Blog Archives
Nyam Thyme
If you are relatively new to exotic cooking, Nyam Thyme is the book for you. Author chef Jacqui Francis provides the reader with primarily healthy recipes that are easy and quick to prepare.
Author Jacqui eloquently describes foods and drinks in her cookbook which transported me to a tropical oasis with rum and jerk ribs. I enjoyed the Jamaican traditions that the author shares with us in her book making this a personable read.
I appreciated that the author included images of the spices so that I can easily purchase these items either in-store or online. Chef Jacqui also provides images of the recipe itself as well as an image of the finished product making this a colorful read that is sure to make you hungry.
The author provides recipes for soups, salads, meats, drinks, and much more. I felt like I was in the kitchen with my mother learning her recipes. I love salt, but Jacqui recommends no salt on several recipes, and she is absolutely correct, no salt is necessary as there is already so much flavor.
The drinks section is a fun chapter because the author provides dishes to pair with the dishes which is great if you are hosting a dinner party. My favorite section, of course, is the desserts! The bread pudding recipe looks and sounds delicious. I also must point out that Chef Jacqui adds her personal touch to each recipe down to the name of the recipes.
I highly recommend Nyam Thyme as chef Jacqui Francis provides you with all the tools necessary to serve dinner, drinks, and desserts. I enjoyed the fun facts about Jamaica at the end of the book as I was able to learn more about people and places. I recommend this cookbook to anyone who is on the lookout for some new recipes to impress their friends with! Have fun trying some great new dishes!
Pages: 100 | ASIN : B09GPFHG3N
Porter’s Magic Apple Pie
Porter’s Magic Apple Pie is the story of a young boy making a magical apple pie with his Grandmother. The story starts when Porter spends the day with his Grandma at her house. They decide they want to make a dessert, so Grandma suggests an apple pie. Porter loves this idea, so they get ready to make the pie. Grandma tells Porter there is special magic involved in making the perfect pie. Together they work in the kitchen as Porter learns the magic of the apple pie is the love that goes into making it.
This heartwarming children’s book is filled with beautiful illustrations created by author Debi Moon and illustrator Gennel Marie Sollano. Together their artwork brings the words to life on the page with humor and easily relatable images. Mixed into the sweet story is a learning lesson too. Grandma explains to Porter about kitchen knives and the danger they present. She teaches him how to properly use a knife as well. They also discuss proper handwashing and explain why you wash your hands before touching food. All of this is done with age-appropriate language that young children can comprehend. There is even a moment where Porter sees his Grandma doing something unsafe and she apologizes for setting a bad example. I can envision this scene playing out in kitchens, as it happens organically.
My favorite line in this beautifully written book is, “Magic,” said Grandma, “is in the love that you added to make the pie dough. Every pie should be made with love. Making an apple pie for someone to enjoy is the best kind of magic.”
Porter’s Magic Apple Pie is an extraordinary picture book that will delight readers of all ages. This children’s book would be perfect for reading out loud to a class or as a bedtime story.
Pages: 31 | ASIN : B08DTCKSZK
The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking Brand
The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking details for readers how to prepare a meal from setting the table to creating multi-course meals that will not be forgotten. Why was this an important book for you to write?
When the 2020 pandemic hit I was no longer traveling for work or fun to try new restaurants and meals. As I was home more I started posting my prepared meals on social media and all my friends and family suggested I write a cookbook. I really had no intentions of writing a book, but I have had fun with the process and it has become a great passion now and I am growing my brand with Phase 2 and Phase 3 of The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking brand.
All of the recipes include beautiful photographs, making them look irresistible. What recipe in the book is your favorite to make?
That is a hard question to answer. I have so many favorites in the book that I keep going back to. They are all great!
Who has had the biggest impact on your cooking?
