Guest Victoria Hamilton's Homemade Turkey Sausage #recipe #giveaway

 

Today the Kitchen is pleased to present the marvelous Victoria Hamilton, with a delicious recipe from her Merry Muffin Mysteries. And she's doing an incredible GIVEAWAY of a "Hug From Canada" gift package! So be sure to leave a comment below, for a chance to win this terrific prize. Take it away, Victoria:

 

Hello Mystery Lovers!

My main character in the Merry Muffin Mysteries is Merry Wynter, who – spoiler alert – bakes muffins as part of her income, trying to keep her real American castle solvent by selling them to local coffee shops, bakeries and the senior home her mother-in-law owns.

In Thanks for Muffin (Merry Muffin Mystery #8 – coming out October 14^th, 2025!) she and her business partner Pish Lincoln are finally seeing the culmination of their dreams, a gala opening of the long planned and awaited Wynter Woods Center for the Performing Arts. They have invited luminaries to celebrate with them at a dinner and party.

But they have also invited a number of the social media influencers, most with local connections, to stay over the long Thanksgiving Weekend, which means serving to a dozen or so people a buffet of breakfast items every morning, as well as the other meals. Of course murder will interrupt the weekend, but folks still have to eat!

This recipe is the kind of thing Merry would make from scratch for folks wanting protein, but low fat. A healthy kind of sausage! What makes a good sausage? It’s all about the herbs and spices. These patties benefit from the fresh sage, which pairs so perfectly with turkey anyway. That’s why I have a good amount of fresh sage from my garden in it, as well as the ground sage.

So these are easy, yes, but I created it mostly because I like them a lot! Having them on hand makes my morning fast and easy when I make these ahead of time and keep them in the freezer!

Merry’s Homemade Turkey Sausage

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground turkey, light and dark meat, preferably.

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs

¾ tsp ground sage

½ tsp ground rosemary

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp marjoram or oregano

¼ tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Optional (but recommended!)

½ - 1 tbsp minced fresh sage

½ - 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley

Combine all spices, then mix the spices and breadcrumbs with the ground turkey, working it well into the meat but not overworking!

Divide into eight approximately 2 ounce portions; I do use a scale for this step, as for me it simplifies things and reduces the guesswork. You could just divide the mixture, eyeballing it.

Flatten into patties, or make into sausage lengths.

Spray light high-temp oil into pan, then grill the sausages, browning nicely and flipping. Don’t overcook! They only take a few minutes on each side.

 

Serve with eggs, or other breakfast items! As patties they pair perfectly with an egg and English muffin for breakfast sandwiches.

Full disclosure: this is my favorite breakfast, an Egg McHamilton, if you will! I love Dempsters’ (A Canadian company) Everything English Muffin because they have wonderful flavor.

These sausage patties freeze well after cooking.

Enjoy your quick work day or school day breakfast!

~::~

And now for the GIVEAWAY!

 

Win the ‘Hug from Canada’ Prize Package!  

 

It includes: VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com pens, a one-of-a-kind Merry Muffins canvas book tote, a box of Four O’Clock organic ‘Apple Crumble’ black tea, a box of Canadian Jakeman Maple Cookies, and Canadian chef and Member of the Order of Canada cookbook author Jean Paré’s ‘Mostly Muffins’ cookbook, chock full of wonderful muffin recipes! Also included is a $25 US Amazon gift card. Contest is open to Canadian and US readers!

 

Leave a comment below to be eligible to win (and be sure to leave your email address, so we can contact you).

~::~

About Thanks for Muffin:

When Merry Wynter’s festive gala takes a fatal turn, she’ll have to grill her guests to catch a killer . . . 

After years of planning and hard work, Merry Wynter was finally ready to host the grand opening gala of the Wynter Woods Center for the Performing Arts. With musicians, entertainers, members of the media and even influencers on the guest list, the event went off without a hitch—until a particularly nasty journalist posted a criticism of the gala and everything Merry was trying to accomplish. Still reeling from the review days later, Merry wasn’t sure what to feel when she discovered the reporter’s dead body on the grounds of Wynter Castle. 

With many of her guests staying on at the castle for the weekend, Merry realizes they’ve got a murderer in their midst. Going from celebrating to sleuthing, she discreetly questions each of them, trying to weed out the culprit. She quickly learns that the victim had heated arguments with several of the people at the gala, and it turns out those people were all connected by a tragedy in the past. Certain the killer is among them, Merry will have to unearth the final clue that nails the killer—before the killer decides she’s getting too close . . . 

Includes delicious recipes!

~::~

About Victoria Hamilton:

Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson. Victoria is the bestselling author of three mystery series, the Lady Anne Addison Mysteries, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and the Merry Muffin Mysteries. She also writes a Regency-set historical mystery series, starting with A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder. Visit her website at victoriahamiltonmysteries.com.

