Sheila Roberts | Sheila’s Recipe For A Fun Book

Good deeds, good lovin’ and good recipes--I thought these sounded like a winning combination for a book, so I incorporated them all into my latest novel, Angel Lane. In the book three girlfriends decide they need to do something to keep the heart in Heart Lake, the small, lakeside town where they live. So they come up with their "Have a Heart" campaign--asking neighbors to commit one random act of kindness every day . . . and then learn that no good deed goes unpunished. Sarah Goodwin, suffering from granddaughter withdrawals after her daughter moves, delivers a coffee cake to the new neighbor only to realize she’s just fed a hungry lounge lizard. (Something her husband does not appreciate!) As if she doesn’t have enough troubles with lover boy, she is also finding the cooking classes she started for some of the town’s little girls to be, well, challenging. Emma Swanson is becoming the town soft touch and slowly running her quilt shop into the ground. And Jamie Moore, who owns the town’s new chocolateria, is fighting feelings for a certain cop who’s developed a sweet tooth. (A fight she’s determined to win now that she’s sworn off men.) What I love about this book is that by the end the three friends learn that the only way to get a better life, a better town, a better world, is to give your heart. I truly believe that.

I also believe that nothing says fun like food. (Okay, there are other things, but that’s such a cute little saying, I’m sticking with it.) I mean, who doesn’t like to eat good food? And who doesn’t enjoy finding a fabulous recipe . . . or at least sampling one. That’s why I included recipes in the book, both from Sarah’s bakery and Jamie’s chocolateria. Creating and testing those recipes was definitely fun. And . . . interesting.

One of the best recipes in the book was going to be white chocolate truffles with a lemon coconut filling. Does that sound fabulous or what? It should have been fabulous, would have been fabulous if only the wicked candy fairy hadn’t messed with my ganache. Ganache can be intimidating, but I was sure I could master it. After all, I’d researched on the Internet. What could go wrong? Well, I stirred my ganache, I chilled my ganache, and by the end of this maddening process I hated my ganache. The stuff refused to set. Refused! So I finally decided, Heck, maybe this is as good as it gets. I’ll just dip it in the chocolate coating and see what happens. Let me tell you, leprosy happened. This candy looked dangerous to eat. Even my husband, who is a support system for a stomach, wouldn’t go near it. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the kitchen of Sheila Crockpot that day. The idea of throwing out all those fabulous ingredients . . . I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Sooo, I mixed everything up, threw it into a 9X9 inch glass pan and said, "Turn into something or I’ll torture you in the garbage disposal." Amazingly, it did. It turned into the best white chocolate fudge I’ve ever had in my life. And I rewarded it by giving it page space in the book.

You may try that particular recipe and have no success. But don’t throw out the ingredients. Do . . . something with them. Cooking and baking projects can be a little like doing good deeds and building a sense of community. You have to keep trying. Try long enough and hard enough and who knows what you might get? Maybe something great!