Judith Hudson's Blog, page 9

Celebrate the Launch of The Good Neighbor with Pesto!

What better way to celebrate the launch of The Good Neighbor today (cue the fireworks!) than by sharing some of the August recipes from the book, beginning with – PESTO!

The Good Neighbor is Frankie and Sean’s story (characters I introduced in Summer of Fortune).

In this book, Sean moves into Augusta’s cabin while he searches for the daughter he gave up for adoption fifteen years ago, and struggles to come to terms with the fact that he just might not find her. How, then, can he stand to see Frankie and her father so estranged, when a simple phone call might be all it would take?

The Good Neighbor begins in August, and since Sean is an excellent cook and there are a lot of cooking and gardening references ,

PESTO seemed like the perfect choice of a recipe to feature on today’s blog. And let me tell you, good pesto made from freshly picked basil is truly a gift.

basil If you don’t grow basil in your garden (yet) or don’t have room for a garden, you can treat yourself to a meal of fresh pesto before the summer is over by buying a plant, sold at most grocers at this time of year.

Once you try pesto made in your own kitchen with garden fresh basil leaves, you will never go back to the store bought variety.

And it’s easy! Since tastes and ingredients vary (types of basil, sizes of cloves of garlic & lemons, amount of salt) every batch will be slightly different.

You be the final judge of exactly how much of each ingredient to add. And with these ingredients, how can you go wrong?

I will be featuring more recipes from The Good Neighbor all week, so stay tuned.

Click here for pesto recipe.
To read the “meet scene” at the start of the book, click HERE to go to The Good Neighbor page.

You can buy The Good Neighbor in eBook or paperback on Amazon, kobo, and nook. TGN COVER MED

And don’t forget, for this last, beautiful week of summer, Lake of Dreams is free in eBook form on online retailers until the end of August. See the sidebar. No excuses!

Happy eating, and good reading,

Judy sig

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Published on August 23, 2016 09:00

Celebrate the Launch of the Good Neighbor with Pesto

What better way to celebrate the launch of The Good Neighbor today (cue the fireworks!) than by sharing some of the August recipes from the book, beginning with – PESTO!

The Good Neighbor is Frankie and Sean’s story (characters I introduced in Summer of Fortune).

In this book, Sean moves into Augusta’s cabin while he searches for the daughter he gave up for adoption fifteen years ago, and struggles to come to terms with the fact that he just might not find her. How, then, can he stand to see Frankie and her father so estranged, when a simple phone call might be all it would take?

The Good Neighbor begins in August, and since Sean is an excellent cook and there are a lot of cooking and gardening references ,

PESTO seemed like the perfect choice of a recipe to feature on today’s blog. And let me tell you, good pesto made from freshly picked basil is truly a gift.

If you don’t grow basil in your garden (yet) or don’t have room for a garden, you can treat yourself to a meal of fresh pesto before the summer is over by buying a plant, sold at most grocers at this time of year.

The best ingredients make the best pesto.

Once you try pesto made in your own kitchen with garden fresh basil leaves, you will never go back to the store bought variety.

And it’s easy! Since tastes and ingredients vary (types of basil, sizes of cloves of garlic & lemons, amount of salt) every batch will be slightly different.

You be the final judge of exactly how much of each ingredient to add. And with these ingredients, how can you go wrong?

I will be featuring more recipes from The Good Neighbor all week, so stay tuned.
To read the “meet scene” at the start of the book, click HERE to go to The Good Neighbor page.
TGN COVER MED

You can buy The Good Neighbor in eBook or paperback on Amazon, kobo, and nook.

And don’t forget, for this last, beautiful week of summer, Lake of Dreams is free in eBook form on online retailers until the end of August. See the sidebar. No excuses!

Happy eating, and good reading,

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Fresh Garden Pesto

Once you try delicious pesto made with garden fresh basil leaves in your own kitchen, you will never go back to the store bought variety.

CourseMain Dish

CuisineItalian

Ingredients

1

blender loosely packed with basil leaves

1clove

garlic, chopped

square of hard parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated

2tbsp

pinenuts or chopped walnuts

2/3 cup (about)

olive oil

1 tbsp

coarse salt

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Instructions

Mix the ingredients in a blender. I love my Ninja blender because it has multiple blades up the shaft so that everything grind more evenly. Otherwise, scrape down the sides often.

