HUNGRY GIRL SHOUT OUT

Have any of you heard of HUNGRY GIRL? HUNGRY GIRL is a free daily e-mail subscription service about healthy eating that launched in May 2004. Currently over 400,000 people receive the emails. Hungry Girl is on Facebook and Twitter with about 30,000 fans and growing constantly. The creator, Lisa Lillien, is a true marketing sensation. She’s known for her 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories. She’s on a mission to help people be successful in their diets with tasty food.

So, you ask, what’s a gal who’s writing The Cheese Shop Mysteries doing giving a shout out to someone who is helping all those people diet?

Well, get this!! I came up with a tasty treat that’s under 200 calories, made from bacon and shrimp and cheese. That’s right, cheese! The appetizer is melt-in-your-mouth delicious, if I do say so myself, and really pleased my taste-testers!

Oh, before I tempt you further, WE DO HAVE ANOTHER WEEKLY WINNER. Tune in because the winner will be announced later this week and it might be you!!!

Anyway, back to tasty treats. I’m calling this one:

BACON SHRIMP TALEGGIO KEBAB

Ingredients:

4 slices Apple- smoked bacon [I used Pederson’s Natural Farms]
6 Medium-sized cooked shrimp
12 half-inch cubes of Taleggio cheese
12 Toothpicks

Directions:

Fry up the bacon and cook crisply, but not so brittle it will break, then cut in thirds.
Slice the medium-sized shrimp in half, so you have a head and tail, 12 pieces in all.
Slice the Taleggio cheese in one-half-inch cubes

For each kebab, take a piece of the bacon, a piece of shrimp, and a piece of cheese.

Skewer with a toothpick while the bacon is still warm.

Hint: The cheese melts to perfection by the time you’re ready to serve a platter of these little goodies.

So, Hungry Girl and all of your fans, listen up. A person can diet and still have cheese! {I’m not sure Lisa a.k.a. Hungry Girl, ever said a dieter couldn’t eat cheese. I have to admit I haven’t reviewed all of her recipes.} But most people think that cheese is taboo on diets and it’s not.

And yes, you can eat JUST ONE.

“Moderation in all things.”

Know who said that? A fellow named Terence who was a comic playwright and dramatist during the Roman Republic 195 BC to 159 BC. Mark Twain, however, put a better spin on it and said, “All things in moderation, including moderation.”

So enjoy a good bite of cheese! It’ll make you smile.

***And don't forget to enter to win our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest. The prize is a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com

Say Cheese!

Guest Blogger: Author Annette Blair - Gluten Free Turkey Chili

Please welcome our guest blogger: nationally bestselling author Annette Blair! Annette's new mystery, LARCENY AND LACE, premiered at #6 on Barnes & Noble’s mass market mystery list (#50 on the list that included all genres), and #15 on Bookscan’s Mystery list! Congrats to Annette on her fantastic showing out of the gate for this second title in her new Vintage Magic Mystery series. ~Cleo Coyle

And now, here's Annette...

Anyone who knows me is probably laughing because I’m daring to post here at Mystery Lovers Kitchen. When we were building our place, a co-worker asked if I was having a sunroom put in where the kitchen should be. Another said, “Why don’t you get one of those cardboard stove samples for that spot and save some money?”

Okay, so the nearby deli named a sandwich after us. Now don’t get me wrong, I was a domestic diva once. I kept a garden. I pickled things! I made tomato sauce from home grown tomatoes, cooked for umpteen guests on holidays. I baked and decorated wedding cakes and made my children’s clothes. I was a bodacious super mom.

But one day, they went to college and I became a prep school Development Director. I raised millions of dollars, traveled the country, and worked sixty hour weeks. No time to cook. When I wasn’t raising money, I was writing. No wonder local restaurants gave us Christmas presents.

I became a full time writer six years ago, but the domestic goddess never returned. My sister cleans my house. My son does the real cooking while I stay in my “cave” writing a buffet of stories. Besides single title paranormal romantic comedies for Berkley Sensations, I now write cozy Vintage Magic Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. I have to admit that when I was offered this series, my agent wondered if I had the knowledge of sewing and vintage fashions necessary to pull it off, but I surprised her with my secret past.

Madeira Cutler, my heroine, is a fashionista, a New York dress designer who, in A VEILED DECEPTION, came home to Mystic, Connecticut to plan her sister’s wedding. Then the jezebel trying to steal the groom was murdered. To save her sister, the prime suspect, Madeira turned sleuth and never looked back.

