It’s an exciting day today! It’s the cover reveal day for my blog buddy J Keller Ford’s book, In The Shadow of the Dragon King, and we’re going to celebrate with a fire and ice party! An icy Sparkling Blueberry and Lemonade, and some fiery Chilli and Mozzarella Crostini. But first let’s have a proper look at that glorious cover…
Isn’t it beautiful? Many of you have joined Jenny and I over recent months for the Fallhollow recipe series where we’ve created recipes for characters in this book. Today we pay homage to the dragon. To find out more about the book, see below the recipe details.
I always think party food should be fun, tasty, appealing to the eye, and most importantly, easy to prepare – who needs the stress of spending hours toiling in the kitchen so that you’re frazzled and exhausted before your guests arrive?
Join in the party by telling us your favorite party food or drink in the comments below – feel free to include the recipe, or a link to it if it’s on your blog or elsewhere, so that we can try making it too! (If you’re including more than one link, then it’s best to put them as separate comments or the system might think you are spam).
Here are the recipes:
ICY SPARKLING BLUEBERRY AND LEMONADE
What You Need:
(This will make around 6 glasses of drink)
– ¾ Cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
– ½ Cup sugar
– ½ Cup still water
– ½ Cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
– Crushed ice (Or roughly break up some ice cubes in the bag by smashing with a rolling-pin)
– Sparkling water
– Lemon slices and straws to serve
What You Do:
1. Place the blueberries, sugar, and still water in a pan and heat for about 5 minutes, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and the blueberries have started to soften a little. Using a potato masher, smash the blueberries well into the sugar water to extract as much from them as you can.
2. Strain it through a sieve. Stir the lemon juice into the blueberry sugar water and chill well.
3. When ready to serve, pour it into glasses, about a quarter full, pour ice to the top of the glass, then pour sparkling water to the top. Finish each glass off with a straw and a lemon slice.
FIERY CHILLI AND MOZZARELLA CROSTINI
What You Need:
(Makes 12 crostini)
– 12 Thin slices cut from a french baguette stick or ciabatta bread (you need a thin narrow loaf so that you can cut small rounds from it)
– 2 Garlic cloves, cut in half
– Chilli infused olive oil (you should be able to find some kind of chilli infused oil easily enough, even if it’s not olive)
– 1 to 2 Hot red chilli peppers, finely chopped
– Two fresh soft mozzarella balls (the type that are about the size of a squashed tennis ball and packed in water, not the hard grating kind)
– A few fresh mint leaves, shredded
– One lemon
– Salt and freshly ground black pepper
What You Do:
1. Toast the bread rounds until crispy and golden on both sides, leave to cool.
2. Rub the open cut halves of the garlic over the top of all the slices, and then brush the chilli oil generously and fully over the top of each slice.
3. Sprinkle about half of the finely chopped chilli over each slice. With your hands, break up the mozzarella, pulling into rough shreds, then pile these on top of the slices. Add the fresh mint, and the rest of the chillies.
4. Finish each one off with another drizzle of the chilli oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice, and a couple of grinds of salt and pepper.
You can prep the ingredients for this ahead of time, but don’t assemble them too far ahead or the bread will start to turn soft.
Now, do help yourselves to the food and drink while I put on some party music, and let’s hear more about the book…
Seventeen-year-old, Eric, is a kick-butt squire to the most revered knight in Fallhollow. Well he would be if Sir Trogsdill allowed him to do anything even remotely awesome. Determined to prove his worth, Eric sets out to find the mythical paladin summoned to protect the realm from the evil lurking nearby.
Sixteen-year-old, David, spends his days collecting school honors, winning archery tournaments, and trying not to fall in love with his scrappy best friend, Charlotte.
Right when things start to get interesting, he is whisked away to the magical realm of Fallhollow where everyone thinks he’s some sort of paladin destined to fulfill a two-hundred-year-old prophecy. He’s supposed to help kill a dragon with some sort of magic key. The same key that happens to adorn the neck of an annoying squire who’s too wrapped up in proving himself to be much help to anyone.
With egos as big as the dragon they need to destroy, Eric and David must get over themselves, or watch everything they know and love, burn.
Title: IN THE SHADOW OF THE DRAGON KING (The Chronicles of Fallhallow #1)
Author: J. Keller Ford
Pub. Date: May 31, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Format: Paperback & eBook
Find it: Amazon | B&N | TBD | BAM | Kobo | Google Play Books | iBooks |Goodreads
Find out more about J Keller Ford here –
Twitter: @jkellerford
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/OUw7Zp
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/Nm96OT
Website: http://www.j-keller-ford.com
Blog: https://jennykellerford.wordpress.com/
Thanks Jenny for letting me host this cover reveal party!
