Saturday Snack Time, July 5, 2014

It's Independence Day weekend here in the States. After the farmer's market this morning, hubby and I are enjoying time with friends and then going dancing. But first, I'm trying a little something different this weekend with a third post for the week. I can't promise I'll do one of these every week, but I wanted a spot to stash all the fun links I come across that I think others might enjoy. Plus, I'll occasionally do a review of new books by authors I've already featured recently on the blog.

But all, you know, snack-sized. Let's get snacking, shall we?

What would 4th of July weekend be without all-American cherry pie? With Amaretto whipped cream.

Our farmer's market had the first peaches of the year on Thursday. You might consider making these peaches and cream cupcakes if cherries aren't your thing.

Because we women could all use a little empowerment this week.

In the summer, I pretty much have a permanent tan line from these. I wear them everywhere. I just thought you should know that.

Hot preppy farmer in the hay photos from a very unlikely source. Just scroll down.

Did you read Emma Barry's post this week on Nationalism and Romance? I'm particularly struck by her observation that even non-American writers seem to set many books in the U.S. Personally, I wish they wouldn't, but that may be a "me" thing. It's impossibly rare to accurately capture places like New York or Memphis if you haven't been there. Also, she refers to Laura Florand's book The Chocolate Thief, which happens to be what I'll be reviewing on Monday! Come on back.

Finally, this week was a big one for Cooking Up Romance. I got my very first press! Kiersten Hallie Krum from Lady Smut did an interview with me on Monday so head over there if you missed it and want some behind-the-scenes scoop.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Ruby Sea Scallops Three Ways

Ruby by Jeffe Kennedy* is just one of those books that I wish I could dive into and paddle around in for a while. It seems oh-so-appropriate to set a BDSM-flavored erotic romance in the town that has everything to teach the rest of the United States about the meaning of true debauchery. This wickedly hot story is set in New Orleans in the lead-up to Mardi Gras and features an up-tight fashion editor and a kinky chef. This is not the mindless, tawdry gluttony of Las Vegas buffets and strip clubs, but the languid, sultry elegance of the Old South.

The heroine of Ruby, Danielle Sosna, is primed and ready for someone like Bobby. She is wound unbearably tight, skirting the edges of satisfaction in both her professional and personal lives. Her work as an assistant editor for a fashion magazine has brought her to New Orleans, the culinary capital of the United States, and while she's curious about the food, she can't get past the limitations she has imposed on herself with her diet. She orders sauce on the side, changes preparations, and completely guts the vision of the dish she orders. We've all known people like her. I felt sorry for her even as I wanted to shake her.

So does the hero. Bobby Prejean owns the restaurant where she has ordered this sad imitation of a meal. Upon hearing of her order, well, he kind of loses it. Though as the book progresses, it becomes clear that he's got the heart of a marshmallow, he also has a Cajun temper. Romance heroes typically smell like pine trees, fresh grass, cigars, whiskey and MAN. Bobby smells of butter and garlic. If at first I wanted to shake Dani, I wanted to lick Bobby.

When they meet up again by chance later that day, Dani agrees to an evening of pleasure with Bobby, but only if she's willing to play by his rules. The only hard limit she sets is maintaining her anonymity through the use of a pseudonym: Ruby Tuesday. This sets the stage for trip to a kink club, a testing of Dani's sexual boundaries, the ruination of her diet and, eventually, a happy ending that brings both hero and heroine some much needed peace of mind.

There are a couple things I loved about Kennedy's Facets of Passion series, which also includes the edgier Sapphire and the unusual Platinum. First, the characters are sexually kinky because they're sexually kinky. They don't have psychological wounds or mental illnesses that they're trying to heal by beating or being beaten. Second, the Doms in the relationships are not only strict and demanding, they're also nurturing and caring. They behave like real human beings rather than Dominant romance robots. Bobby in particular is heart-breakingly sweet and sensitive despite how controlling and adventurous he is in the bedroom.

I can't recommend these books highly enough. Even if you're normally not attracted to BDSM relationships in romance you might give these a try. They're hot, they're tender and Kennedy makes sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're romantic.

