One of the things that has been important to me in writing is the tell the stories of people for whom "physical" life can be difficult. It was important for me to explain a reason for things like chronic pain, to give it meaning and make it feel less unfair and random. In "Caio", the book I just published, I look at certain mental health issues. My main character, Sarah, has voices in her head. She has adapted to this, but it makes her question her mental health on a regular basis. Caio is someone who has been physically altered by his environment. Caio is also a major "foodie", as he was born in a village in Brazil. So, food plays quite a role in this book, as it has in my life.
I must admit that I wasn't really into food when I was younger. It wasn't abnormal for me to have 3 Twizzlers and a Diet Coke for lunch when I was working in legal. However, when I moved to London, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. That diagnosis might have upset some people, but for me, it explained issues that I had been dealing with for years. The nerve damage done over the years means that if I run into gluten now, it could result in days, if not weeks and months, of pain. In the beginning it wasn't too difficult adapting to this because London is very celiac friendly…. then we moved to Paris.
Parisian restaurants are NOT generally celiac friendly. I could tell lots of stories about that, but I'll leave it with the warning that celiacs eating in Parisian restaurants should try to limit their options to cuisines that don't generally rely on gluten or wheat. Creperies will advertise that they are gluten free, but they use buckwheat. So, if you are also allergic to wheat, which I am, it can really be a problem. The positive side of all this was that I have learned how to cook gluten free, and to produce good results. It takes time to experiment though. I am sharing a recipe for gluten free, milk free pie crust. This took me 5 years to develop but you really can't tell the difference from regular French pie crust. This came from experimentation and the fact that my son took a gluten free cooking class from Alain Ducasse, a major chef here in France. This recipe sits in what my kids call my "Food Grimoire"…lol.
Gluten Free Pie Crust
Ingredients
250 Grams of Gluten Free Flour: I use one from Dove's Farm because it has a mix of rice, tapioca, and potato flour, in addition to a bit of Xanthan Gum.
75 grams of chilled/ frozen Margarine (milk free); It's important to have the right level of chill for this. I usually hard freeze it the night before and remove it to the fridge on the day I plan to use it. The chilled margarine helps form pockets during cooking to make it lighter.
2 Large Egg Yolks: This provides a bit of elasticity that is missed in gluten free flour. You can use 3 if your eggs are small.
1 tsp Baking Powder: Also helps make it lighter.
1 tsp salt
¼ cup Sugar
500 Grams Soy Cream or Coconut crème: This is easy to find in Europe, but it's a bit like condensed milk but made of soy or coconut, which you can find in the US. Whole Foods generally carries it.
Guar Gum: I usually use about ¼ to ½ cup. It provides more elasticity. This was the final piece that made it work. You can be liberal with the use of it.
1 tsp Vanilla
Process
1) Mix the dry ingredients.
2) Add margarine into dry ingredients, using your fingers until the margarine forms penny or quarter sized lumps.
3) Combine Egg Yolks, Soy Crème, Vanilla
4) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. This will be a little bit more wet than you might be used to, but that's ok.
5) Split this into two balls, and cover with plastic wrap.
6) Put in the Freezer for 30 to 45 minutes.
7) Remove and immediately roll out on to a floured surface. I use a rolling pin, but you need to make sure that the pin stays floured. Add more flour as needed.
8) When you are ready to transfer to a pie pan, it's best to either slide it from a higher surface to a lower surface or to flip whatever board you are using over the pie pan. This crust is more delicate and falls apart more easily. If it does, just fix it once in the pan.
9) After this you can fill it and bake, or you can put it in the freezer to use later.
