P.J. Schnyder's Blog, page 8

Basic Lemon Curd

My good friend, Philippa Ballantine, absolutely loves lemon curd. Of course, this meant I had to learn how to make it for her. That’s just the way I am.

Ingredients:

1 cup lemon juice, fresh squeezed

1 cup sugar

Zest from 2 lemons

6 egg yolks

10 tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces

Instructions:

Whisk egg yolks and transfer to a saucepan; set aside.

Place lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar in a saucepan. Heat to simmer or until sugar completely dissolves.

Add butter and continue to heat until butter dissolves.

Gradually pour hot mixture into saucepan with egg yolks, while continuously whisking until everything is combined.

Return combined mixture to stove top and heat until it is just barely thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

* I love to serve this as part of a nice afternoon tea with clotted cream and fresh baked scones.

Road Warrior: Eating Clean and Convenience

Traveling as much as I do, I never know if the next client site is going to pose a challenge when it comes to eating right and exercising often. Hell, I don’t even know if I’ll be there long enough to get in one workout, much less two.

What restaurants are in the area? Is there a cafeteria and how good is it for fresh salads, lean meals, etc? (Fast food is a last resort.)

Is there a gym at hotel I’m staying in?

Do I have deadlines or other things I have to work on in the evening after I’m finished with the client?

These are all variables that come with the day job and every new client site. These all make it hard to stick to a clean lifestyle because I can’t cook in my own kitchen to prep my meals and can’t join a gym local to my home because I’m never there to use it.

This all led to my decision to give Medifast a try. Medifast meals packed and carried along with me aren’t just good portion control, they’re super convenient. Also, I’m finding them very handy for writer-related travel too when I’m off to research a location or potentially attend a con. I’ll eat normal socially, but those times when I don’t have more than a minute to hunt up a meal? Medifast to the rescue. Extremely convenient.

When at all possible, real food prepared in a healthy fashion is always best. But in a pinch? I’m finding this a high protein, properly portioned alternative.

I’m on the road, still looking to slim down and tone. Or at least not turn into a traveling cream puff.

Valentine Choco & Book News

In several of my favorite anime series, there’s a Valentine’s episode (or two). Thus, I’m pretty familiar with the Japanese practice of girls giving guys chocolates on Valentine’s Day and the guys reciprocating on White Day a month later. It’s very different from the way things are done in the United States.

Fun memory: I was taking a Japanese colleague around one of our bigger malls years ago when I worked day job with a Japanese owned pharmaceutical company. We happened to pass a Build-A-Bear with a startling line throughout the store and right out into the mall area. The line consisted of full grown and teen-aged guys, each carrying a freshly stuffed animal and refusing to look each other in the eye. Yup, it was Valentine’s Day and my colleague was baffled. After all, in Japan, the girls give the guys chocolates. Should I say that one again?

Nowadays, the US seems to have made it so commercialized a lot of people don’t like the day at all and refuse to think of it as a holiday.

Honestly, I kind of like the way it’s portrayed in my anime better. Yeah, it’s on the girls. But the main characters always put time and effort into their chocolates, sometimes getting help in order to hand make truffles or chocolate cakes. It really is a heart felt gesture. I decided to make giri-choco for my roomie (or the sort of chocolates you give to a friend without romantic intentions) and I think they came out rather nice. As an otaku in his own right, my roomie recognized them for what they were and even let me know they turned out tasty.

~

In other news, Fighting Kat has officially been acquired by Carina Press! As a direct sequel to Hunting Kat, my readers will get more of Kaitlyn & Rygard as well as see the return of several favorite supporting characters. I haven’t got a lot of information about the release yet, but I can say that this is a full length novel. So all my readers out there who wished Hunting Kat was longer, check out Fighting Kat for all-new romance and adventure at full novel length.

 

Appropriate vs Practical Sneakers

I started a new day job this week. As some might know, I travel a lot for day job and this new day job is the same – more reasonable travel time but still a lot of travel.

Many of my trips will be short from now on, 2 to 3 days, and I’ll want to travel light. This week I managed to fit all my necessities including 2 suits, workout clothes and a change of clothes to ride home on the plane plus you know, my work laptop, iPad and lady-toiletries. Problem: I was already wearing my boots. There was no room for my sneakers. None.

That meant 3 days of no gym. Granted, I did yoga in-room those three days but had no hard cardio. I couldn’t make use of the hotel gym because I had no sneakers. And while some hotels have a program to lend you sneakers, that’s a little… Nah. I’d rather find a way to bring my own sneakers.