It was impossible to pick one spot where food became an important element of this story. Bobby's desire for sexual control is possibly only subsumed by his desire to feed people, particularly the calorie-phobic Danielle. Which brings me to the very best part of Ruby. Sure, the sex is epic-level hot and the characters are adorable together, but what made this book the stand-out of the series was Kennedy's sensual descriptions of Bobby's food. Honestly, I sensed a kindred spirit because the man just cannot stop cooking. It's almost compulsive. Blueberry muffins, truffle omelets and crepes for breakfast; cranberry and brie sandwiches for lunch; steak, scallops, souffles, oysters and who only knows what else for dinner. If you're not hungry by the end of this book, there's something wrong with your soul.

This dish comes from a scene in the middle of the book where Bobby brings Danielle to his restaurant and feeds her several small plates. My version of his scallop dish includes a cilantro-lime crema with a Greek yogurt base, a peppered mango curry with a coconut milk base and a spiced chocolate with a tomato base. If you're cooking for more than four people, just buy more scallops. Unless you're trying to feed 12, there will be plenty of sauce if you resist the temptation to heap sauce on the plate. And you should. My guests thought even half a tablespoon was borderline too much.

While it can be tough to reproduce the variety enabled by a walk-in fridge and a small army of sous chefs at home, these sea scallops are totally doable. For starters, this dish is not nearly as difficult as it looks. If you can operate a blender, you can make these sauces. Though if you've got a lover to impress, this fancy-looking dish should do it. And since the sauces should be made ahead and chilled for a few hours, and it only takes 4 minutes to sear the scallops, it won't even distract you from your other evening's activities for very long.

Plus if you're looking to introduce a little spice to your sex life, mangoes, chiles and chocolate are said to be aphrodisiacs. Just sayin'.

Seared Sea Scallops Three Ways
Makes: 4 servings as an appetizer or small plate
Time: 1 hour

Spiced Cocoa Sauce

4 tsps unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cinnamon

pinch of mace

1 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsps tomato sauce

3 tbsps water

1/2 tbsp molasses

2 tsp olive oil

1) In a small bowl combine the cocoa powder, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, mace and brown sugar and whisk to combine. In a different small bowl, combine the tomato sauce, water and molasses.

2) Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat until it is shimmering and fragrant. Add the spice mixture and cook for 1 minute.

3) Add the liquid, scraping up any browned bits from the sides and bottom of the pan. Whisking constantly, simmer for 3 minutes. Remove to small dish and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

Cilantro Lime Crema

1/4 cup minced cilantro

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp Greek yogurt

1/2 tbsp lime juice

1) Combine all ingredients except lime juice in a blender or small food processor. Pulse until combined, about 10 pulses. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

2) When ready to serve, whisk in lime juice.

Peppered Mango Curry

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 onion (1/3 cup)

1/4 orange bell pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped

1/2 garlic clove

1/2 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp yellow curry powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsps brown sugar

1/2 tbsp cider vinegar

1/2 can full fat coconut milk

1/2 mango, peeled and chopped

1) Heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft, approximately 5 minutes.

2) Add bell pepper, garlic and ginger. Cook for an additional minute.

3) Add curry, cumin, cayenne and brown sugar. Cook for an additional minute.

4) Add cider vinegar, coconut milk and mango. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

5) Add sauce to blender and puree until smooth. Chill until cold, at least 1 hour.

Sea Scallops

12 sea scallops

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons oil with high smoke point like grapeseed oil (not olive oil)

Minced cilantro, curry powder and grated dark chocolate for garnish (optional)

1) Plate sauces by adding 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of each sauce to a plate. If desired, add garnishes: a pinch of cilantro, curry and dark chocolate shavings for the appropriate sauce.

2) Thoroughly rinse and dry scallops. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3) Heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.

4) Add scallops to the pan and cook two minutes on each side.

5) Remove to a plate and let cool one minute. Plate scallops over each sauce and serve immediately.

