-edged bars to a more discriminating audience.
Modified from Best Holiday Recipes from Taste of Home 2011.
Bready or Not: Peppermint Truffle Bars
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
- nonstick spray
- wax paper
- heavy glass
Ingredients
Bottom crust
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter cold and cubed (1 1/2 sticks butter)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate layer
- 16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- 3/4 cup milk or half & half
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter cubed
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
Instructions
- Line a 13×9 baking pan with foil and apply nonstick spray. Preheat oven at 325-degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add vanilla. Dice in the butter. Mix ingredients until the butter resembles fine crumbs. Distribute into prepared pan. Use a piece of waxed paper and a heavy glass to compress the dough into a firm layer.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are lightly brown. In the meantime, start mixing the top layer.
- In a large pot, combine the semisweet chocolate, milk, and butter and cook on low heat until the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for a bit.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs and white sugar until it is smooth and thick. Add the peppermint extract and the chocolate mixture. Beat until incorporated and smooth. Pour over the bottom crust.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the middle is set and passes the toothpick test. Cool in pan on a rack, then place in fridge to set for several hours or overnight.
- Use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board. Slice into bars. Store in sealed container or individually wrapped in the fridge.
OM NOM NOM!
Book cover reveal: A Thousand Recipes for Revenge
Ta-da!
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge, to be released June 13, 2023! Available for preorder now.
Note that some of the links below are affiliate links.
- Amazon: paperback | kindle | audio CD | audible
- Barnes & Noble: paperback | audio mP3 on CD | audio CD
- Bookshop: paperback
- Books-a-million: paperback | audio mP3 on CD | audio CD
If you want to find these links (and more, as I add them), the book does have its own permanent page on BethCato.com. That can be found through the top menu.
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Read MoreGiftmas 2022: Fundraiser for the Edmonton Food Bank
I’m taking part in Giftmas again this year, an annual effort coordinated by Rhonda Parrish for the benefit of the Edmonton Food Bank. I don’t need to state the reasons why helping food banks is very important right now. We need to help each other out. A few bucks will help fill bellies and add warmth to the world through kindness. If you’re American like me, your dollars will deliver extra bang with each buck, too. This year our goal is $1,000 and if we reach it that will provide 3,000 meals to help make the season bright.
The Giftmas theme this time around is A Light in the Darkness.
Hi. I deal with chronic depression and anxiety. I know darkness. I know doubt. I’m agoraphobic. I already know this next year will be an incredibly hard one for me.
I’m thankful for what I have, though. That includes this big orange goof.
Finn is a trickster god in feline form. He loves everybody. He thinks laps were made for him, and he curls up there in a perfect Finnamon Roll. He is why we can’t leave out plastic bags or hang fake pine boughs along the stairs. If a bed is being made, he wants the sheets and blankets to land over him, creating a cozy Finn cave. I don’t know how he doesn’t suffocate.
Then there’s Luke. My thicc boi. He’s a cannonball in tabby skin. He fell in love with me in the shelter and considers me his human. He’s usually sleeping near my computer. If I go out shopping or need to cook, his anxiety flare up, and he gets frantic until I’m back at my computer–where he’ll then roll and purr and drool for 10 minutes until he tires himself out again.
These guys are my lights. I love them so much.
You can be someone else’s light, too. Again, please donate to the Edmonton Food Bank if you can, or to a local shelter in need. Remember that animal shelters often need donations of blankets, food, and litter as well.
Thank you.
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