Around the Kitchen Table: A Canada Day Potluck Barbeque – and You’re Invited!

VICKI DELANY here to announce that I’m having a Canada Day pot luck barbeque and picnic, and you’re all invited!

First, this is a virtual event, and second let’s pretend today is July 1, which is Canada Day.

This year marks 158 years since Confederation.  Confederation refers to the process by which Canada was created, when the British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament. At its creation in 1867, the Dominion of Canada (Canada’s very rarely used formal name) included four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Between then and 1999, six more provinces and three territories joined Confederation.

The Canadian Encyclopaedia (Confederation (Plain-Language Summary) | The Canadian Encyclopedia) has this to say about the motive behind Canada becoming a country of its own, rather than continuing as a British Colony. “Canada left the British Empire for many reasons. One main reason was protection from the United States. By the 1860s, Britain did not want to defend its North American colonies anymore. Many Canadians believed that they had to unite and form their own army. Canadians wanted to do this quickly. They worried that Americans would invade Canada and make it a part of the United States.”

To celebrate, I’m having a pot luck at my place in Prince Edward County and you are all invited. I’d like everyone to bring something representational of your culture, area, or region.

What do you plan to bring? 

For my contribution to the feast, I’ll be bringing strawberry rhubarb bars. July is strawberry season in Ontario and we absolutely love our fresh, local strawberries.  By the first of July it might not be possible to find fresh rhubarb so if necessary you can use frozen ones. These bars are perfect for easy transport to the party.  Incidentally the recipe was my very first as a regular in the MLK kitchen.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Let's give a hearty welcome to our new MLK'er, Vicki Delany!! Woot, woot!

Of course like all good guests you will want to bring me a hostess gift. In keeping with the theme of the party, how about a book by a Canadian author or one set in Canada. What would you give me? Feel free to choose any book, mystery or not, cozy or not.

                                                                   

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 LESLIE KARST: Happy Canada Day, everyone! Thank you for the brief history lesson, Vicki. It's amazing (and not a little pathetic) how little we neighbors of you down south know about your glorious and beautiful country. 

I do love a picnic, as well as a good party, so I'm rarin' to join the fun! I'm going to bring one of my favorite picnic dishes (one which I'm actually making tomorrow for a pot luck this weekend), because it's delicious and keeps well sitting out on a table for hours on end: Celery Salad with Walnuts, Dates, and Pecorino. (And I just learned that Kalamazoo, Michigan--which isn't too far from Canada--was once known as the Celery Capital of the World.)

 

 As for what book I'll bring, it's gonna be Bronco Buster, by A.J. Devlin, because he's one of the funnest fellas to hang out with at a mystery convention, and his mysteries are as hilarious as is he. 

 

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Ages ago, as a college student in Seattle, I fell in love with Pike Place Market. I made it my mission to eat my way through the place, and because it's constantly changing, I'll never be done. Later, as a young lawyer working downtown, I walked and shopped in the Market at least once a week, and fell hard for two dishes at a deli in Post Alley, a penne pasta salad with basil and sundried tomatoes and Nanaimo bars, a layered cookie with a graham cracker-almond crust, a buttercream filling, and a chocolate topping, served cold. One bite and you'll discover sweet spots you didn't know you had. The bars reportedly originated in Nanaimo, a city on Vancouver Island, not far from Seattle, and honestly, IMO, the bars are one of Canada's greatest exports.  

While I still lived in the city, the Seattle Times ran a contest for the best recipe, which they rerun every few years. Here it is. When I wrote Peppermint Barked, the 6th Spice Shop mystery, I searched out peppermint treats and found a peppermint version of the famed Nanaimo bar. I modified it a bit, using that old clipping as my touchstone, but it still captures all the tastes and textures of the original. Looks like I've never shared it here -- and figures, I found pictures in my files of every step but not the finished product! I may remedy that this holiday season, though the recipe is in the book. 

So I'll bring a plate of Nanaimo bars and a copy of Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom, a historical novel based on the true story of a young Crow Indian woman who, in the 1880s, married a white fur trader and spent years living with him in Alberta before returning to Montana's Crow Country. Grissom, a Canadian-born author living in the US, first heard the story at a one-woman show in Alberta. It's fascinating, beautifully written, and one of my favorite reads of 2023. 

