Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

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News about THREE BLONDE MICE!

March 21, 2016

ARC ThreeBlondeMice_cover_5-5x8-5.indd

Yup, we have a cover for my new novel, which Diversion Books will publish in August. Why the heart of carrots? Because my “three blonde mice” heroines, Elaine, Jackie and Pat, have taken a farm-to-table vacation together in this sequel to Princess Charming, the book that sent them on a seven-day Caribbean cruise. This time they’re at a farm resort in Litchfield, CT – agritourists on a “haycation.” They not only milk a cow and make cheese from the milk, but they spend the week taking cooking classes with a famous farm-to-table chef. Here’s Diversion’s descriptive copy:

Elaine Zimmerman and her best friends Jackie Gault and Pat Kovecky venture to a farm in Litchfield, Connecticut. It’s been over a year since their last trip together, a Caribbean cruise aboard the Princess Charming, and after dealing with a murderous ex and his hit man, they’re yearning for a no-drama vacation this time. During their Cultivate Our Bounty Week, they and eight other guests will learn how to cook farm-to-table meals with Whitley’s artisan-inresidence, a renowned TV/restaurant chef named Jason Hill. Elaine, the jaded, neurotic narrator, is less than thrilled—especially because the program wasn’t supposed to include a surprise appearance by her former boyfriend Simon, who’s still the love of her life but can’t commit to her. What’s more, after milking a cow and making cheese, she stumbles on evidence that one of her fellow agritourists is out to murder Chef Hill at the resort’s Bounty Fest finale. Is the killer among the freakishly fit Manhattan couple who takes their devotion to organic, hormone-free, non-GMO food to the point of obsession? The grandmother from Wisconsin who’s a groupie of the celebrity chef and follows him to every event? The mother and son from Palm Beach who bicker over whether he should give up his law practice to open his own restaurant? Three Blonde Mice serves up a crackling romance between Elaine and Simon, a twisty whodunit involving a screwball cast of suspects and a satire of current food fads and the farm-to-table chefs who perpetuate them.

Needless to say, I’m very excited that the book is in the promotional pipeline. Now that I’m back in CT, I’ll be doing local publicity as well as national. I’ll post much more in the coming months, but I’m happy to say that Three Blonde Mice is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

Meanwhile, Diversion has just reissued five of my backlist novels, including Princess Charming, with pretty new covers that tie in nicely with the Three Blonde Mice cover. Check them out!

Princess Charming_coverLARGE

 

Clean Sweep_coverLARGE-2

 

The Club_coverLARGE

 

Crystal Clear_coverLARGE

 

Infernal Affairs_coverLARGE

Filed Under: Mainly Jane Tagged With: agritourism, chefs, Diversion Books, farm to table, foodies, haycation, mysteries, novels, Princess Charming, romantic comedies, Three Blonde Mice

When Research Is a Pleasure, Part 5

July 22, 2014

me sampling leaf

Next up on my east coast research itinerary (see blog posts Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4) was the mother of all farm-to-table experiences: a day and night at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY. What was once the estate and dairy farm of the Rockefellers is now a breathtaking 80-acre compound of pastures, animals, greenhouses, fields of crops and Dan Barber’s famed Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant, along with a busy farm market, cafe, gift shop, classroom and visitor’s center, set in meticulously restored buildings from the original Rockefeller farm. Some view Stone Barns as the “Disneyland” of the all things local and sustainable, but I totally drank the Kool-Aid and found the place satisfying on every level, if a bit over the top. The mission of the non-profit Stone Barns is to “increase public awareness of healthy, seasonal and sustainable food, train farmers in resilient, restorative farming techniques and educate children about the sources of their food and prepare them to steward the land that provides it.” It does accomplish all those things from what I could see.

The photo above is of me sampling a tasty morsel (I think it was purslane or maybe an amaranth leaf?) we happened upon during our first activity of the day, which was called “Foraged: A Wild Edibles Walk and Taste.” It was a tour through the often dense woods (I was glad I wore long pants, socks and covered shoes fearing poison ivy, not to mention deer ticks) given by Laura Perkins, the gardener at Stone Barns. The point of all this foraging was to learn about the plants we often dismiss as weeds or exotics, how to spot them where we’d least expect them and how to use them in the kitchen for delicious foods. I feared we’d be eating poison mushrooms (along with the poison ivy), but instead we discovered all sorts of treasures.

Laura leads foraging w me 2

Here, for example, are wild blueberries.

blueberries closeup 2

We foraged for almost two hours, discovering a long list of wild edibles. (Lamb’s shoulders anyone? Or milkweed? Or perhaps elderberries?) At the end of the tour, Laura took us into the classroom where we were served a delicious soup made from amaranth leaves.

amaranth soup closeup

Ok, so it doesn’t look all that great from the photo, but trust me. It was like the best spinach or kale soup, flavored by chicken broth, eggs and sauteed onions.

But there were no second helpings for us because we were on to the second tour of the day: the “Insiders Tour,” during which our knowledgeable tour guide, Barbara, provided us with an up-close-and-personal, two-hour hike through the pastures, fields, barns and everything else that makes the place work.

