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Ready for a Creepy Romance for Halloween?

Geri Clouston
Foodie Lit: A genre of novel and memoirs filled with food stories and recipes Each month, I’ll share the magic of a good Foodie Lit read and one of its recipes.  Cooking and recipes in novels or memoirs take us into the mind of the character or narrator and brings us into the book’s kitchen to see, smell and share the lives within. Here’s to cooking and reading t Reverie by  Lauren Rico Steffann Challah French Toast Casserole “To do real damage, you have to know where they [the victims] are and how to push them to achieve maximum destruction.” And Jeremy, the psychopathic character author Lauren Rico creates, aims exactly for that in her novel, Reverie, the first in The Rhapsody Trio. Ready for a creepy romance for Halloween?  Try Reverie by Lauren Rico. Set in a music conservatory in New York City (warming my heart as that is one city where my husband studied violin for many years), we see competition, hard work, romance—and ok, it’s Halloween—a creepy boyfriend, sabotage and murder. Jeremy, a talented horn player and manipulative psychopath, is put into an international competition.Author Lauren Rico told me about how she developed this character. “So, my thought process was, if you…

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Food for Thought, Foodie Lit, Halloween, The Self-publishing World, The World of Reading

Mozambique’s typical food & Amani’s River

Geri Clouston
Foodie Lit: A genre of novel and memoirs filled with food stories and recipes Each month, I'll share the magic of a good Foodie Lit read and one of its recipes.  Cooking and recipes in novels or memoirs take us into the mind of the character or narrator and brings us into the book's kitchen to see, smell and share the lives within. Here's to cooking and reading together! Susan Amani's River and Collard Greens! In Amani’s River, an intense well-written historical novel by David Hartness, we are taken inside the mind of Aderito, a 10-year old American who travels with his father and mother to Mozambique. Aderito's father wants to help his family, caught in the brutal violence of the  Mozambique civil war, which raged from 1977-1992. Aderito becomes an unwilling child soldier in this civil war. A quiet studious child, Aderito is transformed into a murderer after his kidnapping by the Renamo rebel forces, fighting against a repressive government forces.  Both forces were accused later of war crimes. Beaten, starved and drugged, Aderito thinks, “This felt as if it were the end.”  But it was not. Memories of his former life fade. “Mixed with emotions, I felt the moral thing to do was tospare his life... However, the thing expected of me was to show my manhood and kill him for…

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Authors' Chat, Food for Thought, The Self-publishing World

Growing Up Jewish in Egypt- There were no recipes, just cooking!

Geri Clouston
Growing up Jewish in Alexandria: The Story of a Sephardic Family's Exodus from Egypt By Lucienne Carasso Susan Weintrob indieBRAG Food Blogger Everydayhappyfoods A dear friend of mine grew up in Cairo.  Her story was quite similar to Lucienne's so it was natural to call her to ask about recipes from Egyptian Jewish Families.  "Recipes?" she responded. "There were no recipes, just cooking!" She went on to say "a lot of our food was vegetables stuffed with round meat and rice, fried, then you make a tomato sauce with lemon, a bit of sugar, and whatever spices you like.  In Egypt, we did not have steaks like here; our cows were skinney.  Our cholent (traditional Sabbath slow cooking stew) was meat, garbanzo beans and eggs wrapped separately, Mucluschia soup and of course, a lot of eggplant as a relish, fried or cooked. A favorite dish from Egypt and, in fact beloved in most of the Middle East, is eggplant relish, commonly known here as Baba Ganoush.  Simple, with variations from different traditions, eggplant relish is eaten warm or cold, as a side dish or a snack. The eggplant is roasted or baked.  Seasonings are often distinct to regions and cultures.  Serve…

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Bloggers, Food for Thought, Foodie Lit

Seafood Chowder- A Southern Favorite

Geri Clouston
A Beautiful Glittering Lie: A Novel of the Civil War by J.D.R. Hawkins Susan Weintrob  indieBRAG Food Blogger Everydayhappyfoods   So many of the original Southern cities were close to the coast, where fish or other seafood was plentiful.  They were often added to chowder for a fabulous, rich flavor.  As the war between the North and South progressed, the Confederate troops suffered greatly as supplies were cut off.  The basic foods were hard to come by. This chowder can be made from corn and potatoes without seafood or fish and is equally delicious.  For troops near farms, potatoes and corn, onions and celery would have been available, as would have milk or cream. Bacon was a stock item for both armies and would have been available except when supplies were extremely scarce. Stock was made from scraps of vegetables, saved from other meal preparation. Wine was a treat, but we can think of making this recipe or receipt, as recipes were called through the 19th century, in 1861 when ingredients still would have been stocked—certainly for the officers. Recipes for stock and chowder have been found among recipes of the era. For our modern cooks, the base of the…

