Gougeres and French Manhattans -- Happy New Year!

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  A few years ago, I bought Mr. Right a copy of Drinking French by David Lebovitz for Christmas – just in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve with some of David’s treats. Gougère and French Manhattans are a pairing the man himself recommends, and we heartily agree!

What, you ask, are gougères? Little cheese puffs, almost as easy to make as they are to eat! Lebovitz says Comte, Jarlsberg, or Cheddar would work in place of the Gruyere – what you’re after is a hard cheese with a strong flavor. Lebovitz recommends using your mixer’s paddle attachment; at the time we made these, we had a mixer that didn’t have one and the regular beaters worked fine. I’m looking forward to paddling with my new red Kitchen Aid this New Year’s Eve! He calls for cayenne; it’s a small amount, but if cayenne troubles you, try a sweet paprika. Because he’s a pro, he has several recommendations for mounding the dough – a spring-loaded scoop, a pastry bad, yada yada. I settled on a small silicon spatula and my finger as the best scoop.

And a French Manhattan? It’s an American Manhattan with a delightful French accent! (We didn’t have cherries the day I took the pictures. We also didn’t have coupe glasses. Act American and punt!) 

Friends, we are all grateful for your presence in our lives and at the blog this past year. Everyone of us wishes you great joy, good food, and fabulous reading in the year to come!

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

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Gougères (adapted from Drinking French by David Lebovitz)

1 cup water

½ cup unsalted butter, cubed

½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne or sweet paprika

1 cup white, all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

2-3/4 cups grated Gruyere (divided use)

Adjust oven racks, raising the top rack a bit for maximum air circulation. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking sheets.

In a medium saucepan, heat the water, butter, salt, and cayenne over medium to medium-high heat, stirring until the butter is melted.

Add the flour all at once. Reduce heat to medium and book, stirring continuously, until the dough forms a smooth ball and no longer sticks to the side of the pan.

Scrape the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and let rest for 2 minutes, “bursting” the mixer (turning it on and off) a couple of times to cool the dough.

Turn the mixer to medium-high and add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next, and stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides before each addition. Add 1-3/4 cups cheese and mix.

Scoop 1-1/2 tablespoons of dough onto your baking sheet and repeat, with at least an inch between the mounds, about 15 per baking sheet. Each mound should be about 1-1/2 inches wide. With the remaining cup of cheese, top each mound with as much cheese as you can. 

Bake 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake until the top and sides are deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Midway, rotate the baking sheets 180 degrees and switch their position on the racks so they bake evenly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 30. 

French Manhattan (from Drinking French by David Lebovitz)

For each cocktail:

1-1/2 ounces cognac

1-1/2 ounces sweet vermouth

1/4 ounce Grand Marnier or Cointreau

1 dash orange or Angostura bitters

Candied amarena cherry or maraschino cherry, for garnish. 

Add the cognac, sweet vermouth, Grand Marnier, and bitters to a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. 

Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a cherry. Eat with a gougère -- or two or three!

Bonne année, nos amis!

💕 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.

Tarragon Vinaigrette - #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  As I’ve written before, we truly discovered the glorious taste of tarragon on our first trip to France in 2009, where it particularly shone when served with chicken. When we returned home and began working our way through Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child, we knew we had to grow it ourselves. 

Kitchen Wisdom is the source of the recipe we call "Chicken Julia," great by itself and as the basis of other recipes, which is the guiding principle of the book. 

Now we keep a pot of tarragon on the deck and often keep the potted plant going through the winter, in the house. I’m finally brave enough to try planting it in the garden and seeing if I can turn it into a perennial; I’ll let you know how it goes.

This year’s plant is quite abundant but even so, as I cut stems and stripped leaves into a sieve for rinsing, I wondered if I really wanted to make a full recipe. Turns out, a cup of leaves adds up fast, and it wasn’t too much dressing at all. 

In addition to a lovely salad dressing, this vinaigrette—which isn’t terribly vinegar-y—went nicely on seared scallops, grilled white fish, and of course, chicken. It’s also a terrific dressing for a simple combo of halved cherry or grape tomatoes and white cannellini beans, and Lebovitz recommends it on grilled vegetables and mozzarella. 

Consider it the taste of a French summer, no matter where you live. 

Tarragon Vinaigrette 

adapted from David Lebovitz

scant 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, rinsed

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon water

1 small shallot, peeled and sliced (about half the shallot pictured)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon of sea or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon honey (optional)

Put all the ingredients in a mini-chopper or blender. Pulse until well-mixed, with small flecks of green. Adjust seasonings—you may want a splash more vinegar or a dash more salt. Add the honey if you find the flavor of the tarragon slightly sharp. 

Makes a little over half a cup. 

Keeps in the refrigerator up to 5 days; bring to room temperature before serving.

Oops! Here's where the picture of the jar of vinaigrette would be if I'd remembered to take it! Just imagine, from the lovely green dressing poured over the scallops and the cucumber-watermelon-mozzarella salad pictured!

