Ada Maria Soto's Blog, page 6

Guest Post: Family. The battle of good versus evil – Toni J Strawn

Family. The battle of good versus evil.

We love them. We hate them. Both as characters and in our own lives, our family members play a big part in shaping our stories. Mothers, fathers, siblings…there are those who are achingly sweet and those who are more like jalapeno peppers (you can’t have many, and definitely not on their own). In the stories we love, it is often the evil characters who drive the plot forward and impel our heroines to put on their big girl pants and come out swinging.

In Not for a Moment Jessica Langford has her older brother, Cole, to contend with. Cole is lovely, as we saw for ourselves in Momentary Lapse, but he’s a ‘tad’ over-protective when it comes to his younger sister. He pays for her to go to University, chooses where she lives and who she lives with. Cole holds Jess back when all she wants to do is spread her wings and fly. While Cole is by no means evil, he has certainly had a huge impact on Jess’s life, a lot like some other nefarious family members who have caused misery for our heroes and heroines.

Here are my top 5. In no particular order…

The evil step-mother: There is something compelling about the utter wickedness of the evil step-mother, that they can fool the heroine’s father into believing they are sweet and good, yet be so inherently evil. In fairy-tales, there aren’t many malevolent step-mum’s who don’t coolly calculate how many ways they can kill the innocent heroine. Whether by poisoned apple or by casting our hapless heroine into the woods to be eaten by wolves, wicked step-mothers are top of my list when it comes to evil family members.

The cold and callous patriarch: While not forsaking their children for the sake of a devilish woman (above), some fathers are also known to be far from loving and supportive. Darth Vader tried to turn his son to the dark side. And cut off his hand! Then there is the fabulous Dr. Evil. Only a dad called Dr. Evil could be disappointed that his son turned out to be good.

The social-climbing matriarch: And let’s not forget Mommy Dearest. Patricia St James from Momentary Lapse has her daughter’s life planned out from the pageant stage to picking her picture perfect husband. Even when Patricia knows her daughter is being cheated on, she still wants the marriage to go ahead. Just to improve her standing. That woman will stop at nothing to climb the social ladder at Madison’s expense.

Tyrannical brothers: Cole Langford is an over-bearing brother who will do anything to protect his sister, Jess. At least he cares. Unlike the evil, jealousy of Loki, Thor’s brother. All Loki wants to do is bring his brother down and step into his place. Oh, and then there’s the whole world domination thing… Thor is such a good brother (and he’s freakin’ hot), that no matter what Loki does, Thor still loves him to the bitter end.

Selfish sisters: Nicky Harkness in Moment of Weakness not only stole her sister’s fiancé, but she kept it a secret for a year before spilling the beans just before the wedding. No wonder Abby has trust issues. Abby spent years running from her family and it was only when she found true love that she also found it in her heart to forgive her sister.

And that’s the crux of family issues, isn’t it? We love our families and will always believe the best of them, even when they are doing their worst. Whether it’s an evil parent, or a controlling brother, these are the characters who teach our heroes and heroines the lessons of life. We love to hate them—even when they belong to us. Our stories would not be the same without them.

So, who is your favorite wicked family character? Do you love to hate the cold-hearted step-mother, or do you prefer those who love too much, like Cole? Don’t be shy…share your embarrassing family moment and be in to win a free ebook copy of Not for a Moment.

Toni J Strawn lives in New Zealand and loves everything romance. With three books written for the One Moment Series with Samhain Publishing, Toni has enjoyed setting up her characters for the ultimate one night stand and turning it into happily ever after. Not for a Moment follows Momentary Lapse and Moment of Weakness.

Available on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, GooglePlay and the Samhain Publishing website.

“I’m in love with this series that takes a single, hot, wall pounding one night stand and develops it into a sweet (yet totally erotic) HEA.” The Romance Reviews

You can find Toni www.tonijstrawn.com or on Facebook .

Description: It doesn’t matter who started it—only who ends up on top.

Jess Langford wants nothing more than to live her own life. But a horrific accident she had a few years ago left her with…issues. And an overprotective brother who thwarts her every attempt at independence. Secretly moving out of her college dorm, she celebrates her newfound freedom with a one-night stand with a man she thinks she recognizes. It’s only in the light of the following morning she discovers the truth. It’s someone with the power and connections to send her right back to the prison she just escaped.

Physiotherapy consultant Van Sheffield knows exactly who Jess is. Stubborn. Rebellious. Trouble with a capital T. In other words, the perfect candidate for his innovative rehabilitation program. Loving her spark, the energy that makes her pick herself up every time she falls, Van sets out to do whatever it takes to harness Jess’s strength of will. But he wasn’t expecting her to push him so close to the edge of his control…or so close to losing his heart.

Warning: Contains a feisty lady with a stubborn streak a mile wide, and a man who knows how to deal with a certain pain in the butt.

Social Anxiety and Trying To Not Screw Up My Kid

For two hours every week my kid is in a preschool Maori Language play group. It’s a great little program. The kids sing songs, listen to stories, have snack time and a free play time all designed to encourage language skills, social skills, and cultural awareness.

I hate it. It is the worst two hours of the week, it’s walking hell, and it’s not them it’s me. I’m not good with people. Or maybe I am but I never feel like it. One on one I’m okay as long as I know the person. I can even handle being with two other people if I’m on form. But a dozen adults plus kids in a little church basement makes me want to scream then curl into a ball and cry for half an hour. I had a miserable job for years that I partially kept because I only ever had to talk to two or three people a night. I could avoid group situations easily and once I could order pizza online I could even avoid that conversation. It was great!

