Guest Post & Giveaway - Growing Pains by Cass Lennox

The hype about Grandma’s scrambled eggs

For this post, I wanted to share some of the food and drink that's featured in Growing Pains. None of these are important to the story - but then again, even if it's not important to the story, food is important, point blank. Right? Right. These recipes are aggregated from the Internet and personal experience, and I take no responsibility for how they taste – but I’m telling you right now, eggs like the below are sublime.

Gigi's Grandma's Scrambled Eggs

Gigi's very conscious about the food he eats – dancers tend to be. In the novel, he refuses to eat a bunch of things, but his grandmother's famous eggs loom large on the no-go list. It's totally the wrong decision, as you're about to find out, but hey, athletes amirite?

6 eggs (you're feeding family)

salt and black pepper to taste

2 pinches ground nutmeg

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp crème fraiche OR 1 handful grated cheese (cheddar is especially good)

2 tbsp chopped parsley or chives

Break the eggs into a bowl. Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg, and whisk together with a fork until light and frothy.

Melt the butter over low heat in a frying pan. Wait until it's frothy and completely melted, covering the entire pan. Add the eggs to the pan, leave for ten seconds, then stir. Repeat until they begin to set, then stir continuously until they're almost done.

Once they're on the verge of being finished, take the pan off the heat and stir in the crème fraîche/cheese and the parsley. Serve with buttered toast.

Extra ideas:

Dice a clove of garlic and brown that in the butter before adding the eggs.

Stir cooked chopped bacon bits into the egg mixture before adding to the pan.

Serve with slivers of smoked salmon for extra decadence.

Brock's Grandma's Screwdrivers

Brock's grandma gets one shout-out, and it's with this drink in hand.

1 part vodka

2 parts orange juice

Mix in a highball glass over ice (whatever glasses you have will probably be fine). Garnish with orange peel if you're feeling fancy. Sit down and enjoy with family and/or a cigarette. [Author note: please do not smoke, it isn't good for your health. Also, Brock and Gigi's grandmothers would probably enjoy being brunch buddies.]

Sophie's Wedding Kombucha Delights

Kombucha is a fancy-ass fermented tea that’s making the rounds as a recent health thing to drink. Confession time: when I included kombucha cocktails in this novel for Gigi’s sister’s wedding, I did it as a joke. The joke's on me - they're real things *deep sigh* And they're probably delicious to boot. Damn you, hipsters of the world! I don't think you're supposed to drink kombucha with alcohol, but eh *shrug* Here are two recipes, one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic.

2 oz spiced rum

pinch cayenne pepper

3/4 oz lime juice

3/4 oz ginger simple syrup

kombucha to top off

Shake the rum, pepper, lime juice and syrup together with ice. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top off with kombucha.

2 large mint leaves

3/4 oz apple juice

1 lime wheel

1/2 oz ginger simple syrup

kombucha to top off

Muddle the mint, apple juice, lime wheel and syrup together in a highball glass. Add ice and pour kombucha to fill the glass. Sprig of mint to garnish.

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About Growing Pains:

Gigi Rosenberg is living his best life: performances in the big city, side gigs at a dance company, a successful drag act, and the boy of his childhood dreams who now adores him. Even if the boyfriend part isn’t the sparkly ride of passion he expected it to be, life is sweet. So when his sister’s wedding calls him back to his hometown, he sees an opportunity to show the hicks from his past how wrong they were about him. Only, his boyfriend isn’t quite on board.

Brock Stubbs left their hometown and his parents behind for a reason, and the prospect of facing them again is terrifying. He swore he’d never go back, but Gigi has made it clear refusal isn’t an option, and Brock will do nearly anything for him. There’s just one deal-breaker of a problem: Brock promised Gigi he was out to everyone, including his parents. He lied.

It’s magical to run into the sunset together, but staying the course takes work. For Gigi and Brock, going home feels like the finale of a long, disappointing year. Sometimes love isn’t all you need.

Available from Riptide Publishing and Amazon

About Toronto Connections:

The winters might be cold, but hearts are warm in Toronto. Canada’s largest city is home to a big lake, a big tower, and a big queer community. People here are trying to get by like everyone else: pay the bills, deal with life in the city, and maybe find some happiness along the way with someone who’s sweeter than maple candy and more constant than a Canadian’s love for Timmie’s coffee.

For some, falling in love is a real challenge. For others, falling is the easy part—it’s the happy ever after that proves a little more difficult. But in the end, love is worth every complication, misunderstanding, and occasional swear word.

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About Cass Lennox:

Cass Lennox is a permanent expat who has lived in more countries than she cares to admit to and suffers from a chronic case of wanderlust as a result. She started writing stories at the tender age of eleven, but would be the first to say that the early years are best left forgotten and unread. A great believer in happy endings, she arrived at queer romance via fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, and manga, and she can’t believe it took her that long. Her specialties are diverse characters, gooey happy ever afters, and brownies. She’s currently sequestered in a valley in southeast England.

Connect with Cass:

• Blog: casslennox.wordpress.com/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cass-Lennox-1704635609768647/
• Twitter: twitter.com/CassLennox

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Giveaway: 

To celebrate the release of Growing Pains, one lucky winner will receive $15 in Riptide Publishing credit!

Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest.

Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on March 25, 2017.

Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!