The Fall of a Hero

I've been missing from this blog for several months, and from much of the rest of my world.  I apoligize to my fans for disappearing, and I feel as though I owe you an explanation.  This may take more than one post, but I find myself wanting to talk about what happened over the last year.

You see, I lost my hero, the man I have looked up to and admired for more than 60 years.  My dad.  I want to talk about him, about who he was and what he meant to me.

Over the last couple years I have watched dementia slowly steal the man I knew.  It was heart-breaking to watch this vital, larger-than-life man reduced to a confused and debilitated man battling with his private demons.

In the end he slipped away in his sleep on the 17th of August.  It was both a tragedy and a blessing, and brought grief, relief, and guilt for feeling relieved, in equal measures.  I will always miss him, but the man I grew up with would not have chosen those last months of dependency and loss of control.

Dad wasn't a conventional hero.  He didn't fly planes, or charge into burning buildings, or chase bad guys.  But he was my hero.  There are many things I want to say about him, to tell you why he was important.

I thought I was ready.  I had the words in my head to tell you what I want you to know.  But I still can't.  Sometime soon, I hope.

In the meantime, I hold onto one thing: Just a few days before he died, I got a revised cover image for the first book in the new series (it's getting a couple tweaks, and I hope to have it to post later in the week). 

This is the first book under the Fifield name.  My dad's name. 

I was able to email a copy to my mother, and she took it to show Dad - the first time the name he passed down to me appeared on the cover of a book.

I like to think he approved.

Cover Coming!

I've just seen a preview of the cover for MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT, and I am very pleased with the results!  The art is wonderful, the composition is lovely, and there's a great quote from a writer I like and respect - a lot.

Did I mention that I am pleased?

There's a parrot on the cover - as well there should be - along with the new (old) name of Christy Fifield.  Technically that name is not exactly what my name was; I went by Christi Fifield when I was a child, but I didn't figure anyone would notice the difference.  Heck, it's been long enough since I used that name, no one would even notice, except my family!

Anyway, as soon as I have the okay I will be posting the cover - and the nice quote - here for everyone to see.  I also have a release date of March, 2012, so mark your calendars.

In the meantime, I do have a new short story available now on Kindle and coming soon to Nook, and through most of the other regular epublishing channels.  Here's the description for "Cheer Witches":


Some people think all cheerleaders are witches, which isn't really true. Except at Salem Township Public High School #4 - known to the student body as Witch High.



Regionals are coming, and Cassie wants to win. But not enough to cheat. Magic is strictly forbidden in competition, and by the coach. Still, a little magic seems to be creeping into their routines, and Cassie is worried. She prides herself on using her powers for good, and cheating isn't right.

If she can't find the hidden source of the magic before their next competition, they could be disqualified.

Or worse, in Cassie's mind, they could not be disqualified.

Then even if they win, they lose!


Find it on Amazon at the above link, or in all major ebook forms on Smashwords. Only 99 cents. Coming soon to Nook, Apple, Kobo, and all other major ebook outlets.  And while you're there, take a look at the other titles I have available.  There are two short stories FREE at Smashwords - Food Fight (also free for Kindle and Nook) and Songs of Lesser Voices (available for free on Nook) - and several others at only 99 cents.

I hope to be back here soon to post more recipes and cooking photos, and to share the new cover.  I'm excited to get your reactions to the cover - I'm already happy about it and I hope you'll like it, too!

One Book Down, Two To Go!

Big sigh of relief from Christy Mystery - the first book in the Haunted Gift Shop series went off to the editor today!  Which means we start the whole "Road To The Bookstore" process again, with MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT.  We've already been working on the cover copy - that is, the fabulous people at Berkley Prime Crime have been writing, and I've been commenting - and I hope to have it for you in the next few days.

In the meantime, the banana pudding post is written, but there's yet another delay.  The Official Taster, who is also the Official Photographer, informs me that we took over 130 pictures the day I made pudding.  And to post on the blog, we need to tidy them up a bit and make sure they are the right size.

Now I grant you, we'll likely use 5-10% of those pictures, so we don't have to fiddle with every one of them, but the problem is knowing which 5-10% to edit.  Needless to say, this has led to much dithering and discussion, most of which I refused to participate in because I was busy with - oh, I don't know - finishing a book?

But as of today the book is in the hands of my editor, and before I plunge into the next book I will get a couple more posts - with pictures - up here to tempt your taste buds, and I'll get the cover copy to tempt your reading appetite.

What's In A Name?

Just when you think you have everything set up, someone comes along and knocks something down.  Sometimes that's a Bad Thing, sometimes it's a Good Thing.  And sometimes it's just a Thing.

For instance, this week at the day job has been insane.  I've been covering some vacation time in my department, which means I have spent several nights at work - but not in a row.  Oh no, that would be too easy!  Instead I've been mixing up night shifts and day shifts.  And that is kind of a Bad Thing.