Then, turn off the blender and TASTE. This is the most important step! Let the ingredients move around in your mouth. Let your friends and family taste, because you'll want to share this with those you love. Add more of what's needed.
Pine nuts can be prohibitively expensive, so on occasion I don't have any and have used walnuts instead. tastes fine.

Cover with plastic wrap to keep out air and prevent discoloration until use. Mix with al dente spaghetti. Top with more pesto, grated parmigiano, or sun-dried tomatoes.
Leftover pesto freezes well in tiny leftover dishes or ice cube tray.

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Published on August 22, 2016 14:55

Celebrate The Good Neighbor with Pesto!

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Fresh Garden Pesto

Once you try delicious pesto made with garden fresh basil leaves in your own kitchen, you will never go back to the store bought variety.

CourseMain Dish

CuisineItalian

Ingredients

1

blender loosely packed with basil leaves

1clove

garlic, chopped

square of hard parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated

2tbsp

pinenuts or chopped walnuts

2/3 cup (about)

olive oil

1 tbsp

coarse salt

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Instructions

Mix the ingredients in a blender. I love my Ninja blender because it has multiple blades up the shaft so that everything grind more evenly. Otherwise, scrape down the sides often.

Then, turn off the blender and TASTE. This is the most important step! Let the ingredients move around in your mouth. Let your friends and family taste, because you'll want to share this with those you love. Add more of what's needed.
Pine nuts can be prohibitively expensive, so on occasion I don't have any and have used walnuts instead. tastes fine.

Cover with plastic wrap to keep out air and prevent discoloration until use. Mix with al dente spaghetti. Top with more pesto, grated parmigiano, or sun-dried tomatoes.
Leftover pesto freezes well in tiny leftover dishes or ice cube tray.

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Published on August 22, 2016 14:55

The Lake of Dreams eBook is FREE for August

Welcome new readers from the Sweet Romance Sweepstakes!

And, as a special welcome,

Lake of Dreams will be FREE on all major eBook platforms for Lake of Dreams cover

the rest of August.

So, if you haven’t already, be sure to get your copy by clicking on your eReader platform below, and be sure to tell your friends about the offer.

Amazon.com nook iBooks kobo

If you don’t have an eReader, all four platforms offer mobile apps to get you reading on your tablet or phone.

TGN sm Please look around the website. There is a lot of information on the Fortune Bay series, including first chapter previews of Lake of Dreams and Summer of Fortune, and the “meet scene” from my newest book, coming out August 23rd, The Good Neighbor.

Happy August everyone. Get out there and enjoy what’s left of summer!

Judy sig

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Published on August 19, 2016 18:17

The EBook of Lake of Dreams is FREE for August

Welcome new readers!

Please look around the website, there’s lots of information on the Fortune Bay series, including first chapter previews of Lake of Dreams and Summer of Fortune, and the “meet scene” from my newest book, coming out August 23rd, The Good Neighbor.

And, as a special welcome,

Lake of Dreams will be FREE
on all major eBook platforms
for the rest of August. TGN sm

So, if you haven’t already, be sure to get your copy and tell your friends about the offer.

To get your copy, click on your eReader platform below.

Amazon.com nook iBooks kobo

If you don’t have an eReader, all four platforms offer mobile apps to get you reading on your tablet or phone.

Happy August everyone. Get out there and enjoy what’s left of summer!

Judy sig

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Published on August 19, 2016 18:17

Fig & Ginger Jam

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Fig & Ginger Jam

Delicious tangy flavours of candied ginger and lemon cut the sweet taste of the figs.
(Adapted from BBC Food. Original by C.J. Jackson.)

CuisinePreserving the Harvest

Servings

Prep Time

6pints

1hour

Cook Time

20minutes

Servings

Prep Time

6pints

1hour

Cook Time

20minutes

Ingredients

7cups

ripe figswashed, diced - about 15 - 18 lg. figs

8 1/2cups

granulated sugar

1 1/2 tbsp

ground ginger

1

ripe cooking applepeeled and diced small (for pectin)

4 tbsp

crystallised stem gingerchopped roughly

5tbsp

white or cider vinegar

3

lemonsjuice only

1 cup

water

Recipe Notes

Prepare jars.

Mix all ingredients in a large saucepan.

Mix over low heat until sugar has dissolved.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until fruit is soft.

Skim off foam as needed.

Pour into warm jars and cover and seal by your favourite method.

Label and store in a cool dark place for 2-3 weeks to allow the flavours to develop.

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Published on August 13, 2016 10:18

How to Use an Abundance of Figs

Figs are so luscious and pendulous when hanging ripe from the tree. My fig tree is huge and prolific, a cool green oasis on a hot summer day. So sensuous, I had to use it for the setting of a simmering scene of sexual tension (how’s that for alliteration?) in The Good Neighbor (release date August 23!) FIG BASKETA

The surprise is, it’s not Frankie and Sean under the fig tree, it’s Stephanie and her new man!

Way #1 to use Figs – Fig Leather

Last year, I was away for fig season and my wonderful friends picked for me. I came home to a freezer full of figs. I did make my famous Fig and Ginger Jam (recipe to follow)

Fig pulp from the blender to the drier

Finished Fig Leather – yes I had to try it.

but the rest of the figs couldn’t be dried whole in the usual way, so I put 7 figs (I only have one leather sheet for my drier) and the juice of half a lemon in my Ninja blender – I love my Ninja blender – whirred it up and poured it on the drier sheet. Two minutes work and it makes really delicious tangy fig leather. I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t love it.

Way #2 to use Figs –
Judy’s Famous Fig & Ginger Jam

This recipe uses lemon and ginger to add zing. For those who don’t like ginger (seriously?) you can leave out the candied ginger and add instead 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves and 1/2 tsp ginger. Or a quarter cup Grand Marnier. I’ve had good luck with Fireball Whiskey too! You get the picture. Anything goes.

But this Fig & Ginger is amazing on toast or with chicken or pork, or by the teaspoonful right out of the jar!

Fig & Ginger Jam

Delicious tangy flavours of candied ginger and lemon cut the sweet taste of the figs.
(Adapted from BBC Food. Original by C.J. Jackson.)

CuisinePreserving the Harvest

Servings

Prep Time

6pints

1hour

Cook Time

20minutes

Servings

Prep Time

6pints

1hour

Cook Time

20minutes

Ingredients

7cups

ripe figswashed, diced - about 15 - 18 lg. figs

8 1/2cups

granulated sugar

1 1/2 tbsp

ground ginger

1

ripe cooking applepeeled and diced small (for pectin)

4 tbsp

crystallised stem gingerchopped roughly

5tbsp

white or cider vinegar

3

lemonsjuice only

1 cup

water

Recipe Notes

Prepare jars.

Mix all ingredients in a large saucepan.

Mix over low heat until sugar has dissolved.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until fruit is soft.

Skim off foam as needed.

Pour into warm jars and cover and seal by your favourite method.

Label and store in a cool dark place for 2-3 weeks to allow the flavours to develop.

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Published on August 13, 2016 10:18

What do Really Children Like?

August is going to be all recipes because in August it feels like all I do is cook. But it’s the kind of cooking enjoy, with fresh veggies and preserving fresh fruit. Most of those recipes will relate more to The Good Neighbor, book two that’s coming out at the end of August (August 23 to be exact!) because it’s set in August and September and Sean’s a great cook.

But before we get to that, I want to finish the Saga of Children’s Delight because in Summer of Fortune it was Maddie’s signature recipe.

My old-fashioned recipe had cinnamon, cloves and raisins and in SOF, the wonderful aroma of sugar and spice became one of Augusta’s calling cards.

The problem was, the general consensus of my millennial children (who I have to say were perfectly happy to eat those cookies when they were young) was that children these days wouldn’t like cookies like that. Everyone’s a critic.
Vania making cookies

Vania making cookie dough into little “towers” to assure perfectly round cookies. She’s amazing!

So I charged my daughter-in-law Vania, baker extraordinaire, to come up with a new version of Children’s Delight that today’s children would love. My only caveat was that the new recipe have a component of spice.

I have to say, her new recipe is delicious. Totally different with peanut butter and chocolate chips, but what’s not to love?

Here’s the recipe – you be the judge.

I’ll sign this one, “Obviously eating way too many cookies in the name of art,”

Judy sig

PrintVania's Children's Delight Cookies

Vania's Children's Delight Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter - creamed
1 cup natural peanut butter (no salt, no sugar)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups quick oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 ° F.
Cream the butter until fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix well.
Add sugars and mix, then add the eggs and the vanilla.
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to butter mixture a bit at a time.
Add chocolate chips.
Pay out on parchment paper on cookie tins. Vania makes dough into "towers" to assure cookies turn out nice and round, I flatten mine with a fork. It's up to you. :-)
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
3.1http://www.judithhudsonauthor.com/what-do-really-children-like/

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Published on August 08, 2016 17:49

Enjoying Vancouver’s West End

20160729_WE garden1 Vancouver has an amazingly livable downtown. The area known as the West End is snugged between fabulous shopping on Robson Street, the beaches of English Bay and the forest of Stanley Park, all within walking distance to hotels, the art gallery and the commerce district of the city. 20160729_WE aptmt People live on these streets lined with mature shade trees, where street-corner gardens are in bloom and everyone and their dog are out on the streets enjoying the hip urban atmosphere.