Then I went and became a parent. I knew I would have to deal with other people more often but I never thought it would be this bad. It shouldn’t be. We all have the same problems, potty training, tantrums, food fussiness, worries about school zones. I should be able to make small talk every week, or even more than small talk. I’ve known these other parents for close to two years. That doesn’t seem to matter. I open my mouth, something comes out and panic sets in. Did I say the right thing? Do I sound dumb or snobby? Did I just insult someone’s kid? Should I be adding more to this conversation? Less? Do they care? Do they all secretly hate me and are waiting for my kid to age out of the program? Should I just take two steps back and pretend I’m not here? Their kid just took a toy from my kid. Do I take it from their kid? To I encourage my kid to take it back? Will it sound like I’m encouraging fighting? Their kid is a little shit mine could totally take theirs.

Why the fuck am I doing this!?

Oh, yeah, so my kid doesn’t end up like me.

Socialize your kids. That’s what today’s parents keep getting told. Make sure they spend as much time as possible around other kids and never give them sugar or let them watch TV because if you don’t follow these guidelines your child will become a sociopath.

Truthfully I just want mine to be able to call a tech support line without spending five minutes rehearsing what she’s going to say first while praying like hell that the person on the other end doesn’t deviate from the script. I’d like her to be able to go to a party without feeling the need to double up on medication first. I’d like her to not need medication at all and not be half crippled at the idea of talking to a stranger. I’d like her to have friends she sees face to face and be able to make new ones.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working. She just turned three and it’s arguable possibly just a phase but she keeps the playgroup kids at arm’s length even though she’s known some for literally half her life. If a kid at the park wants to play with her she walks away. If a kid at the park touches the same equipment she’s on she walks away. According to her preschool teachers she has one kid she plays with and if he goes off to play with another kid she just plays on her own. I’m told she’s very good on her own.

It is just a phase. Yep. Just a phase. Just a phase. Just a phase. Just a phase.

The other day the play group parents were having a meeting while the kids were supposed to be playing with each other. Mine crawled up on my lap and informed me, with her advanced for her age language skills, that she wanted to go and get sushi then go home. It had been a bad day all around and I actually said ‘If I can do this for fifteen more minutes so can you’. And of course I said this just loud enough for half the parents to hear. I’m sure the Doctor Who t-shirts aren’t helping my social standing either.

Why am I doing this? I’m trying not to fuck up my kid. And it sucks.

What Do You Mean You’ve Never Baked A Cookie?

Not too long ago I was talking with a friend about nothing in particular and over the course of the conversation I discovered that they had never baked a cookie. Never. Not once. Not even the stuff that comes in a tube and you squeeze onto a sheet. Not with a parent, grand parent, step parent trying awkwardly to bond. They never did it in school or a youth group. Not even at three in the morning in a dormitory kitchen. And as far as I could tell there was no reason why this should have been. They didn’t come from an impoverished broken home. They weren’t home schooled by anti-sugar religious weirdos. There were no physical limitations that would have prevented them from baking. They grew up what could have been considered comfortably white middle class.

This made me quite sad. Cookie baking was something I did with my grandmother on cold weekends. There would be batches of cookies with my mother during the holidays. Charity bake sales. My public high school even managed to put together a couple weeks of home-ec that included baking cookies. It’s a fun thing to do. I happen to be pretty good at it.

The conversation with my friend left me wondering how many people out there have never baked cookies and I have the unpleasant feeling that the answer might be quite a few. If I add in the number of people who have simply squeezed goo from a plastic tube and called it baking that number I’m sure becomes depressingly large.

So gather round boys, girls, and others, Auntie Ada is going to talk about cookies.

So why even make cookies at home when you can just go out and buy a cookie, or a lot of them? Because you are making them, not buying them, that’s a thing in itself. People used to make everything and if they couldn’t make something they lived only a couple shacks down from a person who could. If you wanted something other than the ground to sit on you needed to be willing to hack down a tree or dig up some flat rocks. And people were willing. That has changed slowly over the last few centuries as communities have grown and people have specialized but even a couple of generations ago people (read women) were still expected to be able to make a few things. Dresses for church, cakes for birthdays, sweaters and preserves for winter. Grab your favourite, sociology, anthropology, economics, or gender studies book to decide why formally necessary skills are now considered hobbies, or worse, fads. You’d probably get in a bit of trouble if you went outside and cut down the nearest tree if you needed a chair but you shouldn’t get too many complaints about cookies so let’s start there.

There are a million different kinds of cookies out there and we could start with something really simple like an Afghan Biscuit which has all of five ingredients (six if you count the frosting) but screw that. We’re going to go for the king, the chocolate chip cookie. Baking it will also teach you several universally handy techniques.

If you want a pretty good chocolate chip cookie go down to the store and buy a bag of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips and read the directions on the back. Yes Nestle is a big evil corporation but they’ve been flogging chocolate chips for sixty years, the recipe is pretty solid at this point.

But we don’t want a pretty good cookie we want a Damn Fucking Right That’s a Good Cookie cookie. Here’s what you’re going to need.

Ingredients

4oz/113grams unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste

All-Purpose Flour – 5oz/142grams

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Equipment

Mixer – Stand or handheld. Stand is cleaner. Yes you can mix it all with a spoon but it’s a lot more work

Kitchen scale

Rubber spatula or bowl scraper

Measuring cups

Measuring spoons

Baking sheet

Cooling rack

Baking paper or Parchment paper

An oven that can go up to 350F/176C

Let’s talk about the ingredients before we get on to the techniques.

