Ch-ch-chia!

First it was acai berries, then goji berries. Then there was pomegranate in everything, followed by quinoa as the newest health food. And now, it's the chia seed. Yup, the same thing that grew the ch-ci-chia plant that came in all kinds of shapes and was advertised until we could hardly stand it anymore.


I admit that I was hesitant about chia seeds. But my health food store sells them in the bulk bins, so I was able to buy a few teaspoons to try. They don't really taste like anything but they have a little crunch. They're about the size of poppy seeds. So why are they the latest rage?


For starters, they're very high in omega three. Fabulous for vegetarians and people who don't care for fish. They're low in calories and have no fat. And they're loaded with antioxidants. Sound to good to be true? It gets better!


Imagine this -- when they get wet, they develop a little gelatinous substance around them. Isn't that odd? It's not as icky as it sounds because they're so tiny. It's thought that this substance slows down the conversion of these carbohydrates to sugar.


What? That's not enough reason to eat them? How about the fact that they're filling, so they may help with dieting? They're fiber, too! But don't eat too many at once because they do swell with that gelatinous thing they develop and they are fiber.  You'll be seeing them in a lot of products, but just a teaspoon or so at a time. There won't be any chia seed pies, for instance, though they can can be added to puddings and pie fillings. I'm big on the creaminess of puddings, so I'm not so sure about that. But mix them with granola, or toss them on a salad. Except for the little crunch, the kids won't know the difference.


When a friend stopped by for a visit, I put it to the test. I made one of my favorite breakfasts, a frittata. But this time, no cheese or ham or anything calorie-laden. This is one healthy frittata and here's the great news -- it's delicious. It didn't get as thick as frittata usually does, but the flavor was terrific. This will be a regular around here.

Healthy Chia Frittata

2-3 teaspoons olive oil
1/3 cup diced red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 handfuls roughly chopped Swiss chard
6 eggs
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 teaspoon ground flax

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat the olive oil in a 9-inch oven-safe saute pan and swirl to coat the sides. Add the red pepper and saute. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with salt and pepper. When the red peppers are getting soft, add the garlic and lower the heat a bit. Add the chard one handful at a time and let it wilt.

Whisk the chia seeds and flax into the eggs and pour over the veggies in the pan.

 

When the bottom has set, place the pan in the oven for about 7 minutes. Hang a pot holder over the over door handle so you won't forget that the pan will be too hot to handle! Slice into four pieces and serve.

 

Book Club Week - Steamed to Death by Peg Cochran

I hope you have been enjoying our Book Club Week!  I know I have.  And now it’s my turn.  I’m setting the table with my prettiest plates and napkins and looking forward to the ladies arriving for tonight’s discussion.

Tonight we’re discussing Steamed to Death, the second book in my Gourmet De-Lite series.  My protagonist, Gigi Fitzgerald, provides catered diet gourmet meals to a select group of clients.  In Steamed to Death, she has snared Felicity Davenport, star of the daytime soap For Better, Or For Worse.  Felicity is on the wrong side of forty and has a younger co-star nipping at her heels and just dying to fill Felicity’s shoes.  Felicity is determined to lose some weight, get a complete make-over, and reappear after the hiatus as a new person.  Unfortunately, someone has it in for Felicity, and she winds up dead.  Gigi’s best friend is the most logical suspect, and it’s up to Gigi to prove the police wrong.

Some questions to consider for your discussion:

Should Gigi stick with Detective Bill Mertz, a strong, solid, dependable kind of guy or give in to her attraction to bad boy Declan McQuaid? 

How about you?  Do you go for the reliable type or are you attracted to the bad boys?

Felicity is concerned about her appearance now that she is hitting middle-age.  Do you feel women are discriminated against when they get older? 

If you would like to see how I envision the characters and setting in Steamed to Death, check out my Pinterest board.

Tonight I’m serving some desserts to sweeten our book discussion including a lime tart.  I’m offering another fruity dessert as well—peach kuchen.  And for something a little savory, I’m putting together a cheese tray to go with my chicken liver mousse.  