My parents. From a young age my parents encouraged me to cook and try new things in the kitchen. I also draw a lot of inspiration from various master chefs on Food Network. It would be a dream come true to meet some of them one day.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have a couple options I am working on now for the second book but I will say it will have a lot more fire in it.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking
Who knew cooking would be so much fun, even for those that do not love cooking? In The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking, Randy Motilall shares exciting and interesting ways of cooking. The author uses a variety of recipes to show his culinary skills. Have trouble making your favorite chicken curry? Bacon-wrapped shrimp? Peruvian Lomo Saltado? Or even Brazilian Cheese Bread? Randy Motilall has got you covered. The author guides readers through creating a satisfying meal and teaches readers the importance of experimenting with different cuisines of the world.
Randy Motilall not only teaches the reader how to make delicious foods, but he also shares tips on table etiquette. Many people are not aware of how to properly set the table for an elegant meal. Setting the table is the first thing your guests see and the backdrop to showcase the prepared meal. The author guides you on where and how to place the dinner plate, soup or salad bowl, wine glasses, various forks, knives, table napkin, salt shaker, among other things. In addition, there is an illustration of how to place different cutlery and how to use them. Finally, the author has categorized the various meals so readers will have distinct recipes for appetizers, drinks, bread, salads, soups, sides, entrees, desserts, what to have the following day, and extras. Every meal the author writes about is accompanied by pictures, encouraging you to try them out. The text combined with the beautiful images of the recipes made reading this book a wonderful experience.
After reading this book, cooking does not appear tedious at all. The foods shared in the book can take as little as 20 minutes for some. You can make a meal for one or a group, and it will still be delicious. With The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking, you will feel like you have stepped into kitchens in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and many other parts of the world. The recipes are excellent, and the author shares personal stories and insights with the reader as he talks about the foods.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Cooking is filled with engaging language and humor. With this book, Randy Motilall may have targeted a specific demographic, but it can be recommended for anyone who enjoys spending their time in the kitchen preparing meals. In addition, readers who enjoy cooking, want to learn about cooking, and just love all things food will find the information and stories in this book and the recipes refreshing.
Pages: 176 | ASIN : B08XYV163C
Sassy Food
Enlighten yourself to the world of growing produce with Ja-ne de Abreu’s Sassy Food! With the 2020 pandemic threatening Abreu’s and her mother’s access to food, she opted to take matters into her own hands by growing her own produce. On her journey to being self-sustaining, she found friends with the same interest – that’s how the Sassy Food Farms collective was born. Abreu wants to share her knowledge with us in an effort to encourage people around the world to connect with The Earth and grow their own food. I must say, she did a fantastic job at convincing me!
I thoroughly enjoyed Abreu’s simplistic but upbeat writing style. It made taking in the mass amounts of information easier. The highly detailed section on microgreens and sprouts fascinated me. I never realized there were so many variations! She gave us the essential knowledge to begin our gardening journey with a hint of hippie-esque wisdom.
She further showed the importance of connecting with the earth during this tough time in the various photos strewn throughout the book. I appreciate the artistic approach to the subject matter. The cute graphic designs were also a fantastic touch. I feel that the visual representation drove home the message she was trying to convey excellently.
The final chapter, Food is Music, featured easy-to-make recipes that I can’t wait to try – especially the smashed potatoes and ice cream! It was the perfect conclusion to an already well-formatted and organized gardening book.
I also appreciated Abreu’s sentiment on learning about how different cultures consume the foods that you intend to grow. I guess you could call this another one of her many hippie-esque pearls of wisdom in the book.
I adored the clever chapter titles. A few of my favorites, besides Food is Music, include Playful Propagation, Cheerful Cultivation, and Thrilling Trees & Fantabouls Fruits. These titles show Abreu’s passion for the book’s subject matter.
Sassy Food is the epitome of a non-fiction instructional read that makes the seemingly mundane interesting. Despite being a beginner to intermediate level guide, Abreu still offers a plethora of information you may have not heard before. It’s a great book to have on the shelf to grab for quick referencing.
