Chilly, Creamy Eggnog Latte Cocktail for a Happy New Year and #bookgiveaway fun from Cleo Coyle

You can drink this creamy, chilly
Eggnog Latte cocktail two ways.

When you tilt and sip the drink, magic happens.
The heavier density Kahlua flows through the layers of eggnog, whipped cream and nutmeg, pulling all of those flavors into your mouth for an amazing drink.

Or...

You can use the cinnamon stick to stir the drink
(after admiring the pretty layers) and enjoy
the cocktail that way.

Either way, it's heavenly!

"Make Your Own Kahlua,"
one of the many recipes in
Billionaire Blend. Click here
to download the free Recipe
Guide in PDF form.

The flavor of coffee in this "Eggnog Latte" cocktail comes from Kahlua, a rum-based coffee liqueur that's rich, sweet, and smooth.

Make Your Own Kahlua

Did you know you can make your own coffee liqueur? It's actually a very easy and fun process. 

For those of you reading my new culinary mystery, Billionaire Blend, you can find my favorite recipe for homemade Kahlua in the back of the book. 

(Click here to download a free guide to the book's recipe section. A thumbnail image of its cover is pictured to the right.)

Now let's start making our
New Year Happy...

Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse
Mysteries

Cleo's Chilly, Creamy 
Eggnog Latte Cocktail

Ingredients:

Chilled Eggnog
Chilled Kahlua (or make your own coffee liqueur)*
Cold Whipped Cream
Ground Nutmeg
Cinnamon Stick

*As mentioned, you can find a recipe to make your own Kahlua in Billionaire Blend.

Directions: 

(1) Start with a pretty, clear glass for presentation. A stemless snifter, stemless wine glass, or clear tumbler will work nicely.

(2) Pour in a few fingers of Kahlua (or your favorite coffee liqueur), enough to give you a thick visual layer.

(3) Tilt the glass and position the spout of the eggnog carton against the rim, as shown. (If using homemade eggnog, place it in a container with a spout, such as a glass measuring cup.)

(4) Pour in the eggnog very slowly, as shown. Use the side of the glass to slow the pour even more and prevent it from mixing with the Kahlua.

(5) Because eggnog is made with cream, it's lighter in density than the Kahlua, which is why it will float. Continue pouring until you have a nice, visible layer. 

How thick a layer of eggnog is up to your own taste. I like my eggnog layer to resemble the head on a dark beer--or the crema on a freshly pulled espresso.

(6) Finish with a festive shot of whipped cream, a sprinkling of ground nutmeg, and a cinnamon stick.

Get 3 More Layered Drink Recipes...

For more layered drink recipes and
additional tips and tricks on
layering drinks
(including 2 how-to videos),
click here. 

My New
Newsletter is out!

* 2 contests with book giveaways
(and other fun prizes)
* New Year Recipes * Bestseller news
* Wolverine coffee * "Mathemagic"
* And something new for my
Haunted Bookshop Mystery fans...
"Jack's Corner"

Hot off
the press!

To read my new newsletter, and get the

the links for the book giveaways and

other fun features, write an e-mail

that says "Sign me up" and send it to...

CoffeehouseMystery@gmail(dot)com

You will receive an auto-reply with links 

to my last 2 newsletters.

Happy
New Year!

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Yes, this is me, Cleo (aka Alice). 

Friend me on facebook here.

Follow me on twitter here. 

Visit my online coffeehouse here.

 

Gorgonzola Cookies? Yes, Yes, Yes!

Among the lovely treats we received for Christmas this year, were Gorgonzola cookies. Sounds unlikely, doesn't it? I know I don't think of Gorgonzola in cookies. They were so wonderful that we had to have the recipe! These savory cookies have an almost melt-in-your mouth kind of texture.

The original recipe is by Julie Gunter and was published in Christmas with Southern Living 2001, by Oxmoor House. But our friend replaced the walnuts with pecans. Now, I have to say that I never would have thought about combining Gorgonzola and pecans, but she was so right – it turns out that they're fabulous together!

I made the cookies right away and plan to serve them on New Year's Eve with other appetizers. I suspect they'd be very popular at Bowl Game gatherings.

