AAR Guest Post + Next #DCRom Gathering + Sweet Disorder Pound Cake

Just popping in today to say that my monthly joint review with Alexis Hall is up at All About Romance today. We rave over Rose Lerner's Sweet Disorder and, as I mentioned in our review, I just couldn't get over how much amazing food is in it. I've already used it as inspiration for three different recipes, but since one wasn't mine and one was only very loosely inspired by the book, today I'm sharing pound cake.

But first, a group of Washington, DC adjacent romance-loving folks have decided to get together once a month in person to eat, drink and chat about the books we love. I've hashtagged it #DCRom on Twitter, which is super uninspired, but works, I guess. The plan is to get together on the third Tuesday of every month at Northside Social, the coffeehouse and wine bar in Arlington, Virginia. The next one will be Tuesday, May 19th from 6-8 pm. If you want reminders closer to the date, email or tweet me and I'll add you to my totally ad hoc list that will not be used for any other purpose but reminding folks of gatherings.

And now, pound cake.

One of the more amusing aspects of Sweet Disorder is when confectioner Mr. Moon, the heroine's prospective Whig groom, tries to tempt the sweet-averse Phoebe into trying his various treats. One of those is a pound cake that he describes as tasting of tea and lavender with a lemon glaze. Lucky for me, I happen to have had some leftover lavender sugar from making these cookies, a bag of Black Dragon Pearl tea that's been hanging out in my cupboard since December and a notion for a light lemon syrup that would work kind of like basting a fruitcake in alcohol.

I have no illusions that this is in any way historically accurate. But that's never been my goal. But what came out of the oven on the very first try was something like a cup lavender black tea flavored with lemon, albeit in cake form. I had no notion it would work on the first try and I didn't take pictures.

So I had to make (and eat) it again. I swear. Such hardships I endure for you people.

Lavender and Black Tea Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze
Makes: 12 servings
Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 heaping tablespoons black tea
1/2 teaspoon culinary lavender
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) melted unsalted butter
cooking spray
parchment paper

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, line with parchment sized to fit the pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, combine sugar, tea and lavender and run until tea is pulverized--not dust, but no big pieces either. Add flour, baking powder and salt and pulse to combine. Add eggs ones at time, pulsing to combine. Add vanilla extract. Remove to large bowl.

2. Add melted butter and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Cook for 50-55 minutes until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

3. Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until combined. Set aside.

4. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake and poke holes in it all over with the skewer. Baste the cake on all sides with a pastry brush until the syrup is used.

5. Allow to cool completely, then slice and serve.

Disclosure: Rose Lerner and I have a friendly relationship on Twitter, but I bought Sweet Disorder myself.

Guest Post, Disclosure and Carmelized Onion & Brie Pizza

Alexis Hall, Dabney Grinnan and I are at All About Romance today with a glowing review of Against the Dark by Carolyn Crane. I can't believe it took me so long to read one of her books, particularly after last year's RITA win. I already started the second one, but got sidetracked by other commitments. I can't wait to get back to it! There was also carmelized onion and brie pizza in this book that I just HAD to try out so I'm giving readers a bonus recipe today too so just scroll down for that. And head over to All About Romance for the review.

As long as I'm here though, I wanted to say a few things about trust and relationships and make sure that I'm being as transparent as I can be. It shouldn't be any kind of secret by now that Alexis and I are friends who chat pretty often since we review together once a month, but I have plenty of relationships like that with other authors too. All those relationships are disclosed in the body of review posts as I don't avoid my friends' books. I've talked about this before so I hope that's not news. In many cases, I became friendly with authors after reviewing a book of theirs for the first time so the first post about an author might not have that sort of disclosure.

It's a peculiarity of reviewing the way I do (a creative interpretation of another creative's work) that these relationships typically develop unbidden and I've not seen a reason to resist them. But it means that my blog has never been and will never be a "reader's haven" in the same way other review blogs are. If you're looking for that, Wendy the Super Librarian, Miss Bates Reads Romance, Immersed in Books and Feminist Fairytale Reviews are a few of my personal favorites.

In addition to maintaining friendly relationships with a pretty wide range of authors, editors and other reviewers via Twitter and email, I also do a fair bit of beta reading, which I also disclose when I review those authors. Sometimes my involvement is slight (proofing a food-related scene), sometimes it's more extensive (reviewing a manuscript at several points pre-publication). I will always say I beta-read the book in these cases, or if I have beta-read for the author in the past. I really genuinely love helping my friends with their books--it's one of the unexpected joys of having come to romance reviewing--so I don't ever want to give that up.

