Beyond Innocence Bourbon-Sage Chicken Pot Pies

OMG A BEYOND BOOK WITH FOOD IN IT.

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system right up front. I'll explain in a bit.

The Beyond series is a long-running Kit Rocha series and these aren't standalone books so forgive me if you haven't read any of them. You'll just have to go back to the beginning and read at least all the main novels, but that shouldn't be a hardship as I think these books are terrific and the first one is usually free at most ebook retailers. The series premise is a dystopian near future where a central capital city called Eden rules over the outlying Sectors, leaving scraps and desperation to the remainder of the area's population. We join the O'Kane gang, which distills and runs whiskey to Eden and the other Sectors, and their leader, Dallas O'Kane, in exploits both political and, frankly, sexual. These books are smoking hot, kinky, extra dirty and full of angst so, well, you've been warned.

I've had some criticisms of this series in the past. Not major ones, but all the myriad characters having similar kinks had started to feel a little repetitive and unlikely five full-length books and almost as many novellas in. But with the most recent one, Beyond Innocence, two O'Kane outsiders get caught up in the larger political landscape Dallas has been forced by circumstance to take an interest in, bringing Jared, a high class male prostitute, and Lili, the widow of the brutal, late leader of another Sector into each other's orbits. Both are needing a change and healing and trying to figure out their place in the O'Kane hierarchy. It's a romance with a lighter touch than previous books and the kink is strictly limited to a surprisingly romantic fivesome, making Beyond Innocence one of the series stand-outs for me thus far.

While Jared has about as much sexual experience as any human being ever, he has been playing the part of the debonair faux-suitor to Eden's female elite for so long that he doesn't know who he is any more. When his best fried Ace is injured during a fight, he decides the time for sitting on the sidelines has past and starts using his connections to help Dallas. Lili has been a trophy wife her entire life, spending her time drugged on her late husband's product. While she has physically escaped Sector Five, the freedom and pleasure to be found in Sector Four is completely outside her experience, to the point where she can't believe it's not just all an elaborate charade. The way these two find themselves and find each other via food and music and other very normal human pursuits is a departure, but a welcome one.

It's totally possible to read these books as dirty, kinky, violent dystopian romance, focusing in on the O'Kane orgies and brutality. But that's not all they are. Beyond Innocence does a great job of thematically leading us into Book 7, which will be the last one of the series [EDITED TO NOTE: okay, so not the last one, just the last one that's currently up as "coming soon"]. The thing I have appreciated most about this series is the thorough exploration of femininity and masculinity, gently poking at the assumptions we make about the nature and scope of what we consider powerful. For example, Jared is perfectly capable of violence, but that's not where his true power lies--he specializes in information. And Lili has no capacity for violence at all, yet winds up solving a problem that the others can't, using her "trophy wife" knowledge and contacts to save the day. And throughout the book, her value to the O'Kane gang is that of someone who can actually cook, a traditionally under-appreciated "feminine" trait and task.

The role of women in these books has significantly evolved since the first one. And Rocha seems to be leading us full-circle since one of the heroes in the seventh book is a doctor--a healer rather than a killer. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts about this at the series conclusion, but for now, for fans of the series, Beyond Innocence is a fabulous addition.

So Bree Bridges, one half of the "Kit Rocha" duo and I have joked a bit back and forth about the fact that their characters never eat. There are like two instances of actual food being consumed prior to Beyond Innocence and one of them is a burnt grilled cheese sandwich. So when I found out that Lili likes to cook, I was like this:

In the book, Jared gives Lili a piano, prompting her to make him cookies, then invite him to dinner. So one of the first meals she makes in the book is chicken pot pies, which sounded terrific to me. And for some reason, I woke up at four in the morning shortly after reading the book and the first thing that popped into my head on waking was these bourbon-sage chicken pot pies. Probably because of the while whiskey-running thing the O'Kanes have going on.