The recipe calls for the dough to be packed into two rolls, refrigerated, and sliced into cookies. They're quite charming that way. But I tried rolling them out. The dough was surprisingly cooperative, so I skipped the refrigeration. I rolled them out in small batches on parchment paper so I wouldn't have to add any flour. It worked beautifully. I used little leaf and acorn cookie cutters so that they're one bite cookies.

As an experiment, I dusted some with sweet Hungarian paprika for color. To be honest, I can't tell any difference in the flavor but it did dress them up a little bit.

Gorgonzola Pecan Cookies

based on a recipe by Julie Gunter

3/4 cup pecans
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
sweet Hungarian paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Toast the pecans in the oven for about 10 minutes. Using a food processor, grind the pecans until tiny. Add the flour, salt, and pepper and pulse to mix. Add the cold butter and pulse until integrated. Add the Gorgonzola cheese and pulse until the dough begins to stick together in clumps.

Either shape them into two rolls and refrigerate until firm enough to cut into 1/4 inch slices – or – roll out in small amounts on parchment paper and cut with a cookie cutter.

Optional: sprinkle with sweet Hungarian paprika.

Bake on parchment paper or an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Pulse until the dough holds together in clumps.

Roll out on parchment paper, or make rolls and cut into cookies.

Half are sprinkled with sweet Hungarian paprika.

Savory Gogonzola Pecan Cookies!

Salted Caramel Sauce and a New Year’s Wish

We are delighted to welcome home Wendy Watson, who is now also known as Annie Knox. She has a brand, spanking new series debuting on January 7th with PAWS FOR MURDER! We wish you enormous success with the Pet Boutique Mysteries, Annie!

And now, take it away Annie~



Thank you to Krista and the rest of the Kitchen crew for letting me join you all today. As a former regular member, if feels good to be back.



The Christmas trees, menorahs, and Festivus poles have all been packed away for the year, and we’re about to flip the calendar to 2014. Traditionally, New Year’s is a time for reflection on the year gone by and a chance to resolve to make the next year even better.



In my world, 2013 was A-OK. My husband and I started the year by celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary and renewing our vows. Sigh. Very romantic. Summer brought a long and goofy road trip with two of my best friends. The rest of the year was filled with my day job (which I happen to love) and writing (two new books, and one heck of an edit on a third). Really, it’s been a great year.



The new year promises to be as fun and busy as the last. I’m planning trips to both Romantic Times and Malice Domestic, and my friends and I are recreating that road trip. What’s more, I have three books coming out (both Paws for Murder and Groomed for Murder in the Pet Boutique Mystery series, and a funny, edgy mystery that has yet to be named).



Sounds like fun, right?



It is, but I know that a great year requires a lot of effort: prioritizing tasks, balancing work and play, and most importantly, making time for friends and family.



That is my New Year’s wish: that I find—no, MAKE—the time in my busy schedule to grab lunch or a glass of wine with my girlfriends every week, to make my husband feel as loved as he makes me feel, to call my mom and my sister on a more regular basis. Friends and family aren’t just for special occasions like holidays and road trips. They’re the backbone of a happy and balanced life.



One thing I do with my friends is eat. I’m officially the Bringer of Dessert, but I don’t always have time to make a pie or a layer cake or a flourless chocolate torte. But I always have time to whip up this caramel sauce. It’s wonderful on ice cream (as pictured, being poured over coffee Heath bar crunch), but it’s wonderfully versatile: use is as a dip for a dessert fondue of pound cake and fresh fruit, pour it over cheesecake, swirl a little in your coffee … well, you get the picture.



Five Minute Salted Caramel Sauce



4 Tbs. butter

1 c. light brown sugar

2/3 c. heavy cream

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. rum extract (optional)

1 tsp. medium flake sea salt (optional)



Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and whisk until the mixture is well combined, thick, and slightly shiny (about 2 minutes).



Whisk in cream and continue to cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture starts to bubble (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk in extract(s) and salt.



Allow to cool before serving.

