LIBBY KLEIN: Welcome to day 2 of our Birthday Bonanza! Fifteen years of delicious recipes with murdery intentions is quite an achievement. I bet a lot has changed in that time - not only in each author's writings, but in the way we cook too. I know fifteen years ago I had four kids in the house who ate like forty linebackers. I made a lot of casseroles. I had a whole spreadsheet for it. 1 pasta + 1 meat + 1 sauce + 1 cheese = 1 dinner. Today I can't help but notice that there is not 1 vegetable in there. These days my cooking is just for my husband and me and we eat a lot healthier. I grill a lot of chicken and roast a lot of vegetables.
I'm one of the newer authors in the Kitchen and I don't have the stunning booklist that most of these ladies have. I've only been writing for about seven years, but in that time I've grown in both my skills and diligence. It took three years and a lot of procrastinating with video games to write that first book. Now I write for several hours a day, and unless I fall into a research hole on the internet, I get the first draft of a chapter before bed. I started out writing cozies, but these days I write a funny Women's Fiction Mystery series about a woman trying to break into her dream career as a rock n roll musician about twenty years too late. If you'd asked me fifteen years ago where I'd be today, the author of two published series would never have entered my mind.
MLK Authors - How has your writing AND your cooking changed over the past 15 years?
MLK Readers - It's our birthday but you're getting the gifts! Leave a comment with your email address and enter to win our Book Haul Giveaway!
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LUCY BURDETTE: When I was fairly new to MLK--maybe 2013?, I mentioned to Krista Davis that I'd run out of my own recipes. She laughed and laughed, saying she'd run through hers years ago. My point is, being a blogger at Mystery Lovers Kitchen has really expanded my cooking horizons. I know that twice a month, three times on the long months, I have to post something new and it has to be well photographed and mostly edible LOL. (My hubby always worries if I don't want to take a picture of his dinner plate.) I truly appreciate how the blog has expanded my food horizons. Plus I love the camaraderie of this group and our wonderful readers--I only wished we all lived close enough to have weekly potlucks!
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MADDIE DAY: Potlucks with you all would be fabulous, Lucy! My mystery series have mostly included recipes, so I was a guest here at the Kitchen celebrating book releases long before I became a regular contributor. I think my first post was for Spring Garlic Quiche, a recipe with a brown rice crust that I included in A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die, my first Local Foods mystery, which released in 2013.
I took over the great Sheila Connolly's Kitchen slot shortly before she passed away in April, 2020 - very big shoes to fill. My cooking hasn't changed too much in fifteen years - I still like to cook with fresh, unprocessed ingredients - but my recipe documentation skills have improved, for sure. And I love that I can dip into the archive here if I need a good recipe for potato salad or one of Sheila's many cakes. I also love this group of author pals; we always have each other's backs.
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LESLIE KARST: What an amazing group of women/writers/cooks we have in the Kitchen, and I am honored to have been a part of this blog for the past four years. Fifteen years ago I had just retired from the law and was starting work on my first mystery novel, DYING FOR A TASTE. Not too long before that, I'd graduated from culinary arts school, so I was still obsessed with trying out new and different (and often difficult) recipes (a failed salmon mousse comes to mind).
glazed shrimp with citrus and pan-fried noodles
These days, I've become much more of a lazy cook, and I'm far more likely to roast up a one-pan meal of chicken, veggies, and potatoes than I am to whip up a sauce béarnaise. But every once in a while, I revert to that eager and adventurous cook and try my hand at something new--especially if it's a new recipe for one of my books (this weekend I'm trying out Ube Blondies for book two in my Orchid Isle mystery series).
