Meet the Boys and the Buns at Jessica Freely's Dharma Cafe. Book for You Too.

Hi everyone--
I'm delighted to welcome my friend, Jessica Freely..., oh excuse me. Actually, my guest is Chef Agatha of the Dharma Cafe. I'll let her take over (plan on some great recipes!) but first let me tell you that Jessica is giving away a copy of her brand new release, Dharma Cafe, to one lucky commenter. Since the Dharma Cafe is magical, expect something pretty special.  Okay Agatha, you're ON!

Hello everyone, my name is Chef Agatha, and I run the Dharma Café.

Do you know this Jessica Freely person? I mean, I know she's mad, but, is she dangerous? She seems to be under the impression that just because she's written a book about my café, that somehow means that I am her creation and she can simply order me about, sending me all over the internet, to perfectly nice, innocent people's blogs, to inflict her idea of promotion upon them.

Well I'm not going to have it, I tell you.

Yes, her little book is quite nice and certainly the story of Charlie and Samura, my waiter and busboy, is one that readers who like a nice angsty, slightly silly romance will enjoy. But honestly, there is a limit. I'm a cook, not a PR flack!

Jessica's asked me to share an excerpt from the book and to run a contest so that one of you can win a free copy. Well, all right, I suppose there's no harm in it, but first, I'm going to share some food with you. Yesterday's Scrambled Eggs with Salami and Chives seemed to go over well on the Coffee and Porn in the Morning blog (http://cupoporn.net/), so today, how about a nice yeast coffee cake?

Cosmic Secrets of the Universe Sweet Yeast Dough

3 cups milk

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cup melted butter

6 eggs plus 3 yolks

3 packets dry yeast

10 1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons open-mindedness, more if needed

Combine milk, sugar, salt, and melted butter together in a pan. Bring to a sudden boil and then remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl and allow to cool until lukewarm. Beat eggs and yolks together. Add eggs and yeast to cooled milk mixture, stir until yeast is dissolved. You may want to get in there with your hands and rub the yeast a bit. It likes that. Let the mixture rest. Soon you will see the yeast doing its thing. It will look very primordial but don't freak out. Nature can be a little freaky. And delicious. Just go with it.

Sift in the flour. Try to convince Samura he needs to be the one to teach Charlie magic. When that fails, start spinning a lot of cosmic-sounding bull about matter and energy. That should keep them occupied until you can distract them with something else. Like the recipe box! Yes, that should work.

After a certain point you can't really stir the dough any longer because it will be too thick. That's when it's time to turn it out onto a clean surface and knead it, working in more flour as you go. Keep horny teenage boys away from it at this stage. Trust me.

When the dough is nice and elastic, not too sticky, but not too dry, place it in a large buttered bowl and put a damp towel over it. Set it somewhere warm to rise for two or three hours, until it's doubled in bulk. Punch the dough down and knead it again. Same admonition about the boys applies. Girls too, for that matter.

By now, Charlie and Samura will have given up and gone out in the alley to practice magic, which is what they should have been doing from the start, and you will have a very nice sweet yeast dough that is good with all kinds of fillings. You can divide it up into small pieces and make filled rolls using pureed apricots mixed with apricot jam. Or you can roll it out flat and sprinkle it with cinnamon, sugar, and nuts, and roll it up like a pinwheel. You could add some orange peel and raisins and bake it in loaves. Anything you want, really.  Whatever you decide, just let it rise again before baking, another half hour to an hour. And while it's baking brush it with more melted butter. You can't overdo it with the butter. That's probably always true, unlike that twaddle about matter and energy, which is really only accurate for this plane of existence.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

There.  I feel better now. Coffee cake will do that. And of course, having such a gracious hostess like Tara. An extra slice of coffee cake for you, Tara dear. You've earned it.

Now everyone, I would love to hear about the kinds of food you enjoy. Please leave a comment with the name of your favorite food, or a recipe if you wish, and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Dharma Café. And in the meantime, here is an excerpt and a blurb for the book.

Blurb: At a magical restaurant where good food heals the soul, a waiter and a busboy fall in love. But each has secrets and in the dangerous world of food sorcery, secrets, and french fries, can kill.

Buy Links:

http://www.loose-id.com/Dharma-Cafe.aspx

http://www.jessicafreely.com//book-page-dharma-café.html

Excerpt:

That night Samura dreamt that Agatha needed 233,600.92 loaves of bread and it was up to him and Charlie to knead the dough.

