One of my favorite parts about writing “Sleeping Tom” was the food. Caden is a senior in high school who dreams of going to culinary school. Her creative outlet is through food. I thought it would be great to share some of the recipes I used in “Sleeping Tom”. Starting with my personal favorite: Snickerdoodle toffee dip which she makes during Gabriel’s party. I’ve included the recipe below along with an excerpt from the party!

Ingredients:
Prep time: 5 minutes
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
2 Tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup toffee bits


-In a medium bowl beat together the cream cheese and butter (I do this with a fork but you can use an electric mixer. Do this until it is creamy.) Beat in the powdered sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Lastly, add in the toffee bits and stir them in by hand.
-Pour into a bowl and garnish with toffee bits. I serve this with crackers but I’m sure it would be great on fruit as well.

Original recipe found here: http://thedomesticrebel.com/2013/04/1...





Excerpt from Sleeping Tom:

“Where are the snacks?” someone yelled.

“Caden, get the snacks,” Gabriel’s voice bellowed. She still couldn’t see him.

“I’m sorry, umm, Face but I’ve got to go help.” She began to stand.

“No you don’t, baby. Stay.” He pulled her back down.

“You don’t understand, I have an, ah, well, an agreement with Gabriel.”

His face contorted. “What’s that supposed to mean? You his property or something? That’s F’ed up.”

“No, no. Not like that.” Caden stood back up, ducking through a group of people before he could grab her again.

When Caden got to the kitchen, she attempted to move around the bodies that were crowding her, crushing her almost. So far she didn’t recognize any of them, and she doubted they would recognize her. Still, she kept her face down, her long dark hair covering one eye. Opening the cupboard she grabbed the chips and pretzels, filling the bowls on the counter and putting them aside. Hands grabbed for them, the bowls disappearing as they floated through the crowd. Next she opened the fridge to grab the cream cheese and butter. Eyes surrounded her and watched her work. She pulled out sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Where did I put the toffee? Caden spun around to see one of the party guests nibbling on the bag of toffee crumbs.

“Hey, that was mine!” he yelled as she grabbed the bag from his sticky fingers.

“Was not,” she whispered.

Eyeballing the ingredients, she put them in the bowl and with a spoon used all her strength to beat them together. If ten people hadn’t been blocking her way to the cabinet, she would have grabbed the electric beater, but the eyes watching her made her nervous. When she was done, she put the dip in separate bowls along with two separate plates of crackers. Caden looked up to see Face watching her. He smiled as she pushed one of the bowls of dip toward him. “Here. It’s a snicker-doodle kind of dip.”

His eyes went wide. “Hey, everyone. Lucky Charms here made us snicker-doodle dip.” Hands full of beer lifted to the ceiling as the crowd moved in their direction. She ducked out of the way as the kitchen overflowed, hoping to escape Face and all the party people. She wanted to see Gabriel.