Please welcome our guest Amy Pershing #GIVEAWAY #HALLOWEEN

Hello from TINA KASHIAN! Happy Halloween! I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and safe Halloween. I have a special treat for you today. Guest author Amy Pershing is joining us and sharing an amazing recipe for Halloween Eggnog. She also has a new release and a giveaway to celebrate. Take it away Amy!

 

 

It’s so great to be back cooking in the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen! And on Halloween, no less! Which was perfect timing, since I’d recently discovered that pumpkin eggnog is a thing.  Who knew? I’d been researching eggnog for the second Cape Cod Foodie mystery, AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR (launching on November 9!), and pumpkin eggnog came up A LOT.  With good reason, I discovered.  It’s delicious.  And (cue the scary music) deadly – but only if you drink too much of it. Here’s a little excerpt from AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR on the possible dangers of eggnog over-consumption (okay, it’s a coconut cream Christmas eggnog here, but you get the idea) …

“Well, you win the Great Eggnog Debate,” my mother said with absolutely no rancor (and my mother hates to lose). “Best recipe ever.”

She took another sip of the foamy concoction and rolled her eyes with pleasure. “Of course, it helps that yours truly actually made it.” There’s the Veronica Barnes we all know and love.

Veronica Barns did not look like a woman who had spent the day vacuuming and making coconut cream. Seated on the couch sipping her drink, her dark hair pinned up and a crisp white blouse tucked into a floor-length black velvet skirt, she looked absolutely regal.

“I wish I’d made enough for two glasses each,” she said smacking her lips in a decidedly un-regal fashion.

“No way,” I admonished her. “First of all, I’m not killing everyone’s appetites with what is essentially dessert in a glass and second of all, two rum cocktails and we’d never get this tree trimmed.”

“Nonsense,” Helene put in from her seat on the sofa next to my mother. “Drink up. The menfolk are doing all the work.” …

(Hooked? You can pre-order AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR here!)

 

So, for a chance to win a copy of An Eggnog to Die For, what do you think? Eggnog, yea or nay? One glass or two? Fancy-schmancy (i.e. pumpkin or coconut cream) or classic? (Enter your comments below.)

 

This recipe will give you about five glasses of ambrosia. (You decide who gets the extra glass.)

Ingredients

3 eggs

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons pumpkin puree

2 cups milk

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream

2-4 ounces to taste of dark rum (or tipple of your choice)

 

Directions

1) In a medium saucepan whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt. 

 

2) Turn on the heat to medium, and slowly whisk in the milk.

3) Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly (TIP: a silicon spatula is great for this), until the eggnog mixture reaches 160 degrees and/or leaves a thin film on the back of a wooden spoon.

4) Take the pan off the heat and immediately pour the mixture into a heat-resistant (i.e. not metal) bowl. Add the vanilla extract, nutmeg and cinnamon and very slowly pour in the cream, stirring constantly.

5) Chill the eggnog in the refrigerator or in an ice bath (TIP: If you don’t want to wait, pour the eggnog into a large freezer bag, seal it and then put the bag in an ice bath until it is cold (about 15 minutes). If you’re in a big hurry, scrunch the bag with your hands for about five minutes. Voila!)

 

6) Stir in the rum (or brandy or whatever) and garnish each glass of ‘nog with a dash of cinnamon.

ENJOY WITH THE GHOUL OF YOUR CHOICE! (Scary candle optional but recommended)

And while you’re waiting for all the little ghouls in the neighborhood to show up at your front door… you might want to take a moment and PRE-ORDER AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR (coming November 9!). Because what’s Christmas without a dead Santa, am I right?

 

Christmas is coming to Cape Cod, but when Sam Barnes finds a very dead Santa in a very hip restaurant, it’s up to her to sift out suspects who have been naughty vs. nice…

 

Professional foodie Samantha Barnes has a simple Christmas list: a quiet holiday at home with her dog and a certain handsome harbormaster; no embarrassing viral videos; and no finding dead bodies. Unfortunately she’s got family visiting, she’s spending a lot of time in front of the camera, and she’s just stumbled over the lifeless body of the town’s Santa Claus.

 

Plus, Sam’s plans for Christmas Eve are getting complicated.  There’s the great eggnog debate among her very opinionated guests.  There’s the “all edible” Christmas tree to decorate.  And there’s her Feast of the Five Fishes to prepare. Nonetheless, Sam finds herself once again in the role of sleuth. She needs to find out who slayed this Santa—but can she pull off a perfect feast and nab a killer?

 

Amy Pershing, who spent every summer of her childhood on Cape Cod, was an editor, a restaurant reviewer and a journalist before sitting down to write the Cape Cod Foodie Mystery series, including A SIDE OF MURDER (February 22, 2021) -- which Elizabeth Gilbert called “the freshest, funniest mystery I have ever read” -- and AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR (November 9, 2021).  The third book in the series, MURDER IS NO PICNIC, will be published in the summer of 2022.

Learn more about Amy on her website and subscribe to her monthly newsletter, News from the Cape Cod Foodie, for exclusive sneak peeks, recipes and giveaways. And, of course, you can follow her on Facebook and Instagram.