Who's Your Top Dog?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have a rant! I was so aggravated on Tuesday this week when I couldn't find any way to watch the Westminster Dog Show. We have broadcast TV (antenna!) and we have lots of streaming services (too many!) but none of our options carried the show. Apparently, it was on FS1, which is Fox Sports on cable, and on Hulu+, which is streaming but ouchy expensive. So, I sulked, and tried to keep up with the New York Times live updates, but no pictures, so boo. Here's this year's winner (photo courtesy of Westminster Kennel Club), a gorgeous, sassy doberman called Penny. (Or, officially, GCHP CH Connquest Best Of Both Worlds.)

I couldn't find a photo of the Best in Breed German shepherd, but you can see him at about 22 minutes in this video of the herding group. What a beautiful boy!

I adore dog shows. I think it's fascinating to see the variations in all the different breeds. Of course, I have my favorites--German shepherds, obviously. I also love all the Herding Group, the Working Group, and the Hunting Group, especially the spaniels, but I have cheered for little bichons and terriers and all manner of dogs.

This made me think about why we love the dogs that we love. We have had German shepherds (Jasmine, who will be twelve on Valentine's Day (ish) is our 4th) because Rick's family kept a friend's German Shepherd for a few months when he was about four. From then on, the GSD was the perfect dog for him and there is no substitute.

I love them, too, but as you might guess from the dog I gave Gemma in my books, I have a big place in my heart for cocker spaniels, both the English and the American varieties. A cocker was my first dog as an adult, brought home by my ex-husband as a six-week-old puppy--as a surprise! Here I am with my darling boy, Taffy, in my author photo on the back flap of DREAMING OF THE BONES.

Where Kit's little rescue terrier, Tess, comes from I don't know, as we've never had terriers in our family, but I can tell you that she looks like a Norwich terrier.

Dog genetics are endlessly fascinating to me. My daughter, Kayti, and her family adopted a rescue puppy after Christmas. Her name is Tillie and she's missing one of her front legs--it had to be amputated due to a bad break. Look at her little face!!

Kayti sent off her DNA to be tested and while waiting for the results, she did a fundraiser for the rescue organization, giving people a chance to guess Tillie's lineage.  

You can see that we were all convinced there was terrier or schnauzer in there! We were so wrong.

Here are Tillie's DNA test results.

Tillie and Jasmine are cousins!

Dear REDs and readers, do you have a favorite dog breed? And, if so, why?

Cooking with a Little Help

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I know quite a few of us have been cooking-challenged in the last couple of weeks. When you can't get out to the store, for whatever reason (iced in for a week here!) you have to get creative. So did I pull out my favorite cookbooks as I was perusing the pantry and planning meals?

Uh, nope, I'm a little embarrassed to admit. I searched for recipes online. Don't get me wrong–I love cookbooks. But I'm more likely to read them than I am to actually cook from them. I've almost finished reading the copy of Samin Nosrat's GOOD THINGS I got for Christmas, but have I made anything from it? Oops, no, although I even bought the special vinegar for one of her salad dressings... Maybe tomorrow...

I do, however, have favorite online cooking sites that I use practically every day. 

#1 is New York Times Cooking.

I know it's a subscription, but to me it is absolutely worth it. I love that I can save recipes in my searchable Recipe Box. And I really love the comments from other readers. They can be incredibly helpful and have often made the difference between a recipe that is just okay and one that goes on instant dinner repeat.

#2 is Jeanine Donofrio's LOVE & LEMONS. I actually have one of her cookbooks that I never think to open. We're not vegetarian but I'm always trying to ramp up our fruit, veggie, and grain proportions, and she's a terrific resource on how to cook all of those things.

#3 is another vegetarian site, COOKIE + KATE. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to eat healthier, this will inspire you.

I also subscribe to The Washington Post's Eat Voraciously column (free with the paper's digital subscription) and I subscribe to Mark Bittman's substack, The Bittman Project which does require a small fee but is a great resource for healthy eating and food news.