Pages: 170 | ASIN: 1736295411
Cooking In A Teacup Before & After
If you’re picking up this book in the hopes that it provides you with recipes for cooking in a teacup, you’ve picked up the wrong book. However, if you’re looking for a charming, self-reflective exploration of not only a life in food but an era, as well as a commentary on the societal experiences to be had within that era, then Cooking In A Teacup Before and After: An Autobiographical True Tale is here for you.
Nowadays, it seems hard to believe that a 21-year-old with no cooking experience (or even much life experience) would be left to her own devices in a kitchen in the Australian outback. But in 1952, that’s just what happened to Lesley J Mooney. Thankfully (for both Mooney and us, the reader of her autobiographical tale), she accepted the opportunity, acknowledging it, even subconsciously, for what it was: really interesting. So, here we are, in 2020, unpacking a book which lays out the experiences which unfolded before and after.
Mooney is really funny, and writes with a wry tone that makes each phase of her life joyful to hear about. While using the phrase “Ignorance is bliss” isn’t usually employed when it comes to the skill of cooking, and one book entitled “Country Woman’s Cookery Book” isn’t considered the overarching manual when it comes to culinary mastery, they certainly facilitated an hilarious starting point for Mooney’s attitude when taking on the challenge set out by her father to take the cooking job.
The structure of Mooney’s cooking experiences make a strong backbone to what, at the fleshy center, is a heart-warming autobiography of her life and becoming a woman in a conservative time in history. Having this structure in place gives the book good pace, and contextualizes the elements of experience and storytelling well.
Though perhaps a mild spoiler – it all goes well enough that Mooney thinks it appropriate to write about it all these years on. Even at the expense of a few bandaged up thumbs along the way…
Pages: 120 | ISBN: 1925959317
Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals
![Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals by [O'Malley, Timi]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516Z%2B53bpxL._SY346_.jpg)
Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals, by Timi O’Malley, is a fascinating journey through the author’s life. O’Malley brings her readers to her table where she fulfills their need to be nourished in more ways than one, and it is at that table where the author invites her readers into more diverse chapters of her life.
Connecting her love of culinary traditions with her belief that we are all connected through our purest and most basic needs, O’Malley makes it very easy to understand just how easy it is to achieve true happiness. Consuming Love sends a message of love and togetherness, but more importantly, it teaches us how we can find genuine satisfaction and fulfillment by just noticing the world around us, and by being consciously present within it. O’Malley masterfully intertwines her love of food with her experience to paint a wonderfully meaningful picture for her readers.
The people you will meet along O’Malley’s journey are incredible, but it is in O’Malley’s reaction to the personalities around her that seem even more so. She has deep respect for the people that have had an impact on her life, whether those people created positive experiences or negative. In fact, her reaction to everyone that she has shared meals with have one thing in common, and that commonality is a large part of what makes Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals so special. Everyone, it would seem, is a teacher, and over a plate of delicious cuisine is one of the best ways to be truly present with the people who pass through our lives.
For anyone who wonders about the nature of happiness and why some people are better at maintaining it than others, this book is a must read. Those interested in hearing of adventures across the country and into the far reaches of the globe would also be interested in this book. And for anyone who would like to gain a better understanding of the value of presence in our lives, Consuming Love: The Joy of Sharing Meals might just be the book you’ve been looking for. Timi O’Malley certainly deserves the full five stars for her offering to the table of life.
Pages: 150 | ASIN: B07L3Q91CG
He Could Literally Smell Murder
John Matsui Author Interview
Gravity Games follows Nathan and his sidekick as they venture through an international conspiracy full of super-humans and super-villains. What was your inspiration for a novel that turns a foodie into a detective?
About Food: I love food and became intrigued with foodie mysteries but the ones I’ve read seem to have a disconnect between the mystery and the food. Food just happens to be part of the journey. I wanted to write a novel that made food a driver of the plot and the MCs. Top Chefs always talk about tasting as you go. The sense of smell can sample with every breath so it makes sense that someone who could collect that information would have far greater control over the cooking process. The best cooks always buy their own fresh food products and allow their senses to guide their selection. No tool is better than the sense of smell.