Finally, as far as my own ambitions are concerned, I have no plans to write romance fiction. That said, and I'm guessing this won't be a surprise to many given how many times I've been asked if I'd ever write a romance-related cookbook one day, I would like to write a cookbook. Someday. And I have no idea yet what shape that might take. If I ever do, it will be under the name Elisabeth Lane, which is a pen name and the only name under which I have ever written and ever will write anything remotely related to the romance genre. I've never been careful about privacy under my given name and when I started reviewing, I thought it best not to be quite so obviously easy to find, hence the pen name. If I ever change my mind and start publishing anything romance-related under my given name or any other pen name, I will disclose it.

Sorry for the serious turn, but I thought it was important to make sure all that was out in the open in the wake of the events of the last few weeks. So let's get to cooking without further delay!

This recipe definitely falls under the heading of "not pretty, but sooo delicious". I mean, just look at those lumps of brie! My husband assures me that artisan pizzas pretty much all look like this now and I know he's right--globs of real mozzarella, ricotta, etc.--but I can't help but wish it were just a little less beige. It's alright though. The flavor more than makes up for the humble visual.

Have we talked about pizza dough? I'm not sure we have. But when carmelized onion & brie pizza popped up in Carolyn Crane's Against the Dark, I just knew I had to try it out. I make homemade pizza about once a week. I mix up a huge batch of dough once every month or two and freeze each lump individually wrapped in plastic wrap and put all together in a freezer bag. It works pretty well and I always have pizza dough for a quick weeknight meal.

This recipe is a bit more time-intensive than my normal weeknight pizzas just because I'm aware of no way to speed up the process of carmelizing onions. It takes 30-40 minutes no matter what you do. That lovely caramel-sweet flavor just takes a while to develop. I use Julia Child's method of carmelizing onions, which I'll describe below. If you don't have a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I'm not really sure what to say you besides, "Get one."

I served this pizza with a pile of argula in a super simple dressing of oil & champagne vinegar with honey and a tiny bit of salt of salt and pepper. Oh, basically this recipe from my review of the Ruthie Knox book Truly. The brie makes this pizza quite filling so the light salad was plenty adequate as a side.

I don't suppose I need to make a case for the pizza, but I will. The slow-cooked onions and creamy brie with an underlying hint of Herbes de Provence was completely delectable, as I suspected it would be. Piling the arugula on top of a pizza slice was a pretty darn good move too. You should probably only make this for someone you really like a lot.

Carmelized Onion & Brie Pizza
Makes: 2-3 servings
Time: 1 hour
Difficult: Intermediate

12-14 ounces fresh-made, frozen or store-bought pizza dough
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
4 medium onions, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
a few grinds of black pepper
1/2 pound medium-intense brie, rind removed and cut into chunks

1. Make pizza dough or use store-bought. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Stretch out pizza dough and put it on pizza pan sprayed with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Baste crust with 1 teaspoon olive oil and scatter Herbs de Provence over the crust. Pre-bake for 9 minutes, then remove and allow to cool while you make the onions.

2. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 3 tablespoons unsalted butter to a large skillet with a lid. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted, then add sliced onions and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and set aside. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar (to promote browning) and black pepper. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are thoroughly carmelized.

3. When the onions are done, spread them evenly over the pre-baked crust. Add chunks of brie on top and return to the oven for 7-8 minutes. When the crust is nearly brown, put the pizza under the broiler for a minute or 2 until the brie is lightly browned on top. Allow to rest until cheese stops bubbling, then slice and serve.

Guest Post at All About Romance

I'm at All About Romance today with Alexis Hall discussing Judith Ivory's 1997 historical romance Beast.

One fun romance-is-a-small-place intersection that occurred to me after Alexis and I chatted was that Laura Florand's new series starting with Once Upon a Rose, takes places in and around the same region of France as Beast and also features a hero who grows flowers for perfumes, about a hundred years apart. So now I really have to get to that book. I'm curious to see how the business changed!

And the next beauty and the beast trope book I'm really looking forward to is Erica Monroe's next historical, Beauty and the Rake, which comes out in April, but can be preordered now. It's a TOTALLY different take and since it's pretty much my favorite trope, I can't wait.
 
And stay tuned to AAR next month when Alexis and I will chat about Getting Dirty by Erin Nicholas. Everything is more fun with friends.