Packing a bigger bag sounds like a logical solution. But there’s the desire not to check luggage if it’s such a brief trip. I could, but really, I’d like to travel light and not worry about my luggage not making it to my destination with me. Nothing like going to a client site in the same clothes you wore on the plane the night before. And yes, I’ve had to do it.

My solution? Get smaller sneakers. Not in size, because my feet are already small. No, I mean a different style of sneaker that’s sleeker and takes up less space packed. My current sneakers are running shoes, with a big thick sole for good tread and shock absorption. The new ones are really walking shoes with minimal sole without sacrificing too much in the way of support. They’re not really made for athletics, and not made for hard cardio. But heck, they’ll get me into the gym and onto the elliptical for the couple of days I’m traveling and I won’t miss out on cardio. I can wear my real running sneakers for workouts the rest of the week.

It’s not optimal. These are not the right shoe for the exercise activity. I understand this. But these are a compromise of practicality in order to get into the gym at all while I’m travelling light.

A Gift for Boggle won an SFR Galaxy Award!

Computer geek. Nerd. Overweight man in a motorized wheel chair.

Boggle is still one of my most loved characters from the Triton Experiment series.

When the Galaxy Express threw down the gauntlet and challenged meto write a love story for Boggle, one that made him the hero with no makeovers or changes in his physicality, I took up the challenge with pleasure. Boggle didn’t need bulging muscles, a body builder physique or sculpted abs to be worth falling in love with. Boggle is Boggle. The right person would love him every bit as much as I do.

And now, my story for him has won a Science Fiction Romance Galaxy Award. *happy dance* Yay, for Boggle!

Tea Time with Friends

 

I’d been spending a fun weekend with good friends, Tee Morris & Pip Ballantine.

As part of a sunny Sunday afternoon, we packed up the laptops and headed into Old Town Warrenton, VA to have a walk down the main street. Plot bunnies scampered everywhere as we took in all the historic small town architecture.

We had lunch at the Great Harvest Bakery. I cannot say enough good things about the bread. My lunch was roast beef with a rich blue cheese spread on fresh-baked rosemary with blue cheese, walnuts and raisins. Also, the young ladies behind the counter were both friendly and super helpful. I had some fun ideas there to add to a future story idea (think Terra’s Guardians).

Then, it was on to a wonderful knitting shop, The Red Thread. Oh my goodness, my knitting/crocheting friends, this is my favorite kind of shop. The minute I walked in, the friendly and warm atmosphere made me forget about anything outside. Several knitters sat in a sunny nook by the front window, chatting and working away at their projects. The shop owner immediately welcomed me and I couldn’t stop smiling. Oh, and the yarn! Yarn groping was encouraged. I picked up two yummy skeins of Eco Alpaca 100% undyed baby alpaca and one skein Invernal 50% rabbit angora/25% merino/25%polyamide. These are intended for arm warmer projects for my London Undead series. Yup, I’m knitting up giveaways for my readers.

The finish to the afternoon of perusing Scottish shops and antiques? A lovely tea at the Madison Tea Room. And trust me, my friends, the Garden Club tea with its flaky croissant stuffed with chicken salad, fresh-baked scone with rich clotted cream and tangy lemon curd and indulgent gelato…omm nom nom.

And then I left my laptop in the tea room and went home. *head desk*

Well, there was nothing for it. By the time we’d realized my mistake, the shop had already closed. We left messages and I tried not to twitch too hard deprived of my laptop. I could do a lot of my work on my iPad2 so all had not come to a halt. First thing in the morning, they called us back to reassure us that yes, they had my laptop safely tucked away.

We went back for my laptop and heck, we were already there so we had a light lunch at the Tea Room. It was lovely, again. In fact, it was made even better by the owner, a wonderful lady with lots of stories to tell and a delightful sense of humor. Tee, Pip and I decided it’d be the perfect place for a future event. We’re brainstorming. Fans of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences and steampunk, keep an eye out.

Tagged: 7 lines

I was tagged several times on FaceBook. I figured I’d post here for everyone to see.

Go to either page 7 or 77 of your manuscript. Count down 7 lines, then copy the next 7 lines to your status. After that, name 7 more authors to come out and play.

This is a sneak peek from BITE ME, Book 1 of the London Undead series, coming soon from Carina Press in June 2013:

But no, everyone was too slow, too daft to recognize the threat. And then the idjits let the entire clinic go home—now infected—to their loved ones and either slaughter more innocents or make more zombies… Or both.

