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.

Mexican Chocolate Mini-Cakes from @MaddieDayAuthor plus #GIVEAWAY

Maddie Day here with a recipe from Nacho Average Murder - and a celebration! I was thrilled this week to learn that the book made the cut for Most Anticipated Crime Books for summer 2020 from Crime Reads - and is only one of two cozies on the list of eighty. So let's party like it's...right now! I'll send one commenter a copy of Strangled Eggs and Ham, the just prior book in the Country Store Mysteries, so you're all caught up.

Robbie goes back to her home town of Santa Barbara in this book for her tenth high school reunion. She makes friends with the owner of the Nacho Average Cafe, where she eats and stays in the B&B upstairs. Carmen's son, a high school friend of Robbie's, makes a version of these easy mini-cakes as a dessert at his food truck in Nacho Average Murder. They're like eating Mexican hot chocolate in a cake.

Mexican Chocolate Mini-Cakes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup dark cocoa

¼ teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 stick butter, room temperature

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon dark rum or bourbon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 24-cell mini-muffin pan (or two 12-cell pans) with oil or wipe with butter.

Mix all dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Beat butter until creamy. Add eggs and sugar and beat until mixed.

Add dry ingredients and beat on medium for two minutes.

Spoon evenly into mini-muffin cups.

Bake until toothpick inserted into the cakes at the center comes out clean, about twelve minutes. Cool on a wire rack for five minutes in the pan before removing, then cool completely before serving.

Because quarantine, I didn't have dark cocoa powder, so I used regular. And, oops! The cinnamon and butter didn't make it into the photo.

Get the butter, sugar, and eggs nice and creamy.

Add the dry ingredients.

Can't wait to eat them!

Enjoy with a glass of milk, a cup of tea, or a shot of bourbon - maybe in the tea!

Readers: When you can eat breakfast out again, do you prefer your meal to be all-American or with a southwestern flavor? What's your favorate thing to order? Remember, I'll send one commenter a copy of Strangled Eggs and Ham.

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.