Hello, InspyRomance Friends!
How are you surviving the physical distancing parameters? If you’re like me, you’re tired of cooking. I have a house full of picky eaters (and I may or may not be one of them) which makes cooking a chore. One meal will not satisfy everyone. Add the fact that there’s no school and now I’m cooking more, dishes are piling up faster, and I dread meal times.
My awesome friend and blogger, Jaycee Weaver, gave me the perfect idea for today’s blog. Heroes that cook! If you want to escape into a delightful read where heroes cook and cares fade away, this blog post is for you. If you need inspiration for meals to feed your family during this covid season, this blog post is for you. If you just want to read something entertaining (and hopefully I’ll fulfill that wish), then this blog post is for you.
First up in swoony cooking heroes is Valerie Comer’s Raindrops on Radishes.
The swoony urban farmer Peter Santoro cooks for family lawyer Sadie Guthrie in Raindrops on Radishes. It must be noted that Valerie’s pan-seared scallops and roasted asparagus and radishes with a balsamic reduction.
Doesn’t that sound amazing?! I love seafood and that sounds like a perfect meal to add to my list.
Then we have Laurie Larsen’s Seized.
The heroine, Gloria Lockwood, takes a cooking class from the hero, Alejandro Rojas. What’s on the menu you ask? Lasagna. This is actually a meal most of my family can enjoy. Pair it with a salad and garlic bread and you’ll probably have leftovers to spare!
Our next hero comes from Jaycee Weaver’s Whatever Comes Our Way.
The cooking hero, Jaydon Bennett, is also a youth pastor intent on courting the Gina Hernandez. He invites her over for grilled steaks and potatoes and get this you guys, even fixes her a cup of coffee. A man who loves God and cooks? Winner in my book.
But that’s not all. I also have a cooking hero in Buying Love. 
Dwight Williams is a chef who runs The Maple Pit and when the heroine, Nina Warrenton, gets sick, he comes right over to fix her some Italian wedding soup. I’m sure there are lots of InstaPot an CrockPot chicken noodle soup recipes you can find to fix your quarantine crew.
Author Andrea Boy has two cooking heroes in Irresistibly Yours and Love’s Redemption.
In Irresistibly Yours, Widow Vivian Emerson has had it with men. She just wants to live the rest of her life in peace. That is until she runs into the cooking auto mechanic, Bo Manning. This book made me so hungry, especially when Bo makes a roasted cauliflower and mushroom carbonara. If that won’t make you swoon, I’m not sure what will.
But not to be beat, Holden Armstrong cooks for the heroine, Izzy Tanner in Love’s Redemption.
He cooks up a beef and barley soup with with tomato, basil, and mozzarella toasted cheese sandwiches. Soup and sandwiches are the perfect pairing just like this couple.
Hopefully these books will give you something to read and something to add to your #quarantinelifemenu.
But before I go, I’d just like to let you know, my novel Returning Home is on sale for 99¢. If you haven’t read it, now’s a good time.
Jo Ellen Baker is shocked to find out that the boy who teased her mercilessly throughout high school, has returned to their hometown of Freedom Lake, and he’s missing a leg. When his mother asks her to renovate their carriage house to give him a place to gain his independence back, she wants to say no. But one look at him brings a rush of forgotten feelings.
Evan Carter can’t believe he has to return home and live with his parents. Every hope and dream he ever had dissipated in a car crash that cost him his leg. Stuck in a wheelchair, he’s forced to reexamine his relationship with God and the local carpenter, Jo Ellen Baker.
Will renovating his home open the door for a mended relationship, or are some wounds too deep to heal from?
Before you go, tell me in the comments, who your favorite cooking hero is!
Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace thanks to the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior. She writes to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness. She spends her days hanging out with her husband and their two boys. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Find out more on her website at http://tonishiloh.com.
Not at all sure I have a cooking hero.
I don’t have a specific cooking hero but any guy that will cook is a hero to me!
not sure who my favourite cooking hero is either. But I am with you I may or may not be a fussy eater (ok I am one of the fussiest). I hate dishes and at present I do struggle with what I want for some meals. I have the makings of meals but I find being stuck home I want something different. I actually went and got Takeaway (A steak Sandwich with just the steak, sauce and bread). I just needed something different but have decided to buy some minute Steak to have on hand. (I cant eat much bread even though I crave it at times). Even with the steak sandwich I had to throw some of the bread away.
Hi Toni! Best wishes keeping your family feed during these unprecedented times. I enjoy cooking, as did my mom. The ladies cook and the guys do the dishes. Great way to teach life skills. Much like a school menu, I have a family cookbook and a 21 day recipe schedule or Taco Tuesday, Pasta Wednesday, Pizza Friday. Helps take the stress out of cooking. As a mom with 3 sons plus myself, we had a lots of picky eaters. I made one menu each night with at least something each son would eat. Spaghetti – the youngest ate his minus the sauce with just cheese. Broccoli – middle son only ate it raw with ranch dressing. Otherwise son could eat cereal or make a sandwich. With so much available today (maybe not now) it was easy for mom to be a short order cook. Life changed and we all will adopt to the new normal. Best wishes Toni.