Butter. Yummmm. Butter. This calls for unsalted butter at room temperature. This means the butter should be soft enough that you can stick your finger through it (don’t) but not so soft that it’s wobbly or liquid. If your butter is cold then put it in a warm spot in the house and go do something else for a while. Don’t try to use cold butter. It will clump, it won’t mix with the other ingredients correctly, you can fuck up your mixers, and it will change the temperature of the batter effecting how the cookies bake. It might be tempting to toss the butter in the microwave and just melt it but don’t. In doing that you begin to break down the fat and protein molecules in the butter altering how they will bond to the sugar and starches. You get a very weird flat cookie out the other end. The salted v unsalted butter is not a huge deal at this level but if you’re making jumbo batches that little bit of extra salt can start changing things.

Why did I give you the measurement in weights? Because it’s hard to accurately measure out a volume of butter in a spoon or cup. There are air pockets you can’t see, it’s messy, and the little measure lines on butter wrappers aren’t as accurate as you’d like. Weighing gets you a much better result. If you live in a country where butter is sold in sticks 4oz is usually a stick.

Granulated sugar. This is the regular white sugar. Do Not Use Powdered Sugar. That is a completely different beast.

Brown Sugar (cue the Rolling Stones). Buying brown sugar if you’ve never done it can be a bit confusing. As people are getting more aware of their food or just a bit nerdy about it more options are showing up in the stores. There is light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, Muscovado sugar, ‘natural’ sugar, ‘raw’ sugar. You want light brown sugar. It should feel like slightly damp sand. That’s the molasses mixed with the sugar that makes it brown and gives it a unique taste. Yes you need both kinds of sugar. Don’t use coffee crystals.

What the hell does 1 Large Egg mean? I know there’s no really good gage for this. If you look at a bunch of eggs and go ‘That seems like a good sized egg’ go with that egg. There might be sizing on the egg cartons in your area, there might not.

Vanilla. Like with the brown sugar there are more options. One is Vanilla Flavouring. No. Just No. That’s like calling KoolAid fruit juice. Vanilla Extract is a bit better. It’s more of a tincture. Vanilla processed in alcohol to get the flavour. Vanilla paste is a lovely thing and it is my favourite in all baking but it is expensive. These days you can find a midpoint which is a vanilla extract with the vanilla seeds still mixed in. This will do you nicely.

All-Purpose Flour. When you’re shopping for flour you’ll often see High Grade or Bread flour, All-Purpose or Standard Flour, and Self Raising Flour. You can use high grade flour for cookies but you’ll get a slightly different texture. High Grade flour has more gluten so is used in heavier baking; breads and heavy cakes. Standard Flour is better for things like cookies. Do Not Use Self Raising Flour.

Baking Soda and Baking Powder are two very very different things. Do not mix them up.

Chocolate Chips. Chocolate is really one of those you get what you pay for things. Higher quality chocolate is going to cost you more. I prefer darker chocolate for cookies because it balances the sweetness of the bready part of the cookie. Nestlé Toll House semi-sweet chips was the standby for decades but as people are becoming more aware of what is out there in terms of chocolate other companies and groups are stepping in. Look around the fancier grocery stores or check online. You can get chips that are FairTrade, Rainforest Certified, Organic, GMO Free, with 80% Cacao content. If you have a favorite type of fancy chocolate that doesn’t put out chips that’s fine. Grab a few bars and something heavy. You’re going for about the size of small peas. Quick side note Carob Is Not Chocolate. It doesn’t taste like chocolate, it doesn’t act like chocolate, it’s not chocolate. If you think carob is chocolate both your taste buds and soul are dead. Don’t get nasty ass Carob anywhere near these cookies.

Okay, have you got all your ingredients? Are you sure? Double check. Okay, let’s get going.

Always make sure you have all your ingredients before you begin.

Step one. Cream butter and sugar. What? That is the first step in just about every cookie recipe. Unless stated otherwise the first step in just about any cookie is to mix the sugar and fat. It might be butter and sugar, it might be lard and maple syrup. Mix those two things first.

Use your kitchen scale (go get a kitchen scale) to measure out your butter then put it into your mixing bowl. Then measure out the white sugar and put it in as well. Next is the packed brown sugar. Brown sugar clumps and compresses. To make sure you have the full amount scoop up a quarter cup then use your hand to press it into the cup. If it doesn’t come to the top add a bit more and compress again. Add that to the mixer as well.

Weighing is far more accurate.

Butter in a solid stand mixer.

Compressed Brown Sugar.

Butter and sugar ready to go.

Put your mixer on the lowest setting and let it run for a minute. After a minute stop and run your spatula around the inside of the bowl. Even the best mixer will press some of the stuff to the sides and bottom of the bowl instead of mixing it in so you have to scrape it off and fold it back in. Turn the mixer back on for another minute or so until you have a nice smooth sugar and butter cream.

Creamed butter and sugar.

Next add the rest of the ‘wet ingredients’. This goes for all baking. Always mix the wet stuff together first unless directly told to do otherwise. If you drop it and it goes splat or splash it’s wet, and if it goes poof or crunch it’s dry. In this case it’s the vanilla and egg.