About the Sense of Smell as a superpower: If the MC has a super sense of smell, why not put it to other uses. In Nate’s case, he didn’t have a choice because he could literally smell murder. As a youngster I bought every Batman comic and read every Sherlock Holmes story. Both detectives (that’s what Batman was known for in the beginning) sniffed every piece of evidence. Recently scientists have discovered that the sense of smell may be the most powerful if all if our senses. We can detect scents important to us as low as a couple parts per billion. Try to pick out two red grains of sand in a billion grains of multi-colored sand.
Gravity Games has a fascinating set of characters that could easily have their own novel. What was your favorite character to write for?
I have two characters that I liked best for different reasons. Bonnie and Big Ed.
Bonnie Nakagowa plays Watson to Nate’s Sherlock but rather than being merely the recorder of events Bonnie serves four key functions:
1. Guide post / moral centre: If you become a world celebrity, you can lose perspective. Bonnie grounds Nate. Bonnie humanizes Nate and the story. She does this as both his conscience and protector. I wanted a strong, non-powered female to protect a superpowered male in a credible way.
2. The best comedy in my mind comes from duos e.g. Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis, etc. Nate is the straight man for Bonnie’s cringe humour / attitude. Humour is important to me because it both balances and enhances the darkness.
3. Bonnie is key to advancing the plot. She has insight into Nate and can provide needed background and carry out secret missions. She can also be an unreliable narrator because she may not understand everything that’s happening in Nate’s head.
4. Bonnie, of course, is the love interest.
Big Ed is just plain nasty. I hoped everyone would hate him. My youngest daughter proofread an early draft of Gravity Games and called me one night at 11 p.m.
“Why are you calling me so late?” I asked.
“I hate Big Ed. I’m not going to sleep so I thought you shouldn’t sleep,” she said.
Was it your intention to write a fun and quirky novel that moves along quickly, or did this happen organically as you were writing?
I’m not sure that’s what I intended. It’s just the way I write. My first novel, Late Bite, features a vampirish character who has millions of social media followers and is host of the top-rated late night talk show, Late Bite. It has lots of quirky characters, laughs and lots of darkness. My projects all seem to fall in the same vein.
What is the next story that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’ve completed Lycanthrope Rising, a continuation of the saga of Dragul Mangorian, the MC in Late Bite. It will be on sale Sept. 15.
I’m well into a sequel, prequel, and spin-off of Gravity Games.
The Gravity Games prequel [working title: Where The Nose Goes] is intended to be a permanently free YA novella about secret 14-year-old crime solvers Bonnie and Nate, which I hope to release as an eBook before Christmas 2017.
The Gravity Games sequel [working title: Murder On The Menu] picks up where Gravity Games left off with a non-superpowered Nate facing the world’s top chefs. Nate faces the loss of reputation and his $10 million a year contract. One after another, his competitors are murdered. Fingers point to Nate as the key suspect. Expected release date early summer of 2018.
The Gravity Games spinoff [working title and series: The Revenants, Justice Inc. series] features quiet accountant Rick Summers who has an attack of conscience after he escapes the clutches of Big Ed. He embarks on a mission to right wrongs committed by Big Ed and others and is ably aided by Matches, a transgender teen. The expected launch date is fall 2018.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Gravity Games, a dark and delicious thriller. Nathan Sherlock is the world’s most renowned celebrity chef and wine expert. His fans know him as Nate the Nose, a culinary artist whose incredible sense of smell helps him create dining experiences that jolt the mojo transforming aged couples into hormone raging lovers. But Nathan has a dark secret. Best friend Bonnie has helped him hide the true extent of his olfactory powers. He can literally smell murder. U.S. Homeland Security and CSIS, the Canadian anti-terrorism agency, go into panic mode when a scientist disappears along with all traces of his anti-gravity research. The joint FBI-CSIS task force needs Nathan to sniff down the terrorists before they drop an iceberg the size of Manhattan on New York City.
LITERARY TITAN 