Janel Gradowski's Blog, page 10

Jewelry Obsessions + Giveaway

A spectacular necklace would draw people’s eyes up to her face, away from problematic body parts. She slid open a drawer in her jewel chest and selected a necklace with a dozen strands of tiny, robin egg blue faceted beads. Sparkle-rama supreme. Flouncy skirt hip camouflage with a glittery, upper-level distraction. Outfit complete.

-Excerpt from Pies & Peril

In Pies & Peril the main character, Amy, loves jewelry. In fact, she has a huge standing jewelry chests that is almost as tall as she is. While I don’t have a chest like that (yet!) I do love jewelry. The bolder and funkier the better. In my life away from writing fiction I also design beadwork, mostly bracelets and necklaces. My bead collection rivals my book collection. Unfortunately, there aren’t virtual beads so I can hide the e-version on a handy electronic device like I do books.

To celebrate the release of Pies & Peril, I will be giving away some of my beads to a lucky reader. Of course, I’ve turned those beads into a necklace that I think will match just about any outfit. Kind of like the multi-tool of the necklace universe. AND you get a shiny new book to go along with the necklace if you win. Follow the Pies & Peril Blog Tour for more chances to win copies of the book. Check back here after the tour is over on July 27 to see if you won this prize! (All other winners will be announced on the hosting blogs.) Sorry, due to postage this contest is U.S. only. Enter by using the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pies & Peril Release Day

It’s here! Pies & Peril has been officially released. That means you can go to your favorite online bookseller, download a copy and read it right now. And if you like books that can live on your real bookshelf, instead of a virtual one, it is also available as a paperback. Just click the cover above to get your copy. The ebooks are on sale for a limited time at an introductory price of just $.99!

Today also kicks off the Pies & Peril Blog Tour. Stop by Peeking Between The Pages for a review and giveaway. Then visit me here tomorrow. I have a special, sparkly prize for one lucky reader! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter to stay up to date on all of the tour stops.

Chocolate Coconut “Egg” Cream

Fizzy drinks and summer just go together, in my opinion. I love making different kinds of citrus syrups to add to seltzer water. Or adding some sort of carbonated water to wine or sangria, just to add a bit of sparkle. One of my favorite beverage discoveries recently was La Croix Sparkling Water. It comes in flavors from all varieties of citrus to coconut AND I buy cases of 12 oz. cans. That means I can open a fresh, bubbly can for every drink and not worry about a big bottle going flat.

I’m on a bit of a coconut kick lately, so I decided to try combining two of the coconut beverages that are in my refrigerator right now. I have to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of egg creams, which don’t have eggs in them, by the way. Traditionally they are made of milk, vanilla or chocolate syrup and seltzer water. I like chocolate milk and I like most soda pops, but combining the two has never appealed to me. However, this coconut version is different. It’s very light and tastes like coconut, instead of dairy milk. Maybe that’s the difference. I prefer fizzy coconut beverages instead of effervescent milk.

Have you  ever tried an egg cream? Do you like them?

Print
Chocolate Coconut “Egg” Cream


Author: Janel Gradowski (http://www.janelgradowski.com)
Recipe type: Beverage



Serves: 1
 


Ingredients

1 cup Silk vanilla coconut milk
1 tbsp (or more) chocolate syrup
1 can La Croix Coconut Sparkling Water




Instructions

Combine coconut milk and chocolate syrup in a tall glass. Add a splash of sparkling water and stir vigorously. Slowly pour in more sparkling water until glass is full, stirring slowly and gently to combine.



3.2.1255

 

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads

Creative Blog Tour

My friend, Belle, of Ms. Bookish tagged me to take part of the Creative Blog Tour for artists and writers. So you get a peek at what I’m working on. There are four questions. So…shall we proceed?

What am I working on? I recently finished plotting the second Culinary Competition mystery. I will be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this year. My very first attempt at a NaNoWriMo event. Luckily, I don’t have to write 50,000 words to “win” camp. That’s a good thing since Pies & Peril will be published on July 8th and I’m doing a blog tour during the month of July. I really doubt I would be able to write 50,000 words, even though I have the book completely plotted, with all of the nervous excitement and blog visiting.

