Authors Candace C. Bowen and Paul R. De Lancey cordially invite you to contribute a short story to theKindle e-book anthology, The Darwin Murders. This literary event takes place July 20 on Facebook. Click on the below link to find out more.
https://www.facebook.com/events/137774169753258/
And now, a few pictures to inspire you.
Mexican Soup
POTATO EPAZOTE SOUP
INGREDIENTS
½ pound potatoes
1 medium white onion
1 Serrano chile (2 more later)
3 tablespoons butter
4 teaspoons epazote
4 cups chicken broth
2 Serrano chiles
¼ cup fresh cilantro
½ cup toasted tortilla squares
Makes about 4 bowls.
PREPARATION
Peel potatoes. Mince potatoes and onion. Dice cilantro. Seed and dice 1 Serrano chile. (For goodness sake, wash your hands thoroughly after handling Serrano chiles.)
Combine potato, onion, 1 diced Serrano chile, butter, and epazote in pot. Sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes or until potato or onion starts to brown. Stir frequently. Add broth. Cook on low-medium heat for 15 minutes or until potato softens. Stir occasionally. While soup simmers, seed and dice 2 Serrano chiles. Dice cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with 2 diced Serrano chiles, tortillas squares, and cilantro.
TIDBITS
1) Respect the herb epazote.
2) Epazote is an acquired taste for many. Some people like its lemony smell. However, its detractors compare epazote’s aroma to petroleum’s.
3) Epazote is a digestive and carminative.
4) And a carminative is….Looks up carmnative….Oh crudness, it causes farts. So don’t consume vast quantities of epazote before a big date or job interview.
5) According to internet, “Often times it can be considered an evasive weed as it can be found growing voluntarily in gardens and fields.” Wow, it can evade people, people who want to pull it because it’s a weed. How does it evade people? By walking? Crawling? Flying? Regrettably the website is mute on this exciting point.
6) The “growing voluntarily” part is exciting. “Dear epazote, would you like to grow here? I won’t force you.”
“Oh yes, your garden looks most inviting.”
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
Ghanian Entree
BLACKENED POTATO CRISPS
INGREDIENTS
2 brown potatoes
3 clove garlic
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon cayenne
3 tablespoons fresh ground ginger
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups oil
SPECIAL UTENSIL
electric skillet
food processor with thinnest slicing disk
PREPARATION
Wash potatoes. Use food processor to make thinnest possible potato slices. Dice garlic. Put potato slices, garlic, honey, cayenne, ginger,and salt into mixing bowl. Mix ingredients with hands until spices coat potato slices.
Put oil in skillet. There should be enough to cover potato slices. Heat skillet to 375 degrees. Put one potato slice in skillet. Oil is hot enough when the slice starts to dance around. Carefully put potato slices in hot oil. (Getting splattered by hot oil hurts quite a bit. May I suggest using the skillet lid as a shield between yourself and the oil?) To ensure even and crispy cooking, make sure none of the potato slices touch each other. You will most likely need to cook the potato slices in batches.
Fry each batch at 375 degrees for 7 minutes or until the slices become crispy. Remove slices with spoon with holes in it. Put slices in bowl. Remove remaining oil with paper towel. Repeat for each batch.
Promote world peace with this bit of culinary diplomacy.
TIDBITS
1) Nanotechnology is the latest rage in science.
2) Scientists hope to use nanotechnology to solve all sorts of tiny problems using tiny devices that are maybe a nanometer, one-billionth, meter wide.
3) I am going to make my culinary name with nanocuisine. Entrees, such as, coq au vin, would be made as small as a nanometer wide.
4) Nanocuisine would provide great opportunities for fusion cuisine. I could create a fish taco/cheese-egg salad/ salad Niçoise/paella/sauerkraut/ ham and cheese omelette,suaasat/lasagna,kung pao chicken/doro wat dinner with ease.
5) Indeed with nanocuisine most dishes would be mere molecules wide. I could easily make a dish that combined every appetizer, every soup, every salad, every entree, and every dessert.
6) So, I will cook the first truly global fusion dish.
7) The Nobel Cuisine prize cannot be far behind.
8) I just need to find a food processor that makes nanometer-thick slices.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
Authors Candace C. Bowen and Paul R. De Lancey cordially invite you to contribute a short story to the Kindle e-book anthology, The Darwin Murders. This event takes place July 20 on Facebook. Click on the below link to find out more.
https://www.facebook.com/events/137774169753258/
We encourage you to have Fun with this event. Why should murders be gloomy? These are Darwin Murders after all. Humanity is made better by them. It’s okay to even chuckle a bit as you off your totally fictional character.
And now a picture to inspire you as you plot your Darwin murder.
Mexican Dessert
CITRUS AGUA FRESCA
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup lime juice
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
6 tablespoons confectionary sugar
PREPARATION
Use long wooden spoon to mix all ingredients in pitcher. Stir until sugar dissolves. This goes well served over ice.
TIDBITS
1) Doesn’t the list of ingredients look like a ski slope?
2) One of the most popular sports televison ever was “The Wide World of Sports.” The intro to the program shows an athlete performing a great feat to the “thrill of victory and an athlete failing to the words “the agony of defeat.
3) The victorious athlete changed quite a few times. However, the failing athlete was Vinko Bogataj. Vinko wiped out in spectacular fashion just moments after starting to ski down a steep slope. Vinko remained blissfully unaware that tens of millions of people had been watching his snow tumble every week for twenty years.
4) Success is overrated. We remember spectacular failures. We embrace them.
5) Eddie the Eagle represented Britain in the 1988 Winter Olympics. He would soar like an eagle with folded wings. Eddie’s ski jumps brought him last place in every event he entered. He might have set records for the short jumps if the Olympics had bothered track such a thing.
6) Naturally Eddie became a national hero. The world remembered his name for decades. The winners in the ski jump? Tee hee.
7) Who can name a movie about bobsled gold medals? No one. Well, practically no one. But millions have seen the movie about the Jamaican bobsled Olympians, “Cool Runnings.” They didn’t win a medal. They only achieved cinematic immortality.
8) As the song says, “We don’t need another hero.” We need another Citrus Agua Fresca.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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