Gourmet Peasant Food

I made this the other night and fell in love with it all over again.
It is so easy and tastes so fancy.

Originally invented and posted on The Daily Coyote one Christmas long ago, it’s essentially macaroni and cheese (yes, mac & cheese for Xmas dinner, but keep reading, trust). Measurement guidelines are given at the bottom of the post.

Bring water in a pot to a boil and pour in pasta. I generally use elbows or little shells. For gluten-free pasta, I recommend Tinkyada ~ it’s all I use and gluten-eaters love it, too. Also toss in some dried porcini mushrooms. Boil until the pasta is al dente.

Drain pasta and mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms if they’re in big pieces and keep it all in the strainer for the time being. In the now-empty pot, melt a bit of butter, then toss in grated, sliced, or hacked-up bits of parmesan (real parmesan - that stuff in a can is not allowed!), then dump the noodles and mushrooms on top. Return to med/low heat and stir until the cheese is completely melted.

And now the pièce de résistance. Drizzle a few tiny drops (as in JUST A FEW TINY DROPS) of black truffle oil over the mixture. And a dash of sea salt. Stir once more, then taste. Then collapse on the floor in ecstasy.

Truffle oil is expensive and only a minuscule amount is required for enormous flavor. There’s no reason not to go in on a bottle with a few friends and split the cost, then divide the oil up in jam jars or something. Store this oil in a dark, cool place.

And for those who need a bit of guidance re/the recipe measurements, I’d say it’s 1 part pasta, 1/6 part dried porcini, and 1/4 part parmesan. And one or two teeny tiny droplets of truffle oil per serving. So good!

Gypsy Grande!

The man on whose property this old bus sits said to me, “You haul it off my land, it’s yours.”

VERY TEMPTING.

When I was revamping my gypsy trailer, I though how awesome it would be to have, instead of a house, a conglomeration of trailers, each one a “room.” The kitchen/dining trailer. The livingroom trailer. The boudoir trailer. All joined with little pathways. The bathhouse trailer would be a sheep wagon, the interior all whites and dovey blue-grays with a tiny woodstove and a huge clawfoot tub.

This schoolbus I see transformed with lots of heavy, dark, burnished wood and a huge leather sofa, a nice place to stretch out with a good man and a good movie on these October nights.

Can you get over that DOOR????!?
LOVE.

The Numbers Are In!

WOW and wow and wow to everyone who entered ~ it has been such an honor and a treat to read about all the projects, hopes, pasts, pains, and dreams left by so many. Thank you. Really. I feel a closer connection to the invisible, swirling readership & writership out there because of it.

On to the contest! I wish I had 335 books to send out but alas, there are only four. If your comment number matches one of the four numbers pictured above, please email me at dailycoyote AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address ~ I will be sharing this info with Martha’s publisher for the SOLE purpose of having the books sent your way. The info will then be eaten.

Thanks again, to all who joined in!

You can find TONS of writerly inspiration from Martha:
on her site Blockbuster Plots
on her blog The Plot Whisperer
with her Youtube Videos
and in her latest and greatest, The Plot Whisperer book.

The Plot Whisperer

I am thrilled to be today’s stop on the Blog Book Tour for Martha Alderson’s latest, The Plot Whisperer. Full disclosure and threats of nepotism notwithstanding, she happens to be my aunt; my favorite aunt, at that. But if you are a writer, please keep reading.

I’ve made it no secret that I feel I could not have written The Daily Coyote without the assistance and insight provided by Martha’s first book, Blockbuster Plots. I haven’t had a writing class since 11th grade, and when I was offered a book deal with Simon & Schuster I knew I had to learn and understand technique and structure. And Blockbuster Plots demystified it all for me.

Now, with The Plot Whisperer, Martha takes this essential information even further. Further and deeper. Martha has been doing one-on-one writer’s consultations for years and this is what reading The Plot Whisperer feels like ~ it’s like sitting with her and being coached, psychoanalyzed, pushed, encouraged, and, via all of that, INSPIRED to get down and write.

I highly recommend both of Martha’s books, Blockbuster Plots and The Plot Whisperer, to anyone who is actively engaged in writing, or who wants to be.

And I have FOUR copies of this beautiful new book, The Plot Whisperer, to give away! To enter the drawing, just leave a comment. Say hi, tell us about your current writing project or problem, leave a non-sequitur-one-liner from a recent journal-stream-of-consciousness, whatever!

I’ll draw four numbers randomly via random.org on Wednesday morning (your comment number will be your winning number, so please leave just one comment between now and then) and announce the Chosen Ones here!