Roasted Shrimp in BBQ Butter Sauce @LucyBurdette #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: Today was intended to be a guest day on MLK, but there was a snafu in my guest's cover etc being ready. So you'll meet Christine Falcone in a few weeks when she's not feeling frazzled and rushed, and today you get me! 

I do have giveaways--a CD copy of A DISH TO DIE FOR, plus a copy of the 1988 Woman's Club Cookbook, which is part of the new book's story!

When I was studying clinical psychology in graduate school, sometimes my friends and I would cook delicious meals to celebrate our work and blow off steam. This baked shrimp dish is one we loved. When I was thinking about what my food critic character Hayley Snow might serve to to beloved Scottish sisters Violet and Bettina in next summer's release, A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS, this dish came to mind. Hayley always considers the tastes of her guests and likes to connect recipes to her beloved Key West island. Here she is mulling things over:

I’d considered a million recipes preparing for their visit. Key West pink shrimp was a no-brainer, but in what form? Miss Gloria nixed a few ideas as too spicy and possibly foreign sounding, particularly the shrimp in purgatory recipe that I favored. 

“I don’t remember eating anything spicy in Scotland,” she’d said. “Certainly not something that’s traveled that close to hell.” We both giggled.

In the end, we’d agreed on garlicky, buttery, Worcestershire-laced baked shrimp with lots of good bread from Old Town Bakery to sop up the sauce. I’d made it for friends and served with the shells on for a more rustic, hands-on experience, but for our special and jet-lagged guests, I’d decided to peel.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon paprika

2 pounds extra large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined, thawed if frozen

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-3 large cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Hot sauce or hot peppers, to taste

1 lemon, sliced

1 bay leaf

Fresh rosemary, leaves snipped off stems

Good bread for serving

Mix all the ingredients together except shrimp and lemon in a 9 x 13 pan. Heat in 400 degree oven until melted.

Remove from the oven, stir, add the shrimp and lemon in a single layer. Roast for about 15 minutes until butter is bubbly and shrimp are pink. Serve with good bread for soaking up the sauce.You’ll probably want a nice green salad to balance the richness of the shrimp!

Be sure to leave a comment about a favorite recipe that's held up over the years to be entered in the drawing for the two books!

A DISH TO DIE FOR, #12 in the Key West food critic mystery series, is now available wherever books are sold

About A Dish to Die For:

Peace and quiet are hard to find in bustling Key West, so Hayley Snow, food critic for Key Zest magazine, is taking the afternoon off for a tranquil lunch with a friend outside of town. As they are enjoying the wild beach and the lunch, she realizes that her husband Nathan’s dog, Ziggy, has disappeared. She follows his barking, to find him furiously digging at a shallow grave with a man’s body in it. Davis Jager, a local birdwatcher, identifies him as GG Garcia, a rabble-rousing Key West local and developer. Garcia was famous for over-development on the fragile Keys, womanizing, and refusing to follow city rules—so it’s no wonder he had a few enemies.

 When Davis is attacked in the parking lot of a local restaurant after talking to Hayley and her dear friend, the octogenarian Miss Gloria, Hayley is slowly but surely drawn into the case. Hayley’s mother, Janet, has been hired to cater GG’s memorial service reception at the local Woman’s Club, using recipes from their vintage Key West cookbook—and Hayley and Miss Gloria sign on to work with her, hoping to cook up some clues by observing the mourners.

But the real clues appear when Hayley begins to study the old cookbook, as whispers of old secrets come to life, dragging the past into the present—with murderous results.

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Main Course Salads -- Roasted Shrimp, Pepper, and Avocado Salad #MLKphotocontest @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Summer is a great time for salads that serve as main courses. This one does require turning on your oven for half an hour, but if you don’t mind that, it’s super easy. The radishes may seem a curious addition, but they’re fun—a little heat and flavor, with a crisp texture that’s nice on the teeth while the avocado teases the tongue.

Slice up some crusty bread, or serve with hearty, seed-studded crackers, and a chilled Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc, and enjoy!

And there's still time to enter our 7th Anniversary Photo contest! Look left to the Cheerleader photo for the details -- and get your books camera-ready! (Pics of e-readers, or in bookstores or libraries work, too.) Five winners will get a fabulous Mystery Lovers' Kitchen bag with five signed books by MLK authors! #MLKphotocontest

 Roasted Shrimp, Pepper, and Avocado Salad

2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
3 poblano peppers, seeded and sliced
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 pound shelled shrimp
4 radishes, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon kosher salt
6-8 ounces mixed green
1 avocado, sliced

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment pepper.

Toss the shallots, peppers, oil, and chili powder; spread on the baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Add the shrimp, stir to coat, and roast for 5 minutes. Cool slightly.

Meanwhile, mix the radishes, lime juice and salt. Use the paper to dump the roasted mixture into your serving bowl, add in the radish mixture and greens. Stir to combine and top with avocado slices.

From the cover of TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST, Food Lovers' Village Mystery #4 (Midnight Ink, June 8, 2017):  

Erin Murphy, manager of Murphy’s Mercantile (aka the Merc), is tuning up for Jewel Bay’s annual Jazz Festival. Between keeping the Merc’s shelves stocked with Montana’s tastiest local fare and hosting the festival’s kick-off concert, Erin has her hands full.

Discord erupts when jazz guitarist Gerry Martin is found dead on the rocks above the Jewel River. The one-time international sensation had fallen out of sync with festival organizers, students, and performers. Was his death an accident?or did someone even the score?

Despite the warning signs to not get involved, Erin investigates. And when the killer attacks, she orchestrates her efforts into one last crescendo, hoping to avoid a deadly finale.

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. The past president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

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