Fresh Lime Tart

1.5 cups Graham Cracker crumbs (approx. 1 sleeve plus 4 crackers)

1/4 cup butter, melted (approx. 2 minutes on half power in micro)

3 TBL sugar

1 14-oz can sweetened, condensed milk

1 8-oz package cream cheese

1/3 cup fresh lime juice (approx. 1 lime)

1 TBL grated lime peel

Fresh fruit for decoration

Mix Graham Cracker crumbs (I ground them in my food processor) with the sugar then stir in melted butter.  It will look like wet sand.  Press into the bottoms and sides of a tart pan sprayed with non-stick spray.  Bake 5 minutes at 350 degrees and remove from oven.

Beat sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese until smooth.  Stir in lime juice and zest.  Pour over crust and smooth top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 28 to 30 minutes until filling is set.  Cool to room temperature then refrigerate for at least two hours.

Remove from refrigerator before serving and decorate top with sliced berries or other cut-up fruit.

You can also substitute lemon juice and zest for the lime for an equally refreshing dessert.

Grated lime zest

Melt butter in microwave

Finely ground Graham Crackers

Graham Cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter

Press Graham cracker crumbs into prepared tart pan

Beat cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth

Pour into shell

Bon Appetit!

The perfect napkins for our book club!

Visit me on Facebook or my website.   Or, follow me on Twitter @pegcochran

BOOK CLUB WEEK: The Christie Curse (and maybe some chocolate)

Welcome. We’re so glad you’re here! Of all the fun activities that an author gets to participate in, book clubs have got to be the best. This is our chance to meet and mingle with readers and potential readers. Book clubs are all about people who love books and are almost always full of folks who also love food and drink. That’s just one of the reasons why this week’s theme is so much fun. Mystery Lovers Kitchen is the perfect blog for a book club theme. 


We make great use of everyone’s recipes and our index all the time and for today, we’re using some of  MJ's and Victoria's own favorite past posts with easy and delicious book club treats for your book club. 

We love all book clubs whether they meet in someone’s home, a church hall, or a library. We’ve been to gatherings where the hostess served an entire dinner around the dining room table and others where the meal was pot luck on a groaning buffet table. Some groups serve desserts and coffee, other appetisers, cheese and wine. In churches and libraries, people strut their stuff with cookies. It’s all quite wonderful. Even in online book clubs, you get the impression that people are happily munching at their keyboards. 

 

One thing we have noticed is that there is almost always chocolate at book clubs. This is for the health benefits, of course.  May we suggest these delicious little pots-de-chocolat that are so pretty and yet easy enough that you could make them in your sleep. 

You can put serve then in any little cups or glasses that you have around. They would still be good if you served them in a jam jar.You'll find the link below!

For today, of course, we are thinking about suggestions for a book club meeting to discuss The Christie Curse. For those of you who are new to us and our series, here’s a bit of background on the first in the book collector mysteries. 

 But first, how about enjoying one of these delicious traditional Nova Scotia Oatcakes that MJ was served at a fabulous book club event in scenic Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. You'll find the link to the post and the recipe below.

 And now at last a bit about The Christie Curse. Read on:

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name. During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?

Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She’s back in Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law-abiding uncles, in debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans. Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board, which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid book collector. There’s just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst is the most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.

Make that two problems: why is that cute young police officer taking such an interest in her?

Jordan’s first assignment is to track down a rumored unpublished and unproduced Agatha Christie play that may or may not exist. It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to keep the play out of Vera’s hands. Jordan’s new job is good…but is it worth her life?  

Now it’s time for us to toss out some questions and some delicious ideas for your real or dream book club meeting. Here are some questions we often get asked and some others we’d like to answer. 

As most of you know we are a daughter and mother team writing this series together. We often get asked what it’s like to write with your mother or your daughter.
That sounds dangerous, people suggest.

Of course, it is fraught with peril as are all such m & d relationships. However, we balance each other out. Victoria is taller and funnier and MJ has a lot of experience and is also quite tricky. We respect each other’s viewpoint and what we each bring to the table.  There’s lots of negotiation because the fact is that neither one of us actually owns the book. It’s a joint effort and we can’t afford to be unilateral or, ahem, princessy. We laugh a lot and compromise plenty.   No one needs to die off the page. Somehow it all comes together.

What drew you to the Golden Age of Detection?

