DRUNK ON LOVE tour info! Nectarine cobbler! And more!

The more is mostly books and mascara

Hi friends! Drunk on Love comes out in just over a month, and I’m so excited to get to go on book tour to talk about it! Here’s a fun graphic with info all in one place:

I’ll be in Oakland on September 19th at East Bay Booksellers, in Los Angeles on September 20th at Barnes and Noble at the Grove, in New York on September 21st at The Strand, in Boston on September 23rd at Harvard Bookstore, in Washington D.C. on September 24th at Loyalty Bookstores, in Chicago on September 26th at Women & Children First, in Atlanta on October 1st at 44th & 3rd Bookseller, in Toronto on October 3rd at the Toronto Public Library (details to come soon!), and in Napa on October 6th, at Napa Bookmine! And I get to talk to so many great authors! Roxane Gay and Leah Johnson and Ebony LaDelle and so many more! Please note that a number of these events will be off-site events, and at some of them you have to get tickets in advance! There are a few other event announcements to come for this fall; the events page of my website will have up to date information, but I’ll also let you all know when I know all of the details.

Also! If you sign up here, you can get texts from me about my books, future events, exclusive excerpts and other fun stuff! I will not be like a political candidate, don’t worry (and it’s only opt-in!). And my publisher is doing a great giveaway of four upcoming romances, and one of them is Drunk on Love — enter here!

I have two book recommendations for you all this week, one that’s out already, and one for you to preorder. The one that’s out already is for fans of historical mysteries and female detectives and female friendship stories, especially ones with a little romance and some spying and some fighting the patriarchy: The Unkept Woman, which is the newest in the Sparks & Bainbridge mystery series by Allison Montclair. If you haven’t read any of these books, and you like all of that stuff, start with The Right Sort of Man, and you’ll zip your way through all of the books and be angry that there aren’t more of them. I loved them all, and this most recent one was great. And the book that isn’t out yet is one for you to preorder to give yourself a gift in October: Partners in Crime, by Alisha Rai. Look, I’m an enormous Alisha Rai fangirl over here, and this book was everything I love about her books and more — full of well developed, interesting characters who you want to know more about, people who you cheer for even when they make terrible decisions because you get it, it’s sweet and tender and full of emotion, and a real adventure romp that will make you wonder if they can get out of this sticky situation THIS time (I was very stressed about that!). It’s a total joy, so go preorder it now!

Okay so I have to tell you about my new favorite mascara. It is this L’Oreal Double Extend mascara, and I love it so much. It makes my short and stumpy lashes look great, it goes on super easily without clumping, it doesn’t smudge or flake off into my sensitive eyes, AND since it’s a tubing mascara, it washes off so easily (though it does sort of look like spiders are coming off of your eyes, don’t freak out at your sink afterwards, just wash them down). And it’s $11! The only downside is that if you take a nap and you have it on, your lashes kind of stick together (ask me how I know), but that’s pretty easily remedied. After I realized how much I loved this mascara I immediately bought another tube, so that I wouldn’t have to panic when the first one ran out.

It is August, which means it’s stone fruit season, which means I buy a million nectarines every time I go to the farmers market or the store. Nectarines, to me, are the most superior stone fruit — I understand that people like peaches and plums and apricots, all of those fruits are good, they just are not as good as nectarines. A few weeks ago I made this very lazy nectarine cobbler for some family, that I sort of cobbled together (oh wow that was not on purpose but I’m leaving it there because it was so perfect) from a number of different recipes, and it’s such a great summer dessert. (Mostly the recipes are this one from Southern Living and the cream biscuits from the Art of Simple Food, but I bastardized both of them). And you don’t have to peel nectarines when you put them in desserts, unlike peaches with that fuzzy skin. So here is my lazy nectarine cobbler, that you can increase or decrease or add other things to as you please.

Lazy Nectarine Cobbler

For the biscuit dough:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream (reserve about a tablespoon of it)

For the nectarines:

4 pounds (about 10-12) ripe nectarines, peeled and cut into about 6 wedges per nectarine (feel free to cut them into fewer or more wedges depending on the size of your nectarines and your level of laziness)
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons of butter
The zest and juice from one lemon
Other things if you like: a big pour of vanilla extract, grated fresh ginger, a dollop of bourbon

To mix the biscuit dough: Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Either cut the butter into the flour by hand with your fingertips, or throw it all into a food processor to mix together until the bits of butter in the flour are the size of small peas. Add the cream (reserving one tablespoon or so for later) to the mixture (do this in a bowl, not the food processor if you’re using it) and stir until it comes together. Pat the dough together in the bowl, and then pop it in the fridge until you’re about ready to bake.

To prepare the nectarines: Combine the nectarines, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl and toss. Melt the butter in a big pot or skillet over medium, and then add the nectarine mixture and cook, stirring well, until the liquid in the pan burbles and gets thicker, about 5 or so minutes. Stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and whatever else you’re throwing in there.

When you’re ready to bake: Preheat the oven to 400. Pour the nectarine mixture into whatever size pan you have that holds all of the nectarines. Square? Round? Cast iron? Sure, why not. Take the biscuit dough out of the fridge and roll it out to about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, into a more or less square shape, and then use a sharp knife to cut the dough into six or nine squares. Plop the biscuits on top of the nectarine mixture, brush with the remaining whipping cream, sprinkle some more sugar on top, and put it all in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, until the biscuits are brown and the cobbler is bubbly. Let it cool for a 10-20 minutes, and then serve, with lots of vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend, all!

Jasmine