*Jeffe Kennedy did a lovely, lyrical post on her blog a couple of weeks ago while I was testing the recipes for this review. It was also very flattering of my efforts here at Cooking Up Romance. That said, I had already written the review part of this post and you know I only write about the  books I liked, right? So consider this my disclosure.

Wild at Heart Trout Meunière

Over the past few months, I've gotten rather picky about newer historicals. I'm not immune to a good romp through drawing rooms and gaming hells, but there usually has to be some distinguishing factor like a really broken hero (see last Thursday's post) or a bluestocking heroine. Even writers who are doing Very Different Things seem to me to be doing Very Different Things for the sole sake of being different. The plots and characters are intriguing, but the emotions fall flat. I mean, go ahead and make your point, but you also have to make me fall in love.

As a result, I've been delving into backlists to find older historicals, often by writers who aren't writing any more, or aren't writing romance. Patricia Gaffney is one of those writers. This interview with her at Dear Author from 2011 gives great background on her books and career progression so I don't need to repeat all that here. Wild at Heart was written as a response to Alice Hoffman's Second Nature. Gaffney didn't like that it didn't have a happy ending so she wrote her own version. The fact that I never read Second Nature didn't dim my enjoyment of Wild at Heart. Probably mostly because I'm a sucker for a hero who can't communicate. Not because he's an emotional nitwit, but because he has literally forgotten how to speak.

The book is set in a suburb of Chicago in 1893, the year of the Chicago World's Fair, already distinguishing the book from the cookie cutter pseudo-Regency, quasi-Victorians that have occupied historical romance shelves lately. From the beginning of the novel, we are given to understand that the hero was abandoned in the woods as a child and grew up around animals (yes, cliched wolves, but also bears, badgers, birds and foxes). This has given him strange mannerisms, odd food preferences and, as mentioned, a lack of will to utilize human speech. He is being studied by the heroine's father, an anthropologist who wants to use him to to determine something about man's inherent sinfulness. The heroine has doubts about both the efficacy and morality of this course of action and her empathy leads her to befriend him early on.

Sydney is a widow whose marriage was pleasant, but not earth-shattering. She is being courted tenaciously by her father's research assistant, but she's finally looking for something more in a man and finds it in the wild, yet curiously attentive hero. I can't go into too much detail about the plot of this book because the romance is inextricably woven into the fabric of discovering who the hero was before he ended up in the woods and who he's becoming by the end of the novel.

What struck me most about Wild at Heart was the degree to which it reminded me of the best science fiction and fantasy, using cultural outsiders to question things that we take for granted. In this case, there is an obvious criticism of cultural mores surrounding female sexuality, the treatment of animals and to a lesser extent, materialism. It elevates the transformative power of art and highlights the limitations of Modern, rationalistic scientific exploration. But it's not all about the message. The relationship that blossoms between Syndey and the hero is one of love, trust and sacrifice. Also, a sexuality that has nothing to do with intellectualism or anything but the mutual indulgence in sensation.

This is just a tremendous book and deserves a permanent place on the shelf of any romance lover. 

Wild at Heart also has a tremendous sense of humor. There is an element of ridiculousness to the idea of a young man being found in the woods and given the heaviness of some of the plot, it's good that Gaffney spins some amusing scenes, like one where the hero has seen Sydney's ardent admirer give her a bouquet of flowers and decides to give her a present of his own. Which turns out to be a dead whitefish.

Even Sydney's uptight, snobbish Aunt Estelle would appreciate this easy, delicious preparation of simple butterflied trout. Chicago in 1893 was trying to assert itself as the New York of the West and this cosmopolitan dish would have been perfect for its upscale hotels.

The key to this dish is to get the oil very, very hot to cook the fish and then to let the pan cool down before adding the butter to make the sauce. That means no cast iron. Just your non-stick or stainless steel is fine here. I turned on the exhaust fan and opened a window for this one since it does get a little smokey.

This dish is fancy enough for company, but comes together so quickly that you might actually get to enjoy your guests! I made it for four people and didn't even need extra flour or sauce so if you're doubling the recipe, just buy more fish. I served it with quartered new potatoes roasted in rosemary and olive oil and steamed green beans. There's a lot of butter going on here so I'd recommend sides that aren't too heavy. 



