Avery’s Favorite Scones

Congrats to last week’s winner, Sally Minyard. She won a $25 Williams-Sonoma gift certificate! We have a new winner, who will be announced this coming Saturday.

So, dear readers, we’ve been blogging now for nearly six weeks and we have covered everything from pork roast to frappacinos and antipasto platters to the best way to prepare asparagus. If you scour our archives, I’m sure you can put an amazing meal together.

What we haven’t covered is afternoon tea. For cozy readers, this is a must. There’s one character in my new Cheese Mystery series, Lois [she is NOT my protagonist...I thought I'd introduce you to a few characters along the way.] Lois owns the Lavender and Lace Bed & Breakfast. She’s a tea cup collector, and every afternoon she serves high tea. With her scones, she likes to serve a little jam and a wedge of cheese. There’s nothing as decadent in the afternoon as having a scone slathered with jam and a nip of cheese.

For this particular tea plate, I chose a fabulous boysenberry jam and a wedge of Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam cheese.

It’s smooth and nutty, with flavors like a good Camembert. The Cowgirl Creamery is located in Pt Reyes Station, California. For over a decade, they have been furthering the fine art of artisanal cheesemaking. If I might quote from their website: “They started with an old barn,made it beautiful, put in a small plant for making hand-crafted cheese…” And the rest is history. Check out their website: Cowgirl Creamery

Now...being the nice person I am, I decided to lend my quirky fictional Lois my favorite scone recipe, and get this (all of you who are celiacs), it’s gluten-free. [*Note: I often use Pamela’s Gluten-free products as my base. For this recipe. I tweaked her scone recipe to give it an extra richness that is melt-in-your-mouth yummy.]

AVERY’S FAVORITE GLUTEN-FREE SCONES

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix
1 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
4 Tbs. butter, cold
1/3 cup 1%milk
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup raisins
1 egg, extra-large, beaten

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the Pamela’s mix, baking powder, and sugar together. Cut in the butter, using a knife and fork, making sure the butter is still cold. It’ll form small pea-sized balls. Add milk, cream, and eggs, stirring briskly until all incorporated. Add the raisins.

Drop by large spoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet. Makes 9 good-sized scones.

Bake for 14-17 minutes, checking at 14 because you DON’T want the bottoms of the scones to burn.

So this afternoon, grab a good mystery, make yourself a cup of your favorite tea, and enjoy a delicious scone! Major comfort food!

And if you like, visit my website: http://www.averyaames.com/ and sign up for my newsletter with recipes and tips and a recurring column about the history of cheese.

Lastly, don’t forget to check back for our next Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest, coming soon. This last week's winner of the $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma will be announced Saturday!

Smile and Say Cheese!

Judy Alter Cooks Her Way Through Life

A very warm welcome to author Judy Alter. The recipient of numerous awards for her westerns and juvenile fiction, Judy has accomplished the impossible by having a cookbook published!


Thanks so much for joining us today, Judy.


1. Congratulations on having a cookbook published! I thought only TV cooking stars and celebrity chefs were able to publish cookbooks. Tell us how it happened for you!


A friend was writing a book with recipes in it, and her agent said to ditch the recipes. I said recipes were really big in books right now, so she said, "Okay, we'll write a cookbook together." I went home and began to write, realizing that my life fell into four distinct cooking periods: a childhood in a very meat-and-potatoes household in Chicago, with a Canadian father who preferred pot roast, no fish, and nothing you picked up in your hands but a mother who was an excellent cook and taught me well. Then I married a Jewish man and moved to Texas--two new cultures, and though the husband is long gone, I love Jewish food. Then there were the years I raised four children as a single parent--the casserole years. And in this final cooking phase, I live alone, entertain often, always experiment on guests and find that cooking is a great relaxation for me. Meanwhile my friend confessed that her mother never cooked and when I asked how she fed her children, she said, "I took them out." Needless to say, it became my book. State House Press, loosely related to McMurry University, told me they could only publish things with a historical aspect, but I assured them I am old enough that some of my recipes are historic.


