A Taste of Passion

Mixed Chocolate Muffins

September 15, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

“A REALLY GOOD BOOK.” 5/5 stars.

I know I’ve mentioned it before but I just wanted to let everyone know there’s still time to read my erotic romance title (A Taste of Passion – Sweet Temptation Book #1) before the release of the book’s sequel.

A Taste of Passion is an erotic romance that takes place in the kitchens of a celebrated restaurant.

You can purchase your Kindle copy using this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1403777854&sr=1-3

or this one for US readers: http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/

Or you can try one of the FaceBook links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mischief-Books/186744244762441

As I’ve said before, the story is a romance set in a Michelin-starred restaurant. And, on that food-related theme, I wanted to share another muffin recipe. These ones are truly delicious.

Mixed Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

280g/10oz plain white flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/8 teaspoon of salt

115g/4 oz caster sugar

100g of white chocolate drops

100g of milk chocolate drops

2 medium eggs

250ml of single cream

6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1) Preheat the oven to 2000C/4000F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases.

2) Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar.

3) Beat the eggs in a large jug then add the extra virgin olive oil and single cream. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined: don’t over mix.

4) Separate the mix evenly into two bowls. Stir in the cocoa powder and white chocolate drops with the contents of one bowl. Add the milk chocolate drops to the contents of the other bowl. Using a small amount of mixture from each bowl, scoop even quantities of the light and dark mixtures into the prepared muffin tin.

5) Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch.

6) Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

NB – These muffins are ideal to enjoy whilst you’re reading a good book, such as A Taste of Passion. It’s also a good idea to get some ready for the forthcoming release of Turning Up the Heat.

Maple pecan muffins

August 19, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

“A REALLY GOOD BOOK.” 5/5 stars.

Have I mentioned my erotic romance title: A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book #1).

A Taste of Passion is an erotic romance that takes place in the kitchens of a celebrated restaurant.

You can purchase your Kindle copy using this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1403777854&sr=1-3

or this one for US readers: http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/

Or you can try one of the FaceBook links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mischief-Books/186744244762441

The book, as you may know, is a romance set in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Consequently, I’ve been doing a lot of baking and made these cheeky little fellows last week. After being prompted by a couple of writers that I love, I thought I’d share the recipe. These ones are truly delicious.

Maple Pecan Muffins

Ingredients

280g/10oz plain white flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/8 teaspoon of salt

115g/4 oz golden caster sugar

100g/ 3 1/2oz coarsely chopped pecan nuts

2 medium eggs
75 ml/2 1/2 fl oz of maple syrup, AND 3 tbsp extra for glazing.

175ml/6 fl oz of buttermilk
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
12 pecan nut halves

1) Preheat the oven to 200⁰C/400⁰F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases.

2) Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and chopped pecan nuts.

3) Beat the eggs in a large jug then add the extra virgin olive oil, 75ml of maple syrup and the buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined: don’t over mix.

4) Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Finish each muffin with a pecan half. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch.

5) Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then brush the tops with the remaining maple syrup to glaze. You can either serve these warm or transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

NB – These muffins are ideal to enjoy whilst you’re reading a good book, such as A Taste of Passion.

Nicely Donne

August 14, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

As I may have mentioned, I’m currently writing a romantic trilogy. The romance is passionate and intense and there seems to be a genuine spark between Bill and Trudy, the two central characters.

I think it would be possible to summarise the depth of their relationship with this quote from John Donne’s ‘The Good-Morrow’.

“I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved?”

Donne was a contemporary of Shakespeare and his writing is often labelled as ‘metaphysical.’ Although he enjoyed some popularity in his lifetime there was a long while after his death when his poetry wasn’t being read.

Which is sad.

When I read those first fourteen syllables I’m instantly reminded of the totality of love. Donne’s words, written four hundred years ago, still ring true. What the hell were we doing before we were in this relationship? What was life like before being part of a couple? This isn’t just something that crosses my mind. It’s a phenomena I’ve heard discussed by friends and I’ve seen in colleagues.

I’ll be playing some of Donne’s work on my radio show over the weekend. Aside from some of Donne’s love poetry I’ll also be playing recordings of his Holy Sonnets. My only issue with these religious works is that I can’t read the words ‘Holy Sonnets’ without thinking that Robin is shouting them to Batman (“Holy sonnets, Batman!”) But I guess that’s just my own personal issue.

If you’re interested in reading the rest of Donne’s poem, it’s in the public domain and reprinted here for your convenience.

The Good-Morrow

John Donne

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I

Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?

’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.

If ever any beauty I did see,

Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,

Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

A Taste of Passion – coming next

August 8, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

OK. This isn’t a spoiler. It’s just a notice to say that the bad boys shown to the right are likely to be a core component of the ongoing story of Trudy and Bill: cranberry and orange muffins.