She stayed in Mystic and owns a vintage dress shop, now, in an old morgue cum funeral chapel carriage house, a copy of one that exists—my husband and I rented it for years. Like Maddie, we found caskets and such, though we never found a ghost like Dante Underhill, a former undertaker, who can’t seem to leave Mad’s building.

From her late mother, a psychic witch, our sleuth inherited at least one mystic gift, maybe more. Madeira can read vintage clothes. She sees snippets of things that happened when people were wearing the clothes, events that can help her solve crimes, or turn her in wrong directions. Maddie also has a problem: Detective Lytton Werner. In third grade, he mocked her fashion sense, so she called him Little Wiener, shouted it, actually, in a full cafeteria. The name stuck. This is the man she has to contend with, cajole, scam, and psych out . . . whatever it takes a tricky, trendy sleuth, who knows more than she should, to get her point across and the perps in jail.

In LARCENY AND LACE, Werner “detains” Madeira at the police station, until her alibi is confirmed. She talks him into letting her spend her incarceration in his office eating Mexican take out (hey, they say we should write what we know), while she throws a lot of "what ifs" at him regarding the case. It’s one of several turning points in their relationship.

In honor of Maddie and the Wiener’s Mexican truce, aided by two six packs of Dos Equis, I’m sharing a wonderful recipe for gluten free Chili that my son developed. Frankly, it’s the best Chili I’ve ever tasted.

Gluten Free Turkey Chili

Makes approximately 15 servings

2 lbs of ground turkey
1 ginormous chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic, diced
½ cup chili powder
1 ¼ tablespoon ground cumin
3 16 oz cans of stewed tomatoes
1 ¼ cup catsup
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of molasses
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 ¼ tablespoon dry mustard
2 26 oz cans kidney beans
2 26 oz cans pinto beans

1. In a large kettle or Dutch oven, cook the ground turkey over medium heat with the onion, garlic, chili powder, and cumin.

2. When the meat is cooked and the onion is transparent, stir in the stewed tomatoes, molasses, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and mustard. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for half an hour, stirring occasionally.

3. Drain off half the liquid from the canned beans before adding them to the sauce. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Simmer longer according to taste and consistency.

4. Serve in soup bowls and top with shredded cheddar cheese. Goes well with a bowl of gluten free nachos, with or without your choice of dips. Enjoy.

If you'd like to learn more about Annette Blair and the many wonderful books she's written, visit her Web site by clicking here.

ENTER TO WIN OUR CONTEST! You must enter NEW every week. Our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest randomly awards one of our site visitors a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Entering is easy: Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com Good luck!

Banana Bars

Congratulations to Kaye Barley of North Carolina, this week’s winner of our $25 gift card to Williams-Sonoma! Didn't win? Keep trying because we still have some gift certificates to give away. Leave a comment and you could be this week's winner.




Okay, you can quit laughing now. I know you have bananas that look just like these. They're sitting on your kitchen counter and your family is beginning to make fun of you. They're asking things like -- how rotten do bananas have to be before you'll throw them out? And to prove that they're still edible, you peel one and bite into it. It's not rotten, of course, but it's soft and unappealing, but now you can't throw it out because you have to save face. The good news is that those less than desirable bananas are absolutely perfect for baking. This is a very easy recipe that makes moist banana bars that taste and smell wonderful.

BANANA BARS

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash mace (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9 x 9 baking pan.

Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and mace in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix. Set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add one egg at a time. When well mixed, add the bananas, one at a time. Slowly add the flour mixture. Add the vanilla.

Pour into the prepared pan and spread. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack.


FROSTING

To be perfectly honest, these are so sweet and moist that they don't need frosting. If you're in a hurry and you want to dress them up a little bit, melt some chocolate chips with a little butter and drizzle the chocolate over the top. I made a quick chocolate frosting.

1/2 square (1/2 ounce) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate. (You can do this in the microwave in super short spurts.) Cream the butter and mix in the vanilla and the cream. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar. When blended, add the melted chocolate. Add the remaining powdered sugar gradually, using only as much as you need to make a nice spreading consistency.

Don't forget to enter our contest! We hold a new drawing every week, so be sure to enter each week for a $25 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. Leave a comment to enter or, if blogger is being difficult, send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com Good luck!

