Is there any more beloved season than fall? As soon as the temperatures dip below 80 degrees in New York City, the inexplicable urge to bake pumpkin bread and drink dark beer hits me and I’m swapping my summer wardrobe for cozy wool sweaters and plaid scarves. But nowhere in the world is the fall more special than the Adirondacks.

While SWEET LOVE (available September 28) takes place in winter and the early days of spring, Mila Bailey would have an endless list of fall treats to bake up come autumn. Her caramel apple pie would be in high demand, and the below seasonal treats would definitely make an appearance at the Pine Ridge Potluck. Cooking is Mila’s passion, her escape, the one thing that never lets her down or passes judgment. And it’s one of the things that Jared Kirkland loves most about her.

While Mila is no stranger to traditional pumpkin bread and basic apple pie, she also loves branching out and using conventional ingredients in new and innovative ways. And what better on a chilly fall day—as crimson and burnt sienna leaves float lazily to the ground outside the window and a cozy fire crackles in the hearth—than a fresh take on hot soup accompanied by spicy quick bread, toasted and topped with creamy butter?

Mila would use fresh sugar pumpkins to create this recipe but canned is much, much easier.

Pumpkin Ginger Soup
Serves 4

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 white onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp ginger, finely grated (or use 1 Tbsp ginger powder)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 15-oz. cans of pumpkin puree
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp Sriracha (or similar hot sauce)
• 1/4 cup pepitas (optional)

1. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.
2. Add onions and cook until translucent, about 8 – 10 minutes.
3. Add garlic and ginger, cook for another 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, pumpkin, stock, cream, and hot sauce. Stir until combined and turn down heat until the soup is simmering.
4. Simmer for 25 minutes, occasionally stirring.
5. Use an immersion blender to blend in the pot or pour soup into a standing blender and blend until pureed. Replace soup in the pot and heat until hot and ready to serve.
6. Top with pepitas if desired.

Mila’s best friend Nicole is always gifting her apples from her Uncle Paul’s apple orchard and then cajoling Mila into baking cinnamon apple bread for her. Granny Smith apples work well here because they’re very sturdy when baked and retain a crispness, but you can pretty much use any sturdy apple you have on hand. Bonus points if they’re locally produced in New York State!

Apple Cinnamon Quick Bread
Makes 1 loaf (9 x 5 pan)

Bread:

• 2 cups plus 1 Tbsp AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large apples (any variety) cored, peeled, and chopped (about 2 cups)

Topping:

• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
2. Sift together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
3. For the topping: combine sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Beat together sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl for 1 1/2 minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Stir in flour mixture with a wooden spoon, being careful not to overmix.
6. Toss apple with 1 Tbsp of flour, and then stir into batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle topping evenly over top of batter.
7. Bake for 50 minutes or until loaf is browned, begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a sharp knife poked in the middle comes out clean.
8. Cool bread in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Loosen loaf around edge with a sharp knife and invert; turn right side up. Cool completely.

The post Lauren Accardo Shares Fall Recipes To Celebrate ‘Sweet Love’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We chat with author Lauren Accardo about her latest novel Wild Love, writing, book recommendations, and more!

Hi, Lauren! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi readers! I’m Lauren Accardo, born in Rochester, NY and living in New York City (Astoria, Queens to be exact). I grew up dancing, singing, acting, and of course, writing, and the arts are still a huge passion of mine. I can just as easily jam out to the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack as the newest Dua Lipa. When I’m not writing, I’m snuggling my 9-month-old rescue pup Nucci, cooking, watching bad reality TV, or hanging out with my stand-up-comic husband of five years.

How is your 2021 going in comparison to that other year?

So much of 2020 was spent at home, that this year it feels like a gift just to be able to sit inside at a restaurant! But I’m also a total homebody so returning to “real life” (whatever that means) has been a slow transition for me. Perfect timing to hunker down indoors and work on a 3-book series J

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

I remember reading tons of books with my parents that I’ll never remember the titles for. But the books that really stick out are the Babysitters Club Little Sisters books. I loved any and all books about adventurous girls.

The book that made me want to become an author: Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion. I read it in college for a journalism class, and her style blew my mind. I wanted to create stories like that and move people the way she moved me.

The book I can’t stop thinking about: Okay, I know this isn’t fair, but I got a very early sneak peek at my friend Felicia Grossman’s newest historical romance and it is SO GOOD. It lives in my brain. Sorry you all have to wait to read it yourselves.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

I loved to write before I knew I was doing it. I used to create the most absurd and fantastical stories with dolls (I played with Barbies far beyond a socially acceptable age) and then I started putting them to paper in a spiral bound notebook with gel pens. Once we got a family computer, it was all over. MS Word became my best friend.

Your new novel, Wild Love, is out May 25^th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Small-town romance set on fire.

What can readers expect?

WILD LOVE is the romance I always dreamed of writing, so I hope readers become just as enamored with the place as they do with the characters and their story. Readers can expect a super dreamy setting where it only makes sense that people would fall in love.

Where did the inspiration for Wild Love come from?

The Adirondack Mountains themselves, to start. If you’ve ever been, you know. It’s just an intoxicating place with a vibe all its own. It’s remote but with an intense sense of community at the same time, with sparkling lakes and towering pine trees. I’ve been visiting since I was a kid, and at some point I thought, “What a perfect place for two people to fall in love.”

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?

“Writing” and “challenges” are pretty synonymous!! My greatest challenge when writing is always becoming too married to a version of the story. I write it as I see it happening, and once I’ve committed to that vision, it’s so hard for me to go back and change it. But part of creating an actual book is structure and character development and arcs that make sense, and sometimes you have to go back and shift things around so that every piece of the story shines. I’m very lucky to have an amazing editor, agent, and publishing team helping me to work through those bits.

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Banter is my absolute favorite thing to write, so any time Sam and Sydney are sort of poking at each other, you can bet I supremely enjoyed writing it. There’s one scene early on in the book where they’re sharing nachos and ribbing each other and I love it so much.

What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?

The best writing advice I’ve ever received was from a professor at a creative writing course I took in Dublin, Ireland. He said, “Pull your story from the end.” Momentum is so important, and I think the most engaging books all have that quality. I try to emulate that in everything I write.

The worst writing advice I’ve ever received came when I was querying agents, and I was told to make Sydney a more “likeable” character. I don’t believe women should have to forever exist in a state of likeability, and I especially don’t believe female characters in novels should have to start their arcs at “likeable.”

What’s next for you?

Books 2 and 3! SWEET LOVE publishes in September of this year, and BOLD LOVE in January of 2022. I hope readers are just as excited to revisit Pine Ridge as I am to take them there.

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Oh, do I. If you haven’t already, you must read: anything by Kennedy Ryan but specifically her Hoops series; Kate Clayborn’s LOVE AT FIRST; Sarah Smith’s SIMMER DOWN; and RENOVATION OF LOVE by Meka James.

Will you be picking up Wild Love? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Lauren Accardo, Author of ‘Wild Love’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.