Monday's Back to School Winner!!!

The winner for Monday's Back to School blog week fun is:

Wait

for

it....

Diana!!!!

Congratulations.

Contact me[Avery] at woodgerb at AveryAames dot com

so you can give me your mailing information!

And remember, everyone, you can enter again this week. Comment away!

Best to all,

Avery

APPLE CAKE

by Sheila Connolly

Thank you, members of Mystery Lovers Kitchen, for inviting me to cook with you. I just love to talk about food.

It’s apple time again! I mean the apples that come from trees around here, not the apples that are flown in from New Zealand and Chile. Warning: Do not stand next to me in the fruit section of a supermarket—I start foaming at the mouth. I do not want to eat food that has flown halfway around the world. If there’s flying involved, I want to be the one doing it.

Think calm thoughts…rolling acres of trees, their boughs bent almost to breaking with the weight of gleaming red clusters of ripe fruit…oops, now I’m hungry. I’m giving you my go-to apple cake recipe, the one that I take to every pot-luck. The one that is impossible to mess up and doesn’t even require peeling any apples. But first I want to talk about my mania for collecting antique cookware. You’ll just have to wait.

Actually, some of the cookware was my mother’s and I’ve just kept on using it. Then I started noticing pieces just like them at flea markets and (gasp) antique shows. Wait a minute—that Pyrex bowl set? That red-handled potato ricer? You’re telling me they’re antiques?

But when I’m not beating myself up about using my treasured heirloom items, I collect bakeware. I don’t even recall how I got started—probably because I saw something odd, like a muffin tin that makes square muffins—and I had to have it, and besides, it cost only $3. Now I’ve got a wall full. I can make any size and shape muffin you might want.

But I also have a lot of cake pans (I’m sneaking back up toward the apple cake recipe). Older cake pans are wonderful to bake with because usually they’re heavy-gauge metal, so they distribute heat evenly and you don’t end up scorching parts of your cake while the rest is still gooey. Besides, they used to make such interesting shapes. Modern ones just aren’t the same. I’m particularly fond of my spiral one (which I think is a steamed pudding mold).

Now the apple cake recipe. My favorite pan for that is one I’ve had for years, and it’s just the right size for the recipe—it’s 8 cups (well, now and then the batter likes to try to escape over the sides, so put a baking sheet under it just in case). It makes a handsome cake. There’s only one problem: there are only three of us at home, and I can’t make a whole cake for the three of us to consume (although we try).

So I was thrilled when a couple of years ago, I found the baby version in an antique store—same shape, same vintage, but half the size. Now I can make a half-recipe of the cake, without guilt. (And I confess—just this weekend I bought a friend for it.)

FRESH APPLE CAKE

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups shredded apples (do not peel -- the skin adds texture to the cake; the shredding disk of a food processor works very well)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:

2 Tbl butter
2 Tbl brown sugar
2 Tbl granulated sugar
2 Tbl heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9- or 10-inch tube pan (8-cup capacity).

Combine oil and sugar in a bowl. Blend very well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Sift these into the oil-egg mixture and combine thoroughly. Add the raw apples. Mix well with a spoon or spatula, then add the vanilla. Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until the cake tests done (tester comes out clean). Remove from the oven and let rest while you prepare the glaze.

Glaze: Melt the butter, sugars, and heavy cream mixed with vanilla in a heavy pan. Boil for 1 minute without stirring, then remove from heat.

Let the cake cool for a few minutes before removing it from the pan. Spoon the glaze over the cake while it is still warm.

A word of warning about the glaze: it’s addictive. We usually double the recipe, and fight over who gets to lick the pan. My daughter pours it over ice cream, and she adds chopped nuts and coconut. And sometimes we just skip the cake and eat it with spoons right out of the pan. Yum!

This recipe appears in One Bad Apple, the first of the Orchard Mystery series. Of course I'm always looking for more apple recipes, so if you have a favorite, send it along!

Back to School BLOG PARTY

It's "Back to school" time, so

we're celebrating all week long.

It's a BLOG PARTY!

With recipes for lunches and contests and fun!

To all the moms out there, you rock!!

Fun facts: Because today is labor day.

