by Kristie Booker | Jun 25, 2026 | Blog, Summer in the Moon Garden Recipes
The guacamole Kat makes at the kitchen counter with one eye on the driveway — fresh lime, a little heat, and a lot on her mind. In Summer in the Moon Garden, there’s a quiet 4th of July moment I keep coming back to. Kat is at the counter making guacamole for the...
by Kristie Booker | Jun 25, 2026 | Blog, Summer in the Moon Garden Recipes
A 4th of July pitcher, salt-rimmed and stronger than it needs to be — straight from the Criss Creek kitchen. There’s a 4th of July scene in Summer in the Moon Garden that I love because nothing dramatic happens in it — and everything does. The women in...
by Kristie Booker | Jun 24, 2026 | Blog, Summer in the Moon Garden, Summer in the Moon Garden Recipes
The strawberry jam that runs all the way through Criss Creek — and the recipe that started it. In Summer in the Moon Garden, there’s a small moment I think about more than some of the big ones. Danny shows up at Millie’s house with a flat of strawberries...
by Kristie Booker | Jun 24, 2026 | Blog, Blooming Into Life Recipes, Recipes
A Recipe From Blooming Into Life There’s a moment in Blooming Into Life when Mary Ann watches her niece and granddaughters frost cupcakes for the Criss Creek Fourth of July celebration, and realizes the recipe isn’t really about cupcakes at all. It’s about everyone...
by Kristie Booker | Jun 24, 2026 | Blog, Blooming Into Life Recipes
There’s a moment in Blooming Into Life when I knew Colleen’s story needed something soft to land on. She’s deep into a detox diet, all green juices and rigid rules, and the page felt a little cold. What it needed was warmth — the kind that rises out...
by Kristie Booker | Jun 22, 2026 | Blog, Blooming Into Life Recipes, Summer in the Moon Garden Recipes
There’s a jar of strawberry jam that keeps finding its way into my fiction. Readers of Blooming Into Life may remember it making an appearance there. In Summer in the Moon Garden, Danny brings a jar to Kat — made by his mother Rose and his Aunt Mary Ann...