Cupcakes for Grown-Ups (Featuring the Mojito)

Announcement: We will be holding a
drawing this week to win an autographed
copy of Sunday's guest blogger Sally
Goldenbaum's book. Just send us an email
or comment on any of our blogs this week
to be entered in the drawing. Good Luck!!!





Did you ever have anyone call you "cute"?
Usually, it's the high school guy you have a crush on
who thinks of you as his little sister because
you're still in middle school. What you
feel like doing is kicking him in the shins and
telling him "cute" is for puppies and kittens and cupcakes!
Yes, cupcakes. But of course, you don't do that. You turn bright
red and run home and cry into your pillow because the boy of your dreams
thinks you're "cute" instead of "hot" or a "babe". Then again, maybe this is
just me and perhaps I am sharing too much -- wouldn't be the first time.

But for those of you who have suffered the label "cute", I want you
to know I hear you! Now that you're an adult you're over it, way
over it, and now you don't want "cute" in your life. For instance,
you've had it with cutesy kid cupcakes that look like teddy bears or
clown heads. You want a cupcake with attitude, one that marries the
subtleties of adult flavors, like mint and lime, and makes you remember
that you're an adult...who loves cupcakes even though, yes, they are
awfully "cute".

In my first cupcake bakery mystery, SPRINKLE WITH MURDER,

Melanie Cooper, my main character, hosts a cooking class in

her bakery that features happy hour cupcakes. One of the

cupcakes that they bake is a personal favorite of mine,

the mojito cupcake.

The Mojito: A dense, golden cupcake flavored with lime zest and dried spearmint leaves and topped with a rum flavored icing.

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 lime, juice and zest
• 2 tsp dried spearmint leaves
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup milk
  

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Sift all the dry stuff

together in a big bowl. Melt the butter and add

the beaten egg to it. Add that to the dry ingredients,

stirring in the milk until smooth. Zest half of a

lime, add it to the bowl. Squeeze in half of the lime

as well. Add the dried spearmint leaves to the batter,

mixing well. Bake for 16-20 minutes until they spring

back to the touch. Makes 12.

Rum buttercream:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
  
• 1 teaspoon rum flavored extract
  
• Mix all ingredients until fluffy
  
• Garnish with a candied spearmint leaf, real mint leaf or lime wedge.
  

Jenn McKinlay
SPRINKLE WITH MURDER March 2010

aka Lucy Lawrence
STUCK ON MURDER Sept 2009

www.jennmckinlay.com

Grilled Avocados

Is anyone going to Bouchercon in Indianapolis next month? If so, I hope you’ll consider coming to the “Criminal Consumables” panel at 9:00 AM on Saturday where Sandy Balzo (moderator), Joanna Carl, Ellen Crosby, Nadia Gordon, and I will be talking about Wine, dinner, coffee and murder—the craft and popularity of food and drink in mysteries. I hope to see some of you there!

:-)
Julie

Grilled Avocados

I love avocados. I love them smashed and cilantro-ed in guacamole, sliced in salads and on sandwiches, and as garnish at restaurants when a chef gets creative. But I had never had them grilled in their jackets before. Well, not until recently that is.

In my neverending quest to find yummy vegetarian snacks for my youngest daughter, I sampled a few items from a great little vegetarian cookbook, called Vegetarian Cooking & Vegetable Classics, by Roz Denny and Christine Ingram. What I love about this book is that the recipes are simple and there are pictures for every dish (that always helps!). Not only that but the authors have seen fit to include almost 150 pages of pictures and explanation of vegetables. There are several I’d never heard of before and it gets tough to find something new at the grocery store when you have no idea what it looks like. This book, which I bought at a local bookstore in the marked-down section, is a gem. Over 500 pages, and paperback, it’s great. I highly recommend it.

But before you rush out and buy it, I need to offer one caveat. This book appears to have been written by British authors and while most U.S. measurements and oven settings are included for us Yanks, there are occasional steps that threw me. Five ounces of flour? Um… okay. Can I use my measuring cup with ounces? But that’s volume. Did they mean weight? For the most part, I just used my best judgment. And so far no one in my family has suffered from my attempts.