Crack the egg into a separate cup first. Always do this because the day you don’t will be the day you are in a hurry, almost out of ingredients, and will break a rotten egg right into your butter and sugar. Don’t say it won’t happen because I’ve done it. It’s also a lot easier to fish eggshells out of a cup than a mixing bowl.

Always crack your egg into a separate container first.

Non-rotten egg in bowl.

Put the non-rotten egg into your mixing bowl along with the vanilla and mix the batter on low for another couple of minutes or until the batter is even and smooth. I should probably legally tell you that you shouldn’t taste test cookie dough because it has raw eggs in it, or something like that.

All the wet ingredients mixed in.

Get a separate bowl to measure all the dry ingredients into first. I gave you the flour amount as a weight because flour settles and compresses. Do a little experiment if you like. Get a cup and fill it with flour levelling off the top. Now start carefully shaking and tapping the cup like a small earthquake. You’ll see space start to appear at the top of the cup. If you fill in that space you will still have ‘a cup’ of flour but more flour than you need. In many recipes you’ll see directions for sifted flour. That means sift the flour first so it’s nice and loose before measuring it. You can also use this online calculator to convert volumes of different types of flour into weights.

If you’ve got gluten problems this is the flour mix I used for the brownie recipe in my Simmer anthology story. But if you’ve never baked cookies before it might be easier to get gluten free flour at the grocery store.

Once you have the flour measured out into a separate bowl add the salt and baking soda to it. Give it a quick stir so the salt and baking soda don’t get clumped into one little part of the cookie dough. Baking is chemistry and that salt and baking soda are very important parts.

Mix dry ingredients in a separate container first.

Time to add the flour/salt/soda mix into the dough a little bit at a time. If you simply dump all the flour in at once you are likely to get clumps of flour that don’t mix in and when you turn on the mixer you’ll get a poof and a cloud of flour in your face and all over your kitchen. Add about a quarter cup, put the mixer on low, when it all looks mixed together scrape the inside edges of the bowl then add another quarter cup. Repeat this until you have all the flour well mixed in. Be sure to scrape the bowl regularly.

Put in just a little flour to start.

Mix in the flour then scrape the sides of the bowl.

Keep adding the flour a bit at a time until it’s all mixed in.

Then comes the last, yet defining, ingredient. The chocolate. One cup (plus maybe a little more). Mix it all in really well and if you’re willing to roll the dice on the whole raw egg thing take a taste.

Chocolate Chips!

The large chucks are a crushed up Easter bunny.

Your completed dough.

Next, scrape out all that yummy dough into some sort of airtight container, put it into the fridge, and come back tomorrow.

What?

Yep. Cue the food science. Leaving the dough in the fridge for 24 hours gives the final product a richer depth of flavour. Something slightly caramelly. It also makes it a bit easier to work with the dough in terms of cookie size.

Romance author Wendy Sparrow, who is an aficionado of cookie dough carefully pushes the chips away from sides of the container so it just looks like leftover mashed potatoes, keeping it safe from others in the house.

24 Hours Later

Turn your oven onto bake at 350 Fahrenheit or 176 Celsius. Oven temperatures are never as accurate as you wish they were. All ovens run a little hot or cold. You can get a little thermometer that sits inside the oven to get you a more accurate result but most people just learn to take stuff out a few minutes earlier or later depending on their oven.

Get a cookie pan and put down a layer of parchment/baking paper. This is the best thing ever and I don’t know where it’s been all my life. No more oiling cookie pans. No more Splat Pads that get nasty after have a few uses. No more nonstick baking pans that only stay nonstick for about a week. Baking Paper. It’s sold next to the plastic wrap and foil. DO NOT USE WAXED PAPER. Your cookies won’t stick but they will taste like wax.

The glory that is baking paper.

Let the cookie dough warm up enough that you can scoop it out.

Now here is where you have options and you’ll wish you paid a bit more attention when your physics teacher was talking about thermodynamics. For me the ideal ball of cookie dough is a bit bigger than a standard size super ball. If your ball of dough is on the large size the outer edges will cook before the centre making it all a bit uneven. If the ball is too small it’ll just go flat, crunchy, and will burn easily. If you roll the chilled cookie dough into a ball with your hands it’ll compress the dough slightly making it harder for the heat to permeate but it will do it more evenly than if you just splat dough onto the pan. If you put them too close together they will merge into a giant mutant cookie.

Bake your cookies for 9-11 minutes. A larger cookie will need a little more time than a smaller one. If you open the oven to check every 30 seconds you’ll let the heat out and change how the cookie is baking. 30 seconds however can be the difference between browned and burnt. It’s best to err on the side of slightly undercooked because the residual heat will continue to bake the cookie as it cools.

Once the tray is out use a thin spatula to carefully move each cookie to the cooling rack. If you can’t get them up without breaking them just pick up the baking paper and move the whole batch to the cooking rack.

Lots of yummy cookies.

Now wait, and watch. You’re waiting for the cookies to cool. You won’t have to wait too long but you don’t want to burn your fingers. Take a deep breath. Smell that cookie smell. That’s the real deal, not something sprayed into the air by cookie shops at the mall. That’s sugar and butter and chocolate mixed together by you, baked by you, created by you.

Are they cool enough to touch?

Okay, time to take a bite. Is it good? Is it warm and sweet with the chocolate melting and mixing on your tongue? Is it better than any cookie you’ve ever had? Fucking hell yes it is because you made it. You did that. That warm golden taste, that was all you. Go ahead and take another bite and own it. That’s not just a cookie you’re eating, that’s creation, that’s free will, that’s a giant fuck you to a society that wants you to believe that self-worth comes from a thigh gap and having the latest Apple gizmo.

