Beverly Adam's Blog

by Author Beverly Adam

Pleased to announce The Spinster and The Earl is now available in German under a new title :

Die Lady Von Brightwood Manor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQPkwmMkRBM

Dp Verlag ~Publisher:https://www.digitalpublishers.de/romane/die-lady-von-brightwood-manor-historischer-liebesroman-ebook

The Little Red Regency Dress with stunning Ruby Necklace!

Author Beverly Adam

In the Regency romance The Spinster and the Earl Lady Beatrice wears a spectacular red gown with a set of ruby earrings and necklace.

(P.115) “She appeared to almost glow before him in a sparkling red gown. She wore large, red robin-egged rubies, which sparkled around the column of her creamy neck. Carefully wrought gold-threaded droplets of ruby red gems, dripped from her pierced lobes, brushing against her dark curls looked, to put it mildly, spectacular.”

A reader wrote to me and said it reminded her of Scarlet O’ Hara’s gown in Gone With the Wind.  But I think it looked more like these Regency gowns:

Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Spinster-Earl-Book-Gentlemen-Honor-ebook/dp/B00F26SA3G/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=The+spinster+and+the+earl+Beverly+Adam&qid=1608592278&sr=8-2

Barnes and Noble:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-spinster-and-the-earl-beverly-adam/1116948181I

nternational Kindle Fantastic Fiction: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/beverly-adam/spinster-and-the-earl.htm

Apple:https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-spinster-and-the-earl-book-1-gentlemen-of-honor/id739564351

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-spinster-and-the-earl-book-1-gentlemen-of-honor-1

Good reads can directly connect you, if you are having a problem: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18513531-the-spinster-and-the-earl

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by Beverly Adam author of: Two Lovers, the true love story of Carole Lombard and Russ Columbo, and the kindle vella, Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile.

Like everyone else, I love Julia Child, and have watched the movie Julia & Julia on Netflixhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozRK7VXQl-k, and the mini-series, Julia, on HBO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZBacZqwbCA, as well as read and shared her biography My Life in France by Alex Prud’homme, which details her life both as a cook and her earlier career in the foreign service with her husband Paul. ISBN 1400043468 and I look forward to reading Warming Up Julia by Helen Horowitz, which I suspect a lot of the HBO series is based upon, as it discusses the team behind her cooking show. I gifted my copy of her biography to an elderly ninety-two-years old friend who had served during World War II in the Air Force and had lived abroad.

During the mini-series Julia Childs cooks her favorite chocolate cake, the Queen of Saba (Reine de Saba) in order to influence people in favor of her show. It looks onscreen decadently rich with lots of chocolate and almonds, and it is. When I asked my son what his impression of the cake was when we made it, he said, “Lots of butter required.”

We used a family heirloom, Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking, which my grandmother gifted me upon marrying a Frenchman. The cookbook during my marriage turned out to be a lifesaver, as I knew next to nothing about cooking. It was expected, when I lived in Grenoble, France, that I would cook their cuisine. I often used the cookbook, cooking with a pressure cooker and two electric stove burners. There was no oven. I bought a confectioner’s oven, but the altitude in the alps always caused my chocolate cakes to turn out flat (much to the delight of our English roommate who once ate an entire deflated cake by himself). The making of this Reine de Saba almond cake was a first-time challenge for both my son and I. We made it in my tiny studio apartment in the city Julia had once called home, Pasadena.

We tried following along using Julia Child’s First Courses and Desserts on Youtube. The cake is discoverable at 48:56, but in this version, Julia was using her “new and improved” recipe that called for five eggs, instead of three, lots more salt, and a twice the amount of chocolate. We decided to stick to the original recipe found in the cookbook and watched the show to see how to fold the egg whites in and to make certain that I was correct about cutting the butter at room temperature and blending in the sugar. I was.

The Julia Child’s Queen of Saba chocolate almond cake recipe can be found in The Gloucester Daily Times link. It makes more than six slices of cake. This is the original recipe from the cookbook and has far less ingredient requirements than the one used on youtube. The Gloucester Daily Times link: https://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/lifestyles/a-favorite-cake-from-julia-childs-recipe-files/article_b8f258af-ba70-5754-9754-05fe709a5092.html?msclkid=eba6acddb9c911eca4bd682946c6bcd7

Preheat your oven to 350 ahead of time.

Flouring and Buttering Cake Pan: We used an 8 inch cake pan tin. The cake is one layer, not two. We used Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate. I bought 2 bars (8 ounces) found in the baking section at Target.

We did not line our tin with paper, but simply took a paper towel and wiped butter all over the tin and then covered it lightly in flour (see below). (Shake excess off into trash).

Boiling Chocolate: Julia made a double boiler on the show using a large pot filled with boiled water and a smaller cooking pan (see youtube). We did the same. We cut up our 4 squares of chocolate and used rum instead of coffee. You want it the water hot, but not bubbling. We did not make the chocolate smooth until after we added the egg whites into the batter. We set stove on warm while we blended the other ingredients.

Cut the butter at room temperature (1) and then blend in sugar (2) and egg yolks.