On page 180 of this cookbook, they provide a recipe for Warm Avocados with Tangy Topping. I made these and served them and they were a hit. Unfortunately, I made 4 whole avocados—which translates to 8 servings—for three of us. A bit too much and although they’re not bad when reheated, I think these are best the first day.

My daughter and I loved the whole concept of grilling avocados, so we played around with ingredients and we came up with two new varieties. She and I both preferred the mushroom to the salsa version but it was very close.

Mushroom Version

1 whole avocado
About 4 or 5 mushrooms sliced
¼ small onion, chopped
1 T butter
2 slices of Mozzarella cheese

Heat butter in a small pan, then sauté onions and mushrooms until mushrooms are nicely cooked. Assemble according to directions below.

Salsa Version

1 whole avocado
1 small tomato, chopped
1 clove garlic chopped/crushed
¼ small onion, chopped
1 t chopped cilantro
1 T Italian salad dressing
2 slices of Pepperjack cheese

Combine tomato, garlic, onion, cilantro, and Italian dressing. Assemble according to directions below.

Assembly for both versions

Preheat your grill. I used a gas grill with the front and back burners on “high,” and the middle burners “off.”

For either version, slice the avocado in half length-wise. Remove pit, but do not remove the fruit from the skin. Score the fruit so that juices from the mixture can seep in during cooking. Divide your mixture in two and use half to fill each of your two “open” avocado halves. Cover each filled half with one cheese slice, ripped into pieces to fully overlap and cover.

Place filled avocados on a grill-proof plate or aluminum pan. Now that they no longer take them back, I used my old leftover Bakers’ Square pie tins with a protective base of aluminum foil.

Grill for about ten minutes. Grills vary, so keep any eye on them. Avocados are done when the cheese begins to bubble and brown.

Each avocado half is one serving. Using a knife and fork, they can be eaten right out of the skin. The ones to the left and back are the salsa version. To the right and front are the mushroom verson.

Hope you have fun with these!

Julie

My White House Chef Mystery series includes State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, and Eggsecutive Orders (coming in January). All from Berkley Prime Crime.

Sign up for my newsletter at http://www.juliehyzy.com/

***Don't forget to leave a comment this week for a chance to win an autographed copy of one of Sally Goldenbaum's books!***

Say Cheese for a Naked Burger!

I saw Krista's Saturday post and had to laugh. I was going to post about a no-cook way of enjoying cheese (which I'll do next week), but I was experimenting in the kitchen and came up with an absolutely fabulous Naked Veggie Burger and had to share. This is not "comfort" food. This is pure natural goodness with goat cheese to boot!

Here's how it all started. I was shopping and I wanted to try an assortment of different cheeses on hamburgers and see what was my favorite. But I thought I should also have a veggie burger and bought a fabulous looking Portobello mushroom.

I love shallots baked in oil, so I purchased a cluster of shallots, some sweet red peppers, some pretty leafy lettuce to display it all on, and avocado. Let's face it, avocado, as far as I'm concerned, tastes good on anything. [That's a serving platter to the right. The Portobello was huge.]

Being a celiac, I decided to forgo a bun with this burger, hence the name Naked Burger.

Next, I roamed the deli counter and asked the cheese monger for his favorite goat cheese. He mentioned Cypress Grove Purple Haze, which I'd had once before on a cheese tasting plate and had loved. It has flavors of lavender and fennel and is nicely tart. So I bought it.

And here's what I came up with. A burst of flavors that turned out to be vegetarian, light, and yummy!

NAKED VEGGIE BURGER
With Goat Cheese, Shallots and Peppers

Ingredients:
(for one salad)

1 Portobello mushroom, stem removed
1 sweet red pepper, diced
1 tsp. chives, diced
1 oz. Purple Haze Goat Cheese
1 shallot, baked in 1 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. white wine
1 slice avocado
Leafy green lettuce
Chives for garnish
Paprika

Directions:

Roll the shallot in 1 tsp. olive oil and wrap in foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, sauté the Portobello mushroom in 1 Tbsp. olive oil, coating generously on both sides. Grill for 4 minutes. Add the water and white wine and deglaze, flipping the mushroom once during the process. Add 1 tsp. of snipped chives and the red pepper, diced. Cook 2 minutes longer.

