Heating up the Holidays with Elizabeth Essex!
Elizabeth
Essex is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Reckless Brides
historical romance series. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards,
including the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the Romantic Times Reviewers’
Choice Award and Seal of Excellence Award, and RWA’s prestigious RITA Award.
The Reckless Brides Series h
as also made Top-Ten lists
from Romantic Times, The Romance Reviews and Affaire de Coeur Magazine, and
Desert Isle Keeper status at All About Romance. Her fifth book, A BREATH OF
SCANDAL, was awarded Best Historical in the Reader’s Crown 2013.
When
not rereading Jane Austen, mucking about in her garden or simply messing about
with boats, Elizabeth can be always be found with her laptop, making up stories
about heroes and heroines who live far more exciting lives than she. It
wasn’t always so. Long before she ever set pen to paper, Elizabeth
graduated from Hollins College with a BA in Classics and Art History, and then
earned her MA in Nautical Archaeology from Texas A&M University.
While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true
calling writing lush, lyrical historical romance full of passion, daring and
adventure.
At
the Essex abode we are looking forward to enjoying what I call a full-on
Southern Christmas. This may surprise those of you who know for a fact that I
was born a Yankee, and still carry some deep-seated New Englander-isms in my
blood (notably the inability to turn a blind eye). And while I occasionally
miss the snow-covered white Christmases of my youth, I have grown to savor the
warmth of a southern Christmas day. And the ease and tradition of decorating
with glossy magnolia leaves. And the pecan pies. And the oysters. And oh my, oh
my, the punch. And the southern-est of them all, the deep fried turkey.
I am ashamed to say that I resisted
this deep-fried innovation at the onset of my marriage to the Indispensable Mr.
Essex. Where would I stuff my stuffing, I wailed. How could I be expected to
whip up the world’s most delicious, savory gravy with no proper pan drippings?
And furthermore, how could anybody be expected to feel all Chrismas-y without
the divine aroma of the roasting bird wafting about our drafty old house?
“Well,” Mr. Essex replied with his usual good-humored thoughtfulness, “You
could use the empty oven space to make more pies.”
Now there is a man who has his
priorities straight. So I adapted. And once I had made all those pies, they
needed to be shared. And once I had people coming over for some pie, I thought
they might be thirsty. And so I decided to make bourbon punch. And this was
when I really hit my stride.
I can make punch for just about any
occasion—non-alcoholic types for afternoon tea, champagne punch for brunch
parties, and my favorite, a cheering, toe-warming bourbon punch for winter
evenings. I started with the recipe passed down to me by my father who used to
make a concoction known in the family annals as “Robinson’s Flaming Retribution
Punch.” This lethal blend will put enough hair on your chest to warm a body
through the raw New England winters.
But I was looking for something a
little less insistent, a little more neighborly and hospitable. And something
chilled for those warm southern winter afternoons. And here it is, my version
of the ‘Holiday Cheer’ that makes an appearance in “The Scandal Before
Christmas,” my novella in CHRISTMAS BRIDES.
Mrs.
Essex’s Advanced Holiday Cheer:
Overnight:
Soak
8 cinnamon sticks in a 750ml bottle of bourbon, and let it sit overnight. (I
just push the sticks down the neck.)
Next
day:
Stir
one cup of white sugar into a mix of 1/2 cup of lemon juice, 1/2 cup ginger
juice, and 1/2 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice, and let it fully dissolve.
(You can do this with regular sweetened cranberry juice by leaving off the
sugar at this point, and adding it back in later to taste, but that’s tricky.)
Get
out your punch bowl and pour in the juice blend, bourbon (leaving the cinnamon
sticks behind) and 3/4 of a cup of Malmsey Madeira. (Malmsey is Madeira wine
made out of the sweet Malvasia grape which I think works better than dryer
Moscatel or other Madeira grapes, but you suit yourself.)
Stir
lazily.
Pour
in 3 cups of sparkling water. Soda water is also fine, and I have even used
flavored sparkling water (like lemon, or even pomegranate) in a pinch.
Garnish
with cranberries, or nutmeg, or even a sprig or two of mint.
Serve
over crushed ice.
Drink
responsibly.
Thank you, Elizabeth! I do love the sound of all those pies...and the turkey...and the punch! I'd say you have conquered the Southern Christmas with a flair!
Readers, do you have a favorite holiday punch recipe? Was the recipe handed down or is it your own concoction?
How do you cook your turkey? Have you tried deep-fried? (PJ here. I admit to being skeptical until I tasted one that was deep-fried. Oh my delicious goodness!)
Are you a pie maker? What's your favorite kind to make? Favorite kind to eat?
Giveaway:
To one random commenter, I will give away a FULL set of the Reckless Brides
Books: ALMOST A SCANDAL, A BREATH OF SCANDAL, SCANDAL IN THE NIGHT, AFTER THE
SCANDAL, A SCANDAL TO REMEMBER, and “The Scandal Before Christmas” in CHRISTMAS
BRIDES.
Open to US and Canada.
Bonus Giveaway: Elizabeth is also hosting a giveaway for her newsletter subscribers. Subscribe at her website.
Don't forget to "like" The Romance Dish's Facebook page for a chance to win a 4-book giveaway from today's authors!
The Scandal Before Christmas
by Elizabeth Essex
Lieutenant Ian Worth needs a wife by Christmas. He has to find her, woo her, and wed her before he goes back to sea.
Anne Lesley is a shy spinster with no prospects, so she accepts Ian’s hasty offer only for the security it will bring.
But when a midwinter storm rolls in, things start to heat up between them…and they might just find true, honest-to-goodness love…
I've never thought of us as a family with
strong traditions, but as I think about it, that's not actually true. Our
traditions are big and small and most of them crept up on us unaware that a
tradition was forming. The holiday meals tend to vary greatly depending on who
is cooking. One year my brother the chef enlisted us as his kitchen help. The
food that year was sublime. (We had pheasant, turducken, and turkey). If we're
cooking at my parent's house, we have dry turkey because my mother and father
have very different opinions about oven temperatures. My dad walks through the
kitchen and turns up the oven. A little later, my mom comes in and turns it
down. And so it goes until the turkey is terrible. But we still have sweet
pickles on the table, and homemade pumpkin pie and cranberry relish and nobody
really cares that the turkey is horribly dry.
Christmas is a time of traditions: of food, gift exchanges,
decorations, family visits; of joyful moments and (let’s be honest) sometimes
tense ones too.
