Strawberry Soup -- A Summer #recipe from @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Until the snowshoe hares dug a hole under the garden fence, we had an abundant strawberry crop this year. I remembered seeing strawberry soup on a menu once and went scouring. Most of the recipes I found were basically a strawberry smoothie—fruit, yogurt, and a dash or two of something else. Yummy, but not what I had in mind. It had to be simple and refreshing. This, the result of combining a couple of recipes and changing it up, was just what I had in mind!

Some of the recipes I found included a little cornstarch as thickener. If you want, add a teaspoon to the water and orange juice mixture and dissolve well during the cooking. You could also whizz up the mixture with a blender or immersion blender, rather than serving the liquid over the fruit, as we did.

We cleverly used canning jars in two sizes, not sure how much of this we’d want. Plus, clear dishes allow the lovely red-gold color to glow. Parfait glasses would also be, well, parfait!

Bon appetit!

Strawberry Soup

10 ounces cold water

1 orange, zest and juice

1 tablespoon orange blossom water or rosewater

1 tablespoon honey

1 pound strawberries, rinsed, culled, and sliced

1 teaspoon cornstarch, optional

mint leaves for garnish

sour cream or creme fraiche for garnish (optional)

Pour 10 ounces cold water into a saucepan. Add the juice and zest of one orange, the orange flower water or rosewater, and honey, and the cornstarch if using. Bring just to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and cool. 

This is a good time to prep your strawberries, dividing them evenly among your serving dishes. 

Pour the liquid over the berries, then chill the jars or bowls for one hour. 

To serve, top with sour cream or creme fraiche if you’d like, and a sprig of  fresh mint. 

Makes 4 1-pint servings or 8 ½ pint servings.

Enjoy the taste of summer -- before the snowshoe hares figure out how yummy this is and come back for more!

PEPPERMINT BARKED: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2022, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly…

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Peppermint Barked, her 6th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2022, and Blind Faith, her second standalone suspense novel (written as Alicia Beckman), will release in October 2022. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.