Monday, March 10, 2014

Spotlight/Book Giveaway/Guest Post: Inherit the Word by Daryl Wood Gerber



About the Book

Genre: Cozy Mystery, #2 in A Cookbook Nook Mystery Series
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
Release Date: March 2014


Synopsis from Goodreads...

Jenna Hart moved back to Crystal Cove, California, to recapture her joie de vivre and to help her aunt Vera run the local culinary bookshop and café. But it’s hard to follow a simple recipe for relaxation when murder gets thrown in the mix…

The Cookbook Nook is set to host the town’s upcoming Grill Fest, a tasty tradition which pits local amateur chefs against one another to concoct the most delicious dishes. This year’s challenge: grilled cheese. But with competing chefs bearing grudges from past years, more mouths are running off than savoring the fare.

The expression "too many cooks” proves all too true when the eight-time champ is found murdered in the alley behind the café. Soon a local diner owner (and Jenna’s "second mother”) is suspected of bumping off the competition, and Jenna has to douse the flames before the wrong person gets burned


Author Guest Post


THE PERFECT GRILLED CHEESE
By Daryl Wood Gerber aka Avery Aames
Agatha Award-winning author of the national bestselling
Cheese Shop Mystery and Cookbook Nook Mystery series


“Life is good; cheese makes it better.” ~ Avery Aames


Do you love grilled cheese sandwiches? I do. They bring back memories of simpler times. When I was a kid, I used to go to Lake Tahoe in the summer with my family, and my mother would make a really cheese-y grilled cheese. She would also fix tomato soup. Comfort food extraordinaire. We would take a midday break—if we didn’t, we’d be sunburned prunes; my sisters and I loved swimming in the ice cold lake. We would sit on the porch eating our grilled cheese and look out at the water and count seagulls. Fun. Easy.

While writing the next book in the Cookbook Nook Mysteries, I did a lot of research for grilled cheese sandwiches. Why? Because the story revolves around a grilled cheese competition. I wanted to know my stuff. [Don’t I have it rough? LOL] I’ve always been a good grilled cheese maker, but I wanted to be great. As a result, I’ve changed three aspects of my grilled cheese cooking techniques.

One: My cheese maven [a real person] wrote a blog post a couple of years ago that said, and I’m paraphrasing: “It’s called a cheese sandwich, not a bread sandwich, so make sure you use lots of cheese.” Ever since, I’ve doubled up on the cheese I put in a sandwich.

Two: Thanks to a suggestion in another article, in addition to buttering the outside of the bread, I now add a swath of cream cheese to the inside of the bread. As it turns out, cream cheese heats up fast and encourages the other cheese to melt. Brilliant tip.

Three: Lastly, I invested in a Panini grill. Have you ever handled one? They’re quite big and clumsy. They’re sort of like a waffle iron, but the back side is a little more flexible so that a cook can put in a grilled sandwich that is extra-wide, and it will still fit. Using a Panini grill has made all the difference in my grilled cheese results. Here’s why. I now have to eat gluten-free [I didn’t as a girl…long story…]. Gluten-free bread isn’t the easiest to grill. It’s, um, not very flexible unless you’ve just pulled it fresh out of the oven (which is great!). In fact, it’s stiff and hard. But if you put a gluten-free sandwich in a Panini grill, something about the weight of the two sides of the grill help the gluten-free bread get soft again. It also helps the cheese melt evenly throughout. Perfection.

By the way, while writing INHERIT THE WORD [The Word is a diner in town, short for Mum’s the Word Diner], I did a lot of taste-testing. I made one sandwich based on an appetizer my mother used to make for her bridge club. I’ve included the recipe in the book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What’s your favorite grilled cheese combination? Have you ever participated in or watched a grilling competition?


BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!

How would you like to win a paperback copy of Inherit the Word by Daryl Wood Gerber? Thanks to Berkley, I have one paperback to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Just a few simple rules...

1) You must fill out the rafflecopter form below.

2) Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old

3) US Residents Only

4) For an one extra entry: Tweet about this giveaway.