Limerent Series
Book One
LS Delorme
Genre: Paranormal, Romantic, Thriller
Publisher: Limerent Publishing
Date of Publication: Feb 11, 2023
ISBN: 979-8-9874880-1-3 Paperback
ISBN: 979-8-9874880-1-0 ebook
ASIN: BOBSGR1VB7
Number of pages: 294
Word Count: 114030
Cover Artist: Brittany Wilson
Book Description:
Sarah Baker is a paralegal in a law firm in modern-day Brooklyn. Her life is bouncing between her abusive lawyer boyfriend, the voices she hears in her head and her soul sucking work at the law firm. On a New York spring day, she meets Caio as he plays basketball on a street court. He is alluring, intriguing and young. Yet that’s the least of his mystery, for Caio was beaten, thrown into a hole and left to die. In 1905.
Sarah tries to understand this enigmatic stranger while juggling the dubious ethics of her law firm and the ghosts in her head. As she struggles with loss, grief, love, beauty and lawyers, she will need to summon the strength to break all of society’s rules, save several lives and step into a new and potentially magical life.
Caio is the opening book of a new series of supernatural romantic thrillers that will pull on your heart (strings), challenge your perceptions and lead you on a singular journey of discovery and revelation.
Excerpt:
How can you be as smart as you are and have no backbone,
girl? or You’re not pretty enough to be able to expect a man to take care of
you, so you better find an administrative job so you can support yourself, or
Self-consciousness is just another form of vanity. It’s just you thinking about
yourself too much.
That simply scratched the surface of what Sarah heard on a
daily basis growing up. On the positive side, she could take criticism with the
best of them. She had also learned to channel her sensitivity into an awareness
of people’s motivations that coworkers called “uncanny.” On the negative side,
when her parents died, she had absorbed their voices into those that already
spoke inside her head, and now they were the loudest ones.
It was her heightened awareness that told her that something
was not quite right with the Davies case. She wasn’t sure what, and she would
need to be careful about how she researched, but it tickled her curiosity.
Sarah was lost in these thoughts as she left the grocery
store and made her way home, past the park and toward the basketball courts.
When she realized where she was, her heart started to race a little bit at the
thought of seeing the boy she had seen last week.
There were some boys playing on the court. She
scanned them for someone in grungy clothes, but from a distance, they all
looked like they were wearing appropriate attire.
Sarah’s heart sank a little.
Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. Although she wasn’t
exactly sure what she was chiding herself about, it was nice when the voice
doing the talking was her own.
As she got closer, she saw the tall, red-haired boy miss a
shot and retake the ball. He was one of the regulars. When the red-haired boy
landed, he jostled one of the other boys near him. That boy staggered, regained
his footing, and in the process deftly stole the ball. When she saw his face,
Sarah actually heard herself gasp. The boy who had been pushed, the one who now
had the basketball, was the boy she had seen before. She hadn’t noticed him
because his appearance was quite different. His shoulder-length dark hair had
been cut. He had on a red-and-black striped shirt that didn’t look expensive,
but did look brand new, as did the matching shorts. His sneakers were black
with pristine white soles. And right at the moment, he was dribbling the ball
down the court—straight at her.
Sarah froze. She was standing on the sidewalk behind the
basket on the other side of the chain-link fence. She felt like her feet had
grown roots as she watched him set up, jump, and make the basket. He came down
right in front of her. As he landed, before turning to run back down the court,
he stopped and caught her eye. His eyes widened ever so slightly, and he
smiled.
For a moment, he
looked directly in her eyes and she felt a strange dizzy feeling in seeing him
and being seen by him. No one in her life ever seemed to actually see her. No
one ever had.
Lexy has lived an eclectic life. As a 'navy brat', she grew up in various US states until her father retired to North Carolina when she was 14. As an adult, she has continued this "tumbleweed" life, having since lived in 3 countries, 9 US states, and 21 cities around the world. She has been a musician, scientist and attorney, and was one of the first employees at 23andMe. But, through all this change, her love of writing has been the one constant whether it be songs, scientific writing, legal briefs, travel blogs or fiction. Writing the Limerent Series allows her to combine all of this to help her create new worlds. Lexy lives in Paris with her husband and two very cool sons.
Caio is book one of 8 in the upcoming Limerent Series
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