Food…for thought…..by Sheila Claydon

 

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In the same way that many of my books have children in them, a lot of them mention food. Often it is merely a passing mention of a meal with maybe a sentence about the ingredients. A way of linking parts of the story. Two are different, however. The meals in Mending Jodie’s Heart and Miss Locatelli, although written differently, recall some of the most wonderful food I’ve ever eaten. 

Up in the hills of northern Tuscany, close to where  Michelangelo sourced the carrera marble for his  amazing  sculptures, there used to be a small family run restaurant. I don't know what it was called because there wasn’t a sign outside. Its reputation was by word of mouth. Nor do I know if it is still there. All I know is that I was lucky to be taken there by an Italian friend who had found it.

There was no choice, no fancy decor. Everyone was served the menu of the day sitting on benches at rough wooden tables. But what a menu.  Chicken liver pate with crostini. Wild boar with figs. Grilled summer vegetables. Homemade bread. Homemade honey cake. Bowls of fresh fruit and walnuts. Wine. And almost every ingredient either grown, or in the case of the meat, raised and then slaughtered by the family. Even the many herbs used in the cooking were picked in the surrounding fields. I’ve never forgotten it, nor the fact that one of the waitresses was a very enthusiastic nine year old girl, the youngest member of a very busy extended family. 

This all happened more than 25 years ago so there is every chance that modern life has taken over and the wonderful food replaced by something more instant, although I hope not. I hope, too, that the nine year old girl has taken over the family business and is still serving real food to those discerning customers who have managed to find such a treasure hidden away in the Tuscan hills.

Today, it is so easy to use our busy lifestyles as an excuse to buy instant meals and maybe even eat them while we watch one of the ubiquitous cookery programmes on TV,  but at what cost? As someone passionate about nutrition and real food I could depress you with facts about how so much of our food is processed and marketed today. I won't though. Instead I'll hark back to that wonderful meal and give you a real food recipe. The honey cake made by Elise, the young girl in Miss Locatelli. Easy to make. Delicious. 

And please don't throw your hands up in horror when you read the list of ingredients. Honey cake is not meant to be eaten in large quantities. It is a desert that can be eaten on its own. With coffee or a glass of white wine. Enjoyed with cream. Sprinkled with chopped almonds, or dusted with cinnamon or nutmeg. Apart from the wine, these are all things that will not only counteract the sweetness but which will also balance out sugars, preventing short term glucose spike in some people. This is made with real food, not ultra processed seed oils and cheap honey blended from different countries. Enjoy!

Tuscan honey cake

• half a cup of melted and cooled butter
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of locally grown honey
• 3 large free range eggs
• half a tsp of real vanilla extract (check the label)
• t tbsp cornstarch
• half tsp salt
• half tsp baking powder
• half tsp baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups of flour 
• half cup plain full cream yoghurt

• Spray and line a 9" cake tin and preheat the oven to 350F
• Whisk butter and honey until combined
• Beat in the eggs one at a time
• Add the vanilla extract
• Blend in the cornstarch, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
• Mix in the flour
• When everything is incorporated add the yoghurt and mix gently until combined
• Tip the batter into the cake tin and bake for 35 minutes 
• Leave for 10 minutes before turning onto a rack to cool completely
• Sprinkle with chopped almonds or dust with cinnamon or any other flavouring of choice

Serve with whipped double cream and a drizzle of extra honey if you wish.

Slicing and storing in the freezer is the best way to prevent the overindulgence of eating all of it in one or two sittings. It also means you have a desert ready to be gently restored to room temperature when you want a sweet treat.

I realise, of course, that real food costs more. Locally grown honey is a lot more expensive that those huge jars of blended honey, much of which comes from China. Battery farmed eggs are a lot cheaper than free range. Real vanilla extract is not only difficult to find but costs a lot more than that found in most grocery stores. Even plain full fat yoghurt can be more expensive but unless you use this and not a low fat (full of added sugar) version, the honey cake flavour will not be authentic. In fact I'm not even sure if it would work the same.

There are many, many Italian recipes online. A lot of them, while undoubtedly still delicious, are versions of the real thing, in the same way that pizza, world wide, is nothing like real Italian pizza. However there is one thing that we can all do to keep us as close to the Italian way of cooking as possible, and that is to use quality ingredients, free range, locally grown, the best we can afford. That is what the Italians who live in the Tuscan hills do. Difficult I know. Not always possible, but well worth it when it is. 

Enjoy!

Is it Winter if it's 70 degrees outside?

 

Windmaster by Helen Henderson
Click the title for purchase information

 

The holiday specials are over and the decorations are packed away. A new year has begun full of promise. And with it comes a lot of questions. Should I pledge to lose fourty pounds? No! I don't want to set myself up for failure. But I will return to the Rock Steady Therapy Program as a volunteer. Maybe I should rearrange furniture or find a place for everything that was disrupted by the holidays.

A risk of cleaning out is deciding to toss something,
then changing your mind.

The decision has been made. Cleaning out for a more minimalist home is a goal for the year. The house looks neater, just don't open certain closet doors as they haven't been worked on yet. The year is young and there is plenty of time to sort, repack, and donate unused things from the back of the closets.

Cold weather and a rare white Christmas for this southerly part of the state fueled an urge to donate unused clothing and books, and recycle dead electronics. However. Mother Nature can be fickle. The temperature hit 70 degrees effectively ending the enthusiasm. The warm weather lasted for a week. Now it has decided to become a ping-pong game. High 60 degrees one day, and then below-freezing nights with daytime highs of only 35 or 40 make for a crazy time. Is it really winter when it is 70 degrees outside? 