How does my work differ from others of its genre? I write my cozy mysteries with a third person point of view through both the eyes of my main character/amateur sleuth, Amy, and her best friend, Carla. Many cozies use first person point of view, but to be honest, I have a difficult time writing it. I use a deep point of view to help give the effect of a more traditional cozy.

Why do I write/create what I do? I feel compelled to. When I was a child I decided I wanted to be a writer. I held onto that dream quite well through my teens, but then it got lost for a while after I got married, got a stressful job and then went on to have two children within 18 months. After they were born I turned to designing beadwork. I had many patterns published in magazines. Those forays into publishing gave me the confidence to turn my writing away from patterns and back to my first love, fiction. I started out with writing and publishing short, flash fiction and have now moved on to full-length novels.

How does your writing/creating process work? I am a planner. While writing flash I may not write any notes beforehand, but I do think about what I am going to write before sitting down at my laptop. When I moved up to writing novellas and novels, I knew I had to plan everything out. The thought of embarking on that large of a writing venture without a map terrified me. So now I use both color-coded actual index cards on a cork board and the virtual index cards (again, color-coded) in the program I write in, Scrivener. I find that knowing the road ahead is much less stressful and I can write much more quickly. I wrote over 10,000 words in one day earlier this year on a short story I had plotted out beforehand.

Cookbook Review: Cooking With Fire

Cooking With Fire: Rediscovering the Tastes of Traditional Wood-fired Cooking

By Paula Marcoux

Storey Publishing, May 2014

I have wanted to make a mud oven in my backyard for years. While I haven’t gotten around to that, yet, I knew I had to get this book as soon as I read the description. Not only is there a detailed section on how to build the oven of my dreams, there are also quite a few recipes that utilize it in its various stages of heating, from when it’s blazing hot to cooling down.

While I work up the courage, and muscles, to build my oven there are other fire cooking techniques that I can experiment with. This isn’t a book about grilling. Gas or charcoal grills are not used, but there is a way to repurpose a grill grate. The book builds from basic skills, cooking over a campfire, to the much more advanced building of the oven and cooking in it. In between there are sections about cooking on open hearth fireplaces, underground cooking (think lobster bake or a New England bean hole) and even making a tannur (authentically baked naan!) of clay chimney liner. There’s a fire cooking technique, and accompanying recipes, for any skill level. I can’t wait to try the mussels cooked under a layer of flaming dried pine needles this fall.

Ms. Marcoux used to work at Plymouth Plantation, demonstrating fire cooking from the Colonial era. This book goes way beyond that time period though. It goes around the world and details cooking methods that even date back to ancient times. If you are interested in cooking outdoors (or indoors if you have a fireplace) and would like to move beyond a gas grill, I would highly recommend this book. Even if you do nothing more than whittle down a stick and roast a marshmallow from the instructions, it’s still a fascinating book to sit down and read.

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads.

I bought this book and was not compensated for this review in any way.

 

Strawberry Essence Water

As I was cruising the internet a few days ago I came across a post on Food 52 that piqued my interest. The author of the post used strawberry trimmings (tops, leaves, stems) to make a subtle, strawberry infused water. Intriguing. I’ve always liked to drink infused waters, but using the leaves in the water? The next day my daughter picked a huge bowl of berries from our garden and I divided the tops between two Mason jars. One was just the tops and to the other jar I added a couple sprigs of orange mint. I strained the water a few hours later and it was fabulous!

The water was tinted a very light pink. It smelled of strawberries and tasted like them, too. Not like strawberry juice, but just a nice hint to make the water much more appealing than normal. I especially loved the one with added mint. My daughter trimmed today’s batch of berries and put about twice as many trimmings in a jar. That water turned a vivid pink after a few hours soaking and, of course, had a more pronounced strawberry taste.

