First of all, heartfelt thanks for warm welcome! I enjoyed reading comments to my first post tremendously, and I’m grateful to every one of you.
I love to eat and I love reading about food. I grew up with the tradition of family dinners and everything being made from scratch. No pancake or cake mixes and no take-outs. Restaurant visits were once in two years. Or three, or four. I learned to cook my first pie when I was little and loved baking it, improvising each time by adding berries, or raisins, or different jams, or yogurt between the pie’s parts. And how I loved the sweet, gooey taste of the chocolate dough! On Sunday mornings, home was filled with the delicious scent of a freshly baked pie.
Every lunch of my childhood included soup besides other dishes, be it borscht (beet soup), shchi (cabbage soup), pea soup, bean soup, pasta, or many others, with my favorite being the mushroom soup. Salads from fresh vegetables were abundant. But my favorite salad remains Herring Under a Fur Coat, which contains layers of diced pickled herring, diced onions and shredded boiled potatoes, beets, and eggs, with mayonnaise between each layer. Years ago, I even wrote a poem titled Herring Under a Fur Coat when I was homesick and longed for something familiar.
Frankly, I have pictures of my dad’s paintings from his recent exhibition in the featured photo not just because they contain food but also because I admire his talent.
I often include descriptions of food in my books. I figure people have to eat, the main characters included. In my new release, Season of Joy, the heroine is a travel journalist who loves cooking, so she makes Russian, Latino, and German food for the hero and his sons, seven-year-old Junior and sixteen-year-old Travis. Here’s an excerpt.
Keeping a close eye on the pan, she cut potatoes and added them to the mix. The scent of sautéed beef made her mouth water.
Joy felt so comfortable with this family and in this kitchen that a sense of belonging entered her heart.
She placed dirty utensils in the sink as Dylan did the same, and her hands brushed against his by accident. A wave of awareness ran through her. His fingers lingered on hers, and her pulse accelerated.
Travis chuckled softly, and she moved away. Heat crept up her neck. Must be from the stove. Right…
She had to find a distraction, and fast. “I need another bowl.”
Junior handed one to her, and she divided the batter into two parts. She added cocoa into one. She needed flour for the other one, but apparently it had been placed back in the pantry.
“Where do you keep the flour?” she asked.
“I’ll get it.” Junior opened the pantry and grabbed a pack from the shelf.
“Maybe I should help you. It’s too—” She watched helplessly as the flour ended up on the floor, the bag getting torn sometime in flight, and a white cloud rose. “Heavy.”
“Oh, no!” The boy’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry!”
“No biggie. I’ll take care of it.” She stepped toward him, but her foot slipped, and she ended up on the floor, sitting in the middle of the cloud. “Eventually.”
Do you like for romance books to include episodes with food? What was your favorite dish while growing up? Do you have a tradition or a favorite memory connected with food?
I’m offering a giveaway to one randomly chosen commenter to this post: 1 Kindle copy of my book Season of Joy. The giveaway is limited to commenters with an amazon.com account and will end at 12:00 am EST on April 7th, 2017.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Alexa Verde writes uplifting, diverse books about faith, love, and hope. She has had 200 short stories, articles, and poems published in the five languages that she speaks. After traveling the world and living in both hemispheres, she calls a small town in south Texas home. The latter is an inspiration for the fictional setting of her series Rios Azules Christmas and Secrets of Rios Azules. Alexa has a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a master's in Russian. She's worn the hats of reporter, teacher, translator, model (even one day counts!), caretaker, and secretary, but thinks that the writer's hat suits her the best.
What an adorable cover, Alexa! Growing up, my favorite dish was anything my grandmother cooked when we went to visit. Her fried chicken was particularly delicious….great memories.
I loved my mom’s meat pie. I think it was because the gave us the extra pie crust and we got to put jam or jelly inside it. My mom is a great cook! I enjoyed reading your excerpt and the cover of your book is really cute. I don’t mind if a story revolves around food. One of my favorite books revolved around a bakery.