Remove all from heat.

Prepare broiler. Set the Portobello mushroom on a baking sheet. Crumble the goat cheese on top. Broil for 4 minutes. Remove from broiler. Smooth the cheese on top using a knife. Broil 1-2 minutes longer.

Set leafy green lettuce on a plate. Add a slice of avocado and garnish with baked shallots, chives, and extra red pepper. Set the “naked burger” on the lettuce. Dust with paprika.

Serve warm.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I'm sure it could be served on a whole wheat bun. I served it with a malbec from Argentina called Arido. [Don't be fooled by the screw-top.] It's bursting with flavors of cherries and jam.

For more recipes and to learn more about The Cheese Shop Mystires, check out my website Avery Aames.

Say Cheese!

Guest Blogger - Sally Goldenbaum!

Please welcome our guest Sally Goldenbaum.
This is a real honor for me, because I am
a HUGE fan of Sally's work!


We will be holding a drawing this week to
win an autographed copy of one of Sally's
books, just send us an email or comment on
any of our blogs this week to be entered in
the drawing!!!






My thanks to Jenn for the invitation to guest
on this wonderful blog. What a treat to be in your kitchen!

Jenn asked for a little personal info first—and I’d be happy to
provide some highlights from my checkered past. Here goes, in
staccato fashion: I’m a Wisconsin native, attended an all-girls
boarding school in Green Bay (yes—go Pack!), became a nun and
taught Latin in St. Louis, left and finished graduate school
(Indiana U), taught philosophy, married a nice Jewish man,
worked at the PBS station, WQED in Pittsburgh (when Mr. Rogers
was there—a highlight!), taught, wrote, edited medical ethics
and veterinary journals, had wonderful children (and now
grandbabies). I’ve written about 30 novels, and
am having a most delightful time with mysteries. Exploring
murders is such excellent therapy when the dishwasher breaks,
the basement leaks and the dog has an accident in the living
room. My husband and I live in Prairie Village, KS, in a brick
house with a screened porch where much of my writing is done,
weather permitting. I’m fortunate to have a writing friend in
town who joins me there on most nice days. We write during
daylight hours, keeping each other on task, then toast our work
with a glass of wine at sundown.


My current Obsidian (NAL) series’ name is The Seaside Knitters Mysteries. The stories are set in Sea Harbor, Mass, a town on Cape Ann, just north of Boston. The town is fictitious but the place is not—and I hope to lure readers to visit this wonderful area someday. (And it isn’t pure coincidence that I have a daughter, son-in-law and two beautiful grandchildren living there …) The four seaside knitters range in age from 33 to 80, and become fast friends over knitting in Izzy’s shop, eating Nell’s pasta, enjoying Birdie’s fine wine, and delighting in Cass’s tales of lobster fishing off the Cape Ann shores. Together they knit beautiful sweaters and scarves while they explore the lives, loves, and mysterious secrets of their neighbors and friends. (Death by Cashmere, Patterns in the Sand, and Moon Spinners [spring 2010])—and a, for-now, nameless Seaside holiday mystery [Nov. 2010]).
I started the knitting mysteries after writing the Queen Bees mysteries. These three novels are set in Kansas and focus on several women in a college town who quilt together Saturday mornings and solve perplexing crimes occurring right in their own backyard.