We have both always read and enjoyed mysteries, something we’re sure we share with you. MJ was raised on Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Rex Stout, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and the rest of the mystery royalty and Victoria has also read and enjoyed the greats.  As book sellers we were both were involved with the Prime Crime Mystery Bookstore in Ottawa. Life in this mystery focused world made total sense to us. We get book collecting and the fascination of the genre. 
 

What can go wrong?

Oh ho. Well, just recently in book three we were discussing Jordan’s Uncle Kevin (who first appears in The Sayers Swindle).  MJ thought Kev was wiry and fit and Victoria thought he was pudgy and cuddly. We both agreed that Uncle Kev is always an accident waiting to happen and one step from bringing calamity to himself and others and women seemed to love him, but our vision was two different pictures of the dangerous dude. Despite this, we showed our enduring love and affection by munching a few of these little cookies together. The link is below.
I

 As for Uncle Kev, all will be revealed in The Wolfe Widow (September 2014)     Be there.

Speaking of uncles, are any of your relatives, um, criminals?

No, some of them are Irish and others are Italian, but they’re all solid citizens. A few of them might be known to shout “Eat! What’s the matter, don’t you like it? Eat now!” but your silver service would be safe with them. Still, we love Jordan’s crooked uncles and if you can’t have crooks in mysteries, where can you have them?

People are always eating in The Christie Curse. Why don’t they ever get fat?

Part of the author’s job is to absorb surplus calories in order to save the characters and the readers from tight waistband syndrome.  We hope you appreciate this sacrifice on our part. 

But seriously, we think that food enhances a book, engages our senses and makes everything better.





Speaking of better, this might be a good time to serve the chocolate souffle.  
 Yes, the recipe link is below.

  
What’s the most fun about writing a mystery book collector series drawn from the twenties and thirties?

Aside from the characters, the books and authors themselves are wonderful. For The Christie Curse, we re-read dozens of Agatha Christie books, plays, short stories and biographies. She’s a great lady who stands the test of time.  Both Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers had lives that were every bit as interesting and exciting as their books. Sometimes more so. Re-reading all the Sayers mysteries was a labor of love while working on The Sayers Swindle.  

And what about the pug?

Well, Walter may be a figment of our imaginations, but Peachy the Pug is the newest addition to our personal stable of pooches ( MJ’s two dachshunds and Victoria’s 14 year old Merlin all welcomed the frisky little rescued pug).  

What's next in the book collector series?

We're glad you asked.  The Sayers Swindle will hit the stand on December 3, 2013 and we are working on The Wolfe Widow. Having fun around here!


If you liked the Christie Curse, we know you’ll also enjoy The Sayers Swindle. 

Can Jordan keep going straight? Will Vera’s missing Sayers collection be found before Jordan loses her job?  What is Walter eating? Look out behind you, there’s a guy with a shovel! 

You can pre-order from your favorite bookstore or click here http://tinyurl.com/lrht 

            

Is there anything else to eat?

Sure thing! Sometimes you have to get a treat on the table and your day's gone wrong and you're out of time.  Let's call 8-minute plum cake to the rescue!  Well, you do need to allow 25 minutes for it to bake (or you might have one in the freezer like we do)  You'll find the link below!

Click this Mystery Lovers Kitchen  link below for the oatcake recipe! 

 http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2010/08/everything-old-is-new-again

    
 Click thisMystery Lovers Kitchen  link for the chocolate soufflé and chocolate heart cookie    blog and recipes:

http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2013/02/two-chocolate-recipes-for-you-on.html

Click this Mystery Lovers Kitchen link for the pot-de-chocolat blog and recipe. http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2011/02/my-not-so-secret-love-affair-with.html

Click this Mystery Lovers Kitchen link for the 8-minute plum cake recipe. http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2013/08/plum-crazy-eight-minute-cake.html


 Thanks for coming by!  Here's a little bit more about us.  

Victoria Abbott is a collaboration between Victoria Maffini and her mother,  Mary Jane Maffini (who insists all of this IS on her diet).. The Christie Curse, their first book collector mystery, launched in March 2013 and  The Sayers Swindle, the second in the series will be out in December 2013. Please let them know how you like it.