Cleo Coyle's Italian Fried Zucchini

Cleo Coyle's Italian Fried Zucchini


In America, when something is “breaded and fried,” the last step almost always involves a breading of some kind – flour, cornmeal, bread crumbs, or lately (for us fancy foodie folk) Japanese panko.

In Italy, vegetables and fish are often “indorati e fritti,” (or “dorati e fritti”) which translates to “gilded and fried”. With this method of frying, the food is dipped in flour, then in egg, and then fried. That’s right, there’s no final dredging in anything but egg.

The egg coating hitting the oil or butter in the pan is what gives the food its final gilded or golden color and the dish is almost always finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon. This is a delightful way to enjoy zucchini. How do I know? My husband can’t stand zucchini. But he absolutely loves this dish.

Like so many beloved dishes from native countries, an “Italian” recipe for a certain dish might differ from region to region, family to family, even house to house.

In the house where I grew up, in Western Pennsylvania, the zucchini were plentiful at the end of summer. Every morning my dad would bring in the day's freshly picked veggies from his garden and my mother and her older sister (who lived with us) would prepare them in different ways on different days.

I learned a lot from my Italian-born mother and aunt. Even so, their way of cooking Italian dishes is not always exactly my way. But daughters do grow into wives and mothers...and this is my house now.

For my own recipe of this classic Italian method
for frying zucchini, click the link below...

To get my recipe for
"Italian fried" zucchini,
click here
The recipe will appear in PDF format.
You can print it out or save it to your computer.

For more of my recipes or to find out more
about the books in my culinary mystery series,
click this link to my virtual home at:CoffeehouseMystery.com

~Cleo CoyleCoffeeehouseMystery.com
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing...

Lip-Smacking Barbeque

First of all, I’d like to announce this week’s winner of our $25 gift card for Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. This week’s winner is Kaye Barley from North Carolina! Kaye, thanks for coming by the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen and commenting on our posts. More information on how to enter this week's drawing is at the end of this post...

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about barbeque. Of course, this is only natural because I’m writing the Memphis Barbeque series. I’ve learned a lot about different barbeque sauces (vinegar-based, mustard-based, and tomato-based.) Memphis uses a dry rub on their pork and a tomato-based sauce.

There’s a lot of cooking time involved in making barbeque, but the end result is worth it.




Dry Rub for the Pork:

• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 t salt
• 1 (5 to 7 pound) pork roast, preferably shoulder or Boston butt

Mix all the ingredients (except the pork) in a bowl and rub the mixture on the pork. Refrigerate for an hour or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 300 F. Roast the pork in a roasting pan for 6 hours (until it’s 170 degrees F), or until it falls apart.
When the pork is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. While it’s still warm, pull the pork with a fork. Serve on hamburger buns with sauce.

And now for the sauce:

• 2 cups ketchup
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 4 teaspoons hickory-flavored liquid smoke
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1. Over medium heat, mix the ingredients in a large saucepan until it bubbles.
2. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for up to 20 minutes.

Hope everyone enjoys the barbeque!
Riley/Elizabeth Pretty is as Pretty Dies—August 2009
Memphis Barbeque Series—Book 1 in May 2010 Please pop by and see me at http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com




ENTER TO WIN OUR CONTEST! You must enter NEW every week. Our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest randomly awards one of our site visitors a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Entering is easy: Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com Good luck!

Technorati Tags: barbeque,Riley Adams,Elizabeth Spann Craig,Southern food,recipes,mystery writers

What a Catch!

We have a winner! But (sadly) it's not my turn to announce this week's
lucky prize winner. Do keep checking back to see who it is. Also, don't
forget to enter our Williams-Sonoma contest every week. There are
only a few more chances to win!

Cornmeal Fried Catfish

When my next door neighbor was painting
his living room, he asked my husband if he
would babysit, or rather fish-sit, his fish of
unknown origin for him until the room was
done. That was a year and a half ago and
the fish of unknown origin is still living on top
of our piano, blowing bubbles and waving
his fins at me. My husband has grown very
fond of him. Me, not so much. Although, he's
growing on me, as much as anything with a brain the size of sesame seed
can grow on you. The neighbor does not seem to have any interest in
having him back, although I have hinted repeatedly to him and anyone else
who enters my home, that we'd be more than willing to part with him.
No takers. Hmm.

When I am particularly annoyed by him, as annoyed as you can be
by a fish of unknown origin, or more accurately, the husband who
dribbles water on the piano when filling up the fish's tank, I decide it
is time for a fish fry. The fish usually knows this is a good time to beat
fins behind the fake foliage in his tank. Okay, maybe his brain is bigger
than a sesame seed after all.

The fish of unknown origin: Shark or Catfish?
If you can identify it, please let me know. I'm stumped.

There is something joyous about pulling out my Cool Daddy Deep Fryer,
filling it to the max line with oil and setting it at 340 degrees. I don't
care who you are: fried=yummy. I mean, why else do I wait all year with
drooling anticipation to see what they're frying up at this year's state
fair? Did anyone else try the chicken fried bacon last year? How about
the chocolate covered strawberry waffle balls? Again, I repeat,
fried=yummy.

Cornmeal Fried Catfish:

4 (6 oz) catfish fillets
1 slightly beaten egg
1 cup corn meal
2 tbspn flour
1 tbspn rock salt
1 tspn black pepper
1 tspn cayenne pepper

I use my Cool Daddy for this recipe, but I have read recipes where
they use bacon drippings, too.

Mix the dry ingredients in a gallon sized plastic bag, set aside.
Rinse the catfish fillets, then coat with the slightly beaten egg, put the
fillet in the plastic bag and shake until thoroughly coated. Put the corn
meal encrusted fillet into the oil (carefully) and cook for 3-4 minutes.
Drain on a paper towel.

*For my sons, I dice up their fillets and serve them cornmeal encrusted
catfish nuggets. There have never been any leftovers!















Cornmeal Catfish nuggets. YUM!

Jenn McKinlay SPRNKLE WITH MURDER -- March 2010
(aka Lucy Lawrence -- STUCK ON MURDER -- Sept 2009)
For more recipes and information visit: http://www.jennmckinlay.com/

The Case of the Cursed Champignons

Bad luck? A curse? You decide...

When we last left our heroine, she had recently enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a Chicago hot spot and returned home determined to recreate the amazing appetizers in her own kitchen. She blogged about the dining experience, asked for recipe input from all of you, and set out on a weekend shopping trip to purchase ingredients for Voul-au-vent des Champignons. Mmm…mushrooms, puff pastry, cognac…

Saturday afternoon she was ready to start cooking when….

Dum, dum, dum…(dramatic music)

Her oven stopped working! The appliance repair guy wasn’t available until Monday—far too late for our heroine to lovingly prepare, photograph, and blog about the dish she’d envisioned without feeling terribly rushed.

What will our heroine do? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, a word from our sponsor:
Congratulations to Ellen, last week’s winner. Our next lucky reader and winner of a $25 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma will be announced this week, right here, on this

Mystery Lover’s Kitchen station…

-----

Hi,

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the dramatic intro ;-) but that was how the weekend unfolded for me. I spent Saturday morning at my local Farmers’ Market picking out fresh mushrooms, parsley and shallots, planning to make and serve my mushroom appetizer that evening. Fortunately (?) I had something else to heat up first, and that’s when I discovered my oven malfunction.

Oh no! What to do?

Improvise, of course.

I decided that I could probably still make the appetizer but eliminate the puff pastry. I headed back out, this time to the grocery store (the Farmers’ Market was closed by then), to find an acceptable substitute. Unfortunately much of the fresh bakery was picked over, but I came home with six mini croissants. About as close to puff pastry as I could get at that point.

The recipe

Many thanks to Avery/Daryl whose Facebook friend Patricia Winton provided a basic plan of attack. I changed things up a bit. Patricia’s recipe called for Tabasco, but Cognac (based on all your suggestions) seemed like a better choice.

4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 ½ cups fresh mushrooms.
2 tablespoons flour (all purpose)
1 cup heavy cream or a mixture of cream
Salt to taste
Dash of Cognac
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
(I didn’t have fresh thyme, but I did have a little container of dried thyme Krista Davis gave me when she signed THE DIVA RUNS OUT OF THYME for me. Came in handy!)
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice or to taste (oops, I skipped this step!)

Melt the butter over moderate flame
Sir in the shallots and cook for about a minute.
Add the mushrooms and cook until softened.
Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute until the raw taste has gone.
Slowly stir in the cream
Cook until thick.
Add salt, Cognac, parsley, thyme and lemon juice. Stir

As I mentioned, I served this mixture over sliced (and microwave-warmed) croissants and served them to the family (those of us home this week). The verdict: Mixed.

We all loved the mushroom mixture and Curt and I decided it was pretty darned close to the taste of the appetizer from Marche. But we all agreed that the croissant base left a *lot* to be desired. Just looking at it reminded Curt of chipped beef on toast—not very appetizing. Had it been baked in puff pastry, I think the appetizer would have been much more successful.

Because I only used two croissants, and I had mixture left over, we used it as a side for another meal over the weekend. This makes an awesome sauce.

A couple of changes for next time:
I would use a little extra butter
I think 2 tablespoons of flour was too much. The mixture was just a tiny bit too thick. Maybe just 1 tablespoon of flour next time.
I used baby portabello mushrooms. They were great, but I’m eager to try this again with different varieties.

----

The curse continues! When I inserted my camera's memory card into my computer to transfer these pictures, I was standing up instead of sitting down. Shouldn't have made a difference, right? But I was in a hurry and not being careful. I accidentally inserted the memory card into the wrong slot. It slid it too far, too fast. I couldn't get it out. Poking a pencil into my computer didn't seem like a good idea, but I tried anyway. No luck - I just pushed the memory card further in. Then I had a brainstorm - tweezers! I hear you gasping. Don't worry - I shut the computer down first and I cut all power. I realized there might still be a charge left inside, so I did tread carefully, using a rubber jar opener to hold the metal tweezers. Are you picturing this? LOL

I finally got the memory card unstuck enough to be able to tilt my computer tower forward and gently shake it out. Seriously. I swear this project is cursed!!
;-)

I hope you try anyway and have better luck than I did! Let me know how your versions turn out.


Best,
Julie

Julie's White House Chef Mystery series features State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, and Eggsecutive Orders (coming in January). All from Berkley Prime Crime. Sign up for Julie’s newsletter on her website at http://www.juliehyzy.com/


***Reminder: Don't forget to enter to win our Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest again this week. The prize is a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com We announce the winners right here every week.

Antipasto Platter

WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER and, yet again, I’m not the one who gets to announce. Boo-hoo. Keep taking a peek each day to hear who it is. Yep, it could be you!

Taking a lead from The Barefoot Contessa (SHOUT OUT TO INA),I thought I’d share one of my favorite ways to treat guests to appetizers. An antipasto platter. This even makes a fabulously easy dinner for my husband and myself.

What’s so wonderful is that you don’t have to prepare everything yourself. So many stores have these items all ready to go. Preparing an appetizingly scrumptious antipasto platter is all in the display. Serve with a zesty French bread or your favorite crackers and, voilá!

Hint: Make sure you go to the store with a list.

FOR THIS DISH, I USED:

Basil leaves
Fresh buffalo mozzarella (small bite-sized balls)
Marinated red peppers
Pepper crusted salami
Prosciutto
Olives (multi-colored and multi-sized for variety)
Artichoke hearts (from a can, in water)
Asparagus spears (cooked to a crisp tender and cooled)
Baby Tomatoes (I used yellow and red)
Paprika
Olive Oil
Fresh figs [reserved for last]

Using a big platter, lay out the vegetables, cheese and meats in sections, the meats to the outside. Clump the veggies together, reds next to greens, etc. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika for color. Garnish with basil [which tastes terrific wrapped around the mozzarella and tomatoes.]

Lastly, layer the figs on the top. If figs aren’t in season, try pretty dried fruit like apricots. Either of these, wrapped in prosciutto, are a delicious bite!

For those with an adventurous spirit, you might add spicy pepperoncinis to the mix! They are also known as Tuscan peppers, sweet Italian peppers and gold Greek pepper.

Note: Buffalo mozzarella is made from the milk of domestic water buffalo. Apart from Italy, its birthplace, it is manufactured in many places including Southern California, Vermont, Australia and more!

Enjoy! And remember to "Say Cheese!" You can change the world, one smile at a time. And check out The Cheese Shop Mysteries, coming in 2010!

***

Also, before you leave us to visit another site, enter to win our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest. The prize is a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com We announce the winners right here every Sunday. Best to all!

Welcome Guest Bloggers Joyce and Jim Lavene!

Appyl Taryt

Even though we write a modern-day Renaissance Faire in our mysteries WICKED WEAVES and GHASTLY GLASS, it’s been interesting to learn about cooking in the 16^th century.

Renaissance festivals try to emulate those times, but most of the food is something everyone knows such as chili, pretzels and turkey legs. This is more to accommodate easy eating outside than authenticity.

There are some foods we still eat today that Renaissance folk ate back in the 1500s. Apple pie has been around for centuries. Because apples are usually plentiful and store well, they have been a favorite for as long as there have been cooks.

The modern pie shell we eat today was called a coffin. It was never eaten, used only to keep the fruit moist. The rolling pin wasn’t invented until the 19^th century so cooks would have used their hands or a smooth stone to spread the dough.

Sugar was available during the Renaissance but it was expensive and difficult to find. Even the wealthy lords and ladies did without most of the time. Honey was used as a sweetener, but in the case of apple pie, cooks would have relied on the sweetness of the fruit to make the pie taste good. Spices like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and even saffron were heavily utilized by cooks of that day.

Appyl Taryt

Filling:

• 8 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tsp cinnamon,
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp cloves

Pie Shell (coffin):

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup of butter
• ½ cup of milk
• egg to brush on crust

Separate the mixture to make two crusts. Work together flour, salt, butter and milk until it forms a ball. Push it flat with your hand then roll gently until it is the size needed for the pie shell. Add the apple mixture then cover it with the second flour shell. Bake for one hour at 375 degrees. Remove from oven and brush egg on the shell then place back in oven until the top crust has browned. Serve hot or cold.

Joyce and Jim Lavene write the Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries, Renaissance Faire Mysteries and Missing Pieces Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. www.joyceandjimlavene.com

Sounds delicious, Joyce and Jim! Thanks so much for sharing some 16th century cooking history with the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.

***Don't forget to enter to win our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest. The prize is a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com. Good luck!

Carrot Salad

Congratulations to Ellen Of Jacksonville, Florida -- the winner of a $25 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma! Enter this week's drawing by leaving a comment. Good luck!



I have company this weekend, and while I dearly love them, a couple of my guests are picky eaters. There are few vegetables they will eat, so it's always a challenge to come up with something that is acceptable to them. After all, it wouldn't be right to serve dinner without veggies! So I made a very simple dish that has been a favorite in my family for a long time -- a raw carrot salad. One of my guests, fearful of eating carrots, tried half a spoonful, and asked for a full serving minutes later. This is a great way to get kids to try vegetables, and the salad is so versatile that you can add a lot of different vitamin laden fruits and veggies once the kids are used to the texture.

Carrot Salad

6 - 7 average carrots
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Peel the carrots and cut into large chunks. Pulse them in the food processor until they are fairly fine. Scrape the sides, add the sugar and lemon, and pulse again to combine. Serve.

It's that simple. You can substitute agave or honey for the sugar. If your picky eater likes raisins, toss in a handful and stir. Once it's popular, you can add an apple or pineapple, a handful of coconut, or one of my favorites, a raw red beet. Just pulse and you're done!

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Cleo Coyle's Fast Frappuccino

Well, it finally arrived--the sticky, sweltering oven that is August in New York. On these warm, airless days (so still that nary a gum wrapper stirs), a hot cup of coffee holds less than its usual appeal for me. My solution: chill it!

Despite making my living by the bean, I am not a fan of traditional iced coffee (too watery), but I am a huge fan of frozen coffee frappes.

You may know this drink by any number of names: Frappuccino is the most common. That's the term Starbucks trademarked after buying the Coffee Connection chain in New England, which had previously trademarked the term.

Or maybe you know the drink as a Coolatta (Dunkin' Donuts version) or a Mochalatta (Cinnabon's version). Then there's the very latest entry into the coffee bar business: McDonald's. Their McCafe frozen coffee drink is simply listed on their menu as an Iced Vanilla Latte or Iced Mocha.

Well, now it's time for the Chilly Cleoccino! Yes, my own easy (and smart) home version of this popular summer drink. Why so smart?...The typical first step in a drink like this is to make "double-strength" coffee. The reason is to keep the coffee flavor from being diluted by the additoin of ice. My solution? Don't use ice. Make ice out of your coffee. Even better, use your leftover Joe for this recipe...

To get my Iced Cappuccino and Iced Mocha recipes, click here.

The recipe will appear in PDF format.

You can save it to your computer or print it out.

If you'd like more of my recipes or would like to find out more about
the books in my Coffeehouse Mystery series, then click over
to my virtual home at CoffeehouseMystery.com

One last note. My husband and I often save up coffee all day long to put in our ice trays. The best way to do this is to pour the dregs of each pot into a special container that you can store in the fridge. Keep it there all day (or even two days), continually adding the remnants of your coffee pots until you have enough leftover Joe to fill an ice tray.

My final tip for these hot August days: CHILL, BABY! CHILL!

~Cleo CoyleCoffeeehouseMystery.com
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing...

ENTER TO WIN OUR CONTEST! You must enter NEW every week. Our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest randomly awards one of our site visitors a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Entering is easy: Just sign in to this blog and leave a comment or send an "Enter me!" e-mail with your first name and state to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com Good luck!

Summer Send-Off: Southern Potato Salad

First, we have a winner! Ellen of Jacksonville, FL
is this week's winner of the $25 Williams-Sonoma
gift card.
Congratulations, Ellen, and thanks for joining us here at Mystery Lover's Kitchen. If you didn’t win, there are still three more chances to score your own gift card. Just keep those comments and emails coming!

Well, school is about to start back here next week so there are groans and grins alike in my household (the 7th grader doesn’t want to go back, the third grader does.)

We pretend in North Carolina that it’s fall when school reconvenes, even though it’s probably going to be at least 90 degrees all next week. My daughter will want to wear her cute new fall clothes, which are totally inappropriate for hot summer days. But…well, I’ll probably let her. Where’s the harm, after all?

It’ll be nice to have the taste of summer in their little lunchboxes, anyhow. And, thanks to the magic of blue ice, I’ll put some in a Tupperware.

Southern-Style Potato Salad

3 pounds red potatoes
4 hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 pound cooked, crumbled bacon

• Boil potatoes until soft. Cut into cubes.
• Sir potatoes and eggs together.
• Stir all other ingredients together if serving immediately. If chilling and serving, sprinkle bacon on last.

Enjoy! :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Pretty is as Pretty Dies
Memphis BBQ series (May 2010)

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com

Death by Chocolate (or what a way to go)!

First, we have a winner! Ellen of Jacksonville, FL
is this week's winner of the $25 Williams-Sonoma
gift card.

Congratulations, Ellen, and thanks for joining us here at Mystery Lover's Kitchen. Now, do not despair those of you who did not win. There are still three more chances to score your own gift card. Just keep those comments and emails coming!

AND NOW: DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
(Or what a way to go)!

There is a motto that has been sent to me at least fifty times through email and amazingly enough I never get tired of it, because these really are words to live by:

LIFE SHOULD NOT BE A JOURNEY TO THE GRAVE WITH THE INTENTION OF ARRIVING SAFELY IN AN ATTRACTIVE AND WELL PRESERVED BODY, BUT RATHER TO SKID IN SIDEWAYS, CHOCOLATE IN ONE HAND, WINE IN THE OTHER, BODY THOROUGHLY USED UP, TOTALLY WORN OUT AND SCREAMING, "WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!"

I have no idea who said it or where it came from, but I do believe they were on to
something and I love that this quote usually shows up in my email just when I need it
most!

That being said, I have to confess the line I most appreciate
about that quote is "chocolate in one hand". Personally, I'd
skid in with chocolate in both hands but that's me -- the
chocoholic. If you are one, too, you know what I'm talking
about. There are signs. A bag of chocolate chips in the pantry
will never see a batch of cookie dough, because at night
while everyone is sleeping, you are snitching until you go to
make cookies and the chocolate chip cookies you'd planned
must now be peanut butter cookies because you ate all of the
chips. Or...you have to put leftover Easter jelly beans in your
child's advent calendar because you ate all the chocolate
pieces before December first. And..you have secret stashes of chocolate hidden all over your
house for when you need a "fix". Mine is in my nightstand, oh, and in an old coffee tin, oh and
then there's one...well, never mind. As you can see, I have issues.

Luckily, there are recipes out there to accommodate my endless craving for
chocolate. One of these is for the Death by Chocolate Cupcake that my character
Melanie Cooper whips up in her bakery Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Believe me, I had a
wonderful time perfecting this recipe and it actually cured my need for chocolate
(after I ate six of them) for five whole minutes!

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE: Dark chocolate ganache on a chocolate with chocolate chip cake.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Add the chocolate chips. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. Makes 24.

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients:

2 cups dark chocolate chips

2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions: Place chocolate chips in a large bowl. Pour the cream into a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Once the cream boils, remove it from the heat and pour it over the chips. Let stand for a minute or two, then stir with a whisk until smooth. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl occasionally. Stir in the vanilla until well blended. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface and allow to cool to room temperature. Dip tops of cool cupcakes into mixture and allow to dry.

YUM! And now I have to go move my secret chocolate stashes in case anyone
who knows me reads this and comes to visit!


Jenn McKinlay SPRNKLE WITH MURDER -- March 2010
(aka Lucy Lawrence -- STUCK ON MURDER -- Sept 2009)
For more recipes and information visit: http://www.jennmckinlay.com/

Joyeux Noel

Contest Update...

Before I get started, I'd like to remind everyone that we will be announcing the newest winner in our Williams-Sonoma gift card contest very soon. Carol won the first week, and Rebecca won the second week. Who will be our lucky reader this week? Stay tuned to find out! ;-) And don't forget to leave a comment below (or via e-mail if the comment-leaving doesn't work) to be entered into this week's drawing for a $25 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card!

Best of luck!



In a bit of a departure from the norm here, rather than share a recipe with you, I'd like to share an experience and ask for your help.

The "headline" for this post is

Joyeux Noel

As you know, this is French for Merry Christmas. No, I'm not starting my cookie baking early ;-) But I am celebrating.

After being married for ::ahem:: years, gift-giving becomes difficult. What do you give your spouse during traditional celebrations that you haven't already given a hundred times? My husband put it succinctly when he told me: "You're so hard to buy for because you're not much of a flower or jewelry girl. You're a food girl." He's totally right. Take me out for a stellar dinner, and I'm in heaven. I love going out. And although the food is a major consideration, it's all about the experience.


So, for Christmas 2008 we decided to forgo the same-old, same-old, and decided that our gift to one another would be to try out a *new* restaurant every month. We have our favorites, of course (stories for another time), but we intended to stretch ourselves and seek out places we never knew existed. We alternate months and my husband picked his six choices right at the start. I decided to choose my six one at a time. This has been loads of fun! Every month we find ourselves at a brand new restaurant, clinking our glasses together and wishing each other a Merry Christmas.

This past Saturday, August 15th, was my month and after seeing Julie and Julia during the week, I was inspired to seek out French cuisine.


Marche restaurant is on Randolph Street in an area of Chicago known as the West Loop. Back when I was going to college in Chicago, I would have taken great pains to avoid this area but now I can't wait to get back there to try out some of the other nifty places I spotted. The neighborhood is vibrant, exciting, and up-and-coming, helped in no small part, I'm sure, by the presence of Oprah's Harpo studios, just a few steps away.

This is the view looking east on Randolph.

The restaurant is spacious and airy. Upside-down umbrellas (parapluie) dot the tall ceiling, while masks, mirrors, and Harlequin characters decorate the walls. The tables are on several different levels and the service is cheerful and attentive. But wow - the food. We split two appetizers: their "beautiful soup of the day," a tomato-gorgonzola-olive oil-basil-chive concoction which took my breath away; and a Voul-au-vent des Champignons - a puff pastry with mushrooms. "What is that flavor?" I kept asking my husband. We tried to decide which of the two we liked better, but could not. This was *exquisite* food.

Next came the entrees. Having just seen Julie and Julia, I'd intended to order Boeuf Borguignone, but alas it wasn't on the menu. I opted for Coq au Vin. The chicken was very good (maybe a tad dry), but my husband's Braised pork shoulder over cabbage was beyond description. I wish I would have ordered that. Maybe next time ;-)




For dessert we shared a chocolate trio (flourless chocolate cake, orange ice cream in a crispy chocolate shell, and chocolate-raspberry mousse) and decided that -- clearly -- of the 8 restaurants we've visited so far this year, Marche is our new favorite.

That's me after dinner, taking my leftover Coq au Vin home. There was nothing left of anything else ;-)

See that contented look on my face? It masks the determination I'm now experiencing in my desire to recreate the tomato bisque and the mushroom appetizers at home.

Here's where I need your help.

I'll bet many of you out there have made one or both of these appetizers. If you have, and if you know of similar recipes, please, please share! I can tell from all the great comments and e-mails we receive that we have an amazing group of foodies out there and I hope to draw on this vast collection of knowledge.

Sure I can call the restaurant and ask. But isn't this way more fun?

I plan to start experimenting soon -- any and all help will be appreciated. If you like, leave a comment below to direct me to a link (this will enter you in our contest, natch), or just e-mail me directly at JulieHyzy (at) AOL (dot) com or via my website www.juliehyzy.com


Thanks so much!!

Julie

Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef Mystery series features State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, and Eggsecutive Orders (coming in January). All from Berkley Prime Crime.

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