New Year's Progressive Dinner

Welcome to one of the Salad course options in the M/M Writers' Buffet!  

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Here are the rules - Dinner starts on 12/31/2014 at noon EST. You can "choose your own dinner adventure" from appetizers, soup, salad, main dish and dessert, but those of you who visit and comment at each and every blog will be entered into a drawing for one of three (3) $35.00 gift cards to the venue of your choice: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or All Romance Ebooks.

Plus, some individual authors (like me!) might include a private drawing for those people who stop by. So read, drink and be merry! Happy New Year from all of us, at the M/M Writers' Buffet!

For full blog links visit http://zamaxfield.com/new-years-eve-progressive-dinner/

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I’ll admit, my idea of cooking usually involves a microwave or the toaster oven (or both, when I employ my micro-bake method). But I do have a few things I’ve created to appease my picky taste buds, and I can operate a grill and a stove. One recipe is a BBQ Shrimp Caesar Salad. It’s super yummy, and can be made in the summer (using the grill for the shrimp) or in cruddy weather (sautéing the shrimp). 

Here’s what you need:

• Romaine lettuce

• Parmesan cheese

• Romano cheese

• Caesar salad dressing

• Shrimp. Raw, peeled and deveined. Use as many as you want.

• BBQ spice rub

• Crusty dinner rolls

Make the salad first. Combine the lettuce with the salad dressing in a bowl, mix it up, then shred some Parmesan and Romano cheese on it. After the salad is done, stick it in the refrigerator while you cook the shrimp. 

Then throw the dinner rolls into the toaster oven to heat them up. You’ll need one for every person. I usually go with French rolls, since they are nice and crusty but soft on the inside.

For the shrimp part, you’ll need a good BBQ spice rub. Rub the BBQ spice onto the shrimp. If you are grilling, then put the shrimp on skewers and grill until the shrimp are cooked. If sautéing, then put a bit of olive oil in a pan, heat up the pan on medium heat, and then sauté the shrimp until they are cooked. 

The final step is to take the salad out of the fridge, throw the BBQ shrimp on it and then tear up the French rolls to make croutons and throw them on the salad as well. The salad is especially yummy when eaten when the shrimp and rolls are still warm – it makes a wonderful warm/cold combo.  

There you have it – one of the few dishes I can actually cook with a level of success and that doesn’t come out of a box. It’s not something any of the characters in my books would have eaten – my guys live in England in the early 1800’s. They like meat and good old fashioned English food. I don’t eat meat and my taste buds aren't a fan of most traditional English dishes. But if Ben and Cavin from Thief lived in the 21st century, I could image Cavin making a salad like this one for Ben for a light luncheon or as one of the courses for a dinner party. 

And if you are interested in keeping up to date on my new book releases, you can find my newsletter sign-up form on my website. 

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To enter the New Year's Progressive Dinner giveaway for one of (3) $35 gift cards to a choice of venues mentioned  above, leave a comment on this post and the other posts in the dinner party. The winner will be chosen and announced on January 6, 2015.

Also, I'll be giving away (1) ebook from my backlist. To enter, leave a comment on this post with your email address. Winner will be chosen at random by yours truly.
-Must be at least 18 yrs of age to enter. One entry allowed per person. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary to enter. I'll post the name of the ebook winner on January 6th, 2015 on this blog post. I'll also send the winner an email requesting their book of choice. The winner has until January 14th, 2015 to respond to the email.
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UPDATE: And the winner of the ebook giveaway is Kaisquared! Congrats!! I've already sent her an email requesting the ebook of her choice.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the New Year's Progressive Dinner!
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You are cordially invited to click on the author's name below to link directly to their blog!

Appetizers:
Lynn Lorenz
Morticia Knight
K.A. Mitchell
Clare London
Stormy Glenn

Soups:
Lou Harper
Alex Beecroft
Lou Sylvre
Posy Roberts
Elin Gregory


Salads:
Ava March
Poppy Dennison
Lee Rowan

Main Dishes:
Rhys Ford
ZA Maxfield
LE Franks
KC Burn
Anne Tenino
EM Lynley


Desserts:
Amy Lane
Christopher Koehler
Belinda McBride
Jamie Samms
EM Lynley