2. What's a typical weeknight dinner at your house?

Depends. If I eat alone these days, it's a meat and a steamed vegetable, because I am on Weight Watchers. If I have company, I may experiment on anything from a casserole to what I call the $8,000 leg of lamb (someone once jokingly offered me that much for the recipe). Last night for my daughter and her husband it was Hebrew National hot dogs, German potato salad, and tossed salad with blue cheese dressing.


3. Name three things you always have in the refrigerator.

Cottage cheese (my breakfast), white wine, Paul Newman's Own Vinaigrette. (Actually these days I pretty much make my own dressings, but my youngest daughter used to list those three as the things we could live on when she and I were living alone).


4. Do you have a secret indulgence that you sneak on occasion?

Chocolate.I recently discovered a chocolate bar with chopped peanuts and jalapeno in it. Unfortunately, it's not the dark chocolate that I love and is so good for you.


5. What is your most memorable meal and where was it?

Oh, gosh--I've had lots of wonderful meals in some fairly posh restaurants but I think my most memorable meals are when my family is gathered around me and usually then it's tacos or fajitas or a family favorite called Doris' casserole. I have four children, all happily married to people I adore, and seven grandchildren.



6. You've written quite a few westerns. What made you decide to
switch to mysteries?

I've always been an avid mystery reader, and I just wanted to prove to myself I could do it. I've written one that my mentor from grad school (who taught genre lit) says is good but so far haven't placed it. A sequel awaits revision. Besides the market for the kind of westerns I wrote has fallen away. I wrote mostly fictional biographies of well known women, like Libby Custer.


7. Will your mysteries include recipes?

Strangely enough, the protagonist is not a good cook, but she's getting better, especially when a policeman who can cook comes into her life.


8. Would you mind sharing a recipe with us?

Here's Doris' Casserole.

Doris' Casserole

First layer:

1 lb. ground beef
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed in garlic press
2 tsp each sugar and salt (I cut back on those but sugar is important in tomato-based sauces-my mom taught me years ago it sort of rounds it off.)
Pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in skillet. Drain grease and return to skillet. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, until it thickens a little.

Spread in a 9 x 13 pan.

For noodle layer:

5 oz. (approximately-they don't come in this size pkg.) egg noodles
3 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 c. sour cream
6 green onions chopped, with some of the tops included

Topping:
1-1/2 c. grated cheddar

Cook egg noodles and drain. While the noodles are hot, stir in cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Spread over meat mixture. (I gave this recipe to one friend who insisted that it was backward and the noodles should go first-I finally convinced her, and her family loved it too.) Top with grated cheddar, bake 35 minutes at 350 or until bubbly and cheese is slightly browned.
Supposed to serve 8, but you'll be lucky if you can feed six with it. Freezes well.

Thanks again for joining us at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, Judy!

Visit Judy at her website. http://www.judyalter.com/index.html

and her blog, Judy's Stew. http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com

Baby Bellas with Balsamic Vinegar

Congratulations to Sally Minyard of Arizona! Sally is this week’s winner of our Williams-Sonoma $25 gift card giveaway. We have one more gift certificate to give away, so don't forget to enter TODAY!




I cook a lot of mushrooms and recently, several people have asked me how I prepare them. It's so easy that it's embarrassing. I'm going to post the recipe anyway, because it's lowfat, delicious, and done in a snap. The mushrooms make a wonderful side dish, and taste as good cold as they do hot. They'd be great on Avery's antipasto platter! They're easy enough to make anytime, but elegant enough for company. It's exactly the sort of quick and easy dish that Sophie Winston of my Domestic Diva Mysteries whips up when friends drop by for dinner.

If you're an Alton Brown fan, then you probably know that you can wash mushrooms. Alton did an experiment on one of his shows, in which he weighed two groups of like mushrooms. He soaked one bunch of mushrooms (for hours) and merely wiped the others clean, then weighed them again. Contrary to the old wives' tale, the soaked mushrooms did not take on water. So wash them and don't worry about it. Thanks, Alton!

