Barbara O'Neal's Blog, page 3

Writers for the Red Cross…a chance to bid on book-club-in-a-box!

Time sensitive! Bids must be in by March 20!  Writers for the Red Cross auctions are going on this month, and we can all see what an amazing job they are always doing, but even more so when something like an earthquake or tsunami wipes out cities.

Help raise funds and get a How to Bake a Perfect Life package for your book club. Go to http://www.writersfortheredcross.org/baking-a-perfect-life-in-a-box/#respond to make a bid on a package that includes: 5 signed copies of How to Bake a Perfect Life, a celebratory signed apron, a sourdough crock and starter yeast, a collection of colorful spatulas, and a handwritten collection of the author's favorite bread recipes.

 

Gardens and Rhubarb

You may not know that I blog regularly in several other places. One of them is at The Lipstick Chronicles, every other Friday (alternating with such luminaries as Joshilyn Jackson and Diane Chamberlain).  This morning, I have posted a story of my grandmother, a garden we grew, and my hatred of rhubarb.  Don't miss the recipe for rhubarb pie in the comments.

I also blog regularly on random topics at my long-time blog, A Writer Afoot, where I write about travel, gardens, food, books, writing….pretty much everything.  Here is a recent post about the urban farm we're putting the backyard this summer: An Organic Farm!

Also, I am aware of the slow speed of these pages. We're working on it–seems to be a hosting issue.  Stay tuned.

The simplest of comfort foods

Chicken and Dumplings

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I had an aggravating day yesterday and decided I wanted something soothing and delicious for supper.  There was a whole chicken in the fridge, so I took it out, washed it, and threw it in a big pot.  You can do the same.

1 whole chicken, washed and entrails removed

Water to cover

10 peppercorns

2-3 stalks of celery (I keep them in the freezer, cut up, for just this sort of moment)

1 medium red onion

3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

2 tsp of thyme

1 tsp sage

2 tsp kosher salt

Put everything into a big pot and heat to boiling, then cover pot and turn the heat down to medium low. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, for three or four hours. You might need to add water several times.

When it is time to make the dumplings, take the chicken out of the liquid and set it aside for a moment.  Strain the broth to remove most of the big pieces of vegetables and peppercorns, then put it back in the pot and heat to a gentle simmer.  Take the chicken off the bones and put the meat in the broth. Let simmer.

Make the dumplings. This is not a difficult process at all, so don't–as I once did–let it intimidate you.  Dumplings are just biscuits. It's the broth that makes them taste so good.

2 cups white flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

4 Tbs softened butter

1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients, then cut in butter.  Add milk, stirring only until a soft dough forms.  Drop by the tablespoonful into the simmering broth, cover and let steam for 10 minutes.  Take one dumpling out and test it by cutting it open–it should be as fluffy as a biscuit inside. If not, let steam a little longer.

Serve in soup bowls.  Could probably cure almost anything.

Ramona’s Sunshine Fruit and Honey Bread

[image error](A recipe from How to Bake a Perfect Life. )

These are actual texts from my sister a few days ago:

Feb 5, 2011 7:13 pm

Making sunshine fruit and honey bread

Feb 6, 2011 12:36 pm

OMG OMG OMG. That bread is soooooo good I could prolly eat the whole thing!!!

Feb. 7, 2011 12:26 pm

I can’t stop eating this bread ! I feel like the guy in the window in Chocolat. LOL

———

I can’t promise you will like it as much as she does, but it’s one of my favorites, too.  It would be an excellent offering at a book club.

RAMONA’S BOOK OF BREADS

Sunshine Fruit and Honey Bread

Sometimes a recipe is born from a moment, and this is the recipe that I came up with after my first night with Jonah. Filled with light and juice and tenderness, it is one of my favorite things. Try it with a cup of sweet chai.

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup raw sugar

½ cup dark honey

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp orange extract

2 tsp grated orange zest

2 eggs

1 cup raspberries, whole

1/3 cup slivered, toasted almonds

Juice of one orange, mixed with enough powdered sugar to make a thin glaze

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x5 inch loaf pan

Whisk together dry ingredients. Cream butter, honey, and extracts and zest. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in the dry ingredients just until moist, then gently, gently fold in the raspberries and toasted almonds.

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 20 minutes, then tip bread out to a wire rack and cool thoroughly, then drizzle the top lightly with glaze.

