Chicken Quesadilla from @MaddieDayAuthor, plus #giveaway

Maddie Day here, with another easy and delicious Cali-Mex recipe to celebrate the coming release of my seventh Country Store Mystery, Nacho Average Murder!

In chef Robbie Jordan's next adventure, she's hanging out in her home town of Santa Barbara. She loves the chicken quesadilla she eats so much, she puts it on the Specials menu after she gets back to her country store restaurant in southern Indiana. It's a super easy dish to fix for lunch or dinner, and you can add or subtract spiciness per your taste.

After June 30, I'll send one commenter a signed copy of the book (paper if US, ebook if elsewhere)!

Chicken Quesadilla

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, minced

1 green pepper, diced

Two boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat

Cumin

Chili pepper

Salt

4 flour tortillas

(Option) Chopped fresh or pickled Jalapeños

8 ounces pepper Jack cheese, grated (Option: use regular Monterey Jack if you don't like the peppers)

1 avocado mashed into your favorite guacamole recipe, or commercial guacamole

Salsa

  

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a cast iron skillet. Sauté onions and green peppers until tender. Remove to a plate.

Sprinkle cumin, chili pepper, and salt on chicken and rub in. Turn and repeat.

Heat second tablespoon of olive oil in the same pan. Sauté chicken on both sides until cooked. Remove, cool slightly, and shred.

Spread chicken, vegetables, and cheese in equal portions on one half of each tortilla. Fold over and press down.

Heat last tablespoon of olive oil in same pan. Saute one or two quesadillas at a time on both sides, just to warm.

Serve hot with salsa and guacamole.

 I'll send one commenter a sign copy of the book (paper if US, ebook if elsewhere)!

Readers: This is basically a grilled sandwich. What's your favorite grilled sandwich?

My next book is Nacho Average Murder, which comes out June 30 and is the seventh Country Store Mystery.

Robbie Jordan is temporarily leaving Pans ’N Pancakes, her country store in South Lick, Indiana, to visit Santa Barbara, California—where wildfire smoke tinges the air, but a more immediate danger may lie in wait . . .

The next book after that is Taken Too Soon, the sixth Quaker Midwife (written by Edith Maxwell), up for preorder now!

I hope you'll visit my alter-ego Edith Maxwell and me on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

A Cake for Agatha, plus #giveaway

Maddie Day here, with a recipe for Delicious Death Cake. 

I'm also known as Edith Maxwell, and under that name a book I wrote received the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel last Saturday night!

Yes, Charity's Burden, my fourth Quaker Midwife Mystery, was announced as the winner for this highly competitive award. An Agatha is the highest honor for a traditional mystery. I am so thrilled and, frankly, still a bit stunned. 

Here's the blurb:
The winter of 1889 is harsh in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but it doesn't stop Quaker midwife Rose Carroll from making the rounds to her pregnant and postpartum mothers. When Charity Skells dies from an apparent early miscarriage, Rose wonders about the symptoms that don't match the stated cause of death. With several suspects emerging, each with their own possible motives, Rose and police detective Kevin Donovan race against time to solve the case before another innocent life is lost.

In normal times, the Agatha Awards are presented at the annual Malice Domestic banquet in North Bethesda, Maryland. The winners are feted and hugged and congratulated and photographed, and then everyone adjourns to the bar for more basking in glory. This year? I watched the announcement on my kitchen latptop and got a brief congratulations from my non-fiction-reading partner (who promptly adjourned to his den). I poured myself a hefty bourbon and started reading hundreds of online congratulations. 

Frankly? It wasn't as anywhere near as much fun, but what can you do? The Malice organizers assured the winners that we'll all be celebrated at the conference next year and will receive our Agatha teapots at that time.

My blogmates here encouraged me to announce the award on my next post, in case you are one of the few who hadn't heard. But the Quaker Midwife Mysteries take place in the late 1880s and do not include recipes. My occasional forays into preparing recipes from that era have not been successful, so I won't plague you with a fruitcake of enormous proportions. 

The next best thing has to be an Agatha cake. That is, a cake mentioned in an Agatha Christie book! I went searching and discovered that A Murder is Announced has lots of food mentions. It includes a chocolate cake "of a melting richness" called Delicious Death because "it was so good, it was worth dying for." I hadn't read a Christie book in a long time, and I was a little surprised (I shouldn't have been) at how well the writing stood up. I see an Agatha-reading binge in my near future.

The cake described in the book had a block of chocolate, sugar, "much butter," and...raisins. Me, I don't put raisins in chocolate cake,and I was all out of blocks of chocolate (more's the pity). Being quarantined, I used cocoa powder and oil in this version of the cake, because I'm always afraid of running out of butter. But don't worry, the mocha frosting has nearly a stick of butter in it, and the cake definitely has a melting richness.