Baby Bellas with Balsamic Vinegar

1 8-ounce package of baby bella or button mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

1. Wash the mushrooms and remove the stems, saving them for soup.
2. Pour the tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan.
3. I like my mushrooms a little bit chunky so I cut the caps into sixths or eighths, depending on the size. If they're very small, I leave the cap whole. However, you can slice them if you prefer.
4. Toss the mushrooms into the pan. (The pan and oil can be cold. I don't preheat them.)
5. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste.
6. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. If you're leery of vinegar, use less. I've realized that the brand and intensity of the balsamic vinegar can make a big difference. I use Spectrum's Organic Balsamic Vinegar (and I love balsamic vinegar so I use it generously).
7. Simmer over medium heat, uncovered, for about five minutes, turning occasionally. The juices and balsamic vinegar will cook down in the process.

And that's it! How lazy is that? Enjoy!

Krista
http://divamysteries.com

This is your last chance to enter our contest for a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. To enter just leave a comment, or send an "Enter Me" email to MysteryLoversKitchen@gmail.com! Good luck!

Cleo Coyle's Pernil: Puerto Rican Style Roasted Pork Shoulder

First a happy contest announcement! Congratulations to Sally Minyard of Arizona! Sally is this week’s winner of our $25 gift card giveaway for the Williams-Sonoma kitchenware and gourmet food store. Thanks for entering our drawing, Sally! We hope you enjoy the gift card. To find out how you can win next week's drawing, read down to the end of this post...

Cleo Coyle’s Pernil:
Puerto Rican Style
Roasted Pork Shoulder

With the cold nip of fall now in the air, the holidays will soon be upon us; and because it’s wise to test recipes before serving them to guests, this is a great time to introduce you to my husband’s version of a Puerto Rican pernil, a marinated and roasted pork shoulder that's often made in Latin American homes during the holiday season.

Like my fictional character Matteo Allegro, my husband, Marc, is a wonderful cook and he enjoys making this dish throughout the fall and winter because: (a) it’s a mouth-watering delight, (b) it's extremely economical, and (c) it's suprisingly easy to make.

The aromatics of the rub always make me swoon and the finished product looks and tastes amazing. Like a stunning holiday turkey, a roasted pork shoulder will really wow your dinner guests. (They’ll think you worked a lot harder than you did because there’s no basting, just pop it in the oven and turn it a few times.)

Pork shoulder roasted this way is tasty sliced right off the bone. Over the years, we’ve served it with an array of sides: Spanish rice, chili-lime corn, roasted purple Peruvian potatoes, tangy Thai-inspired coleslaw, olive oil-drizzled avocado slices, caramelized organic carrots, and warm, cheesy biscuits. (Watch this Blog for some of these recipes in the near future!) The second day, we like to use our pernil leftovers for soft tacos.

Place the pork slices in a warmed flour or corn tortilla, add fresh salsa (or crisp shredded lettuce), guacamole, a bit of hot sauce, and top it with a dollop of sour cream. Pernil is also used to make Cuban sandwiches—another great serving idea.

And now without further ado (or even adobo!), here is
my husband’s version of the Puerto Rican classic…
just click the link below...

To get my recipe for

Puerto Rican Style

Roasted Pork Shoulder,

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:
http://www.CoffeehouseMystery.com/

See you next Friday!

~Cleo Coyle
author of the Coffeehouse Mysteries
www.CoffeehouseMystery.com
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing..."

TIP: Sign up at my Web site for my free E-newsletter and you'll receive an exclusive Labor Day Weekend "first look" excerpt from my November release: Holiday Grind.

ENTER TO WIN OUR CONTEST! Our weekly Mystery Lovers' Kitchen contest randomly awards a $25 gift certificate to the Williams-Sonoma 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!

CLEO'S FOODIE VIDEO CAPTION:

In my ongoing effort to win this year's Oscar, I bring you this week's how-to video clip (below), which shows you what I consider to be the most difficult part of this recipe—wrapping the pork shoulder in plastic. No kidding! If you try to wrap the meat with pre-cut lengths of plastic, you may end up in a cling wrap battle royal. Our trick is (1) put a length of plastic wrap under the meat before you apply the rub; and (2) do not sever the wrap from the roll! When the meat is ready to go, just remove the entire cling wrap roll from its cardboard box and use it to guide the wrap around the meat as many times as you need to. Only after the meat is fully cocooned in plastic should you cut the wrap free of its roll—just use a scissors or clean slash of a sharp knife. (By the way, these handsome hands belong to my husband, Marc!)