These basically worked out great the first time. I kept tasting the filling though and thinking, "Well, maybe just a little more bourbon." Because what couldn't use just a little more bourbon? I mean, right?

I've written the recipe below as if you'll be starting with raw chicken. But if you have leftover cooked chicken on hand or want to grab a rotisserie bird to speed up the process, you can totally do that. You could also use refrigerated or frozen pie crusts, but I also have a recipe here (with more bourbon in it, natch) to make them from scratch. So it's your choice really. But if you go the pre-prepared route, you'll need two crusts and you're still going to have to roll the out and cut them to fit your pot pie pans.

Though in case there is any doubt in your mind, these are totally freaking fantastic as written and well worth the (sorry, somewhat considerable) effort. So, so worth it.

Bourbon-Sage Chicken Pot Pies
Makes: Four 5" pot pies
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Intermediate

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup bourbon, cold
1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons bourbon
salt & pepper to taste (I used 2 teaspoons salt & 1/2 teaspoon pepper, but I use unsalted homemade chicken stock so you may need more salt)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 small russet potato, peeled and chopped
3 sprigs sage, minced fine

1. For the crust, process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until crumbs start to collect into clumps, about 15 seconds (there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle bourbon and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

3. Divide dough into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.


4. For filling, poach the chicken breasts. Put the chicken breasts in a medium saucepan and cover almost to the top with water. Heat to a boil, then partially cover and turn down the heat until simmering. Cook for 12 minutes or until chicken juices run clear when pricked with a fork. Darin and and set chicken aside until cool enough to handle.


5. In the same pan (no need to clean), melt 3 tablespoons unsalted butter over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup flour a bit at a time, whisking constantly. Allow to cook, still whisking, for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Whisk in chicken stock, making sure no lumps form. Whisk in milk. Return to heat and allow to cook until bubbles start to form and slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in bourbon. Chop up chicken and return to pan with sauce.



5. In a medium frying pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add carrots, parsnip, potato and onion. Cook over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, until onion is softened. Add sage and cook an additional 30 seconds. Add vegetables to chicken mixture.

6. Preheat the over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.


7. Remove the crust from the refrigerator and, starting with the slightly larger ball, roll out on a floured surface, about 20" by 20". Turn one of your pot pie pans face down on the dough. Cutting about 3/4" of an inch away from the edge of your pot pie pans (I just eyeballed this). Repeat three more times and set aside with wax paper in between each circle.


8. On a refloured surface, roll out the remaining dough and cut exactly around the edge of a pot pie pan, about 16" by 16". Repeat three more times.

9. Press larger dough circles into pans, letting excess overhang the edge. Fill each pan with 10-12 ounces of the filling (this will somewhat depend on how large your chicken breasts and vegetables were and how much your sauce reduced while cooking--just try to make it pretty even). Top with smaller dough circles and crimp the edges together, rolling the excess in toward the center of the pan to create a good seal. Prick the top of each pie with a fork to let steam escape and place on a cookie sheet.

10. Bake pot pies for 40-45 minutes until crusts are golden brown. (FYI, I took these out of their pans for photos, but I don't recommend that. They kinda...collapsed. Just leave them in the pan for serving.)

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.

Tempest Smoked Mac & Cheese 2015 TBR Challenge

This month's TBR Challenge theme was "series catch-up" and while I'm stretching the spirit a little bit by both starting and finishing during the challenge month, the Playing the Fool series by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock has been on my TBR pile since late last year. So I feel like it still qualifies even though the third book, Tempest, was just released earlier this month. Actually, "starting and finishing during the challenge month" is understating it. It was more like 18 hours from start to finish for all three books. So...these were pretty good.

