Dish The Pie With Monique And Guest...Elizabeth Bailey #Romantic #Suspense & Yummy Sticky Marmalade and Banana Bake

Dish The Pie with Monique and Elizabeth Bailey

We're back with another Dish The Pie guest. Please help me welcome Historical author Elizabeth Bailey. She's here today to dish the pie on Silence of a Stranger, her Romantic Suspense novella, and to share a recipe with us. Yummy Sticky Marmalade and Banana Bake is Elizabeth's very own creation. 

So, tell me, Elizabeth...

Do you like desserts? What is your favourite and would you share the recipe with us?

Elizabeth: I love desserts but I’m horribly deprived these days as I’m off sugar. But I did treat myself to my favourite Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day. No recipe for that as I buy the most nutty one I can find and shove it in the microwave! Once hot it is covered in boiling brandy and set alight. Then grab your serving, cover in brandy butter and cream and stuff your face.

But I will share a very easy unnamed recipe of my invention which has a similar effect of yummy stickiness.

Monique: Can’t wait! Here's the recipe, guys.

Yummy Sticky Marmalade and Banana Bake

Ingredients

Any packet of old biscuits too soft to eat (for UK biscuits read cookies in the US)

Alcohol of choice (sherry or port is good)

Marmalade

Bananas

Cream if you wish

Method

Bash up the biscuits into chunky crumbs and lay them in bottom of oven dish.

Splash in as much alcohol as you like, spreading it about.

Add a layer of thickly sliced banana.

Spoon marmalade over the top.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins.

Serve hot, with or without cream.

Sticky and yummy.

Created by Crystal Swan for Dish The Pie With Monique

Monique: Have you ever eaten pie for breakfast? If so, what was it?

Elizabeth: I have eaten a pork pie in the morning, a mini one, but can’t remember if that was breakfast or not. I love pork pies, a traditional British pie so I don’t know if you have them in the States, and I like them hot so pop them in the microwave. Never buy cheap pork pies! Just not the same. Always worth spending an extra few pence to get the better flavour.

Monique: Pork pie wasn’t the sort of pie I had in mind, but since you’re off sugar I’ll let you get away with it. What sort of things do you find funny, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth: I’m a sucker for wacky humour that is also clever like Monty Python, and I love witty stuff like Noel Coward. Friends is right up my funny bone. The gags that get me on Facebook are those which take something well known and give it a silly twist. The antics of cats are funny, and dogs just have to trot along the road to make me laugh. I laugh a lot. Life is often funny.

Monique: You're a girl after my heart, Elizabeth. I love to laugh and do a lot of it, although I have to admit that even after living in the UK for over 30 years, I still don’t get British humour... When was the last time you cried?

Elizabeth:  When I was writing a scene in my current novel the other day. And don’t get me started on sad moments in movies! I once started crying at the last half hour of The Champ and I hadn’t even seen the film. Funnily enough, I don’t cry about life much if it’s my story. Far more likely to cry in sympathy with others.

Monique: I adore authors who can make me laugh and cry. Those are the books I treasure. Which season (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) is your favourite, Elizabeth, and why?

Elizabeth: I love Autumn (or Fall) because of the colours. I wait for the leaves to turn gold and red and am always disappointed if the winds blow them away before I get a chance to admire them. Also it’s never that cold in our Autumn in the UK, so the horrible weather hasn’t set in yet. Of course it rains, but then it always does over here!

Monique: My mum loves Autumn also. I’m not a fan. I do hope we have more of a Summer this year. I’m so over the stormy weather. Describe your view of bliss?

Elizabeth:  A slow hot bath with lots of bubbles, followed by a comfortable bed and a really good book. I’m not that hard to please really. I usually do the bed and book on a daily basis, but the hot bath tends to be in the mornings and it isn’t nearly as blissful that way round. Oh, and add hot chocolate and I’d be in heaven.

Monique: Oh...utter bliss.

Thank you so much for dishing the Pie with me, Elizabeth. Would you please tell us a bit about your book?

Silence of a Stranger

by

Elizabeth Bailey

A Romantic Suspense Novella

Her car broken down, Bea Russell goes for help and walks straight into hell. Three armed men and no answers. Held captive, strip searched, her dignity in shreds, Bea is horrified when she responds to the attraction of the man who grabbed her out of the dark.


Who is the fugitive Rad? Escaped rapist or spy? No one will talk. Yet Bea is forced to share the danger, fleeing across rough fields in the deep night hours. At a deserted house by the sea, she looks fate in the eye. One wrong move could change her life forever.

Bea crossed over to the desk and glanced furtively at the papers. They looked like letters. One with a signature lay on top: Rad.

‘Haven’t you taken off those wet things yet?’ said his voice from the doorway.

Bea jumped, looking round.

‘You told me to wait.’

He threw her a large towel and she caught it, hardly aware that she did so as she heard his next curt command.

‘Strip off.’

‘What?’

‘You heard.’

His manner unsettled Bea. In the kitchen, he had seemed to champion her against the others to some degree. Alone with her, he had grown harsh, as grim a captor as Lyle was proving to be.

As she stood there, uncertain, she saw him begin to undress himself, ripping off his jumper to expose the bare tanned flesh of his chest.

‘Get on with it,’ he snapped, without looking round, and she quickly turned away as he began to peel off his jeans.

With caution, Bea took off her jacket and slid the damp sneakers off her feet. She sat on the bed to remove her socks.

‘Get off there, idiot! You’ll make the duvet damp.’

She leapt up again.

‘You don’t have to shout.’

Rad wrapped a towel about his waist and slipped his underwear down beneath it. His eyebrow lifted as she stared.

‘Did you think I was going to stay in wet clothes just to spare you embarrassment?’

‘You could have gone into another room.’

‘And leave you to palm anything you want to hide?’

It took a full minute for the significance of this to penetrate. Appalled, Bea gazed at him.

‘You’re not going to stand there and watch me undress.’

‘Yes.’

A cold monosyllable, as he dug into the chest of drawers. He glanced at her over his shoulder.

‘I’m supposed to search you, remember? Now strip off as I told you, and be quick about it.’

Bea trembled, half in anger, half in fear. What had she got herself into? Defiant, she glared at him.

‘What if I refuse?’

He threw a sweatshirt onto the bed and paused.

‘I can easily hand over the job to Tate or Lyle if you prefer. I can assure you their search would be far more thorough—and far more intimate.’

Amazon US | Amazon UK

I grew up in Africa on a diet of unconventional parents, theatre and Georgette Heyer. Eventually I went into acting and trod the boards in England until the writing bug got me, when I changed to teaching and directing while penning historical romances and edgy women’s fiction. My 8 year apprenticeship ended with publication by Mills & Boon, and 18 historicals. Latterly I had two historical mysteries published by Berkley and I’m hoping to release more Lady Fan novels. Meanwhile, it’s wonderful to be able to return to my first love and put out new and old releases in ebook.