Lulu’s Special Asparagus

Congratulations to Kaye Barley of North Carolina, this week’s winner of our $25 gift card to Williams-Sonoma! A new winner will be announced later this week, so stay tuned! And keep trying because we still have some gift certificates to give away. Leave a comment and you could be this week's winner.

Sometimes I forget about asparagus. In the spring, it’s easy to remember how wonderful it is--everywhere you look, you encounter the delectable vegetable. But the rest of the year, asparagus doesn’t get the buzz.

In an effort to publicize and promote asparagus (a sadly underappreciated vegetable), I’m offering up a recipe that will even tempt your children to eat their veggies. Why? It has bacon and nuts in it! (Well, you couldn’t think I’d have a Southern dish with no bacon in it anywhere.) :)

This recipe is one I think Lulu, my protagonist in the Memphis BBQ series, would serve for a special meal. But it’s so easy to prepare, you could cook it for a regular weeknight supper.

Lulu’s Special Asparagus

• Asparagus 12-15 pieces)
• 3/4 Cup cooked bacon
• 1/4 Cup walnuts
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• Aged Balsamic vinegar

1. Heat pan to medium-high.
2. Add olive oil, then add bacon and asparagus. Heat for 5-7 minutes.
3. When the asparagus is tender, add the walnuts.
4. Continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add a drizzle of Balsamic Vinegar.

Enjoy!

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

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!

I want S'more! An excerpt from STUCK ON MURDER

Congratulations to Kaye Barley of North Carolina,
last week’s winner of our $25 gift card to
Williams-Sonoma! Don't despair if you didn't win!
We still have some gift certificates to give away.
Send us an email or leave a comment (advice is
always welcome although not always heeded) and
you could be this week's winner.





Now in a bid for shameless self-promotion,
I have to give myself a shout out because after months of anticipation,
my decoupage mystery novel STUCK ON MURDER, under my
alternate pen name Lucy Lawrence, is out in stores! Let me assure you,
it's pretty big day in my house!

In the tradition of Mystery Lover's Kitchen, food must be involved
in all big life moments, otherwise what's the point? So while I
entice you to read my novel with a short excerpt from the
book, I will accompany it with pictures of the recipe my character
Brenna Miller has created, namely S'mores Casserole!

STUCK ON MURDER
by Lucy Lawrence Berkley Prime Crime
Sept 2009

Brenna had not done any baking since the

previous weekend when she had felt the need for

a batch of butterscotch squares, which had sorely

depleted her flour supply. She scrounged the

cupboards in her kitchenette for a quick idea but

could only come up with teddy bear shaped graham

crackers, several squares of bittersweet chocolate

and a bag of mini-marshmallows. What was she

supposed to do with all this? Then it hit her, a

S'mores casserole! Could she soften Nate with that?

She’d have to give it a go.

She greased a small casserole dish, made

layers, like a lasagna, of teddy bears, marshmallows,

and chopped up chocolate. Then she broiled it until

the marshmallows on top turned golden brown.

She glanced through the window by her front door,

and saw that Nate’s lights were still on. His was

the largest cabin and it sat directly across the inlet

from hers. It was only eight-thirty, so she figured it

wasn’t too late to go visit him.

She set the dish on her porch railing while she

locked her front door. Then, using her red-checked

potholder mittens, she carried the dish with both hands

as she followed the well-worn path along the water’s

edge that led to Nate’s house.

She could hear the signs of early spring.

Crickets and tree frogs sang their nightly symphony

and the chilly evening air made a fine mist rise from

the hot dish in her hands.

She climbed the three steps to Nate’s porch and knocked on the front door with the toe of her shoe. Instantly, there was a dog explosion on the other side

of the door as Hank, Nate’s golden retriever, went into a frenzy of barking.