Trout Meunière
adapted from The Paupered Chef
Makes: 2 servings
Time: 10 minutes

1 trout, butterflied and laid flat
salt and pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons oil with a high smoke point like canola or grapeseed oil (NOT olive oil)
4 tablespoons salted butter
3 tablespoons minced parsley, plus extra for garnish
1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)

1) Salt and pepper both sides of fish. Put flour in a large shallow dish and coat fish on both sides, shaking off the excess.

2) Heat oil in a medium skillet until smoking. Add fish to skillet, skin side up, and cook for 2-3 minutes depending on thickness of filet. Flip fish and cook for 1 additional minute. Remove fish to plate and tent with foil.

3) Let pan cool for 1 minute. Carefully wipe out hot pan with paper towels. Put butter in pan and melt. Watch it closely, allowing it to brown. It should take about 3 minutes.

4) Add the parsley and shake to coat. Take the skillet off the heat and add the lemon juice to keep butter from browning further.

5) Pour over fish, garnish with reserved parsley and serve immediately.

The Most Broken of all the Broken

The other day, my proclivity for loving really, really broken characters and gleefully watching as an author puts them through the wringer came up in a conversation on Twitter. The context was Jackie Ashenden's Having Her, in which a hero with a schizophrenic mother and a heroine with a struggling business and virginity issues tumble into a fairly surprising relationship for a "best friend's older brother" trope book. Then everything falls apart in a bunch of really bad ways. And it doesn't get better until about 95% of the way through the novel. I adored it.

As much as I would like to say that it's fun for me when both the characters are a mess, what I love is screwed up heroes. My top three heroes ever are 1) the Duke of Jervaulx from Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm, 2) S.T. Maitland from Laura Kinsale's Prince of Midnight and 3) Rob from Cara McKenna's Unbound. For those keeping score, that gives us a three out of three on "avoiding his life," a hero who keeps falling down, a hero who can't actually speak for a good part of the novel and a hero whose profound issues I won't reveal because I know someone who reads this blog hasn't read it yet. Self-possessed, omnipotent alphas these are not.

In romance, this works partly because no matter how much characters screw up, there is redemption and healing in the end. They eventually get their acts together with the help of the heroine and everyone gets their happily ever after. Even the worst put-together people who make the most horrible mistakes in the most fraught situations can still be dreamy objects of someone's affection.

While I appreciate the romance heroes who make everything okay by virtue of their very presence, they're not the ones that get my heart pumping. Mary Balogh does this with Wulfric Bedwyn. Any time he shows up, the reader just knows everything is going to be okay, often with just the lifting of his quizzing glass. And in Grace Burrowes books, I've started referring to certain endings as "Deus ex Moreland" because the Duke, the Duke's heir and their primary investigator/spy all seem to have the power to put to rights any situation a character finds him or herself in, no matter how perilous or scandalous. And to be clear: I'm actually charmed by this. These books make up my favorites for when I just want a little light reading. But charmed is not the same as head over heels in deep obsession.

Oh, and let's make another distinction. I'm not talking about heroes who had a bit of a sad childhood because they were orphans, got bullied in school or had murderous relatives. Or they're afraid of ruining a friendship or because duty calls them elsewhere. Those are pretty standard romance reasons for having trust issues, confidence problems and not flinging themselves headlong into the arms of their heroine. It's the bare minimum for the standard of conflict in a romance novel. There are a lot of great books where these set-ups worked wonderfully, but the fact is, they'll never make my top five.

In the case of Having Her, Vincent Fox actually has his life pretty much together. He has a thriving business, a best friend, a good relationship with his sister (if not his parents) and he's building a home. But he's hit a wall that seems precipitated by his mother's latest  mental health crisis, his sister's move and a business expansion. I think a psychologist would call this an adjustment reaction. And what he uses to bring himself through it is very wrong indeed. His destructive impulses are impressive. I was angry with him for most of the book, which paradoxically is why I liked him so much when he got it together again.

