Friday, May 23, 2025

Italian Seafood Stew @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here. The Boston Globe Sunday magazine always includes a few recipes from Christopher Kimball of Milk Street Kitchens. I cut out the one for Italian Seafood Stew and pinned it to my bulletin board months ago, but recently I was inspired to finally make a version of it!


We've had a cold rainy spring, and this warming dish was perfect one night.


Italian Seafood Stew

With inspiration from the Boston Globe Magazine and Christopher Kimball


 

Ingredients

28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes

1 pound boneless, skinless white fish, but into two-inch pieces

3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1 medium onion, diced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 cup white wine

2 pounds mussels, scrubbed

 

Directions

Crush the tomatoes with your hands and set aside. In a medium bowl, toss fish with the garlic, 2 tablespoons of parsley, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.

 


In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, warm remaining olive oil until it shimmers. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and saute until translucent. 



Add tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir until heated through. Add wine and 1 teaspoon pepper and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.


Add fish mixture and return to simmer then scatter mussels over the top. Immediately cover, reduce to medium heat, and cook for four minutes.





Enjoy with a green salad and crusty bread or homemade cornbread.



Readers: What's your favorite soup or stew in the spring?

Scone Cold Dead is out and available wherever books are sold.



Next out, on August 26, will be Murder at Cape Costumers!




My most recent releases are Deadly Crush, 





and Deep Fried Death#12 in the Country Store Mysteries.



Check out all my writing.




We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.


Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Classic Cosmopolitan #recipe #memorialDay @vmburns

 VMBURNS: Nothing says summer like a pretty pink Cosmopolitan Cocktail. This one is super easy and great for relaxing on the deck after firing up the grill. Yeah, I still don't have a martini glass, but the Cosmo still tasted great.









CLASSIC COSMOPOLITAN


  • INGREDIENTS

2 Ounces Vodka

1 1/2 Cointreau or Orange liqueur

1 Ounces Cranberry Juice

1 Tablespoon Lime juice


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Combine all of the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice.
  2. Shake to combine and strain into a glass.







READERS:  What's your favorite Memorial Day meal? Leave me a comment below.  




    THE NEXT DEADLY CHAPTER


    All Sam wanted was to make a good impression on her fiancé Frank’s mother, the very proper Dr. Camilia Patterson. But when Nano Jo and the lively ladies of Shady Acres Retirement Village throw a surprise bridal shower for Sam at the Four Feathers Casino—watch out! Things spin out of control faster than a roulette wheel. Fortunately, Sam knows when to fold ’em and slips back to her room to work on her latest historical mystery set between the wars, in which a houseguest meets a grim end at an English country manor.
     
    The morning after brings another rude surprise. Sam gets a frantic call from Camilia, who’s discovered a dead body in her room. Now winning over her soon-to-be mother-in-law means keeping the good doctor out of a potential scandal and attempting to discreetly solve a murder without ruffling any feathers. For that she’ll need the help of Nano Jo—not exactly the soul of discretion—Detective “Stinky” Pitt, and the ladies—because the casino killer keeps upping the ante. . .


Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Cheesecake Eggrolls #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

Libby Klein Three times a year I have an event that I've pledged to make snacks for. Two times a year that event is cancelled after I've made the promised snacks. This is the first time I was happy to keep the snacks for myself. These are very easy to make and absolutely delicious. One tip I would give that I have a hard time following for myself - less is better than more. I definitely have the overstuffed mentality. Overstuffing these cheesecake eggrolls will only serve to cause leakage and explosions. So I've been told. 

Apparently, you can make these in an air fryer - but I have no idea how. I've missed the whole air fryer moment and I don't know how to use them. Let me know in the comments if you are pro-air fryer, pro-deep fryer, or pro no-fryer.


cherry cheesecake eggrolls


Cheesecake Eggrolls
Yield 8 eggrolls

Ingredients  

8 ounces cream cheese softened
1 tablespoon lemon zest
½ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 can pie filling of your choice. I used cherry and blueberry.
8 egg roll wrappers 
Canola oil for frying

Instructions 

In a small mixing bowl, combine softened cream cheese, lemon peel, sugar and lemon juice until well combined. Scoop into a pastry bag.



Lay out the egg roll wrappers in a diamond shame and pipe a line of cheesecake mixture across the wrapper. Add 2 tablespoons of pie filling on top of the cheesecake mixture.

 

Using water and a pastry brush, wet the edges of the wrapper and roll up tightly ensuring the edges are sealed well. Place the eggrolls in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.

 


Preheat oil to 350°F and fry in small batches until brown and crispy (about 5-6 minutes).



Serve warm. Reheat in the oven – not the microwave.


Here they are halfway through frying them - all lined up with nowhere to go.


I forgot to take the picture before they were all eaten.


Vice and Virtue


Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this ​unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.


Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.

After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .

Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .

Silly Libby
Libby Klein writes ridiculously funny murder mysteries from her Northern Virginia office with a very naughty calico Persian named Miss Eliza Doolittle, and a sweet black Lab named Vader. She can name that tune for 70s and 80s rock in the first few notes, and she's translated her love of classic rock into her Layla Virtue Mysteries. Libby was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that prevents her from eating gluten without exploding. Because bread is one of her love languages, she includes the recipes for gluten free goodies in her Cape May based Poppy McAllister series. Most of her hobbies revolve around travel, and eating, and eating while traveling. She insists she can find her way to any coffee shop anywhere in the world, even while blindfolded. Follow all of her nonsense on her website www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/



Tuesday, May 20, 2025

BLT Salad with Jalapeno Aioli -- #recipe by @Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I love discovering new dishes when we travel, then recreating them at home. I also love exploring old buildings given new life. When Mr. Right and I were in Hilo, Hawai’i last winter, we scratched both itches with a delicious dinner at Temple, a bistro-casual restaurant in an old Masonic temple on the edge of downtown.

He had oysters and ahi carpaccio, that is, thinly sliced. I had the BLT Salad with Jalapeno Aioli, and knew right away that I wanted to recreate it at home. Some readers and friends wonder how to do that. Here’s one illustration.

The first step for me was to identify the ingredients, made easy in this case because the menu was very specific. Essentially, the salad is a deconstruction of a BLT—the sandwich reimagined, with a few surprising additions like the jalapeno aioli and the pumpkin seeds. You might be surprised by pumpkin seeds, but winter squash and their seeds are common in Hawaiian cooking.



A few shots from the Hilo Saturday Market

Next, I looked at how the salad was constructed. The greens were tossed with the aioli and placed in the bottom of a large bowl, with the rest of the ingredients on top.

The bacon was the biggest challenge. It was chunks, maybe 3/4 to an inch square. It appeared to be slices that had been stacked and cooked. Stacked and cut, I wondered, or stacked, cooked, and then cut? We bake bacon, rather than fry it, so it was easy to try both on the same pan. What worked best was to stack 3 slices, press them a bit to stick the slices together, then cut them, before baking.

And the bread? Croutonish, but large pieces with a crunchy-soft texture. I suspected a classic country bread, with a hint of rye to it—I’m no bread expert and don’t bake much bread these days, but I used to make a country loaf with a little rye and recognized the flavor and texture. I suspected the croutons had been cut and baked that day; any earlier and they would have dried out. Before I made the salad, I happened to be in Costco and spotted their country loaf. We don’t buy bread often, but that loaf called to me. It was so perfectly what I remembered that I suspect the Temple kitchen staff shop at Costco, too! 

What was the grated cheese? I didn’t remember, but found the answer in Temple’s online menu: smoked gouda. My grocery had smoked gouda with chunks of bacon. Sold! Any semi-firm cheese you like will do—we’ve strayed a far piece from the classic BLT by adding cheese, so have what you like! Remember that a semi-firm cheese like gouda will grate more easily if you toss it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes first. 

Now for the jalapeno aioli. I found a recipe online for a cilantro-jalapeno aioli and adapted it. I can’t swear it’s exactly what I had in Hilo, but so close and so yummy that I’m sold. Jalapenos are the mildest of the “hot” peppers, but their heat level can vary, so taste with care as you make the dressing and use only what you and your diners will like. 

We loved our winter sojourn in the Sandwich Islands—the perfect place to discover this dish—but I’m glad we don’t have to wait for another trip to enjoy this salad. And I’m delighted to share it with you.

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

BLT Salad with Jalapeno Aioli 


Amounts make dressing for 4 servings, meal-sized salad for 2. Use leftover dressing for another salad later in the week, with freshly cooked bacon and fresh croutons. 

For the aioli: 

3/4 cup mayonnaise

½ cup firmly packed fresh cilantro leaves

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

1 ½ garlic cloves, sliced or roughly chopped 

1-1/2 tablespoons lime juice 

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste


For the salad:

2 slices country bread (or so—loaf slices vary)

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds 

4-6 slices bacon

4 cups mixed greens

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

3 ounces smoked gouda, grated


To make the dressing: 

Blend mayonnaise, cilantro, jalapeño, garlic, lime juice, cumin, and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth. (I used an immersion blender.) Refrigerate about 1 hour, to allow flavors to blend. 



To make the salad: 

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut or tear the bread into large croutons, at least 1" square or larger. Toast bread and pumpkin seeds at different ends of one pan or in separate pans for about 10 minutes. (Using separate pans allows you to judge the doneness separately and remove one ingredient from the oven if it’s ready before the other.) Remember that you want your croutons firm but not crispy.


Increase the heat to 350 degrees. Stack, press, and cut the slices into 1" squares. Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment until crisp, 10-15 minutes. 



Place greens in individual salad bowls and toss with dressing. Top with the croutons, seeds, bacon chunks, tomatoes, and gouda. Spoon a little additional dressing on top, if you’d like.




And enjoy your deconstructed trip to Hawaii!

Do you have a favorite dish you've encountered while traveling or in a restaurant close to home that you've been inspired to make at home? Do tell!




At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!


ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!


Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.