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!

A Toast to French Toast!

A thank you goes out to Red and her beau for passing along this particular piece of inspiration--French Toast Muffins! They told me about their creation and I was immediately intrigued by the hybrid of a bread pudding of sorts and muffins, resulting in the French Toast love child! They spoke of the usual ingredients (eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon) but instead of using slices of basic bread, they chose challah, torn up and stuffed into their muffin tins! Now, I don't have any muffin tins, odd as that may sound, but I did have some disposable foil mini loaf pans that were rattling around in the cupboard, so I used one of those for my own modest repast. Use whatever suitable ingredients you may have on hand or those found in your favorite recipe for French Toast and set to work. My version was very easy came out quite well. A spritz of Cointreau or brandy might be a nice finishing touch to the syrup added to the top of your muffins/loaves and certainly feel free to add in some chopped nuts such as pecans, walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts (and crumbled, crispy bacon...?). Whatever you do, this is a perfectly portable dish, be it loaf or muffin, to be delivered to a friend's brunch table or simply enjoyed for breakfast at home with steaming coffee, fresh juice and of course, a liberal slathering of butter! Grab on the way to work or consider as a dessert, topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce!

'The French Daily' included my musings on French Toast here! Scroll down on the site, the feature is on the right.

French Toast Loaf
(Serves four comfortably for a lovely breakfast accompaniment)
Ingredients
4 x 6 1/2-inch foil loaf pan 
4 challah rolls, torn apart by hand
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (or maple syrup)
1/2 TB ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp lemon zest from fresh lemon
A few fresh grinds of black pepper
Pinch or two salt

Method
Pre-heat 400-degree oven. Lightly coat pan with butter or a few sprays of Pam. Whisk together wet ingredients in a serviceable bowl and add in spices. This is where the few drops of liqueur could be added in as well before mixing in some chopped nuts. Add challah pieces and coat thoroughly (it is very important to soak all the pieces) mashing it all together with your fingers and tightly molding it together before slipping the mixture into your pan. Spray with Pam. Put into oven for five minutes before reducing heat to 350-degrees for another 25 minutes. Remove from oven and pour maple syrup on top and let rest for five minutes before serving.  

Behold the seemingly layered innards of our loaf! At a quick glance, one might mistake it for a sumptuously good terrine or a gooey mille-feuille pastry!

A warm slice soaked with melted butter about to perform a disappearing act--into my belly! Do enjoy (and don't forget to share)!

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?