So give me your felonious heroes. Heroes with PTSD. Heroes missing limbs. Suicidal heroes. Heroes with addictions, scars and blindness. Any time you can find a new way to break a hero and then fill the broken place with love, I'm all in.

Speaking of broken heroes, tune in Monday for my review of Patricia Gaffney's Wild at Heart, a story of a "lost man" found in the woods without the ability to speak and the manners of a wolf. See? Broken. I thought it was great.

Never Been Kissed Weeknight Chili

The second book of Molly O'Keefe's Boys of Bishop series, Never Been Kissed (pre-order now for release on July 1st), is an intensely personal journey of two very different people helping each other find love. When the book starts out, the heroine has been kidnapped by pirates. The hero rushes to her rescue, arriving in time to save her from both the pirates and her scary political mother. On the face of it, it's a pretty crazy premise for someone like me who's never been the least bit tempted by romantic suspense. Luckily, the story comes back down to earth very quickly.

When Ashley Montgomery and Brody Baxter arrive in Brody's adoptive hometown of Bishop, Arkansas to allow Ashley recuperate out of the both the public eye and the not-so-nurturing bosom of her wealthy, political family, any hints of suspense fly out the window. The story becomes a journey of healing. Ashley has already been dismantled by her kidnapping and the subsequent less than supportive reaction of her family. Brody has never fit in anywhere or been close to anyone, having been adopted shortly before a difficult moment in his adoptive family's history. He's not used to relying on anyone or have them rely upon him but for the most concrete needs: money, personal safety, physical labor. Add in the fact that Brody and a young Ashley had met before when he was a bodyguard for her family and the tension in this book is off the charts.

I struggled with the emotion here because it was just so believable. O'Keefe doesn't allow the reader any distance. There is a subplot that eases the dramatic tension somewhat, but I'll get to that in a moment. I'm not a crier by nature, but I felt so badly for these characters at one point in the story that tears were inevitable. Ashley and Brody both have such tremendous personal pain and so many defensive layers built up around their psychological wounds that they have become more like thick scar tissue. And in true small town romance fashion, it takes a village to help them work through that and bring them together. Brody's strained relationships with his father and brother are as much a part of his healing as his relationship with Ashley. And Ashley finds a context for her life independent from her high profile family through her interactions with Brody's dad.

There is so much need in this book for love and forgiveness: Brody and Ashley, Ashley and her family, Brody and his family. And the fact that all of these relationships experience redemption I think is what kept this book from being depressing. I'm not normally a lover of angst in my romance, but when the problems are as common and real as the ones these characters experience, it made my heart happy to see them work through it. Like, Wild Child, the first book in this series, Never Been Kissed is one of my very few five star contemporary romance reads. I'm looking forward to more from Molly O'Keefe.

As a foil to Ashley and Brody's relationship, Brody's brother and bar owner Sean and diner owner and chef extraordinaire Cora have a much less fraught romantic road to travel. In this sweet subplot, Sean and Cora have set each other up as rivals for the past year, sniping at each other instead of working together to improve the Main Street business scene of their tiny downtown. Cora agrees to teach Sean how to cook, taking his chili from inedible to delectable. And it's not surprising that they discover their mutual attraction in the process.

This chili and I were fast friends when I worked in an office, commuted two hours in awful DC traffic and still had to cook dinner. It takes about 40 minutes total, most of which is hands-off so you even have time to bake cornbread if you're so inclined. Not quite the all-day brisket affair I imagine Cora undertaking, but it's nice to have recipes like this in your back pocket for busy weeknights.

Nowadays I make this for game nights with our friends. We have a few friends who aren't big into spicy food so for them I scale back to 1/3 cup of chili powder and use 2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes instead of adding a can of Rotel. Just those simple substitutions mellow it out a lot.

Since this isn't your typical simmer-all-day chili recipe and it's not as complex flavor-wise, you shouldn't skimp on the toppings here. I like to serve it with sour cream, shredded Cheddar cheese, diced raw onion and diced jalapeño peppers.