Go ahead and have another then take a few to your neighbours or your friends. Hold them out and proudly say-

“I made these.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serious Eats and Handle the Heat both did major experimental tests on various recipe permutations for chocolate chip cookies. They are worth a read.

Guest Post: Lizzi Tremayne – Żurek Stew and A Long Trail Rolling

Continuing our season of New Zealand based Guest Bloggers may I present multi-award winning author, and RWNZ president Lizzi Tremayne.

 

Hello, all you readers and foodies out there!

Food…hmmm…it’s probably more important to me than it should be, but what’s life without good, healthy sustenance? It’s important to me in life, and the characters in my stories all seem to crave the same things I do, for some odd reason! Aleksandra, in A Long Trail Rolling, showed us not only the food from her native country, Poland, but how to make it and enjoy it!  Here is an excerpt from that story, and the recipes to make it:

 

Suddenly hungry, her heart and body craving succour, Aleksandra reached for the zakwas sour rye culture and started a pot of żurek. Like the wheaten sourdough starter other pioneers in the West used to leaven their biscuits and breads, zakwas gave żurek, the traditional Polish comfort food, a unique taste when stewed with grilled kielbasa, bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, and sour cream. Nibbling at crispy shreds of the aromatic sausage as it cooked, she sighed with pleasure and began to smile again.

 

Recipe: Żurek

This hearty stew, typical of the ‘sour’ soups common and beloved by many Eastern Europeans, is my favorite soup. It is well worth the time it takes to make it. Thank you to the Glinkowski family, third generation owners of Glinkowski Carriages, for sharing with us their love of Poland and Żurek. After leaving them, we tasted different versions of it in every town we visited around Polska.

 

Zakwas (“ZAH-kvahss,”)

Sourdough Rye Starter Culture

2 c rye flour

1 c oat flakes

4 c water, boiled and cooled to room temperature

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 T sourdough starter or 1 crust from piece of Polish rye bread

(remove crust after 3 days)

 

Mix in a nonreactive vessel (glass, stainless steel, stoneware) and leave in warm place (70-80 F / 20-27 C) to ferment for 2-5 days until bubbly and as sour as you wish, then use it to make żurek.

The resulting culture: After I use some to make żurek, I refresh the rest by ‘feeding it’ more kibbled/cracked rye or rye flour and water, as Aleksandra’s mother did in the story. Leave out, covered, to ferment overnight then refrigerate. When it hasn’t been used for a while, liquid will accumulate on top and be less active. Stir it and replenish as above. With this starter, I can make żurek whenever I want and also use it as a starter in sourdough rye bread recipes.

NB:  for our purposes,

c=cup=250 ml liquid or dry,   t=teaspoon=5 ml,   T=tablespoon=15 ml.

 

 

Żurek or zur or biały barszcz (“ZHOO-rek”,”BYAH-wih BARSHCH”)

White Borscht or Sour Rye Soup

2 onions, minced

fat/ oil for frying

1 lb (450 g) chopped bacon

2 lb (900 g) Polish kielbasa sausage (pork/beef) in ½  inch slices

1 T marjoram, 2 whole allspices, 6 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf

6 c boiling water or stock

2 c zakwas

½ c cultured sour cream

carrots, peas, mushrooms and/or parsnips, if desired, diced

salt and pepper to taste

 

To serve:

6 eggs, boiled and cut into wedges or quarters

4 potatoes, boiled and hot, cut into quarters or cubes

rye bread or trenchers

 

In large soup pot, brown chopped onion till translucent, then add bacon and cut up sausage. Stir-fry until browned (some prefer to prick sausages and cook them whole in the liquid soup, then cut up later). Add spices and boiling water or stock. Add zakwas, while whisking. This will thicken the soup. If you used oat flakes, you may wish to strain the zakwas but I don’t strain it, as I also use kibbled rye in my starter. They cook down, J.

 

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. If it has thickened enough, add the sour cream. If not, stir one tablespoon flour into the sour cream before adding, then bring to boil again and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. I make (at least) a double recipe, as it is better the next day or after freezing.

 

To serve, ladle soup over potatoes and eggs placed into the bottom of individual bowls or make bread trenchers to use in their place! Cheat by horizontally cutting the top off of a large bun to create a lid (or cut a hole out of the top as you would a Jack O’Lantern pumpkin). Hollow the bread out and ladle the soup into it.

 

Serve with rye bread.

(What else? J).

 

 

Bon appétit, and good reading!

I hope you enjoy both!

 

 

Kindest regards,

Lizzi Tremayne

 

Here’s a little about my debut novel. Book 2 in the series, The Hills of Gold Unchanging, will be out soon!

A Long Trail Rolling

Escaping her father’s killer, Aleksandra rode the Pony Express—full speed into the Indian Paiute War.

Growing up in the 1860’s Old West, Aleksandra was trained in the Cossack arts by her father. Now she’s alone, running to prevent her pa’s killer from discovering their family secret. Disguised as a Pony Express rider in Utah Territory, she finds herself in even deeper trouble when she rides full speed into the middle of the Indian Paiute Wars. Her alluring Californio boss Xavier has a strength to match her own, but can they overcome the ever-increasing odds and evade the man who’s already killed Aleksandra’s father—and set his sights on her?

Awards for this debut novel: Finalist 2013 RWNZ Great Beginnings; Winner 2014 RWNZ Pacific Hearts Award; Winner 2015 RWNZ Koru Award for Best First Novel plus third in Koru Long Novel section; and finalist in the 2015 Best Indie Book Award.             

