The Wonderful Week That Went By Fast

The Wonderful Week That Went By Fast

Every author looks forward to the launch of her book. Months of sitting at the computer, checking facts, going back and forth with editors and publishers, and at last, the BIG DAY! Monday was just such a day for GRAVE HERITAGE, the fourth Darcy and Flora cozy mystery and the fifth book I’ve written for publication.

GRAVE HERITAGE has gotten some nice reviews and appreciated praise. You may go to these web sites if you’d like to read them.

www.Pen-L.com/GraveHeritage.html

www.amazon.com/dp/B01KPDTHX2 Kindle

My friend Deb Forbes wrote a stunning review on her blogspot: http://mysteryreadingnook.blogspot.com/2016/09/grave-heritage-darcy-and-flora-mystery.html

Don’t you love the name of her blogspot: Mystery Reading Nook? Makes you want to pull up a chair, grab a book, and settle in, doesn’t it?

Some beautiful ladies had or are having birthdays this month. Happy birthday to Nancy Eaton, Leona Ferrell, Jan Cochran, Peg Bossard, Deb Forbes, Shauna Karinen Hess, and Stephanie Treadway Holbrook. The lucky winner of one of my Kindle ebooks is Nancy Eaton! Nancy, you may choose any of the five cozies I’ve written; let me know your choice on Facebook, and I’ll email it to you. If you have all of them, let me know who you would like it sent to as a gift.

I promised you Flora Tucker’s favorite chocolate pie recipe. Here ’tis. (By the way, Flora loves to bake with Hershey’s cocoa.)

Recipe for pie crust: 1 Cup flour, l/2 Cup shortening, pinch of salt, smidgen of cold water. Mix together flour, shortening, and salt. Add just enough very cold water for ingredients to hold together; Don’t get it too wet. Bake, rolled out to fit a pie pan, at 425 degrees until crust is light brown. Set aside.

Filling

1 Cup sugar                                                                 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

l/2 Cup flour                                                                l/4 Cup real butter

6 Tablespoons Hershey’s Cocoa                             2 tsp. vanilla

l/2 tsp. salt

2 Cups milk

In a sauce pan, add milk a little at a time to sugar, flour, cocoa, and salt. Cook and stir constantly until this mixture boils. Remove it from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks. (Add a little of the flour, cocoa, salt, milk mixture to the egg yolks before stirring them into the sauce pan.) Continue cooking until mixture thickens and becomes the correct consistency for the pie filling. Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla.  Pour into already prepared crust. Gently spread meringue topping over pie, place in 425 degree oven and heat until the meringue turns golden.

Meringue Topping: Beat 4 eggs whites until stiff. Add 5 or 6 Tablespoons of sugar and beat until sugar is mixed and stiff peaks form.

If you read yesterday’s post, you know that I have nominated Jackson Conner for President. My publisher asked for a picture so we could make a poster. Thing is, Jackson is camera-shy. I’ve been trying to find a picture with no success. Just imagine a mature, handsome man with white hair and mustache, twinkly blue eyes, sort of a combination of Dr. Michael Baden, Lionel Barrymore, and Robert E. Lee. I’ll keep looking for a picture. You might want to do that too, and if you find one, send it to me.

So, this was the wonderful week that was. Exciting. Busy. I hope you enjoyed the week as much as I did. This is fall and squirrels are busy gathering acorns for the coming winter. It’s a good time for readers to gather a good supply of books to enjoy during the long winter days ahead.