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November 2022 Newsletter

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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!

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October 2022 Newsletter

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Life in Mexico

Mexicans are hard at work spiffing up the graves of their beloved ancestors in anticipation of Day of the Dead.

The festival is often compared to Christian ceremonies such as All Saints Day, but the pre-Columbian celebration is a lot more light-hearted, with gifts of sugar skulls and lots of rum. Grannies are remembered through irreverent verse and beloved uncles with scurrilous eulogies.

All are welcome, of course. On November 1, take time to visit your local cemetery and party with Mexicans honoring their rich ancestry.

Official Release of Joan the Saint

The much-anticipated sequel to Magnus the Magnificent is finally available!

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. Joan has been abandoned by the French; Magnus the Magnificent sets out on a quest to foil her fiery fate.

Join me at the Mujeres luncheon at Oasis restaurant on Wednesday, November 2 where I’ll be signing paperbacks.

You can also purchase the eBook edition and paperback on Amazon!

Recipe: Home-Made Thin-Crust Pizza

I get a lot of requests for this recipe from dinner guests!

Making your own pizza is quite easy and the result is both healthy and delicious! All it takes is a little preparation and you’ll be the toast of your family and friends!

(Makes four pizzas)

DOUGH

5 ¼ cups of OO (fine) flour.

1 tsp of salt.

1 tsp of dry yeast.

1 tsp of brown sugar

400 ml of warm water.

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.

Mix the yeast and brown sugar in the warm water and let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour the liquid into the flour and knead until the consistency of soft Play-Doh. (You may have to sprinkle some flour on if it’s too sticky).

SAUCE

1 jar of tomato sauce

3 Tsp of Italian seasoning mix.

1 tsp of salt.

1 Tsp of olive oil.

Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl. Pour the olive oil into the jar of tomato sauce and swish around then add that to the mix. Let rest for at least half an hour.

TOPPINGS

Pepperoni, ham

Chopped onion, peppers, olives, etc.

Shredded cheese

PREPARATION

Heat the oven to 450F. Divide the dough into four balls (any dough you don’t need can be frozen for later use). Roll out the ball flat with a rolling pin (hint; I cut a piece of parchment paper into a 12” circle as a rolling surface). You will have to sprinkle some flour on the dough to keep the rolling pin from sticking.

Place the rolled dough into a pizza pan and bake it in the oven for 5 minutes. (You can do this in advance and keep the crusts in the freezer indefinitely).

Spread 5 Tsp of sauce on the pizza crust and add desired toppings. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve hot!

Book Review

Suspect

By Scott Turow

I’ve been a big fan of Turow for several decades, ever since I read his break-out novel Presumed Innocent (made into a great movie starring Harrison Ford), so I always look forward to a new chapter in the canon.

Suspect is the latest installment of his multi-generational saga of courtroom dramas set in the fictional Kindle County. Clarice “Pinky” Granum is a paralegal working for a criminal law firm run by her cousin Rik Dudek. A young, single woman sporting a nail through her nose, Pinky is a bane to her long suffering family but a talented and tenacious sleuth.

Rik is defending Lucia Gomez, the chief of police for the city of Highland Isle. The first black woman to hold the post, she is incorruptible, and fiercely dedicated to cleaning up the reputation of her force.

She is also charged with sexual assault by three of her male subordinates. The men allege that she garnered sexual favors from them in support of their promotions. The case has been placed before the Police and Fire Commission for adjudication.

Pinky quickly uncovers a connection to local crime kingpin Moritz “the Ritz” Vojczek. On the surface, the Ritz is a wealthy property developer, but his real profession is big-scale drug dealing. Wily and ruthless, he uses his filthy lucre to pay off the police – and destroy those he can’t.


While Rik works diligently to clear his client’s reputation, Pinky finds herself romantically embroiled with a mysterious neighbor who seems to be spying on a big defense contractor operating in Highland Isle. All the loose strings come together in patented Turow style as the case against Chief Gomez reaches a dramatic climax.

I highly recommend Suspect!

TV Series Review

A League of their Own

Streaming on Amazon Prime

Penny Marshall’s original 1992 movie, starring Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Geena Davis featured a host of talented actors portraying the trials and tribulations of an all-female professional baseball league in World War II.

Now, 30 years later, the original premise has been recast as an 8-part series that follows the struggles that the women endured to make their mark in a male-dominated world.

Series creator Abbi Jacobson stars as Carson Shaw, a small-town slugger with a husband serving in war-torn Europe. She finds herself as the unlikely sparkplug for the Rockford Peaches, a rag-tag collection of talented women seeking fame on-field.

Her story is mirrored by Max Chapman, a gifted black pitcher striving for a chance to spotlight her talents on an all-male team. Played with grit and determination by Chanté Adams, Max refuses to take no for an answer.

While on-field struggles dominated the original movie, this series has time to fully explore the personal challenges that women in the 1940s faced, from sexism and racism to family expectations and gender identity. It is a much warmer, more intimate story, one that takes the opportunity to delve into each character and make their aspirations more authentic. This is not so much a tale about baseball; it is an adventure into the complex yearnings that inspire all women.

I highly recommend A League of Their Own!  

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September 2022 Newsletter

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European Dreams

Linda and I had a wonderful journey this summer through southern France, Italy, Paris and London. There are so many wonderful memories and experiences that it would take a book to encapsulate them all!

