My last California novel, California Sunrise, was released in June. It’s gotten great reviews for its today’s-headlines tie-in (immigration), and will be part of a bundle, Romance in Color, releasing November 16, 2015 (Hint: Get your copy of 10 books for under $1–available for pre-sale now.)

But I’m done with California. For now. I’m old enough to never say never!

Winter crept into Montana on Halloween this year. We don’t have snow (yet), but the cold and damp are bold-chilling. Too bad I don’t write horror novels. This weather is conducive to it.

Instead, I cook. Today I made bread. Dinner tonight is a jalapeño-avocado soup from With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant Hardcover June 30, 2004, a book we found in our camping travels in 2008. Those are our meals in Montana.

Boulder is a very small town, (in 2013 the population was 222) with a very famous restaurant. It was featured in Oprah’s magazine, O, as well as other newspapers and magazines. The cookbook is worth reading for the story of how two businesswomen converted a conservative Mormon town, but the recipes are amazing.

My DH loves the Cowboy Meatloaf. I make it once in a while, because while it’s yummy, we find we’re eating less and less meat. Tonight’s soup appealed to me on several levels.

It’s a memory soup. We ate at that tiny restaurant in that tiny town amid amazing scenery.

It’s comfort food. Did I mention it’s got eight cups of cream in it? (Ours comes from Kalispell Kreamery.)

I connect with cooking at an elementary level–as a woman, as a Montanan, and as a human being. Food keeps us alive. Good food hints at immortality.