Bio: Annie Knox writes the Pet Boutique Mysteries for NAL. The first in the series, Paws for Murder will be out on January 7, and the second, Groomed for Murder, is scheduled for a September release. The series follows Izzy McHale, owner of Trendy Tails, a pet boutique in Merryville, Minnesota. Merryville has a pretty high body count, but Izzy and her friends and family are ready to solve the crimes that keep dropping into their lives.



Annie also writes as Wendy Lyn Watson. You can find them both on the web (annieknoxauthor.com and wendylynwatson.com) and on Facebook (/annieknoxauthor and /wendylynwatson)

Welcome our guest, Vicki Delany

We're very happy to have our good friend, the highly entertaining Vicki Delany visiting at Mystery Lovers Kitchen. Vicki is a prolific author and a well-known whiz in the kitchen. Today she offers a wonderful alternative to all that holiday food.  Today, she is celebrating the release of Gold Web, her latest book.  Check out the gorgeous cover after the recipe.

Pork Hocks with Navy Beans

It’s the week after Christmas. You’re sick of turkey and vast amounts of rich, expensive foods. Time for something plain and hearty. Good peasant comfort food for a cold dark winter’s night.

Depending on the size of the hocks, this will serve three – four people.

Ingredients

2 hefty pork hocks, scored
3 tablespoons olive oil
One onion, chopped
One red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup navy beans, rinsed, picked over, soaked overnight and drained

4 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt

 

Directions
In a large, heavy stockpot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the pork hocks, onions, bell pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, thyme and bay leaves, and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the stock and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

 

Add the navy beans and stir. Continue simmering over medium-low heat for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the beans are almost cooked and hocks are very tender. Season with salt and continue cooking 15 to 30 minutes, until beans are done and hocks are beginning to fall apart.

Meat will be very tender and can easily be removed from the bone for serving.  

 

Nice served with a strong sautéed vegetable 

such as kale or Brussels sprouts. 

Were you the lucky recipient of a gift certificate for the holidays? Why not treat yourself to Gold Web, the fourth in Vicki’s Klondike Gold Rush series, released this week by Dundurn Press.

Vicki Delany is the author of the Constable Molly Smith Series, the Klondike Gold Rush series, and standalone gothic thrillers. Visit Vicki at www.vickidelany.com , www.facebook.com/vicki.delany, and twitter: @vickidelany. She blogs about the writing life at One Woman Crime Wave (http://klondikeandtrafalgar.blogspot.com)

Apple Crumble with Brown Bread Crumbs

by Sheila Connolly

Okay, it’s two days after Christmas and you’re just plain cooked out.  You’re still eating leftovers, and may be for another week.  Maybe you’re even pizza-ed out too.

But I want comfort food, and that usually means dessert, and particularly one with apples.  No, not a pie, with those pesky crusts, which I still can’t make.  I want a crisp, a slump, a grunt, a Brown Betty, or call it what you will.  Often in Ireland and the UK it’s called a crumble.  I kind of like that. I know, you’ve seen a million of these, but there’s always room for one more, right?

A Bramley apple--it must have weighed a pound

I think I decided on this recipe because I wanted to share with you the picture of a single Bramley apple that I bought (and used!) in Ireland recently.  I like Bramleys, the green cooking apple used in a lot of English and Irish cooking.  It’s nicely tart and it holds its shape in cooking.  And if you use big ones, you don’t have to peel so many.

 

But then, I have the heel of a loaf of Irish brown bread that I made, that I wanted to use up.  Just like with the pie crusts, I am brown-bread challenged, even though I have at least a dozen recipes from many sources.  I just can’t seem to get it right, but I keep trying.  Anyway, this loaf came out with a strong resemblance to concrete, and (no surprise) we didn’t eat all of it.  So I figured, aha! I shall crumble it up and use it with apples. (I did a dry run of this in Ireland—with bread that someone else made.)

Except I couldn’t find a recipe.  I found many that had the same basic ingredients for the topping:  cold butter, flour, cinnamon, often oats and/or chopped walnuts.  All tasty, I’m sure, but not what I wanted.

So I improvised:  first, I reduced that megalithic brown bread to medium-size crumbs (in a food processor).  Then I segued to the typical recipe and where you mix the crumble part with your fingers with brown sugar and butter.  Cinnamon if you’re in the mood. 

