CHARACTERS WHO COOK

Conrad Jestmore, author of River of Murder, is second in our Writers Who Cook series. Conrad has weaved his passion for cooking into his novels through his main character,  Jimmy O’Reilly.

After a hard day investigating, Jimmy O’Reilly likes nothing more than a glass of fine wine and an equally fine meal. Watch Conrad prepare “a typical Jimmy O’Reilly meal” as he prepares a  savory dish of ravioli in brown-butter sage sauce,  capresi salad, and fine wine for Keyhole Conversations hosts, Bonnie Myrick and Hazel Hart.  Jimmy shares this wonderful recipe below.

View Conrad’s website to learn more about this mystery writer. His  new mystery sequel, Field of Dreams, is pending publication.

Jimmy O’Reilly’s Ravioli in Brown-Butter Sage Sauce

• chopped shallots
• extra virgin olive oil
• unsalted butter
• chopped fresh sage
• shaved parmesan

Ravioli (such as Parppadelle’s frozen black bean and red pepper ravioli)

1.  Boil ravioli until al dente.
2.  Sauté shallots until tender over medium heat
3. Add butter and let bubble until brown.
4. Add fresh sage and take off heat, or let cook until desired crispness.
5.  Spoon sauce over ravioli and top with shaved Parmesan

Jimmy O’Reilly’s Modified Capresi Salad

• sliced garden tomatoes
• Sliced mozzarella
• chopped fresh basil
• chopped fresh Italian parsley
• extra virgin olive oil
• balsamic vinegar

1. Arrange tomatoes and mozzarella slices, alternating
2. Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil and Italian parsley
3. Top with splash of balsamic vinegar

Serve both recipes with Italian Chianti or Brunello wine.

Thanks to vintagefeedsacks  and webweaver for the use of their images.

WRITERS WHO COOK

Earlier, Keyhole Conversations featured a series on Authors and their art. Then we noticed writers with other creative outlets and discovered a link between writers whose passions extended to creative cooking, so we decided to do a series on writers who cook.

H. B. Berlow, a prolific fiction writer,  dreams up his own recipes. His energy is contagious and his talents are many. He creates his own book trailers, book covers, and  he loves to blog about his two favorite passions, writing and cooking.

His kitchen is a shrine for his passion, right down to the special sink he uses. He credits the extremely artistic and talented contractor,  Mark Anderson, of  Persona Kitchen and Bath Solutions in Wichita, Kansas, for his dream-come-true kitchen.

This is one cooking vlog you don’t want to miss.

WHILE THE CHICKEN COOKS: A CONVERSATION ON COOKING, WRITING, AND OTHER ARTS

CHICKEN PICCATA

4 chicken breasts, pounded to approx. 1/2 inch
flour/salt/pepper for dredging
3 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup white cooking wine
4 Tbs. lemon juice
4 Tbs. capers
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

(1) Dredge chicken breasts in flour with salt and pepper. Place into a skillet where butter and olive oil have started to slowly melt on low heat.
(2) Turn heat to medium. Cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked through.  Do not overcook or turn heat up beyond medium.
(3) Lower heat. Remove chicken to warming platter. Add the piccata sauce (wine/lemon juice/capers) and turn heat back up to medium.
(4) Deglaze the pan (i.e. scrape up brown bits left over) and then turn up heat and reduce (i.e. bring to a light boil until some of the liquid has evaporated).
(5) Return chicken to pan. Reduce heat. Turn the chicken over to coat. Put chicken on plate. Cover with sauce. Sprinkle on chopped parsley.

Thanks to vintagefeedsacks for the use of their images.

DREAMS AND REALITY . . . . LOOKING FORWARD

Today’s post is a rambling about our historical novels, the research involved, and our future plans for Keyhole Conversations.

Our dream began in October 2011. Looking back it seems amazing that Keyhole Conversations has accomplished so much in so little time. Eight months ago, we had a simple dream: to promote indie writers’ books in a different way, peeking into the lives of our authors in an attempt to learn more about them and how those experiences shaped their writing.

We thought it would be a simple and exciting cause. How could we know there would be so much to learn about technology? (How hard could it be to run a video camera?) We found out! Plagued by one setback after another, we walked on the edge of giving up, but we kept on, working out the problems one by one as we learned to edit film, compose scenes, and construct a movie version to feature our writers.

We started by interviewing characters from the author’s books, tying in an author’s secret to the vlog. Moving into the holidays, we promoted books with coupons, even giving away free e-books, and yes, we poked fun at ourselves with bloopers. From there we slipped into a five-week series to give our readers variety: authors and their art, authors reading their favorite scene, and along the way, we tucked in works going through publication. Poetry month was featured in April, and recently we offered free downloads of our books, Dark Side of the Rainbow, Edge of Nowhere, and Out of Control, and gave an Amazon gift certificate for the reader who could correctly answer four questions over “The Seduction,” one of the stories from Dark Side of the Rainbow.

We offered our service free to those authors who participated in our venture, and those same authors, under a grandfather clause, will always enjoy a free lifetime membership where they can promote their books without charge. Starting August 1, 2012, our service will no longer be free. Until that date, you can still sign up for your free promotion, but after August 1, there will be a fee for promoting your work on Keyhole Conversations, either fiction or non-fiction.

As we look toward the future, new changes are coming for Keyhole Conversations. In addition to charging a fee for promoting indie writers’ works, we will post two vlogs a month instead of posting every Friday. Both of us are busy writing our historical novels and want to concentrate on completing them.

We hope you are enjoying Keyhole Conversations and will come back for our Writers Who Cook series starting in two weeks.

Thanks to vintagefeedsacks for the use of their images.

THE SEDUCTION WINNER

Authors Hazel Hart and Bonnie Myrick ran a book promotion contest last week, with a ten dollar amazon gift certificate as the prize. Readers were asked to answer four questions from “The Seduction,” one of the stories in the book, Dark Side of the Rainbow. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will find out how “The Seduction” was created by these two talented authors.

The winner of the ten dollar amazon.com gift card is Conrad Jestmore.

Congratulations Conrad.

Your gift card is in the mail.

The questions with the correct answers are below.

1. Where do Sydney and Armando meet?

Answer: mortuary of funeral home

2. What device does Sydney use to bring police and rescue workers to the grave where she is buried alive?

Answer: Cell phone with GPS

3. What color is the liquid oozing from the wound on Sydney’s neck? Answer: green.

4. When Sydney and Armando are both in bat form, how do they communicate?

Answer: through telepathy.

If you haven’t picked up your copy of Dark Side of the Rainbow, view the book trailer below and then head over to amazon to pick up a  copy

Writing “The Seduction”

When we first got the idea of co-writing a story  by e-mailing the manuscript back and forth, adding a paragraph each time, we had no story in mind. As in life, one thing led to another, and “The Seduction” came to life.

Since there was no agreed-upon plan, what one of us wrote often messed up the vision the other had of where the story was going. During each turn, we could either accept the new direction and build on it or find a way to return the story to our vision of its unfolding.

After almost a year, we realized the story had to come to an end, so we had a weekend write-in at Bonnie’s. For two days, we traded seat time at the computer, again with no plan except to find an ending. Writing “The Seduction” was great fun. We hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Thanks to vintagefeedsacks for the use of their images