Jenn’s questions:

Is your protagonist a salt or a sugar person (as in would she reach for a chocolate bar or a bag of chips in times of stress)?
Definitely chocolate …. A hot fudge sundae might be perfect for Nell. For 80-year-old Birdie, perhaps a mango mousse Masala chocolate—soft and creamy with a hint of heat, just like Birdie. Izzy would go for creamy milk chocolate with almonds hidden inside. And Cass always has a stash of dark chocolate bars hidden somewhere in her boat for days the sky threatens or all the lobster traps are empty.
Does your protagonist like to cook?
Nell Endicott holds the knitting group together with her special salads and pastas that she brings to each gathering at the Seaside Knitting Studio. (The group originally got together over clam sauce linguini and a fine peach cobbler.) She loves to cook (and has my dream kitchen) — and it all plays out nicely because the seaside knitters love to eat.
Nell and her husband Ben also host summer Friday night dinners on their deck. It’s open to all, and is a bit like the loaves and fishes—there is always enough grilled salmon to go around and the martinis never seem to run dry.
And now, for the author, what is your idea of a perfect meal?
Ah…….do I have to have just one? I love sea bass or fresh tuna, cooked rare on the grill with a lemon butter and wine sauce. Pasta and grilled vegetable with flakes of basil or cilantro tossed in at the last minute would be nice and just a hint of hot sauce. And crisp white wine, a nice pinot grigio perhaps.
Do you have a recipe to share with us?
This is an improvised recipe that changes every time I use it.
Linguine and Scallops in Thai Sauce
3 1/2 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
4 large mushrooms, sliced
1 lb sea scallops
1 (14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup chicken broth or water
1 T light brown sugar
1 1/2 T fish sauce
2 T fresh lime juice
1 cup snow peas
1 package linguine
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
½ cup parsley
1 T fresh ginger, grated (I keep ginger root in a baggie in the freezer to keep it form going bad. Also, it’s easy to grate when it’s frozen)
1/2 T Thai green curry paste (check for taste—can be stronger or weaker)

Heat 2 T oil in pan until hot but not smoking, then sauté onions and garlic, until lightly browned. Add snow peas and mushrooms and sauté for just a few minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
Pat scallops completely dry and season with salt. Heat remaining oil until hot, then cook scallops until browned, 2 to 3 minutes on each side (do not overcook. They should be slightly undercooked).
Add vegetable mixture back in, then rest of ingredients and simmer, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cook linguine in salted water until al dente. Drain.



This sounds delicious!!! Thanks so much
for joining us, Sally!



For more information about Sally
and her work, check out:

www.sallygoldenbaum.com

Mysteries of Meatloaf

I was planning to blog about Chocolate Pecan Torte today, but last Sunday, guest blogger Lesa Holstine revealed that her husband would be happy eating nothing but meatloaf, cheese, and buckeyes. Consequently, meatloaf became a topic of discussion at my house and landed on the menu. To be honest, I've made a lot of dry, boring meatloaf. I've never quite had a reliable recipe -- until now.

People put all sorts of interesting things in meatloaf, but I suspect that it's usually best in relatively simple form. My friend, Susan, mixes oatmeal and tomato sauce into the meat. Oatmeal seemed an odd choice to me, but Paula Deen uses it, too. Instead of tomato sauce, though, Paula uses diced tomatoes with the juice. The sauce on top appears to be an almost universal choice, although some replace the mustard with dried mustard.

Using Susan and Paula's recipes as guides, I made two meatloaves. One with expected ingredients, and one in which I substituted red lentils for oatmeal and added an apple. I liked the apple in the meatloaf, but the lentils tasted potato-ey and changed the texture too much. Next time, I'm adding bacon across the top!

Classic Meatloaf

1 pound ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup canned diced tomatoes with juice
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Topping
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard



Preheat the oven to 375. Mix all the ingredients (except the topping) together and shape into a loaf. Stir the topping ingredients well and spread over top. Bake one hour.

Enjoy!

~Krista

Cleo Coyle's Buttermilk Apple Snack Cake

Fall means comfort food, as Jenn has pointed out this week with her ultimate Mac and Cheese and Elizabeth with her Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. 

Buttermilk Apple Snack Cake is a wonderful fall recipe. Download it now by clicking here.

To get my recipe for
Buttermilk Fried Chicken,
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 moreabout the books in my culinary mystery series,click this link to my virtual home at http://www.coffeehousemystery.com/

~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 "early look" excerpt from my November release: Holiday Grind.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

When I go out to eat with my husband, the soups on the menu always catch my eye. My husband thinks of soup as more of an appetizer than a meal—particularly in a restaurant—but half the time I’ll go with a soup. Even if it’s over 80 degrees, like it is today!