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VM BURNS: If anyone asked me how long I've been blogging with the wonderful writers/cooks at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, I would have said I was merely an infant. I checked back and it's been two years. I guess that makes me a toddler. I wasn't one of those people who loved to cook at an early age. I loved to BAKE, but I did NOT love cooking. Even now, my love of cooking depends on a lot of factors including the day of the week, the temperature, the moon phase, and the alignment of the planets. Somedays, I channel my inner Julia Child and think I can make the most elaborate French cuisine. Other days, I'm all about DoorDash. However, now that I know I have to post SOMETHING edible at least twice each month, I have tried (and failed) often. I have also tried and succeeded! The biggest change I've made in the past two years is that my phone is full of pictures of food. Whenever I cook now, I immediately start taking pictures. You never know when a simple craving for a salad will find its way on the blog
KORINA MOSS: Hello, from the newbie! I was honored to have been asked several months ago to be a part of Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, and especially so since seeing the incredible list of culinary mystery authors who've held a spot on this blog. I write the Cheese Shop Mystery series, which has original recipes in the back of each book. So it's natural to think I'd share cheese-forward recipes, such as this Croque Monsieur that has cheese on the inside and the outside. However, in real life, my cooking these days tends to be lighter and low salt. Cheesy or not, the one thing you can always count on is that my recipes will be easy peasy and quick to make! With my fifth book, Fondue or Die, releasing in October, I need that extra time to come up with more cheese pun titles!
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Croque Monsieur "Mr Crunchy Bite" |
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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I have no idea how long I've been blogging on MLK. More than 5 years and less than 10 years? At any rate, it's been awhile. Until last year, when my daughter and granddaughter moved in with us, hubby and I were empty nesters. I tried to keep our meals healthy and mostly simple. No more boning and stuffing an entire chicken, which I did a couple of times in my younger years. But my granddaughter has eclectic tastes in food to put it mildly. She won't eat tomatoes, beans, chicken (except chicken nuggets), fish (except shrimp and salmon), but she will eat brussel sprouts (even hubby won't touch those), asparagus, various cheeses like brie, anything with soy sauce and it's impossible for something to be too spicy for her. This has made cooking a challenge. I know that lately I've posted a lot more "kid friendly" recipes like these chicken nuggets because of it!
VICKI DELANY: Fifteen Years! In my eating and cooking life,
not much has changed. I moved to Prince Edward County, Ontario, 17 years ago, and am
still living in the house I bought then. My children are adults, and they were
so 17 years ago, so I still cook mostly for myself. I have family and friends
to visit often, however, and I love to cook for them. In particular that’s when
I can indulge my love of baking, which I don’t often do because of the aforementioned
cooking for myself.
In my writing life, it’s a different story. Fifteen years ago, I was writing very different
books than I am now. A couple of standalone suspense, a police detective series,
and a historical mystery series set in the Klondike during the gold rush.
And then nine years ago, in 2015, it all changed when my first cozy book, By Book or By Crook, was published by Penguin under the pen name of Eva Gates. The Lighthouse Library series is still going strong at eleven books now, and in addition I am writing three other cozy series. I love writing cozies and I've never looked back.
I’ve been a regular Mystery Lovers Kitchen
blogger for about five years now, but I was often a guest before that. I see that I was an early guest on the blog, with my first post published on August 8, 2010. This is for blueberry pudding cake, a recipe
I still use often. I notice that although I included a picture of the finished
product, there are none of the steps in preparing it.
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Vicki, in 2015. Younger and chubbier. |
Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: The Pleasure of Anticipation (mysteryloverskitchen.com)
The guest post after that is another perennial favorite, for red pepper and tomato soup. I still make buckets of it when tomatoes are in season. In that recipe I have pictures of tomatoes but none of the soup being prepared. Seems strange, now.
LESLIE BUDEWITZ: I chose three cherries for my separator images because I truly feel I hit the jackpot when Krista and Sheila invited me to join the Kitchen as a regular in 2015, when my second series, the Spice Shop mysteries, debuted. I'd been a guest several times -- my first post is for a chopped salad with shrimp we call Hail to the Shrimp that we still make regularly. (Just last weekend!)
I love creating and writing the recipes for my books and this blog. As I've said here many times, I did not grow up in a foodie family, so browsing and eating my way through Pike Place Market as a student at Seattle University was the beginning of my culinary education. When I started the Spice Shop mysteries with Assault & Pepper in March 2015, I wanted to share the love of herbs and spices I'd picked up in the Market. But it's one thing to enjoy flavor, another to portray it on the page and screen. And so over the years, in my writing and my recipe-sharing, I've striven to convey Pepper's love for herbs and spices, some of her knowledge, and the sense of creativity they can bring to a willing cook -- and a willing eater! I've learned cooking tips, how to make blends, and odd bits of spice lore, history, and trivia that have worked their way into the stories, along with my love of Pike Place Market. It's been a treat, friends, a true gift.
