Around the Kitchen Table: Where do those recipes come from? + 6-Book #Giveaway!

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Readers often ask where we find the recipes in our books. For me, it’s a mix, driven by the theme of the book. The titles of my Spice Shop mysteries typically include an herb or spice. I may have a recipe in mind, like the Lavender Limeade I discovered in Country Living Magazine ages ago and finally had a chance to use in Lavender Lies Bleeding. (Shown here at my launch party, with a plate of Lavender Buttermilk Scones, my adaptation of a recipe found on line.)  

One of my favorites from the books is Edgar's Baked Paprika Cheese, an appetizer Pepper, the star of the series, and Nate share on their first date, in Chai Another Day. I'd seen an episode of Jamie Oliver's cooking show where he baked some fancy Spanish goat cheese I'd never heard of. When I found the cheese on line and saw the price, oh my! But I promise, the substitute I created using first cheese from a friend's goats and then a grocery store brand is so good, you'd better like the people you serve it to, because they'll want to hang around for more!  

Each of my Food Lovers’ Village mysteries takes place at a festival, so I chose recipes that could feed a crowd or be scaled back so you can enjoy the fun at home. The Tortellini Salad Erin’s mother Francesca brings to a picnic in Treble at the Jam Fest is one I’ve been making for ages. I first ate it at a deli in Seattle – the one that later inspired Ripe, the deli Pepper’s friend Laurel runs in the Spice Shop mysteries – and that’s where I got the recipe. Turns out it’s the one on the package of my favorite brand of tortellini, proving once again that boxes and can labels are some of the surest sources for tasty, proven recipes! 

Bloggers and readers, what are some of your favorite sources for the recipes you share in your books or here on the blog?   

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LESLIE KARST: Coming up with recipe ideas for my books is one of my favorite parts of the writing process. Both my series are very much centered around restaurants and food, and so as I write I incorporate popular local dishes into the stories. In my Sally Solari mysteries, for example, I include the recipe for Linguine with Clam Sauce, a delicious dish commonly found at the restaurants out on the Santa Cruz fisherman’s wharf, where Sally’s dad Mario has his Italian seafood place, Solari’s. 

And for my Orchid Isle series, set on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, I of course had to include the ubiquitous ahi poke, 

as well as butter-shoyu chicken and the mouth-watering kalbi ribs, often included in the local plate lunches. 

  

Sometimes, however, I simply make up a dish inspired by the local and seasonal ingredients, such as the risotto with chanterelles and peas I came up with for A Sense for Murder, or the Hilo Sunset cocktail that my protagonist Valerie Corbin invents for the restaurant she bartends at, The Speckled Gecko, in Waters of Destruction. 

 

But then comes the hard part: Once I’ve come up with the idea for a dish or a drink, I then have to figure out how to make it. And then I have to actually measure ingredients—something this cook-by-the-seat-of-her-pants gal is loath to do. But in the end, it’s loads of fun, and the reward is getting to sit down and eat the fruits of my labors!

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KIM DAVIS: I love this question so much, Leslie, because you were instrumental in giving me the push I needed to start creating recipes and blogging way back in 2014! I’m sure you don’t remember this, but you were on a panel at the 2014 Bouchercon conference in Long Beach, talking about recipes in mysteries. I was one of the people who asked how you create recipes without worrying about legal and copyright implications. You answered by saying that ingredients can’t be copyrighted and that rewording instructions makes it your own. And from there, a new recipe creator was born!
 
Fast forward to now: For my recipes on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen and being a fairly new contributor, I still have a huge repertoire of long-time family favorites and recipes from friends to share, like these Zucchini Taco Boats.

 

Or, as in the case of this past month’s birthday post, I wanted to create a recipe that evoked my childhood memories of homemade blackberry ice cream. Since my family’s recipe has been lost, and I couldn’t find a reasonable substitute, I scoured the internet and pulled ingredients from several blackberry ice cream recipes, cobbled them together, and added my own twist to make it my own like this Blackberry Basil Coconut Ice Cream. 

When it comes to creating recipes for my books, specifically my Cupcake Catering Mysteries, I have themes for each book and write recipes to fit the themes. For example, there are Halloween recipes in Cake Popped Off, Christmas cookies in Frosted Yuletide Murder, and chocolate recipes in Chocolate Can Be Deadly, like these Mini Chocolate Macaroon Tarts.

Sometimes I’ll have a list of recipes to use and even perfected before I write the book, or other times I’ll jot down notes of recipes I mention in the book. Then it’s off to hunt online, or through my myriad of cookbooks, and piece together a new recipe. One thing I always do is type my new recipe up before I ever try making it, and then take notes as I cook it. If there are only a few changes and the dish turned out well, I leave it at that. When there are a lot of changes, or I’m not happy with the results, I’ll try again two more times. If I’m still unhappy with it, then I toss the recipe and find something else. 

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MADDIE DAY: So many recipes, so many sources! One favorite, of course, is my metal recipe box, the holder of so many treasures. 