Hi Alexa! Your father is talented. Beautiful pictures and an inspiring cover for your book. I enjoy reading stories that include food and recipes. For the last two years, I belong to a Book Club for Foodies. We read Tales you can taste. This is sponsored by our local library and school of cooking. We have intense book discussions and after the discussion the school of cooking director serves a full course meal inspired by the book or recipes from the book (Cost $20). We have a group of 20 ladies. My mom was a great cook, baker and entertainer. Since my mom worked, she often baked bread in the evening. Favorite memory was before bed snack of fresh baked bread spread with butter and jam. Favorite dishes, is anything German – rouladen, goulash, Bienenstich (bee sting cake – yeast dough topping is ground almonds, butter and sugar). Looking forward to reading Season of Joy.
Renata, I think I am going to move to ur town and join that book club so I can eat some delicious food??
Growing up going to restaurants was wishful thinking. My mom and dad cooked everything. We have special days for certain food.. Saturdays were soup days and Sundays were rice and peas and cheicken or fish, etc. I love soup, Ackee and salt fish, curry chicken or goat, oxtail, fish, etc ok so the point is, I love my food and because of that I have to dedicate at least 4 days week at the gym. Reading books with food makes this woman very happy?
Yes I like books that include descriptions of food! Growing up I liked Popeye! So of course I ate a lot of spinach!!
Love reading about food. For years I would read cookbooks for fun…just to be a creative cook. ;) I love hearing of foods from different cultures, too! Interesting names of foods and the combinations…I think cooking and writing probably go hand in hand as they both take creativity just as your father’s art work is so creative! You must take after him :) You need not consider me in the giveaway as I’ve already read the book and posted reviews :) Congratulations on another release!!
Thank you for kind words about my cover, Jill! Fried chicken does sound delicious!
Iraines, thank you very much for the kind words about the excerpt and the cover! The meat pie sounds awesome! I think I’ve eaten tons of pies in my life, but I’ve never tried meat pie. Maybe it’s time to remedy that. :)
Hi Alexa, just like you, I grew up with the tradition of family get togethers and everything being made from scratch. I’ve also learned to bake when I was little. Every weekend we had baked goods for deserts and snacks at my parents and grandparents houses.
My favorite family time that involves food is baking Christmas cookies (using my paternal grandmother’s family recipes from Germany). It’s definitely an all-hands-on-deck family event and we love it (usually one or two Saturdays afternoons are needed to get it all done now that my sister and I don’t live at home anymore). I simply love all the mess we make and all the fun of baking together.
Hi Renate! Thank you so much for sharing. What a wonderful tradition of baking bread in the evenings! German food is so delicious; I wish I’d tried Bienenstich when I visited Germany. I remember cakes there were absolutely amazing. I love the idea of the Book Club for Foodies. How awesome to read and discuss a great book and then have a meal inspired by that book! And thank you for your kind words about my father! I hope you’ll enjoy reading Season if Joy.
LOL, I love food and can’t stop writing about it myself! I enjoyed your excerpt :)
I just finished reading Katherine Reay’s “Lizzy & Jane.” You don’t dare read that one when you’re hungry! :-) My mom was a good cook, and I remember when I was ready to get married and move overseas with my military husband, I demanded she teach me how to make all my favorite dishes. Most of them she did by the “a pinch of this and a bunch of that” method, so I’d make her stop and measure each pinch and bunch :-)
Thank you for sharing, Colleen! Awesome idea of having special days for certain food. I admire that you dedicate 4 days a week to the gym. The last time I was at the gym was years ago and doesn’t count because I was just passing through it. :)
Thank you for sharing, Linda! All this conversation about food makes me hungry, lol. I can’t wait until lunch!
Now I know what the fur coat those herrings wore is made of!
That book cover is totally adorable, and as I love to cook and eat, I love books with food, too! Though I’m far from a good cook, as I don’t follow recipes (apart from the very first time making something new) and just chuck stuff in I think will work. Which sometimes produces amazing results- the problem is, I can never get it quite the same again!
Thank you so much for your kind words about my dad’s artwork! As for taking after him, I did some watercolors, but never “graduated” to oil paintings. Heartfelt thanks for reading and reviewing my new book!
Hi Priscila! I love your family tradition of baking Christmas cookies together, using your paternal grandmother’s family recipes from Germany. Sounds like so much fun, and I can imagine cookies are delicious!