And of course there is Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, who can be relied upon for many a great recipe. (Short ribs, anyone? Yum, I think, with this cold weather, those might need to go on my menu this week…)

Darling REDs, do you turn to favorite internet cooking gurus in a pinch, or do you actually use your trusty cookbooks?

LUCY BURDETTE: I requested and received 3 cookbooks for Christmas and Birthday, including Good Things. I’ve only made one recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s cake book. John wonders why I need cookbooks when I get everything online? BIG SHRUG. I’m an addict!

I love New York Times Cooking, Once Upon a Chef, Sally’s Baking Addiction, King Arthur, and most recently, Alexandra’s Kitchen. And more…

DEBS: Oh, I use Once Upon a Chef, too!

HALLIE EPHRON: My go-to source is The New York Times Cooking, too. But I also find myself dipping back into the first cookbook I ever used: The Joy of Cooking. It’s cover has decayed and many of the pages are stained, but it’s so easy to follow, simple and reliable. I’m not a fan of recipes that include obscure ingredients or fancy equipment. (No air fryer or sous vide or crockpot even …)

And then there are all the recipes I’ve cut out or printed over the years, which I keep in a series of manila folders (Mains, Desserts, Soups…)

DEBS: For some reason, I've never really cooked from Joy, even though I have the 1970s edition and the newer one. You Joy fans will have to list me some of your favorites to try.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ladies, I have to confess. I cook because I like to eat. Any small stirrings of cooking as a creative act were trampled underfoot by thirty years of making dinners (and lunches) for a family of five. If I could hire someone to make delicious, healthy meals for me, I’d do it in a minute, and I’d never open the oven again except to re-heat take-out pizza.

That being said, if I am looking for a recipe for a dish I’ve never made before, my technique is to search with a list of the main ingredients, see what pops up, and then sort the recipes by the number of reviews and how many stars each one received. Then I go back and forth, reading several of them. Sometimes, I choose just one. Other times, I mix and match. If a dish was a success, I’ll bookmark it, which is the modern version of the manila folders with newspaper and magazine clippings which I, like Hallie, collected.

Where are they now? I guess we’ll find out when my Swedish Death Cleaning is complete.

DEBS: Julia, mine in are the kitchen bookshelf, and I do actually use some of them!

RHYS BOWEN:  I have become anti-cooking. After fifty years of feeding a family every night all I want is a personal chef to call me when dinner is on the table and delight my senses. But one thing I do still enjoy is making soups in the winter. My friend Susan Shea gave me a lovely book called Sunday Soups for Christmas and I have already tried a couple of them.

I do save recipes I see online but I have to confess that my rule for trying them is now how good they might taste but how many ingredients they have. If I scan down and read “first grate the ginger, crush the garlic and saute the xxx then put aside while you…”  No. My favorite meals these days are things like lamb chops, asparagus and new potatoes or pan fried petrale sole. 

DEBS: So many of the NYT recipes tell you that you can make them in 30 minutes. I will tell you that THEY LIE. I used to think I was just a really bad cook because things would take me at least twice as long, but I see other people in the NYT comments saying that they lie! Maybe in a professional kitchen, with someone to prep...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think I get a newsletter from–All Recipes? Which I never make anything from, but I get ideas. Like–oh, I have chicken and mushrooms, and that’s an interesting way to put them together. And then I do it my way. Sometimes I enter the ingredients I have, and see what it comes with that’s different. I am less and less inclined to try something complicated. I have NO time for that.

I do have a stash of cookbooks, though, and if I need any advice, I go to Mark Bittman or the Blue Strawberry Cookbook. They always know.  I will never give up my young-bride compilation of recipes clipped from the Washington post and who knows where else, some in handwriting on  peoples index cards and some weird copies from an office copier (I bet) and all taped with now-yellowed and brittle scotch tape into spiral steno pads. I bet it has chicken divan and fondue sauces and chicken Kiev and french onion soup (Julia Child's) and boeuf bourguignon and fettucini Alfredo.Things like that.