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KIM DAVIS: Happy Canada Day, Vicki, and to all our Canadian readers as well! A potluck picnic sounds like the perfect way to celebrate! And when I think of celebrations, I think of cupcakes which are easy to transport, you don't have to worry about serving utensils (just lots of napkins for all that creamy buttercream frosting) and people, especially kids, can serve themselves. And of course celebrations call for sprinkles. My youngest granddaughter's favorite is Pink Lemonade Cupcakes, which I featured in Framed and Frosted, the third book in my Cupcake Catering Mysteries. I've made them several times for her summer pool parties when she was younger and I miss those days now that she's flown from the nest. What I especially like is that the cupcakes start with a boxed cake mix (no one ever knows), making these an easy, yet tasty, dessert for any picnic or celebration. 

I'm having a difficult time narrowing down my hostess gift to just one book... there are so many wonderful Canadian authors out there and I suppose I shouldn't bring the hostess one of her own books of which I'm so fond of. So, I'd bring Double Grudge Donuts by Ginger Bolton, along with a plate of Double Fudge Donuts with Fudge Frosting, one of the recipes in the book, for the hostess to enjoy the next day while recuperating from the party. 

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MADDIE DAY: Happy Canada Day, Vicki, and also to my sister Janet, who has been a Canadian citizen for many years and loves her life in Ottawa!

My gold cherry tomatoes aren't quite ripe yet, but I'll find some and bring one of my favorite summer potluck dishes, the Greek Salad I learned from my Greek friend Marios. It's fresh, it's pretty, it's tasty, and it can easily sit out without spoiling.

Another popular potluck food is cold Roasted Chicken Drumsticks, but if you're barbequing, that's redundant, so I'll save those for another time.

The book I'll bring you by a Canadian author is The Maid by Nita Prose. I'm on the third book in the series now, and absolutely love Molly, the neurodivergent protagonist.

See you at the barbeque!

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LUCY BURDETTE: Happy Canada Day Vicki and all our wonderful Canadian readers and cooks! It looks like we are well covered for dessert, so I will make my cowboy beans. These are spicy and saucy and will go well with the other dishes listed so far.

Oh almost forgot my hostess gift Vicki! I will bring Rhys Bowen's August standalone, Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure! It's the perfect summer read...

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CLEO COYLE: Happy Canada Day to you, Vicki, and to all our Canadian readers! For this virtual potluck meal, you asked us to bring something representative of our culture or region, and I’m happy to supply our BBQ Chipped Ham Sandwiches. 

My husband, who summered with his family for many years at Chesley Lake in Ontario, grew up on these sandwiches, which are regional favorites in the Western Pennsylvania & Ohio Valley area where he and I were born and raised (along with Clare Cosi, the amateur sleuth in our Coffeehouse Mystery series).

The "chipping" or shaving of the deli ham is the key to these sandwiches. It’s actually known as “Pittsburgh style” and our recipe post includes tips on how to order this style of ham at your local deli. For the recipe, click here. 

As for the hostess gift, I’d say you can’t go wrong with a work by the esteemed Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood. May you eat and read with joy! ~ Cleo

Click here or on the photo for Cleo's

BBQ Chipped Ham Sandwich recipe

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LIBBY KLEIN: Happy Canada Day! I've been to Canada a couple of times and it's always beautiful. Growing up in South Jersey, I took French lessons in school to be able to speak to the tourists who visited Cape May from Quebec. That was a good idea, but you rarely learn how to ask someone if their car is under warranty in French so the lessons didn't serve me that well after all. I've always wanted to visit Quebec City and see Le Château Frontenac. It sounds just like a petite tranche du Paris. Hopefully one day I'll get there. In the meantime, I'm excited to attend Bouchercon in Calgary next year. Even my husband is coming with me for that one. The Calgary Stampede is on our bucket list, but that will have to be another trip. 

For the potluck, I'm bringing peanut butter fudge. It's something I usually only make for Christmas, but peanuts are a very Virginia thing. I might even make it into a pie!  Because I haven't taken pictures of the fudge while making it before, here's a tray of fudge I bought to get you in the mood.

