D.V. Stone's delicious Paella recipe and an excerpt from her exciting new release, Jazz House

D.V. Stone is another Wild Rose Press author, and two of her books are set in restaurants. How delicious!

 

Hi, J. Arlene! Thank you so much for hosting me today. I love to cook, especially outdoors over an open fire when camping. I have grates, a tripod with chains, a Dutch oven, and different cast iron pans to go with it. I make stews, roasts, of course, chili. Anything else that inspires me from my location gets tried.

This past winter, while in Florida, I cooked a massive pan of collard greens. Many fellow campers enjoyed them. I found out it is a Southern tradition that if you send someone a container of food, you get the container back with some tasty treat in it. We scored some great food in return. So, what does this all have to do with the recipe I’m sharing today? Inspiration, fellowship, and breaking bread together.

My husband’s brother invited us over for a backyard party a few years ago. Tom is known for his Paella parties. This was my first time at one. I watched, smelled, and learned as he built this amazing dish over the firepit. That’s another of my favorite things. Building layers of taste and texture in cooking. (Soup is one of my other number-one things to make.) Paella began to rotate into my cooking.

Oh, I should have told you, many years ago, I asked for a large frying pan for Christmas. Pete’s sister Sue came up with one that I never thought I’d use but quickly became a favorite.

Back to Florida.

We often got together with other seasonal campers and workers. We had taco night, Irish night, breakfast casserole brunches, and Pete even introduced them to Taylor, egg, and cheese. (That’s a whole other post.)

None of the campers ever had Paella before. Out came Sue’s monstrous pan, and on the fire, it went. I made two versions, one with and one without shrimp, because of a shellfish allergy. It was a huge hit.

To be honest, I play with my recipes and tweak things all the time, so the recipe I’m sharing with you today is basic. As one of my characters says, “I like to play with my food.”

Jazz House, my newest release, and Rock House Grill are both based in restaurants. They are places where friends and family can laugh and enjoy each other over a good plate of food. I hope you like my Unconventional Paella recipe and would love to hear about your experiments with it. And if you have a recipe you’d like to share, please do.

D. V.’s Unconventional Paella Recipe


2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound chorizo sausage or smoked sausage, ½ inch slices
2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice I like Arborio
1 quart of chicken stock
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ bunch parsley, chopped
Red pepper flakes are optional. Use to taste.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, onion, and peppers. Then stir in rice. Cook and stir until rice is coated with oil, about 3 minutes.
 

I add my chicken and sausage at this point as well. Many recipes have you cook and add the chicken later, but I prefer everyone in the pool.

Add chicken stock, tomatoes,  and parsley.  Stir until well combined, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add shrimp toward the end when your rice is close to done. Shrimp cooks fast, so it only needs a few minutes to turn bright pink, about 2 minutes.

Jazz House Blurb

  Jordan Vasilakis is on the run, living under an assumed name. After a disastrous marriage to a notorious Greek business tycoon, she flees to the States and starts rebuilding her life. But her ruthless husband is determined to destroy her…once he finds her.

  Michael Machau is drawn to the new singer at Jazz House restaurant, but the guarded woman is harboring dangerous secrets. The dedicated police officer may have to risk more than just his heart to forge a connection with the woman he knows as Madeline Cielo, especially when he discovers she’s living a lie.

   Worlds collide. Lies entangle. Survival, much less love, is in question. They must quickly distinguish friends from enemies or risk losing everything—including a future together.

 


Short Excerpt

  Jordan scrambled to the other side of the limo.
    “You sing good tonight.” He scrolled through his phone.
     “Yes, Kyrios.”
     Outside the window, massive cruise ships docked in the port. Happy older people made their way up the gangplanks toting bags filled with souvenirs, while the younger ones debarked dressed for the nightlife. Sparkly sequins flashed like diamonds as one young woman twirled on the pier. God, how had she come to this life? She willed her hovering tears not to fall. Kyrios wouldn’t approve.
   When she was offered a place in the touring group ten years ago, she thought it was the beginning of great things. Standing in the cabaret with the lights shining down was her dream come true. When she was the woman in the sparkly dress.
   Until he showed up.
   Each night, Kyrios Vasilakis, Greek business tycoon, sat at the front table watching her. Yes, he was older but so very handsome. Dark hair with silver at the temples, he cut a dashing figure in his black suits.
   Jordan began to sing to him. It was the beginning of the end. After a whirlwind romance, she found herself a prisoner in marriage to a brute.

https://youtu.be/VKyvNBD56e8
Universal Purchase Link
https://books2read.com/u/mZQq0e
 

 

Author Bio

   D. V. Stone is an award-winning, multi-genre, traditionally and independently published author. She writes books people want to read. Whether romance or fantasy, her stories are about the importance of friends and family. About overcoming obstacles while doing it with humor.

Around the Fire is a popular weekly blog where she introduces both established and new authors giving an insider’s look into their lives and books as well as tidbits about her own life.
After retiring, she is now a full-time author and incorporates her life experiences into her books.
 

A former Emergency Medical Technician, she volunteered in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. At the same time, she worked as a professional EMT in a women’s state prison. She was the proprietor of a coffee shop, and a small restaurant/ice cream stand in the years that followed. The years following were as a manager in an animal emergency hospital, while her last position was in a human medical office.

When not behind the wheel of 2Hoots—a 41 foot long 13.2 feet high 5th Wheel camper, she rambles around town in Northern New Jersey in a white Camaro. She also loves travel and history.

   D.V. is wife to an amazing husband, mother to one son, and not your average grandma to three beautiful grands. A woman of faith, she believes and trusts in God.

D.V. is wife to an amazing husband, mother to one son, and not your average grandma to three beautiful grands. A woman of faith, she believes and trusts in God. “My greatest pleasures are spending time outside with friends and family, cooking over the open fire, sipping a glass of wine, and reading.”

 Hali, her rescue dog, always reminds her to let readers know, “Woof, woof.” Which is loosely translated as support your local animal rescue. You can find out more about D. V. by following her on Social Media.

Around the Fire Blog with D.V. Stone

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