Tami Lund Romance Author Delicious Writing (and a Recipe!)

What do food, sex, and romance have in common? If you’re me, a lot! Let’s see… I love food. Check. I love sex. Check. I love romance. Check. Combine the three? Holy moly, sign me up! Or better yet, why don’t I write about it?

Done.

Really. It’s called Delicious Deception, and it just released TODAY! Here’s how it all started….

In April, 2012, my family travelled to Louisiana to visit my father, who lives in Bossier City. It was a beautiful spring, near to Easter, and the weather was perfect. Dad loaded up the boat and took us all for a ride on Caddo Lake (the pic is of my kids, having a blast while Grandpa took them for a boat ride). I had lived in Shreveport (across the Red River from Bossier City) for eleven years, and had only been to Caddo Lake once. I remember when I was in high school, my girlfriend and I drove out to a public beach and went swimming, one hot summer Saturday. Until 2012, that was the extent of my knowledge of this beautiful and fascinating lake.

Caddo Lake straddles the Texas-Louisiana state line. It is the only natural lake in the entire state of Texas. There’s oil in them there, er, waves. So if you’re cruising around the lake, you’ll have to dodge these fascinating machines, perched just above the water line, slowly churning oil from the lake’s depths. It’s admittedly a gorgeous pic, during sunset. And cool as heck as you’re cruising past these contraptions.

Caddo Lake is also full of bayous. A bayou, by definition, is, “(in the southern US) a marshy outlet of a lake or river.” This was the best part of cruising Caddo Lake, meandering down the various bayous, admiring the scenery. Some were utterly wild – nothing but egrets and alligators, turtles and Spanish moss draped cyprus trees to keep you company. Some were straight residential – rows upon rows of houses built on stilts. I remember snapping pics like a tourist, so fascinated was I by these far above ground homes. I wished one of the residents offered public tours. I would pay to wander through, to have a glimpse of what it must be like to live on a bayou, in a house in the air.

Then there were the bayous that were a mix of the above, plus businesses as well. It was down one of these bayous, on the Texas side, that we happened upon a restaurant called Uncertain General Store & Grill. It was located in Uncertain, Texas, a tiny town with a population of less than 200 residents, but with an intriguing and rich history. We docked our boat and picked our way through the swampy front yard toward the eating establishment and I wondered why this quaint town was called Uncertain.

I learned that the town is near Uncertain Landing, so named because steamboat captains on their way to and from Jefferson, TX (where they unloaded their goods to be transported out to the developing West) in earlier days often had troubles mooring their vessels, due to fluctuating water levels.

My family fell in love with this adorable town, with the restaurant and the southern fried food we gorged ourselves on. By the time we left, I was ready to move to this backwoods place. As my husband has a deep-seated hatred for anything he deems too hot, I settled for writing about it, instead. Hence, Delicious Deception, which takes place at my imagination’s version of the Uncertain General Store & Grill.

And if that wasn’t enough of a story, I added even more of my personal experience. Yep. My husband, lucky me, happens to be an outrageously good cook. Like, super hot, crazy turns you on, amazing cook. He makes a lot of things really well, including Cajun food, but there’s one dish in particular that shows up in Delicious Deception. My husband makes this dessert called Molten Lavas Cake, which he found on The Food Network website, and is courtesy of the amazingly talented Paula Deen. The first time he made it and gave me a taste of the batter, he asked what I thought. I said the first word that popped into my head.

“Orgasmic.”

There may or may not be a similar scene in Delicious Deception. Just sayin’. So, after you read the book, and are practically salivating for a taste of… something sweet, here’s the Molten Lava Cake recipe. I hope it is as good for you as it always is for me!

Molten Lava Cakes
Total Time: 44 min
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 14 min
Yield:6 cakes
Level:Easy
Ingredients
6 (1-ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange liqueur
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grease 6 (6-ounce) custard cups. Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and orange liqueur. Divide the batter evenly among the custard cups. Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen