Creating Recipes

by special guest Kristi Abbott.

When my editor at Berkley first talked to me about writing the Popcorn Shop Mystery series, I was thrilled. I developed a thing for Garrett’s Caramel Cashew Popcorn when I lived in Chicago about a bazillion years ago. That stuff was like crack. One taste and I could not stop. Writing about a gourmet popcorn shop felt like a totally natural fit. Besides, who doesn’t like popcorn?

Some books are just easier to write than others. They flow easier. The words bring you more joy. The plot naturally evolves in a way that’s both inevitable and surprising. It’s kind of like having an easy baby. You’re never sure what special alchemy occurred to have a book that is a joy to sit down to every day any more than you really know what made that kid sleep through the night at six months. Kernel of Truth was one of those good-sleeping babies.

So far so great. Delicious popcorn. A book that’s flowing from my fingers into my laptop via my keyboard (an external one since I sort of accidentally poured ice water on my computer, but that’s another story). My editor sent the back cover copy. It was, in a word, adorable. Things were bursting. Problems were being resolved in a jiffy. Suspects were popping up. And recipes were included!

I wrote to my editor telling her how much I loved the copy and asking who worked up the recipes. She wrote back that she was pretty sure we’d talked about that way back when we were discussing the contract and I was supposed to be coming up with recipes. Once she said that, it did ring a bell. Thanks tons, middle-aged brain.

Cue panic mode. In the book, Rebecca had developed all kinds of special popcorn products like popcorn breakfast bars and popcorn fudge. Everyone loves them. Now I had to make them a reality. Really?

To say my first attempts were less than stellar is a bit of an understatement. My breakfast bars were more oozy breakfast lumps. The popcorn fudge wasn’t bad. I mean, how far wrong can you go with sweet and salty together? Not far in my book or in my life. Still, the chocolate was a little too stiff and the popcorn got a tiny bit soggy.

Enter my good friend and amazing author, the lovely Spring Warren who is not only a good cook, but understands the science of how food works. There was a bad moment when she asked me what I was using to hold the breakfast bars together and nearly choked when I told her marshmallow crème. Apparently, marshmallow crème is not considered to be a healthy part of a balanced breakfast. Who knew?

Spring, being the fabulous friend that she is, spent about four hours in my kitchen one afternoon and by the end of it, I had the recipes for Kernel of Truth.  They were edible and replicable. I even shipped some off to my kids in care packages. Of course, twenty-year-old boys will eat pretty much anything, but they were still well-received.

I have at least two more popcorn books to write. That means I need somewhere between six and ten new recipes. Anybody have any favorite popcorn recipes they want to share? You’ll totally get a shout out in the acknowledgments of the next book if I use them!

From http://www.kristiabbottauthor.com

Kristi Abbott has been obsessed with popcorn since first tasting the caramel cashew popcorn at Garrett's in Chicago. If you've never had it, you might want to hop on a plane and go now. Seriously, it's that good. 

Kristi lives in northern California, although she was born in Ohio like the heroine of Kernel of Truth. She loves snack food, crocheting, her kids, and her man, not necessarily in that order. 

Cozy Monday

The Big Chili (Undercover Dish Mystery #1) by Julia Buckley (Berkley Prime Crime mass market paperback, 6 October 2015).


Lilah Drake has a secret.

When she's not working at her parents' real estate agency, she cooks for other people who don't have the time/energy/skill to do it themselves.   These people also don't want it known that the food they're serving was made by someone else.  Lilah doesn't mind (too much), as the money she earns is being saved for her Catering Business fund.

She's had no trouble with her deceptions, until the unpleasant Alice Dixon dies after tasting Lilah's chili con carne at a church function.  Nonetheless, Pet Grandy, who is taking credit for the dish, urges Lilah to keep her secret.  Lilah is uneasy about this, but agrees.

She feels even worse when she meets the detective in charge of the case, Jacob (Jay) Parker. Not only does Jacob happen to be the son of Ellie, one of Lilah's best customers, he's very handsome.

Lilah tries hard to convince herself she's not attracted to Jay, has to be very careful not to spill the beans (pun intended) about who really made the chili.  To assuage her conscience, she begins her own investigation into the murder.

Unusually for a cozy, the story is told in the first person, from Lilah's point of view.  As a result, we are able to identify with her strongly as we follow along with her thought processes while she conducts her investigation.

The town of Pine Haven, Illinois, and its residents are believable without being either clichéd or abnormal. Lilah is a smart, likeable protagonist, though she does tend to overthink things.  

Recipes for some of Lilah's creations are included at the end of the book.

The publisher has generously offered a copy of THE BIG CHILI to one of my readers. Please comment below by 12:01 a.m. on October 19, and don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy of the book.

Cozy Monday

Basket Case (Silver Six Crafting Mystery #1) by Nancy Haddock (Berkley Prime Crime mass market paperback, 1 September 2015).

It's not that Leslee "Nixy" Nix doesn't care about her elderly Aunt Sherry Mae Cutler, but she also loves her job at  Gates Fine Art Gallery in Houston, and works long hours hoping for a promotion.

But she gets a call from Detective Eric Shoar in Lilyvale, Arkansas, informing her that there have a rash of emergency calls to Sherry's house, and that Nixy needs to get up there within a week or Sherry and her housemates will become wards of the state.  It suddenly dawns on Nixy that she hasn't seen her Sherry since her mother, Sherry's sister, died nearly a year and a half earlier.

She heads straight to Lilyvale, where she discovers that Sherry and her five housemates (all senior citizens) are doing just fine.  Their biggest problem is an unethical land developer who is harassing Sherry and her neighbors to sell her their property.  When the developer, whom Nixy refers to as "Hellspawn" is found dead in the family cemetery, Sherry is the prime suspect.   Nixy is positive that her aunt is innocent, and determines to stay in Lilyvale until she can prove it.

Spending time with the "Silver Six" as they've dubbed themselves, helps Nixy (as well as the reader) realize how sharp and capable the group is, and how much she enjoys being with them.

At the end of the book are crafting tips and recipes, along with an excerpt from the second book in the series, Goodbye, Gourdgeous (though no release date is given).



The publisher has generously offered a copy of Basket Case to one of my readers in the US.  Please comment below before midnight on September 7, 2015.  Don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for the review copy of this book!

A Taste of Friendship

by guest blogger Sofie Ryan.

I’ve been cooking since I was a kid. I started because my mother didn’t like to cook. She was the baby of the family and she never learned. “I was spoiled,” she’d say with a bit of a smile.

When my mother and father got married the only thing Mom could do was make a cup of tea. She couldn’t even make toast because she was baffled by the two-sided, hand-me down toaster that had come from my aunt. In one of those wonderful twists life sometimes takes, Mom’s closest friend was an excellent cook who could make dinner for two dozen people and whose cookie jar was never empty. She’d send her kids and me out to pull rhubarb in the late spring and up to the blueberry fields in the summer with the promise of rhubarb crisp or blueberry grunt.

Like my mother, Sarah Grayson in The Whole Cat and Caboodle can’t cook. And like my mother she’s managed to surround herself with women who can, like Rose Jackson. Just like my mother’s best friend, Rose loves to feed people and one of the things she likes to make is blueberry muffins.


Rose’s Blueberry Muffins

3 cups all-purpose four
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ cup soft butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 ½ cups of blueberries, washed and drained
Juice of one lemon
Grated rind of half a lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin tins or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Save a tablespoon of the floor to coat the blueberries. In a smaller bowl beat the eggs with a whisk and add the milk, lemon rind and lemon juice. Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients just until mixed. Sprinkle the saved tablespoon of flour over the blueberries and stir gently. Carefully fold the coated blueberries into the batter.
Divide the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown on top. Makes 12 large muffins.

Notes:

• You can use frozen blueberries. Don’t thaw them first.
• I’ve also used buttermilk instead of evaporated milk for a slightly tangier muffin.
• Coating the berries with a little flour helps keep the batter from turning blue.

Enjoy with a cup of tea and a good book!

Sofie Kelly and Sofie Ryan are pseudonyms of young adult writer and mixed-media artist, Darlene Ryan. Sofie/Darlene lives on the east coast with her husband and daughter. In her spare time she practices Wu style tai chi and likes to prowl around thrift stores. And she admits to having a small crush on Matt Lauer.  






Berkley Prime Crime has generously offered a copy of The Whole Cat and Caboodle to one of my readers.  To enter, please share your favorite food in the comment area below.  Please don't forget to include an email address where I can contact you if you win.