State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy with Easy Pickled Red Onions by Lee Majhen-Todd

State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy

 Julie Hyzy is a New York Times bestselling author who writes both the White House Chef Mysteries and the Manor House Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime and has won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for her work.

 A native Chicagoan, she thoroughly enjoys researching her books, especially when traveling to exciting new places is involved.

 Julie writes a series of books about sleuth Alex St James, a news researcher, which combines mystery and adventure, and another about Olivia Paras, assistant chef at the White house, which sits in the subgenre "culinary mysteries".

Her State of the Onion, from the latter series, won an Anthony along with other awards.

Hyzy studied business at college and worked in business-related jobs until taking up fiction writing. She also writes under two pseudonyms, N. C. Hyzy and S. F. Hyzy.

 There are 10 White House Chef Mysteries in the Ollie Paras series

  State of the onion is a book about Olivia Paras (Ollie), the White House, its kitchen and an assassination plot.

 Assistant chef at White House, Ollie, wants to be the first female Executive Chef, but she’s not the only one.

 She has battles with the sensitivity director, secret service and an intruder who she put her mark on with a frying pan, all putting a strain on her relationship with her good-looking boyfriend Secret Service Agent Thomas MacKenzie.

 With TV chefs trying to thwart her chefy ambitions, Ollie, lets us have a behind the scenes look at what cooking in the most famous painted white house in the world is like, along with 20 pages of recipes.

 I’m giving this book a 2 ½ egg rating, why?

Because I just wanted to be a little more invested in the main character Ollie.

2 1/2 Egg Rating

2 1/2 Egg Rating for State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy

 Easy Pickled Red Onions

This easy picked red onion recipe is perfect to use with lots of things.

Spice up charred vegetables, or bring fish to life with a life of pickle and zing.

Great for BBQs, sandwiches and , well anything you want to add them too.

What about making a jar or two as gifts for fired, if you do, they’ll think you’ve spent hours slaving over a hot stove when in fact, it’s an all in and wait kind of recipe.

Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life.

Ues them to give a lift to charred vegetables

What You Need

• Red Onion - Very Thinly sliced

• 1 Spring onion - chopped

• Red wine vinegar - Enough to completely cover the sliced onion

• 1 Tablespoon of Black peppercorn

• 3 Garlic Cloves - Peeled

The finer the slice the better

How It’s Done

• Place the sliced red onion into a bowl

• Add the peppercorns, spring onion and the peeled garlic cloves

• Cover all of this completely in the red wine vinegar

• Leave to sit in the vinegar mix until ready to use - See Tip Box

Tip Box

• Vinegar - You can use white wine vinegar instead of the red if you prefer, or even use good old fashioned chip shop vinegar.

• How Strong- The longer the onion sits in the vinegar mix the stringer pickle it will have. If you want an even weaker pickle, mix the vinegar with water before covering the onion.

Use whichever vinegar you like best - See Tip Box