I have to say this is one of those brilliant, “a ha” things for me. While I will certainly drink plain water, this is such a nice, refreshing way to make it more palatable. Plus, it makes use of something I would normally throw away. Do you make infused water? If you do, what flavors do you make?

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Stop by or add your own foodie post to the list.

 

Cookbook Review: Delicious Probiotic Drinks

I have been following Julia Mueller’s blog, The Roasted Root, for awhile. A few months ago I was excited to see her publish a new book about probiotic drinks. You see, I love to sip on various beverages when I am working at my computer. Many times the liquid refreshment is coffee, but after reading Julia’s book I’m going to try some healthier options. This will be the summer of probiotic drinks for me!

So, what are probiotics? According to Julia they are “good bacteria that help promote and maintain the microflora in your digestive tract to achieve digestive balance and overall gut health.” Sounds like a wonderful thing! There’s nothing worse than having an upset stomach. Since I tend to have some rather unhealthy eating habits when I am writing, I could certainly use some help keeping distracting tummy troubles at bay.

The book has easy, step-by-step instructions on how to make everything from beet kvass (fermented beet juice) to kombucha (fermented black tea). While I have heard of both of those drinks, there are others that are unfamiliar to me. Rejuvalac is the liquid drained off of sprouted grains, like rye or barley. Jun is the green tea cousin of kombucha.

Some of the drinks require starter cultures, like the kombucha and kefir. However, there are other that can be made using just fruits or vegetables, salt and water. I am going to start with those. I have tried bottled kvass from the health food store and I have to say it’s an acquired taste. The sweet, earthiness of beets combined with what I can only describe as the tang of pickle juice. So I’m going to start with something a bit more familiar, a fermented lemonade that uses whey strained from yogurt. There are quite a few versions of fermented lemonades, from lavender to blackberry, to choose from. Many of the drinks have variations and there are even recipes for things like smoothies to use the beverages in. One of my favorite cocktails is the Dark & Stormy. It’s the perfect drink for a summer evening. I can’t wait to make it with my own, homemade ginger beer.

Fermentation can be a bit scary, but the book includes steps on how to safely make all of the drinks, as well as how to tell when the beverages are ready to drink. All you need are a few basic supplies like glass jars and bottles. Simple and easy! Julia has recipes for some of the probiotic drinks on her website, if you would like to check them out.

I’ll let you know how my probiotic drink experiments go this summer. Have you ever fermented anything? Do you drink probiotic beverages?

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Stop by and check out more posts from people who are passionate about food.

 

Pies & Peril – The Squeetastic Cover!

When Amy Ridley decided to compete in the Kellerton Summer Festival Pie Contest, the last thing she expected was to find the reigning pie queen, Mandy Jo, dead—a raspberry pie smashed on her face! Mandy Jo made fantastic pies, but she accumulated more enemies than baking trophies. But when Amy receives a note threatening her own life, she decides to do some investigating herself.

It seems that half the town has a reason to kill the mean pie queen, and Amy finds herself sifting through a list of suspects that’s longer than her list of recipes. Not to mention playing cupid for her love-shy best friend, fending off a baker intent on finding out her prize-winning culinary secrets, and ducking the deadly attentions of Mandy Jo’s killer. If Amy doesn’t find out who wanted the pie queen dead soon, her own goose may be cooked!

If you follow me on some of my social media accounts, you may have already seen the cover of my new book. When I found out it was available to pre-order on several sites I couldn’t wait to start telling people about it! Now that I’ve stopped hopping around in my awkward version of a Happy Dance, I want to do an “official” cover reveal. It was done by the fabulous Lyndsey Lewellen.

The book will be released on July 8th, so just over a month from now. I’m a writer and I can’t even explain how excited I am! If you would like to read it a little sooner, I am organizing a blog tour that will run throughout July. I am also looking for reviewers to read an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. when it is released. Click here or on the banner above for more information, if you’re interested.

What do you think of the cover? Personally, I LOVE it! But I may be a bit biased since it is my book baby.