There are lots of ways to reach them. Sign up for their newsletter at www.victoria-abbott.com
Pleaase note that Walter the Pug in the series is a dead ringer for Peachy, Victoria's new best friend.  
Come over and friend them on Facebook
www.facebook.com/BookCollectorMysteries   www.facebook.com/maryjane.maffini
Tell them you love the pug!
www.twitter.com/AbbottMysteries
www.pinterest.com/jbinghamkelly

BOOK CLUB WEEK: Golden Malicious by Sheila Connolly

Massachusetts is enjoying what everyone agrees is an incredible bumper crop of apples this year, and since I write about an apple orchard, I'm thrilled. What's more, when groups such as book clubs gather, there is always food.  There's something very basic about feeding your guests, and it's also a wonderful opportunity to introduce and sample new dishes. 

When I started writing the Orchard Mystery series, I knew what most people know about apples—I could recognize an apple tree (if it had apples on it) and I knew the names of what I saw in grocery stores, not that those names meant a lot to me.  So when I created my heroine, Meg, I made it clear that she didn't know much about apples either.  She's been learning a lot in the past couple of years (going on two years in the books).  That goes hand in hand with learning about the people in her new town, Granford, Massachusetts.

Of course, learning to manage an orchard doesn't leave Meg a lot of time or energy for cooking, but everybody has to eat.  And apples lend themselves well to so many dishes, both sweet and savory.

But book club members have to earn those tasty dishes (work before play, right?), so I have some questions for you to think about.

Golden Malicious, coming out next week, is the seventh in the Orchard Mystery series.  Meg's life has definitely changed since she arrived in Granford.  But since not all readers will have read all the books, I've combine some specific questions about Meg and her new community with more general questions about reading cozy series.

• Do you find that using a single theme in a series, like a craft shop or a food producer or seller, is too confining? Do you find it believable that a woman like Meg would go from a bank job crunching numbers to managing an orchard? 

• Do you enjoy learning about something new in books, or are you impatient and wish the author would just get on with the story? Meg keeps getting distracted by murders in Granford, even while she's trying to expand her orchard and harvest her crop. Do you ever wonder how she manages to juggle it all? 

• Do you prefer to read about crafts or trades that you might actually practice in your life, or do you just enjoy imagining them? Do you harbor a secret desire to return to a simpler life on a farm? (Warning:  it's hard work!) 

• Most cozies are set in small towns, and Granford is a typical New England town.  Does it bother you that bodies keep turning up there?  Or that the local police seem unable to solve murders without help from an amateur? 

• Do you like reading about new places you've never been, or do you prefer places you recognize or even know? How much description of the place can the author include before you're distracted from the story? 

• Do you as a reader find yourself as identifying with the protagonist when she decides to get involved in solving a crime?  At the beginning of the series, Meg is a newcomer in town, so why is she qualified to investigate crimes there? Because she's smart, or because she has something to lose if the crime isn't solved or if the wrong person is accused? 

• Many cozies include romantic elements, and sometimes there may be two men vying for the attention of the protagonist as she tries to solve crimes.  Do you think that romance has a place in cozy mysteries? How much attention should it be given? 

        In Golden Malicious, Meg and Seth have known each other for well

        over a year.  Is their relationship moving too slowly, too fast, or just

        fine (given all the other things they face, like multiple murders)?

In honor of the Massachusetts apple crop, I'm including my favorite apple cake recipe, but I've modified it for serving a group (individual slices work but they can be messy).  This recipe is tasty, dependable, and easy to make (it appeared in the first Orchard Mystery, One Bad Apple, and also in a guest post here in 2010).

FRESH APPLE CAKE

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 eggs (mix one of them up and add half)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups shredded apples (do not peel -- the skin adds texture to the cake; the shredding disk of a food processor works very well, or you can use a hand-grater).  How many apples you will need will depend on their size.

1 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 small cake tins (the flour is important to keep these from sticking!) This recipe makes a total of four cups of batter.  The pans I used held 1/4 cup for each mini-cake, so should make 16.  The recipe can easily be doubled.

From my ever-growing vintage cookware collection

Combine the oil and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Blend very well.  Add the 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 vanilla. Then fold in the raw apples, mixing well with a large spoon or spatula.  Pour or spoon the batter into the little cake pans. Note: when filling, stop 1/4-1/2 inch from the top, because the batter does rise a bit.