And as Julia would say, Bon Appetit!

PEPPERMINT BARKED: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2022, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly…

As the holiday season lights up Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece’s beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year’s Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend’s brother for the first time.

But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny’s wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper’s mind. Who would want to hurt Beth? Or were they looking for Vinny instead?

The vicious attack upsets everyone at Pike Place, but none more than Pepper’s own employee, Matt Kemp. At first, Pepper is baffled by his reaction, but his clandestine connection to Beth could hold the key to the assailant’s motive. Or perhaps it’s Vinny’s ex-wife who knows more than she’s letting on . . . and what about the mysterious top-hatted man with whom Pepper saw Beth arguing that morning?

As the secrets of the market come to light, long-held grudges, family ties, and hidden plans only further obscure the truth. Is it a ghost of the past rattling its chains, or a contemporary Scrooge with more earthly motives? As Pepper chases down a killer, someone is chasing her, and in the end, the storied market itself may hold the final, deadly clue.

A cozy holiday mystery full of culinary delights and a rich cast of characters, the sixth installment in the Spice Shop Mystery series will keep you turning the page . . . and reaching for another piece of peppermint bark. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Peppermint Barked, her 6th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2022, and Blind Faith, her second standalone suspense novel (written as Alicia Beckman), will release in October 2022. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she 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.

Angel Food Cake with Fresh Strawberries -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: You’ve all heard me say it before: I am People of the Pie, not Clan of the Cake. It goes back to childhood, when my beloved father said if I wanted to make a great cake, learn from Aunt Peggy. But if I wanted to make a great pie, learn from my mother. Aunt Peggy lived a long ways away. So, pie it was!

In our house, cake was for birthdays. Pie was for 

fun.

For her last birthday, three years ago yesterday, my mother asked for an Angel Food Cake with strawberries and whipped cream. I knew it wouldn’t last the three-hour drive from our house to the retirement community where she lived, so I called the Safeway in her town and told a woman in the bakery what I wanted. “Oh, sure, hon. We can do that for you.”

And they did.

When Mr. Right and I walked in, they had a bag ready for us with a cake, a can of whipped cream, and strawberry glaze, and sent me to the produce department for the berries. Kitchen staff provided a knife and serving plate, and even let me slice up the berries in their prep room.

This cake comes from David Lebovitz, an American baker living and writing in Paris. His blog, newsletter, and cookbooks are all excellent. It’s classic and perfect and Mom would have loved it. Cake flour is finer than all-purpose flour, and lower in gluten, which makes it rise nicely. Cream of tartar stabilizes the egg whites. Lebovitz uses the yolks in ice cream. We added a couple to our Sunday omelet, saved a few for a Hollandaise experiment, and froze the rest. That’s an experiment, too, but Google tells Mr. Right it works, and would Google ever lie? We’ll let you know.

A note on the pan: My mother’s tube pan disappeared ages ago so I bought a new one. Don’t use a nonstick Bundt-style pan. Angel Food cakes are typically cooled upside down; some pans have “feet” that allow them to hover above the cooling rack; mine has a tube that’s higher than the sides of the pan, which balances on the tube to cool. Lacking both of those, invert the pan on a heavy bottle or a metal funnel. 

Yesterday would have been my mother’s 95th birthday. 

Whatever the occasion, make it sweeter with a little cake. Or pie. :)

Angel Food Cake with Fresh Strawberries

adapted from David Lebovitz

For the cake: 

1 cup cake flour, not self-rising
1 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups egg whites (from about 12 large eggs), at room temperature
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the berry topping:
3 cups strawberries (or other fruit), sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (optional)
whipped cream (optional)

Heat the oven to 350ºF.

In a small bowl, whisk sift together the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites on medium speed. When they become foamy, after about two minutes, add the cream of tartar and lemon juice.

Increase speed to high and continue to whip the egg whites until they just begin to hold their shape in soft, droopy peaks. Gradually whip the remaining 1 cup of sugar into the whites, 1/4 cup at a time. Do not overwhip; the egg whites should not be overly dry or stiff, but soft and cloud-like. (About 3-5 minutes total.) At the last moment, add the vanilla and mix.

Use a flexible spatula to fold the flour and sugar mixture into the whites gradually, a small amount at a time.

Pour the batter into a 9- or 10-inch tube pan smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately invert the tube pan over a cooling rack until cool, about an hour. (See note above about pans.) Slide a knife around the edges of the pan and tube, and tap the pan on the sides and bottom to release the cake. If it doesn’t come out right away, invert the pan again and let it cool a little longer.

Meanwhile, slice the strawberries and toss with the sugar and optional Grand Marnier. Let sit at least an hour, on the counter or in the refrigerator, so the sugar and berry juices can mingle.

To serve, slice and plate. Top with a spoonful of berries and juice, and optional whipped cream.

Serves 8.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

From the cover of THE SOLACE OF BAY LEAVES, Spice Shop Mystery #5, out now in e-book and audio, in paperback October 20, 2020 (Seventh St. Books and Tantor Audio) : 

Pepper Reece never expected to find solace in bay leaves. 

