Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: 01/01/2016

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Guest Author Elizabeth J. Duncan's Welsh Leek Quiche #Giveaway #Recipe @Elizabethduncan

This is turning into Wales week here in the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen! Today we welcome back our friend Elizabeth J. Duncan, who’s been in Wales since last fall and shows no signs of coming home. Make sure you read to the end to see Elizabeth's giveaway.

Here's Elizabeth with a treat for you!

You probably think of sandwiches when you think of picnics, and quiche when you think of standby fare for lunch or a light supper, but easy-to-make quiche is actually the perfect picnic food. Today we’re making one using that most traditional of Welsh ingredients, the leek, and then we’re taking it on a picnic. Yes, the weather and views in this beautiful country are such that we ramble and picnic in January!

The leek is a national emblem of Wales. According to legend, Saint David, patron saint of Wales, ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the Saxons that took place in a leek field. It is still worn on St David's Day each March 1.

Leek Quiche

You just need a few basic ingredients!

Ingredients

4 oz Cheddar or Gruyere cheese, grated

1 leek, washed and sliced

3 eggs

6 oz milk or cream or a combination of both

salt, pepper

one pie crust, homemade or store bought, cooked

Optional: : Add whatever happens to be in the fridge: mushrooms, bacon … I had some Scottish smoked salmon on hand and added that.

Method

Wash the leek, slice crossways, and sauté gently until soft and fragrant. Do not brown.

Gently saute the leeks

Sprinkle cheese over the bottom of the pie crust (or pastry case as its called in Wales), add the leek which has been allowed to cool slightly. Beat eggs lightly with milk or cream, and salt and pepper, and pour mixture over cheese and leeks.


Ready for the oven!

Bake at 350 until the centre is set, about 25 minutes.

Ready to slice!

Allow to cool, cut into slices and pack for your picnic. Or enjoy on March 1 in celebration of St. David’s Day.

Here's Elizabeth showing us part of her packed 'winter' picnic on a clear day at the base of Mt. Snowdon. What a spectacular view. No wonder she's spending so much time in Wales. Wow!

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Orange Marmalade Salad Dressing #Recipe @Peg Cochran

Like many people, you have probably vowed to eat more leafy greens in the new year. They're so good for you, right? And salads are a great way of getting your daily dose. But sometimes you get tired of the same old, same old. This dressing is a delicious twist on the usual vinegar and oil. Frankly, I'm a bit of a salad dressing snob having grown up with homemade vinaigrette, so I'm not a huge fan of bottled dressing. Things can get a little dull after while, but this dressing really perks things up.

I like to add dried cherries or cranberries to the salad along with mandarin oranges or clementine sections, both of which pair nicely with this dressing. If you don't have a nut allergy, a handful of chopped pecans would also taste good.

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 TBLS orange marmalade
2 TBLS balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
pepper to taste

Shake in a closed jar or whisk in a bowl until blended. Any leftover dressing can be saved for another day.

Gather your ingredients

Measure your ingredients and put in a bowl or jar

Whisk ingredients until emulsified and well combined

I added sliced onions (red onions are especially good), dried cherries and clementines.

Bon Appetit!

Lucille is BACK! Out Now -- A Room with a Pew

One reviewer said: "I love this series. The characters to me are so real that I feel that I might know some of them...It's always a joy to visit with Lucille, her family and friends. This series gives

you a laugh on practically every page."

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Coming May 2016, #2 in my Cranberry Cove Series

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Barnes & Noble

Now available as an audio book. #1 in my Cranberry Cove Series

Amazon

Friday, January 29, 2016

Comfort Cake

by Sheila Connolly

Winter has finally found us, and newscasters are calling this past weekend’s storm “The Blizzard of 2016.” New England, particularly the northern part, got lucky: the storm stopped at Boston. We won’t complain—we had more than our fair share of snow last year.

We stocked up early, before the snow started, and were happy to hunker down in a warm house (with power!) and three cats and the Patriots on the telly. But being snowbound, even voluntarily, brings out the urge in me to cook something. I pulled out a couple of standby recipes—gingerbread and Irish stew (both of which have appeared here), and made both.