A saga of the Old West with a multicultural cast of those who make up America, it would interest readers who enjoy sagas, horses, American Indians, immigrants, and the Pony Express. It has a capable heroine, strong historical detail, period veterinary treatment and frontier-pushing characters. It has been compared to the work of Phillipa Gregory, Diana Gabaldon and Jean Auel, with a little Laura Ingalls Wilder thrown in.

The Series:      This novel is the first in The Long Trail quadrilogy of historical adventure sagas following Aleksandra and Xavier from the wilderness of 1860 Utah to Colonial New Zealand.

Author Biography: Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she’s swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals. multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

Author Links: You can read more about me and what I write, as well as contacting me at:!

Website and blog 

Buy Link

Amazon Author page

Goodreads Author page

Pinterest

Twitter

A_Long_Trail_Rolling Facebook Page  

LizziTremayneWriter Facebook page

 

F**KING OWN IT

I have a favourite fanfic series, actually I have several, but there is one in particular that warms my heart and I end up reading at least once a year in spite of its massive word count. I’m not going to name it here because it is, frankly, kinda bad. And yet not. The stories are epic. All love is true love, either love at first sight or love that is pined after for years (centuries). No one dies, everyone lives happily ever after, and babies don’t seem to ever need changing. It’s ridiculous. Then there is the dialogue

“Oh, what havoc you wreak within my breast.”

The characters talk like that all the time, which is about a lightyear away from any canon dialog. The prose is about as purple as Grape Kool Aid with paragraphs dedicated to the twinkle in a character’s eyes. The stories are the worst stereotype of what is considered a ‘romance novel’.

Other writers might throw a wink to the reader. A sort of ‘yeah, I know I’m writing like this, isn’t it funny’. Still others might start this way and evolve into a more natural voice over the course of a million words.

Not these stories.

There is an unbroken consistency and possibly more importantly an honesty in the bad dialogue, purple prose, and sprawling plots. This author found her written voice and over the course of a million words has never wavered. She owned it and I respect that. I respect that in a lot of my favourite authors, Hunter Thompson, Terry Pratchett, Ray Bradbury. They found a way of telling a story and made it theirs.

One of my dear writing friends is Cooper West. She knew be back when I was writing fanfic and has put up with a lot of my whining over the years. She is my cheerleader, ass kicker, and evil enabler.

Recently I attempted to write my first Category Romance for a big publisher.

For those not up on the lingo Category Romances are 50,000 words (though I hear Harlequin has recently dropped it down to 48,000) and usually published in numbered series. They are the bread and butter of Harlequin and Mills & Boon. And despite being regularly dismissed as being formulaic and their readers looked down upon, like any heavily structured writing format they can actually be fiendishly difficult. You can’t put anything into those 50k. Like writing an hour of broadcast television you have exactly 42 minutes to get in five acts and two plot lines. Good luck.

Like my first attempt to write for television this first attempt at a category romance failed miserably. The story is good (I think) and they characters are there but I got 20k in, went back and read what I had written and hated it. I wanted to cry. It felt like it had been written by someone else who didn’t get the characters, the story, or what I was trying to say. Except I was the one who wrote the travesty on my screen.

Cue me whining to Cooper West about how much I hate what I’ve written and how people are going to hate the story even if I rewrite it. That the story isn’t what is in right now. It’s technically a BDSM story but it also has spoiled cats, meddling matchmaking friends, and married couples who tell dorky jokes, complain about the crap energy drinks kids these day drink, and shoot rubber bands at each other. Stuff that made Cooper West comment, when I let her read a bit of what I had.

This is just….adorable!

Yep. Apparently I write adorable BDSM. This I whined about. It wasn’t supposed to be adorable. It was supposed to be hot and sexy and fly off the shelves. I was told to ‘fucking OWN IT’. The all caps were hers not mine.

Fucking own it.

So I’m rewriting now, what else can I do, and I’m trying to own it. I’m not writing for the publisher or the agent I pitched the story to. I’m not writing for what I think is in right now or what I think my previous readers might want or what the review blogs will say. I’m just sitting down and trying to tell the story the way I tell stories.

My therapist once told me he likes me because I make him laugh. Half the reviews for Empty Nests commented on how funny it was. I still get comments on my decade old BDSM fanfic about how warm, fluffy, and cuddly the stories are. So I guess there’s nothing left to do but fucking own it.

In which I win none of the things (Okay, one)

The A&P show has come and gone. I have not had the most productive or focused 2016 to date as a result I only entered a fraction of what I did last year and I think the judges could tell I was sort of half-assing it. I only got one first on show day and that was for my Anzac Cookies. Everything else was a 2nd, 3rd, or nothing.

I did put in my first entry to the gardening section. I entered three very nice chili peppers, which to my eyes looked identical to the ones that won. I should have entered my shallots. The ones sitting in my cupboard which I pulled up a couple weeks ago are twice the size of the winners.

For those who are curious here’s a bit of a photo blog of this year’s work.

 

Green Apple/Blueberry apple butter. Apple butter is the easiest thing. Put apples in a crock pot for two days then put in jars.

 

Always sterilize your jars and lids.

 

Apricot Jam, Spiced Cherry Chutney, and Cherry Jelly.

Base ingredients for my second place jelly. Wine jelly works surprisingly well with peanut butter.

