Random Cookbook of the Week - The Gourmet Cookbook

When I drew The Gourmet Cookbook for this week's challenge, I had every intention of making something, well, gourmet. I figured on spending hours in the kitchen on Sunday night putting together a complex masterpiece.

But instead I saw this in the sandwiches section and thought, "YUM."

Mozzarella in Carrozza ("Mozzarella in a Carriage")

- 1/4 c. drained capers, chopped
- 12 slices firm white sandwich bread
- 6 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, at room temperature
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 T. whole milk
- Salt
- 1 T unsalted butter
- 2 T olive oil

Divide capers among bread slices, spreading them evenly. Divide mozzarella among six of the slices and season with pepper. Make into sandwiches, then trim off crusts and discard.

Put flour on a plate and coat sandwiches with flour, knocking off excess. Beat together eggs, milk, and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a small shallow bowl.

Heat 1/2 T butter w/ 1 T oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides. Coat 3 sandwiches, one at a time, with egg mixture, letting excess drip off, and to skillet. Fry, turning once, till golden brown, about 5 minutes total, then drain on paper towels. Coat remaining sandwiches and fry in remaining oil and butter in the same manner.

The recipe goes on to suggest cutting the sandwiches into quarters, which I didn't do. I also halved the recipe, since we're a family of two adults and one finicky 8-year-old. Here's the result:

NOM NOM NOM. Will make again. Comfort food with a posh twist.

Blog tour update

My guest post on the RR@H Novel Thoughts blog has been rescheduled for this Friday, November 9.

No new progress on my Half NaNoWriMo to report, unfortunately. The election kinda ate my writing time the past couple days, but I mean to get back on the horse, tonight if I can stay awake, and tomorrow for sure.

An Infamous Marriage release day!

Just a quick post to announce that An Infamous Marriage is now available on the virtual bookstore shelves! Also, reviews are starting to come in:

The Romanceaholic says, "With just the right amount of steam and plenty of emotion, I would definitely recommend this one to any fan of historical romance with arranged marriages, and I urge readers to take a chance on this one even if infidelity is a trope they tend to avoid."

From Willaful: "Fraser’s third novel confirms my opinion of her as a go-to writer for Regency romance that is actually set in the Regency rather than in that Never-Neverland mash-up that’s been dubbed “The Recency” or “Almackistan.” It’s a gracefully written, authentic feeling story."

Here are some of the places you can buy it:

• Carina Press
• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Barnes & Noble
• Google Books
• All Romance eBooks

And, last but not least, as an audiobook from Audible.com.

Oh, and my half NaNoWriMo continues:

Six Sentence Sunday 11-4-12 - Release Day Eve for An Infamous Marriage!

An Infamous Marriage releases tomorrow, so this is the last excerpt I'll be posting on Six Sentence Sunday. I've enjoyed sharing some teasers from this story with you, and I hope to see some of you on my blog tour, which started Friday and continues through December 3. (Today I'm at Risky Regencies.) At most of the stops I'll be giving away a copy of the book, and at the end of the tour I'll be giving out a grand prize of a $50 bookstore gift certificate.

Without further ado, here's this week's six. Jack and Elizabeth are finally spending the night together...bundled up in their warmest clothing in a barn in northern England in February, waiting for a mare to foal. But one thing has led to another, and...

He broke the kiss but stayed close, nose to nose, breathing hard. “Oh, God, Elizabeth. Is it really that cold?” 

Some distant part of her murmured she might regret this in the morning, but she ignored it. “I’ve never been warmer,” she gasped. 

She kissed him again and he began to work at the buttons on her pelisse. 

Half NaNoWriMo

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year (for any non-writers reading this, that's where you try to write a first draft of a novel, minimum 50,000 words, entirely within the month of November). Really, I doubt I'll ever attempt it again, since the beginning of my pinched nerve debacle was when I ignored pain and refused to rest my hand and arm during my 2010 NaNo attempt.

Still, I do need a good goal to motivate me to start getting words on the page again, after having spent the last six weeks or so focused on editing and promo to the exclusion of producing anything new. And while I can't do 50,000 words in a month without putting my body at risk, I can do half that, or even a little more. 1000 words/day, on top of the keyboard time I put in for work, promo, and leisure, is a viable pace for both my hands and my creativity.

So I'm attempting a half NaNoWriMo--25,000 new words this month. They don't have to all be the same project, since I'm currently juggling three:

1) My editor wants me to expand the novella Carina just bought. It's still going to be novella-length, i.e. less than 40K, but I think I'll need to add 5-10K to its current 23K to flesh it out per her suggestions.

2) I'm working on a proposal for a full-length sequel to the novella.

3) I'd like to write a Christmas novella while it's all wintry and festive now, hopefully to be published for next year's holiday season.

Today I wrote 1024 words on Project #2:

Random Cookbook of the Week: 30-Minute Meals

This is, I believe, Rachael Ray's first cookbook, and I've found her earlier cookbooks far more useful than her later ones. The early books focus on simple meals, mostly made with fresh ingredients, while her later ones run to the gimmicky.