If you'd like to know more about

how Labor Day got started,

click this link for the Department of Labor!

Br-r-r-r-ing! Lunchtime!

You know kids swap what's in their lunchbox, don't you? My son did all the time. Until I came up with items that he loved. It didn't always have to be a sandwich. He liked leftovers. Leftover pizza.

Leftover spaghetti (cold!). Nibbles of cheese and salami. Sliced apples with peanut butter dip. I tried to be creative. And I'd grill him when he got home to make sure he ate what I'd given him. [Oh, I didn't grill him, but I did ask leading questions. It's the mystery writer in me, right?]

So what can you make that is fun, flavorful, and the winner that no kid will swap for lunch? Not just any old cheese and baloney or peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

How about a recipe right out of The Long Quiche Goodbye? Peanut Butter Apple Pie Sandwich. It's got everything in it. Apples, raisins, cheese and peanut butter. It is downright satisfying. And it's EASY!!!

Peanut Butter Apple Pie Sandwich

Ingredients:

2 slices of your favorite bread

2 slices sharp Cheddar or Edam cheese [I used a delicious Cheddar made at Mississippi State]

2 slices of your favorite apple [I use a pippin, skin on]

10-20 California raisins [I use Sun-Maid]

2 Tbs. of Creamy Peanut Butter [I use Jif; - hence the picture above.]

Directions:

• Spread peanut butter on a slice of bread
• Dot each with raisins
• Layer on the apples and cheese
• Add the other piece of bread. [You can put peanut butter on it, too].
• Slice and enjoy.

[Note: For this picture, I used a thicker harder bread so it would photograph well and you could see the inside layers. When you use a nice, soft piece of bread, it all melds together.]

SO...HERE'S OUR WEEK-LONG LABOR DAY

"BACK TO SCHOOL" CONTEST

If you'd like to win a prize this week,

enter a comment on that day.

Check back the next day to see if you won!

There will be a different winner every day this week.

Today's prize

A "COOL" lunch box! Star Wars "Clone Wars".

What could be better?

And a blue ice football from Rubbermaid to stow inside.

Even cooler!

For more recipes from Avery, click HERE.

Welcome Guest Blogger Vicki Doudera!

Darby Farr’s Favorite Brunch by Vicki Doudera

I live on the coast of Maine, so it is only natural that when Riley asked me to be a guest blogger, my thoughts turned toward my state’s most famous crustacean.

These crepes are favored by the heroine of my mystery series, Darby Farr, a red-hot real estate agent who was raised on Hurricane Harbor, an island in Maine. The first book, A HOUSE TO DIE FOR, was published in April of 2010 by Midnight Ink, and the second, KILLER LISTING, comes out in 2011. Visit my website, http://www.vickidoudera.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

Elegant Lobster Crepes

Ingredients:

12 crepes (use your favorite recipe)

1 lb. cooked lobster meat (crab can be substituted)

5 Tbs. butter

5 Tbs. flour

2 cups milk

½ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. white pepper

1 1/3 cups grated Gruyere cheese

½ lb. small Maine shrimp, cooked

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat and whisk in flour. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over medium heat until sauce thickens. Add salt and white pepper and remove from heat.

Reserve one half of sauce. To remaining sauce, stir in lobster and Gruyere. Place 4 tablespoons of lobster mixture on each crepe and roll. Arrange on a buttered 9 by 13 inch baking dish, rolled edge down.

To reserved cup of sauce, add cooked shrimp and Cheddar cheese, and warm until cheese just melts. Pour over middle of crepes. Bake for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbling.

Makes 12 lobster crepes.

Zwetschgendatschie

Say that three times fast. What? You can't even say it once? Try this. Ts-wet-sh-gen-dot-she. Hint: Zwetsch rhymes with Fletch. Has to be fun with a name like that, doesn't it? It's also known as Pflaumenkuchen, which means plum cake in German. Apparently, it's the Bavarians, known for their colorful expressions and dialect, who call it Zwetschgendatschie.

When I was growing up, this was always a huge summertime treat. It only comes around for a very brief period in late August and early September when the plums are ripe. This recipe uses the same plums that prunes come from, also known as Italian plums and damson plums. In our neck of the woods, they've become very hard to find. So when I saw them at the farmers' market, I jumped on them like a cat on a fast mouse. Mine, mine, mine!

