Amehana's Workdesk AKA Teresa Garcia's Workspace

 This recipe arises out of a discussion about compiling a book of recipes for my books. This particular one would be something the Makays would eat in their home at Seal Point (Selkies' Skins). There is also a variation that BlowingWind's family (in the Dragon Shaman books) would eat. You can use fresh, frozen, canned, or dried. Tonight we used frozen.

Seal Point Pea Soup

1/4 to 1 onion, depending on how big the onion is
1 to 2 pounds peas
1/2 to 1 pound bacon
1/2 to 1 salmon steak (or equivalent of the day's catch of whatever was hauled in)
pepper to taste
1 tsp to tbs ginger
1 tsp to 1 tbs garlic
At LEAST 1 tbs ground dried seaweed (or equivalent fresh, sliced thin)
Amounts of fish can be adjusted if there is a lack of bacon
5 or 6 cups water
Salt to taste, or more seaweed

MountainChild / American O'Drake variation
1/4 to 2 thin sliced jalapenos. Include seeds.

Directions:
In a pan cook the bacon, chopped. Saute onion, ginger, garlic, seaweed, and jalapeno if making the MountainChild version. Add the pepper. Once those are cooked add in the peas. If fresh or frozen saute those with the rest, then add two cups water to start with. If using dried then add the appropriate amount of water and dried peas, according to the bag's directions. If using canned then go for the equivalent amount and count the water for your starting amount. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer, covering. Cook until peas are mushy, mashing with a potato masher. Alternately you can also blend the peas in a blender or food processor before adding, but Kirsty's family usually prefers the masher. Add water as needed for the amount needed. This should make enough for a family of four unless one of them is a kelpie. In that case you may need two or three batches, or just let him cook.

Preparation time: unclocked

Cooking time: Around 20 minutes if fresh or canned, longer if frozen or from dried.

 

I was very pleased to receive a review from an author whose work that I respect greatly. I would like to share it with you.

Amazon
Goodreads

When he first showed me his review, I couldn't help but to blush. It made me very happy to know that the book and series is starting to find its market.

From the outset Dragon Shaman : Taming The Blowing Wind, by Teresa Garcia, plants one foot firmly and confidently in the realms of the spirit world. But this is no preachy evangelical sermon, or airy fairy new age nonsense, this is the spirit world of the Native Americans. As I read on, I was reminded that this spiritual perception of nature, and the world at large, is shared by many other cultures in many other parts of the world.
Our heroine, the wonderfully named, BlowingWind MountainChild, is the daughter of an Irish mother and an Apache father. Although her father is killed while she is still a child she continues to follow the spirit path of her Apache heritage. Later she is devastated by the death of her lover, to the point that her soul is fractured into the separate components that make up a human psyche.
She travels to Japan on a spiritual quest, where she encounters the Japanese equivalent of the Native American spirit world.
Personally, I would have preferred to remain in America and learn much more about the wonderful and mysterious native culture there, but I had the feeling we were retracing the steps taken by the author at some point in her life.
There was just enough of the Irish mother's spiritual heritage to remind me, personally, that this way of looking at nature: where mountains and lakes and rivers are inhabited by entities that may be malevolent, benevolent, or simply indifferent to man, was also shared by the Gaels of my own country. I live in an area where we are surrounded by the echoes of this long forgotten spirit world. Stone circles, mysterious mounds, tombs, carvings, even - dare I say it - an entity which was believed to inhabit Loch Ness.
A book like this is so rooted in the beat and pulse of nature, the descriptions of the natural world so rich and vivid, that only someone with the eye of a poetess, and the heart of a naturalist, would be able to do the story justice.
Passages such as the following are typical:
The stars blazed overhead like diamonds in a rich field of blackened velvet while the pines whispered among themselves in their quiet groaning language that only they spoke.
Word painting of this quality is a joy to read, and I was genuinely disappointed when I reached the end of the book. Fortunately for me, and for anyone else who discovers this wonderfully talented writer, this is the first in a series. I look forward therefore to spending more time looking at the world through the pen of Teresa Garcia.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book yourself, you can find it several places.
Amazon [Kindle]
Amazon Print edition is forthcoming (waiting on a re-cover by Victoria Davis)
Barnes & Noble [Nook]
Barnes & Noble [Nook, first edition illustrated]
Barnes & Noble Print edition is coming (waiting on re-cover by Victoria Davis)
Smashwords [several electronic formats]
Lulu [Print, first edition]
Audio edition is still waiting for a narrator