#1)

How to separate eggs yolks and whites. You have two bowls. One for the yolks and one for the whites. You crack the egg and you let drip out the white (the clear liquid) into one bowl while the yolk lies in the shell. Then you placed the yolk (yellow part) in the other.

We had some difficulty getting our egg whites to be fluffy and stiff. After several tries, we decided churned egg whites were going to have to do. We folded them into the flour and pulverized almonds (you can use a food processor to pulverize) with the almond extract and rum. We used almond flour bought at Target.

How to fold in egg whites. You take your spatula and lift a portion of your mixture over the egg whites that you added to bowl. You do this several times until all of it is blended in. You can see Julia do it on youtube at 52:50.

How to tell if cake is ready to take out of oven: You can insert a thin toothpick or fork. It should not look wet and gooey. If a few crumbs show, you are good to go. The top should have the hardness of the top of a baked brownie. Take the pan and put in fridge for quick cooling.

Icing the cake: To prepare to ice the cake. I would run a knife along the edge of cake in pan. Then lift out with help of a spatula. You put the cake on one plate bottom up and then flip it onto the other to have the hard top upon which to ice your cake. If chocolate frosting is gooey, continue to decorate with the almonds, but put back in fridge, which is what we ended up doing as both the cake and the icing was warm.

Icing: we used the Glacage au chocolat recipe found at the very end of the cookbook and you can read The Times recopied version. We decorated with slices of almonds. First bite: Yum! The taste of almond with chocolate was a delight for the tastebuds. The cake was light, despite all the butter used, and we both declared it to be a success. Have fun baking. Bon appetite!

Squawk!  Squawk! A loud bird sound I had never heard before was coming from my backyard. I looked out my window and a drama of David and Goliath proportions was taking place…

     A small, unassuming bird let forth this disturbing noise. Much to my surprise, sitting on my back fence was the brown bird I had named Feisty. He was staring down a sharp taloned hawk.

Feisty was what one would call a medium -sized bird. He was not very big, but he was not very small. A plain, unassuming little brown fellow, he had staked out a bush in my yard for his home. In the bush, he had planned to build his nest and raise his family.

Previously, I had seen him going around and around the bush, chasing other birds away from his territory.

     “This is mine. Get out!”  he seemed to say to the other birds, until they flew away and left him in peace.

     But on this fateful day, Feisty was staring down a hawk and letting forth several very loud squawks.

He rubbed his beak back and forth across the top of the wood fence. It was as if in bird speak he was saying, “Do I look like lunch meat to you?! Do I?”

     The hawk which was about to swoop down and  kill him with his sharp talons, back winged for a full minute. He eyed Feisty, considering him.

     The hawk was clearly surprised. For this plump little bird, which he had clearly thought was lunch meat, was telling him he would fight him to the bitter end.  

     Oh, I have clearly made a mistake. This little fellow will fight me. He is this very moment staring me down, protesting.

      And the hawk, not wanting to possibly lose something precious, decided this small brown bird wasn’t worth it. And he turned his gaze elsewhere and flew away, looking for easier prey.

    As for Feisty, he groomed his ruffled feathers and flew back into the bush, his home. In the following weeks small baby brown birds were heard chirping. Feisty flew back and forth bringing them food, raising them until they were grown enough to fly away to build their own nests and have a bird family of their own.

    I have another story. But it will make you sad. It will make you mad. And so, it is not worth telling, as it does not give hope.

by Beverly Adam (author of Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile).

Everyone knows that Maria de Padilla was King Pedro I of Castile and Leon’s favorite mistress, what they do not know is that she ruled as a de facto queen. One may ask, how did she become as powerful as a queen, but without the official title?

The kings who ruled during the Hundred Years War were warrior knights fighting with their men for land and power. They also were targeted for death. And if they were not killed in battle, they risked being assassinated by a rival for the throne, or, as often happened, have their lives taken by diseases. The queens, such as King Pedro’s mother, Queen Maria of Portugal, often found themselves ruling during the king’s absence, or after their husband’s death, making important decisions.

Pedro’s father, King Alfonso XI of Castile, died during a Siege of Gibraltar in 1350, from the Black Death (a pestilence carried by fleas), which meant that his mother, Queen Maria, had to step-in and rule as regent. This was a common practice in royal courts. Pedro, who had been named heir to the throne, was fifteen years-old at the time, and probably not considered a full-fledged knight. He took control the following year, when he was deemed mature enough to rule, and most importantly, to fight.

This part of Pedro’s life played an important part in how he would later view Maria de Padilla.

Maria de Padilla was no ordinary courtesan. She had lot going for her beyond the fact that she was considered to be, as recorded by one court chronicler, “one of the most beautiful women in the world.” She was the daughter of a warrior knight, Juan de Padilla the late Lord of Villagera, who had died in battle. The House of Padilla had quite a reputation, as it had provided a Master to head the knight’s Order of Calatrava, and its members had a long history of serving in the Castilian ranks. In other words, the House of Padilla could be counted upon to fight and win battles.