Aside from Zwetschgendatschie, they also make great preserves and they're delicious as is, too. If you're lucky enough to have one of these trees, cherish it!

Like a lot of recipes that have been around for generations (yes, I remember eating this in my grandmother's kitchen as a little girl), Zwetschgendatschie can be made many ways, so this recipe may not be exactly like your Oma's. It can have a yeast (breadlike) bottom or a cake bottom. It can be made with oil or butter. My family always preferred the yeast bottom, though it is a bit more work.

It's sort of like making a sweet pizza with plums on top, and a dollop of whipped cream. Those yummy German/Austrian/Hungarian desserts always call for whipped cream! If you're feeling very continental, pass a bowl of whipped cream so guests can help themselves. Of course, if you're serving this at tea time, no one will notice if you slip a spoonful of that decadent whipped cream into your coffee . . .

And now -- the elusive, once a year treat that you can't pronounce --

Zwetschgendatschie

1 packet yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons warm milk

3 + cups flour
1/3 cup warm milk
1/3 cup melted butter (microwave for 25 seconds to melt)
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 pounds washed Italian plums

Mix the yeast, sugar, and 4 tablespoons warm milk in a small bowl and let sit about 10 minutes.

I used my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook for this next part. You may need more or less flour, depending on your machine. Place two cups of flour in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Add a bit of the warm milk and all of the yeast mixture. Mix a bit. Add the butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla and mix into a dough, adding flour as needed. I used 3 cups total.

When the dough is a good consistency, turn out into a bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place out of drafts. Let rise until double.

Punch the dough down and preheat the oven to 375. Slice the plums lengthwise and pit. Butter an 11 x 16 baking sheet with a rim and roll out the dough (pushing with fingers actually works best). Open the plums and prop them up in a row. Overlap the next row slightly. Continue until the baking sheet is full. Let stand at room temperature for about half an hour.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. The dough should be baked through and the plums should be producing a bit of juice.

Meanwhile mix the 3 tablespoons sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. On taking it out of the oven, immediately sprinkle with the sugar mixture.

Beat one cup of heavy cream, adding 1/4 cup of powdered sugar when the cream begins to take shape. Add the vanilla and beat.

Serve hot or cold, and always with whipped cream! One caveat, this is one of those dishes that is best the day it is made. It's not a make ahead dessert at all. It's fine the next day, but it really is best warm from the oven.

Enjoy!

Double-Chocolate Hurricane Muffins by Cleo Coyle

I actually had another recipe planned for today, but the week's weather changed my culinary game plan.

Tracking Earl's swirl on the Doppler all week made me think of...well, chocolate. Swirls of chocolate. The result? My Double-Chocolate Hurricane Muffins...

Note the chocolate vortex that forms in the center of my babies -- not unlike Earl's deceptively peaceful hurricane eye.

 

If only hurricanes had gooey chocolate centers, then maybe Willy Wonka could anchor at the Weather Channel. Now that would be interesting.

Well, anyway, the coming sea storm stirred up a mix of weather memories for me. I live in New York City, where storms rarely interrupt our power. That wasn't the case where I grew up. In the cloud-heavy hills of Western Pennsylvania, storms often swept in, simultaneously sweeping aside electrical lines. And you know what? I loved it -- as did most of the kids in my neighborhood. Of course, those were the days before video games and computers. These days kids have a different perspective on the power grid.

Cleo Coyle - armchair
storm chaser and author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Yet the world was so exciting when it was unplugged -- televisions went off, streetlights went dark. Houses up and down our suburban block appeared totally black, except for those magical fairy-like glimpses of flickering candles and streaking flashlights.

We had two ovens in our house -- upstairs was electric, downstairs gas. My sister and I would grab flashlights and head down to the gas stove to pop popcorn. Then we'd sit on the front porch and watch the lightning, listen to the thunder (and maybe the battery-powered radio), and just hang together. Neighbors would come out, check on each other...Nothing better.

