Hart's Passion (Pirates & Petticoats Book 2) (34 page)

The crew had surrendered with barely a word.

It had been a foolhardy plan.
 

Ridiculous.
 

Dangerous.
 

Crazy.
 

And absolutely imperative that they succeed.

I hope you enjoyed reading a sample of the next book in the series!
 

For more information, or to download the entire book, visit
www.chloeflowers.com
for details.

A Parrothead at heart, Chloe’s love for pirates began with Peter Pan and continued with Pirates of the Caribbean and ghost stories about pirates from the Outer Banks. She listens to Celtic music while she writes. When life gets too serious, she reads Calvin and Hobbes comics. She lives in Ohio with her tall, dark and handsome husband, three children and two rambunctious dogs, Indiana and Luke, who are named after her two favorite action heroes.

Descended from a family of cooks and gourmet chefs, Chloe is a true foodie and along with working for fortune 500 companies in marketing and teaching MBA students strategic marketing, she also ran a gourmet cookie company. Cooking for a crowd runs in the blood, so her fridge is always full. She deals with stress by baking pies (just ask her college roommates what it was like for them around exam time).
 

Her idea of a perfect day? Sailing on the Caribbean with her family, sun in her face and wind at her back, and finishing the day in the kitchen making a fab gourmet meal and sipping a glass of wine.

The Pirates & Petticoats Series is about spunky heroines and the scoundrels who love them.
 

This is a 5 book series:

Hart's Desire (May 2016)

Hart's Passion (May 2016)

Hart’s Reward (Summer 2106)

Pirate Heiress (July 2016)

MARCEL’S RECIPES

A note from Marcel:
 
Preparing Salted Fish

“Add a glass of vinegar to ze water in which you soak your salted fish, it will fetch out most of ze salt.”

HARD TACK

• 3 Cups of White Flour
  
• 2 teaspoons of Salt
  
• 1 Cup of Water
  
• A cookie sheet
  
• A mixing bowl
  
• A knife
  
• A common nail
  

1.
Preheat your oven to 375°.

2.
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.

3.
Gradually mix in the water until you form a dough that doesn’t stick to your hands.

4.
Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a square. Make sure it’s no more than half an inch thick.

5.
Cut the dough into 9 squares.

6.
Using the nail, make a 4×4 grid of holes in each piece.

7.
Put the pieces on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

8.
Turn the squares over and bake for another 30 minutes.

9.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
 

So…hard tack is rather bland for our palates but adding garlic salt or onion powder helps a bit…

 
Keep in mind these biscuits were usually served with something else, like gravy, soup, coffee or grog, so soaking it does make it easier to chew.
 

**Eating it dry can certainly crack a tooth!**

(Recipe courtesy of
http://urbansurvivalsite.com
)

As an aside…The Amish make a similar biscuit that they give to teething babies. I made them for my crumb snatchers and they loved them. They never finished a single one, though. Those things were so hard and solid that the best they could do was make them gummy for a little while. Eventually, the dog ended up with them. I think he buried them in the shrubbery.

Hard tack is a lot like a teething biscuit…

TEETHING BISCUITS

Break 2 eggs into a bowl. Stir in one direction until creamy. (I don’t know why, maybe it’s an Amish superstition, just do it).

Add 1 cup of sugar.

Continue stirring in the same direction. (Again, just go with it).

Gradually, add 2 to 2 1/2 cups of flour and continue stirring until mixture is stiff (I’m still assuming we stir in the same direction, just doing as I’m told like a little lemming).

Roll out to a thickness of 3/4 inch. That’s honkin’ thick, but we want to make sure pieces won’t easily break off, right?

Here’s the fun part: the Amish recipe says to cut out donut shaped cookies, which makes sense for little hands to grip. I used a dog bone shape (c’mon…the dog ended up with them anyway) that was easy to grip, but had an end that wouldn’t fit entirely into the baby’s mouth (otherwise we have a gagging issue, blech). Feeling sentimental one day, I used hearts. Donuts are probably your best bet. If you don’t have that shape, use a drinking glass and a shot glass. (Yeah, well, we all make do, don’t we?)

HOPPIN’ JOHN

1 1/2 Cups Dried Black-eyed Peas

2 Smoked Ham Hocks

1 Chopped Onion

1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 Cups of Water
 

Put everything above into a pot, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 1 1/2 hours

Remove ham hocks from pot, and take meat off the bones and cut into pieces and return to the pot.
 

Add 1 1/2 cups of rice to the pot, cover and cook until rice is tender, about 25 minutes.

Do yourself a favor, use fresh, good quality rice, it really does make a difference.
 

Top with shredded cheese, if you’d like, or hot sauce. I’m a bit of a dare devil, so I add both.

BANNOCKS
 

This is a traditional Scottish cake usually made with oatmeal or barley meal and served during high tea. Many Scots settled in and near the Low Country. As corn meal was very popular and plentiful, it was often used instead of, or in addition to flour.

Original recipe:
 

Boil 1 pint of milk and pour on 1 pint of Indian meal (corn meal) set aside.

Beat well 4 egg yolks with 1 pint of cold milk. Beat in the egg whites, then add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bake.

* If you want a more
traditional
Scottish Bannock, then you need a recipe that calls for oat flour or barley flour. I found a terrific one developed by chef Theresa Carle-Sanders. On her blog “Outlander’s Kitchen,” she presents historical and character-inspired recipes from the fictional world created by Diana Gabaldon, author of
The Outlander
series. It’s
brilliant
.
 
I found one similar to it on another recipe site and I tweaked it a bit until I came up with the one below. I have made flaky southern biscuits for years, but I have to say, the oat flour keeps the bannock moist without falling apart. I like it better that a regular biscuit, plus they are good even when they’re cold!

NEW AGE SCOTTISH BANNOCKS

Yield: 12-18

Preheat oven to 400° F.
 

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 Cup Oat Flour (or you can use old-fashioned or quick oats-just pulse them in a food processor or blender until fine)
 

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Tablespoons Sugar
 

½ tsp. Salt
 

½ cup of Cold Butter, cut into small pieces

¾ Cup Cold Milk
 

½ Cup Greek Yogurt
 

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Cut cold butter pieces into dry ingredients and mix well. I like to use a pastry cutter.

Stir together milk and yogurt. Add to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon to make a sticky dough.

Turn onto a floured counter and sprinkle with more flour. Knead dough lightly 5 or 6 times, working in additional flour, so that dough is no longer sticky

Roll about ½” thick. Use a biscuit or a 2” square cutter. You can also use a floured butcher knife and cut squares with it. Don’t forget to keep dusting it with flour before you cut. Depending on the size of the square, you should get at least 12-18.

I usually use parchment paper instead of greasing a cookie sheet, but either works. Bake until just golden around the corners, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before serving.

Serve warm with butter, honey, or
 
jam. For a more savory version, add 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese in with the dry ingredients and serve with meats or soups.