AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA Part 1
Tess Klingenstein speaks with Andrea Hurst about her experience as an indie-published Commercial Women's Fiction author in a series of interview installments.
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
-Virginia Woolf
Food and recipes play a big role in both The Guestbook and Always With You. Does cooking play a big role in your life at home? Did you feel there was risk in being so food focused?
Many people have said reading my books make them hungry and many have thanked me for the recipes. A few people have commented that there’s too much food mentioned. I figure there’s always going to be parts of a book readers can skip if they want to. I personally love reading about food—and fine dining as well.
The Guestbook:
For The Guestbook, it definitely was part of the plan to include the recipes because the main focus of the book is the bed and breakfast and Lily who is a trained chef. One of the things prominent in the story is the brownie recipe, and I thought a lot about if I should include the recipe or have readers come to the website for it. And then I thought, if I had read a book about brownies, I would want a recipe at the end.
Actually my first published book was a cookbook—Everybody’s Natural Foods cookbook, so I do have a strong background in that area. One of my passions is great food in wonderful surroundings, so it made sense to put it all together in my stories.
Always With You:
With Always With You, the food was, of course, a main part of the plot because the main character, Cathy, owns a health food café. I actually owned a health food café, myself in 1977 called Over the Rainbow in Petaluma, CA, so, in that way, I had some experience with it. In 1977, health food was a big part of the culture and it was easy to remember the recipes I had made in my café.
I didn’t feel that Always With You was as food centered as The Guestbook, although the more I think about it, the man she is in love with is a chef, so where else could I go but food—which is where I generally end up. In Always With You, food was part of Cathy and Jamie’s shared passion and something that they bonded over. It was a big part of both of their lives and brought them closer together.
If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.
-J.R.R. Tolkien
Here’s a romantic lunch recipe that Cathy and Jamie would have used for a picnic on the river in the 1970s:
4 boneless chicken breasts
3 stalks celery, chopped
½ small red onion
Handful chopped red grapes
½ cup mayonnaise + 3 Tb yogurt
½ cup dried cranberries
½ t. garlic
1 Tb orange juice
2 tsp curry (or to taste)
2 papayas, halved
Sea salt to taste
1. Skin and chop chicken into cubes.
2. Saute in butter until tender.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except papaya) to the chicken cubes.
4. Mix and chill.
5. Serve in ½ papaya
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.
-Virginia Woolf
Food and recipes play a big role in both The Guestbook and Always With You. Does cooking play a big role in your life at home? Did you feel there was risk in being so food focused?
Many people have said reading my books make them hungry and many have thanked me for the recipes. A few people have commented that there’s too much food mentioned. I figure there’s always going to be parts of a book readers can skip if they want to. I personally love reading about food—and fine dining as well.
The Guestbook:
For The Guestbook, it definitely was part of the plan to include the recipes because the main focus of the book is the bed and breakfast and Lily who is a trained chef. One of the things prominent in the story is the brownie recipe, and I thought a lot about if I should include the recipe or have readers come to the website for it. And then I thought, if I had read a book about brownies, I would want a recipe at the end.
Actually my first published book was a cookbook—Everybody’s Natural Foods cookbook, so I do have a strong background in that area. One of my passions is great food in wonderful surroundings, so it made sense to put it all together in my stories.
Always With You:
With Always With You, the food was, of course, a main part of the plot because the main character, Cathy, owns a health food café. I actually owned a health food café, myself in 1977 called Over the Rainbow in Petaluma, CA, so, in that way, I had some experience with it. In 1977, health food was a big part of the culture and it was easy to remember the recipes I had made in my café.
I didn’t feel that Always With You was as food centered as The Guestbook, although the more I think about it, the man she is in love with is a chef, so where else could I go but food—which is where I generally end up. In Always With You, food was part of Cathy and Jamie’s shared passion and something that they bonded over. It was a big part of both of their lives and brought them closer together.
If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.
-J.R.R. Tolkien
Here’s a romantic lunch recipe that Cathy and Jamie would have used for a picnic on the river in the 1970s:
4 boneless chicken breasts
3 stalks celery, chopped
½ small red onion
Handful chopped red grapes
½ cup mayonnaise + 3 Tb yogurt
½ cup dried cranberries
½ t. garlic
1 Tb orange juice
2 tsp curry (or to taste)
2 papayas, halved
Sea salt to taste
1. Skin and chop chicken into cubes.
2. Saute in butter until tender.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (except papaya) to the chicken cubes.
4. Mix and chill.
5. Serve in ½ papaya
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