Ready to bake

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let them cool 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.

A word of warning about the glaze: it’s addictive.  At my house 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 right out of the pan.  Yum!

Remove the cakes from the pans and drizzle the glaze over them while they are still warm.

GOLDEN MALICIOUS           (Orchard Mystery #7)

Coming October 1st!

Book Club Week: Death in Four Courses by Lucy Burdette #BookClub

LUCY BURDETTE: I hope you all are enjoying book club week in our kitchen--I sure am! Though my hometown book club is on hiatus temporarily, we’ve had a lot of wonderful discussions over the years. 

For a while, we decided that the hostess would choose the book and also provide dinner to other members. My turn came when we discussed Carlos Eire’s WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA. I made an elaborate Cuban meal, including pork roast with black beans and baked bananas. Funny how I remember the details of the food better than the details of the book (although it was an excellent memoir.)


But you shouldn’t have to work that hard as a book club host, so I'm making an easy suggestion for refreshments. I’ve chosen DEATH IN FOUR COURSES for discussion (the second Key West mystery) and Hayley's hot fudge pie to go along with it. If you serve this pie, you will be plied with compliments without spending much time slaving in the kitchen. (And it goes with any beverage--coffee, tea, champagne, wine...)

Now, let me tell you a little about the book...

Not too long after I signed the contract to write the Key West food critic mystery series, I learned that the Key West Literary Seminar would be focusing on food writing in January 2011. The event was called THE HUNGRY MUSE, and it featured foodie luminaries such as Frank Bruni, Madhur Jaffrey, Jonathan Gold, Diana Abu-Jaber, and many more.

I pictured my food critic character, Hayley Snow, covering a similar conference for her online magazine, Key Zest. She would be so thrilled to hear and meet her writing idols. But she would have mixed feelings too, as she tried to land interviews with bigwigs, write snappy but thoughtful articles, all while comparing her abilities and her fledgling career to theirs. And maybe Hayley had invited her well-meaning, foodie mother for the weekend, not realizing quite how vulnerable she’d feel working on this important assignment?

With that background in place, I looked for more ways to ratchet up the tension. Suppose the keynote speaker threatened to divulge some of the other writers’ potentially career-threatening secrets over the weekend? And suppose someone would kill to hide one of those secrets? And then what if a dear friend was implicated in this murder?

And then mix in a ton of food, including a multi-course dinner at Louie’s Backyard, dinner at Santiago’s Bodega, and lunch at La Creperie.

All in all (though I’m biased as the author:), I think DEATH IN FOUR COURSES would provide a book club with lots to chew on. (Sorry couldn’t help myself!) Here are a couple of questions you could use to get discussion going:

1.  The role of food in the families of the conference speakers varies widely. How was food seen in your family? Who cooked the meals and what were they like? How has that history affected your relationship with food today?

2.  Which of the fictional speakers’ books would you be interested in reading? Which might you want to have at your book group meeting–and why?

The entire list of book club discussion questions can be found here.

My friend Linda Juliani gave me this recipe for hot fudge pie and I’ve made it many times. It’s perfectly fast and easy and yet has all the advantages of a homemade dessert, hot out of the oven.

Ingredients

1 stick butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 and 1/4 cups sugar
4 Tbsp flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
 dash salt

Melt one stick of butter and 3 squares of unsweetened chocolate together. (Linda uses the microwave–just be sure to cover the bowl as it will splatter. I use the old-fashioned pan on a stove method.) 

Add to the bowl 1 and 1/4 cups sugar and 4 tablespoons flour and a dash of salt. Mix. Then add 3 beaten eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour the batter into a greased 9 inch pie plate and bake at 350 degrees fro 20-25 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.

And I'll leave you with my favorite review of DEATH IN FOUR COURSES from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: 

“Near the start of Burdette’s yummy sequel to An Appetite for Murder, Key West food critic Hayley Snow brings her mother down from New Jersey for a visit… Outspoken Mom provides tart commentary as Hayley once again turns sleuth. Anyone who’s ever overpaid for a pretentious restaurant meal will relish this witty cozy.”