Ramona's Sunshine Fruit and Honey Bread

(A recipe from How to Bake a Perfect Life. )

These are actual texts from my sister a few days ago:

Feb 5, 2011 7:13 pm

Making sunshine fruit and honey bread

Feb 6, 2011 12:36 pm

OMG OMG OMG. That bread is soooooo good I could prolly eat the whole thing!!!

Feb. 7, 2011 12:26 pm

I can't stop eating this bread ! I feel like the guy in the window in Chocolat. LOL

———

I can't promise you will like it as much as she does, but it's one of my favorites, too.  It would be an excellent offering at a book club.

RAMONA'S BOOK OF BREADS

Sunshine Fruit and Honey Bread

Sometimes a recipe is born from a moment, and this is the recipe that I came up with after my first night with Jonah. Filled with light and juice and tenderness, it is one of my favorite things. Try it with a cup of sweet chai.

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup raw sugar

½ cup dark honey

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp orange extract

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 cup raspberries, whole

1/3 cup slivered, toasted almonds

Juice of one orange, mixed with enough powdered sugar to make a thin glaze

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x5 inch loaf pan

Whisk together dry ingredients. Cream butter, honey, and extracts. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in the dry ingredients just until moist, then gently, gently fold in the raspberries and toasted almonds.

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 20 minutes, then tip bread out to a wire rack and cool thoroughly, then drizzle the top lightly with glaze.

The delights of British food

The Brits get a bad name over food, but I'm here to say there is a lot that's lovely about British cooking. Saveur Magazine has a feature[image error]

today on their website about British Pub Food.  I receive their emails and clicked right through to find this lovely menu:

Welsh Rabbit, which I thought for years was Rarebit, no idea why, and is only cheese and toast.  How simple and lovely is that?

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, served bloody rare, which I loathe.  Not a fan of roast beef, though I love the gravy, and that gravy is a wonder with Yorkshire puddings.

Beef and Guinness pie . I once made this recipe, or one quite similar and forgot that I had it in the oven (before the crust was on it). It cooked at 300 for a couple of hours and the flavors were as deep and rich as some precious old wine.  Highly recommended.

Banoffee Pie, which I have talked about here before.  It's an English classic, made with digestive biscuits, bananas, caramel and whipped cream.  CR's mother served it at a holiday meal and I licked the spoon and practically my plate, so she sent me home with tins of caramel, which is not sold here.  It is unbelievable sweet, but the cream and the bananas and the digestives give it texture and depth, so it's not as horrifying as you might imagine. (Go on, try it, you know you want to!)

What's funny is that my traditionalist younger son, also a very picky eater, fell madly in love with Banoffee pie the first time I made it for a Christmas meal and he begs for it at every opportunity since.  Though CR's mother sends those tins of caramel, I don't always have a can when I need it.  This recipe has a work around that makes the caramel with condensed milk and brown sugar. (And I recently discovered you can buy cans of dulcet de leche in the Mexican food aisle at the grocery store, so I am saved, anyway.)

But my favorite thing about British food: cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.  Check out these 9 artisan cheeses. But don't forget [image error]Stilton or Wensleydale  with cranberries or mangos or some other something.  They're all great.

What foreign foods do you love? Have you even fallen in love with something in a far away land?

A custom-made apron prize

My publisher had a few of these aprons made for How to Bake a Perfect Life. You can win one of them (autographed if you like) by simply posting a response here on this page (or on Facebook).[image error]

Release day!

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HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE

by Barbara O'Neal

Available TODAY in trade paperback from your local retailer, or these on-line venues

Also available as an ebook for Kindle, and Nook and other formats.

A sweet pair of reviews

"O'Neal's third novel is, like its predecessors (The Lost Recipe for Happiness, 2008; The Secret of Everything, 2010), a dramatic, emotional story with honest characters and a warm heart at its center."

At ABC.com and the Huffington Post, a beauty of a review: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/w...

Giveaway #1: sourdough crock and starter from King Arthur Flour

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How to Bake a Perfect Life will be in stores in 4 short days (Tuesday!), and in honor of that date, I'm going to start giving things away. This is the first one, a sourdough crock and either fresh or dried (you choose) starter from King Arthur flour.  To win, just post to the comments and I'll draw a name tomorrow morning.

Good luck!