No picture this week, as I made this on a weeknight and have a bad habit of forgetting I'm supposed to be recording my food for posterity when I'm tired and hungry and have an equally tired and hungry family to feed.

Pork Chops and Homemade Chunky Applesauce

6 boneless pork chops, 3/4 inch thick
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper
1 T olive oil
6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped from stems

For the applesauce:
8 Macintosh apples, peeled, cored, and cut into cubes (I used a mix of Granny Smith and Gala, since my local QFC doesn't carry Macintoshes)
1 c apple juice or cider
A couple pinches ground cinnamon
A palmful brown sugar
A pinch ground ginger
A pinch ground nutmeg

Rub chops with a little balsamic vinegar. Heat oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Cook 5-6 minutes. Turn and season with pepper and thyme. Reduce heat to medium and cook another 6 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand till ready to serve. (I cooked the chops in 2 batches and left them in a 200-degree oven until ready to serve.)

While chops cook, cook the apple chunks over medium-high heat with the apple juice. As the juice boils, stir and mush the apples a bit as they cook down. (I used a potato masher.) Sprinkle the sauce with cinnamon, sugar, ginger, and nutmeg. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens, 7-10 minutes.

Note that unless you're much quicker at peeling and chopping apples than I am, this is not even remotely a true 30-minute recipe. With prep time, I was somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour. That said, it was pretty good, and since my family of three doesn't really need this much food, I could, say, half the applesauce recipe and use just four chops and save time accordingly.

An Infamous Marriage blog tour!

My next novel, An Infamous Marriage, releases this coming Monday, 11/5, and is available for preorder from most of the usual suspects, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks, and, in a first for my books, Audible.com.

I'm celebrating this, my first new release in over a year, with a month-long blog tour. At most of the stops I'll be giving away a copy of the book to one commenter, and at the end of the tour, on December 6, I will do a drawing for a grand prize of a $50 gift card to the winner's choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's Books (just in time for holiday shopping or treating yourself to some good books to read when you need a break from family togetherness). You get one entry in the grand prize drawing for each blog you comment on, so comment away!

Here's a preview of coming attractions. It's a long tour, but I'm looking forward to getting out there in the virtual world and sharing a bit about myself and my inspirations for my latest book.

Friday, 11/2  - Q&A at Angela Campbell's blog, including my favorite memories from the year I lived in England.

Sunday, 11/4 - Q&A at Risky Regencies, with my priorities for using history in the writing process.

Monday, 11/5 - Q&A at Callie Hutton's blog, revealing how Jack Armstrong, the hero of An Infamous Marriage, got his name.

Tuesday, 11/6 - I'm at Romancing the Past, recommending books as the best choice for celebration or consolation regardless of how you feel about the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

Wednesday, 11/7 - A two-post day! I'll be at the Carina blog comparing my 8-year-old daughter's ideas of a writer's needs to my own and at Novel Thoughts talking about why I write military heroes.

Thursday, 11/8 - Q&A at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance, wherein I reveal the romance novel I'd recommend to someone who's never read the genre before.

Friday, 11/9 - Q&A at Ramblings From This Chick, including the three authors I'd most like to have dinner with.

Monday, 11/12 - Q&A at Manga Maniac Cafe, with a list of my creative influences/inspirations.

Tuesday, 11/13  - I visit the History Hoydens and talk about inserting fictional characters into real historical events.

Wednesday, 11/14 - At The Season for Romance, I discuss writing my first rakish hero.

Thursday, 11/15 - I talk about what I learned by turning the maps upside down at Book Lovers Inc.

Friday, 11/16 - I discuss my fondness for marriage of convenience plots at The Romance Dish.

Sunday, 11/18 - At Reading Between the Wines, I do my best to explain why I don't so much write the Regency as the Napoleonic Era. (Hint: the uniforms play a part.)

Monday, 11/19 - Q&A at TBQ's Book Palace reveals, among other things, my favorite fictional crushes.

Tuesday, 11/20 - Cecilia Grant interviews me about writing an adulterous hero and the history in An Infamous Marriage. 

Monday, 11/26 - Q&A at The Maiden's Court, including how my story ideas start.

Tuesday, 11/27 - I talk about raising my daughter to be a reader at Everybody Needs a Little Romance.

Wednesday, 11/28 - J.L. Hilton and I swap blogs to talk about being a sci-fi/fantasy author who loves costume dramas and a historical romance author who's a sci-fi/fantasy geek.

Thursday, 11/29 - My critique partner Rose Lerner asks me, among other things, about how I used Waterloo in An Infamous Marriage.

Friday, 11/30 - My top ten rules for success on my favorite cooking show, Chopped, with implications for good writer behavior, at Romance Writer's Revenge.

Monday, 12/3 - I close the tour with a visit to Novel Reflections, where I talk about how my experience with chronic injury worked its way into Jack's experiences in my book.