Strawberry Cream Pie with Chocolate Crust

LUCY BURDETTE: One of our favorite restaurants in Key West is called Seven Fish. The place actually has quite a cameo in the opening chapter of AN APPETITE FOR MURDER. 

After sampling the sautéed grouper sushi rolls, the yellowtail snapper in a light curry cream sauce, the grilled mahi-mahi with roasted potatoes, the meatloaf, and the banana chicken, Hayley and her dining partner can't bear the idea of ordering dessert.

Frankly, I think this was a big mistake because I would hate to miss their strawberry cream pie. I studied it last time I had it and it seemed to be mostly whipped cream and berries--and a chocolate crust of course. I decided to see if I could make a version that approximated their delightful confection. Off we go!

Ingredients for the crust:

1 package chocolate graham crackers, crushed to crumbs (about 1 and 1/4 cups)
4 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp sugar

Whir the crackers to fine crumbs--in your food processor is easiest. Stir in the sugar and melted butter and combine well. Press the crumb mixture into a pie pan (mine is 10 inches) and tap it firmly up the sides of the pan into a crust, using your fingers, the back of a spoon, or a water glass. Bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350 and let it cool.




Ingredients for the filling:1 and 1/2 lb Strawberries (I would not make this unless it's close to strawberry season)
2 cups whipping cream
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered Sugar

 


Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries, and then set them aside. In one bowl, whip the cream cheese. In another, whip the cream and the vanilla until stiff. Add the sugar and whip that in. Gradually mix the cream cheese with the whipped cream until it's all nicely combined. (You may cut back on the sugar if you prefer the dessert even less sweet--and depending on how ripe your strawberries are.) 

In the chocolate crust, alternate a layer of strawberries with a layer of whipped cream, ending with the third layer of strawberries, artistically arranged. 


Chill thoroughly. Serve and sit back to watch your guests swoon.



TOPPED CHEF will be on bookshelves on May 7 with more Key West adventures and food...In the meanwhile, you can preorder the book here.  

And click here to follow Lucy on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest .

Oscar Worthy Guacamole with Blue Cheese

This post is a bit eclectic. I think it might be because I’m in editing mode and my thoughts are not coming out fluidly. Bear with me.

CHEESE SHOP MYSTERIES:

Though I have nowhere near Sheila’s great NYT coup (2 weeks in a row and counting – congrats, Sheila) I did have good numbers for TO BRIE OR NOT TO BRIE overall, and my editor is thrilled. In the first week, the book was #10 on the Barnes and Noble Mystery Mass Market bestseller list, #31 on the BandN Overall Fiction Mass Market bestseller list, and #24 on the Bookscan Mystery Mass Market bestseller list. The second week, each of those numbers dropped by only 1. Whee. Thank you to everyone who purchased the book. Thank you to those who might have written a lovely review. If you're so inclined, good reviews are truly appreciated!

COOKBOOK NOOK MYSTERIES:

Last week, I asked for help with a slogan for the new COOKBOOK NOOK MYSTERIES that will come out in July. I was overwhelmed with the response. Again, thank you, everyone. You really came up with good ideas. I have combined a couple to make the final choice. Because there were so many entries, I decided to give away to goodie bags of swag. The winners: Chèli and Wendy!  The final slogan is below.

By the way, I’m writing the second in this series. [I just turned in the final edits for the first: FINAL SENTENCE.] In the second, INHERIT THE WIND, The Cookbook Nook is hosting a grilled cheese festival. Yum! While searching online, I found this fun grilled cheese jigsaw puzzle that you can put puzzles together digitally. Enjoy!

Link: http://www.jigidi.com/puzzle.php?id=O1N7W9SL

THE OSCARS (I told you this was eclectic...)

Did you watch? We did. We enjoyed so many aspects. I always like the singing and dancing. I love the tribute to those artists and contributors that have passed away in the last year. I wasn't a fan of the opening monologue. In fact, I didn't like the host at all. Shoot. Why can't we have Billy Crystal all the time?

We had a couple of friends over and had a pool where each person chose his/her winners. 20 categories. (We didn’t do all of the categories. Who knows which animated short deserved to win...really.)

