Happy New Year's Eve! Date and Blue Cheese Dip #recipe from @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Sometimes our cooking goes in streaks, say if I’m testing recipes with a spice featured in an upcoming book, or if I find something we like and keep going back for more. That’s how it was with dates, one of Mr. Right’s favorite treats. I bought a box of Medjool dates at Costco and it seemed like recipes started to pop up all over. So we bought a second box, and more recipes appeared! 

So no, you’re not imagining that this is the 3d recipe featuring dates that I’ve posted in just a few weeks! This Roasted Butternut Squash with Feta and Dates would be as good on your winter dinner table as it was for Thanksgiving, and these Medjool Date Turtles are a keeper!

We also love dips. This one is chunky and yummy. It’s even better the second day, so make it ahead – the combo of sweet and tangy, with a bit crunch, is delicious. We enjoyed it on slices of baguette, seeded crackers, and sliced apples. If you’ve got leftover turkey and want to jazz up a sandwich, have at it! Flexible foods are fabulous!

Wishing YOU a fabulous New Year!

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Date and Blue Cheese Dip

adapted from the Washington Post

8 ounces sour cream (full or reduced-fat) 

3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

8 pitted dates, chopped (about 2 ounces)

1 slice cooked bacon, chopped 

3 tablespoons chopped walnuts

In a medium bowl, stir together the sour cream, blue cheese and salt until well combined. Fold in the dates, bacon, and walnuts. 

Serve with crackers, a sliced baguette, pita chips, or a sliced apple or pear.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

TO ERR IS CUMIN:A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, out now in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie 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.