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Bloggers, Food for Thought

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Cookbook

Geri Clouston
Little House on the Prairie Series plus a discussion on children's books with recipes with educator Jennifer Avery By Susan Weintrob       “This was the first true story I read as a child. Laura was an ordinary girl and I identified with her. She met a mean girl at school, had a crush on a boy and ate meals with her family. She was a girl like me. I read every single book in the series.” Educator Jennifer Avery went on to tell me that this was the first view of life outside her 1970’s Brooklyn childhood. Jen and I worked together at Hannah Sennesh Community Day School in Brooklyn. We developed and she implemented a literary afterschool program for 1st and 2nd graders.  She selected books with recipes to read together and then cook, making the characters more real for the children. “Food in books brings another level of engagement and a new way of thinking. Children connect with food and how it relates to their own family. ‘My mom and I make my lunch for school each day.’ This is very unifying for children readers and helps them relate to the story and characters.” In the Little House series, children are introduced to the frontier of the 1880’s. While Laura…

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St. Patrick’s Day Is Nearly Upon Us- Let’s Eat!

Geri Clouston
    Try a new twist on the fabulous Irish Cabbage Soup, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. Susan’s grandmother made the best sweet and sour stuffed cabbage. So when her mom wanted sweet and sour cabbage soup, Susan deconstructed her Nana’s recipe and a warm and comforting cabbage soup was born! Nana’s Deconstructed Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup Serves 8-10 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, diced 1 pound chopped beef 2 stalks celery, diced 15 ounces diced tomatoes fresh or canned 1/2 cup carrots, diced 1 medium green or savoy cabbage, cored and shredded 8 cups stock 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced 2 small tart apples, diced ½ cup golden raisins 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon dill weed Salt and pepper to taste Heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté onion until translucent, stirring as needed. Add beef and sauté until browned, stirring frequently. Add celery, tomatoes, carrots and cabbage. Sauté 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer covered until cabbage and vegetables are soft. Add mushrooms, apples and raisins. Simmer for 15 minutes or until apples are soft. Add brown sugar, lemon juice and dill weed.…

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A Story Inspiration is Suddenly Upon You!

Geri Clouston
Victoria Thurman Author of the B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree- The Dating Dilemmas of Delilah Dunnifield I had another Delilah moment on this past Sunday. Both of these are going in my new book. I got a huge bouquet of flowers. From a dog! I dog sit on occasion and I was staying at my friend Trish's house with her two dogs last Saturday/ Sunday. I sit for little Zeva in the townhouse attached to Trish's also. I had just left Trish's house about an hour and a half before Crystal called me and told me they had a fire at their house. I rushed back to get Trish's dogs out in-case smoke had gone through to their side- it hadn't thankfully. There were 3 fire engines blocking the street and I had to park at the top of the steep hill and run down. I hurdled over fire hoses and slid into "home base" (the doormat) and grabbed the key and opened the door running to the laundry room to free the dogs. After we got the okay there their side was safe- I put the dogs back in and then Crystal and her husband got the okay to go inside and…

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Cookies Sell Books!

Geri Clouston
A lovely idea for Promotion from Lorraine Devon Wilke -author of the B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree After The Sucker Punch “If cookies be the food of love…munch on.” -Dame Judi Dench There are three things about the above quote that I adore: Dame Judi Dench, love and… cookies. If one combines cookies with love, well, that’s an explosion of wonderfulness that could only be topped by adding Dame Judi. Barring that option (and one assumes that’s a given), the combination of cookies and love is a mighty potent mix in itself. And today I had occasion to be the receipient of that marvelous brew:   This is a cookie… a very delicious (yes, I ate one) shortbread cookie designed with the cover of my book as the frosting top. I ask you: WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN THAT??! Not much.                    The cookie came in a box of identical cookies, all of which were designed, made, and sent by my cousin in Chicago, Vicky Sarris Blanas, who, with her husband, Larry Blanas, owns the Lawrence Deans Bake Shop in Wilmette, Illinois, a close neighborhood of Chicago. (A little history about them and their bakery can be found in…

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Food for Thought

Time to Stop Groveling to Traditional Publishers!

Geri Clouston
  Previously authors spent so much of their time trying to get a publisher and most were lucky to get rejections since, in many cases, there wasn't even a response (letter right to the trash!) Now authors who decide to self-publish will need to spend much of their time finding their audience. The truth is they were going to have to do most of this on their own even with a publisher. I have had authors tell me they were told by agents to include their marketing plans to send to the publishers. The biggest challenge an author has today is not getting a publisher but finding a way to rise to the top of the avalanche of books being published. I am talking about all books since readers really don't care who publishes a book – a good book is a good book. At indieBRAG our readers around the world only read self-published books, but you would be greatly mistaken if you think a reader would rather read a mediocre book by a traditional publisher over a good self-published one. The fact that more self-published authors are finding ways to rise to the top says that traditional publishers are…

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