When I invite friends over, I love to try new appetizer recipes. This time, I chose a guacamole from a cookbook. I found it in the Food and Wine Best of the Best 2012.  It’s inspired by a version of guacamole from this cookbook: Truly Mexican.

AVOCADO AND BLUE CHEESE GUACAMOLE

Ala Food  and Wine Best of the Best 2012

The best recipes from the 25 Best Cookbooks of the year

Inspired by a version from

Truly Mexican by Santibañez, Goode & Wiseman

Ingredients:

1 avocado, large

2 tablespoons chopped white onion

2 jalapeño chiles, diced fine

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Meyer lemon juice

3 ounces Point Reyes Blue cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Mash avocado.  Chop the onion and mince the chiles. Add to the avocado. Add the salt, the lemon juice, and half of the crumbled blue cheese.  [This is one of the richest blue cheeses I’ve ever tasted. Yum!] Whip together.

Set in a serving bowl. Top with more blue cheese.

*The recipe from Truly Mexican included ¼ cup chopped smoked almonds. They used lime juice instead of Meyer lemon juice. And they added cilantro. They used a total of 3 tablespoons of the cheese. I about doubled that.

And now, back to my new slogan…the envelope please:

Savor the Mystery

I hope future fans like it. It speaks to me.

* * * * * * *

Daryl Wood Gerber also writes as Avery Aames, 

author of the Agatha Award-winning,

nationally bestselling CHEESE SHOP MYSTERY SERIES 

The 1st in A Cookbook Nook Mystery series is coming July 2013!!

FINAL SENTENCE.

You can pre-order the book HERE.

The 4th in A Cheese Shop Mystery series is out! 

TO BRIE OR NOT TO BRIE
You can order the book HERE. 

You can learn more about me, Daryl by clicking this LINK. "Like" my page on Facebook and "follow" me on Twitter. And if you haven't done so, sign up for the mailing list

 so you can learn about upcoming events, releases, and contests! Also, you probably know by now about my alter ego, Avery Aames. Chat with Avery on Facebook and Twitter.

No-Guilt Comfort Food (A Healthier Potato Side Dish) from Cleo Coyle




Potatoes are one of my favorite comfort foods, and with the cold temperatures and gray skies of winter still hanging on here in New York, I'm up for all the comfort I can get! Marc (my husband and partner in crime writing) is a mashed potato fiend. Unfortunately, peeling, boiling, and mashing potatoes with butter and cream leaves us with high carbs, low fiber, and not much nutrition.

My solution has become one of my favorite quick-and-easy side dishes for dinner: garlic-carrot mashed potatoes. They're beautiful, bringing a spectacular golden-orange color to your plate, and they're delicious in the extreme. 

Cleo Coyle, comfort
food craver, is author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Of course, a great added bonus here are the health benefits from the garlic and carrots (more fiber and vitamins). I also leave the potato skins on for more nutrition. There is no milk or cream in the recipe, so it can be made Vegan or Kosher by replacing the butter with margarine.

The best part (especially for comfort food lovers): This recipe doesn't taste like mashed carrots. It produces a creamy, garlicky, delicious mashed potato experience, one that I certainly hope you will eat with joy...

~ Cleo

Cleo Coyle's
No-Guilt (Healthier)
Mashed Potatoes

Another thing I like about this recipe—besides the creamy, flavorful taste and added nutrition of carrots, garlic, and potato skins—are the proportions. The amounts are very easy to commit to memory for whipping up a "from-scratch" dinner side dish fast: 3 Potatoes + 3 Carrots + 3 Cloves Garlic + 3 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine = 3 Cups of No-Guilt Mashed Potatoes...

(Enough to serve 4)

To download this recipe in a PDF document than you can print, save, or share, click here.





INGREDIENTS: 

3 medium white potatoes*, scrubbed, skins on (about one pound)
3 large carrots, peeled and diced (about 8 ounces)
3 Cloves Garlic 
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine 
1 tsp. salt 
+ salt and pepper to taste

*What kind of potatoes?: White potatoes are the best for creamy, smooth, delicious tasting mashed potatoes. Yukon gold will work, as well. But do not use russet potatoes, the results will not be as appealing.