So let's get to it. 

Delicious Death Cake

Ingredients

Cake

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not shown in photo)

1 egg

1/2 cup buttermilk at room temperature (if you don’t have any, you can mix 1/2 tbsp lemon juice into room temperature 2% milk and let it sit for 5 minutes before using)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup boiling water

Mocha Frosting

6 tbsp softened butter

3 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted into the powdered sugar

2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder (not shown in photo)

1/6 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Extra milk, if necessary

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a nine-inch cake pan, line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper, and oil the paper.

Whisk sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk egg, buttermilk, and oil. Pour the wet mix into the dry and beat on low until just combined (scrape the bottom and sides several times to make sure there are no dry clumps left). It will have a texture like very thick brownie batter. Stir in boiling water until just combined, scraping again to make sure everything is completely incorporated.

Transfer the batter to pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the sides while hot. Turn the cake out of the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool completely on the rack.

Beat butter in a large bowl until smooth. Stir coffee into powdered sugar mix. Mix 2 cups of the sugar mix a little at a time, beating continuously until smooth. Gradually beat in the milk and vanilla. Beat in the remaining powdered sugar mix a little at a time. If necessary, beat in extra milk 1 tbsp at a time to reach spreading consistency.

Transfer cake to serving plate and frost. 

Serve with a dollop of malice domestic!

The next Quaker Midwife Mystery is Taken Too Soon (not yet up for preorder) and will be out in early September. Doesn't it have a pretty cover? The book takes place on Cape Cod.

Maddie's next book is Nacho Average Murder, which comes out June 30 and is the seventh Country Store Mystery. I still have ARCs and would love to send one of you (US only) a signed copy. 

Readers: What's your favorite Agatha Christie book or movie?

Robbie Jordan is temporarily leaving Pans ’N Pancakes, her country store in South Lick, Indiana, to visit Santa Barbara, California—where wildfire smoke tinges the air, but a more immediate danger may lie in wait . . .

I hope you'll visit my alter-ego Edith Maxwell and me on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha-nominated and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Mocha-Kahlua Valentine's Cookies and #GIVEAWAY

Today the Kitchen welcomes Maddie Day as a regular contributor to the MLK blog!

From Maddie Day:

I'm delighted to be joining this stellar group of author-cooks, and today I share Mocha-Kahlua Valentine's cookies. Please read down for a giveaway!

Since I'm new here, I'll introduce myself. Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha-nominated and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

Today is the ritual day of love, and it also marks sixteen years since I met Hugh, my tall, funny beau. I wanted to bake something yummy for him, but also not a tricky recipe, so all you wonderful readers can try it at home.

So far none of my cozy foodie mysteries - the Country Store series and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries - have taken place over Valentine's Day. You can believe I'm keeping this recipe in reserve for the next one that does.

Mocha-Kahlua Valentine's Cookies

Ingredients

½ cup butter (softened to room temperature)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon Kahlua

1 ¾ cups unbleached white flour (plus extra for rolling)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon espresso or dark roast coffee powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Pink and red sprinkles

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

Beat the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and Kahlua and mix. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix until a dough forms, but don’t overmix.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Press gently into a flat disc shape. Cover the disc in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

When ready to roll and cut, preheat the oven to 375°F. Take out the chilled dough from the refrigerator. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Dust a clean countertop or table with flour. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place on the prepared surface. Roll out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into heart shapes. 

Transfer the cookies to cookie sheet, being sure to leave about 1/2 inch between each cookie. Decorate with pink and red sprinkles.

Bake for about 8 minutes, depending on the thickness. The edges will be slightly firm, and the center slightly soft and puffed. Remove from the oven. Carefully transfer to a cooling rack or brown paper to cool completely.

My next book is Murder at the Taffy Shop, which comes out March 31 in an exclusive paperback deal from Barnes & Noble and is the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery. Twenty-five copies of the book are on a Goodreads giveaway from Kensington until February 22! 

It’s August, full season on Cape Cod, with plentiful sunshine and tourists alike. When Mac Almeida heads out for her early daily walk with her friend, she finds a horrified Gin staring at Beverly Ruchart, an imperious summer person, dead on the sidewalk in front of Gin’s candy shop, Salty Taffy’s.

Lots of people wanted Beverly gone. But when the police find the murder weapon in Gin’s garage, the Cozy Capers book group members put their heads together to clear Gin’s name and to figure out who killed the woman whom almost everyone disliked. Mac’s bike shop is vandalized one night, and when the killer later invades her tiny house to finish her off, Bella, Mac’s African Gray parrot, comes to the rescue.

