Tasty Summer Reads – Cabbage Rolls, Tasty Tomato Sauce, Rice, and Moscow Salad

Thanks goes to Tony Acree,  author of the Amazon Bestselling novel The Hand Of God, for inviting me to participate in a Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop.  Food does play a part in my mystery ‘Without A Conscious…’ ( digital and audible).  Part of the mystery occurs at a Russian restaurant.  In actuality it is one of my favorite places to eat. Though the name in the book is a little different, the real place that inspired it is Taste Of Europe.  If you are in the Dallas/Arlington area you might check them out.

Here is the blog hop general blurb:

Welcome to the Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop! Each participant invites a number of others to answer five questions about a recent or forthcoming release, and a recipe that fits with it. Links to the participants I have invited may be found in a while, just above the extract and recipe. Their contributions should be in place soon after this, so check out their blogs over the next few days.

Tasty questions? You be the judge.

1)      When writing are you a snacker? If so, sweet or salty?

Though I eat most anything, I tend not to eat while I write.  Why? Each bite I take I like to savor the food, and since I cannot focus on it and write, I tend not to do it. My writing is all consuming.

2)      Are you an outliner or someone who writes by the seat of their pants? And are they real pants or jammies?

My brain knows the difference, and it is not any fun if I already know all the details. I tend to know the beginning of the story and the end, but the rest is filled in by human intuition and is character driven.  ‘Without A Conscious…’ is the first in a series of five books.  The second book in the mystery is ‘…Thought That’s Thin…’.  Each title of the five books combines to form a sentence that is used as a final clue in the fifth book, so the first two are ‘Without a conscious thought that’s thin…’.  The main character Cliff has to put them all together.

Real pants or not, it makes no difference to me. When I start to write, the rest of the world fades away.

3)     When cooking, do you follow a recipe or do you wing it?

I tend to wing things, but have found you have to know something about what you are doing to make it good.  Ask my wife.  Although I have created some cool stuff, sometimes winging it drops like a rock.  I learned this recently when my wife hurt her knee and could not get around well for about eight weeks.  As a dutiful husband I took over the kitchen duties, and low and behold, discovered some major differences in our personalities.  If enough people encourage me, I might even write about it. J

4)      What is next for you after this book?

I am currently working with ‘Thought That’s Thin’, the second book in the five book mystery. Jonna’s eyes open wider as he learns more about his murdered grandmother even as he is trying to attend her funeral. The mystery gets deeper, dark characters emerge, and a twist of fate wraps around Jonna’s life with strangling force.

Hydra Publications also published ‘The Wall Outside’ a fantasy about magic, elves, oh my, and I am working on its sequel ‘Partition Majik’.

I have a third book, ‘Ivan’, a scifi adventure, also in edits. Who wouldn’t like a UCT, universal computer tech, who travels the galaxy, but can’t seem to stay out of trouble?  One of my readers have called it edgy, retro, steampunkish, and very cool.

5)      Last question…on a level of one being slightly naughty and ten being whoo hoo steamy, how would you rate your book?

‘Without A Conscious…’ (digital and audible) has passion and adventure without going rated R. It is seen through the eyes of Cliff Fulton, a college student, with his thoughts and emotions dealing with the murder of his grandmother, being hunted by an assassin, and protecting those he loves.  In the midst of this he meets Penny, whose actions threaten to tear Cliff’s heart apart. Five stars would best describe the question asked here.

I am tagging (look for their names shortly):

A sample from ‘Without A Conscous…’ 

The photo stared up at him; it was the picture of an older woman lying under a bridge.  The light green sweatshirt, sweat pants, and bright white tennis shoes appeared clean and new, with the camera making sure the face was shown.  Not only that, but it showed her dead.

                Time stopped as the meaning of the photo slammed into his conscious mind.  This could not be real; it did not even feel real.  It was a movie one watched on television, or a play portrayed at the theatre, or a . . . the seconds stretched out as time waited patiently, taunting him with a reality that he refused to believe.  In the background the kitchen ceiling fan rattled, its repetitive singing lulling him into limbo . . .

********* Finally The Recipe! *********

Cliff Fulton enjoys the cabbage rolls, tasty tomato sauce, rice, and moscow salad, but where did the idea for this exquisite dish come from? Taste Of Europe in Arlington, TX featured on the food network! My wife and I met Guy Fieri at the filming!

Cabbage Rolls: Ground beef and chicken specially prepared with rice and carrots wrapped in cabbage leaves and cooked in tomato sauce. It is served with rice. (I like to add the moscow salad!)

After talking with the owners, they are sending their special recipe. However, in the meantime, check out the one listed on the Food Network. Cabbage Rolls Recipe

Thanks for reading!

James William Peercy