Then I decided to think about what said winter “comfort food” to me, from my childhood. There were always cookies on hand (mostly Toll House, from the recipe on the bag), and stews (most often beef). Soups usually came from a Campbell’s can or a Lipton packet. (Sorry, Mother, but you really weren’t into the whole cooking thing, although to be fair my sister and I were always well fed, with healthy fresh ingredients and plenty of vegetables.)

As an experiment, I pulled out the tattered Fanny Farmer cookbook my mother used when she was newly married, and looked to see where it fell open (or more accurately, where most of the stains were). Funny how many of the recipes that were used most often were for desserts—my mother didn’t like desserts, but apparently the rest of the family did! So I looked at Cakes and came upon Snow Cake. Nice in spirit, but kind of boring. But the alternative recipe that came with it was for Burnt Sugar Cake, which sounded much more interesting.

Burnt Sugar Cake with Penuche Frosting

Ingredients:

3 Tblsp Caramel Syrup
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coffee
1-1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Melted sugar

Now caramel (wonderful color, isn't it?)

First you have to make the caramel syrup. Melt 1 cup of sugar in a pan until it turns a dark brown. Slowly add 1/2 cup boiling water, stir to dissolve, then simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool a bit.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add half the sugar and set aside.

Cream the butter and add the rest of the sugar gradually, beating steadily.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter-sugar mixture, alternating with the coffee. Mix in the caramel syrup.

Fold in the egg whites. (The original recipe suggested adding sliced nuts—up to you.)

Eek! Nowhere in the recipe does it say how large a pan to bake this in! (Or whether to grease it.) Looking at the volume of the batter, I took a wild guess and used a 9” springform pan, liberally greased. A 9” x 13” pan would probably work as well.

The recipe said to bake for 45 minutes. Mine took closer to an hour.

Now for the good stuff: frosting! This was possibly the most-used section of the cookbook. My family loved penuche frosting, which is very simple. Even my non-cooking grandmother made it.

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar
A few grains of salt
1-1/2 Tblsp light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream

Here’s the entire recipe as given:

Combine.

Cook to soft ball (234 degrees F—helps to have a candy thermometer! But my grandmother taught me how to test for the soft ball stage.)

Cool.

Add 1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat “until of right consistency to spread” (which is whatever you think it is)

Frost cake. Done!

Think that's enough frosting?

All right, I confess. I adore frosting. My grandmother also adored frosting—she thought cake existed only to provide a base for it. I made a double recipe of frosting and used all of it on the cake. You can’t have too much!

Coming next week: A Turn for the Bad (the 4th book in the County Cork Mysteries). It involves smuggling in Ireland. But there is no frosting in the book, although smuggling does support a number of other vices.

Find it here:

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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Company-Worthy Roast Chicken #recipe #lowsodium @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: In addition to casting about for low salt dishes that I can enjoy, I've had the challenge of identifying things to cook that guests will like. I've had a couple of very kind friends make delicious low sodium dinners for me. How I appreciate that!

Here's the note that my friend Pat left by my plate when we went to her home. Isn't this sweet? She was astonished at how much sodium is in everything.

Anyway, enough about that today! Instead of any more whining, I will give you a roast chicken that's not hard to make and is full of flavor. And then your sodium fiends can add salt as necessary.

The important key to this is to choose a good chicken. I use either Publix greenwise organic chickens or Bell and Evans. Neither of these have been pre-brined, important if you are watching sodium, and which you might not even think you had to think of! They are more expensive, but to my mind well worth it.

Ingredients

One whole chicken (I'll say it again, please don't scrimp here!)
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1 to 2 teaspoons lemon zest
The lemon that has been zested
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

For the side dish, carrots and small potatoes, olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Remove the wrappings from the chicken, cut off any big pieces of excess fat, and make sure the cavity is empty. Mash together the lemon zest, garlic, parsley and butter. Carefully loosen the skin from the top of the chicken and use your fingers to spread the butter mixture under the skin. For a more lemony flavor, stuff the quarters of the lemon you zested into the chicken cavity.

Roast the chicken until a meat thermometer reads 165 and the juices run clear when you cut into the joint between leg and breast. The timing is going to vary depending on your oven. (Like MJ/Victoria, I also have a rocky relationship with my oven.)

