Bean Dip #recipe #Halloween by Maya Corrigan

The big day is here! This is the final installment of the Kitchen's 2-week celebration of Halloween recipes. Today I'm sharing an easy recipe for bean dip. This is one of Granddad's favorite recipes in the Five-Ingredient Mystery series. It has only three ingredients, takes minutes to make, and leaves little to be cleaned up. You cook and serve it in the same bowl and you need only one measuring cup because you use the same amount of each ingredient.

The bean dip would make a great snack while you watch the World Series. The only thing that makes it a Halloween recipe are the cute ghost potato chips I happened to find. 

Ingredients

½ cup of packed-down grated cheddar cheese
½ cup of refried beans
½ cup of salsa, spicy or not depending on your tastes

Mix the three ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. 

Microwave on high for one minute and stir the dip. Microwave on high for another thirty seconds and stir again. Repeat, if necessary, until the dip is the consistency you like. I microwaved the mix for a total of three minutes for a warm dip.

Serve the dip with tortilla chips or any other kind of chips.

I was never a fan of bean dip until I tried this one at a friend's house. I immediately asked her for the recipe.

Do you have a favorite dip for chips or vegetables? 

📚

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit my website for easy recipes, mystery history and trivia, and a free culinary mystery story.

📚

Baked Stuffed Scrod by Christine Falcone #giveaway

 LUCY BURDETTE: There's nothing I love more than seeing a good friend who's worked hard for years have her first book published! Christine Falcone has part of my writers' group for a long time, so I am thrilled that this day has finally arrived. Today we are celebrating Chris's first novel EX'D OUT with a recipe and giveaway. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for a paperback copy of her new book!

CHRISTINE FALCONE: Melanie Bass, the main character in my debut novel EX’D OUT doesn’t cook much. She is divorced and living alone with the exception of her little terrier mix dog Bruno, and Bruno does not eat people food. Melanie mostly just grabs a yogurt and fruit or a tuna sandwich after work instead of cooking an entire meal for herself. This changes when Melanie acquires a roommate who does like to cook and is willing to put a more substantial meal on the table for both of them to share.

Like Melanie, in my long-ago single days, I was prone to just grab a sandwich or scramble an egg for dinner. That changed when I married a man with three children and suddenly a whole nutritious meal was required – E.V.E.R.Y N.I.G.H.T. Soon we had four more children so our total was seven plus two adults. I am the oldest of eight children, and my mother was an excellent cook who passed on her recipes to me so I had a good store of ideas at my disposal (and the necessity of at least doubling every recipe that serves four I found in a cookbook). The snags I hit, as most people with children know, was who doesn’t like potatoes or rice or pasta or “stinky cheese” (my husband). In the end I tried to please the majority. One dish that pleases everyone however is my baked stuffed scrod. Simple and quick enough for Melanie to make.

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs cod (or haddock or other whitefish of your choice. Allow ½ lb. fish per person – I tend to cook more than needed- old habit.)

Ritz crackers (I use 3 sleeves for 2 lbs fish)

1-11/2 sticks butter

4 cloves garlic minced (or two heaping TBSPs of jar minced)

2 large splashes lemon juice plus one more splash on raw fish

¼ cup white wine

1 TBSP chopped parsley (or parsley flakes)

1 can crabmeat 

Rise fish under running water, layer single layer in pan, splash with lemon and pepper.

Crumble crackers in large bowl, add parsley and crabmeat. Melt butter in pan and add garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes to release flavor. Add lemon juice and wine and stir. Pour over cracker mixture and mix until crackers are moist. Top fish with the mixture. 

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

Serve with cocktail sauce (my husband and son) or another splash of lemon juice as desired.

About EX’D OUT: After their divorce, visiting nurse Melanie Bass must keep in contact with Dr. Artie Krapaneck, her philandering ex-husband as they share custody of her beloved dog, Bruno. When she arrives at a Connecticut highway rest stop to retrieve the dog for “her week” she discovers the body of her ex-husband along with that of an unknown woman.  It seems that now Artie will finally be out of her life forever. He isn’t.

Melanie soon has reason to suspect that her gruesome discovery has put her own life, and Bruno’s, in danger. She decides she must find out who killed Artie and why. She begins to fear that he may have left in her possession the link to something the killers want. As the police try to solve the murder, she uncovers information on her own. Melanie learns how much she never knew about the man she was married to for five years, a man she thought she knew so well. She comes face to face with his first wife, Lynn, a woman she never knew existed. However, with Lynn’s help, as well as that of a kind and eligible veterinarian who is treating Bruno for PTSD, she takes on the killers before they kill both her and Bruno.

