EBay cookbooks is done for the next couple of months. With a holiday work schedule-not enough time off and the stress of the holidays, I have decided not to sell cookbooks until after the holidays. I'm sorry about this and appreciate everyone's business, but my other "real" job is what pays the bills. Besides with the holidays coming, media mail which I ship by USPS takes forever and then people get mad at me. Too much stress. But I am going to continue with my blog.

I will continue to report on new books that I find. Then maybe you can find them locally or put them on your wish list until after the holidays.

About 5 years ago, my son developed an interest in cooking. So each birthday and Christmas now, he gets one cookbook for whatever level of cooking he is at. This has turned out to be his favorite present. He so looks forward to what I get him. Now, I have a new daughter-in-law and she wants her cookbook too! She has heard so much about Nicky's cookbooks that she wants in as well. So consider this idea for Christmas presents for your family members. One of my sisters is really into low-carb cooking, so I have her Christmas present too!

I have two Pillsbury Crescent Rolls burning a spot in my refrigerator, so I need to do something with them. I had the big book on Pillsbury Dough Magic in my EBay listing-Valerie2901, that nobody bought, so it's now mine. Hundreds of recipes to try with their products: Biscuits, Crescent Dinner Rolls, Breadsticks, Pie Crusts, Pizza Crusts, Cookies & more. I'm sure to find something to make. Last time I had some, I made the crescent rolls, stuffed them with cooked scrambled eggs & cheese and served them to a breakfast brunch with friends. All 24 disappeared in minutes!

Martha White products is having a big recipe contest for any of you that want to enter. Go to: www.marthawhite.com. I actually made a wonderful recipe for this contest only to find that cornbread recipes are not allowed for this contest. But I will share it with you.

Sweet Cornbread-Five Pepper Cheese Miniature Muffins

1 7oz. Martha White Sweet Cornbread Mix

1 egg

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup chopped finely jalapeno, red, orange, yellow pepper

1/8 tsp. black pepper

Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare the miniature muffin pans by greasing with garlic powder (1 tbsp butter with 1/8 tsp garlic powder-I used leftover Papa John's garlic butter). Set in hot oven for 5 minutes.

Combine the cornbread mix, egg, milk & sour cream, mix until smooth. Add the cheddar cheese, peppers, black pepper-blend all together. Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Best served warm. Makes 24 miniature muffins.

Yesterday, I went to my friend's home-Vernalisa who had a big soup gathering. She made Italian Meatball Soup for 30 of us and everyone else brought something else. My contribution was the above cornbread muffins-they also disappeared very quickly. (So also did my beautiful white bowl that it was presented in, but I found it hidden away eventually in the dishwasher).

The cooking videos are coming along, still not out on U-Tube. You know the bottom line is that I want to be a food sponsor for someone in the future. So keep my name in mind if you know anyone in the food business.

That's all for now.

CookbookVal

aka: Valerie Brown of Las Vegas, NV

I am almost finished reading COOK OFF by Amy Sutherland. Though published in 2003, it is a little out of date (will explain in a minute), but well worth reading. It is a story of those who enter food recipe contests. It follows the lives of the some of the truly big contesters (that's what they call themselves), their big prizes and some of their secrets. One of the interesting things I read was that people create recipes on their computers, submit them to recipe contests and actually win big prizes without every making them. Can you imagine.
This book will not go on sale, but I recommend you try and find it and read it-you will be inspired. This book is going to a friend of mine, Marsha White in Dallas, TX, who has suffered in the recession, like many of us and thinks that maybe entering cooking contests is a way to make some extra money.
It has inspired me, when I get home from this trip, I'm going to start dabbling in some of these food recipes contests and maybe win some good prizes.
Many of the big name/big cash prizes written about in the book have fallen away to the nation's economy, including The National Chicken Cook-Off, The National Beef-Off (though they may re-open this in 2012) and Pillsbury is still having their bake-off, but recipes are to be submitted Jan-April 2011, but the Bake-off, will not be until sometime in 2012.
There are still some big prizes out there, but because of the computer age, they now receive tens of thousands of entries, instead of hundreds.
When the book listings stop in the next few days, they will re-start on October 15-I have to time everything, so that I'm home when the EBay sales come in, because I know you want your books right away. Look for Valerie2901 for lots of new listings of cookbooks on EBay. Again thanks for your sales and remind me about feedback.
That's all for now.
Cookbook Val

Small Cookbooks

You know those cookbooks, the paperbacks found by the cash register that cost $3.99 and up. I consider those small cookbooks-small gems. Typically those cookbooks hold about 100 pages in recipes. The average hardback cookbook is about 125 pages. And yet, I sell these small gems 5 for the price of 1 and people rarely buy them. These are pretty good buys, at least I think so. I probably have 100 that I keep for me. If you are a future Pillsbury Bake-Off Contestant, you should be getting some of these small books-at least for some ideas. Look under Valerie2901-EBay or cookbooks

Speaking of Pillsbury Bake-Off Contestants, one of the girls I work with, was one of the finalists a few years back, and her sister-in-law actually won it one year. She lived (still lives) in Kansas and she said entering food contests, was a way of supplementing the family income. I have never had any of my recipes considered for the finalist competition, but I'm going to keep trying.

Last night in a hurry to get to Bingo-I am not obsessed with Bingo, just something to do in Las Vegas with big returns, I got out of my car and heard the car next to me still running, I thought to myself how odd. Locked the car door and realized, it was my car still running with the car keys still inside. What a mess! I walked home (thank goodness it wasn't too far), retrieved my extra keys and 30 minutes later, got back into my car. Must have something to do with the blonde hair. Didn't make it to Bingo last night. I did go this afternoon, playing cheap Bingo and still won $17 (cheap bingo is a small buy-in-mine was only $10). So I won my money back and a little extra.

Today, I started going through clothes I haven't worn in a year. Tossing those I would probably never wear again into the Goodwill bag-filling the Goodwill bag.

It was pretty cool today in Las Vegas, almost to the point of being cold. The weather has definitely changed here in the dessert.

My sinus infection is almost gone. It just takes alot of rest and some sun for me to get better.

I have received an Internet message, I am about to lose Internet-high winds in the dessert. More later.
Cookbook Val