Mashed

Title: Mashed: The Culinary Delights of Twisted Erotic Horror

Authors: short story anthology with 17 different authors

Publisher: Grivante Press, April 2017

Pages: 275

Genre: horror, erotica

Obtained:  from publisher in exchange for an honest review








Summary: This is a short story anthology of 17 stories each containing the elements of food, horror, humor, and sex.

Thoughts: The best aspect of this anthology was the creativity involved.  No two stories were even close to being alike, and most were unusual.  Almost all were entertaining but in different ways.  Each author's story was well organized.  The amount of description in each varied. None of the characters in any of the stories really stood out.

There was food present in each story.  There was sex present in each story, although  I would not call it "erotica" in most.  There was good humor in some, but many were just plain silly.  The horror was mostly out of disgust, violence, and gore.  There were only a couple of stories that had a creepy feel and I never felt scared or frightened while reading this.  A few of the stories were quite clever and stuck with me.

This is a book for those over 18 years old.  This book wasn't for me, but if you're looking for something different, here it is!  If you like silly, gross horror mixed with sex- you'll love it!



                                                                    

Company: French Creek Tea Company
P.O.Box 5021, Custer, SD 57730
(605) 673-5383

Tea: Amber Ice

Obtained: from owners






    The French Creek Tea Company, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota is one of my favorite tea companies.  They have excellent black, green, and white tea blends that are of high quality.  This time around I sampled their iced tea.  Amber Ice is black tea blended specifically for making iced tea.  It is packaged like all their blends in a high quality resealable bag.

Owner, Royia Hrncir, advised me to use the "cold brew" method with these leaves.  I had never tried this before, usually using my iced tea maker or brewing in hot water, then adding ice and/ or cold water. The results of the cold brew method were fantastic!  I put four tablespoons of the black leaves in a half gallon of room temperature water.  I let this steep for about five hours, ran a little through a sieve, and tasted it.  It was good, but I thought if I added ice to it, the flavor would be too weak.  So, I left it to brew overnight- a total of about fifteen hours, before filtering it.  I added ice.  The result was a simple, delicious, refreshing, smooth, amber colored iced tea- no cloudiness or bitterness.  Although it really didn't need it, a slice of fresh lemon would have been a nice added touch.  This is the perfect drink for a hot summer day.