On the other hand, I've been able to get back on schedule with visiting the gym, which means I am getting at least 30 minutes a day of cardio workout.  That is a Good Thing.

Then there's the change for Murder In a Shot Glass, which is just A Thing - though I think it actually deserves to be called a Good Thing.  The change is the title - as of this week we have officially re-titled the book MURDER BUYS A T-SHIRT.

The change was suggested by the publisher, and this is where the story gets a tad strange.  You see, when I first proposed the Haunted Gift Shop series, and gave the publisher a proposal for three books, I had a different story as the first book.  The title of that story was Murder Buys A T-Shirt.  After some discussion we decided that a different story was a better place to start, and we decided to start with the story I had titled Murder In A Shot Glass.

But when the book was presented at a meeting with some of the people who will make the magic happen - you know, give it a cover, and the cover copy, and the copy for the catalog, and all those things that will make droves of people actually buy the book - they weren't thrilled wtih the title.

No one has said exactly, but I can guess at least one of the reasons.  This is a cozy mystery, with all the cozy sensibilities.  Does Shot Glass say cozy?  Or does it say noir?  It sound more like noir to me, and while that's a genre I like, it isn't what I'm writing.  But T-Shirt?  That's a cozy title for sure.

So Murder Buys a T-Shirt is the new title of the first Christy Fifield mystery in the Haunted Gift Shop series.  And I'm happy with it.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I prefer it to Murder in a Shot Glass.

There are other titles in the Haunted Gift Shop series - Murder In a Snow Globe, Murder Sends a Postcard, Murder Wants a Cracker - but I'm convinced that Murder in a Shot Glass isn't a cozy title.

But one of these days I will find the noir-ish story that goes with that title.  And then there will be a book called Murder in a Shot Glass.

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Seven - Sweet Potato Casserole

You can tell it's Southern cooking by the parrot!

All of my Southern cooking is an experiment, and some of the results are better than others.  For instance, the problem with the hush puppies (see Part Two).  I had to thicken the batter, and I didn't make notes of my changes so I haven't been able to post a recipe yet.  On the other hand, the fried cornbread came out well and I was pleased with the results (in Part Six).

My first attempt at sweet potato casserole falls in the "less successful" category.  It was tasty, but it wasn't what my expert taste-tester expected and it needs some work.

But I'm not proud - I'm happy to share the tasty failures, too!

Mis en place for sweet potato casserole
The bowl at left is cornmeal for fried cornbread

There are a few tricks I've stolen from cooking shows over the years, and one is the concept of mis en place.  It's a French phrase that means (more or less) "everything in place."

You know how it is when you watch one of those shows, and they have little dishes of every ingredient already measured and ready in a tiny glass bowl?  They never waste camera time measuring, and it's also a great way to determine that you have every ingredient.

In fact as I was setting up for this recipe I discovered that I didn't have miniature marshmallows.  Fortunately the grocery store is only three blocks away.  On a cooking show there would be an able assistant, ready to run do the chef's bidding at any moment.  For me that was the amazing husband/photographer/Official Taster, who ran to the store for marshmallows as I started cooking.



Because the Official Taster prefers yams, that is what I actually used.  Most any variety of sweet potato or yam will work, but that may be part of what went wrong with mine.  I will need to experiment with either different tubers.  But once they were peeled and chopped I put them on to boil until tender.

While the yams simmered, I took a few minutes to clean up the kitchen.  I have discovered that this kind of cooking -  with new recipes and sometimes unfamiliar ingredients - can create a lot of havoc in my kitchen, and lead to many piles of dirty dishes.  Since I have an older house, built at the end of WWII, it doesn't have a dishwasher.  Someday, I have promised myself, we will remodel the kitchen.  Someday!

Bubble, bubble
Sweet potato trouble!

After a few minutes at a slow boil, the yams were fork-tender and ready to mash.  The recipe called for three cups of mashed sweet potato, which seemed like a lot for two people, so I used two small yams and cut the rest of the ingredients in half.  It was plenty, and we even had leftovers.

Once the yams were tender, I drained them in a colander and returned them to the pan to mash them.  I have an ancient hand masher, which was all I needed to smash the yams without completely destroying the texture.

An old-fashioned hand masher works just fine!

However, I think I may have over cooked the yams.  The consistency, as you will soon see, was thinner than I would have liked.  The Official Taster also said it should have been more like dense mashed potatoes than the dish I produced.  Thus the label of Tasty Failure.

But I digress...

Sugar

 The yams were mashed, ready to be mixed, and here is where the mis en place shines!

Once the yams were mashed, I added the remaining ingredients,


Sugar ...

Butter

Butter ...

Milk ...

Eggs and vanilla,
and poured the resulting mash into a baking pan.

Tasty, but way too soupy!

This is when we realized the mixture wasn't as thick as we thought it should be.  There wasn't a lot I could do at this point, so I forged ahead with the topping

A chef's trick, right in my own kitchen

A second mis en place was ready with flour, brown sugar, melted butter, and chopped nuts.  In a concession to the Official Taster I omitted coconut.  Not pictured are the miniature marshmallows my dedicated assistant fetched from the store while the yams were simmering and I was cleaning up the mess from peeling and chopping.

I mixed the nuts, brown sugar and flour into the melted butter, and then added the miniature marshmallows.

I spread the topping over the mashed yams in the baking dish, and it was ready for the oven.

After baking, the casserole was a beautiful, bubbly brown on top, with puffs of golden melted marshmallows. It smelled great, and tasted fine, but it wasn't exactly ready for its close-up.  Here's hoping I can do a better job next time, and show you a finished product that will make your mouth water!

But for the record, here is a plate of the finished casserole.  Too soft to hold its shape, it probably belongs in a small bowl rather than on a plate - it was more like a pudding than a casserole, and it's quite sweet, too.

Stay tuned for more Southern cooking adventures soon!!  Maybe I'll get the pictures for that banana pudding ...



Sweet Potato Casserole


3 cups boiled and  mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Add sugar, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla to mashed sweet potatoes.  Place in an oven-proof casserole and top with a mixture of

1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans preferred, but walnuts also work
1 cup coconut (optional, according to the Official Taster)
1 cup miniature marshmallows

Bake at 350 degrees until brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes

Cooking Up a New Series - Part Six - Fried Cornbread

After my first Southern meal of catfish and hush puppies (detailed in parts One, Two, and Three), my next experiment was black-eyed peas with ham shanks (detailed in part Five) and fried cornbread.

This time I didn't need to use the deep fryer, just a frying pan and a much smaller amount of oil.  Since I had carefully strained and stored the shortening from the catfish and hush puppies I was able to re-use some of that shortening to fry the cornbread.

Using that oil also allowed me to test my theory about using oil that had been used for fish. It did, indeed, impart some great flavor.

Making fried cornbread, I discovered, is really a simple process.

First you assemble the dry ingredients, then add boiling water, stir, shape and fry.  It really is that easy!



While the process in quite simple, it also takes some patience, a word that keeps coming up again and again as I go through these recipes.  Giving the dry ingredients a few minutes to absorb the boiling water and to cool seems to develop a more easily-handled dough.

As the dough became pliable and cooled, I took a ball about the size of a golf ball, shaped it with my hands, and flattened it with my fingertips.  The result was a bunch of patties about the size of the palm of my hand, and a half-inch thick.  In order to avoid letting the oil sit on the heat, I shaped all the cornbread first - before I started frying.

I heated the oil in the pan, letting it come up to temperature before I started cooking.  I put a few pieces at a time into the oil.  As they turned golden on the bottom and started to brown around the edges, I flipped them to fry the other side.

In a couple minutes they were cooked through and a beautiful golden brown.

And here's the finished plate of fried cornbread, ready to sop up the juices off the black-eyed peas!

Fried Cornbread

1 1/2 cup self-rising cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups boiling water

Mix cornmeal and salt in a large bowl.  Stir well and pour boiling water over dry ingredients.  Stir to mix well. Dough will be slightly runny, but will thicken as it cools.  When dough is cool enough to handle, shape into balls about the size of a golf ball.  Wetting your hands will help to prevent sticking as you shape.  Flatten the balls with your fingers to about 1/2 inch.

Place the shaped pieces on plastic wrap or waxed paper until all pieces are shaped.

Heat about a half-inch of oil or shortening in a large frying pan.  When the oil is hot, place a few pieces of cornbread in the hot oil.  Cook until the bottom is golden and the edges begin to brown.  Turn and continue frying until the second side is also golden.

Drain on paper towels, and serve with your favorite Southern main dish!

Up next - Part Seven - Tasty Sweet Potato Failure

A New Logo!

Since I have been doing the Southern cooking blog posts, we thought it might be cool to add a logo to the posts that will quickly identify them as a part of the MURDER IN A SHOT GLASS series.  And now we have a shiny new logo to add to the posts!

Here it is, in all its glory.

Look for the SHOT GLASS logo on the Southern cooking blog series, and on other posts about the Haunted Gift Shop series.  Sort of like the faucet logo for the Lady Plumber series.  And I'll be putting it on guest blog posts, so you can revel in your special secret knowledge of what it means.

I'll be looking forward to putting up more cooking posts.  These are experiments and they don't always work, but I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly for your entertainment and edification.

Coming soon (as soon as I get pictures) is a banana pudding discussion.  And then there are black-eyed peas with a ham shank, fried cornbread, and a yummy failure of a sweet potato casserole.

Stay tuned for some tasty adventures!