Welcome Gayle Leeson!

A very warm welcome to Gayle Leeson, author of the brand new Down South Cafe Mystery series! You may know already be a fan of Gayle's. She also writer as Gayle Trent and Amanda Lee.


Gayle is giving away a copy of The Calamity Cafe today. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment with your email address so Gayle can notify you if you win. Good luck!



This recipe is contained in my upcoming book, The Calamity Cafe. My grandmother made the best meat loaf I've ever tasted. It's nothing fancy, but it's delicious. The recipe makes a large loaf, so I loved to have a meat loaf sandwich with mustard the next day.

Like Amy, the heroine in The Calamity Cafe, I was very partial to my grandmother. She was my champion--the one who watched all the shows I put on when I was growing up, the one who told me I could do anything I put my mind to, the one who taught me show tunes while driving me on country roads with the car windows rolled down.

In The Calamity Cafe, Amy Flowers is tired of waiting tables at Lou’s Joint. But she doesn’t just quit—she offers to buy the place from her bully of a boss, so she can finally open the café of her dreams. Amy can't wait to serve the kind of Southern, down-home treats and dishes that her grandmother always loved to the kooky cast of regulars at the restaurant. She knows her comfort food will be the talk of the sweet, small town of Winter Garden, Virginia.

At first Lou Lou refuses to sell, but when she seems ready to make a deal, she tells Amy to come see her. Showing up at the eatery ready to negotiate, Amy is shocked to find her former employer murdered. As the prime suspect, Amy will have to clear her name by serving up the real killer—and with Lou Lou’s stack of enemies, that’s a tall order.


Grandmother’s Meat Loaf

Yield: 1 Loaf

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ lbs. Ground Beef
2 Eggs
2 cups Bread Crumbs
3/4 cup Diced Onions
1 tbsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Pepper
1/2 cup Cracker Crumbs
1 cup Tomato Juice


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Mix all ingredients except tomato juice well.
3. Add tomato juice gradually, making mixture solid enough to handle.
4. Form into a loaf.
5. Bake in a loaf pan for 45 minutes.

Visit Gayle at:
http://www.gayletrent.com
http://www.gayleleeson.com

WICKED STITCH, April, 2015, NAL/Penguin (Nominated for 2015 RT Magazine Reviewers' Choice Award)
KILLER WEDDING CAKE, June, 2015, Grace Abraham
STITCHING HOUR, November, 2015, NAL/Penguin
THE CALAMITY CAFE, June, 2016, NAL/Penguin

To read the first chapter of The Calamity Cafe, please visit http://www.downsouthcafechapter.com. 

 

I'm giving away a signed copy of THE CALAMITY CAFE to one lucky reader (U.S. entrants will get a signed mass-market paperback, and international entrants will get a Kindle copy). To enter, comment below with your favorite comfort food and your email address so I can notify you if you win. Good luck!