While the chicken is cooking, cut the fingerlings in two lengthwise, and peel the carrots and cut them into chunks. Douse them in olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper on a baking sheet.

(If I was eating salt, I would also salt them. Instead, I used some Benton's Table Tasty for some extra flavor.)

About a half hour into the roasting, place the vegetables into the oven and roast them too, until they are soft and brown . Serve with something green and you have a delicious company-worthy dinner!

KILLER TAKEOUT is coming in April, but available for pre-order today!

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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Blueberry Cheddar Cobbler, gluten-free + book #giveaway from @AveryAames

SAY CHEESE!!

Another giveaway today! See below.

But first…

I have an empty refrigerator. Unlike all the people on the East Coast, I did not go to the store. I did not fill up on staples. All I have in my refrigerator is cheese and berries and milk, butter, and eggs. That’s about it!

Staples…for a mouse!

But our Clean Sweep Week theme from earlier this month has gotten me charged. I can make something tasty with what’s on hand, right? And since I’m in Cheddar Mode, because of the upcoming release of FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE (Next week!!! Eek!!), I decided I should make something with the cheddar cheese. I used Kerrygold Private Reserve Cheddar.

But I wanted sweet. (Yes, I do have sugar and such in the cupboard.)

So I looked in my cookbooks and searched for a recipe with cheese and blueberries. I didn’t find anything, so I resorted to the Internet, and I landed on a site called HowSweet It Is! There was this beautiful skillet dessert, and I thought, yes, I can make this gluten-free.

Side note! As I started the project, I couldn’t find a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon and that was because, though my refrigerator was empty, my drawers were full: i.e., cluttered. Have you ever done that? Started a project and stopped to complete the other project first? I emptied out my utensils drawers, found a box of things I could give away because I would NEVER use them, and then continued with baking. Welcome to spring cleaning…three months early! Sheesh.

Anyway, here you have it, my tweaked version of How Sweet It Is Skillet Blueberry Cobbler with Cheddar Cheese!

PS I did NOT find an oven-ready skillet in my clean-out, so I had to scramble for another solution. See below.

BLUEBERRY COBBLER WITH CHEDDAR

(Gluten-free version, serves 6)

Blueberry Filling Ingredients:

3 cups blueberries, rinsed

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 tablespoon gluten-free flour (*I used sweet rice flour)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cheddar Biscuit Topping Ingredients:

2/3 cup gluten-free flour (*I used sweet rice flour here, too)

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated (about 2/3 cup grated)

7-8 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*vanilla ice cream or whipped topping for serving

Note: if you don’t need to eat gluten-free, swap out the sweet rice or GF flour for regular flour and omit the xanthan gum! Easy as, um, cobbler!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, toss the blueberries with the sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon and add them to a 6 or 8-inch oven-safe skillet. *THIS IS WHERE I realized my 8”-skillet wasn’t oven proof, so I used an 8-inch square baking pan. [If I do this recipe over again - and I will - I’ll get a skillet, or I will use increase the whole recipe by 1/2 because 8”-square is MORE THAN 8”-round. THAT’S YOUR MATH FOR THE DAY!]

In a larger bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the butter and mix with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture looks crumbly, like little peas. [PERSONALLY, I REALLY LIKE A PASTRY BLENDER!]

Add in the grated cheese, then add milk and vanilla extract and mix until the dough has come together but is just combined. [IT WILL RESEMBLE COOKED OATMEAL]. Spoon the dough on top of the blueberries. It does NOT have to be uniform and smooth.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the topping is set and the blueberries are juicy and bursting. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

PS KNOW your oven. I finally got this gadget [by Taylor, about $12] to make sure my oven is the right temperature. And guess what? My oven has been running about 10 degrees too hot which reduces the baking time. Now I get the 350 degrees correctly by reducing my oven temp. Yay! My sister gave me that tip!

THE GIVEAWAY!

Leave your name and email so I can contact you if you WIN, and tell me do you have a spring cleaning project?

I'll be giving away your CHOICE of the first 6 Cheese Shop mysteries. I'll also pick two more winners to win some fun swag. Winners will be chosen this Friday.