…a mouthwatering post, no less, from Authoress Colette Kebell…

…gourmet-ess, gourmanderie-ess, purveyor of splendiferous epicurean delicacies… in short, m’Lady, Authoress Colette Kebell… she makes exceedingly good eats… if yeez enjoy good writing about good food.. and how can yeez not?… savour the flavour, por favor…

Food Glorious Food ! (As Oliver Would Say)

Hello Peeps, staunch followers and everyday book geeks, this post is kindly being posted by my fairly newly found friend Seumas Gallacher (or at least I hope it doesn’t end up in the wastepaper bin). I am a newbie to authordum, hence haven’t known Seumas that long, though it is from my early days back in early 2015 so has been a while. I thought about just writing a piece concerning my books, but that has been done over and over and so I thought you folks might like to learn a little something about my other passion (trying desperately to ignore my penchant for fashion here currently) which is food. Ok, in answer to some questions you may have, there are mentions of food in both my books so this guest blog isn’t entirely out of character. I am such a major foodie, though try as much as possible to cook/make all those things considered healthier for us these days. I do, however, have a few slip ups from time to time, yesterday evening’s starter being a prime example, for one. This was no ordinary dish as it ended up containing about four shots of Vodka, hence I consider it to be a slip up.

My husband came across to France (where I am currently being forced to reside until our UK purchase goes through – not much of a hardship though, other than the obvious of missing hubby). As he has spent most of the past few months entirely on his own, not even having our dogs for company let alone me, I decided to give a BBQ for a few English friends here in France. I plan on throwing another for French friends but hubby, not being great at speaking the French lingo, I thought the former would be more enjoyable for him on this occasion.

So, I had, during my break times away from dog walking, writing and the PC in general, been watching a few “Jamie Oliver at Home” episodes and had spotted one or two recipes that I wanted to try. Ordinarily I would make them for myself first to see how they turned out prior to letting anyone else take their chances, but, I was convinced I could make this dish and may even be able to improve on it. No, I’m not being big headed, but just love cooking and trying new recipes and often end up making them my own by the extras I decide to add.

So here I am, mincing and mulching tomatoes etc and having failed to find muslin in any of the local shops, decided to use a clean cotton tea towel instead. This was indeed my saviour and worked so well that I shall never consider using muslin when I make this dish in future. My quandary was though that, as per Jamie Oliver’s TV show, I needed a fridge with wire shelves in order to hang my dripping tea towel from and ours has glass shelves. Panic started to set in a little as I was scouring the house to find a suitable location to let the contents of the tea towel drip into the bowl below. I even went so far as talk to my mother, though her suggestion was hanging it from the handles of our kitchen drawers (imagine a one meter gap between the handle and the floor (where I had to place the bowl) – it could have been very messy) when I suddenly thought of an alternative. I swiftly thanked her, hung up the phone and ran up to the bathroom to check out my theory. Low and behold I got myself out of that hole by, instead of the kitchen drawer handles, I used the bathroom sink unit handles. This was far closer to the floor and the bowl to catch what was due to be a clear liquid fit snuggly underneath so with a towel underneath the bowl (just in case) I was off and running. Failure to find muslin was indeed a saving grace though as instead of it taking 16-24 hours to run through what should have been four layers of muslin, the job had been achieved in about 10 hours, ready for it being put into the fridge to chill. You can imagine my husband’s face though when he arrived and I had to tell him not to use the bathroom sink but the one in the kitchen! There was no way this chilled tomato consommé was going to ruined by him splashing soapy water into it.

All I can say is that it was a good job that all attending the BBQ were adults and not driving, as despite the actual taste, those four shots of Vodka, did give it a little kick, without overpowering the flavour of the other ingredients. Gazpacho is one thing but this clear liquid was like the best tasting Bloody Mary you could ever want to come across.

All enjoyed this light refreshing starter and it went down a storm. I’m guessing that some of you may indeed want the recipe so below is the base Jamie Oliver recipe…not sure I want to give away my own additions to it at this stage though J

2 kilos of tomatoes

2 shots of Vodka (yes, I added a few more tomatoes to soak up the extra Vodka)

5 cm of grated fresh horseradish

Salt

Pepper

1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used Balsamic)

A handful of fresh basil

2 cloves of garlic

I hope this post may have hit the spot as far as Seumas’ followers are concerned and may, in a roundabout way, caused you to be curious about my books…even if they are Chicklit they are light-hearted, fun and quirky as I hope you might have found this post to be.

This is me, or at least my author photo, though shall have a professional one done at some point. My books revolve around fashion mostly, but have far more content to them than that and though fashion may be the main theme there is plenty to keep you entertained. Happy reading folks and thank you so much for taking the time to read this post.

Oh and these are my book covers which are available to purchase worldwide in every e-reader format and from (by request initially) each and every bookshop and library.

… Collette gave a talk about self-publishing and one of her books mentioned below at the Folkestone Book Festival on Sunday 22nd November 2015 at 11.00 am. This is the link to her YouTube post:-

https://youtu.be/r0Ss8bKv4bY

…and m’Lady, Colette’s titles are available here:

“The Retail Therapist”, the prequel to “Blue and Green” available from Amazon, Smashwords, Waterstones and all major bookshops for just £1.99p as an ebook or £6.49 in paperback.

“Blue and Green Shall Never Be Seen (Or So Mother Says)” to purchase from Amazon, Smashwords, Waterstones and all major bookshops for £2.99 as an ebook or £8.99 in paperback.

If you like Chick Lit you should also enjoy these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Retail-Therapist-Colette-Kebell-ebook/dp/B0106J3D9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435049432&sr=8-1&keywords=retail+therapist

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Green-Should-Never-Seen-ebook/dp/B00RG43YM4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419580641&sr=8-1&keywords=colette+kebell

…some lowdown on the chef du post:

…after being a Legal Secretary for about 10 years, Colette was on the hunt to find something else that she would find just as interesting. She found that in writing and she hopes you like what you read. She loves fashion with a passion (pardon the pun) and therefore it is not surprising that her debut novel was going to follow that theme.

Her debut novel was “Blue and Green Should Never Be Seen!” which was followed by “The Retail Therapist”, both of these being romantic comedies/Chick Lit, a genre she adores.

When she’s not in writing mode she enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, a task that usually produces good results; as her husband would say, as opposed to “his” experiments which often end in a culinary disaster. She lives in Coastal Kent, UK with two adorable dogs. Oh yes, and hubby too.

…I trust yer palates have been properly tickled, Lads and Lassies of Blog Land…go check out m’Lady, Colette’s books… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

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