I was gonna do something Marjorie-specific, but I just realized the only time anyone cooks in the book are enchiladas and I have no idea how to make enchiladas. Well, I have a vague idea of how to make them, but none of my own personal recipes, sooo.
Here’s my super secret awesome recipe for Croque Monsieur (Aka: The greatest grilled cheese/ham sandwich you will ever eat)
Ingredients:
Béchamel
½ stick of unsalted European butter
¼ cup of all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 tbs Dijon mustard
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Kosher salt, to taste
1 bay leaf
Sandwich
8 slices of pain de mie (or thick country-style bread)
6 oz. Paris ham
2 cups. Gruyère cheese, grated
½ cup grated parmesan
1 tsp herbes de province
Preparation:
Béchamel
Make a roux by melting butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it’s foamy, then add the flour. Stir until the flour smells cooked or the mixture is pale and foamy. This should take roughly 3-4 minutes.
When the flour is cooked, turn the heat down and gradually add the milk ½ cup at a time while stirring continuously. You want the sauce to be smooth so be sure to flatten out all those chunks.
Then turn the heat back up a little, add the bay leaf. and let the sauce thicken up, stirring occasionally until it is elastic and has a sauce-like texture. This should take 4-5 minutes.
Add a half cup of Gruyère cheese to the béchamel and stir it in until it is melted and sauce is smooth.
Once finished, remove from heat, pluck out the bay leaf and whisk in the mustard and season with salt.
Be sure to taste the sauce before putting it on the bread to ensure there was enough salt used.
Béchamel is also the perfect base for cheese sauces, alfredo sauce, macaroni and cheese, and pretty much anything you want to melt cheese for.
Sandwiches
Preheat oven to 425° and grab a cookie sheet. Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Spread béchamel evenly over 4 slices of bread then place them on the cookie sheet, béchamel side up. Top with ham and half of the Gruyère. Then place the other four slices of bread on top, spread béchamel over those bad boys and top with Gruyère, parmesan, and a sprinkle of herbes de province.
Traditionally, you wouldn’t use parmesan, but I think it gives it a nice little crunch.
Bake until cheese is brown and bubbling. So about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.
Bon appétit!
Oh, pro-tip: if you’re looking for something to pair with this to make it a full meal, a light side salad with a vinaigrette is key. The sandwiches are so heavy you won’t be able to eat anything else.
Here’s my super secret awesome recipe for Croque Monsieur (Aka: The greatest grilled cheese/ham sandwich you will ever eat)
Ingredients:
Béchamel
½ stick of unsalted European butter
¼ cup of all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 tbs Dijon mustard
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Kosher salt, to taste
1 bay leaf
Sandwich
8 slices of pain de mie (or thick country-style bread)
6 oz. Paris ham
2 cups. Gruyère cheese, grated
½ cup grated parmesan
1 tsp herbes de province
Preparation:
Béchamel
Make a roux by melting butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until it’s foamy, then add the flour. Stir until the flour smells cooked or the mixture is pale and foamy. This should take roughly 3-4 minutes.
When the flour is cooked, turn the heat down and gradually add the milk ½ cup at a time while stirring continuously. You want the sauce to be smooth so be sure to flatten out all those chunks.
Then turn the heat back up a little, add the bay leaf. and let the sauce thicken up, stirring occasionally until it is elastic and has a sauce-like texture. This should take 4-5 minutes.
Add a half cup of Gruyère cheese to the béchamel and stir it in until it is melted and sauce is smooth.
Once finished, remove from heat, pluck out the bay leaf and whisk in the mustard and season with salt.
Be sure to taste the sauce before putting it on the bread to ensure there was enough salt used.
Béchamel is also the perfect base for cheese sauces, alfredo sauce, macaroni and cheese, and pretty much anything you want to melt cheese for.
Sandwiches
Preheat oven to 425° and grab a cookie sheet. Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Spread béchamel evenly over 4 slices of bread then place them on the cookie sheet, béchamel side up. Top with ham and half of the Gruyère. Then place the other four slices of bread on top, spread béchamel over those bad boys and top with Gruyère, parmesan, and a sprinkle of herbes de province.
Traditionally, you wouldn’t use parmesan, but I think it gives it a nice little crunch.
Bake until cheese is brown and bubbling. So about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.
Bon appétit!
Oh, pro-tip: if you’re looking for something to pair with this to make it a full meal, a light side salad with a vinaigrette is key. The sandwiches are so heavy you won’t be able to eat anything else.
Marjorie
Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics and Foul Play
Marjorie
Diaz Series
Book
Two
Desdemona
Wren
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: AntlerDoe Media
Date of Publication: 4/2/2019
ASIN: B07P86KDNM
Number of pages: 332
Word Count: 70,290
Cover Artist: Ariel LeAnn Cat’s
Paw Media
Tagline: Marjorie Diaz is being
hunted by a powerful magical family
that will stop at nothing to kill
her.
Book Description:
Marjorie Diaz has been marked for
death.
After her relationship with
Patrick Watkins ends, Marjorie discovers that everyone in her life has been
lying to her. Even her best friend, Lucian Maravalle.
Now, Marjorie is being hunted by
a powerful magical family who will stop at nothing to kill her.
Lucian and her family have sworn
to protect Marjorie from these nightmarish beasts, but Marjorie isn’t sure she
can trust them. They keep secret after secret and, even after Marjorie has
begged for them to tell her everything, they continue to keep her in the dark.
Marjorie struggles with her own
mortality as she embarks on a futile journey to remain alive and reason with
the beings that are hunting her.