We were amazed by the wonderful hospitality we encountered. People were happy to greet us and eager to speak English (even in Paris!). We always felt safe and welcome wherever we went; if we were in a bind, strangers on the street were eager to help.

Here are a few highlights!

Best Restaurant

Tough one to decide! The veal Milanese (pictured) in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele was to die for, but I have to go with Café les Arcades, our local in Juan Les Pins. A classic bistro, it served a daily lunch prix fixe that was inexpensive and delicious; sea bass, veal, steak in pepper sauce – all served with the best French fries! Frederique the manager was cheerful and eccentric and always made us feel like guests of honor, treating us to a cold glass of Kir whenever we arrived.

Best Museum

We went to see Pitti Palace in Florence, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and a host of other museums, but the one experience that stands out is our visit to the Leonardo3 Museum located in Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. This is a pop-up museum, a private display that re-creates Leonardo’s inventions, including a full-scale version of his man-powered airplane, but the treat was an interactive show explaining his iconic Last Supper (The original, of course, is just down the street, but you have to pay a king’s ransom to see it). Not only did the exhibit detail how he painted the fresco, but it also described each element of the composition, from Christ and his disciples to the humble plates of food on the table. I was enthralled!

Most Romantic Spot

The Ponte Santa Trinita. This is the bridge directly downstream of the famous Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Every evening, we would gather with other Florentines to watch the sun set over the Arno. A wonderful way to end the day!

Best Place to Chill

We had the opportunity to stay in many wonderful places all over Europe (including the Marais in Paris), but our favorite, be far, was Juan Les Pins in Antibes. Our rental in the beachside district was a gem, a newly-renovated one-bedroom apartment one block away from the beach. The neighborhood also boasted a butcher, a baker and a wine shop where we got to know the proprietors; they made us feel part of their community. We look forward to returning next year to visit with our dear friends Rosa and Reinier!

Life in Mexico

We arrived back as twin tropical storms battered the Manzanillo region. The moment they receded, however, we were hit by a major earthquake!

Over the course of a decade, we have experienced numerous minor shakers. This is expected, as Manzanillo is located about 80 km from a major subduction zone, a common source of seismic activity around the world.

But the quake on Monday, September 19, measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, making it several hundred times as powerful as previous events. We had just finished lunch, and were standing in the dining room cleaning up the dishes. It started slowly at first, then quickly escalated into furious shaking.

Our home is made of concrete and steel rebar, but the shaking was so violent that we immediately feared that the house might collapse. We raced outside and stood on the pool patio deck, which gyrated like a surfboard for the better part of a minute.

Fortunately, we and our neighbors were unhurt (although several people did lose their lives in the city due to falling debris). To say that were frightened, however, is an understatement; experiencing a major earthquake is a terrifying experience. We hope that we never have to go through it again!

My Latest Novel!

The much-awaited sequel to Magnus the Magnificent is about to appear! Joan the Saint officially arrives November 1; we’re just putting the finishing touches on the paperback and eBook versions, soon to be available on Amazon for pre-purchase. We’ll also be doing special promotions and book signings in the Manzanillo area, so stayed tuned for more news!

If you haven’t read Magnus the Magnificent, it’s a great book!

You can order eBook copies from Amazon HERE, or buy a paperback at the next Mujeres luncheon.

Movie Review

Bullet Train

Folks who criticize Brad Pitt’s latest movie as a brainless blood bath miss the point. This is a summer blockbuster action thriller; it makes no pretense of any connection to reality, other than the sun comes up in the morning. Trains hurtle through the air, assassins get split in two with Samurai swords and Thomas the Train achieves philosophical nirvana.

The premise is simple; down-on-his luck Ladybug (played by Brad Pitt), is hired to steal a briefcase full of cash aboard the Tokyo-Osaka bullet train.  What Ladybug doesn’t know is that someone has hired a gaggle of assassins with orders to kill one another.

Ladybug stumbles through the ensuing Kung-Fu mayhem with the help of Maria, a disembodied guru supplying advice and emotional support via cell phone. Even though the director tones down Brad’s good looks with a bucket hat and a goofy haircut, his wry charm still comes shining through as he seeks out the true meaning of life with homicidal maniacs trying to splay his guts. It’s kind of what you might expect if you mixed Sophocles with Quentin Tarantino. Not everyone’s cut of tea, but I highly recommend Bullet Train!

Book Review

The Bullet that Missed

By Richard Osman

Richard Osman clearly enjoys writing. The British-based author positively sparkles with wit in The Bullet that Missed, the third in the Thursday Murder Club series.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, it takes place in a bucolic old-folks home in Kent. Elizabeth, a former MI6 operative, and her pals Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron meet each Thursday to investigate cold-case murder files. They invariably end up neck deep in desperados and ne’er do wells intent on causing them bodily harm.

The latest installment focuses on an investigative reporter who dies while researching a massive tax fraud. Her car is found at the base of a cliff overlooking the English Channel, but her body is never recovered. The club soon finds themselves dealing with ruthless thugs, nefarious KGB agents, a murderous drug lord intent on revenge – and a nice cup of tea when it all gets too exhausting. I highly recommend The Bullet that Missed!