Baked Feta with Honey and Thyme -- an outtake #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  I’m sure my blog siblings will agree that choosing the recipes for our books is a lot of fun—and sometimes a challenge. What would our characters want to eat? Can we make it—and make it easy for you to make? With my Spice Shop mysteries, I always want several recipes that use the title ingredient. 

In the first draft of Lavender Lies Bleeding, Pepper is home alone—well, home with the dog, but his meal routine is fairly well set. That afternoon, she’d chatted with Spice Shop customers who love her friend Edgar’s Italian restaurant, Speziato, and had bought her favorite spice, smoked paprika, to make Edgar’s signature appetizer, Baked Paprika Cheese. (It originally appears in The Solace of Bay Leaves; find the recipe here.) 

Lacking the key ingredient, she made a different baked cheese appetizer. Later, I decided I didn’t need the recipe or the paragraphs that describe making it, so out they went. Here’s the original bit, unedited: 

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         Arf and I locked up and headed home. I fed him, then opened the fridge. Talking about Edgar and Speziato had my mouth watering for his fabulous Baked Paprika Cheese, a deceptively simple appetizer that never fails to please. Alas, no goat cheese on hand. But I had feta, so I pivoted. My mouth wouldn’t mind. I turned on the Mariners game, While the oven heated, I fished a square of feta out of its brine, patted it dry, and placed it in a small baking dish. Drizzled it with oil and popped it in. Popped the cork on a bottle of _____ and poured a glass. So good.

Laurel had sent home a container of blueberry peach salad, left over after Flick Chicks. I sliced up some leftover grilled salmon CHECK – WHAT DID NATE MAKE? and found some pita chips for the feta. When it was finished baking, I drizzled it with honey and stuck it under the broiler until the cheese had browned and begun to bubble. I added a little more honey, sprinkled on some fresh thyme from a pot on the veranda, and finished it with a dash of lemony red sumac.

Edgar would be proud.

<<<

The recipe is simple enough to pull together quickly, as Pepper did. Serve it with pita chips, or toasted pita, naan, or sliced baguette. 

Oh, and if you want to serve it alongside Laurel’s Green Salad with Feta, Peaches, and Blueberries, like Pepper did, here’s the link! 

Lavender Lies Bleeding will be out July 15, in paperback, ebook, and audio. Available for preorder now -- more details below! 

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

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Baked Feta with Honey and Thyme 

8 ounces brick feta, at room temperature, patted dry 

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (the amount you use will depend on the size of your dish)

1 to 2 tablespoons honey 

1-1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, or to taste

smoked paprika or sumac (optional topping) 

For serving: pita chips, or toasted pita, naan, or sliced baguette. 

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brush a thin layer of olive oil inside an 8-ounce ramekin, small casserole, or any oven-safe baking pan that is just a little larger than your brick of feta. Place the cheese in the dish and brush top and sides with 2-3 teaspoons olive oil. Bake until the cheese is warm and soft but not melted, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm the honey in a microwave for about 10 seconds or in hot water, until it is easily spreadable. 

Remove feta from oven and preheat broiler. Brush the honey evenly over the feta, both top and sides. Broil until the top of the cheese browns, about 5 minutes —don’t worry if the edges char a bit, as that tastes great! Do watch your broiler carefully, as the heat can vary. 

Remove from oven and drizzle with additional honey (1-2 teaspoons) and top with fresh thyme. Sprinkle with smoked paprika or sumac, if you’d like. 

Serve immediately. If your feta firms up too much as it cools, pop it back in the oven for a few minutes to soften. 

Enjoy! 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

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

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!

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. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

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.