Storms can be dangerous, of course, even deadly -- and if you or your loved ones have been battered by one, I do realize it's no laughing matter. As I type this now, Earl is not set to do much damage, yet I fully realize if he decides to shift and become stronger, my little Queens' row house could end up next to Dorothy's farm. 

But, c'mon, let's face it, if you're out of harm's way, storms can be pretty entertaining. Ever seen those news reporters bundled in hooded slickers and rubber pants, standing in the middle of horizontal rain, literally holding onto a pole to stand upright, saying things like, "Yes, Diane, it's getting quite windy now!"





Okay, I'll admit one last thing right here and now. I'm a total sucker for those big, epic, weather-driven popcorn flicks: Twister, Perfect Storm, The Day After Tomorrow. Hmmm...do you think maybe all those years eating popcorn while watching lightning flash over the Pennsylvania hills left its pavlovian mark? Could be...

Now what about you?

Do you like storms or hate them?
Do you have storm memories to share?

As I said, today's recipe was inspired by Earl's swirls. Storms tend to lock us inside and make do with what we have on hand, and I thought it would be fun to see what I could make today, based on what was available in my kitchen:

overripe bananas,

dry roasted peanuts,

Devil's Food cake mix...

The result is below -- one darn tasty chocolate muffin. The banana flavor is subtle, but it's there in the background and combined with the peanuts and melted chocolate chips, this muffin evokes the delightful taste memory of a chocolate-syrup drenched banana split. It's delightful with coffee so it's a great afternoon pick-me-up. It's also a lovely dessert muffin -- serve them warm with fresh raspberries on the side. Trust me. These are delicious!


Cleo Coyle's
Double-Chocolate
Hurricane Muffins

To download a free PDF of this reicpe to print, save, or share, click here.





Makes: about 18 muffins

Ingredients

1 box (18.25 ounces) Devil's Food cake mix (the kind with pudding in the mix)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten with fork
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (*see my note about substitutions)
2 teaspoons vanilla (gives a nice balance of flavor to the chocolate cake mix starter)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chopped block chocolate)
1/2 cup dry roasted, unsalted peanuts, chopped (or walnuts or hazelnuts)

Directions: Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl. (Be sure the melted butter is not too hot. You don't want to cook the eggs.)

Mix by hand until well blended, but do not over mix. If you overwork the batter, you'll produce gluten in the flour and the muffins will be tough instead of tender. You don't have to do the hurricane swirl in the batter. I just thought it went with my theme. :-)

Line muffin cups with paper liners and fill each cup about 2/3rds with batter. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. (Do not over bake. It's actually better to under bake these muffins than over bake them.) Remove from oven and carefully transfer the muffins to a rack to cool. (Try not to let them remain too long in the hot pan or the bottoms may steam and become tough.)

EASY SUBSTITUTIONS - If you don't like peanuts, swap them out for another nut (walnuts or hazelnuts would both work well in this recipe). The bananas are a great way of cutting down on the need for fat. If you aren't a fan of bananas, however, you can substitute 1/2 cup applesauce instead. If you don't care about added fat, then simply substitute another 1/2 cup of melted butter (or vegetable or canola oil). Then you can...

Eat with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle

Roast Mortem: 
A Coffeehouse Mystery
Now a National Hardcover
Mystery Bestseller from...
Penguin's Berkley Prime Crime

To learn more about me and
my Coffeehouse Mysteries or to see more of my recipes,
visit me at CoffeehouseMystery.com

Click to see the
Coffeehouse Mystery
Book Trailer

Even More Bacon and Tomatoes

As I mentioned last week, my apparent obsession with bacon and tomatoes continues. No, I’m once again not providing the healthiest of recipes. But, boy, this is a yummy sandwich. And it’s got olives in it, which is another ingredient that I’ve been eating tons of lately.

This blend is on my heavy rotation list for sandwich fillers. I love the combination of the green onions with the olives. Add bacon and tomatoes to the mix, and what could be better?

Cheesy Bacon and Tomato Sandwich

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
3 oz softened cream cheese
3-5 T sliced green onions
1 small can sliced black olives, drained
1 T mayonnaise
2 t mustard
10 chopped Roma tomatoes (or scoop out several regular tomatoes)
10 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the ingredients and spread them on the bread. Place on a baking sheet in oven for 5-10 minutes (depending on the thickness of your bread) or until heated through.

