Christian Fiction Spring Scavenger Hunt
· The hunt begins on 3/19 at noon Mountain with Stop #1 at LisaBergren.com.
· Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
· There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/22 at midnight Mountain). So, take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
· Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the entry form at the final stop.
And guess who’s one of those authors? You got it! Little ol’ me, Michelle Griep. I write all things romantic, historic, and with plenty of action, mostly focusing on the Regency and Victorian eras. I always serve my stories with plenty of intrigue, and my newest release—The Bird of Bedford Manor—is no different. Here’s what it’s about:
Bedfordshire, England, 1820
Ruined by the sins of her father, Juliet Finch is cast into a life of self-reliance. Survival is a harsh taskmaster, but she is a quick learner and excels at tracking and snaring wild game to feed herself. Juliet embraces her new identity until the day Henry Russell catches her poaching on his land—a crime punishable by death. Henry, however, has other offenses on his mind: namely, the troublesome stalker who's making a misery of his sister's life. To a stop to her torment, Henry charges Juliet with tracking the elusive villain so he can be brought to justice. Using her skills, Juliet hunts down the rogue. . .but may just become the prey herself.
When the story opens, Juliet and her aunt are struggling to stay fed, a common enough occurrence in Regency England. But that also begs the question, what did people eat in the early 1800s?
What’s For Dinner: A Primer of Regency Food
If you’ve ever read a Regency novel and wondered what all those well-dressed people were actually eating between bouts of witty banter and romantic misunderstanding, the answer is: quite a lot.
Dinner during the Regency era (roughly 1811–1820) was the main event of the day, usually served in the late afternoon. And unlike our modern habit of neat little courses arriving one at a time, the Regency table favored a style called service à la française. That means the table groaned beneath a small army of dishes all appearing at once. Guests simply reached for whatever caught their fancy—assuming they could reach it without impaling a neighbor with a carving knife.
Roasted meats reigned supreme. Beef, mutton, venison, goose, or game birds often occupied pride of place. Meat pies—encased in sturdy pastry that could double as construction material—were common, along with stewed pigeons or boiled fish like salmon or cod. If it sounds hearty, that’s because it was.
Vegetables appeared as well, though they rarely received star treatment. Peas, carrots, cabbage, turnips, and potatoes were typically boiled into submission and served with butter…so you know the potatoes served at the Bennett household must’ve been something special. Seasoning leaned toward gravies and sauces rather than bold spices. Mushroom ketchup and anchovy sauce showed up far more often than modern diners might find comforting.
Meals frequently opened with soup—turtle soup if one was feeling grand, or something more sensible like pea soup. But the real glory came at the end.
Dessert was where Regency cooks let their imaginations run wild. Custards, jellies molded into impressive shapes, fruit tarts, syllabubs (a frothy mixture of cream and wine that sounds far more elegant than it behaves), and puddings crowded the table. Fresh fruit often joined the display, especially in households wealthy enough to afford imported treats.
Of course, most ordinary people were not feasting like this every evening, especially not the heroine in The Bird of Bedford Manor. You’ll have to pick up a copy to find out what she survives on.
Now, for the information you’ve all been waiting for . . .
Clue to Write Down: has yet
Link to Stop #9, the Next Stop on the Loop: Roseanna White’s Site
Have fun on the hunt, but before you go, be sure to enter my personal giveaway for a signed copy of The Bird of Bedford Manor here:
