Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Pantry Magic Recipe

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Welcome Bethany Blake with Pantry Magic Recipe + Prize Package #Giveaway

Please join me in welcoming a terrific author back to the Kitchen with a clever "pantry magic" recipe and a generous giveaway, including two books from her charming Lucky Paws Petsitting Mysteries, plus a secret bonus prize, and the very first book in her brand new series: A Brushstroke with Death.

Take it away, Bethany Blake!

~ Cleo Coyle

There are good surprises. And then there’s the call you get from your kid’s school, sharing bad news about a classmate’s cough.

The upshot? My whole family is under quarantine for two weeks.

Happily, everyone’s health is holding up and the classmate is doing great. But, as supplies dwindle, we’re getting pretty creative with pantry items.

If I was Willow Bellamy, the artistic witch in my book A Brushstroke with Death, maybe I’d try to harness one of the spells in her family’s old, misfiring spell book to conjure up some groceries. (Not that it would probably work for Willow, either.)

Instead, lacking powers (and living in a place with no grocery delivery), I’m going to try to do some magic with ingredients in my pantry. And what better place to start than the most mysterious cabinet, where the terrors of baking lurk?

Here’s what I spied when I tentatively opened the door to this scary realm. (Can you tell I don’t bake much?)

It looks grim. No one should have so many marshmallows! It’s just wrong!

But upon closer inspection… there’s some stuff to work with here. Including the ingredients to make chocolate pudding from a box and vanilla pudding from scratch. Believe it or not, I’ve never made pudding that didn’t come in a packet. So, you are all basically along on this parfait adventure with me.

This is happening in real time, people. None of us will know the outcome until the final photo, which won’t be some perfectly staged plate. It will be The. Real. Deal.

Let’s get started!!

Here are the assembled ingredients. The sourdough pretzels were a gift from a friend, who just left them on the porch. They are only here to sustain me.

Step 1 – Whisk together 2¼ cups milk, 3 Tbs of corn starch, two egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar. Heat over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until it starts to get bubbly and thick in about 6 minutes.

Step 2 – I suffer a moment of panic as I check a text and come back to a bubbling cauldron! I grab it off the stove and whisk in 2 tsp of vanilla and 1 Tbs of butter. It smells fantastic!

Step 3 – Make chocolate pudding according to box mix instructions. I’ve totally got this!! (I added a few bittersweet chocolate chips, just to jazz things up. Also, 2 percent milk in pudding? I think not.)

Step 4 – Now I’m toasting some almonds. I mean… why wouldn’t I?

Step 5 – Assembly. Lacking any fancy “trifle dishes” – which may or may not be a thing – I grab some Mason jars, wine glasses and a glass… thingy. Then I crumble some graham crackers in the bottom, add vanilla pudding, then more graham crackers. I think we can already see that this is not what anyone imagined.

Step 6 – Next comes a layer of cherry pie filling, then chocolate pudding and whipped topping I found in the freezer, followed by the toasted almonds. Here’s the final product, which I placed in front of a small Leaning Tower of Pisa, in hopes of making my parfaits look “elegantly European.” I think we can all agree that wasn’t a good idea.

What happened to the layers?? Shouldn’t someone water those poor plants??

The good news is, these things are DELICIOUS. I would totally make them again, but probably hide the layers in a baking dish.

In the meantime, which presentation do you find the least offensive?

Wine glass? * Mason jar? * Glass…thingy?

Vote now in the comments!

Bethany Blake is the author of the Owl & Crescent Mysteries and the Lucky Paws Petsitting Mystery Series. She lives in a small, quaint town in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, three daughters, a fearsome feline, an attack cardinal, a blind goldfish and a soulful dog with a discerning palate. Please visit Bethany online at BethanyBlakeAuthor.com.

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