But when her life fell apart at forty and she bought the venerable-but-rundown Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, her days took a tasty turn. Now she’s savoring the prospect of a flavorful fall and a busy holiday cooking season, until danger bubbles to the surface ... 

Between managing her shop, worrying about her staff, and navigating a delicious new relationship, Pepper’s firing on all burners. But when her childhood friend Maddie is shot and gravely wounded, the incident is quickly tied to an unsolved murder that left another close friend a widow. 

Convinced that the secret to both crimes lies in the history of a once-beloved building, Pepper uses her local-girl contacts and her talent for asking questions to unearth startling links between the past and present—links that suggest her childhood friend may not have been the Golden Girl she appeared to be. Pepper is forced to face her own regrets and unsavory emotions, if she wants to save Maddie’s life—and her own. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories.  Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by my website and join the mailing list for my seasonal newsletter. And join me on Facebook where I announce lots of giveaways from my cozy writer friends.

Salted Olive Crisps -- a taste of Paris! #recipe

LESLIE: As I write this, we’re getting ready for a trip to Paris, primarily to visit the Leonardo exhibit at the Louvre, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the maestro’s death, with more than 160 of his drawings, sculptures, and paintings, many borrowed from museums around the world. As you read this, we’re just back, no doubt our minds filled with sights, sounds, and tastes of the City of Lights.

Lucy and I share an admiration for the blog and books of David Lebovitz, an American chef and writer living in Paris. Sadly, he no longer conducts food tours—she actually got to go on one of his bread tours, and I’ll be eternally envious! Next best thing, reading his books and cooking from them. (You’ve cooked from his blog with me a few times, without knowing it—one adaptation I can think of at the moment is my Spiced Glazed Nuts and Pretzels mix from Assault & Pepper, a holiday favorite chez nous, based on a recipe from his blog.)

So I knew when I saw his Salted Olive Crisps, in My Paris Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, 2014), that I wanted to make them and share them with you. Sadly, I can’t pass a basket of them through the computer screen—wrong kind of windows—so the recipe will have to be the next best thing.

I used almonds and herbes de Provence---find my recipe in Assault & Pepper, and in my first Mystery Lovers' Kitchen post as a regular!  Walnuts would be good, and an Italian herb blend would be a nice substitute. I used Kalamata olives, dabbing them dry-ish with a paper towel, but other dark, cured olives would work nicely. I’ve suggested more salt—that’s up to you---added cooling times, and rewritten the instructions slightly, but it remains very much Monsieur Lebovitz’s recipe. Note that while the active cooking time is short, only about 15 minutes, there are two half-hour bakes and some cooling time, so give yourself plenty of time—maybe make these the day before you plan to serve them to let them fully crisp.

They would be great with a chilled white wine and a soft creamy cheese, but we’d been cleaning out the fridge, so we had neither. C’est la vie!

Salted Olive Crisps 

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence or dried thyme
1-2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup almonds, not toasted, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup packed, coarsely chopped, pitted olives

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with non-stick spray or oil it lightly, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

In a bowl, stir together the all-purpose and wheat flours, sugar, dried herbes, salt, baking soda, and black pepper. Add the buttermilk and mix with a spatula. Stir in the almonds and olives. Pour batter into the pan and spread to the corners with your spatula. Bake 30 minutes, until it feels set in the center.

Remove pan from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Remove loaf from pan, running a knife around the edges to loosen it if necessary. Cool on a wire rack about 15 minutes.

Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.

Place the loaf on your cutting board. Hold the outside edges firmly to keep it from crumbling as you slice the loaf crosswise as thinly as you can, no more than 1/4" thick. (If the loaf is too warm, it won’t slice cleanly.) Lay slices flat on the baking sheets and bake 30-35 minutes, flipping the slices and rotating the baking sheets on your oven racks after about 15 minutes, to brown the slices evenly. Watch carefully in the last 5-10 minutes so they don’t overbrown.

Remove from oven and cool completely before serving. Crisps will keep about 1 week, stored in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Makes about 40 crackers.

Bon appetit!

From the cover of CHAI ANOTHER DAY, Spice Shop Mystery #4 (Seventh St. Books): 

 Seattle Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece probes murder while juggling a troubled employee, her mother's house hunt, and a fisherman who's set his hook for her.

As owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece is always on the go. Between conjuring up new spice blends and serving iced spice tea to customers looking to beat the summer heat, she finally takes a break for a massage. But the Zen moment is shattered when she overhears an argument in her friend Aimee's vintage home decor shop that ends in murder. 

Wracked by guilt over her failure to intervene, Pepper investigates, only to discover a web of deadly connections that could ensnare a friend - and Pepper herself.

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, and the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story, and is now nominated for a Macavity award; read it on her website. A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by my website and join the mailing list for my seasonal newsletter. And join me on Facebook where I announce lots of giveaways from my cozy writer friends.