Mandy Lee

In this inventive and intensely personal cookbook, the blogger behind the award-winning ladyandpups.com reveals how she cooked her way out of an untenable living situation, with more than eighty delicious Asian-inspired dishes with influences from around the world. For Mandy Lee, moving from New York to Beijing for her husband’s work wasn’t an exotic adventure—it was an ordeal. Growing increasingly exasperated with China’s stifling political climate, its infuriating bureaucracy, and its choking pollution, she began “an unapologetically angry food blog,” LadyandPups.com, to keep herself from going mad. Mandy cooked because it channeled her focus, helping her cope with the difficult circumstances of her new life. She filled her kitchen with warming spices and sticky sauces while she shared recipes and observations about life, food, and cooking in her blog posts. Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, she came of age food-wise in New York City and now lives in Hong Kong; her food reflects the many places she’s lived. This entertaining and unusual cookbook is the story of how “escapism cooking”—using the kitchen as a refuge and ultimately creating delicious and satisfying meals—helped her crawl out of her expat limbo. Illustrated with her own gorgeous photography, The Art of Escapism Cooking provides that comforting feeling a good meal provides. Here are dozens of innovative and often Asian-influenced recipes, divided into categories by mood and occasion, such as: For Getting Out of Bed Poached Eggs with Miso-Browned Butter Hollandaise Crackling Pancake with Caramel-Clustered Blueberries and Balsamic Honey For Slurping Buffalo Fried Chicken Ramen Crab Bisque Tsukemen For a Crowd Cumin Lamb Rib Burger Italian Meatballs in Taiwanese Rouzao Sauce For Snacking Wontons with Shrimp and Chili Coconut Oil and Herbed Yogurt Spicy Chickpea Poppers For Sweets Mochi with Peanut Brown Sugar and Ice Cream Recycled Nuts and Caramel Apple Cake Every dish is sublimely delicious and worth the time and attention required. Mandy also demystifies unfamiliar ingredients and where to find them, shares her favorite tools, and provides instructions for essential condiments for the pantry and fridge, such as Ramen Seasoning, Fried Chili Verde Sauce, Caramelized Onion Powder Paste, and her Ultimate Sichuan Chile Oil.

A Survival Story, with Intensely Good Flavors

The Art of Escapism Cooking

Maya Scotton, a young artist with a severe case of painter's block, is in need of money. When she takes on an office job at a construction company, she finds herself firmly in the sights of the owner, Daniel Foster - a dangerously attractive man with a dark past and particular tastes in bed. Although she tries to resist him, Maya soon finds herself embroiled in a steamy relationship with Dan. And while he slowly encourages her to paint again, she begins to peel back his layers. At last, when she believes that she's finally come to understand his ways, he has one final secret to reveal ... and it's a secret that threatens to blow them apart. You Don't Know Me, a steamy erotic romance, is the first book in a trilogy. If you enjoy EL James, Sylvia Day and Jodi Ellen Malpas, then this is the trilogy for you.

You Don't Know Me

Reeling from the shock of discovering Dan's true identity, Maya struggles to make the right decision. But she's incapable of resisting the man she loves, and soon finds herself drawn back into his world - a world of intensely sexual passion. While his love and support help her to confront her fears and blossom as an artist, what she needs more than anything is the ability to trust. Determined to discover the truth and build a future with Dan, she makes it her mission to find out what transformed him into the man he is now. However, the shadows of the past won't leave them alone. And when those shadows converge, the consequences are far more dangerous than anyone could have predicted. True Colours, a steamy erotic romance, is the second instalment in the You Don't Know Me Trilogy.

True Colours

'I'd like to tell him we're never through with the past, that it's with us forever, sometimes out of sight, sometimes in full view, always unchangeable. We can only ever learn from it ... and manage the consequences.' Spending time apart from the man she loves, Maya's forced to survive in a world where nothing is what it seems. With her faith tested to the limit, a trip to New York sets off a train of events that will reunite her with Dan, but threaten to destroy everything they've worked so hard for. Now, neither of them can hide from the past. If their love is to survive, they need to deal with the threats and face the truth. Shut Your Eyes, an erotic romance, is the final book in the You Don't Know Me Trilogy

Shut Your Eyes

Paige Brinkley needs a sign. Something to confirm that her life's meant for more than just wasting it away working as a receptionist for Denver-Milton Sign Company. She wants direction, a change from the monotony of her small life in her small Georgia town.Josh Harvard wants to give her all that and more.Josh has been in love with Paige since he started working at Denver-Milton Sign Company five years ago, and with his witty sense of humor and compassionate nature, his personal goal is to simply make her smile.When a mysterious painted rock shows up on Paige's office desk one morning, it inspires Josh to take her on an adventure--a scavenger hunt. What Paige discovers along their excursion could go a long way toward helping her realize that what she's been searching for has been waiting at the desk right across from hers the entire time.Fans of the award-winning and beloved television series "The Office" will enjoy a story reminiscent of Jim and Pam's long-awaited and championed romance, while readers less familiar with the show will enjoy a bilateral story of two sensible people navigating the hardships of love and loss while stuck in their small Southern town and surrounded by quirky personalities.

Mandy Lee

About

Books

Join the club