Shelley Workinger's Blog, page 12

Please Welcome Elaine Calloway, Author of Windstorm

In my worldview, pizza and beer go together just like peanut butter and jelly. When my friends and I would dig into a meaty concoction filled with sausage and pepperoni, our favorite brews always accompanied the choice. This pairing wasn’t about flavor or the palette; pizza and beer were simply a known pairing.

When I went on a trip to Napa Valley to do some research for my book Windstorm, which has winery themes, I was surprised to find dozens of pizza places within Napa Valley, all of which served wine with their pies.

While I’d never heard of such a thing, I quickly discovered that Napa Valley does not have ordinary pizza…and they certainly don’t have ordinary wine.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2020/01...

Please Welcome Sandra Bolton, Author of Key Witness

When Abe Freeman left New Jersey and his Jewish roots for the enchanted land of New Mexico, he discovered that new adventures can be more than romance and danger. There are also those of the culinary kind. Leaving his matzo balls behind, he had his first food encounter in a small town diner just west of the Texas border. When the waitress asked him if he wanted "red" or "green" on his enchiladas Abe, puzzled, settled for what she called "Christmas", a serving of both red and green chile served atop two cheese enchiladas and accompanied with a generous serving of refried beans and rice.

That was only the beginning...

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2020/01...

Please Welcome Gordon Bickerstaff, Author of Deadly Secrets

In the thriller Deadly Secrets, Gavin Shawlens is scoffing a pineapple to save his life. In a desperate scene, Gavin is poisoned, and he turns to the power of the pineapple. How can the humble pineapple save him? The popular fruit contains a smart component normally involved in the ripening process; an enzyme called bromelain.

The medicinal properties of pineapple were known over 600 years ago by South American Indians who found magical healing properties and pineapple became a symbol of good health as well as a gift for friends and strangers. Pineapple flesh was used as a digestion aid and as a cleansing agent to improve skin texture. Warriors prepared a poultice using pineapple flesh for serious wounds and a 'bandage' from pineapple leaves for superficial cuts.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2020/01...

Please Welcome Jessica Tornese, Author of Linked Through Time

Kate Christenson has lost her appetite. After traveling back in time and taking the place of her aunt Sarah, there isn't much of her new life that is even remotely appealing. Landing in the midst of her father's childhood days, a time when her aunt was still alive, Kate finds herself flat broke and living the life of a farm girl in rural Minnesota. When there are times to eat, Kate has to fend off one of her 10 brothers and sisters for just enough to get by.

Kate discovers quickly, her newfound meals aren't McDonald's burgers, or even a Pizza Hut pizza...

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/12...

Please Welcome Elizabeth Schechter, Author of The Rape of Persephone

Half a dozen pomegranate seeds are the reason it’s in the 50s today here in Florida.

At least, that’s what the mythology would have you believe. According to the Greek Myths, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld, and was therefore doomed to spend eternity there. However, the Gods compromised for the sake of the human race, and instead of eternity, Persephone has to spend six months as Queen of the Dead before returning to the surface and bringing Spring with her.

(Yeah, I know there’s more to it than that. This is the simple, let’s start an essay explanation, not an in-depth anthropological examination of the roots of the Kore figure in various cultures.)

The whole “don’t eat that!” warning shows up in different forms throughout time.


More:

https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/12...

Please Welcome Emily Mah, Author of Chasing Sunrise

In a recent interview, someone asked me why I hadn’t set my latest trilogy in my hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico. After all, it’s an interesting enough place. Why had I chosen the neighboring town of Taos? My answer was and is that I wanted to write about the three cultures of New Mexico, and while they are present in my hometown, they’re more pronounced in other towns in the region. New Mexico was settled in three waves and these three cultures remain to this day.

The first arrivals were, of course, the Native Americans, and the modern Natives of the region are Puebloans. Many of the dishes adopted by Spaniards are variations of Native Puebloan cuisine. The second wave were the Spaniards, and the third wave was us Anglos. (The term refers to our most common home language, not our race. I’m a mix of Chinese and Italian heritage myself, and yet indubitably Anglo).

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/12...

Please Welcome Gina Tang, Author of the Beijing Family

Weird Chinese Eats or Nutritional Medicine?

The world eats a wide variety of food and sometimes they are strange to someone. The Chinese definitely have their share!  When you have over 5,000 years in history, one can only imagine the variety of things the Chinese picked up along the way that are considered edible or delicacies.  Even more so when the country has seen its episodic moments of famine in history and relied on non-traditional sources for protein and nutrients in order to survive.  Sometimes a trip into a Chinese supermarket or even a traditional medicine store in the "Asian" parts of town is an experience to be remembered. 

Here are a few of the examples of strange Chinese eats as featured in The Beijing Family book series:

https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/11...

Please Welcome Stuart Aken, Author of Blood Red Dust

Food; ‘You canna live wi’out it, Jim.’ SciFi fans will recognise Scottie from Star Trek here. But food is rarely discussed in the genre.

I began Blood Red Dust as a one-off story about a possible future on Earth if we fail to stop climate change. But I ‘spect it just growed,’ like Topsy and became a trilogy. The other two books are traditional, but Blood Red Dust is unusual with its mix of ‘reports’ gathered from multiple sources to fit the mood of the time in which it’s set.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/10...

Please Welcome Louise Wise, Author of EDEN & HUNTED

I’m not much of a cook. My abilities in the kitchen are somewhat a joke in my family’s household. I love food, though, and eating out, trying new foods, is an absolute treat. But it isn’t just the food it’s the backdrop, the feel—the entire ambiance that must be just right. Get that wrong, and you could be eating cardboard.

Jenny, Bodie and Matt, the characters in Eden and Hunted (a two-book series), lived in a modern, futuristic world where anything they ever wanted was at a touch of a button, had no problem creating fantastic food in a beautiful setting. They could never have dreamed that their privileged life would end where they had to fight for their lives, pillaging for food and in Jenny’s case, using her body just to stay alive.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/10...

Please Welcome Beem Weeks, Author of Strange Hwy

Melanie is the ten-year-old POV character of my short story called "Monster," found in my collection entitled Strange Hwy. She’s going trick-or-treating with her older sister Millicent and a pair of neighborhood boys. As the older sister, Millicent has a knack for cheating the younger out of the good treats. And by good treats, I mean the chocolate bars and Skittles—those snacks a girl won’t mind spending her allowance on when it’s not Halloween.

Millicent hates jellybeans...

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2019/10...