Social Details:

Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor

On BlueSky: @mysteryvictoria.bsky.social

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mysteryauthorvictoriahamilton/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/598635.Victoria_Hamilton

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Hamilton/e/B007T7LGAU

Summer Strawberry Recipe from Victoria Hamilton

Muffin But Murder, 

goes on sale July 1st!

Learn more here.

Please welcome author Victoria Hamilton as our special guest today. 

Victoria is sharing a healthy recipe that's perfect for summer strawberry season. She also has a generous prize package and one lucky commenter will win it has won it! Learn more at the end of this post. Take it away, Victoria!

~ Cleo

It’s That Time of Year
For…Strawberries!
by Victoria Hamilton

This blog post started with a friendly chat between neighbors. 

I live in a nice, working class urban neighborhood, and I have for many years. In fact, it’s the same neighborhood I grew up in, just a block away. The other day I spent a few minutes chatting with my across-the-street neighbor, just back from walking her dog. 

The next day I was coming back from shopping when my wonderful neighbor came over carrying a beautiful big container of strawberries, fresh from her garden! Well, it so happens that I am trying to eat healthier: lots of water, more fruits and vegetables, salad every day. In that attempt I have switched from toast for breakfast every morning to smoothies. 

There are lots of recipes out there, and I know this is super easy, barely a recipe at all, but I thought I’d share one of mine, and as a bonus, I can tell you how many Weight Watchers Points Plus™ it is.

This makes enough for two!

Ingredients:

2 bananas, frozen or fresh 

2/3 cup vanilla fat-free no-sugar-added yogurt (I use a probiotic yogurt.)

1 Cup Strawberries, fresh or frozen

1 Cup unsweetened almond beverage

1 Tblsp. organic honey

Almond or vanilla extract, if desired. (I forgot to add it this time and it tasted just fine!)

Directions: 

All ingredients go into a blender and voila, you have breakfast for two at 2.5 Weight Watchers Points Plus™ each!

Some of my notes:

Frozen fruit will make a thicker, milkshake like consistency. I always have bananas in my freezer that I usually use for muffins or banana bread, but they work awesome in this. I let them thaw for an hour just to make it easier on my blender. You do have to let it blend for a while to break down all the chunks of banana.

I usually use regular 2% milk, but lately I have switched to unsweetened almond beverage for smoothies for the fat savings and health benefits. It’s great! I’m thinking of trying coconut water for a plain fruit smoothie.

So…I know a lot of you out there
 probably do the same. 

What do you use in YOUR
morning smoothie?

~::~

About Muffin but Murder

When Merry Wynter unexpectedly inherited a castle in the wilds of upstate New York, she took some time to adjust. After living in New York City it was culture shock to wind up in a castle a few miles away from small town Autumn Vale. However, far from being lonely, as she first feared, her best friends Shilo Dinnegan (a former model) and Pish Lincoln, (a retired financial advisor who now writes books on financial scams and con artists) have joined her at Wynter Castle.

It is clear that she can’t afford to keep such a huge building, even if it is her ancestral home. It must be sold! She has an upscale party to promote Wynter Castle to would-be buyers who may be able to take the place and turn it into a hotel or inn, but the post party clean-up reveals an awful discovery; one of her "guests" turns up dead in a most gruesome fashion. With Pish holding back secrets, her exasperated attraction to Virgil Grace, (the broodingly handsome sheriff of Autumn Vale) growing stronger, and a supposed cousin with a possible claim on the inheritance plaguing her daily, Merry has her hands full.

But murder comes first. Who killed the guest, and why? And how is she going to keep Virgil from arresting Pish?

*With recipes! There is one muffin recipe in Muffin but Murder for what I call "Fit For The King Muffins" and they are wonderful!

Bestselling mystery author Victoria Hamilton writes the Merry Muffin Mysteries and The Vintage Kitchen Mysteries. As Amanda Cooper, she also writes the Teapot Collector Mysteries.

Victoria's long time love of mystery novels started at age twelve when her mom handed her an Agatha Christie book and said "Read"! Thousands of novels later, Victoria is still reading. And writing.

Besides those two favorite pastimes, Victoria also enjoys collecting vintage kitchenalia, old books, teacups, teapots and other ephemera. Perfume is her secret addiction. She likes to cook, hates to clean, and enjoys time spent with friends chatting over wine or tea. She loves crafts, loathes boredom, and her guilty pleasure is "reality" TV, which she knows is largely fake, but she enjoys it anyway.

Victoria thinks that people are the most interesting study of all, and more than anything, she loves to hear from readers, not just about her books but about anything and everything.

Facebook Page

For more on Muffin But Murder and the Merry Muffin Mysteries, visit the series’ Facebook page by clicking here.

Web Home

Learn more about Victoria Hamilton, her alter ego Amanda Cooper, and all her mystery series by clicking here.

~::~

Victoria's Giveaway

This wonderful contest is now over.
Thanks to everyone who left such
kind comments.

And our winner is...

Michelle of Brockton,
Massachusetts!

Michelle won the...

