In cooking and in love, sometimes you have to improvise… When Nikki lands an assistant job at her idol’s restaurant, she’s sure her next big break is around the corner. After a rocky start, she befriends Paul, the handsome executive chef. Although he graduated from culinary school, and Nikki’s a self-taught cook, the two begin bonding in the kitchen. But Nikki’s new boss, Holly Hanson, turns out to be anything but admirable. She'll stoop to anything to save her restaurant, and Nikki and Paul both pay the price. Can they win against the scheming of a celebrity chef? Maybe, with some creative thinking...and a dash of love. This book contains a free Hallmark original recipe for Nikki’s Beef Chili with Cinnamon.

Head back to Pride Oregon to find out what some of your favorite Jill Sanders’ characters are up to. Sara Jordan has finally been given the chance to run the Golden Oar, a restaurant that’s been in her family for generations. But the sexy know-it-all carpenter that her uncle hired to make some changes keeps getting in her way. She’ll have to use all her skills just to prove that she’s up to the task. Parker Clark was hired to bring new life to the old building, but he hadn’t expected sparks to fly from the owner’s niece. As a series of mysterious accidents plagues the jobsite, he finds himself working one-on-one with the temptress to avoid losing everything.

In this spicy workplace romance, a hotheaded celebrity chef finds himself drawn to his inexperienced new hire. But when her bubbly attitude collides with his sharp edges, can they handle the heat, or will their love be a recipe for disaster? Alexander Chen is one of the most talented chefs to ever grace the culinary world of French haute cuisine. He rules his kitchen with an iron fist and fiery temper, so it's no secret that if you can't handle the heat, he'll gladly toss you out with the trash. As one of the first Chinese-American chefs to claw his way to the top, he has a lot to prove and a massive chip on his shoulder. But he wasn't always like this. Eden Monroe, his newly hired sous chef—who may or may not have (definitely) embellished a lot on her resumé to land herself the job—knew him back when he still went by his real name, Shang. He used to be sweet and helpful and definitely not the second coming of the devil himself. Eden won't say anything, though, no matter how hot her curiosity burns. Especially if it could cost her this job, which she needs if she has any hope of hiring a private detective to find something she lost long ago. All she has to do is fly under the radar. It's just a shame that she and her new boss butt heads more often than they fulfill orders. But what happens when things finally boil over, and they discover the feelings between them are spicier than they ever imagined?

Peter Ustinov was revered as one of the world's truly legendary entertainers. As an actor, producer, director, novelist, playwright, and columnist, his body of work was not only vast and thoroughly impressive, but enduring. Add a Dash of Pity, a superb collection of short stories, shows Sir Peter at his narrative, perceptive best.Ustinov possessed the uncommon ability to amuse and touch readers simultaneously, a talent which has nowhere been better displayed than in this fascinating array of short stories, which includes: The Man Who Took It Easy, The Wingless Icarus, The Man in the Moon, A Place in the Shade, A Word in the World's Ear, There Are 43,200 Seconds in a Day, The Aftertaste, and the title piece, Add a Dash of Pity.[Ustinov] has the rarest of the satirist's gifts that of using mockery to build character and to express compassion. . . . His sympathy goes to weak, likeable people struggling to keep in step with the demands of social convention; it is against these . . . that he directs his most savage comedy. -The Times Literary Supplement[The title story is] superb, moving, intriguing. Ustinov, with perfect timing and detail, has here written a great short story, and from this point his book does not falter. -The Daily ExpressUstinov writes with great wit and fills these memorable tales with clever, parenthetical insights along with a clear moral thrust. -Publishers Weekly. . . sprightly, brightly written stories. Ustinov has a pleasantly light touch, both with his graceful, comma-sprinkled sentences and his characterization. . .It's almost surprising that Ustinov isn't a staple in creative writing classes; these carefully conceived slices of life are models of the 20th-century short story. -Sacramento News & Review. . . intelligent, philosophical and satirical. The characters are astonishingly vivid and dynamically presented. . . The writing is intensely detailed, journalistic, and yet Ustinov lets dialogue do what it should doshow rather than tell the unilluminated facts about characters and situations. -Small Press Magazine

"When Nikki lands an assistant job at her idol's restaurant, she's sure her next big break is around the corner. After a rocky star, she befriends Paul, the handsome executive chef. Although he graduated from culinary school, and Nikki's a self-taught cook, the two begin bonding in the kitchen. But Nikki's new boss, Holly Hanson, turns out to be anything but admirable. She'll stoop to anything to save her restaurant, and Nikki and Paul both pay the price. Can they win against the scheming of a celebrity chef? Maybe, with some creative thinking ... and a dash of love"--Page 4 of cover.

Cooking with Love is a collection of recipes that I have made over the past forty years of experimenting and cooking for family and friends. Webster Dictionary gives the meaning of love as great interest and pleasure in something. Cooking brings me great joy and pleasure that I desire to share with all. When I see people taste or eat the food that I have labored over in love, I watch for their expression and enjoyment, knowing the food that I have prepared is good for the soul. The feeling I experience upon observing is one of warmth and is treasured in my heart. For fun, I asked my husband, Charles, what is his meaning of love, and he replied, Willie. I just laughed, for he summed up the essence of this cookbook. Its me giving you a piece of my experiences, memories, and joyall in a dish of food. Enjoy.

Knowledge Is Power Knowledge is power, Unique as a flower. Add education too, For wisdom to shine thru. To seek and to yearn, For humbleness to learn. Then share what you know, For others to grow!

We are conditioned to think that love heals wounds, makes us happy, and gives our lives meaning. When the opposite occurs and love causes fracturing, disenchantment, and existential turmoil, we suffer deeply, especially if we feel that love has failed us or that we have failed to experience what others seem so effortlessly to enjoy. In this eloquently argued, psychologically informed book, Mari Ruti portrays love as a much more complex, multifaceted phenomenon than we tend to appreciate—an experience that helps us encounter the depths of human existence. Love's ruptures are as important as its triumphs, and sometimes love succeeds because it fails. At the heart of Ruti's argument is a meditation on interpersonal ethics that acknowledges the inherent opacity of human interiority and the difficulty of taking responsibility for what we cannot fully understand. Yet the fact that humans are often irrational in love does not absolve us of ethical accountability. In Ruti's view, we must work harder to map the unconscious patterns motivating our romantic behavior. As opposed to popular spiritual approaches urging us to live fully in the now, Ruti treats the past as a living component of the present. Only when we catch ourselves at those moments when the past speaks in the present can we keep ourselves from hurting the ones we love. Equally important, Ruti emphasizes transcending our individual histories of pain, an act that allows us to face the unconscious demons that dictate our relational choices. Written with substance and compassion, The Summons of Love restores the enlivening and transformative possibilities of romance.