For example, we learned about the history of the 1930s-era buildings.

buildings tight 2

Here’s another look.

fields w buildings

We met up with a group of very lively (they were pecking at us) laying hens.

hens 2

We hung out with the meat chickens.

me with red chicken

The baby chicks were so cute I didn’t even want to think about having them for dinner when they were older. *shudder*

baby chicks

The turkeys had no idea how many Thanksgivings they’d be attending.

turkeys

And there were the snoozing pigs. Pork tenderloin? Bacon?

pig snoozing 2

No farm would be complete without sheep and these were happily grazing.

sheep grazing

As the skies darkened with rain threatening, we all headed inside where it was time for Michael and me to change into our fancy clothes to dine at Blue Hill. I’d been reading all the raves about Chef Dan Barber’s restaurant both at Stone Barns and at his original Greenwich Village location, along with the reviews of his new book.

Food Dan Barber

So I was primed for a unique experience at dinner. What I didn’t expect was just how unique it was. (No pics coming of the meal, because they frown on it and with good reason.)

We were seated and given little booklets by our waiter, who explained that the booklets contained a month by month journal of the seasonal foods that were being harvested and that our meal, which was to be served in multiple courses, some to be eaten without utensils, would arrive together and separately – a “tasting menu called Grazing, Rooting and Pecking,” he said and added, “It will give you a full look at the season showing you everything the chefs are working on. We’re going to bring multiple dishes together at the same time and sometimes we’ll ask you to use your hands to eat them. It’s a little unconventional in some ways but it’s fun and interesting. So use your hands to start and we’ll bring silverware in a bit.”

All righty then. We strapped ourselves in and prepared for the ride.

What came next was a parade of treats for the eyes and the palate. First was what I think of as salad ingredients on vertical skewers – single items (a cherry tomato, a white radish, a bibb lettuce leaf, etc.) each dressed with some light, citrus-y vinaigrette and served on a piece of hollowed out tree bark. Gimmicky, you say? Maybe so, but every bite was an explosion of flavor from veggies that didn’t taste like anything you’d buy in a store.

I can’t remember every course, but there was a cucumber gazpacho in a martini glass, a milkweed “soda” amuse-bouche in a shot glass, tiny pea burgers, quinoa coated Vichyssoise (our favorite by far, as unlikely as it sounds), elderberries in a tempora batter, egg “carbonara,” sous-vide prepared chicken, sliced goat tenderloin and lots of sweets for dessert. Oh, and I forgot the beyond-delicious bread that came with the beyond-delicious farmer’s cheese and butter. We were stuffed, obviously.

The best part of the meal for me was when the waiter said, mid-way through, “Would you both come with me for a few minutes.” Michael and I had no idea what was going on, but we put our napkins on the table, got up and followed him – into the kitchen, it turned out. We were guided to a small butcher block table for two in the corner of the busy hub where we sat, were served another course, and got to watch the 30+ chefs doing their thing. Fascinating! It was like being on the set of an episode of “Iron Chef” only without the competition. I don’t know if every guest of the restaurant is granted a peek inside the kitchen or if it was because I went through the PR director to make my reservation, citing research for my novel, but I was grateful for it.

The point of the dinner was to experience the creative ways to incorporate what we saw on the farm into food that can soar if in the right hands. Dan Farber’s hands are the right hands. Wow. Just wow.

 

Filed Under: Food, Mainly Jane Tagged With: Blue Hill at Stone Barns, book research, Dan Barber, farm to table, NY, Pocantico Hills, Rockefeller estate, Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture

When Research Is a Pleasure, Part 4

July 21, 2014

Michael, Jane, Kim

Yup, I’m the one in the middle and I’m wearing a chef’s hat and apron, as is Michael along with Kimberly Thorn, the co-owner with her husband Clint of Thorncrest Farm in Goshen, CT.

Thorncrest barn ext

Thorncrest was the next stop on my research adventure (see blog posts Parts 1, 2 and 3) to put myself into the farm-to-table “agri-tourism” world my characters will encounter. Our agenda for the bright and sunny morning was to begin in the barn with Clint and learn about his dairy cows.

Clint milking by pump smile

Unlike Arethusa Dairy with its state-of-the-art facility, Thorncrest is a two-person operation (plus Clint and Kim’s two sons) and no less engaging in its own way. Clint and Kim are all about the milk, of which they’re justifiably proud, but also about the cheese and chocolates Kim makes like a true artisan. Everything tasted pure and fresh and like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It all comes from the cows and, Clint was emphatic in noting, the fact that they’re cared for in a stress-free environment because stress affects the quality of the milk. Check out these Jerseys cows. Don’t they look relaxed?

Jerseys relaxing

After Clint gave us all a little history of the farm, we got down to business: I milked my first cow! It was fun! And I was thrilled when milk actually came out!

me milking closeup

After we all had our chance to milk, Clint took over and pumped out the necessary quota for the day. The milk was then transferred into the dairy area where Kim met us and gave us the hats and aprons to put on. Then into her kitchen we went and it was time to learn how to make cheese. She gave us step-by-step instructions in making both ricotta and mozzarella. Here she is taking the temperature of the hot milk I was stirring.

me w kim checking my milk

It was exciting when it reached the proper temperature and the curds were very much in evidence.

milk with curds and thermometer

My ricotta came out great and we took home several containers. Yum.

Next came the mozzarella, which involved stretching it to get the lumps out.

me stretching email

Once it’s shiny and smooth, it goes back into a ball and is ready to sample. Yum again. We took home several containers of it too, along with the samples of the chocolates Kim had just made.

chocolates tray

Seriously, maybe I’ll forget about writing novels and just research them. Could there be anything more fun?

Filed Under: Food, Mainly Jane Tagged With: book research, cheese making, chocolate making, Clint Thorn, CT, farm to table, Goshen, Kimberly Thorn, Thorncrest Farm

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