As for the corn bread, I may live in the South now, but I'm a California girl at heart. So crisp, salty Southern style corn bread doesn't really work for me. This is a fluffy, cakey, Northern-style corn bread. Dish chili over it, crumble it up and put it on top or just spread it with butter and honey.

Easy Weeknight Chili
adapted from Real Simple Magazine
Makes: 6-8 Servings
Time: 40 minutes (20 minutes hands-on time)


2 to 2 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup vegetable or beef broth
1/3 to 1/2 cup chili powder (depending on tolerance for spice)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 - 14 1/2 ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 - 10 ounce can Mild Rotel tomatoes and green chiles
2 - 15 1/2 ounce cans kidney beans, drained (I prefer Goya as many other brands have high fructose corn syrup in them)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
optional toppings and sides: grated Cheddar, sour cream, minced jalapeño, cornbread

1) Place a large Dutch oven or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Drain off any fat and return beef to the pan.

2) Add the onion, stirring well, and cook until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

3) Gradually add the broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven; bring to a boil.
Stir in the chili powder, cumin, Rotel and tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes.

4) Add the beans, salt, and vinegar, stirring well. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes more. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

5) Serve with the Cheddar, sour cream, jalapeño, and cornbread (recipe below).

Northern-Style Cornbread
Makes: 16 small squares
Time: 30 minutes (10 minutes hands-on time)

1 cup fine or stone ground corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
vegetable oil spray

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium size bowl.

3) Combine oil, milk and eggs and whisk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

4) Spray a 9x9x2 inch pan with vegetable spray and add batter to pan.

5) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cornbread comes out with just a few crumbs attached.

I keep baby spoons and toothpicks right by the stove for tasting and testing.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bourbon Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Buns

Here at Cooking Up Romance, I post a romance novel review with a matching recipe on Mondays and then Thursdays usually mean a brief essay on some topic tangential to my interest in romance like how to find great writers on Twitter and why romance gets so little literary credit. This week though, my brush with romance was actually a recipe rather than some profound philosophical discourse (ha!).

I was testing out a recipe for chocolate ice cream with a bourbon caramel swirl and it left me with a lot more caramel than I had an immediate use for. Enter Shari Slade, Queen of Temptation. She suggested pouring the caramel in the bottom of a pan of cinnamon rolls, which as a solution to my caramel problem seemed like a super one.

Do you know Shari? She just released a wildly delicious book with Amber Lin called Three Nights with a Rock Star , which is basically the romance equivalent of Bourbon Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls: sweet, decadent and totally addictive. I thought it was great, but if you want a full review, you can see mine here at Goodreads. Seriously, go buy the book.

So...these cinnamon rolls. I knew they'd be good, but I really didn't know that they'd be this good. The bourbon in the caramel is subtle, acting like a secret ingredient for awesome. Seriously, I sent most of the batch to work with my husband and I got an actual marriage proposal. Delivered by my husband. By the time they were gone, people were offering to drive seven hours to snag some. So they're pretty delicious.

I started with this recipe for cranberry orange rolls from Smitten Kitchen for the dough. I kind of winged it when it came to quantities of brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and caramel to use since I never intended to post the recipe. So I had to make them again in order to double-check quantities and rise times. Twenty-four cinnamon rolls in two days. Whoopee! Now that's what I call wild.

You'll probably need a glass of milk or cup of coffee to go with these. Or, you know, you could just go with bourbon. I suspect I can guess what Shari would say about that.


Bourbon Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Buns
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Food & Wine
Makes: 12 buns
Total Time: 5-6 hours (1 hour hands on time), can be refrigerated overnight for morning baking

Dough
4 large egg yolks
1 large whole egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted, plus additional to grease pan
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used powdered buttermilk: 3 tablespoons added to 3/4 cup of 2% milk)
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting counter
1 packet instant dry yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse or kosher salt
1 teaspoon oil for bowl

Topping
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup bourbon (or whiskey, or rye)

Filling
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans, 4 tablespoons reserved

1) To start the dough, in the bottom of the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the yolks, whole egg, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk.