I’m glad you enjoyed my excerpt, Valerie! And it’s so much fun writing about food, isn’t it?
Thank you for sharing, Margaret Nelson! What a wonderful story! It made me smile. I need exact measurements when I cook, too, at least for new for me recipes. :)
Thank you for the kind words about my cover, Autumn! The way you describe your cooking, I’d love to try one of your dishes!
Hi,Alexa,
I loved your blog post.
I love food but my favorite is Sour cream chicken enchiladas. I found a crock pot recipe that’s to die for.
Hi Alexa! I’m so thankful I dropped by Inspy today. Your father is so talented! Thank you for sharing his paintings. I had to smile at the title Herring Under a Fur Coat (but I’ll trust your word that the salad is delicious). :) I have your book on my Kindle to read. Sounds like another great read, and again, I’m so glad you’re writing CCR now! We have many southern dishes that I have enjoyed making such as southern corn pudding (always a favorite on our dinner table) and a variation of cornbread called spoonbread (a little sweeter and a smoother consistency). Now I’m hungry and going in search of something good for lunch… Blessings, my friend. :)
Lol. It’s a challenge going 4 days but I find that I am actually happier. Weird but it’s makes me feel good
Hi Alexa. We had a special cake in my family…Mahogany Cake, chocolate cake with caramel icing. The icing was similar to a praline. Yum!
Thanks for the interesting post, Alexa. I think my mother’s fried chicken was a childhood favorite. I could never cook fried chicken like my mother even though I inherited her iron skillet.
That’s awesome, Colleen! I used to work out several times a week in my youth, but once I stopped I have difficulty starting it again. I keep thinking, one of these days, lol! It is so great that it makes you happier!
Colleen, I agree with you!
Hi JoAnn! Happy to see you here! Corn pudding and spoonbread sound delicious; I’ve yet to try those dishes. Thank you for your kind words! Herring Under a Fur Coat is very popular where I’m from. I’m glad I’m writing CCR, too, and you know you’ve been an influence on that! ? I hope you’ll enjoy reading my new book!
Hi, Linda! I’m so happy you loved my blog post! Chicken enchiladas are awesome! I definitely need to try sour cream chicken enchiladas.
Hi Betty Robertson! Thank you very much for sharing. I love the name of the cake, and caramel icing? Wow!
Thank you for your kind words about my post, Merrillee! Your mother’s fried chicken sounds delicious! What a wonderful memory! Fried chicken with garlic and carrots and fried potatoes is one of the best memories of my childhood, too. I never even attempted to cook it; I’m sure anything I can cook won’t even come close to it.
We have some favorite recipes in our family. Honey baked chicken is one of them. Now that my daughters are grown , it’s fun to all cook together.
Thank you for sharing, Diana! I can imagine how wonderful for the family to cook together. ☺ Honey baked chicken sounds awesome!
I love food but I’m trying to lose weight right now to help my poor old knees. (Had knee replacement last year) so the problem with food in books is I keep thinking about it until I just have to find what was mentioned and eat it.
My grandfather loved to eat, pure pleasure for him even though he was diabetic. I enjoyed watching him eat. My grandmother made the best biscuits. After they baked she would split them open, add butter then put them back in the oven and toast them. So good especially with apple butter.
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Hi Alexa, When I read the title of your post I had no idea it was a salad! I do like reading about food in books. My favourite dish is an Aussie roast dinner, pork or lamb, with roast veggies and gravy. :)
Thank you so much for sharing, Gail Estes Hollingsworth! Apple butter must be fantastic! Mmmm, those biscuits sound delicious!
Hi Narelle! That’s a strange name for a salad, I know, but that’s what it’s called. :) Your favorite dish makes me hungry, lol!
I enjoy a good food episode…. it’s also fun when an author might include a good recipe!
Thank you, Susanne! I was thinking of including recipes in some of my books but haven’t done it yet. I appreciate you stopping by!
My mom and brother got me interested in America’s Test Kitchen on PBS and recently I’ve been enjoying trying different recipes from their cookbook. One of my favorites has been the lemon ricotta pancakes.
I just looked up their videos, and just the names of the dishes make me so hungry, lol. Lemon ricotta pancakes sound fantastic! Thank you very much for sharing, Jessica B.!