She finds out the hard way that
humans don't matter on the other side of the veil. Unless Marjorie has
something of use to offer, she's better off dead.
Book
2 in the Marjorie Diaz Series.
CONTENT WARNING: Gore, Body
Horror, Major Character Death
Excerpt:
Marjorie sucked
in a breath, sitting up so quickly her head spun.
“Oh, my God,”
she gasped, clawing at her throat and chest. “Oh, my God.”
The room around
her was pitch black. She couldn’t see anything beyond her face, which was
disorienting. She raised her hands, waving them around to try and focus on
something in the inky blackness. She could just barely see them moving in the
dark. So she wasn’t blind, at least. That was good to know.
She looked
around the room; the sigils no longer shone around her. There was no eerie
green glow to light her way through the room. She turned on the bed, nearly
teetering over the edge when the mattress was no longer as large as she
remembered.
“Wha?!” she
exclaimed, catching herself and straightening up. Her back hit the edge of
something soft and she turned around, blinking at it. She pressed her hands
against what she thought were large pillows, only to realize she wasn’t in a
bed at all. This was a couch.
She stood up
immediately.
“Marjorie?” a
familiar voice asked, a light flipping on overhead.
Marjorie whirled
around, finding Angeli in the doorway to his bedroom. He was shirtless and
dressed in loose sleep sweats. He scratched his head and yawned.
“Welcome back to
the land of the living,” he said with a lopsided grin.
Marjorie
narrowed her eyes.
“I’m still
here?” she asked.
“You’re still
here, darlin’” he responded, flashing her a grin. “You passed out for a few
days. I was actually worried you were dead for a little while there.”
“I...never
left?” Marjorie asked, confused. “I’ve been here? Passed out? For days?”
Angeli gave her
a weird look. “That’s what I said,” he informed her, speaking slowly. “You okay
there, baby girl?”
Marjorie had no
idea if she was okay. The pain she’d felt in those dreams...returning to her
apartment to find Lucian and Emmanuel there...how had that all been the same
dream?
She groaned. It
was too early in the morning for her to even be worried about this. Or late at
night? She didn’t know. Her head throbbed.
“Marjorie?”
Angeli asked, drawing her attention back to him. “You okay?”
“I have no
idea,” Marjorie said honestly. “I...just...I feel weird. Like, weirder than
usual. I think it’s safe to say that I am definitely not into whatever the hell
that was.”
Angeli laughed.
“That’s probably normal,” he said, shrugging.
Marjorie
glowered at him. “I don’t have time for this,” she griped. “I need to go home.”
She scrubbed her hands over her face. “I need to sleep in my own bed and I
definitely need to shower.”
“Why not just
shower here?” Angeli asked, tense. “Before you wander out into the streets of
New York? You’ve been passed out for two days.”
Marjorie shot
him a look. “I would rather shower in my own apartment, thanks,” she snapped.
“Who in their right mind would shower before braving the streets anyway? I’d
much rather rinse the filth of the city off and change into some nice pajamas,
then never leave again. Ever.”
“I’m not sure
it’s safe for you to wander around Brooklyn at 3am,” Angeli said. “That’s all.”
Marjorie checked
the clock on the wall. “That clock says 5am,” Marjorie countered. “I think I’ll
be fine with the morning commuter crowd.”
“That clock is
wrong,” Angeli said quickly, edging toward the door.
He was acting
weird. All his normal nicknames and sickly charm were gone. It was like there
was something he wasn’t telling her.
Alarm bells went
off in her head.
“I need you to
let me go,” Marjorie said, watching him warily.
“I’m not keeping
you here,” he responded as he moved himself between her and the door and
squared his shoulders. He looked like he was getting ready for a fight.
“What do you mean
you’re not keeping me here?” Marjorie asked, jaw clenched.
“Exactly like I
said, I’m not keeping you here,” Angeli repeated, crossing his arms.
“If not you,
then who is?” Marjorie pressed, eyes narrowed.
Angeli’s lips
cracked open in a slow, sinister smile.
A shiver ran
down Marjorie’s spine. That couldn’t be good.
“I thought you’d
never ask,” another voice said from behind her. The hairs on the back of her
neck stood on end and it took all the strength in her body to keep her knees
from buckling.
The source of
the voice moved forward, his footfalls soft on the rough gray carpeting of
Angeli’s apartment. When he stood behind her, Marjorie could feel the heat
coming from his body and her stomach flipped and gurgled.
“Hello, Marjorie
Diaz,” he said. “I believe we have a lot to talk about.”
Marjorie turned
her head slowly, her skin erupting in goosebumps and frightened tears prickling
in her eyes.
“Patrick,” she
gasped.
Desdemona Wren is an urban
fantasy and science fiction author who writes gay fiction with monsters,
witches, and fantastical plots. She's from Seattle, WA, but currently resides
in the mystical land of Northern California. Where everybody wears coats all
the time, nobody says 'brah', 'bruh', 'bro' or any variation of that word, and
absolutely nobody surfs.
She has two cats named Oliver and
Ophelia who have traveled the world. From The Great Smoky Mountains, to the
tallest peaks of The Cascades, and even to the Grand Canyon; they've been
everywhere.
She has written two full-length
novels: Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society and
Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics & Foul Play;
one novella: Bloom: A Monster Love Novella (Book 1); and one short story featured
in a Cinderella Anthology: Call Me Eli.
Website: https://desdemonawren.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DesdemonaWren
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholesaleromance
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