Posts Tagged ‘horse shifter’

Holiday Recipe Extravaganza: Cheese Biscuits

Dec 1, 2011 Filed under: book release, erotica, excerpts, holiday, Holiday Recipe Extravaganza, paranormal, recipes, sci fi, shapeshifter Tags: cheese biscuits, erotic romance, futuristic Regency, horse shifter, Regency sci fi

Stallion’s Accord will be available later today. In that story, Raya and Calder enjoy some cheese biscuits that are one of Calder’s cook’s specialties. While I’m sure she made her biscuits from scratch, as I do on most occasions, I’m sharing a quick easy and super crazy yummy recipe for garlicky cheese biscuits that I got from my mother-in-law.

The first time I had these biscuits, I was nineteen and I was staying at my then boyfriend, now husband’s house for New Year’s. His mother made two pans of these biscuits, set them on the counter to cool, and then went out to do some errands. Upon discovering them (with no note or explanation attached I might add), my boyfriend, his younger brother, and I decided they looked like a great snack. Yes, the idea that they’d been made for a particular occasion went through our minds, but here were these warm, delicious-smelling biscuits right there in front of us. We each ate few and then a few more and then a few more. (Warning: If you make these, make several pans, they are addictive.) By the time we finished there were none left, in either pan.

Around supper time, his mother was getting ready to go out to a party. She came into the kitchen and asked where the biscuits were. Poor woman, I think she thought we’d actually wrapped them up for her after they cooled. “Biscuits?” my boyfriend asked.

She narrowed her eyes at us. “They’re for the party. Did you eat some?”

“Some?”

She glanced toward the sink and spied the empty pans. The game was up. “We kinda ate them all,” I confessed.

Needless to say, she was not pleased with us. But once her anger had abated, I got the recipe and we’ve been making them at some point during the holidays ever since.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Makes 1 pan but I’d double or triple it.

1 can large refrigerated biscuits

1/2 cup butter, melted.

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

3 cloves garlic, minced (or 4 or 5 or as many as you like)

Stir cheese and garlic into melted butter. Separate biscuits and break them into quarters. Roll each quarter into a ball then roll dip it into butter/cheese mixture until thoroughly coated. Place in a 8 in round pan (cake pan). It’s ok if they are touching. Drizzle with some of the remaining butter and cheese mix. Cook according to biscuits directions.

Stallion’s Accord by Silvia Violet

Raya Varvara is what Orianians refer to as a techno snob. She thrives on her fast-paced urban life on New Earth. At least she did until she met Calder Brinkley, a horse shifter and regional governor on Oriana. Calder likes wide-open spaces, the fresh air of early morning, and turning off technology in favor of face-to-face conversation. He also likes Raya. He likes her so much he’s willing to alter some of what he enjoys about his low-tech planet.

When Raya returns to Oriana after a long, painful absence, she learns about the changes Calder introduced. Her certainty that she could never live on this backwater planet begins to falter. Can Calder convince her that being together is more important than either of them having their way, or will her stubbornness keep them forever apart?

Excerpt:

Raya leaned forward, tangling her hands in Obsidian’s mane, relishing the feel of his strength beneath her. She was thankful her lover needed to return home quickly after their tryst by the stream. Riding his alternate form exhilarated her. Discussing the fact that a confession of love had escaped her — as Calder worked her into a frenzy — would make her cringe.

She didn’t want to be in love. She couldn’t live on Oriana, and Calder wouldn’t leave. No matter how good the sex was, their lifestyles were incompatible. That’s why she’d run from what she felt months ago. She’d tried to deny what he meant to her, but seeing him again had brought all her feelings to the surface. Then he’d touched her, and she was lost.

But she wasn’t a coward. She wouldn’t deny what she’d blurted out in a fit of passion. She was in love with Calder, and she had to face the consequences of those feelings. But the longer she could put it off, the better. Perhaps Calder would give her one night to revel in their need for each other before questioning her intentions.

All too soon, the stable came in sight, and Obsidian slowed to a trot. Finlay, the stable master, was there to greet them. He gave Raya a sly wink. “I see you’ve returned, and you’re riding Obsidian as well as ever.”

