There’s something about summer that calls for celebrating good eats! Case in point, it’s only August 11, but since July 30, three other authors here at The Author’s Billboard have shared food favorites here on the blog:
Rebecca York discusses yummy Werewolves‘ . . . er, appetites 😀 . . . and generously gives us her fabulous Barbecued Beef Brisket recipe.
Donna Fasano, whose wonderful 3-novel bundle, A Family Forever, is on sale for just $1.99 this month, provides a unique dinner idea (perhaps to go with the above brisket? ), Summer Farro Salad.
Patrice Wilton celebrates the launch of her and Traci Hall’s new cozy mystery (such great summer reading!), Mrs. Morris and the Ghost, and provides a perfect snack to go with it, Artichoke Dip with Fontana Cheese. Mmmm!
So I’m in good company, hey?! 😊🍽️🍷
This year I discovered small batch canning. It was really eye opening for me and so exciting! I love storing away a wealth of summer yumminess to enjoy on cold winter nights, but I learned to can, jam, and freeze from my mother who had a huge family and preserving was a big ordeal . . . like two twelve hour days of carrots, two more of bean everything, two for cukes, etc., etc., etc.! When I make jam, even after giving tons away, I have enough for years, LOL. But no more! I’m making, gasp, eight or ten half pints (or smaller!) of a way bigger variety of things. So fun!
Hand-in-hand with my new less and more philosophy, my newest foodie obsession is fermenting things (or . . . fermenting everything, LOL). My first batch ever of blackberry wine (from my own massive jungle of a patch) is bubbling away, and I’ve made so, so many pickles. . . . and I have to say, fermented pickles are sooo crazy easy and so delicious I may be a forever convert! (Though I did a canner of my traditional pickles because, hey, tradition—and also yum.)
If you’re a fellow fermenter, I’d love to hear your favorite recipes. If you haven’t fermented anything, but want to, here’s the very first thing I made: The Savory Lotus’s Easy Fermented Pickles. 🥒🥒🥒And they are sooo easy (and sooooo tasty on/with pretty much everything)!
The other thing I love about food gathering, prep, cooking, and preserving, is how it not only feeds my belly (eventually, anyway), but how it nourishes connections with friends and family (the eating, but also sharing the labor, or, at least, various recipes!) and how it also fuels my imagination. I get a lot of plot and character ideas while I’m working away, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of my characters find gardening and/or cooking cathartic, Noelle, from SPOONS especially.
When you first meet Noelle, she is struggling in pretty much all parts of her life . . . but as she reconnects with aspects of her identity she’d let go of, things like gardening and doing physical work, for example, she starts to feel that sense of connection I was talking about and experiences a new sense of hopefulness and empowerment over the pickle she’s found herself in. (Sorry, could not resist the terrible pun!😁)
If you’re looking for a great summer read (that pairs wonderfully with good summer eating), I’d love to entertain you with SPOONS, and I hope you enjoy your visit to River’s Sigh B & B, immensely.
AMAZON ~ KOBO ~ NOOK ~ iBOOKS ~ GOOGLE
Happy summer book (and food) devouring! Ahhhhhhh . . .
😊 Ev
P.S. Don’t forget to enter this month’s contest here at The Author’s Billboard!
Join the Authors' Billboard Newsletter mailing list and get a newsletter filled with new releases and books on sale every Friday.
Start out your subscription with a free book!
Ev Bishop lives and writes in a remote small town in wildly beautiful British Columbia, Canada—a place that inspires the setting for her cozy sweet romance series, RIVER’S SIGH B & B.
In addition to writing novels—her favorite form of storytelling!—Ev was a long-time columnist with the Terrace Standard and is a prolific scribbler of articles, essays, short stories and poems. To see her ever growing body of work, please visit her website.
When Ev’s nose isn’t in a book or her fingers aren’t on her keyboard, you’ll find her hanging out with her family and dogs, or playing outside with friends, usually at the lake or in some garden somewhere.
Love this Ev!!! I just started my hand at making jam!!!
Thanks, Stacy! 🙂 🙂 And hooray for making homemade jam! You’ll never go back to store bought, LOL. So yummy and pretty!
Blackberry wine? That sounds soooo good!
Thanks, Jacquie–and right?! 🙂 🙂 I mean I love wine anyway . . . I’ll try to remember to post how it turns out (the bit I’ve snuck so far, even though it’s not “ready” is delicious! 🙂 )