Hot Dog! Guest Authors: Caryn Rivadeneira & Anita Lustrea

**Weds. Sept. 4th, 11:38 AM: Congratulations to our giveaway winner, Diana Montgomery! And thank you ALL for stopping by to make my guests feel welcome**

Today's guests are each sought-after writers and speakers in their own right, and have recently combined talents for their first work of fiction: Shades of Mercy has just been released. 

Please join me in a warm Authors' Galley welcome for: Caryn Rivadeneira and Anita Lustrea! 

Food Lies and Maine Truths

By Caryn Rivadeneira

I tell two lies about food.

The first: “I gave up Diet Coke.” True enough I no longer buy it by the case and stock it in my fridge, and I no longer consume it daily. But really? When I’m having one of those days, when I have too much to do and have gotten too little sleep, I’m off like a (sluggish) shot to get my $1 Diet Coke at McDonald’s—or better, the 69 cent Big Gulp Diet at 7-11.

The other lie: I never eat hot dogs. Once again, I don’t eat them at home—though I do buy them for my kids. But any time any one has ever offered me one, I eat it. With mustard, celery salt and a pickle, please. I am Chicagoan, after all.

So naturally, when my co-author Anita Lustrea invited me over a few weeks ago to plot out book #2 in our Maine Chronicle series and offered me a Diet Coke and a Maine red hot dog, I jumped the chance. But not before adding, “I never eat hot dogs ….”

To be fair to me, I’d been dying to try one of these fabled hot dogs ever since Anita and I started working on our book Shades of Mercy together. Though the red hot dogs themselves don’t appear in the book, they were one of many culinary tidbits I picked up about Maine during the process.

Before we began our project, I was as likely as the rest of you to think Maine and think lobster. Right?

Turns out, they eat more than lobster rolls in Maine! Who knew? Well, my co-author did. And throughout the book-writing process it was her job to write about the vast and varied culinary delights that hail from the northern most parts of Maine.

Though I’d tried few of these foods, all of them left my mouth drooling and made me wonder how on earth I might get my hands on and mouth around some of the delicious food we wrote about. Anita was gracious enough to share some recipes here.

Maine Baked Beans with Molasses ( Famous Saturday Night Bean Supper)

1 lb. beans (jacob’s cattle beans or yellow eye beans)

3 T brown sugar

Scant T salt

½ t dry mustard

2 cloves garlic minced

dash salt and pepper

either small piece of salt pork, or several slices bacon cut up and added, or 1 T bacon grease

¼ C molasses

⅓ C ketchup

Wash and pick over beans and discard imperfect ones. cover with water and soak overnight. Discard water and put beans in 4 quart or larger pot. Cover with water and add other ingredients. Bring to a simmer and keep adding water all day, do not let go dry. simmer for approximately 6 hours.

Serve with fresh homemade bread or warm rolls.

Paul Millar’s Molasses Cookies

1 C molasses

1 C brown sugar

1 C shortening, margerine, or half butter, half lard

2 eggs beaten

2 t vinegar

2 t soda dissolved in 2 T water

(mix together above ingredients)

5 C flour

1 t salt

2 t ginger

½ t cloves

(sift together all dry ingredients, then add to wet ingredients)

Let stand until cold, or overnight in refrigerator

roll out and cut into ¾ inch thick cookies

bake at 400 degrees 8-10 minutes.

It's 1954 and the world-even the far Northwoods of Maine-is about to
change. But that change can't happen soon enough for fourteen-year-old Mercy Millar.
Long tired of being the "son" her father never had, Mercy's ready for the world
to embrace her as the young woman she is-as well as embrace the forbidden love she
feels.

 When childhood playmates grow up and fall in love, the whole
community celebrates. But in the case of Mercy and Mick, there would be no celebration.
Instead their relationship must stay hidden. Good girls do not date young men from
the Maliseet tribe. At least, not in Watsonville, Maine. When racial tensions escalate
and Mick is thrown in jail under suspicion of murder, Mercy nearly loses all hope-in
love, in her father, and in God himself.

***

Thank you, Caryn and Anita--my mouth is watering after reading that recipe for baked beans! 

And now, on to the giveaway. The generous Wynn-Wynn Media has put together this prize package:  A copy of Shades of Mercy and a very cute (Pier 1)  lemon soap set for the kitchen. 

For your chance at the giveaway, please leave a comment below that includes your e-mail address.  The winner will be chosen (via Random.Org) on Weds. September 4th.  U.S. entries only, please. 

Meanwhile, happy reading . . . and bon appetit!