My favorite foodie culture series was Arcadia Valley with Valerie Comer and others – farmers’ market, greenhouse, bakery (Elizabeth Maddrey), and the El Corazon Restaurant (Lee Tobin McClain).
I love cooking in books!
Your post is entertaining, though I can’t think of a book cooking hero, but last night watched Tortilla Soup with Hector Elizondo and I wonder if it was based on a book. Hector plays a master chef who creates divine food but has lost his taste for food but not life. We choose an ingredient and research different things that can be made from the pantry/freezer contents (lots of substitutions at the moment), it’s a game and whoever wins doesn’t have to do the dishes!
PS: Why are you the only one cooking?
No favorites?
My cooking hero is Charley in Irene Hannon’s Hope Harbor series!!! I’d love to try his fish tacos!
So agree!
A steak sandwich sounds good!
The Arcadia Valley series was awesome! Made me so hungry.
They’re so fun to read!
My boys will cook sometimes, but I have to supervise and sometimes that’s more exhausting then just cooking myself.
Oh good one! I would love to try one too!
My husband!
We are both still working, but he has been working less hours and is often home before me. He has been cooking a great deal, he is much more creative in the kitchen than me. I don’t mind cooking but I need a recipe to follow. He just wings it=)
I don’t have a cooking hero. I like books with recipes in them. I do love me to cook and especially bake and make çandies and dessert.
That’s so awesome. I’m like you, need a recipe.
I love it when books have recipes and baking is my favorite!
I see I need to write more stories with cooking heroes! It’s crazy that out of over 30 stories, I could only come up with one! But I forgot to mention Better Than a Crown. Is it cheating if the guy is a chef? Levi Esteban makes dinner for Heather just once in the story. I don’t detail what it is, other than “dinner for two, Mexican style.” But he makes her brownies several times throughout the story, too.
My current WIP (Lavished with Lavender) has a chef hero, too. I’ll make sure he cooks a romantic dinner for the heroine at least once!
Chefs are the best, so no it’s not cheating. :)
I love foodie books. Kai in “Sugar” by Kimberly Stuart is pretty fab. He runs a diner called Howie’s. I enjoy cooking if I know what to make. It’s been nice having my college daughter home – she’s given me lists of all the foods she’s missed over the past 5 months so that has made cooking more enjoyable.
Awesome post, Toni! I (literally) just finished an eARC of Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner (which is amazing, it releases May 5th so if you love a good rom-com be sure to pre-order it folks, if you haven’t already!)
Anyway the hero in this book, Chef Max Cavanagh completely stole my heart and he’s now by far my favorite hero who cooks! 😍😍😍
I’ll have to look up that book!
I have that on my Kindle! :)
Valerie! Ew WIP sounds divine. Love lavender – the smell and it’s uses. Be creative and include a recipe – lavender lemon bars, lender lemonade, chocolate lavender fudge and more. Endless possibilities. Enjoy reading books with recipes. Best wishes. Your Farm Fresh series are my favorite.
I highly recommend Becky Doughty’s Elderberry Croft and Season of Joy. I also like the various characters in the Chapel Cove series who are chefs or who cook. Valerie Bodden’s Hope Springs has some wonderfully culinary characters, too.
I can’t think of an imaginary cooking hero but in real life my daddy was.
About 10yrs ago now I passed the baton of preparing the evening meal for our family (mostly grown and gone by then) to my hubby. One day I said, “I quit!” Amazingly enough, he caught it and started making every evening meal (sometimes we have cereal). In the last 3 yrs, he has been buying the groceries as well. Meals are now entirely different than when I made them. Lol. Sometimes we just have just meat – a grilled steak or chicken breast. Sometimes we have eggs & toast. It’s always a surprise and I love that I don’t have to cook anymore for supper. Yaaay! (We all “help ourselves” for breakfast & work lunches.).
I feel your pain and am sooo glad I only have to do the big traditional holiday meals for extended family now (20-30ppl) – which he helps as he is able, because I truly detest that. ;) Lol. My mom tried to instill an enjoyment for cooking but it has fizzled out. My dad taught me how to cut and haul wood, drive a boat safely, paint & shingle a house, and complete other jobs outside. I’m really good at that!
I wish my husband could cook. When I get sick, the house falls apart. lol
It was not sure if you have them in America its basically like a burger but with bread and its thin steak and some have salad (lettuce, tomato, and sauce/ketchup not sure what else with the lot also has egg) It’s something different from what I normally have. (would love some McDonalds but I don’t drive and cos its takeaway only by the time I got it home would be cold).
Sounds similar to a Philly cheesesteak.
I’ve been reading through Valerie’s books. Such a great series!
That’s so awesome!
Yeah I’ve never been a fan of cooking. Baking, yes. Cooking, no.
Oh, that’s so hard to deal with.
Yes. I used to bake home-made breads, muffins, pies, bars, cookies, Carmel rolls, etc. I figured out that I’m the one that truly loves those yummy deserts & so I don’t bake anymore either – or rarely. Hubby & 3 sons were never into desserts or breads much. I sure miss my mamas bakery goodies. <3. Oh well.
I still love a good bakery & occasionally will order an entire triple dark chocolate decadent crustless tort for myself. :D