And for my hostess gift, I'm bringing you a set of Heartland books by Lauren Brooke. I love the series and have binged my way through it. I hope you find them as heartwarming as I do. And you can pass them on to your kids when you're done.

 

ANG POMPANO: Happy Canada Day, Vicki, and to all our Canadian readers! I have so many wonderful friends from Canada, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on trips over the years. I’m so grateful we’ve stayed in touch. You’re all incredible, and it’s been a joy staying connected. To celebrate, I’m bringing my Balsamic Chicken. It’s the perfect dish for a summer party, and I’m excited to share it with all of you.

For my gift I’m bringing In the Bones: A North Country Novel by my good friend from Canada, Tessa Wegert. 

Cheers to friendship, great food, and the spirit of Canada!

 

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PEG COCHRAN: Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the North!  Potlucks are such fun. I love the opportunity to sample everyone else's favorite dishes.  But I know you can't turn up empty-handed!  I'm bringing my Cranberry Apple Cake to share.  I now live in Michigan where there are one or two small cranberry farms (I actually based my Cranberry Cove series on a cranberry farm here in South Haven, MI) and lots of apple orchards.  My in-laws from Ohio used to make an annual trek to Michigan to pick apples and would send a box to us to enjoy too.  I'm a transplant from New Jersey (and still a Jersey girl at heart) and NJ is the third largest producer of cranberries behind Wisconsin and Massachusetts!   NJ produces 579,000 barrels of cranberries annually.

 

As for a book, I'm bringing you a gift-wrapped copy of State of Terror by American author Hillary Rodham Clinton and Canadian author Louise Penny.  It seems like the perfect choice to celebrate the friendship between our two countries.  

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VMBurns: Happy Canada Day! I love a good party. It's hotter than East Hell down in Georgia, so I'm going to bring a refreshing fruit salad. As a  hostess gift, I'm bringing Crafting For Murder by Barbara Emodi. It's a cozy set in Nova Scotia. Gotta love it!

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MOLLY MACRAE: Happy Canada Day, Vicki and all our Canadian readers! And thanks for inviting everyone over for the festivities. I spent part of the summer of 1976 on Cape Breton Island—what a fabulous, gorgeous place. That’s another place that, in my dreams, I would happily uproot and move to. Not that I’m complaining. Central Illinois, where I live now, has it’s charms, too. Really, what’s not to like about miles and miles and miles of flat land covered in acres and acres of corn and soybeans with the occasional diversion of a tornado roaring through? Illinois is the second largest producer of corn in the U.S., though, and our sweet corn can’t be beat, so I’m bringing grilled corn on the cob to the picnic. 

For you, Vicki, I’m bringing a copy of A Pint of Murder, the first Maddoc and Janet Rhys mystery by Charlotte Macleod writing as Alisa Craig. Maddoc Rhys is a member of the RCMP. When I was little kid I wanted to be a Canadian Mountie when I grew up. Sadly, at that time, you had to be male and at least six feet tall. 

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                    GIVEAWAY!

For our special Canada Day edition of ATKT we’re having TWO giveaways.  One is open to Canadian residents only, and one for everyone in US and Canada.

To be entered in this week's drawings

join us in the comments.

What dish would you bring to my Canada Day potluck? What book by a Canadian author or set in Canada would you like to bring as your hostess gift?  

Join the

conversation!

Include your email address,

so we can contact the winner! This one time only, please indicate which country you are from. 

Vice and Virtue Audiobook by Libby Klein

Scone Cold Dead by Maddie Day

Trouble is Brewing by Vicki Delany

Essentials of Murder Audiobook by Kim Davis

Assault & Pepper by Leslie Budewitz (winner's choice of ebook or paperback) 

More than Sorrow by Vicki Delany

Assault & Pepper by Leslie Budewitz (winner's choice of ebook or paperback) 

Murder at the Rusty Anchor by Maddie Day

A Poisonous Palate by Lucy Burdette (paperback)

When It's Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano (choice of ebook or paperback)

Essentials of Murder by Kim Davis
(choice of ebook or paperback)

There'll Be Shell to Pay (audiobook) by Molly MacRae

 Comments Open Through Wednesday, July 9