Back to Top

Monthly Archives: February 2013

I stumbled across a reasonably affordable copy of The Regency Companion and bought it. Maybe the library had two since the stamp says “Outdated or Redundant.”

Outdated? Photo by Yours Truly

Outdated? Photo by Yours Truly

Ah. Research. Very timely as I am about to embark on The Next Historical.

Still, I decided to have a little fun with this book, so I rearranged some of the sentences.

Mr. Coke was just as remarkable as his house. Though enthralled with the perfection of Leicestershire as England’s premiere hunting field, Nimrod was not immune to its problems. All knew that a man showed his mettle on the hunting field. Guns were fired off from both the park and the tower. The most dazzling private pack [ ] was the Duke of Rutland’s, [but] gloriously attired ladies, each sporting a plume, were the true spectacle. Torn between the desire to laugh at the sight or frown in irritation at the time and effort it took to achieve this ridiculous style, the Comtesse could decide only that it became her very well indeed. She was one of the beauties of her day and famed for her equestrian exploits. The Stud Book firmly put all breeding on record. How each hotblooded young buck and his older elegant counterpart made use of these opportunities was left up to his own skill and imagination. [H]er feelings were still loverlike and constant. Youthful infatuation died an ugly death.

I think it was last week I was pretty annoyed by a book that should have been available via Google Book search but wasn’t: The Epicure’s Almanack, written by Ralph Rylance in 1815. An academic had written about it, then published the book with a forward, which was selling originally for $50. Just typing that cheeses me off again.

Anyway, the divine Isobel Carr owns a copy and she has loaned it to me because she is awesome that way.

Danger Lurks!

I am now living in fear that the dog or the paper chewing cat will damage the book. This is not an idle worry. Here’s a picture of some of the dog’s recent work:

Bad Dog. Photo by Risky Carolyn

Bad Dog. Photo by Risky Carolyn

And here’s the cat’s handiwork, as you can see below. I believe she expects to have completely consumed this box by late 2017. She plays a deep game, this cat. Suppose she finds the book and thinks it’s tasty? (Sorry Isobel!)

See? Photo by Risky Carolyn

Bad Cat. Photo by Risky Carolyn

And so?

Yeah, so anyway, I have this borrowed book that is at high risk of mayhem because it would cost me a fortune to replace it. Having flipped through it, I must grudgingly confess it might be extra useful because of the footnotes. It’s a great resource and Ralph Rylance has quite the amusing voice. In fact, anyone interested in absorbing the flavor of Regency London would do well to have this book at hand.

I’m off to look for a used copy…

On the ides of March, 2013, the three stories in the Midnight Scandals anthology with Yours Truly and authors Courtney Milan and Sherry Thomas will be available for individual sales.
Here is a the cover for One Starlit Night:

Cover of one Starlit Night

One Starlight Night

The amazing and talented Courtney Milan did the cover. The covers for the other two stories are similarly lovely (and work extremely well in the digital space.)

In other news, I am pulling together the information and resources for doing some audio books, starting with Lord Ruin.

For those of you who listen to audio books, any likes, dislikes, and/or secret wishes in re the same?

DSCN0407

Bread from happier times, cooling above a pan of water to discourage ants.

I recently suffered a bread failure. A massive, heavy, doorstopper type bread failure. Why? If you check out my post last year,  I recommended mixing in a bowl and then transferring it to the beloved (dollar store) plastic containers to rise. A mixing bowl prevents you from dumping in too much flour, whereas a straight sided container makes it difficult to judge random quantities. That was my mistake, and I think the sourdough may be a bit iffy.

So I have these unusable loaves. What would you have done with them in the Regency? Used them. Nothing was wasted. Doubtless I would have given them to the poor who would have obsequiously tugged their forelocks and stored them for the coming revolution when they’d thrown all the cobblestones. Or I would have used them to cook with. Grated bread, or even chunks added to liquids, is a useful thickener. So after receiving much advice on Facebook (use as poultices, get chickens, feed ducks) I went hunting for historical old bread recipes.

Starting off with Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, made Plain and Easy (1747), here’s a Baked Bread Pudding (although she doesn’t specify stale bread):

Take the Crumb of a Penny-loaf, as much Flour, the Yolks of four of four Eggs and two Whites, a quarter of a Pound of Sugar, a Tea Spoonful of Ginger, half a Pound of Raisins stoned, half a Pound of Currants clean washed and picked, a little Salt; mix first the Bread and Flour, Ginger and Salt and Sugar, then the Eggs, and then as much Milk as will make it like a good Batter, then the Fruit, butter the Dish, and pour it in and bake it.

gingeredbreadMany recipes I found transformed the humble loaf, the staple food in the west for centuries, into a luxury item with the addition of exotic, expensive spices, such as this Gingered Bread from the Tudor era colored with cochineal and flavored with ginger and peppercorns.

A visit to Gode Cookery turned up A Quaking Pudding from the sixteenth century very similar to Hannah Glasse’s, but flavored with rosewater and walnuts. This is a fabulous site if you’re interested in historical food. Check out the Lombard Brewet, chicken stewed in almond milk, thickened with bread and eggs, or the fifteenth century Payne Foundow, a bread pudding made with wine. You can also discover Divers Pretty Things Made Of Roses & Sugar from the sixteenth century (no bread, a diversion).

But in the end I have decided to make a genuine British Bread and Butter Pudding using the raisin walnut loaves, and letting everything soak a long, long time, and something like this Aragula, Bacon, and Gruyere Bread Pudding (I have no aragula or gruyere, but you get the idea) with the rest. Should be yummy!

MPvsmallBefore I ask leading questions, check out AllRomanceEBooks where A Most Lamentable Comedy is priced at ONE DOLLAR!! and you can also buy The Malorie Phoenix. Go grab them while they’re hot and the heroes are sorta like my bread if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Have you had any notorious cooking failures or successes recently? Or, if you were a Regency lady, what would you do with my rock-hard bread?

Posted in Research | 1 Reply

StrangerAtCastonbury2March 1 marks the release of my book A Stranger at Castonbury, the last book in the Castonbury Park series!!  (it’s up for pre-order at Amazon now…)  I will be giving away a copy to one commenter today…

When I was first asked to participate in a series described as “Downton Abbey in the Regency,” I jumped eagerly at the chance! Like so many other people, I am a Downton fanatic and have avidly followed the series from the beginning. (Mary and Matthew! Sybil and Branson! Bates and Anna! Thomas! The scandal! The clothes!). Mix it with another of my favorite things, the Regency period, and I was completely hooked. Also, I was very, very excited at the chance to work with so many authors whose books I love.

But then the reality set in. There were eight of us, and we had to work closely together to create a world as colorful and complex as that of Downton, with interlocking characters, upstairs/downstairs dynamics, scandal and passion. And I had to write the last story, tying it all together and making sure I stayed true to the world of Castonbury and other authors’ characters. Easy and simple, of course. Not!

Luckily one of the things I love best about Downton is how everyone’s lives interlock and entwine, and having the chance to create the same thing at Castonbury was great fun. (And luckily many of the other authors are much more organized than I am, and created spreadsheets and images that made the place come really alive for us all). Through the other stories, I could easily envision the house and the people in it, and by the time I finished writing Stranger at Castonbury, it felt like home.

For more info on the series, visit my website’s Castonbury Page!  Do you like continuity series?  What are some you have followed?  What did you like/not like about series like Downton??

Posted in Giveaways | Tagged | 13 Replies
Follow
Get every new post delivered to your inbox
Join millions of other followers
Powered By WPFruits.com