Drinks with Reads: The Replacements and The Snowball

David Putnam joins us today for a truly unique pairing of a drink and read, matching his book The Replacements with a concoction called The Snowball. I am dying to find out what's in this one...

First a little about the book from Publishers Weekly:

"The Disposables finds Bruno Johnson, a former L.A. sheriff’s cop, settled in Costa Rica with his wife, Marie, and the eight abused children they rescued and took (illegally) from the U.S. Early in his career, Johnson intervened in a violent domestic case and managed to save the life of five-year-old Jonas Mabry. Now an adult, Jonas has kidnapped two young girls and will deal only with Johnson. … Jonas proves to be a diabolically clever opponent as he runs circles around Johnson, leading him down one blind alley after another and forcing him to make desperate moves. Putnam steadily ratchets up the tension, while memorable supporting characters, like the courageous Marie, help engage reader interest."

The pink pig and the .44 Magnum, next to this chocolate and marshmallow snowball drink, appear on the cover of the most recently released Bruno Johnson book, The Replacements. 

The Disposables came out in 2014. The Squandered will be released Feb. 2, 2016.

A snowball beverage is the perfect pairing for this series since Bruno Johnson, when away from his sweetheart Marie, likes to drink chocolate milk and Hostess "Sno Balls." Below find David's wife Mary's easy-to-make recipe. 

The Bruno Johnson series has been described as:  "...raw, powerful, and eloquent… a gritty street poem..." by Michael Connelly.



Mary Putnam's Snowball Recipe 

Ingredients:

Hot Chocolate or similar, like instant Swiss mocha
(optional) alcohol, like whipped-cream flavored vodka or Kahlua Marshmallow Creme (optional) unsweetened coconut, colored pink w/a little red food coloring

Directions:

Hostess Sno Balls come in a variety of colors. Since David's book had Bruno eating pink ones, I colored the unsweetened shredded coconut pink by tossing some in a plastic bag with a little red food coloring. 

Make hot chocolate or mocha and spike as need, depending on how your day's going. Put the shredded coconut in a small bowl. Roll a big dollop of the marshmallow creme in the coconut and drop it on the hot beverage. 


Mary's tip: Keep the extra marshmallow creme to use instead of whipped cream or creamer with your coffee. Yum!