She smiled and ignored the heat that crept into her cheeks. “Damn right I am.”

Obsidian snorted as they both laughed.

“I’ll see to him,” Raya said, sliding from her lover’s back and grabbing a currycomb from the wall, ready to give Obsidian a loving brush down.

“He’d certainly love that, Miss Varvara, but his guests have already begun to arrive.”

Obsidian whinnied loudly and gestured toward the door with his nose.

Finlay nodded. “I’ll take care of it, sir.”

Raya raised her brows in question.

“He needs privacy to shift, ma’am. Not all of tonight’s guests are aware that Obsidian and Lord Brinkley are one and the same.” Calder was an unregistered shapeshifter. His mother belonged to a centaur-like race known as the Canterini, but as a half-blood, he could shift between human and horse form.

“Ah,” she nodded. Guests. Ugh. The last thing she wanted to do was stuff herself into one of the fancy dresses she’d been forced to purchase for her business on Oriana and socialize with Calder’s guests. Maybe she could feign fatigue from the long journey. Or better yet from the thorough fucking he’d given her.

Finlay closed the stable doors and locked them. Obsidian shimmered briefly, and Calder stood where he’d been, naked and obviously ready to go another round with her. Finlay tossed him some clothes and boots, and he dressed quickly. He looked damn fine in the tight tan riding pants and tall polished boots. His black shirt strained across his powerful shoulders and muscular chest. He left the top two buttons open in a manner considered rakish on Oriana.

“Lord Partington has arrived with his daughter,” Finlay said as he unlocked the doors. The stable master looked pointedly at Raya. “Miss Varvara’s arrival will be of interest to them, I’m sure.”

Calder’s eyes brightened, and he smiled wickedly. “I do believe it will.”

Raya didn’t like the sound of that. “Who is Lord Partington?”

“An idiot who thinks I’d pay his debts in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage.”

“Fuck that.” Raya’s stomach churned. Calder was hers. She didn’t want to be in love, and she didn’t want to live on Oriana, but… damn it, he was hers.

Calder chuckled. “Try to keep your claws in.”

Raya glared at him. “Why are they here?”

“I’m hosting a party tonight to celebrate the conclusion of the legislative session.”

Raya pondered his words. “Is that customary?”

Calder nodded. “When the session ends, most of the regional governors return to their own lands, and life in and around the capital slows down for several months.”

Raya tried to imagine the pace of life being any slower than it already was and failed. She’d originally met Calder when her job at Intergalactic Investors Bank brought her to Oriana to broker a deal for a client. She’d hated everything about the backwater planet except for the fine horseflesh Calder owned and Calder himself.

She’d never let herself get involved with a client before, but she loved beautiful horses and beautiful men, and Calder literally brought all the untamed strength of a stallion into his human form. He’d been impossible to resist, but when he suggested she stay, she refused. No way could an urban girl from New Earth be happy here, not even with a stud of a man like Calder.

She’d ignored him for the intervening months just like she’d ignored the terrifying mix of hot and cold that raced through her when she thought of him. She had no place in her life for romance.

When she’d received the paperwork confirming her client’s purchase of Calder’s horses, she’d chosen to surprise Calder rather than be forced to explain why she’d failed to contact him for months. She caught a flight to Oriana that afternoon, barely taking time to comm her supervisor and let her know she’d be out of the office for the next week. Now here she was, admitting to feelings she’d didn’t want to have, confused and longing to ignore the world and spend the night making love to Calder. But he had a house full of overdressed, stuffy Orianians who would find her exotic if not downright crude.

As if hearing her thoughts, he glanced down pointedly, looking at her nipples standing out against the damp cloth of her dress. Between the heat and the dip she’d taken in the stream her dress looked rather disreputable.

“You’re going to scandalize my guests.”

Raya snorted. “Fucking prudes.”

Calder laughed. “My guests include some of the biggest gossips on Oriana. When we appear at the house together with you in that ensemble, rumors will spread like wildfire. By tomorrow everyone who’s anyone in Oriana’s capital will know we’re lovers. The only way I’ll be able to save your reputation is by marrying you.”

Marry me? Marry me? He has to be kidding.