Brenna moved to stand in front of the window, so that Hank would see her and settle down, but was distracted by her own disheveled reflection and frowned. Her hair had come out of the band at the nape of her neck

and was now hanging in her face, making her look

unkempt as if she’d spent a hard day scrubbing

toilets. Fabulous...

For more information on any of our books, please check out: http://berkleysignetmysteries.com/
Happy reading and eating!!! Jenn (aka Lucy)

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/

Tomato Gorgonzola Soup

We have a WINNER for this week’s Mystery Lovers Kitchen contest! And that winner’s name will be announced very soon!!

Happy Fall (sort of)

I’m very excited to be the first person to post in September. I know it isn’t technically Fall yet, but here in the Chicago area the temperatures have been ridiculously low, and with the kids back at school it’s feeling very Autumn-like to me. I’ve always loved this time of year.

I was one of those oddballs who was excited about each new school year. I couldn’t wait to browse through the textbooks (can you say “nerd”?) and wonder about what projects might be planned for that year. All through grammar, high school, and college I always, always enjoyed the beginning of school and was thrilled by the possibilities it held. To this day, a crisp fall day brings back all those feelings, that great sense of possibility. Good thing, because I'm about to embark on a new manuscript :-)

Okay, back to the recipe and today’s “food” posting…

Fall means soup to me. Yum. And, if you remember, I was hoping to recreate two appetizers from a wonderful downtown Chicago dinner. (Update – the mushroom appetizer recipe I posted a week ago, though unsuccessful atop croissants, was *exceptional* when used as a sauce over a beef roast at dinner the next evening. I will use this recipe over and over. It’s a keeper!) You may also recall that my oven died. It’s now fixed (hooray!), but I didn’t need it to create the tomato-gorgonzola soup recipe I’m about to share.

I have to admit, my tomato-gorgonzola is not nearly as good as the one at Marche restaurant. I’m going to have to tweak it, but for now, here are my two offerings:

Tomato Gorgonzola Soup

Option #1 – the more intricate version

3 T olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
9 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 c heavy cream
1/3 lb. gorgonzola cheese
2 T fresh chives, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste


In a large pot, fry onions in olive oil until soft, not brown. Add in tomatoes and basil and simmer for about 40 minutes, until the mixture is more soup than solid. Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until all the chunks are gone. Return mixture to the pot, add cream, and turn heat to low.

Add cheese to the pot, a little at a time. Simmer the soup for about another 30 minutes until the cheese is fully blended into the mixture.

Serve hot, garnished with chopped chives.

Option #2 – the much, much easier version

1 can of Campbell’s Tomato Bisque (Hey, my fictional president’s name is Harrison Campbell, so I figured, What the heck! :::grin:::)
1 soup can full of heavy cream
2 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 T fresh chives, chopped
1/8 lb gorgonzola cheese

Heat soup according to package directions, using cream instead of water. Simmer, then add basil and gorgonzola. Heat through until gorgonzola is well blended. Serve, garnished with fresh chives.

You know that the White House Chef often arranges for taste-tests for the First Lady before official functions, right? Well, I decided to hold my own taste-test here at home with my two tomato soup versions. The lighter colored one is the version made with fresh tomatoes. The darker one is Campbell’s based.

We tried them side-by-side and no one in the family knew which was which except me.

The hands down winner?
Campbell’s.

Seriously.

The fresh-tomato version was tasty, but a little light on body. Too soupy and thin. I think I need to try this again (much later. We’re tomato-souped out right about now), using more tomatoes and allowing them to stew much longer.

The gorgonzola didn’t blend with either version as easily as I expected. Maybe Avery can suggest a better cheese to use that might deliver the flavor of gorgonzola, but melt at a lower temperature? In either case, this was a great experiment. We enjoyed both versions, and I’m happy about the attempt.

If you have any great soup recipes, please be sure to send them my way. You can always reach me via my website, or e-mail me at JulieHyzy (at) aol. (dot) com.

Hope you enjoy!

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.

Sign up for Julie’s newsletter on her website at http://www.juliehyzy.com/

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 We announce the winners right here every week.