ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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Snippet: A Simple Menu

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Just a few things on a weekday morning… 🙂

Since it was my turn to cook breakfast anyway, I headed to the kitchen.  Cooking was basically my and Mom’s job.  When Nevada lived with us, she was too busy keeping us fed and clothed. Bern and Leon usually made meat, preferably, steak, and they served it charred on top and raw in the middle. Grandma Frida came from the generation when things weren’t cooked unless they were slightly burned, and my younger sister, who was actually a decent cook, when she had to be, couldn’t be trusted to stay in the kitchen for the duration of the cooking process.  She’d start something and then end up outside texting to her friends or in the media room laughing at some show, while we raced to save the meal. 

I decided on a simple menu. I put two packs of bacon into two baking pans and popped them in the oven, mixed the batter for the blueberry pancakes, and called Nevada while chopping mushrooms for the egg, mushroom, and cheese scramble.

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Comments

  6. Simple breakfast sounds yummy. We might have breakfast for dinner if I’m still in the mood tomorrow (already have a beef stew in the crockpot for tonight).
    P.S. thanks for all the snippets ?

  7. You write food so well, in all books, I almost wish there were recipes in the back, like Mad Rogan’s Pancakes…and Nevada’s Chocolate Mousse…and other comfort foods the Baylor’s enjoy! 🙂 I don’t have much for groceries in the house right now, I have been eating plain nuts, some dried fruit left over from Thanksgiving recipes. And crackers. Snacking while searching and applying for jobs. I’m so tired of job hunting! Love the snippet.

    • Oh yes please! Recipes would be amazing! (Not that you don’t already have too much on your plate but I’m sure the BDH would be happy to purchase a collection of the marvelous foods we read about!)

  8. Two packs of bacon?! Wow. How many people does that typically feed? (Genuinely asking because I have no frame of reference.)

    Thank you for the snippet!

    • Im thinking enough for at least 6 people since that’s how many live there. Keep in mind that bacon shrinks so it would be a lot less than what went in. I have a family of four and usually try to cook 10-12 pieces of bacon.

      • Remember they have 2 Male young adults to feed. That being said I can put awsy half pack of bacon myself lol.

            • ROFL. Do you remember Helen stealing the bacon under Arland’s nose at Gertrude Hunt? Catalina is about to call Nevada. I know that they live at Rogan’s house, but I am willing to bet that House Rogan is still headquartered across the street to keep Nevada’s family safe. If she and Rogan are at work early, they might drop by for breakfast so that would be 5 adult women, 2 men (large and extra large), and a young man just out of his teens. She might need to break out another package of bacon.

              • +1 That scene with the bacon was LOL! I’m going into Innkeeper withdrawal, might have to pull them up and reread all three. Thanks for the snippet! But in my book, that’s not a simple menu – simple means toast/peanut butter or cheese and maybe an egg if I’m not feeling too lazy. Bacon, eggs and hash browns is a big once in a while breakfast – can easily skip the pancakes. Offer me blueberry waffles instead! Better yet, let’s go to Torchys or Marias for bfast tacos.

    • My grandma made a package of bacon once for my sister and youngest cousin and my sister ate all the bacon, except for a piece or 2. She might have been 10 at the time, but maybe younger. The cousin was 2 years older and male.

      So 2 packages doesn’t sound unreasonable.

      Also bacon cooked in the oven is the best. So easy and you don’t have grease everywhere.

    • Bacon and tomato sandwiches for my husband, son, snd self used a 16 oz package of bacon. Any bacon not on a sandwich was eaten off the plate once the tomatoes were gone.

      (Sorry for double post above. I didn’t proof read the email, then corrected it. My bad.)

    • One pack of bacon fits perfectly on one cookie sheet. You cook it at 450 degrees until it is the desired crispyness… In my household one pack feeds 3 adults.

      This is how most restaurants cook their bacon. I used to precook our bacon for the pizza and sub shop I worked at. 10 sheets at a time in the tall stacked ovens.

      Then you can crumble it for salads or heat it quick on the grill for sandwiches.

    • In my house, 1 pack of bacon is 2 meals for 4 people. We LOVE bacon, and have to restrain ourselves from rating more. And this is thick cut bacon, we have up on the namby pamby regular decades ago. Glad to see some others that cook it in the oven. Able to drain off more fat that way (that is saved and used for MANY other dishes) and easier clean-up.

  10. Omg love this. I for so excited everytime some thing is posted on the upcoming novel. Then I remembered how long I have to wait until the next book.

  13. This is the perfect point to say that I have dragged out Magic Binds and White Hot in support of cooking bacon in the oven, instead of in pans on the stove. “See?” I say. “Bestselling authors believe enough in cooking bacon in the oven that they mention it in multiple books.”

    This WAS what Ilona meant about their political views showing up in their books, right?

    • I think I tried it once, but it didn’t save much time or effort as far as cleaning up. I didn’t think of lining the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil, though. Maybe that would have helped.

        • Don’t bother with foil
          Stick the slices on a rack over your junkiest sheet pan and then sop up the grease with stale bread. Feed bread 0to chickens, let dog lick pan, and everyone’s happy. (I realize this solution doesn’t work for everone.)

          • Yes! And the wild birds all love bread with bacon grease, too – if you put the pan outside they will fight over it. And it brings in so many I didn’t know were even in the neighborhood. The sheet pan with baking racks was going to be my suggestion, too – or an old grilling pan.

            • Hmmm…that’s interesting. Good way to use a food by-product you would usually throw away & feed the wildlife.