Recently I calculated that in the time I’ve been married to Jonathan I have probably cooked 7500 dinners. Just saying.

JENN McKINLAY: I don’t cook so while I love looking at cookbooks — the Magnolia Bakery cookbook is divine! — I handed my apron to the Hub during the pandemic and never took it back. So recipe searching isn’t for me, although I will ask the Hub to cook chicken or fish or whatever I’m hankering and he is wonderfully accommodating and a much better cook than I am. 

DEBS: How about it, dear readers? Do you reach for a cookbook, look up a dinner recipe online--or order out!

Brad Parks--With Friends Like These...

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Here at JRW we know we can always count on Brad Parks for a witty and entertaining post--as well as terrific thrillers. Today he's here to celebrate his latest, THE FLACK, and, well, I'll let him tell you about it!

With Friends Like These...

 

BRAD PARKS: Thanks, Deb! It’s always great to be back here at Jungle Red.

Everyone here knows I’m a rascal who likes to stir the pot, so today I’m going to ask you to think about a friend.

And not just any friend. Your best friend.

Hopefully you have one. Or maybe, if you’re really lucky, even more than one.

Whatever the case, you know who the person is: Your bestie. Your ride or die. Your rock. That person who would not only help you move, they’d help you move a body.

            You know, like the kind of friends you have here at Jungle Red. (Especially in the move-a-body department . . . I have it on good authority Rhys is an expert.)

My latest novel, The Flack, features two such friends.

Curt Hinton and Angel Reddish were college roommates at Northwestern who—despite differences in background and temperament—turn into close companions and confidantes, the kind of friends guys don’t always have anymore.

(It’s true: Did you know men are fifty percent more likely than women to report that they have zero close friends, according to the Survey Center on American Life? And people wonder why we die sooner.)

            Angel and Curt went their separate ways after college graduation but remained BFFs. Curt launched a career in journalism. Angel became a rising star in the logistics industry, eventually landing a spot as chief operating officer at Balco, the Bay Area Logistics Company.

            Which is how, at the beginning of The Flack, they are reunited. With Curt’s newspaper sliding into financial oblivion, Angel comes to the rescue, helping him land a job at Balco as vice president of corporate communications—a “flack” as they’re known in newspaper jargon.

            It’s a plush gig: a $350,000 salary; plus a housing stipend, a $50,000 signing bonus, and a free Rivian to zip around in. And it couldn’t come at a better time, since Curt’s wife is pregnant with their first child. It has that happily-ever-after feel to it . . .

Except—this being crime fiction—there has to be a twist, and there has to be a crime.

            It turns out Angel has been keeping a secret from Curt.

It’s a pretty big one.

And—this isn’t much of a spoiler, since it happens on page two—it gets Angel killed. As Curt begins to investigate, it sends him down a very dangerous road. I can’t say too much more (because then it would get spoiler-y), but it does make me think about friends and secrets and leads me to that stir-the-pot question I want to ask:

What’s the biggest secret your best friend ever kept from you?

How did it come to light? Did you understand why they didn’t tell you? Did it cause a rift in your relationship or were you able to forgive them?

 

I’ll be giving away a free autographed copy of The Flack to one random commenter. For more about me, visit bradparksbooks.com. For more about moving bodies, ask Rhys.

 

Seriously. She’s good.

 

International bestselling author Brad Parks is the only writer to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes. His novels have been translated into sixteen languages and won critical acclaim around the globe. The proud father of two terrific kids, he splits his time between Virginia and California.

DEBS: Okay, I'm snickering, and wondering just exactly what bodies Rhys has moved!

Readers, confess your bestie's secret--or just say "hi"--in the comments, and you'll be entered to win a copy of THE FLACK!