An attempt at an artistic early morning shot of apple butter and walnuts preserved in honey.

First attempt at sourdough bread.

 

Sourdough and challa bread.

Dough rises fast in Auckland in February.

 

Ready for the oven.

Challah bread ready for the show. The sourdough turned out flat and hard and for some reason I forgot to take pictures of the cookies.

 

And here is the only picture I took at the A&P show. Yes, chopping wood is a sport.

Next year I’ll be more organized and do better.

Release Day: And Everything Nice part of the Simmer anthology

Today is the day for And Everything Nice which is part of the Simmer anthology from Dreamspinner Press. Part Romance anthology part recipe book. Thirteen stories, with mine bringing up the rear, every story comes with its own recipe. And Everything Nice comes with an updated and improved version of my best raspberry brownie recipe.

And Everything Nice by Ada Marie Soto

Computer programmer Angelo is as good at baking as he is bad at talking to people—especially guys he finds attractive, like Simon, the new tech writer at work. Falling back on his habit of using his culinary creations as a distraction, Angelo whips up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But Simon refuses to touch them. Frustrated but not ready to give up, Angelo searches for the perfect recipe to tempt both Simon and his taste buds.

Available in paperback (so you can keep it in your kitchen) and ebook. When you get it in paperback you automatically get the eformats as well. You can also get it from Amazon and all the other usual suspects.

There are a dozen other great writers involved so read their stories as well then go read their back catalogue.

 

Guest Post: When Prince Charming is too good to be True?

Continuing our NZ spotlight today with Toni Strawn.

When Prince Charming is too good to be True?

Chances are, he probably is.

I mean, how many times do we see it? The beautiful princess meets the man of her dreams, the handsome hero who sweeps her off her feet. In other words, Prince Perfect. And then he turns out to have some nasty, conniving step-mother, or he is only after her wealth, despite the fact she’s smokin’ hot and totally in love with him. It’s usually only when the good guy comes along that our princess can see true love for what it really is.

This is the premise for Momentary Lapse, when the beautiful Madison St James goes searching for answers after her Prince Charming accidentally butt dials her when he’s with his mistress. Instead of answers she finds rough and ready Cole Langford who shows her what it means to be with a real man. And like all good heroines, Madison is going to have to fight to keep him.

Fairy tales are full of stories with such warnings—beware the handsome Prince who turns out to be rotten to the core. Here is my pick of the top 5 dastardly Princes’, who seemed like they were too good to be true…because they were.

#5           Prince of Darkness

To start my list I couldn’t go past the Prince of Darkness, Count Dracula. Okay, he never purports to be anything other than the blood sucking vampire that he is, but he uses his sexy wiles and woo-woo eyes to beguile those among us that should know better. Even knowing this, I can’t think of many women who wouldn’t offer up their necks for a crack at winning the Count and a chance at immortality.

#4           Prince Edward.

No. Not the real Prince Edward. Prince Edward from the movie Enchanted. Giselle steps from an animated fairy tale into the real world and falls in love with Patrick Dempsey – can’t blame a girl for that. While Prince Edward isn’t particularly evil, he is the epitome of blonde and brainless, and he has the ultimate in evil stepmothers, Narissa. For that reason, Prince Edward ends up on my list.

#3           Prince Hans, from the movie Frozen.

Our beautiful heroine meets handsome Prince Hans at a party and immediately falls in love. He is witty, charming and seems smitten by the popsicle Princess. But Anna’s sister, Elsa can see right through the Prince and refuses to let them marry. Not to be outdone, Hans claims Elsa has killed her sister with her new frozen icicle powers and tries to sentence her to death. He claims he has already married Anna and takes over the kingdom, which is what he wanted all along.

#2           King Henry the Eighth.

This guy was no fairy tale and he chopped his wives heads off. Nuff said.

And the number one Prince of Poison…

#1           Prince Charming.

Yes. Okay. There are more than one, but the one I’m thinking of is from the movie, Shrek. Prince Charming is hell-bent on marrying Fiona so he can become king. When he misses out on the awakening kiss he then tricks the ogre princess into believing he is Shrek. But true loves sees through all disguises and Fiona and Shrek are reunited to live happily ever after.

Hopefully this doesn’t put you off meeting your own Prince Charming.

Have you ever come across Prince Cheating? Or when it comes to love, do you prefer to marry the frog? Luckily for Madison St James from Momentary Lapse, Logan the rogue makes her choice easy. Now she just has to convince Cole that he is her knight in shining armour.

Toni J Strawn lives in New Zealand and loves everything romance. With three books written for the One Moment Series with Samhain Publishing, Toni has enjoyed setting up her characters for the ultimate one night stand and turning it into happily ever after. Momentary Lapse and Moment of Weakness are out now, followed by Not for a Moment which is due for release in May 2016.

Available on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, GooglePlay and the Samhain Publishing website.

You can find Toni www.tonijstrawn.com or on Facebook .

When socialite Madison stumbles into his world, self-made millionaire Cole’s first instinct is to ignore her completely—too bad his hands and mouth don’t get the memo.

Description: Any man can get down and dirty. A real man cleans up his own mess.

After her Prince Charming turns out to be Prince Cheating, Madison indulges in a no-holds-barred one-night stand with a sexy stranger. It’s hot. And sensual. And so real, she’s not sure she can return to her superficial life. Except her manipulative mother has everything planned and letting Madison go isn’t part of it.

Cole has been too busy building his own business—and battling his rich family—to indulge his former hobby of seducing rich socialites. But with Madison, Cole can’t resist one tiny bite. And going back for seconds has disaster written all over it.