      • no use parchment paper the wide kind not tinfoil. then let it sit afterwards & fold up with the hardened grease inside – much less messy. personally we just use the griddle on the back porch in nice and seminice weather – just drag it under the gazebo if its raining. though no one is willing to go out & tend it in 30 degree weather like now. (we live in boston)

      • I stick a cooling rack onto the baking sheet and lay out the bacon on top of the cooling rack. Depending on whether I have an immediate purpose for the bacon fat, I either pour it off into a small bowl when I’m done baking, or leave it to harden in the pan and scrape it off with a spatula afterward. I’ve tried the parchment paper route, but I always feel like I’m wasting it.

    • I never thought about “oven bacon” until Innkeeper. Now that’s how we always cook it. Educational reading!

  17. If that’s simple I’d hate to see her idea or complicated. Lol I’m deep in the trenches of raising small children. Her simple is my elaborate. Lol

  19. Now I’m hungry! While I’m in the kitchen cooking something up, I just want you to know how deeply appreciative I am that you are hard at work getting your next story ready. Your literary gifts are always eagerly accepted and highly anticipated. Thank you.

  20. That’s exactly what my husband fixed me for breakfast this morning! Okay, less the blueberry pancakes. And there might have been some onion in the scramble. This sort of thing sure makes these characters real for me.

  24. Oh so desperately want this book NOW, I am impatient like so many of us. Thank you for the snippit that will hold us over till the big reveal. This is and has been my favourite series from you guys…to date…thank you so much.
    Happy and safe holidays to you and yours!!!

  26. Sounds good!!! You guys always write interesting recipes in your books, and I always end up trying them. So far, so good.

  27. Hi, my name is Chiara, I’m addicted to Ilona Andrews’ book. Especially Hidden Legacy.
    Every snipped my addiction get worse. I prefer reading to chocolate… that’s how addicted I am.
    :p
    Ps. I am alreaedy in love with Catalina’s book.

  28. Totally can imagine the Baylor families different cooking styles, this is what makes Hidden Legacy so phenomenal, that the characters feel so real.
    Thanks for the snippet!

  29. I needed a snippet today, having awful week at work, a friends father is dying , they had a priest last night and we are just waiting.
    So I am binge eating
    potato chips, and decided to check the blog.
    Love all your food references, apple pie, pancakes with bacon wrapped in it, remember when Nevada invited Rogan home when she realized he would be going home to a empty house.
    Just the Baylor family having a meal, so simple and yet so profound.
    That’s why I read and buy your books.
    Thank you

  30. I won’t be so lonely for Nevada and Rogan if they are mentioned and talked about in Catalina’s book !

  37. Simple? Not in my book. A bowl of cereal and toast is simple. Pancakes, bacon, eggs is a lot more work.

    Thanks for the snippet 🙂

  38. Very happy to find a snippet, you write it & I’ll read it 😀

    Now I’ll have to re-read the food references in earlier books from the BDH above. I don’t remember the details, so busy focusing on the action. LOL

  40. Am I weird because I have a bacon oven? I have a toaster oven with two shelves and use 1/4 sheet pans with racks that fit in them. It’s on the enclosed porch. I use that oven year round for bacon, roasted garlic, scallops and making roasted tomato/garlic/basil jam which takes FOREVER. With such a tiny house those are all scents that can linger for days so I do them outside.

    Oh… The Corgi liver brownies also get made out there. They reek whilst cooking but the Corgyn pack loves them.

    • Ooooohh. Bacon oven! Sheer genius – will now search MSU recycling store for used toaster oven. Semester changeover just happened, so the room clean out pickings should be good. Thanks for the idea, Anna. Snootboops to the Corgyn pack.

    • Thank you Anna! I will definitely do this. It is genius and will use less electricity than a big oven.

  41. Excited to read Catalina’s upcoming story!! Does anyone know if we will be getting anymore stories from Nevada and Rogan’s perspective? The Hidden Legacy Novels are spectacular!!

    • The last I heard, we’re getting a 3 book set from Catalina’s POV. Nevada had her 3 book set from her POV. Just a continuation/part of Hidden Legacy. Or I could be wrong, lol!

  42. Thank you for the snippet! I have cooked bacon in the oven. It’s amazing how much grease drips on the sheet pan. Breakfast in the Baylor household sounds good. 😀

    Speaking of bacon…when I make my version of clam chowder, I start with cut up thick cut bacon. I use the bacon grease to cook the rest of the chowder, and put the cooked bacon in the chowder at the end of cooking. 🙂

    • When I make baked potatoe soup, I start the same way. After removing the bacon, I fry up chopped onions and peppers if I have them around, when the onion is starting to brown, I sprinkle flour over the onions and stirring frequently add pepper until my faux roux starts to turn a golden color (I can’t make roux the traditional way, but I watched my aunt Beulah Mae, a great southern cook, do this when making gumbo. It works with anything you intend to thicken as long as there is enough grease/oil/butter) and then you pour in milk slowly stirring constantly. While it’s still pretty thin, I add in the chopped up leftover baked potatoes and keep stirring until it’s the right thickness and the potatoes are hot. To reheat, just add more milk. It also works with leftover mashed potatoes as long as they are real potatoes, not the mix. Top the soup with the bacon and anything appropriate on a baked potatoe. It’s just me and 2 cats, so I’m creative with leftovers.

  48. Had an awful day/week. Listening to the audiobooks for all of the Hidden Legacy books is what is keeping me afloat. I was so happy to see a snippet here tonight. Thanks you so much 🙂

  49. Wow – in my life a simple breakfast is a cheese stick and a fiber bar. LOL. Thanks for the snippet.

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