Lucy Burdette is the author of the Key West food critic mysteries. You can follow her on twitter, facebook, and Pinterest. If you'd like to invite her to appear at your book club via skype, email her at LucyBurdette at gmail dot com.

Book Club Week: Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber

From Daryl aka Avery:

Welcome to book club week. I hope you'll find a wealth of new books, authors, and recipes to devour.

I've moved so many times around the country that it's been hard to find a book club where I fit in. I started a book club in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were all agreed that we would read mysteries each week, but quickly that changed, the group grew, and we were reading mainly literary fiction. A very interesting transition (away from mystery). But fun!  Since moving back to Los Angeles, I've found myself enjoying talking to book clubs via Skype. I love when the entire group has read either a Cheese Shop mystery or a Cookbook Nook mystery and they hammer me with challenging questions!! [I write two series, one under my real name, Daryl Wood Gerber, and another under my pseudonym, Avery Aames.]

No matter what, book clubs are good for stimulating the little brain cells.

If you're not familiar with the nationally bestselling Cookbook Nook mysteries, the series features Jenna Hart, an avid reader, a foodie, and an ex-advertising executive, who returns home to Crystal Cove, California to help her aunt open a culinary bookshop and café.  The shop doesn't just sell cookbooks. It also sells culinary mysteries (like the ones by Mystery Lovers Kitchen authors) as well as literary fiction, like Chocolat or Like Water from Chocolate. There are a number of bookclubs that browse the shop. One club, featured in the third in the series (which is not yet out; neither is the second - that's coming in March) is a club dedicated to all things Wizard of Oz. How cool is that! Until now, I had no idea that there were book clubs dedicated to themes.  Here's a link to an excerpt from FINAL SENTENCE.

Is your book club dedicated to one genre, or do you mix it up? What's your preferred food for the club? Do you like books about food?

Here are a couple of questions to get you going if you decide to read FINAL SENTENCE at a book club event.

1. Family is the most important thing in the world to Jenna.  How did it affect you to find out about Jenna’s husband and mother passing away in the same month? 

2. A theme of the book could be how one moment can change your life forever.  How has this twist of fate affected you personally?  How did it affect Jenna?

Here's the link to a full array of questions.

At the book club I ran in Charlotte, we made sure we had cookies and coffee. Sometimes we served a range of appetizers and wine.

Here is one of the easiest recipes around for a savory cookie, featured in FINAL SENTENCE. They've got a zing!! and they'll last a long time - IF you can keep yourself from eating them. I serve them with a little jam. It's like a cheese appetizer. They taste great with a crisp pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc.

SAVORY CHEESE COOKIE

(makes 30-36 cookies)

1 cup flour

4 ounces butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 ounces), at room temperature

1 teaspoon water (if needed)

Cut butter into flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper. Mix in cheese.

Chill. Roll onto a board using a rolling pin (and a dusting of extra flour to keep from sticking).

Cut with cookie cutters or (easy) into squares.

Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 9 minutes, until lightly browned.

Serve with jam, if desired.

FYI, Jenna might be a foodie, but she's not a cook. She never really learned, so in the first book of the series, she's trying her hand at cooking. Five-ingredient recipes is the trick. This one has seven. She dared to try it, but you'll notice she went the easy route and rolled out the dough, then cut it into squares. She might try using cookie cutters next time. :)

Also, note, if anyone wants to make these gluten-free, just substitute the flour with your favorite GF flour and add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum to the recipe. 

By the way, have you heard of the Book Club Cookbook? It's filled with all sorts of good recipes from books you've probably read in your book clubs, recipes directly from the books. Yummy!  Check it out.  [I've got another cookie recipe on their website.] 

* * *

Here are a few other links to previous appetizer and/or cookie recipes that I've posted on Mystery Lovers Kitchen, all of which are easy to prepare. Many of these are featured in the Cheese Shop and Cookbook Nook mysteries.

Mango chutney and Brie

Mascarpone and Stilton Torte

Mexican Wedding Cookies 

Coconut Chocolate Cloud Cookies

Maple Leaf Rag Cookies

Savor the Mystery!!

******************

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Next up: 

Days of Wine and Roquefort, preorder here

Inherit the Word, preorder here

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