 

The fruit bit.  Take some apples, peel and slice or chop into chunks.  Toss with sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Place in a buttered casserole dish, then sprinkle the aforesaid crumble over them.  Bake.

In a fit of optimism I bought two pounds of fresh cranberries a while ago (we live a mile from the nearest cranberry bog) but never used them, since we were a couple of thousand miles away on Thanksgiving.  They’re hanging in there, so I threw in a cup or two of those too.  If you do, increase the amount of sugar in the fruit mixture, since the cranberries are a bit sour. It's up to you. If the result is still too tart, add sweetened whipped cream at the end.

Fresh local cranberries

 

APPLE CRUMBLE

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Generously butter a 2-quart casserole or baking dish.

Filling

2 pounds cooking apples (greenings, granny smiths, or whatever you have—I used Cortlands and Northern Spys from my own trees!)

 

Two pounds of my own apples

 

1/2 cup white sugar

1 Tblsp white flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1/2 pound fresh cranberries (optional)

In a large bowl, toss the ingredients to cover the fruit pieces, then transfer to the baking dish.

 

Crumble

2 cups (brown) bread crumbs, (if you’re not using crumbs, substitute rolled oats and/or chopped walnuts)

4 oz/1 stick cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup brown sugar, packed

¾ cup white flour

½ tsp cinnamon

 

Mix all the ingredients together with your fingers—the mixture will be chunky.  Sprinkle it over the fruit.

 

Ready for the oven

 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the juices bubble around the edges and the top is nicely browned.  Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, or whatever you like.

 

And ready to eat!

 

Coming in February 2014!  If you're a fan of Downton Abbey and/or classic mysteries where all is explained in the final scene in the drawing room over tea, you'll enjoy this.

And may 2014 be filled with wonderful things for you.

 

 

 

Peanut Butter Cookies with a Kick @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE:  I looovvvveee peanut butter cookies. So of course I made the roll-up recipe that Cleo gave us a month or two ago. And then I came across a recipe for peanut butter cookies made with Sriracha sauce, which is a hot and spicy sauce that comes from China. This sounded very appealing in a strange kind of way. However, the baker who made this mentioned that two of her taste-testers (who happened to be children), spit the cookies out.

You don't have to be a mystery writer to crack that case: too much hot sauce! I tried the recipe, reducing the hot sauce and increasing the vanilla extract. And I used the store-brand, all-natural, crunchy peanut butter from Publix, which is quite good.

Ingredients
    •    1 cup salted Butter (softened)
    •    1½ cups Crunchy Peanut Butter
    •    1 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
    •    2 Tbsp Sriracha hot sauce
    •    2 Eggs
    •    2 tsp Vanilla extract
    •    2¾ to 3 cups All-Purpose Flour (finished dough should be soft, but not sticky)
    •    1 teaspoon Baking Powder
    •    1½ teaspoons baking soda
    *    1/2 teaspoon salt
    •    Granulated sugar for topping



 In one bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix with a fork.  

In a larger bowl, cream together the peanut butter, butter, and two kinds of sugar. On low speed, beat in the hot sauce, the vanilla, and the eggs. When the batter looks smooth, add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with care. Your batter should be neither dry nor sticky!


Now lay out a piece of parchment paper and glob the batter into a log shape. Using the parchment paper, roll the dough into a real log, tucking the paper under the ends so nothing falls out.

At this point the logs of dough can be frozen in a ziplock bag, or else refrigerated for at least an hour and up to several days.


When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Unwrap the logs and cut them into disks, not too fat and not too thin. 








Place the cookie disks on a baking sheet, dip a fork into granulated sugar and press crisscross lines into the cookies.

Bake for about 8 minutes until the edges are beginning to brown.

One more thing to try: I did freeze some of my logs. When it came time to bake, instead of cutting them into wafers, I rolled them in balls, then sugar. Then I baked as directed, and once they were out of the oven, studded them with Hershey's kisses. Voila: zippy peanut butter blossoms!

Lucy Burdette is the author of the Key West food critic mysteries. MURDER WITH GANACHE will be out on February 4, but you can pre-order it now.

Follow Lucy on Facebook, or Twitter, or Pinterest! She loves it when you pin her stuff:)