Spokes-dog Goes Undercover

Abby is the spokes-dog for Gracious Jane Marie, our family owned business promoting the silly, the patriotic and Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie series, a whole lot. She is aka The Abster, Abbykins and Stinkhead.  She loves role playing and this day she is pretending she's a spy, going undercover(s). Clever doggie, that one! 

Mix and Match Crust-less Quiche plus Goodbye Lie Diaries - Marie

Crust-less Quiche

     I am forever trying to save calories.  I figure the more calories I save when I make a dish, the more of it I can eat.  To that end,  here is my Mix and Match Crust-less Quiche recipe.  It's easy and you can serve it warm or cold.

You'll Need:

6 eggs
3/4 cup milk (non-fat optional)
8 ounces non-fat cottage cheese
8 ounces 2% cheddar sharp cheese

Mix and match any of the following, adding in just before baking:
1 small can of chopped mild green chilies
Chopped bacon
Garlic powder
Tuna
Tomatoes, seeded
Pepperoni, nuked a few seconds on a paper towel to remove the grease, then crumbled
Ground beef, lean, browned and drained
Chicken, cooked and chopped
Ham, chopped
Turkey, chopped
Green onions, chopped
Black olives, chopped
Green olives, chopped

For a thinner quiche, pour mixture into a 9 inch x 13 inch pan first treated with non-stick cooking spray. For a thicker quiche, use an 8 inch x 8 inch pan.  You can also use muffin cups.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 or 35 minutes, generally, checking a knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Reduce the muffin cups by at least 10 minutes.  Oven temperatures vary, so don't over-bake.  Serve with a tossed or fruit salad.  Yummo!
                             Enjoy!                                                  -Jane Marie

*********

Late 1800s

Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida

Marie writes:  Jane Marie, you know how I love to

Marie Dunnigan

eat.  Why it is one of God's pure pleasures, isn't it?  I am always on a quest to find easy to make recipes because I would much rather be looking for shark's teeth or flirting with boys. However, I understand the need for a woman to be as capable in the kitchen as she is in the bedroom.  Please don't tell Mama or Aunt Noreen or Peeper I said that. They'd skin me and hang my hide from the barn door if'n they heard such an admission. 

  The Goodbye Lie series

E-books and paperbacks available HERE

     Well, this egg dish sounds wonderful since I can add whatever I want.  Have you tried it with a few seasoned bread crumbs?  Yes, the bread may defeat the purpose of those low-fat ingredients you recommend, but it sounds quite delicious to me.  I bet Peeper will have some ideas of her own to goose up the flavor.  She always has her way of doing things and that makes her about the best cook in the county, next to our mother, Miss Ella. 

      May the reminder of your day be another adventure, as I hope mine will be. Now that I think on it, mayhap my quest for adventure is higher on my happy list than food. My stars, what a realization that is to me.

Marie is the youngest sibling in  historical romance novel, Amelia Island's Mark of a Man, part of the Goodbye Lie series set on Amelia Island, Florida in the late 1800s.  She is free spirited, opinionated and cherished by her family and a particular young man with whom she is acquainted ... 

Another "Lucy" Moment- Where Are My ...?

     I confess.  I have always and am always misplacing two things.  Beginning in childhood,  I remember

asking my mother, "Where are my shoes?"  That continued into adulthood.  Now I ask my husband, "Where are my shoes?" plus "Where are my glasses?"  I wear cheaters/readers, whatever you may call them.

     One day I was alone in the house, scurrying about, as I usually do.  I don't walk.  Why?  I can't say for sure, but one advantage is you burn calories, another is you get to where you're going faster and, thereby, can accomplish more things. Win, win, right? 

     So there I am, asking Abby, the spokesdog for this blog and my writing companion,  and myself, mostly myself, "Where are my glasses."  I always keep a spare pair in every room, or try to.  I often manage to find several in a pile.  Case in point ... When I happened to pass a mirror, I caught a near blinding reflection of something glinting off the sun.  I figured out it was the four pairs of glasses I had hanging on the neck of the sweatshirt I was wearing. I had to laugh as this one.  I took a selfie to prove what a dumb bunny I can be. (Refer to the picture above.)  

     Hey, perhaps we can spin this to read how my powers of concentration are so great, I don't know everything I do while I'm doing it.  Naw.  That can't be right because I am a great multi-tasker.  Just ask me. 

    Save yourselves, my dear readers. Your hostess here is silly, screwie and leaning hard toward being nuts.  But as I tell people, it's happy in my world and that of our  fictitious and beloved Dunnigan family on Amelia Island in the late 1800s. It must be happy in yours, too, because you're right here with us. Happy is a better thing.  Let's keep it that way!

LIttle Free Library in Fernandina

      I decided to go on a quest to see if Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida had any of those free mini-libraries I have read about.  You know, where you borrow a book and leave a book?  Well, I am delighted to report, after some investigation on Facebook and Google, etc.,  I visited two out of the seven listed in our town. One is near the gazebo in the Amelia Park development off Citrona and one is located at 103 S. 18th Street.  Each has a bit of a design difference, but all are charming, if for no other reason than because they contain books.  Note the blue bird-knob on the front of the Little Library in the picture at the top of this post.
     To find the Little Free Library in your area, go to https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/, scroll down to just above the image of the map and insert your zip code in the search box.  Once found, add and/or borrow a book.  If you can't find a library box in your town,  get a call out on social media or your book clubs or library or all of the above and build one or more.  Talk about your small town America.  It's a "better thing,"  as our Martha Bear says.