Maybe I Should Write About…

Bugs! I think the universe is telling me that I need to incorporate bugs into a story. It’s one of those things. Life hands you inspiration on a silver platter, if you take the time to notice. Unfortunately, the entree being served to my creativity right now is a bug casserole.

It began on Memorial Weekend, when my family and I took a day trip up to Mackinaw City. As soon as we got out of the truck, at the waterside park, we were enveloped by a swarm of insects. Not sure what they were. They kind of looked like mosquitoes, but without vampiric tendencies. With so many of them flying around I got a serious case of the heebie jeebies, twitching and swatting even though none of them landed on me. On the way home, while driving along the Lake Huron shoreline we passed under several clouds. Not of smoke, which I thought the clouds were at first. No, these clouds hovering over the road were made of insects. Thank goodness the swarms were quite high over the roadway or the windshield would’ve been covered in squished bug goo.

The Straits of Mackinaw. Where the first attack occurred.

But, oh, my friends. This tale of creepy insecticidal encounters isn’t over. During the past week I have noticed pings and thumps on the living room window as I sit up reading at night. The reflection of the lamps on the window glass makes it almost impossible to see what is launching the kamikaze-style attacks. Then, last night, as I worked my way to the other end of the house to go to bed, I turned on lights in various rooms and immediately was greeted by a flurry of thunks on the windows. As I walked past the window next to my bed I finally got a glimpse of the noisy wannabe invaders. June Bugs. Huge, brown beetles clinging to the screen or slamming into the glass. I swear, those suckers looked like they could’ve ripped their way through the window screen. Ugh. So nice (not really) to go to bed knowing they were congregating literally a foot away from my bed.

Dear Writing Muses,

I realize you want me to write about insects. I will try to incorporate some into a story soon. In the meantime, please stop sending hints. Okay? Thanks!

 

 

I’m An Aldi Convert

When the first Aldi grocery store opened in my area, quite a few years ago, I gave the store a try. Once. I had small kids. There were very few brands that I recognized on the shelves. The quarter for a cart thing and the bag your own groceries with your own bags thing, just didn’t work for me. And I never went back.

Recently I’ve seen several blog posts about Aldi, praising their low prices and high quality. So I decided to give the store a try again. My first thought  when I walked in the store was, “This reminds me of a Trader Joe’s.” A bare-bones version, but still similar. Which is a good thing. I LOVE Trader Joe’s, but have to drive at least 1 1/2 hours to get to one. I did a little research when I got home and found that Aldi and Trader Joe’s have the same parent company!

As I cruised up and down the aisles at Aldi, I was surprised to see how low some of the prices were. So I picked up an assortment of things, from flour tortillas to frozen fish fillets. Honestly, I couldn’t believe how many groceries I got for what I paid. Then the real test came…how did everything taste? Really good. I would say everything is comparable to name brands, at least what I’ve tried so far. Concerning prices, as with every other grocery store, some deals are better than others. The granola bars were just a bit cheaper than the ones I buy at my local grocery store, but they were smaller and fewer were in the box. On the other hand, the name brand kefir (drinkable yogurt) cost at least $1 less than anywhere else. The trade-off for the low price, Aldi’s only has the strawberry flavor.

After cruising around the internet reading more blog posts about Aldi, I agree with many others. It’s not the store where you will buy ALL of your groceries ALL of the time.  There just isn’t that big of a variety of merchandise for that. However, it is a great place to build your pantry basics, along with picking up a few more gourmet offerings at lower prices. The picture at the top of this post is my latest haul: artisan lettuce, mini cucumbers, avocados, queso fresco, goat cheese with honey, and grape tomatoes. All of those things, plus snacks for camping, a huge orange and almond chocolate bar (really good!), and several bags of sugar for around $25. A very good deal for the trade-off of shopping in a store without fancy displays and bagging my own groceries.

Do you shop at Aldi? If you do, what are some of your favorite items to buy there?

This post is part of Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Stop by and check out more foodie blog posts!