Ryan 'Mac' McGuinness is an FBI agent called in to work a murder case involving a suspected mobster. But when his witness, Henry Page, slips out before he can answer any questions about what he saw, both Mac's pride and his case demand that he track Henry down and keep him around until the trial. But charismatic, slippery Henry is a con man and it takes him approximately .7 seconds to wrap anyone around his little finger, including Mac. Henry is a loveable goofball, the sidekick to Mac's stern and responsible FBI agent. But it's impossible to reduce these two to archetypes. Henry is frankly brilliant and Mac's not as straight-laced as he might at first seem.

This series, the first two books especially, have a playful detective buddy show tone with plenty of capers, hijinks and laugh-out-loud lines, but don't let that fool you. Under the surface humor, these fun stories have an undercurrent that's just a little bit dark at first, but that breaks loose during the third book. There's one scene in particular that packed quite an emotional wallop. Tempest is where the chickens come home to roost, with Mac running back to his parents' farm when he's unjustly targeted by a crooked internal affairs agent.

I wouldn't call the romance a slow burn exactly since the story seems to take place over the course of a few weeks at most and they get physical pretty early on (with kissing and what we would have called heavy petting in high school). But their emotional intimacy is hampered by the fact that Mac is really not supposed to get involved with a witness and Henry has, uh, trust issues. In fact, Henry isn't even his real name. Henry's true motivations are revealed in the second book and it isn't until the third that the two of them reach any kind of working accord.

Oh, and I should mention that Shakespeare fans will find lots to love here. The titles are all references to Shakespeare plays of course, but that's not where the references stop. And that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin these for anyone. Anyway, the whole series is seriously clever and delightful and I'd recommend them to anyone. Truly, if you're not currently much of an m/m reader, these would be great starter books. Consider this my whole-hearted endorsement.

Heads up, AJ. This is your placemat pic ;-)

I don't want to give anything away, but the connection between these books and mac & cheese isn't precisely obvious until you read them. In fact, throughout the first book, I really thought I'd be making doughnuts. Suffice to say, Henry is a hoot and you'll just have to read the books to get in on the inside joke.

I've been making this smoked mac & cheese for a while now. It's a huge favorite with my D&D group. But when it's just my husband and I, the original version makes, well, just a lot of mac & cheese. And while neither of us are under doctor's orders to lay off the fat, this recipe is hardly healthy. So I've taken to scaling it down a bit.

Homemade mac & cheese is a little more difficult than the kind from a box, but trust me, this is so worth it. You make bechamel sauce first, which just flour cooked in butter with warmed milk and cream whisked in and cooked until it thickens. The you add the cheese and noodles and bake in the oven until the top gets nice and crispy.

The original recipe called for the smoked gouda and sprinkling the top with bacon, but I've been adding smoked paprika lately too just for a little extra kick. There are very few savory dishes that could not be improved with addition of smoked paprika, am I right?

Of course I am.

Smoked Mac & Cheese
adapted from Shugary Sweets
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 50 minutes (hands-on time: 25 minutes)
Makes: 8 servings as a side, 4 servings as a main dish

12 ounces elbow macaroni
5 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
heaping 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
12 ounces smoked gouda, grated
6 ounces sharp cheddar, grated
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Prepare macaroni according to package directions. If there is a range of cooking times (say, 9-12 minutes), cook the shorter time. Drain and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, heat milk and cream until warm over low heat. In a large skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add flour, whisking constantly. Cook one additional minute. Turn down heat to medium low. Continuing to whisk, slowly add the warm milk & cream mixture, whisking out lumps as they appear. Add the salt, pepper, dry mustard, smoked paprika and worcestershire sauce. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

4. A third at a time, use a wooden spoon to gently stir in grated cheeses. Allow to melt for about 1-2 minutes in between each addition. When all the cheese has been added and sauce is mostly smooth, add macaroni and stir to combine. When combined, smooth the top with the spoon.

5. Combine remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter with panko breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the top of the macaroni & cheese and top with crumbled bacon. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until breadcrumbs are nicely browned.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of The Two Gentlemen of Altona from the publisher for review purposes. The other two books in the series were purchased by me.