I hope you’re all enjoying the party, remember to tell us about your favorite party food and drink in the comments…
Pingback: What Can This Be About? | Vanessa-Jane Chapman·
Thank you so much, Vanessa, for hosting this party and sharing lovely cover. I love the treats!! They are amazing!!
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Thanks Jenny!
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That drink looks wonderful.
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I thought we’d start getting in the mood for summer – is it too soon?
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It’s certainly teasing where I live.
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Yes, today is lovely and springlike here actually!
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Love the recipes! I’ll make them for book club next week!
Congrats on the cover. It is gorgeous!
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Well book club is very apt! The cover is very gorgeous isn’t it. I can imagine seeing that in a prominent place in a book store.
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Thank you, Susie. I’m quite impressed with it, too. 🙂
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The cover is EVERYTHING!
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Don’t mind if I do. That drink looks luscious.
I must say, the cover is fan-tab-U-lous. Wow. A real draw to the eye, and the story sounds captivating. 🙂
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Nothing like a nice drink and some nibbles to accompany a good book right?
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YES. I hope to read in a little while. I’m babysitting tonight.
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Thank you. I do find myself staring at it probably more than I should, and I’m making those crostinis for a 50th b’day party I’m going to today. Yummers.
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Sounds wonderful. Hope you had a great time at the birthday party.
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I’m always impressed by all the things you make. I get in a rut and make the same recipes over and over. Easier grocery shopping, I guess. I need to get more adventurous.
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Oh, and since I don’t go to parties, I don’t have a favorite party drink or food. 😉
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Maybe you misunderstand Carrie, you can have a great party just on your own with a good book and party food and drink 🙂 I ate most of those crostini myself, my son had a couple, but the rest was me – it was a great party! 😉
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Yes, a book and alone time–that’s my kind of party. But then I like popcorn. So dull but tasty.
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I really like popcorn too. I have a popcorn machine that pops it with just heat, so you don’t need any fat to pop it. Of course I then add a load of melted butter and salt to it, but aside from that I consider it’s basically a vegetable 🙂
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Nom nom nom.
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Oh yes I get into a rut and make the same things over and over too, particularly pasta dishes, but I like to regularly try out new things too – having this blog has encouraged me to do that more than I would have done before.
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That is a truly spectacular cover. I’d love to know how the author came by it. It truly couldn’t be any better. Congrats all around!
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It really is a fabulous cover isn’t it – I don’t know if it was Jenny or the publisher who got it done.
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I actually have an amazing publisher who asked me questions about what I was looking for in a cover. She then took my ideas and her ideas to a book cover designer. They asked a few more questions for clarification, and voila! This amazing book cover. It far surpassed everything I was expecting.
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Awesome. Congratulations!
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Now I want to go and make crostini snacks…I love fiery.
That’s an awesome cover! I’d look at it too much too…even if it wasn’t mine!
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You can add a load more chillies if you love fiery, I won’t stop you!
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Sounds tempting but I’m sure if I did…I’d regret it in some way..I don’t think my tongue could handle it.
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Our dinner group had a Fire & Ice theme one night … but I can’t recall what was served.
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Well that’s no good – think!
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The tumblers in my mind are at work.
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This looks so good it will surely attract dragons, won’t it? Sweet book cover, too. Love the “engraved silver” foreground and deep blue mistiness of the background. Cheers!
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I don’t mind attracting dragons as long as they’re the friendly kind 🙂
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That’s a fantastic cover, and the blueberry and lemonade drink looks heavenly for a warm summer day! Best wishes to Jenny for the success of the book!
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The cover is so important isn’t it, cliches aside, the cover of a book really does influence whether or not we decide to even read the blurb. It needs to give us an instant feeling of confidence in the book.
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OUtstanding cover and such yummy food!
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Sorry the food’s all gone, but the book will be around for a while!
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How sweet of you to host the party for your friend! Congrats to her and the cover looks great. Now I am off to droll over your yummy party treats.
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Being a bit of an introvert, I just LOVE hosting virtual parties, it’s so much more fun for me than real parties. And I get all the food to myself! 🙂
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Lovely party – hope I’m not too late! My favorite party snacks? Probably marguerite (the ice) and hot salsa & chips (the fire). But after looking at your fare, I could be persuaded otherwise. Best of luck with the book, Jenny.
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You’re not too late…well you’re kind of too late, but I can rustle up some more snacks in no time!
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Vanessa that is indeed a gorgeous cover. Congrats Jenny! 🙂 Adding it to my Goodreads TBR list.
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Hope you like the book when you get to read it Kourtney, I’m sure you will, Jenny’s a fab writer!
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