The bubonic plague had wiped out most of Europe in about two years at its peak. The zombie virus hadn’t killed quite so many yet, but then the Black Death hadn’t gotten up and stumbled after friends and loved ones, spreading the infection.

Even if they escaped, the survivors of zombie attacks sometimes didn’t recover from the trauma of having a cherished person die and then try to eat them.

I won’t tag anyone, since many of my author friends tagged me. Instead, I’ll invite friends to link their answers here in comments if they decide to play.

Eco Globes

While visiting Arizona for the holidays, my boyfriend took me to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, AZ. It was a gorgeous night, with special luminaries lining every path through the botanical garden and musical groups playing in various locations throughout.

We danced to a lovely jazz band against a backdrop of desert mountains. We sipped hot cider spiked with vanilla brandy liquor as we listened to a Navajo storyteller play a Native American flute, filling the night with eerily beautiful songs. Everywhere we wandered, different musical groups were tucked into cozy areas, playing music as a backdrop to the lovely lights in the botanical gardens.

To remember the night, I purchased an “eco-globe” with an air plant in it. Something abou the glass globe and it’s little desert plant called to me and plot bunnies nibbled at my mind. Between my eco-goat idea and this little globe, the writerly part of my mind was delighted.

 

What to do when you get one (adapted from Air Plant City):

How big is your eco-globe? Smaller = less frequent care.
When you first receive your plant, water it by soaking 20-30 mins. Take note of the size and color after watering/soaking. this is your “happy” plant. Keep this “picture” in your mind or literally take a picture of it.
Set your plant out to dry almost completely before placing in the globe. Not in direct sunlight.
Misting your plant varies based on humidity where you keep it and light. Let your plant tell you how “happy” it is. Tiny globes likely take ONE spray every 4-5 days, 2-3 sprays for globes of 3″ to 5″ in diameter and more if the plant is in a large open globe. Smaller globe = less air circulation, thus the plant will hold the moisture longer.
Do not over water your plant. It will die.
Air plants like indirect light. They can’t take direct sunlight and inside a globe, the glass would magnify direct sunlight and heat as well. Direct sunlight would fry your plant. Filtered, indirect light is best.

Want to get an idea of the night? Check out my vlog from the night:

Join the Ministry!

Steampunk? Role-playing game? The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences?

Yes!

I am very excited to be part of The Ministry Team as we work with Galileo Games to develop The Ministry RPG, based on the incredible steampunk books of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences by Tee Morris & Pip Ballantine. One of my personal heroes, J.R. Blackwell, will be game designer.  Brennan Taylor will be editing the game. And me? I’ll be writing for the game! Yup. Under the guidance of Tee & Pip, I’ll be writing the story elements, sample characters, and setting the stage for the game.

Become an agent of The Ministry. Investigate peculiar happenings and solve unusual mysteries, discover mystical wonders and ingenious inventions.

Based on the FATE Core system, The Ministry RPG will be an excellent introduction for people new to role playing games and a fun challenge for experienced gamers.

Read the full announcement over at Galileo Games, and the team will keep you informed on further developments.

And who knows? Play Find the PJ at a convention in 2013 and see if I’ve got my Fudge dice with me. Maybe we can talk about The Ministry.

 

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

Source: adapted from shugarySweets.com

In the midst of the holidays, I was looking to bake something with a burst of tart sweetness as a break from my usual chocolatey favorites. This recipe for lemon cupcakes did the trick, resulting in rich almost pound cake consistency and incredible lemon butter cream frosting. This has now become a favorite recipe.

Cupcake ingredients:

5 egg whites, room temperature

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 lemons, zested

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cup cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

In small bowl, beat egg whites, 1/4 cup buttermilk and lemon zest until combined. Set aside.

In mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium high until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Lower speed to medium and add dry ingredients one at a time, mixing until combined. Slowly add egg white mixture. Beat in remaining buttermilk.

Prepare cupcake tins with paper cupcake liners. Fill liners half to three quarters full and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean on testing.

Remove from oven and cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to cool completely on a wire rack.

 

 

Frosting Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

4 cup powdered sugar

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2 Tbsp heavy cream

Instructions

Beat butter for 3-5 minutes until pale in color.

Add powdered sugar a cup at a time, then lemon zest and lemon juice (about 2 Tbsp from fresh lemon) and cream. Beat for 3-5 minutes until fluffy.

Frost cupcakes by filling a pastry bag with tip and pipe on the frosting.