2) Add 2 cups of the flour along with the yeast and salt; stir until evenly moistened. Switch to the dough hook and add the remaining 1 3/4 cups flour and let the dough hook knead the mixture on low speed for 5 to 7 minutes. The dough should be soft and moist, but not overly sticky.

3) Scrape the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled, which will take between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.

4) While the dough rises, make the caramel. In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, bring the sugar, water and corn syrup to a boil over high heat. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking, without stirring, until it turns golden, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream. It will boil up like crazy. Let cool for 1 minute, then stir in the bourbon. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Let the caramel sauce cool.

5) To prepare the filling, in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans, reserving 4 tablespoons pecans.

6) To assemble the buns, butter two 9-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper, then butter the paper as well.

7) Turn the risen dough out onto a floured work surface and roll it into a rectangle that is 18 inches wide (the side nearest to you) and 12 or so inches long. Spread the dough with the softened butter using a knife or spatula. Sprinkle it with the brown sugar mixture.

8) Roll the dough into a tight, 18-inch long spiral. Using a sharp serrated knife, very, very gently saw the log into 1 1/2 inch sections; you should get 12. Don't press down with the knife or you'll squish the spirals.

9) Pour 1/2 cup of caramel in each cake pan and scatter with 2 of the reserved tablespoons of pecans in each pan. This is my rule with making stuff that has nuts in it: for allergy purposes, when I can, I always put some on top so people know what they're getting.

10) Arrange the buns in your cake pans. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours on the counter or refrigerate overnight (up to 16 hours).

11) To bake the buns, if they've been refrigerated, take your buns out of the fridge 30 minutes before you'd like to bake them, to allow them to warm up slightly. Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake your buns until they're puffed and golden (the internal temperature should read 190 degrees), 20-25 minutes.

12) Transfer pan to a cooling rack and let cool 5 minutes. Invert the pans onto the cooling rack. If any of the caramel gets trapped in bunless corners, just scrape it up while it's warm and spread it back on the inverted buns. Allow to cool for 5 more minutes. Serve warm.

Immortal Warrior Honey and Wine Poached Apricots

As I mentioned last week, I've found some wonderful new-to-me writers via Twitter. Among these is Lisa Hendrix, writer of the Immortal Brotherhood series. The series is an interesting conflation of history, fantasy and romance, which are pretty much my three favorite things. Labeling these paranormal romances really doesn't do them justice, but if paranormal they must be, they're the first ones I've ever really liked.

The premise of the series is that during the early Viking raids on Britain, a warrior named Brand led his men into battle against a witch named Cwen. When Cwen sent her son against them and he was killed, the witch cursed Brand and his remaining living men, forcing them to spend the whole day or the whole night as a beast. She also made them immortal in order to prolong the torture forever.

When we join the story in Immortal Warrior, Sir Ivo de Vassy has been created the new Lord of Alnwick by King William Rufus, son of William the Conqueror. At least, he is at night. During the day, he turns into an eagle and he is determined not to let the newly-powerful Church burn him as a demon so he hides his nature. He has been rewarded by the King with both land and a bride, the granddaughter of the former, now disgraced Lord. Our heroine Alaida is not the kind of woman to sit back and quietly accept the dictates of those around her and at the start of the story, she has been hanging onto her lands, manor and virtue under very the difficult circumstance of her male relatives and protectors having been arrested and imprisoned for treason. She has a keen sense of responsibility to her people and she can't quite abandon that, even when it means taking the King's man as her husband and lord.

The romance starts with a forced marriage, but it's not all sunshine, roses and some kind of external plot device from there, which would have been easy when there's a robust and overarching plot to work with. These two have some serious issues to overcome and have to grow together. Even with several other important secondary characters, two of whom we have to assume might eventually get their own book, I never felt short-changed by the relationship between Ivo and Alaida.

