Affordable Caviar Dish and Days 9-11 Recap

One of my best friends gave me this recipe for the misnamed caviar pie, but don’t be deterred by the name, it’s delicious and no graham cracker crust is involved. Take a container of caviar, such as those small jars you can probably still find. (I opted for an $18 container of caviar from Whole Foods.) Chop white or yellow onions very finely. Mix with 16 ounces of mayonnaise (I went with homemade aoili but you can use Hellman’s) and a dash of Worcestershire. Take a perfectly boiled egg and blend in the blender or food processor until minced extremely finely. Then add finally chopped parsley (Italian or curly, it makes me no difference, although I go with the Italian growing in my garden.) Serve on toast points or your favorite whole wheat cracker.

And don’t forget that Song of the Balalaika is available for sale on Amazon and Smashwords. Availability in the Nook store is forthcoming in the next few days, hopefully by the time our launch party ends.

Now for the recap:

Day 9: I’m wearing this Alexander McQueen because Song of the Balalaika is about a woman who is torn between two lovers AND her career as a professor of art history and her desire to be an artist. The dress reminds me of doodles.

Troy My Pool Boy has set up a very popular game of Pin the Tail on the Man Dressed as a Donkey who seems to be enjoying the competition and is actually encouraging the women to be particularly accurate.

 

Day 10: I’m in leather. Because I can.

Stop at the make-your-own steak tartare table with Troy there to provide technical assistane. Wines are a couple of nice reds: Dolcetto and Beaujolais.

Due to numerous requests from the masses of people here, I again read this excerpt from Song of the Balalaika.

 

Day 11: After a week of celebration, this dress says it all: Young, fabulous and broke

You don’t have to be wealthy to eat caviar. (See the recipe above.) We killed off the expensive stuff the first day and a half. Have a nice refreshing cucumber martini.

After eleven days, Troy is still going strong, taking naps on the air mattress during the infrequent lulls in frivolity. He was very gracious when Brad and Angelina arrived, or who turned out to be Glen and Viv from down the street. I have cut back substantially on my alcohol consumption.

Recap of Days 6-8: The Continuing Adventures of Troy My Pool Boy

Need to catch up on Days 1-5? Click here.

Day 6 of the Book Launch: I’m wearing a dress like Cilla would have worn to her friend Michael’s New Year’s Eve party where she tries to get over Peter:

Is it possible? Here is is a Sunday and this virtual space is filled with even more people than previously. I just gathered my courage, had a double Crown Royal and coke, and read another excerpt of Song of the Balalaika, the one when Peter comes to Cilla’s office and they find themselves in an intimate moment together for the first time. Troy my pool boy rescued me by bringing over a damp handkerchief after I swooned. Troy surprised us all by attempting to play a balalaika, although I believe it was, in actuality, a ukulele.

Day 7 of the Book Launch: This dress makes me look like I’m wearing an x-ray. Help yourself to a little amuse bouche, one bite hors d’ouevre and even a wine named amuse bouche. When I hear the name I have to giggle as I interpret the French to mean “tickle the mouth.” So apropos for a party for an erotic romance.

I so enjoy having other romance writers come and go. I won’t name names because so many of them like to remain incognito so they can let their hair down. This has been a week of celebrity sightings. Isn’t that George Clooney? No, I’m sorry, that’s my neighbor, Blaise. Unfortunately, I already sent Troy my pool boy over for an autograph. Oh, well.

Day 8 of the Book Launch: In honor of the country of Peru (a country not mentioned in Song of the Balalaika, which is set just outside Houston with a French-Russian male protagonist but is about anthropologists who often go to study cultures in Peru) something with an alpaca accessory.

In honor of Peru and all the royal baby hoopla (welcome to the world, little George), Troy My Pool Boy is wearing a diaper and is serving pisco sours and cold pureed soup.

The Story Behind the Balalaika

BalalaikaPeter Kirov enters Cilla Asher’s life at a moment she is at a turning point. His turning point came two years before, when his lover Katrina disappeared and he spent months trying in vain to find her.

Peter spends his nights on work to stop the continual playing out in his mind of the agony of losing Katrina, and while he works he listens to the music of the balalaika.

What does the music of the balalaika sound like? If you’ve ever seen the movie Dr. Zhivago, you’ve heard it playing in the background. It provides for Peter the soundtrack to his sorrow.

Cilla’s challenge: if she decides that her relationship with Peter has a future, she must break through the haunting caused by his lost love.