Cover Reveal for A Side of Sabotage

Today I have the great pleasure of having my friend and fab middle grade author, Cynthia Surrisi, here for a cover reveal.

I LOVE cover reveals!

Check it out, y'all!!

Isn't it great??

You can buy a copy of this beauty March 1, 2018.

Now let's hear from Cynthia:

Thanks for inviting me to reveal the cover of my new book here on your blog, Barbara! 

It’s the third Quinnie Boyd Mystery, A SIDE OF SABOTAGE and even
more than the first two, it’s a mystery that can’t stop talking about food!  However, in this one, the food is integral to the suspense.

About the book:

For decades, Gusty’s Cafe has served up hot plates of comfort food to the folks in Maiden Rock, Maine. Quinnie Boyd’s dad runs the cafe, just like Quinnie’s granddad before him. But the family business has new competition when a bad-boy chef from Boston opens his own place in the small vacation town.  

The new restaurant takes fancy dining to the extreme. Still, that’s not a crime . . .  even if Quinnie would rather pass on a snooty dish like “raw-beet foam.” But then things start to go wrong at Gusty’s: the dishwasher overflows, the cooler is on the fritz, and worse! 

Are the people behind Restaurant Hubert trying to squash Gusty’s Cafe? It could be a coincidence or —

--or it could be sabotage. 

Since the first Quinnie Boyd Mystery, THE MAYPOP KIDNAPPING, readers have been asking me if Maiden Rock is a real place, if they can have the directions to Gusty’s Café, and whether I will reveal the recipes for food I refer to in the book. 

The questions intensified after the second book, VAMPIRES ON THE RUN, where Whoopie Pies were featured. 

I expect the questions will keep coming with A SIDE OF SABOTAGE.

I’ll reveal now that Maiden Rock is a fictional town but it
is based on a small coastal town where I used to live during the summers as a child. Gusty’s never existed, but there was a café where I ate the best Maine blueberry pie ever. 

We also used to order our French fries at this cafe, go sailing for the day, then pick up steamed lobster from the lobster pound, grab
our French fry order and pour it all out on newspaper on the kitchen table. My mother made the dipping sauce that turned the fries into what we called lobster fries.

Here are recipes for some of the most requested items in the
books: Gusty Burgers, Lobster Fries, Whoopie Pies, and Bean Scoop.

Gusty Burgers

The charm of a Gusty burger is that it is served on a toasted, buttered English Muffin. You can make any burger you like from all beef to turkey to veggie, but Gusty makes his from 80% fat beef and grill-cooks it with salt and pepper. There are no fillers or additions to the meat. Then h serves it with a slice of raw onion, and mustard. That’s it. You can add a slice of Vermont cheddar and still have a Gusty Burger. Okay, in later years he condescended to put crispy fried onions instead of raw for special customers. 

Lobster Fries

Many folks are disappointed that lobster fries are not strips of fried lobster. I can’t even go there. I’m more for unadulterated lobster steamed in salt water, picked and handled with a light touch for a lobster roll. I will give you Gusty’s Lobster Roll recipe another day.

Lobster fries are the best double-fried fries that you dip in the drawn butter concoction that is typically used for lobster dipping, except Gusty has his own version. When these things are hot, you weep with joy as you eat them and lick the empty paper when they are gone. 

The Fries:

If you are up for the trouble, cut fresh Idaho potatoes into the long familiar shape. Soak them in water in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Bring oil to 300 degrees F and dry the potatoes thoroughly in a towel. Fry for five minutes, remove from oil and drain on paper towels. At this point you can either refrigerate the fries for later or increase the heat to 400 degrees and fry them again immediately for a finish to your desired crispiness.
 

The Lobster Butter:

Melt unsalted butter in a saucepan over low heat until the solids separate and come to the top. Skim off the solids and add saffron threads, mashed garlic, fresh lemon juice and a little orange zest. Continue cooking on low heat until the butter is infused with the added ingredients. Strain before serving with fries as dipping sauce. 

Whoopie Pies
 

These are Maine through and through. I can tell you how to make them, but they are fussy and the truth is, they have things in them that you probably don’t want to have on your shelf, like shortening. So, like me, when you have a hankering, I’m going to recommend you order from WICKED WHOOPIES 
 

 

These are the whoopie pies I had at the book launch and I think they are wonderful.  They got lots of yums, too. 

Bean Scoop

VAMPIRES ON THE RUN introduced readers to the Bean Scoop. Dominic loved it. It fills the hungry spot in a growing boy and an old lobster man.

This one is more in the combining than the cooking. Make your favorite baked beans. Heavily butter a couple slices of dark bread and scoop the beans on top. Great on a cold day.

I hope everyone enjoys A SIDE OF SABOTAGE and I look forward to seeing whether I get requests for Fish Head Soup.

Barbara, come on over and I’ll cook a Gusty’s lunch for you!