Leave a comment about your family's favorite dinner dish to be entered in the drawing!

BIO: Christine Falcone’s short stories have appeared in publications such as Imagine, Lancrom Review, and Deadfall: Crime Stories by New England writers. After working for nearly forty years as an RN in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Christine is delighted that retirement coincides with the publication of her first full length mystery. EX’D OUT will be out in October 2022. She is a member of Sisters In Crime and Mystery writers of America.

She lives on the Connecticut Shoreline with her family and a dog who is not nearly as well behaved as Bruno, the beloved canine in her novel.             

Follow Christine on Facebook

Order Ex'd Out right here

Pumpkin Spice Fluff #Recipe @PegCochran #Halloween

 

I always think of Halloween as the beginning of pumpkin spice season but in reality it started while we were all still wearing shorts and T-shirts (and some of us still are!)  This pumpkin spice fluff is super easy to whip up and would make the perfect quick dessert for a party or just to satisfy a longing for more pumpkin spice!  It's stiffer than a pudding but if you close your eyes, the taste would make you think you were eating pumpkin pie filling.  I made this with all sugar free products but that's not necessary if that isn't a concern for you.  I don't like to eat a lot of artificially sweetened products but hubby (who has to watch his carbs) occasionally needs something to satisfy his sweet tooth.

 Did you know that pumpkin pie spice was created in 1934 by McCormick & Company?  Eighty percent of McCormick's pumpkin pie spice sales occur in the fall--from September to November!

 Ingredients

1 15-oz. can pure pumpkin
1 3.4-oz box instant vanilla pudding (can substitute sugar free if desired)*
1 8-oz. container of whipped topping such as Cool Whip (can substitute sugar free if desired 
6 tsps. white sugar (or sugar substitute of your choice equaling 6 tsps. sugar)
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract 

* Note: The size of pudding boxes varies and can be either 1.5-ounces or 3.4-ounces. Be sure to check and buy two 1.5-ounce boxes if necessary.

 

In a large mixing bowl, add all of the above ingredients and mix.

 

Serve in a pretty bowl or individually in glasses or dessert dishes. Top with orange and black sprinkles if desired.

 

 

Cranberry Cove #7 is finally here! 

 

Monica's stepmother wakes up next to a dead man!  Did she do it?

Amazon

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Day of the Dead Soup @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway #Halloween

MADDIE DAY here. It's our Halloween season here at the Kitchen, but I thought I'd shake it up a little and bring you a Day of the Dead soup recipe, instead! And I have an ARC of Four Leaf Cleaver - a Country Store Mystery celebrating a different ethnic holiday - to give away to a commenter.

Dia dos Mortos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated on November first in many primarily Catholic countries, especially in Latin America. I first experienced it as a seventeen-year-old exchange student in Brazil, when I went with my host family to the cemetery to leave flowers and food on the graves of their loved ones. For them it was a somber day.

Later I learned of the more festive atmosphere of Dia de los Muertos in places like Mexico, where families picnic with food and drink and music near their dearly departeds. The icons and artwork of colorful skeletons doing all kinds of daily life activities is delightful. (My favorite was the figure of a skeleton sitting at a laptop, but I gave it to a writer friend long ago and now wish I'd bought myself one!)

Wedged between Halloween and my birthday, the idea of an annual food-based party with the souls of those who went on before has always appealed to me. It's not part of my personal cultural heritage, but I grew up in southern California and love Mexican food of all kinds. So I went hunting for Day of the Dead recipes and found this one to share with you.

Sopa Azteca for Dia de los Muertos

You can change up the ingredients as you wish, making it spicier or less spicy, and even vegetarian if you omit the chicken, add its seasoning to the soup, and use vegetable broth.

Ingredients

I neglected to include a lime, a bottle of hot sauce, and the vegetable oil in the photo.

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 small can chopped green chilis

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and diced

4 large cloves garlic, minced

1 3/4 pounds Roma tomatoes, diced (or 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes*, with their juices)

8 cups good-quality vegetable or chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

Juice of ½ lime

Vegetable oil

Ten corn tortillas cut into ½ inch strips 

1 cup grated jalapeno jack cheese

1 avocado, diced

Sour cream

 

Directions

Toss the chicken with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute, stirring frequently.