That much dough could not be worked with just hands. It required the whole body. There was no other option but for both of them to take off all of their clothes and roll around together in the warm, fragrant, springy dough.

The human body bore a remarkable similarity to yeast dough, so when Samura first ran his hand down Charlie’s chest and over his flank, it was a pure accident.

No, really.

Well, maybe not.

But since this was Samura’s dream, it was a pure accident. Just as it was merely happenstance when Samura rolled into Charlie and their combined weight trapped them in a valley of gently undulating bread dough. There was no hope of climbing out nor indeed of doing much of anything except laying pressed against each other, skin to skin.

And then Charlie put his arms around Samura and kissed him. On the mouth.

Human imagination is a remarkable thing. When combined with desire it has the power to create in realistic detail experiences of which the person imagining them has absolutely no actual knowledge. And that is how Samura, who had never kissed anyone, felt every detail of Charlie’s soft lips against his, of their mouths opening and their tongues meeting in that first shy press.

Charlie tasted like every good thing Samura had ever eaten all combined into one tantalizing morsel.

And Samura was hungry.

He longed to devour Charlie, not just with his mouth, but with his whole body. His member grew hard, but he wasn’t ashamed.

Charlie wanted him just as much. There was no hiding the fact that Charlie too was aroused. They lay pressed against one another, chest to chest, groin to groin. Charlie’s arousal nestled alongside Samura’s.

They flexed their hips and the friction sent tingles pulsing from Samura’s loins out to the tips of his fingers and toes. He kissed Charlie harder and thrust, moving his hands down Charlie’s back to cup his perfect, tight, round bottom. He held Charlie against him as they bucked together.

Charlie broke their kiss and moaned. “Samura! You’re perfect. Perfect. I want you to teach me everything.”

Charlie spread his legs and wrapped them around Samura’s hips. He kissed Samura all over his face and neck, and ran his hands through Samura’s hair.

Charlie’s hot body, his words, and his touch intoxicated Samura and he couldn’t get enough. He kissed Charlie again, hard, driving his tongue into that hot, luscious mouth. It was like licking cream out of a cannoli, and every taste only made Samura desperate for more. He needed to get closer to Charlie. Closer even than they already were. Samura opened his mind to him, but Charlie said, “No. Don’t you dare wait on me now. Come on, Samura. You know what to do.”

And amazingly, he did.

Charlie’s body opened up for him and they melded together like salt and pepper, like strawberries and basil, like cream in a cannoli.

Samura had never known such feelings were possible. Charlie was all around him, holding him, rocking him, squeezing and stroking him. “Samura!” he shouted.

Every bad and broken thing inside Samura seemed to mend and turn to golden light. That light ignited joy in every cell of his body and poured forth from him in a torrent of release. “Charlie!”

* * * *

Samura awoke in his own bed, drenched with sweat and… not just sweat.

This sort of thing had been happening for several years now—the stirrings, his body’s responses at the most inconvenient moments, the dreams. Dreams of a warm, firm body against his, a nameless, faceless someone—someone who smelled good, who felt good. Dreams from which he awoke to wet sheets.

Samura had done his best to ignore all of it, and for the most part, he’d been successful.

Only now those dreams had a face, and a name.

Charlie.

Had he cried it out loud?

* * * *

What a bizarre dream! Charlie awoke with cum on his belly and Samura’s name on his lips.

He was never going to look at bread the same again.

The pale blue light of predawn leaked into the room from behind the window shade. In the half light he saw Samura sitting up, looking about him in bewilderment.

Shit. Had Charlie cried Samura’s name out loud?

“Did you—”

Charlie panicked. “No!”

Samura nodded. “Okay. Good.”

“Good,” said Charlie.

They stared at each other.

The door burst open and Agatha swept in, a large bowl of whipped cream in her arms. “Wake up boys!” she cried, whisking the stuff so vigorously little flecks of it scattered far and wide. “I’m going to need help from both of you today. We’re making cream filled buns!”

YUM. For the boys and the buns. Remember to leave a comment to be entered to win Dharma Cafe. Also please remember to VOTE in the LRC Best of 2011 Awards. Vote HERE for Best Author and HERE for Best Series. Thank you so much for coming by. And i love blog followers a LOT! :  )