5) For an one extra entry: Leave a comment for the author.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited.

The giveaway begins on March 10th (midnight est) and ends on March 17th (midnight est).

The winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. I will announce the winner here on my blog.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

43 comments:

  1. Wow, love your suggestions for a grilled cheese sandwich, especially about the gluten free part. I have been trying to give up wheat. I know how much better I felt when I went wheat free, so am starting again. Also, cream cheese to the inside....I hadn't hear that before and Yes, I have watched a grilling contest. Sounds like a great idea for a book!!!

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    1. Char, glad to be of help! I feel so much better off wheat. It's quite amazing. Doesn't work for everyone, but for some of us, definitely.

      Daryl / Avery

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  2. Awww my cat! And I want that sandwich

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  3. I loved grilled cheese sandwiches, but I rarely make them. Maybe I need to use some of your tips and change that. They certainly make a lot of sense.

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    1. Hi, Mark. They don't take long to make. You just have to be in the mood, I think. :)

      Daryl / Avery

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  4. I've never heard of putting a bit of cream cheese on the inside of the bread, and I want to try that. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is such a classic childhood (and adult) meal. I love grilled cheddar and tomato slices - I think that's my favorite combo!

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  5. I'm just beginning to learn the fun of mixing cheeses in my grilled cheese..... Adding goat cheese has been one of my favorites.

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  6. Absolutely <3 grilled cheese! Well, actually all cheese. Comfort food for me. Looking forward to reading this book!

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  7. Sounds like another good one. I love grilled ham and cheese, preferably with cheddar cheese, and not burned.

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  8. I'm a plain American cheese girl for my grilled cheese, but I like it with ham sometimes and love bacon on them

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  9. Love the series and the recipes. The descriptions she gives of the cheeses is awesome.

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  10. Nothing like a great grill cheese sandwich

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  11. This is a fun series. Grilled cheese sandwiches are always good to eat.

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  12. Sounds like a good cozy mystery.

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  13. I had never heard of grilled cheese with tomato soup until I met my hubby, I fell in love with it. I also like to put tomato on my grilled cheese.

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  14. Mmm that looks delicious! I love the covers in this series.

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  15. Thanks,for the tips on grilled cheese sandwich. I must eat GF and my local GF bakery has a bread Pleasant bread that is moist and you can eat without toasting it.

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    1. Wow, Betty, you're lucky. I do make my own so I can get it moist. The best I've found store-bought is from Whole Foods, their brand.

      Daryl / Avery

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  16. Great series. Best wishes. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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  17. I really enjoy this series! and Grilled cheese sandwiches!
    ( adding cream cheese sounds delicious )

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  18. congrats to Daryl & continued success!!!

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  19. Grilled cheese is my favorite!! Thanks for the chance to win!

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  20. I haven't made a good grilled cheese in month---I think tomorrow night that will be dinner.
    suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com

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  21. Huge fan of Daryl Wood GerberAvery Aames. And I have a thing for grilled cheese sandwiches. When my family moved to Salt Lake City in 1972, we stayed at a hotel for a month until my parents found and purchased a house. I had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and dinner every day. And then every year on the anniversary of our arrival we returned to the hotel restaurant, and every year I had grilled cheese...but not so good as in the Cheese Shop mysteries!

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  22. Would love to read this! Thanks for the chance!

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  23. I have never heard of a culinary bookshop. But the book sounds wonderful, and I'd love to read it. Thanks for having the giveaway.

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  24. I'm thrilled to see so many comments. Wow. Very nice. I hope you all enjoy a good read, a good grilled cheese, and a fabulous year!

    Daryl / Avery

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  25. Love grilled cheese sandwich & tomato soup on a chilly day! And loved Final Sentence . Looking forward to this one!

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  26. I love grilled cheese and can't wait to try your suggestions. Love your books too.

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  27. Cats and cooking together in a book -- doesn't get any better than that!
    Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

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  28. I haven't had grilled cheese in a while. Now I'm hungry for it! lol I'd love to start reading this series. It sounds really good!

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  29. I need to read this! thank you for the chance to win :)

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