Add the tomatoes and green chilis and cook until warm. Add broth and oregano. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. 

Add chicken. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

While the soup simmers, layer paper towels on a dinner plate. Add vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a heavy skillet by a quarter inch. Heat until oil shimmers. Carefully add enough strips to form only one layer and fry 1-2 minutes until crispy and golden. 

Remove with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towel, layering another towel on top. Repeat until all are fried. Salt while warm if desired. Don’t let hot oil drop on your toe (ouch even through a sock!).

Add lime juice and parsley to soup and adjust seasoning, adding a few drops of hot sauce if desired.

Ladle the hot broth into each serving bowl. Top with tortilla strips, avocado, and cheese, finishing with a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!

Readers: What's your favorite Halloween or Day of the Dead food? I'll send one of you an advance copy of Four Leaf Cleaver, so please include your email address.

My most recent release is Murder in a Cape Cottage, the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, which came out in September.

"Scarfed Down," my Country Store novella in the collection Christmas Scarf Murder released the same day.

My next release is Four Leaf Cleaver, out in late January.

Check out all my writing!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Apple Turnovers # Halloween #Recipe #Giveaway @vmburns

 VMBURNS: It's fall and there's nothing better during autumn, than warm apple turnovers. This apple turnover recipe is super easy and I included it in my first Baker Street Mystery series,  TWO PARTS SUGAR, ONE PART MURDER. A few days ago I was talking to someone who read the book and said they tried the recipe. I asked how it turned out and she reluctantly told me that it hadn't turned out well. My heart stopped. Had I skipped a step? Did the printers goof? The reader assured me that it was probably user error, but the flame was lit and I was on a mission. So, when I ordered groceries, I made sure I had puff pastries and plenty of Granny Smith apples on the list. Imagine my surprise when my groceries were delivered with Ambrosia apples instead of the Granny Smiths I'd ordered. Who does that? Note to self, next time, make sure I don't leave substitutions up to the delivery person. So, bright an early the next morning, I set out on a quest for Granny Smith apples. Could I have used the Ambrosia apples? I have no idea. But, since my goal was to verify the recipe in the book, I wanted to follow it exactly. A different grocer had the Granny Smiths and I set out to confirm my recipe. Fortunately, things worked out and the apple turnovers were delicious. Now, I need to figure out what to do with 3 lbs of Ambrosia apples. Apple sauce? Apple cider? Oh the possibilities.

APPLE TURNOVERS

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb puff pastry (2 sheets) thawed according to package instructions
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour (for dusting)
• 1 1/2 lb Granny Smith apples (3 medium) peeled, cored, and diced 1/4 inch thick
• 1/4 Cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 
  
  GLAZE
• 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 
  

• INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Remove puff pastry from freezer and thaw.
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a medium pot. Add diced apples and cook, stirring occasionally until softened.
3. Reduce heat to low and stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Simmer until apples are soft and caramelized, and then remove from heat and cool.
   
   
   
4.  Sprinkle the flour to prevent the dough from ticking and, using a rolling pin, roll the first sheet of thawed pastry to 11 inches square. Use a pizza cutter to cut into 4 equal squares.
   
   
   
5. Placed cooled apple mixture in center of each square, leaving at least 1/2 inch border.
   
   
   
6. Beat egg and water. Brush egg wash over edges of the pastry. Bring the edges together and crimp tightly along the edges with a fork to seal and cut 3 slits into to top to allow pastries to vent.
   
   
   
7. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, keeping the pastries at least 1 inch apart.
8. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
9. Remove the pastries from the fridge and brush the tops with the remaining egg wash and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.
   
   
   
10. Combine the powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream and drizzle glaze over the turnovers.
    
    
    

• 
  

READERS: What's your favorite fall treat? Apples and cinnamon? Pumpkin and spice? Share your favorite fall dessert in the comments. One person will be selected to win a copy of the first book in my Baker Street Mystery series, Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder. Don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you, if you're selected as the winner.


TWO PARTS SUGAR, ONE PART MURDER, Baker Street Mystery #1


Available everywhere books are sold


Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Target, Walmart









V. M. (Valerie) Burns

In this delectable new cozy mystery series, social media maven Maddy Montgomery’s perfectly ’grammable life has come undone, and she’s #StartingOver in a tiny town with one giant problem—a killer on the loose . . .
 
