Friendship Fog - NOW AVAILABLE!

As you consider your family for the holidays, also remember all of  your...friends! #FriendshipFog!

My new novel, #Friendship Fog, NOW READY FOR PURCHASE!

Download the ebook or find it in hardcover and paperback at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes.

Do enjoy!

Forever grateful,

Peter

A Great Pumpkin Hallowe'en Treat!

I would like to present here a little decorative project that really is rather easy to do and certainly lends an air of festivity to Hallowe'en!

TOOLS
1 sad, forlorn paper bag, perhaps once home to a long forgotten bologna and mayonnaise sandwich on white bread
1 sheet of copy paper carefully retrieved from a basket primarily used for waste
1 watercolor set with paint brush (roughly $3.49, found at a sundries store)
Some water from a leaky faucet
1 black, inky pen

METHOD
Inspect the bag for bugs and remove them, if you wish
Separately, brush striations of black watercolor paint all over the piece of paper. Let dry (2-3 minutes).
While paint is drying, use the pen to artfully address the bag, as I have done, with the words 'I got a rock'
Crumple up the piece of paper to form your rock shape and insert in bag
Place on a child's pillow, or on the doorstep of a pestersome neighbor or grueling relative
*Note: If the decoration is for your own child, alert them that this is a grave warning unless they simmer down.

Do enjoy and Happy Hallowe'en, everybody!

Shouldn't You Just...? Buy My Book!

Available now on amazon.com, bn.com and may be found at your local retailer!

Friendship Fog is an urban fairy tale for anyone who has ever been in love ... or searched for it desperately. From a Fourth of July celebration in 1976 introducing four young lives in Friendship, Maine to modern day Manhattan, this charming cocktail infused with arresting humor spans the decades in a singular, fanciful exploration of the heart and mind—and ultimately, friendship. Clifford Bowles is now the ultra-fabulous mogul who helms the Divine Living omni-media empire while in the midst of a lonely midlife crisis. However, his boozy best friend Van Dillon is a prominent theatrical agent, whom fate has recently delivered into the paws of a hunky veterinarian. Orlanda DeCardinier, a ridiculous psychic career coach, has a bigger hand in all of the business than even she realizes as the estranged Laura Trelawny, a frazzled psychiatrist, re-emerges to reveal a most disquieting secret that affects them all. 

Do enjoy!

Shouldn't You Just...? Part Three!

Part Three...a SNEAK PEEK into my soon approaching, new novel Friendship Fog, laced with seasonal menus to feed the heart and mind! Here, our hero Clifford Bowles, the ultra-fabulous mogul who helms the Divine Living omni-media empire, offers a few words pulled from his monthly column. 

SHOULDN’T YOU JUST…?
by Clifford Bowles

Mr. Bowles offers his advice on furnishing the home.

• string shimmering white Christmas icicle lights about your kitchen year round?
• wrap a faux white mink throw over yourself as you tuck into bed?
• seek out antique lady head vases and fill them with rosy pink peonies?
• give crystal or Wedgwood as a housewarming gift or birthday present to start a dear friend’s collection?
• utilize Japanese black lacquered trays by filling them with persimmons for centerpieces?
• or enliven your table with leafy kumquats still on their branches and also consider miniature apples?

Shouldn't You Just...? Part Two!

Part Two...a SNEAK PEEK into my soon approaching, new novel Friendship Fog, laced with seasonal menus to feed the heart and mind! Here, our hero Clifford Bowles, the ultra-fabulous mogul who helms the Divine Living omni-media empire, offers a few words pulled from his monthly column. 

SHOULDN’T YOU JUST…?
by Clifford Bowles

Mr. Bowles offers his sartorial advice and consul on the finer points of one’s appearance.

• Wear a whistle?
• Wear a monocle to complement your evening attire?
• Splash cool water on your face more often? It tightens the pores.
• Sport black velvet riding pants as an antidote to an ordinary day?
• Consider your jacket as a handy satchel, filling the pockets with necessities such as cigarettes, breath mints, and a comb?
• Forego all manner of Pride wear?
• Stop tinting your lashes?
• Stitch a wide leather belt with your name and telephone number on it?
• Think of sunglasses as a headband to keep the hair off the face for those of you with longer locks?
• Have delicious patches of fabric sewn on to your favorite old cashmere sweater with the elbows blown out?