Martha Bear taking a break from her duties as spokesbear for Gracious Jane Marie

Fernandina Shocker

      May I recount a recent incident for you? Permission or not, I shall. There I am signing my historical romance books, aka, The Goodbye Lie series in e-book and paperback, on Centre Street in our charming downtown Fernandina, Amelia Island. Perched on the deck outside Sea Jade's old Florida souvenir shop, I am introducing my novels to new friends.  This is much fun for me and I hope for them as well. But wait, something tears our attention away from the topic of great literature. What is it that we spy across the street? Oh, cheese and crackers, where are binoculars when we need them? It looks to be some sort of partially clothed pointy faced creature, its appendages  bare.  Bold as I am, I volunteer to chance impact with the automobiles barreling toward me at 15 mph or whatever the excessive speed limit is that the law has set.  Do remember, those tourists can have feet of lead. A rowdy bunch, they even sip water directly from bottles.  What would Aunt Noreen think of such crass behavior? 
     Upon arrival on the sunny side of the street, I, once described as the prattling princess, am left speechless. My discovery is less than life threatening, dare I admit? Yes, I dare. My discovery is, well, comical for it is merely a pig playing a trombone. Good times.
    

The Pig aka Eric Wheeler of the Fernandina High School Band

Aunt Noreen is a sometimes less than beloved player in The Goodbye Lie series set in Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida in the late 1800s.

Double-Duty Curtain - The Goodbye Lie Diaries - Miss Ella

One woman's shower curtain

is another woman's parlor curtain!

     My daughter, Barbra, is a good cook and has wonderful taste. Oh, she decorates beautifully, too. 😉 Well, the first time I saw her shower curtain, the one in the photo, I fell in love with it. When she was ready for something new, I snatched it up. The embroidered flowers and delicate feel are perfect for our parlor.  Hanging from a tension rod, I gathered it in the center with a pink satin ribbon and attached a bejeweled butterfly ornament on the bow.   It's so me!      

                             -Jane Marie, present day

********

The Goodbye Lie Diaries

Late 1880s

Fernandina, Amelia Island, Florida

Miss Ella writes: That curtain is lovely. It's very feminine.  I can imagine its gentle undulations against our bedroom window.  Michael is

Miss Ella

impartial to such things and would not appreciate it, but Breelan, Carolena and Marie and Grammy and Peeper would.

     And I appreciate that you have found a second purpose for it. Now that the war is over and we are all nearly rebuilt and recovered, as much as one can be after such a horror, some are less than appreciative with their possessions and are almost wasteful with them. That is a shameful thing I am forever preaching to my family to avoid. Everything has value.  Often, the more worn items are, the more love has been poured upon them. So may you ever enjoy your curtain. 

     I am curious as to what you will do with it once you take it down.  Perhaps a table covering or piano shawl or doll clothes? So many possibilities, aren't there?

******
Miss Ella Dunnigan is matriarch and mother of Breelan, Carolena, Marie and Jack Patrick.  A good and Godly woman, she is respected by friends and beloved by family.

What Is It? - Goodbye Lie Diaries - Carolena

     What on earth, or off the earth for that matter, could this be?  An underwater scene from an animated horror movie?  Perhaps the landscape of a death star?  While you guess, read an entry in our Goodbye Lie Diaries from Carolena, the heroine from Amelia Island's Velvet Undertow, part of The Goodbye Lie series set in the late 1800s in north Florida in the tiny city of Fernandina.

Late 1880s

Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida

Carolena

     Carolena writes: For anyone who does not know, I am the interior designer for our family's Aqua Verde Passenger Line and Shipyards. Let me clarify.  I draw the plans and add the colors and materials and oversee the creation of our ships and private yachts.  Before discovering my affinity for this,  I feared my career choices were relegated to  teacher, nurse or shop girl. Since I love to draw, always have, I found myself suggesting the silks and brocades, the style of column and layout of cabins and staircases to the men working for our company.  To my happy surprise, they were more than willing to take my suggestions, appreciating my apparent eye for a vision of the finished product.  

     With regard to your picture, Jane Marie, I can only guess it comes from a dark mind, seeking hope, what with the lighter, welcoming shading on the upper left. Is this your imagining of what could be mysterious black ice cycles?  

Present time

Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida
     Jane Marie writes: Perhaps you are correct in thinking you might not be suited for teaching or nursing. Aren't we glad there are others who are.
     With my dark mind, I can see your black ice cycles, Carolena. (I am smiling.) I must say I have enjoyed the variety of comments I've received so far as to what this picture could be. And yes, this is my creation, but only because of a combination of nature and a program we have in our time to alter photographs.  It's generally referred to as photo shop. 

     So what was my original photograph?  It was a shadow of landscape against a white door.  I noticed this shadow, thought it was pretty in its simplicity and took a picture of it.  Then I applied the photo shop program to disguise it and try and fool folks. I can be a little minx, you know. 
     See the original shadow photo below.