KIM DAVIS: Please give a warm welcome to our guest, Paula Charles (who also writes as Janna Rollins)! I had the opportunity to meet Paula in person at the Left Coast Crime conference in San Francisco earlier this year. I enjoyed getting to know her and I can attest that her books are just as delightful and charming as she is! And a huge congratulations to Paula on her brand new release, Awl Shook Up. Be sure to read all the way through to find out how you can win a copy.
🍝 🍝 🍝
PAULA CHARLES: Thank you so much to Kim Davis for inviting me to Mystery
Lovers' Kitchen, and to the rest of the gang for hosting me. I’m delighted to
be here!
Several times throughout the summer, our kids, grandkids, and granddogs turn our house into rowdy, laughing central. My chunky spaghetti meat sauce feeds a crowd, and is easily doubled when a few of my siblings show up, too.
In the newest book in my Hometown Hardware Mysteries, Awl Shook Up, the townsfolk of Pine Bluff, Oregon are ready to shake off the February chill at the high school’s Winter Carnival and Spaghetti Feed, so I thought this recipe was a fun tie-in.
Just a note before we tie on our aprons: you’ll probably notice that my recipe doesn’t include any garlic. I used to cook with garlic by the truckloads, but a few years ago found out it is one of the things I’m allergic to. Feel free to throw as much diced garlic as you want in along with the other aromatics!
Chunky Spaghetti Meat Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Beef
½ lb. fresh Mushrooms, sliced
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
4 Green Onions, chopped
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 cans Tomato Sauce (15 oz. each)
1 can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (15 oz.)
1 bunch fresh Basil, chopped
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Crushed Rosemary
½ tsp. dried Oregano
Spaghetti Noodles of choice
Parmesan Cheese
Directions:
Rinse and chop the mushrooms, bell pepper, green onions, and
basil, keeping the basil separate from the aromatics.
In a Dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
Once oil is hot, add the aromatics – mushrooms, bell pepper, and green onions. Here is where you would add garlic if you are going to use it. Sauté until mushrooms have cooked down a bit. About 5 minutes.
Add hamburger to aromatics, breaking up and cooking until burger is browned.
Drain in a colander, and then toss back into the Dutch oven.
Stir in the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.
Add in the chopped basil, salt, rosemary, and oregano. Stir well to combine.
Bring to a bubbling boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.
Prepare your favorite spaghetti noodles, and serve your yummy sauce over the noodles with a heaping handful of parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
Murder has hardware store owner Dawna Carpenter all shook up.
Pine Bluff, Oregon’s annual Winter Carnival is the perfect remedy for the cabin fever that has hit the town hard. Dawna pulls on her bobby socks for this year’s 50s-themed event, ready to relax and mingle after a long winter.
But with the angry high school French teacher spitting nails at half the town, the social event of the winter is anything but relaxing. What should have been a fun evening ends in disaster when Dawna’s daughter, April, finds the teacher sitting behind his desk, dead as a doornail. To make matters worse, his ghost is still in the classroom, unaware he’s just been murdered. With an ice storm in the forecast, Dawna must chisel out the clues to find the killer before there’s another nail in a coffin.
Pine Bluff, Oregon’s annual Winter Carnival is the perfect remedy for the cabin fever that has hit the town hard. Dawna pulls on her bobby socks for this year’s 50s-themed event, ready to relax and mingle after a long winter.
But with the angry high school French teacher spitting nails at half the town, the social event of the winter is anything but relaxing. What should have been a fun evening ends in disaster when Dawna’s daughter, April, finds the teacher sitting behind his desk, dead as a doornail. To make matters worse, his ghost is still in the classroom, unaware he’s just been murdered. With an ice storm in the forecast, Dawna must chisel out the clues to find the killer before there’s another nail in a coffin.
About the author: When Paula Charles isn’t writing, you can find her reading and baking in her 125-year-old house by the sea. She is the author of the Hometown Hardware Mysteries, as well as the Zen Goat Mysteries written as Janna Rollins, both cozy mysteries. She has six grown children, and a gaggle of grandkids. Paula lives on the Washington coast with her extremely patient husband, and maybe a ghost or two.
Website/Newsletter: https://www.paulacharles.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profilephp?id=61556817479811
Facebook Murder, They Write Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/451857037689554
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulacharlesbooks/
BookBub: Paula Charles Books - BookBub
Buy Link: https://www.paulacharles.com/services-6
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profilephp?id=61556817479811
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulacharlesbooks/
BookBub: Paula Charles Books - BookBub
G I V E A W A Y
Readers, what is your go-to meal when you have a large crowd to feed?
To enter, comment
below for a chance to win a signed copy of Awl Shook Up! Be sure to Include your email (yourname at yourserver dot com) in the comment. (I’m
so sorry to have to limit it to U.S. residents only. That international
shipping is no joke!) Contest open through August 18, 2026.
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