Michele Dunaway on Writing and Recipes
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Apr 25 2008
Michele Dunaway
The Marriage Recipe
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Pub date: April 2008
Agent: Jessica Faust
Author Web/Blog links: www.micheledunaway.com & www.micheledunaway.blogspot.com
One of my favorite pastimes is baking. I love to cook. I have a full set of All-Clad pots hanging from the rack in my ceiling. A trip to Williams-Sonoma is a trip to nirvana. I always find a pan I must add to my collection. My brother is a chef, and he wishes he had my kitchen, which I sadly don’t use as much as I should.
So what does this have to do with writing? My latest book is about a pastry chef who has to return to her hometown and enlist the help of the boy next door to help her save her recipes. It still amazes me that I made an intellectual property case sexy. I’ll thank a good friend, a media lawyer who once worked with Oprah, for the great media law class I took as part of my MA degree!
When I created Rachel’s character, I had an excuse to cook. As a mother of two with a full-time teaching job (who also is on a permanent diet—aren’t most of us?) I don’t dig out the recipe book as much as I used to. I’m not sure why, especially since I’m a firm believer that anything you bake yourself does not go straight to your hips—and it’s all those ingredients with words I can’t pronounce that cause weight gain.
So since I was researching, I pulled out my cookbooks. I made pumpkin bread, cupcakes, cookies, and some of my old favorites, like chocolate cake! I also got to think back to college, when I would bake constantly—for the way to a guy’s heart was through his stomach—and my brownies and chocolate chip cookies were legendary.
In the spirit of cooking, since I can’t send you any cookies virtually, here is my brownie recipe:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch square pan. In medium bowl, stir butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Add eggs, and with a wooden spoon beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Add to egg mixture, beat until well blended. Spread batter into a pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until brownies begin to pull away from the pan. Cool completely in pan. While cooling, make frosting. To make frosting, in a small mixer bowl beat 3 tablespoons softened butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup or honey, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until blended. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 cup milk; beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Add additional milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, if needed. Spread over cool brownies and cut brownies into squares. (PS—you can add nuts and chocolate chips to the batter before baking.)
For one more recipe, be sure to check out www.harauthors.blogspot.com or
www.micheledunaway.blogspot.com on April 30. You will not want to miss Rachel’s cupcake recipe.
Enjoy the brownies and the romance!
Michele Dunaway
You’re absolutely positive about that home baking = no fat to hips, right? Because your recipe looks really yummy and very simple. I absolutely love to cook and know a lot of other writers who do as well–makes me wonder if the creative gene extends from creating stories to creating goodies in the kitchen as well. Fun post!
I love to bake, too. Unfortunately, I love to eat what I bake. In the interest of trying to maintain a reasonable weight, I’ve had to curtail my baking. But your brownie recipe looks so tempting!
And your book sounds good, too!
YUM! Thanks for the virtual brownies, Michele!
I love to cook too. I made two sour cream cakes last night … neither of them for me. Boo hoo!
I hate to gloat, but I live about 10 miles from the ALL CLAD factory. I can wave at the building when I pass by.
My favorite is All Clad’s “Master Chef” line.
You book will make a nice gift for my Niece who was trained as a pastry chef.
Dave,
That sounds like mecca! I have the Ltd models…
And yes, Kate, I’m positive. It’s all the preservatives that make one fat. No science behind that, unfortunately, but I’m a believer.
The last recipe will be for eggless chocolate cupcakes–up at harauthors.blogspot.com on April 30.
Michele
That sounds like a really interesting story. The brownie recipe is tops.
Thanks for posting this. It’s always fun to get some information about how books come about.