This (snow melted the next day) or
that (days of shovelling)?

Don't miss winter in my northern home.
The amount of snowfall wasn't that large in terms of inches, but after plowing and drifting, the end result demanded tossing shovel fulls over your head.

A question heard recently while experiencing a deluge was, "At least is isn't snow." The speaker watching water rush down her street didn't understand why someone might be against snow. The above image is an explanation. And it isn't just moving the pile once or twice, or even three times. At one point, you may get so tired of the town plowing snow back into the driveway that you stand at the end of the driveway so that they don't push the entire street's worth of snow where you just shoveled.

Winter at a favorite writing spot.
At night, snowmobilers made donuts out on the ice.

In my fantasies, I like to use weather. Snow can be an effective setting. Lady Ellspeth and Lord Dal experienced a freezing trip through the mountains before taking refuge in a cavern in Windmaster.

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

~Until next month, stay safe and read. 

 

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

 

One of My Favourite Hobbies by Nancy M Bell

To find more information for Nancy's books click on the cover

I have a few hobbies, anyone who knows me will know horses are a huge part of my life. They have been my sanity, my salvation and my love from a very young age. I also am involved in animal rescue and fostering for a Calgary animal rescue. But on top of that I love to do cross stitch. I have a pile of framed cross stitch projects as a result of the Covid winters. There's something so engrossing about matching the pattern to the threads and seeing the picture come to life in all that glorious colour. It takes my mind off any problems that may be occurring in my life or stresses that are so much a part of everyday life in this day and age. While my husband watches TV shows or sports I can sit happily and listen with one ear while still paying total attention to the project taking shape on my embroidery hoop. 

My subject matter is varied, sometimes Celtic knot patterns, horses, bunnies an tulips, some poppies and even a red dragon. Currently, I am almost finished with a fawn standing in tangled grasses under autumn trees. Once that is done I am hoping to embark on a huge project, much more complicated than what I've done before. It's a standing stone with a raven sitting on top which measures 21.64 inches by 28.57 inches and involves many colours that are very similar to each other. A challenge for sure.   Wish me luck!

This is the start of a Wysoki pattern  Frederick the Literate 

 

 

 

  

 

File Cabinet Treasures by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #file cabinet #treasures #Partials

  

 The time had come to look into the file cabinet to see what filled several dozen folders. I needed a new book to write and my mind wasn't running to what was sought. I pulled a stack of folders and carried them to mmy study. In the first pile I removed, I found two partial manuscripts. One was a Regency and the other was called Home Caring, a medical romance. As I studied the pages, I began to wonder. Where had this come from and why was this only a partial manuscript.

Much thought later. I remembered how the story came about and how it had been abandoned. I'd published a book with a NY publisher in an older romance series. That book did very well with a nice advance and a royalty or two. I had started Home Caring to add to the series. Except, that line was ended and I had no idea what to do with the story. This was before I encountered electronic publishing. I set that manuscript aside and went on to write other nurse/doctor romances for another publisher who refused all of them. Then I discovered electronic publishing and was busy sending out a volume of manuscripts to several publishers. Home Caring rested in the drawer.

The second thing was, I had no idea why I'd started the Regency or why i stopped writing. Perhaps I'll look at it again since it's acompanion to Gemstones. There are still more things in those files that I'll look at another time. 

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Is it an 'Eww' or an 'Aww,' by J.C. Kavanagh

 

A Bright Darkness,
Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

I recently found the tooth fairy pillow that my 'other' mother, Eva, made several decades ago for my first-born. Eva loved crafts and was always keeping herself busy with knitting or sewing or discovering a 'new' craft she hadn't mastered. No 'idle hands' as Karla Stover wrote in a recent BWL blog.  

But back to the tooth fairy pillow. My beautiful first-born child, Miriam, her family and Zeus the Airedale-terrier, came for Christmas. Such a delightful time we had! After opening our gifts, I waited for just the right moment to resurrect it. I made a grand entrance and then presented the wee pillow as if it were a priceless treasure. "This was your mom's tooth fairy pillow," I explained.

"Awww," was the initial reaction from my two granddaughters.

Tooth Fairy pillow, made with love by my 'other' mother, Eva

The positive reaction was quickly replaced with an "ewww" when the girls pulled out the pocket's contents.

My daughter's baby teeth

"Eww! Why are you saving these?" the girls cried out. My daughter's face also echoed the question.

I thought quickly. "Perhaps for a necklace or bracelet?"

The 'ewws' got louder and more boisterous.

I guess that's a big, fat NO for teeth jewellery, I thought.

I tucked the tiny teeth back into the pocket. It seemed I was the only one having the 'awww' reaction. Truth is, I had forgotten the teeth were still saved in the little pocket.

But an Instagram post has given me a great idea on how to best use those pearly whites.

Yes, a creative father hand-carved various animals that he felt represented the personalities of his adult children. He then inserted the baby teeth. Is that not the best gag gift ever?

Just wait till next Christmas. 

But don't wait till next Christmas to read A Bright Darkness, Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series. Available now at your favourite book retailer!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of 

A Bright Darkness, Book 3 of The Twisted Climb series

AND

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada 

AND 

The Twisted Climb, 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll 

Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2022 

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart 

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com 

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh 

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh 

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh) 

Instagram @authorjckavanagh