* Cozy Mystery Book Tote 

* Cozy Mystery Pen

* Muffin But Murder

* Tempest in a Teapot,
written by Victoria as
 Amanda Cooper

6 Week Bran Muffins and Book News from guest author Victoria Hamilton

Please welcome Victoria Hamilton to the Kitchen. She's sharing a recipe and news of her new mystery series. Take it away, Victoria! ~ Cleo

Like my heroine, Merry Wynter, of Bran New Death, (the first of the Merry Muffin Mystery series) I am a very good cook, but only an adequate baker. However, the things that I know I cannot mess up are muffins and quick breads, so I do a lot of banana bread, bran muffins, banana muffins, etc. I suppose this may have come from my mother—she did not go into fancy baking—however she made exceptional homemade bread, and I’ve never even tried that. 

And speaking of my mother…when I was in high school I worked a part time job at Kresge’s. Every Saturday after the store closed at five thirty I would run--and I do mean run (the bus left at five forty-five) to the Greyhound station and catch the bus to go to my parent’s trailer at the lake. After an hour and a quarter ride I would be dropped off on the highway near the trailer park slightly motion sick from driving into the sunset (makes me queasy!), and my mom would have a fresh batch of her refrigerator bran muffins waiting. The whole trailer would smell of the bran date goodness. 

I would have one or two as dinner, and all would be right with the world.

Mom and Dad both really liked bran muffins, so she made a big batch of batter that would last for weeks in the fridge, so she could scoop out some for fresh baked goodness any time. Here is an approximation of the recipe, and if you make it you, too, will have fresh muffins every day, or several dozen to give away!

~::~

Victoria Hamilton, bestselling mystery author, loves cooking, crafts, cats and tea drinking! However, cheap wine and a good karaoke song will lure her away from the tea. 

Check out Bran New Death and Victoria Hamilton’s other series, Vintage Kitchen Mysteries.

Website & Purchase Links: Victoria Hamilton Mysteries

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton 

6 Week
Bran Muffin Recipe

First, please note that this makes up a LOT of batter! When I say big bowls, I MEAN big bowls… I used the two largest bowls of the Pyrex Primary Colors set, and they were barely big enough. But the batter is so easy to make, and it means that if you have twenty minutes in the morning you can have fresh, hot-out-of-the-oven muffins any morning! This would also be a great recipe if you need a large amount to make muffins for a bake sale or church function.

Cooking Time: 20 min

Makes: Hope You Like Bran Muffins… A Whole Lot! 

Ingredients 

15 ounces raisin bran cereal

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups Whole Wheat flour

2 Cups White sugar

1 Cup Golden Brown sugar

5 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup oil

4 cups buttermilk

Optional:

¾ lb. pitted dates, (plus 1 tsp. baking soda and boiling water just to cover)

Instructions

1. If you are using dates… chop dates, then put in smallish bowl, sprinkle baking soda over them and cover with boiling water just to cover. The baking soda is necessary to break down and soften the skins. You can mash the dates some as they soften.

2. Mix wet ingredients together in the biggest bowl, then add raisin bran cereal and let sit for at least twenty minutes while you do the rest. If the dates are softened, you can add them to the wet ingredients at this point, with the liquid.

3. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in another large bowl.

4. Mix dry blend into wet ingredients, mixing well, but not beating.

5. Refrigerate batter at least 6 hours before baking. 

6. Fill muffin tins or papers 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 min.

Note: The original recipe (I’ve made quite a few alterations to the original) claims that batter will keep in fridge for up to 6 weeks, so that you can bake a few at a time. I know my mom’s recipe did. The batter will get very thick and light colored, with a fluffy texture. Put it in a container with a tight lid.

~::~

Bran New Death, Book 1 of the Merry Muffin Mystery series by Victoria Hamilton, (Berkley Prime Crime) is out September 3rd!

Bran New Death

When Merry Wynter discovered that she inherited a genuine American Castle in the "wilds" of upstate New York, her first reaction was to contact a real estate agent to sell it, sight unseen. Things were a little complicated, what with a lunatic employer making her life miserable. But after losing her job and with the castle not sold, Merry decides to trek to Wynter Castle to see what the problem is.

One barrier to selling is immediately evident; someone is digging giant holes on the property! Merry accuses local Tom Turner of being her late night gopher and warns him to stay off her property, or else, but it happens again. Merry storms out to confront whomever is doing the damage, but doesn’t count on finding a dead man at the bottom of the hole.

What is going on at Wynter Castle and in Autumn Vale? How can Merry convince hunky sheriff Virgil Grace that she is not the one who bashed the victim over the head? 

~::~

Website & Purchase Links: Victoria Hamilton Mysteries

Visit Victoria on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton 

This is a wonderful recipe, Victoria.  

Thank you for coming by to share it with us today. 

I can't wait to mix up a batch of
these babies...and dig into the pages
of your new mystery: Bran New Death. 

~ Cleo