It’s also great as an open-faced sandwich on a thick bread like French bread or sliced sourdough.

If y’all are lucky, maybe I’ll have gotten over my bacon obsession by next week and move on to something healthy. :) Of course, you can always substitute turkey bacon, exchange the mayo for low fat mayo, and use American Neufchâtel instead of cream cheese to make it a little bit healthier.

Enjoy!

Riley/Elizabeth
http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
Delicious and Suspicious (July 6 2010) Riley Adams
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig

Welcome Karen E Olson!

When I sent out an invite to join

us in the Kitchen, I was lucky enough

to get a couple of takers, so this week

is a twofer for me! First, we had

Gayle Trent on Sunday and today, I'd

like to give a warm Mystery Lover's

Kitchen welcome to Karen E Olson!

Welcome, Karen!

-What inspired you to become a mystery author?

I started reading mysteries only about 20 years ago. A friend gave me a couple of books to take on vacation with me: Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller. I had no idea that mysteries could be so good, with such strong women protagonists. I began to read as many mysteries written by women as I could, and since I'd always wanted to try my hand at writing a novel, decided that this was the kind of book I wanted to write with a protagonist who could match the others I was reading.

-You have two series that you're writing - one is the Anne Seymour Series about a reporter (which is a former profession of yours) and the other is the Tattoo Shop Mysteries (a profession you have not worked in, right?). What are the differences in the series? The similarities? Do you find one easier to write than the other?

I'm no longer writing the Annie Seymour series, but I constantly get emails from readers asking me to! There are big differences between that series and the tattoo shop mysteries, in that the Annie books are a lot more gritty, more hard boiled. I call them journalism procedurals. Since I spent more than 20 years in newsrooms, I wanted to write about a reporter accurately. Annie is also very tough, although she has a vulnerable side. She's in a dying business, and she knows it.

When I started writing the tattoo shop series, my publisher indicated that they wanted something a little more cozy, although tattoos in Las Vegas did mean that there would be an edge to it, regardless. Brett Kavanaugh is younger than Annie, she owns her own business that's successful, she's much more comfortable in her own skin. And unlike Annie, she does not cuss. She's got good friendships, whereas Annie is more of a loner.

Both protagonists are strong women, and they are both curious. Annie, however, has to be curious for her job; Brett is what her brother Tim calls "nosy." While Annie is a compilation of people I've known throughout my career, I suppose you could say she was a little easier to write, although the more I've gotten to know Brett, I like her and am more and more comfortable writing about her. Also, the Annie books are set in my hometown of New Haven, and Brett is in Las Vegas, a city I've visited only three times but is easy to capture on the page because it's so crazy and quirky.

- Do you have any advice for writers looking to be published?

Stick with it. Perseverance can definitely lead to publication.

- What would your protagonists consider the perfect meal?

Neither of my characters cooks, but they do love food. Annie loves Wooster Street pizza in New Haven, particularly at Sally's Apizza. White clam pie. It's fantastic. Brett likes a good burger, mostly a Double Double at In-N-Out Burger, a fast food chain that sadly we do not have here on the East Coast.

- Do you have a recipe you want to share with our readers?

I don't cook. My husband does. But I do make a mean meatloaf,

the only thing my husband can't make!

2 pounds of freshly ground beef

a couple of slices of stale bread

1 egg

a dash of ketchup

1 package onion soup mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crumble up stale bread into a bowl and add a

dash of water to make it moist. Add the egg, ketchup

and onion soup mix, then mix in the ground beef. Use

your hands, it mixes better that way. Form it into a

loaf and put it into a loaf pan. Bake for an hour.

It's easy and very tasty.

Thanks so much for having me here!!

Karen

Thanks for joining us today, Karen!

I used to live in New Haven, and I am a huge fan of Wooster Street
pizza -- Sally's and Pepe's. Since I live so far away now, I have enjoyed

visiting with Annie, who brings it all back.


For more information on Karen's soon to be released

Driven To Ink (Sept 7th), check out her website:

http://www.kareneolson.com/