There’s just something about a soup that’s liquid comfort. I’m guessing that’s why the old wives decided, in their wisdom, that chicken soup cured colds. And now I hear that they might have even been partially right. According to one medical article I read:“Inhaling its warm vapors raises the temperature of the respiratory passages and loosens thickened secretions.” They also mentioned something about neutrophilic action, but I didn’t understand that part.

I have a feeling my snarkiness last week about the sick people on the plane has backfired on me. I currently have two sick people in my house and must rapidly consider the possibility of accumulating more, since we have children here.

Since I included a chicken soup recipe last week, I decided to go for soup #2 this week!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

• 2 1/2 pounds butternut squash, halved and seeded
• 2 large onions, quartered
• 6 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger (cut into 4 chunks)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 T chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon mild curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• salt and pepper to taste

pan roasted walnuts for topping (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place squash halves and onion onto the prepared baking sheet. Wrap garlic and ginger in foil and place with the vegetables.
2. Roast in the center of the oven for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the squash is tender. Remove from oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
3. Puree the above in a blender or food processor with the chicken stock until it’s smooth.
4. Heat blended mixture on medium heat. Add salt, pepper, curry, 1 T of cilantro, and cinnamon. While the mixture is hot, but before it simmers, slowly add the heavy cream. Add until the color and thickness is to your taste, and allow mixture to bubble. Lower the heat, and continue to cook on low heat for 10 more minutes. Remove from heat, and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.Garnish with the remainder of the cilantro and/or pan roasted walnuts.

Enjoy….and stay healthy! :)

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

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com

Comfort food: The world's greatest Mac and Cheese

Confession time: When it comes to mac and

cheese, I am a purist. I do not like mac and

cheese out of the box. It's just wrong. I know

this is a strong opinion and it might
ruffle some feathers, but it's mine and I will

not be budged.

Up until a few years ago, I thought I made a

pretty solid mac and cheese. The cheese sauce

was creamy, it browned nicely on the top and

my dudes loved it. Then I was called out of town on a family emergency

and everything changed.

I called home several times a day to see how all of my dudes were

doing without me. They were soldiering on, I was told. Then about the

third day, I noticed that the Hub sounded odd on the phone. Alarm

bells started clanging in my head. What wasn't he telling me that would

upset me? What horrible news was he trying to protect me from in my

already stressed state? I grilled him until finally, he admitted it.

He was talking while trying to eat.

It seemed all of our dear, dear friends had rallied and were
bringing my menfolk food every day. Lasagna, sloppy joes,

chicken chili casseroles, and macaroni and cheese just to name a few.

And what was the Hub trying to keep from me? Well, he put it as

gently as he could, but the truth was Susie M's mac and cheese was

better than mine. GASP!

Well, let me tell you, the minute I got home, I muscled that recipe

out of my girlfriend Susie and I gave it a test drive. There was no

competition. Her mac and cheese kicked mine right into the garbage

disposal. And so, I share with you, Susie M's mac and cheese, and I

just want to acknowledge all of those friends (you know who you are)

who helped us through that crisis. You're all wonderful and we are so

very lucky to have you in our lives!

Susie M's Mac and Cheese

2 cups elbow macaroni

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 cups milk

2-3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375. Spray casserole dish lightly with

Pam. Cook macaroni al dente, drain and pour into

casserole dish. Melt butter in a saucepan and remove from

heat. Stir in salt, pepper, flour, Worcestershire sauce until
smooth.Gradually, stir in the milk and return to the heat.
Stir constantly until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat and

simmer until thickened. Remove from the heat and add

at least 1 1/2 cups grated cheese and stir. Pour

cheese into macaroni. At this point you can leave it

plain or add ham, or anything else, red pepper, olives, etc.

Cover with remaining grated cheese and bake 15-20

minutes, longer if you refrigerate before you bake.