Clifford Bowles' Designs for Entertaining - A September Supper

In which our hero of Friendship Fog, Mr. Bowles, suggests a mindful menu deliciously designed to delight, from his new, best-selling book on entertaining!

Clifford Bowles’ Designs for Entertaining

A September Supper

Serves four

Raspberry Lambic

Endive with roasted chestnuts, gorgonzola, and fig jam with drizzled balsamic honey

Salad of cubed golden beets, corn, and basil with red vinegar dressing

Chicken pot pie in buttercup squash

Latticed McIntosh apple strudel swirl

Spiked cinnamon coffee

As our sunburns fade and summer slips away, we say goodbye to our seasonal friends and leave our vacation vista behind—whether it be a rental cottage by the lake, campground, or family summer place—and prepare to face the fall. Autumn is when seeds are planted like secrets in the ground not yet frozen, where they grow, mature, and develop just beneath the surface, waiting patiently until spring to deliver wondrous surprises. Now that we’ve returned from the shore, so to speak, redolent of salt air, cookouts, and clambakes, I suggest getting back to your roots (and tubers) and setting down to your hometown favorites. For me, it’s the splendors of an autumn in New Hampshire. I’ve created an intimate fall menu perfect to share among four dear old friends. Based on fruits of the season, I’ve incorporated the chestnuts we used to pluck off the trees and roast as children, buttercup squash, and included my Nana’s recipe for latticed McIntosh apple strudel. Trips to the nearby McIntosh orchard when I was a child shine in my memory like the apples. If you are lucky enough to have the weather for it, plan your gathering out of doors with the changing leaves as a backdrop. Perhaps you may just want to clink a glass to the change of the seasons and drink up the last of summer as you and your closest close up your summer home.

Yours,

Clifford Bowles

Chilled Beet Soup with Grapefruit

Perhaps a drunk, rather overworked intern took the helm one day at Quinciple. I can't confirm that, but the food box delivery service with recipe cards that correspond to the produce enclosed showed up on my doorstep with a recipe card heralding Chilled Beet Soup with Yogurt and Blood Oranges--meanwhile the recipe itself and the produce that went along with it insisted that ruby grapefruit be used for this cheering soup starter. There's even a wooden juicer (not required) in the accompanying photo and half of a frazzled, juiced blood orange next to it. Anyway: of little matter. Our chilly friend is a perfect transitional dish to be served year round--a hint of fresh spring may be found in parsley and scallion garnishes over the lull of a summer of ripe fruit, with earthy beets serving a reminder that cooler months may be soon upon us.

I never made this when the box arrived (I used the ingredients for some other purpose back then), and only dug out the recipe card recently, sometime later, and made it for myself with ingredients already at home. Instead of the nuisance of pulling out a knife to supreme the grapefruit (removing the peel and pith) I used some fantastic pink grapefruit juice that I had on hand, adding in a burst of flavor at the last minute. I recommend chilling the super soup overnight, not just an hour, as the recipe suggests.

Chilled Beet Soup with Yogurt and Grapefruit
Serves 2
Open up a package of fantastic already peeled and cooked Love Beets (usually four beets) and quarter them. Add in half a sliced green apple, core and stem removed along with the white parts of two scallions cut into 1/2 inch pieces in a small-ish, sturdy pot with a tablespoon of olive oil (I used coconut oil), sweating for about 10 minutes. Add some water to barely cover, bring to the boil and reduce heat to simmer gently, until vegetable are truly tender. This does not take long. Add salt and pepper and throw everything in a blender, until a smooth puree is achieved. Add in about a 1/2 cup of fresh pink grapefruit juice and chill, covered! Overnight, is preferable, I think. Serve with drizzled plain yogurt and chopped green parts of scallions and parsley. Easy? You bet! Perhaps serve with a crisp white wine, as undoubtedly that intern I mentioned did. Do enjoy!