I hope you'll visit my alter-ego Edith Maxwell and me on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.


I'll give away a copy of book one, Murder on Cape Cod, to one (US) commenter here today!

Readers: What's your favorite Valentine's treat?

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen is delighted to welcome Edith Maxwell, whose latest book Farmed and Dangerous has just been released, as our guest today. Edith is a very busy writer these days (four series!), but she still finds time to come up with great recipes.

I’m tickled pink to be back, or maybe I should say I’m tickled chocolate-colored. My latest Local Foods mystery, Farmed and Dangerous, takes place in deep winter in Massachusetts. And boy, did we have a winter this year! Even though it’s now sunny and green outside, when a blizzard rages a person’s thoughts turn to soups, stews, and baking (right, Sheila?). And chocolate.

While this cake isn’t described in the book, it certainly something Cam could have enjoyed baking. It doesn’t really involve locally grown produce, but she’s much less of an avid locavore than her customers are. Not that she minds getting paid for supplying them, though.

I made this cake for Easter brunch this year (it was STILL cold out at Easter) because I had a gluten- and dairy-free guest coming, and this cake fits the bill. It’s not a bit short on flavor, though.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

12 servings (depending…)

Ingredients:

Oil

1-1/4 cup roasted almonds

3/4 cup plus 4 T sugar

6 oz good quality semisweet chocolate chips

10 cardamom pods

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Juice and zest of one large orange

6 eggs, separated

Kosher salt

1 pint fresh raspberries, divided in half

Cointreau

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour some Cointreau in a glass and sip.

Rub oil inside nine-inch spring form pan and set on a baking sheet.

Use a hammer or a mortar and pestle to pound the pods until the husks open. Remove and discard the husks. In a food processor, combine cardamom seeds, almonds, and 1/4 cup sugar. Process until well chopped.

Add chocolate and process until well ground. Move mixture to a bowl. Whisk in cinnamon, cocoa powder, orange juice, and zest until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until significantly thickened. 

Stir in the other mixture.

Whisk the egg whites and a pinch of salt with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add 2 T of sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.

Working in three batches, fold whites into yolk mixture.

Pour batter into spring form pan, then place pan on baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Cool to room temperature, then run a knife around the perimeter of the pan and release the sides.

Lightly mash half the raspberries in a small saucepan, add 2 T sugar, and gently heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Cointreau (or more, depending…).

Use a chopstick to gently poke holes into the top of the cake.

Array rest of fresh raspberries hole down on the cake, then spoon cooked mixture over top.

Enjoy!

Edith will be delighted to offer a copy of Farmed and Dangerous to someone who comments here (please include your email so she can reach you). The selection will be made by a random drawing. Read about the book below!

Organic farmer Cam Flaherty is struggling to provide the promised amount of food to her customers in her first winter in Westbury, Massachusetts, and her new greenhouse might just collapse from the weight of the snow. Supplying fresh ingredients for a dinner at the local assisted living facility seems like the least of her worries—until a cantankerous resident with a lot of enemies dies after eating the meal.

But while the motives in this case may be plentiful, the trail of poisoned produce leads straight back to Cam. Not even her budding romance with police detective Pete Pappas will keep him from investigating her.

As the suspects gather, a blizzard buries the scene of the crime under a blanket of snow, leaving Cam stranded in the dark with a killer who gives new meaning to the phrase “dead of winter.”

Agatha-nominated and Amazon-bestselling author Edith Maxwell writes four murder mystery series, most with recipes, as well as award-winning short stories.

Farmed and Dangerous is the latest in Maxwell's Local Foods Mysteries series (Kensington Publishing). The latest book in the Lauren Rousseau mysteries, under the pseudonym Tace Baker (Barking Rain Press), is Bluffing is Murder. Maxwell’s Country Store Mysteries, written as Maddie Day (also from Kensington), will debut with Flipped for Murder in November, 2015. Her Quaker Midwife Mysteries series features Quaker midwife Rose Carroll solving mysteries in 1888 Amesbury with John Greenleaf Whittier’s help, and will debut in March, 2016 with Delivering the Truth.

A fourth-generation Californian, Maxwell lives in an antique house north of Boston with her beau and three cats. She blogs every weekday with the other Wicked Cozy Authors (http://wickedcozyauthors.com), and you can find her at www.edithmaxwell.com, @edithmaxwell, on Pinterest and Instagram, and at www.facebook.com/EdithMaxwellAuthor.