ENJOY!

Jenn McKinlay
SPRINKLE WITH MURDER
March 2010

aka Lucy Lawrence
STUCK ON MURDER
Sept 2009

www.jennmckinlay.com

Pass the Purple Poultry, Please!

Recently Curt and I went out with some friends. During dinner I told them about this blog, and Nancy—who has produced her own cookbook—shared a super easy recipe with me that she suggested I include here at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. It was so simple, she insisted, that I didn’t even need to write anything down.

She was right. It is ridiculously simple. So simple you’ll be able to go shopping for this without a list. I came home and made this the following week. And it was just as delicious as Nancy claimed it would be. I’ve named it the “purple poultry” because there was one tiny detail Nancy left out, and that was that dinner comes out purple ;-)

Here it is, in plenty of time to kitchen-test before Thanksgiving:

Super-moist Turkey

1 Whole Turkey – gizzards, etc. removed
½ bottle red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 can beer
1 can pop (or for you non-Chicagoans – “soda”)
1 stick of butter

Place turkey in roasting pan with the breast facing down. Add all ingredients. Cover tightly with foil and bake (number of hours varies according to size of turkey.)
My turkey was 12 pounds and I baked it at 350 for 2 hours. At the 2 hour mark, it was almost done, so I turned it over and let it brown for about 25 minutes. I served a perfectly moist, and delicious.

This turkey came with a gravy packet which I heated in a saucepan. I added the liver and about 2 cups of the leftover wine/beer/pop liquid and it made for an absolutely fabulous gravy. And lots of it. There was plenty of liquid left. I didn’t have any other use for it this time, but I’m open to suggestions for next time.

Very moist, very tasty turkey. But it’s purple, not brown. You know how we’re not supposed to have too much of the fatty skin? Well, make this turkey and that temptation will fall away ;-)

Norman Rockwell might never have been inspired to paint "Freedom from Want" if Grandma had been serving this bird, but I enjoyed it and I’ll make it again.

Have fun!

Julie

My White House Chef Mystery series includes State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, and Eggsecutive Orders (coming in January). All from Berkley Prime Crime.

Sign up for my newsletter at http://www.juliehyzy.com/

Gluten-Free Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I don't know about you, but I adore coffee cake. But being gluten-free, I wasn't sure I could come up with one that reminded me of a recipe I remember as a kid from Bisquick.

So I picked up a bag of Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix and there was a coffee cake recipe on the back. Yeah! Being into CHEESE as I am these days, I swapped out the sour cream in her recipe for cream cheese and milk and, wow! The cake aspect turned out great. Moist. Yummy. Then I looked at the filling. She had included nuts (which I'm allergy-sensitive to) and raisins (which I don't care for in my breads). So I swapped that out for what I remembered being the most important part of the Bisquick coffee cake, brown sugar. I added chocolate chips and cinnamon, and what turned out is mouth-watering GREAT, in my humble opinion. For those of you who don't want or like chocolate, you could swap the chocolate out with a half a cup of lightly boiled tart green apple slices, which of course, I'll be trying this week!

Below is my tweaked coffee cake recipe. Please note, I have to keep myself from eating the entire batch in one sitting. And I've got my dog Max keeping eyes on my husband to make sure he doesn't do the same. Good doggie.

GLUTEN-FREE
BROWN SUGAR CREAM CHEESE
COFFEE CAKE

Ingredients:

2 cups Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking and Pancake Mix
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. Gluten-free vanilla
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, large
3/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

Filling:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

Brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the filling ingredients and set aside.

For the batter: Mix melted butter and sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat on low. Still beating on low, add cream cheese and milk. Then add Pamela’s mix until thoroughly mixed.

Spoon half of the batter into a greased 9” square pan. Sprinkle all of the filling on top of that and smooth out. Spread the rest of the batter over the filling.

Take a knife and cut through the batter to swirl the flavors together.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, when inserted a toothpick comes out clean. TIP!!! While the cake is still warm, run a knife around the cake to loosen it from the sides of the pan. When cool, remove the cake from the pan and sprinkle with a generous amount of brown sugar.

By the way, if anyone absolutely MUST eat gluten, give this recipe a try swapping out 2 cups of Bisquick for the Pamela's mix and let me know how it turns out. I'll bet it tastes great.

Also, when you get the chance, take a look at my website: Avery Aames. The Cheese Shop Mysteries won't be coming out until next July, but there are lots of ways to get to know my characters and find some recipes and tips!!! Enjoy.

Welcome Guest Blogger - Lesa Holstine

We at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen are delighted to welcome Lesa Holstine as guest blogger today. Lesa runs Lesa's Book Critiques, a blog that focuses on authors and books, with an emphasis on mysteries. We all enjoy reading Lesa's updates and, in fact, her blog is one of our favorites, with a link on this site.

Take it away, Lesa....

When Julie asked me to do a guest blog for Mystery Readers’ Kitchen, I was honored, and then I was horrified. I don’t cook! I’m a baker, and I make a wonderful cherry pie from scratch, but there have already been pie recipes here.

Then I realized I do make something special, and it’s from home. I’m originally from Ohio. I’ve lived in Florida and Arizona, and the only people I knew in both states who made buckeyes were from Ohio. If this isn’t the state candy, it should be. But, first a little history.

The Ohio Buckeye tree is a deciduous tree from the Horsechestnut Family. The Forestry site for the State of Ohio says, “The name “Buckeye” was derived from the Native Americans who noticed that the glossy, chestnut-brown seeds with the lighter circular “eye” looked very similar to the eye of a buck (male) deer.”

They also roasted, peeled and mashed the buckeye nut which they called Hetuck into a nutritional meal. The poisonous and bitter taste can be eliminated by heating and leaching. But, remember, this is a poisonous nut! Some believe that the buckeye relieves rheumatism pain. The symbol of General William Henry Harrison's presidential campaign was a string of buckeyes and a log cabin decorated with raccoon skins. His campaign song called Ohio the bonnie Buckeye state, as a result citizens in Ohio became know as "Buckeyes ." On October 2, 1953 the buckeye tree officially became the state tree.

And, here’s the sports connection. Ohio State teams are known as Buckeyes, and, OSU fans always say buckeyes are poisonous to Michigan Wolverines. (And, of course, Michigan fans say Buckeyes are just a bunch of nuts.)

Naturally, the candy called buckeyes, that look like the nut, are popular throughout the state. And, those of us who love our Ohio State Buckeyes have taken the candy throughout the nation. Now, I have the chance to pass the recipe on to you.

You can find all kinds of recipes for them online. Here’s the one my mother passed on to her daughters (all Ohio State fans).

2 sticks oleo (Some recipes say butter. I find the oleo keeps the peanut butter together better)
1 ½ cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar

Mix together and roll into balls and dip in chocolate with a toothpick, leaving a little of the peanut butter showing. Mom melts the chocolate in a double boiler.

Chocolate mixture –
1/3 bar paraffin
1 2/2 c. chocolate chips
½ stick oleo

This gives a nice shiny color to the buckeyes, just like the nut. However, I do these the lazy way because I just can’t keep those peanut butter balls on a toothpick. I refrigerate the dough so it sets, and then roll the dough in balls, and dip them in Baker’s Dipping Chocolate, instead of using the chocolate mixture. They might not be quite as shiny, but the buckeyes are eaten just as quickly!

Serve them on Saturdays at parties during football season.

They also make a wonderful Christmas candy. Or, serve them at Halloween parties.

Who can resist the candy that is better than Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?

(When I’m not making buckeyes for my husband, I’m blogging at Lesa’s Book Critiques, http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/, where I discuss books, with an emphasis on crime fiction. I hope you stop by!)

Danish Apple Cake

This is a recipe my mom has made for as long as I can remember. She probably baked it before I was born. At our house, it always heralded the arrival of new fall apples and a cold snap in the air. It's not overly sweet, which makes it popular with people who aren't big on cakes or desserts. It's perfect for tea on a cold afternoon. However, it's best served slightly warm from the oven. Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly good cold, but a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on a piece of warm apple cake with one of Cleo's fancy coffee drinks -- yum!