There are a thousand things to love about this book. Ivo and his friends are portrayed as if they really could be a couple hundred years old. They have the loneliness, weariness, wisdom and humor that seem inescapable to me in characters who have seen that much of life and death, but that most writers of immortal characters ignore in favor of perpetual angst. Also, Alaida is a strong, independent woman who is nevertheless honestly bound by the limitations that the laws and mores of her era place on her. Though it's painful to consider a woman being given as a bride by a king she barely knows to a man she knows not at all, ignoring the reality of the society where the story is set is not at desirable to me as a reader and this book rings true to me in a way few other recent historicals do. Finally, the way Ivo handles Alaida places him above the expectations of his time in a way that is both romantic and yet not anachronistic. He's just the right mix of warrior and tender lover. Hendrix even uses the cultural differences between the Norse and the Normans to explain some of his behavior.

Speaking of culture, I am consistently impressed with the research that has gone into these books. Politics, law, religious dogma, building and transportation, and yes, cuisine, are all things that Hendrix has taken into account. However, it manages to provide a foundation for the story and never ends up reading like a textbook, which can sometimes happen when a writer wants to impress readers with their knowledge of historical trivia. And since each book in this series takes place a couple hundred years after the previous, this is a tremendous accomplishment.

This first book contains a bit more in the way of exposition than the subsequent ones in the name of world-building and the introduction of important characters like Brand, the former war leader who turns into a bear during the day, and Ari, the story-teller and seer who turns into a raven at night. It makes for a book that runs a little slower than the subsequent two, but it's utterly necessary in order to establish the overarching story arc. That's handled masterfully, by the way. It's present, but never dominates the character development and ultimate unification of the primary couple.

In some ways, it's harder to write a review of a book I adore and have no criticisms of than it is one that contains significant flaws. Hendrix is just a tremendous talent and I can't wait for more books in this series.

I am not a historian, culinary or otherwise. So when I said I was making a foray into Anglo-Saxon cooking, I was kind of fibbing. Hendrix does make reference to apricots stewed in honey and wine, but I'm not sure poaching is strictly period-appropriate. Also, vanilla, that most prosaic and ubiquitous of baking ingredients, wasn't popular in England until the late 18th century. While the use of vanilla in this recipe is admittedly taking full advantage of creative license, I tried the apricots without it and it was entirely too one-dimensional for my modern palate.

However, the history of yogurt is much more ancient. The historical record traces yogurt production back to Central Asia in about 9000 B.C., though with the presence of milk and the absence of refrigeration, things like the invention of yogurt seem almost inevitable. And indeed skyr, the thick Icelandic yogurt I have here, appears to have been invented in the 9th century, about the same time the Vikings were settling Iceland. So if the Normans didn't yet have yogurt, I'm going hijack Ivo and company and say they brought it with them. If you can't get skyr where you live, just use Greek yogurt.

Because this preparation is simple, quality is important here. So local honey, a decent quality wine and something other than thin store-brand yogurt should be the order of the day. Apricots are just coming into season so this is exactly the right time of year for poaching them. Picking out firm, but not rock-hard ones will yield the best result.

Honey and Wine Poached Apricots with Honeyed Skyr
Makes: 8 servings
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour (mostly refrigeration)

Apricots 
8 apricots, halved and pitted
2 cups dry white wine (I used Viognier)
8 tablespoons honey
1/2 vanilla bean, slit open and seeds scraped

Yogurt
2 cups plain skyr, Greek yogurt or other thick yogurt
2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts, toasted

1) Combine wine, vanilla bean and seeds and honey in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat.
2) Add the apricots, completely submerging the fruit.

3) Simmer gently, until they are just tender but not falling apart, about 2-5 minutes. My firm fruit took 3 minutes.

4) Using a slotted spoon, transfer the apricots to a dish.
5) Let remaining liquid simmer over medium-high heat until reduced by half and lightly syrupy, about 12 minutes. Strain to remove any escaped apricot pulp.
6) Allow the apricots and syrup to cool, then refrigerate.
7) Combine the yogurt with the remaining honey.

8) Serve 2 apricot halves in a shallow bowl with 1/4 cup yogurt, top with one teaspoon hazelnuts and a scant tablespoon of the reserved syrup.