Blog Tour: Author Visit & Giveaway - Fish Stick Fridays by Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford is here on Friday promoting her latest release, Fish Stick Fridays with a different sort of giveaway. Tis the season of giving and this giveaway gives one of the greatest gifts there is, reading to children. Please read through her fabulous visit and comment below to enter!

Take it away Rhys!

Skip to the recipe if you’ve already seen this part. *grins*

When I first thought about writing Fish Stick Fridays, it was a lot darker than it turned out. I know. I’ll let you have a moment to be shocked and amazed. But then I wrote it and its innards changed, softening a bit. A lot of that change had to do with building a relationship between Deacon and his niece, Zig and then adding Lang into the mix.

I went round and round on the title. Nothing was working. They were decent titles. Hell, Mary Calmes even stole one of them for her own book but nothing was fitting the story. Then I said… why the hell aren’t I calling it what it is? Fish Stick Fridays.

That might seem a random, odd title and kind of off. But see, it’s not so much about the actual fish sticks or Fridays. It’s about what Fish Stick Fridays represents. For Zig and Deacon, it’s about being together, in a home. An actual home. Where Fridays means no vegetables but cups of hot cocoa and maybe eating in front of the television. It means a place to come to and find a family—their family.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Deacon knows how to cook gourmet meals but he can cook. So for this blog tour, it’s all about cooking out of the pantry—cheap, relatively easy and cobbling together meals from fresh, canned, and jarred food.  So much of Deacon’s cooking on the fly really is about how to maximize time and using what’s in the pantry. We don’t have a lot of time in our lives. That’s a fact. But we can make do. Making do is so very much a kitchen life hack.

So for this tour, I am sharing some comfort food recipes even Deacon can make and it took him a bit to get the fish sticks and blue box macaroni & cheese right.  Follow all of the blog tour stops and get a new comfort food recipe every day. Recipes include:

• Fried Chicken

• Beef Stew

• Portuguese Watercress Soup

• Nutty Mushroom Pasta

• Fried Rice

• Lasagna

• Kalua Pig

• Mac Salad / Loco Moco

• Pad Thai

• Shoyu Chicken

What’s the Giveaway? Because there is ALWAYS a giveaway… Leave a comment and hopefully win the right to tell me where to send a set of children's books to a library or charity of your choice. Book sets will randomly be chosen from a list and cost between $20 and $50 USD and donated in your name.

Also, if you want a gluten free way to thicken soups and stews… and soupy potato salad, use instant mashed potato flakes. You’ll see me say that time and time again through the blog tour. It also adds a layer of flavour. I sometimes grab the garlic and herb instant potato packets and just keep them for when I need to thicken a stew.

And now, for what’s next in Deacon’s recipe book.

This is a comfort food all around. A bit of sweet and sour and meaty and….just everything. I like mine with lots of lime and green onions. There are so many versions of this dish and really, it’s another adaptable to tastes. If you want more of one thing and less of another, then feel free to stretch that direction. The protein is also flexible. Shrimp, chicken, pork, tofu…whatever you want.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai

1 package or 8-10 ounces of dried rice noodles (The thick kind is better but if not, thin is fine)

3 eggs lightly beaten

Wok Ingredients

1 lb chicken, sliced into strips

3 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 T minced fresh ginger (Put ginger in freezer. Use grater or knife to shave off what you need.)

1/4-1/2 C chopped onion

1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into narrow strips

8 to 10 green onions, halved lengthwise, then cut into 2-inch lengths

Sauce Ingredients

1/2 C fresh lime sauce

3 T soy sauce

3 T brown sugar

3 T Fish sauce (optional)

1 to 2 teas. Sriracha (optional)

Sesame seed oil

Toppings

1 cup mung bean sprouts

2 T chopped dry-roasted peanuts

1 lime sliced (optional)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In large bowl, soak rice noodles in warm water to cover until they are limp and white, about 20 minutes.

While noodles are soaking, sauce ingredients in small bowl.

Lightly scramble eggs, put in bowl

In wok or large deep skillet, heat oil over high heat. Stir fry chicken, garlic, ginger and onions until brown. Then add carrots and green onions until cooked. Add eggs then sauce.

Drain noodles and add to wok, tossing with tongs until they soften and curl, about 1 minute. Add sprouts. Divide mixture among serving plates, sprinkle with peanuts, slice of lime and cilantro.

Fish Stick Fridays

Deacon Reid was born bad to the bone with no intention of changing. A lifetime of law-bending and living on the edge suited him just fine—until his baby sister died and he found himself raising her little girl.

Staring down a family history of bad decisions and reaped consequences, Deacon cashes in everything he owns, purchases an auto shop in Half Moon Bay, and takes his niece, Zig, far away from the drug dens and murderous streets they grew up on. Zig deserves a better life than what he had, and Deacon is determined to give it to her.

Lang Harris is stunned when Zig, a little girl in combat boots and a purple tutu blows into his bookstore, and then he’s left speechless when her uncle, Deacon Reid walks in, hot on her heels. Lang always played it safe but Deacon tempts him to step over the line… just a little bit.

More than a little bit. And Lang is willing to be tempted.

Unfortunately, Zig isn’t the only bit of chaos dropped into Half Moon Bay. Violence and death strikes leaving Deacon scrambling to fight off a killer before he loses not only Zig but Lang too.

Purchase Fish Stick Fridays at:

Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7118

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Stick-Fridays-Rhys-Ford-ebook/dp/B0186R7S6M

And other book selling sites like ARe and Barnes & Noble

Follow the Tour

Nov 25 • It’s About the Book: http://itsaboutthebook.com/

Nov 26 • Joyfully Jay http://joyfullyjay.com/

Nov 27 • Sinfully Sexy:  http://sinfullysexybooks.blogspot.com/

Nov 29 • Gay Guy Reading: http://ggr-review.com/

Nov 30 • Boys In Our Books: http://boysinourbooks.com/

Dec 1 • The Blogger Girls: http://thebloggergirls.com/

Dec 2 • Love Bytes: http://lovebytesreviews.com/

Dec 3 • Prism Alliance: http://www.prismbookalliance.com/

Dec 4 • Boy Meets Boy: www.boymeetsboyreviews.com

Dec 5 • The Novel Approach: http://thenovelapproachreviews.com/

About Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford was born and raised in Hawai’i then wandered off to see the world. After chewing through a pile of books, a lot of odd food, and a stray boyfriend or two, Rhys eventually landed in San Diego, which is a very nice place but seriously needs more rain.

Rhys  admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur, and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and a red Hamilton Beach coffee maker.

My Blog: www.rhysford.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhys_Ford

If you’ve actually read this, yay! I need coffee. We should have coffee.

Leave a comment and hopefully win the right to tell Rhys where to send a set of children's books to a library or charity of your choice. Book sets will randomly be chosen from a list and cost between $20 and $50 USD and donated in your name.

To enter please leave a comment on this blog post! Let us know your name and a means of contacting you (e.g., email, Twitter handle, link to Goodreads account, etc.)

The giveaway is open until 9:00PM (Pacific time) on 12/10/15. Shortly thereafter, we will contact a winner whom we will select using a highly scientific "names in a hat" method (or, you know, an internet randomizer). Please respond to the winning notification within 48 hours or we will choose another winner.