If your mouth’s already watering, settle back with a copy of A Taste of Passion, and see what other appetites can be aroused.

Amazon UK
Amazon US

“The author develops a great story of steamy romance between a well known mature chef, Bill, and a young graduate of culinary arts, Trudy. Their age difference causes much consternation with Trudy’s friends. Looking forward to the release of the next book.”

5/5 STARS

Free download – and favourite review – so far

July 24, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

Currently free on amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2 … Download and enjoy the start of a great story.

This is one of my favourite reviews so far:

“The author develops a great story of steamy romance between a well known mature chef, Bill, and a young graduate of culinary, Trudy. Their age difference causes much consternation with Trudy’s friends. Looking forward to the release of the next book.“

5/5 STARS

Cherry and coconut muffins

July 17, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

Last month saw the release of my erotic romance title: A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book #1).

A Taste of Passion is an erotic romance that takes place in the kitchens of a celebrated restaurant.

You can purchase your Kindle copy using this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1403777854&sr=1-3

or this one for US readers: http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/

Or you can try one of the FaceBook links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mischief-Books/186744244762441

As I mentioned the last time I shared a recipe here, I pride myself on the meticulous research I put into every title. Consequently, I thought I’d share another of the recipes I worked on whilst developing this book. These ones are truly delicious.

Cherry & Coconut Muffins

Ingredients

250ml/4 fl oz coconut milk

280g/8oz plain white flour
40g/1½oz of dessicated coconut

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/8 teaspoon of salt

115g/4 oz golden caster sugar

125g/4½oz glace cherries

2 medium eggs

6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean exract
12 cherries with stalks

1) Preheat the oven to 200⁰C/400⁰F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases. Dice the glace cherries into small pieces.

2) Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar dessicated coconut and diced glace cherries.

3) Beat the eggs in a large jug then beat in the coconut milk with the extra virgin olive oil and the vanilla bean extract. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined: don’t over mix.

4) Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Finish each muffin by placing a whole fresh cherry on the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch.

5) Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

6) Decorate to taste and serve.

NB – These muffins are ideal to enjoy whilst you’re reading a good book, such as A Taste of Passion.

A Story Idea

July 14, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

I’ve had emails from readers who are curious about how I came up with the idea for A Taste of Passion. The truth is, I was inspired by a genuine couple.

I was at an awards ceremony. It was a fairly glamorous affair held in the ballroom of a prestigious hotel. I won’t bore you with the details of what the awards were commemorating. It’s enough to say I was nominated but I didn’t win and I still feel as though I was cheated. However, I came away from the day with something more important than an award. I came away from the day with an idea for a story.

The seating arrangements were designed for networking. Few people knew the person sitting next to them. Only married couples were seated side-by-side. I guess, as well as being an awards ceremony, it was supposed to be a chance to chat and make new connections.

There were a couple of hundred people at the ceremony and I was sitting with eleven strangers and trying to make polite conversation. I’m a writer, which means that indulging in polite conversation is never going to be considered my subject specialism. Nevertheless, I tried to do the polite conversation thing and ended up in a lengthy discussion with a software engineer who was keen to tell me about practical advances in unix-based VLEs.

It wasn’t as interesting as it sounds.

A couple sat opposite me.

He had grey hair. He looked mature and dignified. The woman with him looked young enough to be his daughter. Judging from the way they held hands, kissed and smiled at each other, it was obvious she wasn’t his daughter.

Despite the obvious difference in their ages they were clearly besotted with each other. They touched whilst they talked. They made regular eye contact with each other when they weren’t talking. Intermittently, they each blushed, as though psychically sharing a naughty memory. The bustle and the clatter of the hotel around them was clearly of tertiary importance. All that mattered to either of them was the person they were sitting with.

I was intrigued.

I’ve written lots of fiction and I know that all fiction depends on conflict. I wondered what sort of story I could tell about a couple who had to overcome the conflict of an age difference. I didn’t want to write about a central character who longs for a ‘daddy’ figure. I know that such interests have been explored by a wealth of writers with better ability than myself. I simply wanted to write about a couple who were ideal for each other except for the inconvenience of an age gap.

This was the idea that started A Taste of Passion.

A Taste of Passion – Sweet Temptation Book 1

June 25, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book 1) is released tomorrow: June 26th.

You can purchase your Kindle copy using this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402935569&sr=1-10&keywords=ashley+lister

This is the blurb: When baking entrepreneur Trudy Cole falls for celebrity chef Bill Hart, all is far from sweetness and light. Instead passion, betrayal and ambition makes for an explosive mix in the high stakes game of gourmet dining.

