Some Recent Projects
Enjoy some recipes the characters would enjoy and get a better look into their lives.
As Felicity says in the book, there are a ton of ways to make gumbo, and everyone has their favorite. This is how we make it in our house. You can vary this with different proteins (shrimp and crab are a popular choice) depending on what’s on hand. Okra and filé powder are traditional ingredients in gumbo. But they are both thickeners, so I usually skip okra and add just a little filé, since I don’t like my gumbo super thick. If you don’t like the taste of file, you can easily omit it, since it is added to taste to each serving. If you prefer okra in your gumbo, add about half a pound of sliced okra to the mix. You can make your own roux, but there’s no shame in using the jarred variety (we’ve done both ways, and there’s not a noticeable difference). I grew up in Southeast Texas (the Beaumont/Port Arthur area), and Douget’s Rice Mill is local to Beaumont, so I grew up using their roux (still recommend), but since my husband and I moved to north of Dallas, we find Kary’s is easier to find (and is available on Amazon, if you can’t get it locally).
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 ½ lbs. boneless chicken, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 Tbsp. roux
½ lb. andouille sausage
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. ground black pepper
½ to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste
¼ c. dried parsley
Filé powder, for serving
Cooked rice, for serving
Cream of Mushroom Soup (Small Batch) –
This should make about enough for your hotdish. If you want to make enough to either eat the soup as soup, or to have cream of mushroom in the freezer for later, here ‘s a link to the full batch recipe.
1 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. olive oil
1 c. onions, diced
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. shitake mushrooms, diced
1 c. baby portabella mushrooms, diced
2 Tbsp. Marsala wine (any dry red or white wine)
1 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch salt
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 c. beef stock
¼ c. heavy cream
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Melt butter and oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened and starts to turn translucent. Add the mushrooms and let them cook down a bit (4-6 minutes) then add the wine and cook for a few more minutes. Add the flour, thyme, salt and pepper to the mixture, and mix until the flour is completely combined. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, then add the stock and stir until the mixture is uniform. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally until thickened (around 30 minutes).
Reduce heat to low, stir in cream and parsley. Simmer for and additional 4-6 minutes (do not allow the mixture to boil). Adjust seasonings. Pull out ¼ cup of the mixture and set aside. Puree the rest of the soup using an immersion blender until smooth, then return the remaining soup to the pot and stir to incorporate.
Cream of Mushroom Soup (Full Batch) –
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 c. onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. shitake mushrooms, diced
4 c. baby portabella mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup Marsala wine (any dry red or white wine)
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 c. beef stock
1 c. heavy cream
¼ c. fresh parsley, chopped
Melt butter and oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened and starts to turn translucent. Add the mushrooms and let them cook down a bit (4-6 minutes) then add the wine and cook for a few more minutes. Add the flour, thyme, salt and pepper to the mixture, and mix until the flour is completely combined. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes, then add the stock and stir until the mixture is uniform. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally until thickened (around 30 minutes).
Reduce heat to low, stir in cream and parsley. Simmer for and additional 4-6 minutes (do not allow the mixture to boil). Adjust seasonings. Pull out two cups of the mixture and set aside. Puree the rest of the soup using an immersion blender until smooth, then return the remaining soup to the pot and stir to incorporate. Measure 1 ½ cups of the completed soup for your hotdish recipe. Reserve remaining soup for another use.
My agent is in Minnesota, so I thought it would be fun to have a character who’s from there too. My husband and I visited Minnesota in 2019 for a writing event, and we talked to so many people who were excited to share their favorite local food (we had just missed the fair, which is apparently a big deal). When I had Logan make Felicity a meal that represented his home kitchen, I had to go hotdish. Felicity’s a foodie, and I needed Logan to be a good match for her, so I made his cooking style all about elevated comfort food. He’ll eat tater tot casserole – but he’s going to make his mushroom soup from scratch. Make your batch of cream of mushroom first, then the casserole will come together easily. You can add some fresh or frozen veggies if you want to bump up the nutrition.
Butter, for greasing
1 lb. ground beef
½ c. onion, chopped
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp. salt
1 package (16 ounces) frozen tater tots
1 ½ c. cream of mushroom soup (see recipe below)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Grease a two quart baking dish with the butter. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place the ground beef and onion in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook until the onion becomes translucent and the beef is cooked through. Drain any grease, then add the garlic powder, pepper and salt.
Pour the ground beef mixture into the prepared baking dish, spreading to make a smooth layer. Add the frozen tater tots, making another layer. Pour the homemade cream of mushroom soup over the tater tots. Top with the shredded cheese.
Place the baking dish in the prepared oven and bake, uncovered, for 35 to 40 minutes, or until heated through.
In my book, Felicity’s aunt brings jambalaya to share with a grieving family. Some jambalaya recipes have you cook the rice in the sauce, but this tends to give you a drier result, as the rice sucks moisture out of the sauce. Serving the jambalaya over the rice also allows people to choose more or less rice to go with the dish. If, like Naomi, you’re taking the food somewhere to be part of a buffet, you can always toss the sauce together with the cooked rice just before you head out the door. The sausage has to be part of this dish, but you can substitute other proteins for the chicken. Popular choices include shrimp, duck, turkey, wild boar or alligator.
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. boneless chicken, cubed
1 ½ lb. smoked andouille sausage, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28-ounce) can peeled diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. Cajun seasoning blend
1 tsp. ground thyme.
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced, for serving
Cooked rice, for serving
Place the olive oil in a deep skillet or pot over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and brown through. Add the sausage and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic. Cook stirring frequently until the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes and the Cajun seasoning blend, thyme, and cayenne pepper, and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for an hour or more. Serve over rice, sprinkled with fresh parsley.
One of my favorite chocolate shops is in Deep Ellum (a neighborhood in Dallas). CocoAndre isn’t just a chocolate maker – it’s also a horchateria and they do the BEST dirty horchata. When I designed my fictional chocolate shop, I wanted to include more than just chocolate, because that wouldn’t make for a shop where people would linger, to be a gathering place for my fictional community. CocoAndre was my model for Felicity’s shops coffee bar – so of course, her assistant Carmen’s specialty is dirty horchata. Horchata isn’t difficult to make – it just requires a bit of advance planning, since you’ll want the rice to infuse into the water overnight. Make sure to cool the espresso before adding it to the drink, because warm coffee will melt the ice and water it down. I tend to drink beverages with less sweetener, so I personally drop the sugar in this recipe to ¼ cup. You could bump it up to a whole cup if you like things really sweet. If you want a boozy version, you could add half a shot of Kahlua to each glass.
1 1/3 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
2 cinnamon sticks, crushed
1 ½ c. milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ c. granulated sugar
chilled espresso or cold-brew concentrate (1 to 2 shots per serving)
Place the rice, crushed cinnamon sticks and 2 cups of water in a blender. Blend for 2 minutes. Add an additional 2 cups of water and blend for another two minutes. Transfer the rice and water mixture to a lidded pitcher and let sit out at room temperature for around 12 hours.
Pour the rice mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a second pitcher. Discard the solids. Stir in the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar. Chill for at least half an hour.
For each drink, fil a glass with ice and fill ¾ of the way with horchata. Add 1 to 2 shots of chilled espresso.
