November 2022 Newsletter

Joan the Saint – Official Launch!

Join me at Oasis Restaurant in Manzanillo on Wednesday November 9 for the official book signing during the Mujeres luncheon.

Another amazing book by Gordon Cope. A must read!

Amazon 5-star review.

Joan of Arc, born in northeast France during the Hundred Years War between England and France, arose from obscurity to become her nation’s greatest hero. Guided by the voices of St. Margaret and St. Catherine, she defeated the English army at Orleans and crowned Charles VII king of France in Reims.

The year is 1431. Joan of Arc has been captured by the English and is being tried for heresy in their stronghold of Rouen. Abandoned by the French, Magnus the Magnificent sets out on a quest to foil her fiery fate.

Order eBook or paperback on Amazon!

Recipe: Bagel bread and Lox

Let’s face it; they don’t make the best bagels in Mexico. I’ve tried everywhere, and except for a few excellent artisanal bakeries in San Miguel de Allende, they generally taste like puffy cardboard. Making your own bagels isn’t easy, so I was delighted to finally find a recipe that is both simple and yummy. It doesn’t take long to prepare, and it’s a fun way to spice up your Sunday brunch.

Ingredients

1 cup of flour

½ tsp of baking powder.

3 Tsp of yoghurt

1 Tsp of Olive oil

Chopped shallots or red onion

Toasted poppy and sesame seeds

Lox

Cream cheese

Directions

Mix the flour, baking powder and yoghurt in a bowl and stir until it has the consistency of Play Doh.

Roll the dough out into a 12-in crust, sprinkling with flour to keep the rolling pin from sticking. (I use a 12-in round of parchment paper to make the crust easy to roll and handle).

Rub the crust with olive oil and sprinkle on the onion and seeds. Bake in the oven at 450C for 15 minutes.

Cut into 8 slices and serve with lox and cream cheese. Enjoy!

TV Series

From Scratch

Streaming on Netflix

This is an 8-episode mini-series that, frankly, starts a little slow. Amy Wheeler (played by Zoe Saldana), is expected to follow in the law footsteps of big daddy Hershel (Keith David), but instead kicks off the traces and runs away to Florence, where she meets Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea), an impoverished but talented chef.

Sparks fly from the moment that Amy and Lino meet, but Hershel gathers up the Wheeler clan and flies to Florence in an effort to dissuade his baby girl from marrying some foreigner. The family is like a Texas bull in a china shop, but Amy prevails and the nuptials are set in a fancy palace overlooking the Arno River.

Lino’s family is from a small town in Sicily, and dad Giacomo wants nothing to do with Americanos, forbidding his wife Filomena to attend the wedding. Spurned by his family, Lino marries his beloved Amy and they all fly back to America.

At this point, I must confess I was a little put off by the cliché-ridden depictions of Texans and Sicilians (‘Mama Mia!’ ‘Durned tootin!’). But it gets a lot better as Lino struggles to get his own Sicilian restaurant off the ground in Los Angeles. Scriptwriters Attica and Tembi Locke flesh out the story and give every character vitality and life.

Eventually, Amy and Lino adopt a baby girl, but her upbringing is complicated by Lino’s struggles with cancer. The story finishes in a big climax back in Sicily, where everyone is finally reconciled.

Warning; this is a five-Kleenex-box series that will have even the most hard-hearted weeping to the very end. I highly recommend From Scratch!

Movie Review

Enola Holmes 2

Streaming on Netflix

Enola Holmes is the sister of Sherlock Holmes. Frankly, I have no idea if Arthur Conan Doyle ever mentioned her in his many books, and I don’t care. The copyright expired a long time ago, and ever since, everyone and his dog has been cranking out their own version of the world’s most famous detective.

This is the sequel to a 2020 movie made with the effervescent and eminently-watchable Millie Bobbie Brown in the lead role, with handsome Henry Cavill playing her brother Sherlock and Helena Bonham Carter as her mother Eudoria. Louis Partridge is also back as the rather wet Lord Tewkesbury, whom Enola is always saving from imminent demise.

The plot revolves around impoverished girls getting sick at the matchstick factory. A young woman searching for the truth goes missing, and her sister hires Enola to track her down. Our heroine is soon up to her big brown eyes in trouble, with anarchist mom Eudoria making things worse with home-made explosives.

Will Sherlock save the day? Not bloody likely, if Enola has anything to say about it! This is definitely not advised viewing for serious Holmes fans, but it is an entertaining romp from beginning to end for everyone else. I highly recommended Enola Holmes 2!