When Maddy Montgomery’s groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, it’s a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrand—as long as Maddy is willing to live in her late, great-aunt Octavia’s house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby.
 
Maddy doesn’t bake, and her Louboutins aren’t made for walking giant dogs around Lake Michigan, but the locals are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. With help from her aunt’s loyal friends, aka the Baker Street Irregulars, Maddy feels ready to tackle any challenge, including Octavia’s award-winning cake recipes. That is, until New Bison’s mayor is fatally stabbed, and Maddy’s fingerprints are found on the knife . . .
 
Something strange is going on in New Bison. It seems Aunt Octavia had her suspicions, too. But Maddy’s going to need a whole lot more than a trending hashtag to save her reputation—and her life.

Sautéed Pumpkin with Garlic and Mint #Halloween #Recipe by @LeslieKarst

 

With Halloween only a few days away, many of us likely are in possession of at least one pumpkin. But do you ever cook with them after the holiday is done? Pumpkins are surprisingly delicious--a bit like butternut squash, but a little sweeter. 

So if your carved jack o' lantern isn't moldy by the time Halloween is over, or if you choose to leave one of the squash uncarved, here's an easy and tasty recipe I got years ago when I was on the board of my local Slow Food chapter. The dish has a sort of Thai flavor, due to the mint, vinegar and sugar. And if you added some tofu or meat to the mix, it would make a great one-course meal. The salad is best served at room temperature.

Sautéed Pumpkin with Garlic and Mint

(serves 4)

Ingredients

2 pounds pumpkin 

½ cup olive oil

5-6 cloves garlic

½ cup white vinegar 

½ cup white sugar 

pinch ground cinnamon

¼ cup fresh mint 

salt and pepper

 

 

Directions

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out what my family calls the “pyuck” (i.e., the seeds and membrane). This recipe calls for two pounds of pumpkin, which was about half of the small one I had. 

 

Peel the pumpkin (I cut it like a melon, and used a knife), 

 

 

and then chop it into ½ inch strips. Next, peel and thinly slice five or six cloves of garlic: 

 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet, and add a third of the pumpkin to the hot oil. 

 

 

Sauté it until tender and browned on both sides, and then remove it with a slotted spoon to a serving dish. Cook the rest of the pumpkin the same way in batches, till it's all sautéed. (I had to do mine in three separate batches, so as not to crowd the pan.) 

   

If there isn’t any oil left in the pan when you’re done, add another couple tablespoons to the pan and heat it till shimmering. Then pour in ½ cup of white vinegar. (Be careful not to let the hot oil spatter on you when you pour it in!)

 

 

Then add the ½ cup of white sugar, 

 

 

the sliced garlic, and a pinch of cinnamon, and stir it all together.

 

 

Boil this mixture for several minutes, 

 

 

until it reduces and thickens: 

 

 

While the sauce is reducing, coarsely chop about a ¼ cup of fresh mint. 

 

 

Sprinkle the mint on the fried pumpkin, and then pour the reduced sauce on top: 

 

 

Season it with salt and pepper, and garnish with sprigs of mint: 

 

 

🍊 🌿 🍋

The daughter of a law professor and a potter, Leslie Karst learned early, during family dinner conversations, the value of both careful analysis and the arts—ideal ingredients for a mystery story. Putting this early education to good use, she now writes the Lefty Award-nominated Sally Solari Mysteries, a culinary series set in Santa Cruz, California.

An ex-lawyer like her sleuth, Leslie also has degrees in English literature and the culinary arts. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix split their time between Santa Cruz and Hilo, Hawai‘i.

Leslie’s website
Leslie also blogs with Chicks on the Case
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THE FRAGRANCE OF DEATH

is now available for purchase here!

 

 

Praise for Leslie's most newest Sally Solari mystery, THE FRAGRANCE OF DEATH:

 

“A page turner for me from the very first chapter, THE FRAGRANCE OF DEATH had everything I’m looking for in a mystery and more.”

Lisa K's Book Reviews



"[An] enjoyable fifth outing for Santa Cruz, Calif., chef Sally Solari.... This well-done culinary cozy should win new fans for the ever enterprising Sally."

Publishers Weekly

All five Sally Solari Mysteries are available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.

 

Dying for a Taste, A Measure of Murder, and Murder from Scratch are also available as AUDIOBOOKS from Audible!