Guest Post: Who do you tell?

Our guest blogger for today is Carole Brungar of Levin, New Zealand.

Thanks Ada for inviting me to chat on your blog. It’s lovely to be here.

In November 2014, after more than eight years in the making, I self published my very first novel, A tide too high. As well as writing and teaching fabric art classes, I work four days a week in local body government. Each day during my lunch break I disappear to a quiet spot and write. My work colleagues have been very supportive of my writing and many even purchased a copy. In fact my manager bought a copy and everyone signed the inside covers and then it was presented to me at a special morning tea. It was a lovely gesture and I would have been happy for it to end there. However, it was not to be and word spread around work that I had written a book. Suddenly staff members were approaching me asking who my hero was based on, did they know them? Where did I get my female character from and in one case I was told a male staff member was telling others that I had modelled my high-flying, handsome hero on him!

Then, one day several weeks later, just when I thought things had settled down and no one had mentioned my writing, I attended a meeting that included a general manager and several other managers. The meeting was pretty much run-of-the-mill until at a break in the meeting the general manager asked, in front of everyone gathered, were any staff members going to be included in my next book? He said there was lots of inspiration in the male members of staff on the floor above mine and I should go talk to some of them! There was lots of laughter and names thrown around as I reaffirmed that none of my characters were inspired by anyone at work, nor were they ever likely to be.

I couldn’t believe just how many people thought I had either written them into my story or given characters in my stories traits specific to them.

My goal for 2016 is to finish the novel I’m working on. I’ve hit the half way mark at 70 thousand words and can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I am hugely motivated by A tide too high being judged a finalist in three different competitions and some encouraging requests from editors to read my new novel. But I’ve decided to keep quiet about this book unless someone asks about it I won’t be mentioning it.

Now I have a new manager. As I walked him around the building and introduced him to staff, he was interested to hear that I’d published a novel. Later that afternoon I overheard him tell the young man who sits next to me – “you know she’s basing her hero in her new book on you, don’t you?”

You can find a copy of A tide too high at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P5ZSESA/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

You can visit me at: https://www.facebook.com/CABrungarAuthor

About A Tide Too High:

Mac Morgan is the driving force behind one of New Zealand’s biggest exports, rock band Polar Blaze. With thousands of fans and packed concerts around the world she has spent her life living in her sister’s shadow. But when Mac collapses on stage in front of a packed stadium she has no choice but to give up the unhealthy lifestyle and make some serious life changes. She disappears from media scrutiny and spends time at a private beach in the far north of New Zealand, a large coastal property owned by the Stanford family.

London based Alec Stanford wants what his twin brother has, a home, a wife and children. But just because he’s one of the world’s most successful and respected businessmen doesn’t mean he’s good at personal relationships. After his beautiful socialite wife files divorce papers, he thinks maybe he’s just not marriage material. But he’s not prepared for the chance meeting with a burnt out rock star who’s hiding out from the media. A chance meeting that shifts the axis of two separate worlds with devastating results.

Who will Alec choose and who will he lose? A tide too high is a story about relationships, misplaced loyalty and being strong enough to believe in yourself.

Now only 99c for Ada’s blog readers!

 

Mindful on the Mountaintop

On January 11, 2008 Sir Edmond Hillary, known as Sir Ed to his fellow New Zealanders, the first person to make it to the top of Everest, passed away. I went to see him as he lay in state in the Holy Trinity Cathedral the night before his funeral. My father has always been an armchair adventurer, health and circumstances preventing him from rafting the Amazon or climbing Denali. Sir Ed was one of his heroes and my father asked if I would go and pay my respects. I was working a late shift at the time and didn’t get off work until ten. It was closer to eleven by the time I got to the cathedral. I thought I would slip in, bow my head, and get home. I found a line around the block and it was raining.

There are few moments in my life when I have been truly ‘mindful’ in the modern psychological sense of the word. If anything I’m prone to being a touch out of sync with my life. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, or maybe I became a writer because of it. I quietly narrate my life and the lives of others around me. Even as something is happening I’m picking the words for its story, wondering how I will relay it in the future. I store my memories that way. I don’t have a very good visual memory but I can remember stories I tell myself and if they are written as the event happens all the better. Rarely am I not writing these stories.

I stood in line for three hours waiting to see the closed, simple coffin of a man I’d never met. Others stood with me for just as long. No one grumbled about the wait, despite the cold and rain. No one would begrudge someone else’s moment with the great man. People came out of their houses with paper cups and pots of tea, and passed them down the line. People chatted with their friends and strangers. Everyone was serious but no one was grim. Hillary wasn’t a grim guy. He kept his number in the phonebook until the end and had that dry New Zealand sense of humour.

When I finally got into the cathedral I noted, and it was one of the few mental notes I made that night, that the coffin seemed so small. Hillary was a tall man with a long stride that took him up Everest and across Antarctica. The coffin seemed tiny. He was 88 when he died and age shrinks us but even for that it seemed so small. There’s some metaphor there, I’m sure.

It was only later, when I tried to think back on that night, that I realized I didn’t have a story. I had a collection of moments that I had shared with others who had stood in that line in the late night and early hours of the morning. It made me wonder about mountain climbers. When they get to the top of great peeks, their bodies exhausted and their brains short of oxygen, knowing they have a greater chance of death on the way down, do they admire the view and marvel at their own achievement or does that only happen when they are safely back down the mountain?