My grandmothers' Christmas cookie recipes, my college-era banana bread, and the delicious cucumber-dill-yoghurt summer soup I learned from a woman I cleaned house for in college. But when I went looking for my mom's Poppyseed Cake, I couldn't find the recipe. Luckily, one of my sisters had it, and now I've copied it onto a 3"x5" card and stuck it in the cake section of the box. I presented it here in 2022 to honor her ten years after her death. 

I have adapted recipes from online sites like Allrecipes.com, from the New York Times Cooking posts, which I get in a near daily email, even from that old standby, Joy of Cooking. I always try to make recipes I include in my mysteries correspond with the season, the location, and sometimes the book title. The Cozy Capers Book Group mysteries often feature recipes with Cape Cod seafood or cranberries, or include pastries Mac's husband Tim bakes. I pretty much made up the Lobster Quiche recipe that Doreen Sheridan at Criminal Elements presented.

Friends supply me with recipes, too. In one of the Country Store Mysteries, I presented Baked Apple Dumplings, a yummy traditional sweet in Indiana, with the recipe from Jane Deichler Carter, who got it from her Hoosier mother-in-law.  

Our own Kim Davis made the recipe on her fabulous blog! (Picture by Kim.)

Another recipe, Ode to Summer Fruit Tart, I got from my friend Jennifer in graduate school fifty years ago. After I included it in Murder at the Rusty Anchor, it was presented by Crime Reads. Jennifer is still my best friend! 

I should add that when I need a special recipe to make at home, I often come right here to Mystery Lovers Kitchen and see what my author-chef pals have come up with. Last week for relatives visiting from San Francisco and with a surplus of tomatoes in the garden, I baked the Summer Tomato Tart Leslie B presented last month. Thanks, friend - it was yummy!

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LUCY BURDETTE: For me, it all starts with the characters. Which restaurants does food critic Hayley Snow choose to include in one of her articles at Key Zest? (This often means that John and I have to try restaurants out too--a heavy responsibility!) I also think about what the characters are cooking, as both Hayley and her mother, Janet, are excellent cooks and hosts. By number 16, A DELICIOUS DECEPTION, Janet also has a thriving catering business so I take inspiration from her as well. In the eighth book, DEATH ON THE MENU, Janet was catering a Cuban-American conference at the Truman Little White House. Naturally the theme was Cuban food, and that is what my family and friends enjoyed for a while.

Here's an example--the mojito cake she served for dessert--delicious of course! The basis of this recipe came from a cookbook called Cuba! – Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen.  

And ps, for book clubs that might want to discuss one of these books, I have a page on my website with discussion questions and a recipe to go with the event, one for each book. Find those here.

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ANG POMPANO: This is such a great topic for Around the Kitchen Table, and I love reading how my fellow Kitchen members find inspiration for their recipes. Unlike my fellow contributors, I don’t include recipes in my Reluctant Food Columnist series on the strict advice of my attorney.

In Diet of Death, Simmering Secrets, and next year’s Vintage Vendetta, Quincy Lazzaro secretly writes the popular Cooking with Betty food column in collaboration with his octogenarian neighbor, Mary Ticarelli. But as far as the world knows, the column is written by Betty Ann Green, a woman who doesn’t exist. 

There’s plenty of food throughout the books, too, from the dishes Quincy writes about in his Cooking with Betty column to the recipes Mary creates and Quincy attempts in the kitchen so he can write about them. Apparently, my attorney thinks murder is fine, but recipes are where we draw the line.

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MOLLY MACRAE: My characters do an awful lot of eating. I made a list of all the food mentioned and consumed in my six Haunted Yarn Shop mysteries – 72 dishes in all! Each book features three full recipes (all mighty tasty). There’s plenty of food mentioned in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries too but, alas, no recipes. Not even for Night Sky Cake in Heather and Homicide, seen in the picture below. Isn't it pretty? One of these days I'll post the recipe.

Each Haunted Shell Shop Mystery also includes three full recipes and lots of cameo appearances of other food. Any of my featured recipes tends to be an old or new family favorite that we make over and over again at home.

But I did something different for There’ll Be Shell to Pay, book 2 in the Haunted Shell Shop series. The story involves a group of women who call themselves the Fig Ladies. Ocracoke Island, where the books take place, has the perfect climate for growing figs and is known for the wide variety of figs grown there. I ran a contest asking people to send in their favorite fig recipes along with information about where the recipes came from. I chose my favorite three recipes from among the entries, included them in the book, and named the Fig Lady characters – Roberta McLaughlin, Paula Diamond Roman, and Kathleen Thomas – after the three winners. It was so much fun!

Readers, how about you?

What are some of your favorite sources for your  recipes? To be entered in our book giveaway, join our discussion by leaving a comment below. 

Treble at the Jam Fest by Leslie Budewitz

Murder at the Campfire Cookout by Darci Hannah

Buttercream Betrayal by Kim Davis

Murder at the Toy Soldier by Maddie Day

No Roast for the Weary by Cleo Coyle

Diet of Death by Ang Pompano

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