METHOD:

Step 1: Prep the veggies - Peel and dice the carrots into one-half inch rings. Cut the potatoes into sections about one-half inch thick, halving the sections again if too large. Peel and chop the garlic. 

Step 2: Start by boiling carrots alone - Carrots take longer to cook than potatoes so you're going to give them a head start. Bring a large saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Add the peeled and diced carrots, return to boil for 8 minutes, uncovered. 

Step 3: Add potatoes and garlic - After adding these ingredients, return the pot to a boil and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, uncovered, or until potatoes and carrots are soft enough to mash. 

Step 4: Drain well, add butter, and mash - Pour the cooked veggies and garlic into a strainer and make sure water is well drained. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add butter or margarine and mash. Marc and I use a traditional hand-masher. Then, for a creamy finish, we whisk briskly with a fork until smooth (about 30 seconds). Salt and pepper to taste. (You can also go techno and use a hand-stick or immersion blender or throw everything into a food processor.)


Marc and I still use a hand masher. But a
hand stick (aka immersion) blender will
work great, too.

  

Our secret to making roughly mashed potatoes into
smoothly whipped is a vigorous 30-second beating
in a deep bowl with a simple fork.

And now we're ready to...

Eat with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle 

New York Times bestselling author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Friend me on facebook here
Follow me on twitter here.

Visit my online coffeehouse here.

To view the
Coffeehouse Mystery
book trailer, click here.

 

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling

works of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark
Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the
12 titles includes the added bonus of recipes.  

 

The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure

Book #1 of 
The Haunted Bookshop
Mysteries, which Cleo writes
under the name
Alice Kimberly
To learn more, click here.

Fabulous Chicken -- Quick!

Everyone has busy days when dinner is more of an afterthought than anything else. I'd been looking around for a quick chicken recipe with mushrooms, but everything seemed heavy or involved cream or sour cream or a tomato sauce. And then I found exactly what I had in mind.

When I was away at school, my mom always made Julia Child's chicken supreme for my first night home. It was my absolute favorite. But Julia also made chicken breasts in the oven. I've done it many times. So easy, you start it on the stove top, then shove it in the oven to finish it.

Tyler Florence used that technique exactly the way I wanted. Easy, light, no heavy creams, no tomato sauce. I tried his recipe with five chicken breasts and a ton of mushrooms. Oh dear. Mushroom overload. Delicious chicken, cooked to perfection, moist and juicy. But too many mushrooms.

So this weekend, on a very long, busy day, I made it again, sticking closer to Tyler Florence's measurements. Naturally, I changed a few things to suit me. He used shallots, I used garlic. He used fresh sprigs of rosemary. I substituted sage. He used white mushrooms, I used Cremini. Clearly you can play with the ingredients to suit your taste. It's so good that it might start being my go-to recipe for guests on busy days.

Why so busy? If you read our 2013 bucket lists, you might remember that I was looking for a dog. This weekend I adopted Baron, aka Bear. Darling, sweet, energetic, wriggling -- the dog who never sleeps! Pictures to come, provided I can get him to sit still long enough.

Mushroom Chicken

(based on recipes by Julia Child and Tyler Florence)

2 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper (I used Pensey's Lemon Pepper)
1 joined chicken breast (really 2) or two small separated chicken breasts, skinless
5 Cremini mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
3 pinches sage
1/4 cup water
1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350. Pour olive oil in an oven safe pan and heat on the stove top just below medium heat. Salt and pepper the chicken generously. Saute it in the olive oil on each side until the top and bottom have turned white.

Cut the mushrooms in half. Crush, but don't mince the garlic. Add the mushrooms, garlic and sage to the pan. Cover and place in oven for 15 minutes.


HANG POTHOLDER ON OVEN DOOR so you won't forget that the pan handle will be hot.

Remove from oven and place chicken, mushrooms and garlic on a plate. Add the water and lemon juice from 1/2 lemon to the juices in the pan. Cook about 5 minutes, until reduced. Pour over chicken and serve.

Not the best picture since his eyes are closed. But look who is sneaking up to his tail!