I’m lucky to be able to visit my daughter Rosey in her lovely third-floor walk up, like so many of the beautiful old apartment buildings in the West End. Some of the large, old, three-story houses from Vancouver’s prosperous early days still remain, many now converted to condos but still looking lovely, along with a sprinkling of taller apartments (see the video at the end). A fabulous safe place to walk and people watch, Fireworks 2016 night and day.

I went over on the ferry last Wednesday to catch Australia’s entry into the Celebration of Lights, a eye-poppiing fireworks and music show held out in English Bay every year to the delight of hundreds of thousands of happy Vancouverites who converge on the beaches at dusk three times over the course of a week for the three shows. A must-see event! We walked down from my daughter’s apartment in fifteen minutes to snag a great spot on the beach to watch the show and, when it was over, walked back with a hundred thousand of our closest friends. Amazing.

20160729_H Mary's Friday morning I walked over to Hamburger Mary’s on Davie Street for breakfast and enjoyed the people out getting ready for th 20160729_WE pride1 e start of the Pride Celebration that night. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay, and caught a ferry that night for the Island again.

It’s all on my facebook and instagram pages. Friend me if you haven’t already.

Love, love, love Vancouver’s lovely West End. Check it out if you get the chance.

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Published on August 01, 2016 14:22

The Saga of Children’s Delight

A story is woven from the threads of a writer’s life.

The recipe for Children’s Delight cookies has been in my recipe binder forever. Just looking at the old card, written in my mother’s scrawl, brings back a rush of memories. The recipe card is stained and had comments written in after the fact (more butter!). And up in the corner, in brackets it says “Raylene Ewing”

Raylene was my good friend in Toronto, while I was in grades seven and eight. Just seeing her name is always an emotional blast from the past.

I didn’t plan to put the recipe in Summer of Fortune, but there it was. (You writers out there know what I mean.) Original Children's Delight Cookie recipe

On the top shelf rested a wooden box. Stretching to her full height she carefully brought it down, wiping the dust from the top. She held it in one hand, studying the scenes of the lake carved into the lid. Inside, yellowing recipe cards were written in a spidery hand: Sunday Blackberry Cake, October Relish, Children’s Delight Cookies.

An old fashioned drop cookie, they make the kitchen smell like cinnamon and cloves, an aroma that, in the story, comes to introduce the presence of Aunt Augusta the previous owner of the cabin who is, ahem, no longer with us.

The recipe also provides an introduction to Maddie’s backstory.

Maddie didn’t have any hand-me-down recipes. Most of hers came from magazines. These recipe names conjured up visions of a woman in an apron with streaks of flour on her face, like a character in an old movie. Her own mother had never cooked and Maddie was sure she didn’t own an apron. She had spent most of her time on the couch, watching her soaps with a beer in her hand.

Maddie inhaled deeply the unfamiliar scent of cinnamon and cloves that lingered in the box, and then, closing the lid, she placed the box on the windowsill over the sink where she could admire the carving.

Maddie ended up making the cookies, again and again, a sensory lure her handsome landlord couldn’t resist and a symbol of her move to another kind of life.

Here’s the recipe. Enjoy! (Are you out there Raylene?)

What mundane everyday things have inspired you?

Until next time,

Judy sig

PrintThe Original Children’s Delight

[image error]

Ingredients

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp each baking powder & baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1 scant tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F.
Cook raisins in water for 5 minutes, then drain and set aside.
Cream butter, add white and brown sugar.
Add egg and vanilla.
Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, cloves and cinnamon.
Add half the flour mixture to the egg mixture.
Stir drained dry raisins into remaining flour mixture and then add to egg mixture, mixing only with spoon or hands.
Bake on ungreased baking sheet for 15 minutes.3.1http://www.judithhudsonauthor.com/the-saga-of-childrens-delight/

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Published on July 27, 2016 03:12