But the one person who maneuvered Maria into position to become the king’s favorite, was her maternal uncle, the warrior knight from Burgos, battlefield strategist, Commander Juan de Henestrosa, who would negotiate her barrangia (concubine contract). The contract sealed the deal, which led Maria to becoming the proud owner of one of Pedro’s most important seaports, Huelva, in 1352, and paved the way to her becoming the king’s favorite. The wealth from the port enabled her to endow two Clare convents, one in Astudillo, and another in Tordesillas, which her eldest daughter, Beatriz, would later rule over as prioress, a position worthy of a daughter of a king.

How had Maria been trained also played a part. It is well-known that she was a lady-in-waiting to the immensely wealthy Dona Isobel de Meneses, the wife of Count Jao of Albuquerque. Dona Isobel’s wealth was once described thus, “Meneses could walk from France to Portugal and her foot would not touch land that belonged to another.” Maria most likely started her training as a lady-in-waiting at an early age, around eight or ten years-old, and learned a lot through observation, while serving the powerful lady. What surprised me was that Pedro did not meet Maria until she seventeen, which smacks of Dona Isobel not wanting the king to know the beauty with Castilian connections.

How did Maria de Padilla become de facto queen? King Pedro often was fighting in wars against France and Aragon. He also had to support his ally, Granada, during a coup. Who could he and his knights count upon while they were fighting? The wives and concubines had to take control and rule. It is known that King Pedro sent out orders to the chatelaines of his castles. Maria took his place. She was the mother of his children, his possible future heirs. She had to show her mettle as a possible regent, as well. In my biographical novel, Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile, learn facts about her life and the manner in which women created propaganda promoting themselves in order to defeat their rivals. Ask yourself, why is it King Pedro was remembered as “cruel”, and Maria comes out of the story almost unscathed, without any scandal. She, and her descendants, knew how to create an unforgettable image of her that lasts to this day.

Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile: Available on Kindle Vella: https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Padilla-Secret-Queen-Castile/dp/B09DYHGX8L/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22N0R8GB6E42R&dchild=1&keywords=maria+de+padilla+secret+queen+of+castile&qid=1631916630&s=digital-text&sr=1 by Beverly Adam, the author of Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile

Maria de Padilla, The Secret Queen of Castile- Historical Biographical Fiction – YouTube

White… the color of purity and innocence. One thinks of unicorns and virgins, as well as the legends of brave men mounted on war horses entering battle.

While writing the epic love story concerning the beautiful Maria de Padilla, the favorite of King Pedro I of Castile, I often came across the names of El Cid, the famous warrior, and his war horse, Babieca, in Spanish history books. The famous El Cid must have been in the thoughts of King Pedro I, who wanted to make Valencia once again a part of his kingdom.

Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (1043-1099), better known as El Cid, like King Pedro and Maria de Padilla was from Castile. El Cid rode the legendary white Andalusian horse, Babieca, into battle for thirty years.

White horses were viewed with suspicion in the Middle Ages, as they were thought to be weak and have poor eyesight, and believed to be albinos. This, of course, was not true, and may explain the unusual name El Cid gave his horse, which many deemed as unflattering. One reference translated the name to mean “booby”, a term which also might have been affectionate. The Iberian Calvary of the Carthagian Army bred the Andalusian horses from horses in Spain and Portugal in order to fight the Romans.

Andalusin horses are very good at jumping, intelligent, and capable of learning difficult footwork. Babieca carried El Cid upright in his saddle one last time into battle when his master, who was already dead, was strapped onto his back. El Cid appeared, as if he had risen from the dead, frightening the enemy. The sight of the dead warrior on Babieca terrified the Noors, inspiring El Cid’s men to finish conquering Valencia. It was for this reason that I named Pedro’s horse in my novel after the famous warrior’s.

Babieca outlived his master by two years, becoming as legendary as his master. King Pedro did reconquer Valencia briefly before he died, achieving his final goal before his half-brother, Henry of Trastamara, took his life and claimed the throne for himself.

Two Lovers: the true love story of Carole Lombard and Russ Columbo.

#Hollywood #Moviestars #bigbandmusic #truestory #romance #Biographical #Fiction

Carole Lombard on a date with singer Russ Columbo.

What would you give a movie screen goddess for her birthday? By Beverly Adam, the author of Two Lovers: the true love story of Carole Lombard and Russ Columbo.

Lovely Carole Lombard, the famous movie screen goddess was Russ Columbo’s one true love. A Hoosier, Carole Lombard (bn: Peters) was born on the 6th of October, 1908, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was dating in 1933 one of the most eligible bachelor’s in Hollywood, Russ Columbo. She had just divorced actor William Powell (The Thin Man) when she started dating Columbo.

Russ Columbo was a very famous singer, song composer, and a popular radio and stage personality. The couple were completely besotted with each other, and the press noticed. “The Russ Columbo and Carole Lombard romance is one of Hollywood’s most charming.” Screenland Magazine, 1934. Now what would Russ Columbo have given Carole for her birthday and how might they have celebrated?

The newspaper clipping author Tony Toran discovered, informs us that Columbo gave her a dachshund and that they shared tennis lessons.

Most likely this was her dachshund Mr. Brownie, who adored Russ Columbo.

Mr. Brownie and Carole Lombard as identified in Modern Screen Magazine, 1934