Danish Apple Cake

1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1/3 cup milk


6 - 8 large apples

Topping

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

The dough can be made by hand, however, it's a breeze in a food processor. Just be sure to use the dough blade.

1. Peel and core the apples, and slice. I usually quarter the apples and cut each quarter into 4 slices. Set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 425.

For the dough --

3. Cut the butter into four pieces and place in food processor. Add the flour and the baking powder. Pulse until thoroughly mixed, scraping the sides a couple of times.

4. Add the egg and the milk and pulse into a ball. Do not over-process or it will be sticky.

5. Lightly butter a large baking sheet with a lip around the edge. Press the dough into the pan or roll out it lightly. If it's sticky, use just a bit of flour on top to roll it out easily.

6. Place the apples on top of the dough in rows so that they barely overlap one another.

7. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping --

8. Mix the butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a smooth paste. I use a mini food-processor.

9. When the apples have finished baking, remove from oven and turn the temperature down to 325.

10. Drop bits of the paste topping over the apples as uniformly as possible.

11. Return to the oven and bake at 325 for an additional 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the whipping cream and the coffee.

You're on your own for the coffee or tea!

For the cream --

1. Whip 1 cup of heavy cream.

2. When it begins to take shape, add 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Whip briefly.



Remove the Danish Apple Cake from the oven and let stand a few minutes. Cut into squares, top with a dollop of whipped cream, and enjoy your afternoon!

~Krista

Cleo Coyle's Buttermilk Apple Snack Cake for a Sweet New Year!

Congrats to our final gift card winner! Molly Ebert of Indiana won our last $25 Williams-Sonoma gift card. Stay tuned for more of our contests coming up in the near future...

A SWEET
NEW YEAR

On the Gregorian calendar, the New Year will be celebrated on January 1. On the Chinese calendar, the date for turning over a new leaf will be February 14. And on the Jewish calendar, the New Year (5770) is ushered in this very evening!

Rosh Hashanah literally means “first of the year” in Hebrew and it commemorates the creation of man—within the larger Biblical story of the creation of the world. It also begins the High Holy Days, a ten day period that culminates in the somber observance of Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement.

In synagogues across the world, the Jewish New Year is celebrated with many traditions, one of which is the blowing of the ram’s horn. The “shofar” is the name for this horn, and it’s blown like a trumpet to symbolically awaken the listeners from their slumbers and alert them to the coming judgment of God. In general, this is a time of year to reflect on the year you’ve had--especially mistakes and missteps—and contemplate how to do better in the year ahead.

Rosh Hashanah is a holiday rich in meaning and tradition. As with all holidays, food plays an important role. Apples are commonly eaten (dipped in honey – yum!) to symbolize a wish for a sweet year ahead. Honey cake is also a favorite.

Even though my Buttermilk Apple Snack Cake is not Kosher, I thought I’d share it with you today because of Rosh Hashanah’s apple tradition.

I love this cake because it’s easy to make and also very light, tender and buttery, with a delicate flavor of apple and the rich, bright note of buttermilk.

While it's a delish snack cake to eat any time year (and goes very well with a freshly brewed pot of joe), I think it’s especially comforting to slide into the oven on a fall afternoon when there’s that crisp chill in the air, the sun begins to set a little earlier than you're used to, and you’ve just come in from raking leaves, a long walk in the park, or picking those newly ripened apples...

To get my recipe for
Buttermilk Apple Snack Cake,

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
www.CoffeehouseMystery.com

Finally, if you’d like a truly Kosher recipe for an apple cake, click here. The ladies who created this recipe know their stuff. They managed a catering company in Columbus, Ohio, for over twenty years.

In closing, a common greeting at this time is “Shana Tova” for a good year or “Shana Tova Umetukah” for a good and sweet new year. So...

Shana Tova Umetukah,
everyone!

~Cleo Coyle
author of the Coffeehouse Mysteries

www.CoffeehouseMystery.com/
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing..."