Trudy Cole is an aspiring chef with ambitions to own her own patisserie. When she encounters celebrity chef Bill Hart she finds the older man antagonistic but disconcertingly attractive. Sexual chemistry soon boils to an unbearable temperature and they become lovers.

But Trudy’s affair and ambitions for her own business become too hot to handle when she discovers that Bill has a wife. To make matters worse, her business partner and ardent admirer, Donny, threatens to destroy her patisserie and Bill Hart’s reputation.

At a stately home where Trudy wants to woo investors with her culinary masterpieces, the paths of all three players cross again and the heat is turned up to a much higher setting…

The following passage comes from early on in the story, when Trudy and Bill first meet:

It was only when the lights came back on that Trudy remembered William Hart was attractive. Disturbingly attractive. Admittedly, he was old enough to be her father. Taking into account the lined face and steel-grey hair she figured he was in his late forties or early fifties. But his age seemed immaterial.

He was hot.

There was a timeless quality to William Hart that she had noticed when he delivered the seminar at her university. His diamond blue eyes shone with bright enthusiasm. His smile, set in a square and manly jaw, glinted with a boyish promise of inappropriate mischief. At the university she had thought he was physically imposing but, at the time, she had ascribed that to the fact he was standing on a podium, wearing a generously-cut suit beneath a double-breasted tweed overcoat. Now she could see his substantial presence came, not from his clothes, but from his broad and manly chest and his considerable height. From what she could glimpse beneath his white shirt and dark sport jacket, there didn’t appear to be any excess fat on his lean frame.

Her heartbeat had been slowing back to its normal rhythm.

The realisation that she was alone in Boui-Boui with the desirable William Hart sent it racing again. Muscles deep in her loins began to tingle with wanton and unbidden anticipation. She desperately willed herself to stop brooding on his handsomeness. He was likely married or in a relationship and she told herself it should be obvious that a man of his years would have no interest in her.

“This way,” he said, extending a hand.

She allowed him to hold her fingers, thrilling to his touch and hoping he couldn’t see that she was mesmerised at being in the presence of a respected idol. When he led her toward the kitchen she felt self-conscious about every step and how he might interpret her movements.

If she walked too close to him would he think she was needy or infatuated by his celebrity? If she stayed too far away would he think she had no interest in him? Or that she didn’t know who he was? Would it be less complicated, she wondered, to simply embrace him and devour him with kisses so he could see that she worshipped him?

That final idea made her smile.

It also made the muscles in her loins clench a little more hungrily.

***

For those of you who haven’t yet read any of my fiction, copies of Beyond Temptation and Dragon Desire (written under the pseudonym Lisette Ashton) are currently available as free Kindle downloads from amazon.co.uk. If you get a chance to look at either of them I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

A Taste of Passion – coming soon

June 17, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

I’m thrilled to announce that this is the cover for A Taste of Passion: the first in a trilogy of erotic romances I’m writing for HarperCollins.

The book is due for release on June 26th and can be pre-ordered using this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402935569&sr=1-10&keywords=ashley+lister

At a stately home where Trudy wants to woo investors with her culinary masterpieces, the paths of all three players cross again and the heat is turned up to a much higher setting…

Sweet Temptation – coming soon

June 3, 2014 by ashlister, posted in Uncategorized

Later this month will see the release of my erotic romance title: A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book #1).

A Taste of Passion is an erotic romance that takes place in the kitchens of a celebrated restaurant. I’ll be talking more about the book over the weeks to come but, for today, I wanted to try something different. Because I pride myself on the meticulous research I put into every title I produce, I thought I’d share one of the recipes I worked on whilst developing this title.

Chocolate Orange Muffins

Ingredients

2 large oranges

About 125ml/4 fl oz milk

225g/8oz plain white flour

55g/2oz cocoa powder

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1/8 teaspoon of salt

115g/4 oz muscavado sugar

150g/5½oz milk chocolate drops

2 medium eggs

6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1) Preheat the oven to 200⁰C/400⁰F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cases. Zest the rind from the oranges and then squeeze the juice. Make up the juice to 250ml/9 fl oz with milk and add the orange zest.

2) Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the muscovado and chocolate drops.

3) Beat the eggs in a large jog then beat in the milk and orange mixture with the extra virgin olive oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined: don’t over mix.

4) Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch.

5) Leave the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

6) Decorate to taste and serve.

As soon as I have an image of the cover for A Taste of Passion, I’ll be sharing it here. Pre-ordering can be done through these links: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICCRP88/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1401825765&sr=8-12&keywords=ashley+lister and http://www.amazon.com/A-Taste-Passion-Sweet-Temptation/dp/0007579551/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1401826080&sr=8-11&keywords=ashley+lister.