I'm often asked my favorite spice, and it's one I would not have discovered if not for the Spice Shop mysteries, smoked paprika. (Just don't tell the others!) It's got a bit of heat and a LOT of flavor, and oh, my, look at that color! Here it is in Edgar's Baked Paprika Cheese, from Chai Another Day.
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Finally, let me echo my blog sisters here in my deep appreciation for this delicious community of writers and readers. Stories and friendship, the spice of life!
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MOLLY MACRAE: I’ve been reading and loving Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen since it began 15 years ago. I’ve also read and loved all the members’ books. My first guest post was in January 2013 with a recipe called Mediterranean Pressed Cob Sandwich – Fun with Reference Materials.
It’s a very tasty sandwich that makes use of the old encyclopedias that might be hanging around your house. Imagine how blown away I was when the cooks in the kitchen invited me to join the blog in 2021. Has my style of cooking changed over the past fifteen years? Not much. You’d have to go back twenty years or more to when half the family (including me) went vegetarian.
Here’s a fun 15th anniversary coincidence – Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen is 15 years old and Wilder Rumors, my first mystery novel, is 15 years old, too.
I’d been publishing short stories in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine for quite a few years before that book came out. The biggest change in my writing over the years is my output. I’m not as prolific as some of my blogmates, but in the past 15 years I’ve managed to write 21 books, most of them while also working at a fulltime day job.
Guess what? I’m still blown away to be part of this wonderful group. Happy
anniversary, Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen!
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MAYA CORRIGAN: Fifteen years ago I quit my job as an instructional design consultant to spend more time with family members who had serious health problems. I also started writing a suspense novel with a side of romance. It took me three years to finish it. As an unpublished manuscript, it won the Daphne Award and was a finalist for Malice Domestic. Before I could query agents about it, I received a contract to write the Five-Ingredient Mysteries. It was a dream come true. I always wanted to write fiction, but I never expected to write recipes for publication. Though I’d cooked a lot, measuring each ingredient was a challenge. And I’d boxed myself into five ingredients for each recipe in my mysteries.
I became a member of MLK five years ago and have felt at home in this community of mystery and food lovers. And I was delighted to be able to share recipes with a few more than five ingredients. The recipe I posted with the most ingredients (10) is shrimp paella.
I recently skimmed the book I started 15 years ago and realized how much would have to change to bring it up to date. Four of the five restaurants in the DC area where I’d set scenes are now gone, along with other businesses I mentioned. Remember Kinkos? The characters in my book have landlines, almost quaint. And social media has transformed our interactions, giving villains new weapons. I’ll also make changes to the book based on what I’ve learned about writing mysteries in the last fifteen years.
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| Cleo circa July 2009 |
CLEO COYLE: As the last of the original founding members still active on this beautiful blog, I am thrilled to join in our blogoversary celebration!
Over these past 15 years, the authors of Mystery Lovers' Kitchen have cooked up more than 5,000 recipe posts, hosted hundreds of guests, and clocked more than 11 million pageviews (and counting, thanks to all of you). Cheers to our past and especially our current mystery writing cooks for their talent, enthusiasm, and dedication to keeping our community Kitchen going strong...
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As for my writing, I’m still happily cooking up stories. My husband and I just celebrated the 20th Anniversary of our Coffeehouse Mystery series. with the publication of its 20th entry, Bulletproof Barista. Our 21st will be out in 2025, and we’re now writing the next entry in our Haunted Bookshop Mystery series.
I still enjoy cooking, baking, and sharing recipes, and I thought it would be fun to re-share my first Mystery Lovers' Kitchen post from our launch month in July 2009, just as it looked back then via the "Wayback Machine". Click here or on the image below to see it. No surprise, it included coffee!
WAYBACK MACHINE - JULY 2009!
Whether you’re new to our blog or a longtime part of our Kitchen community, I sincerely thank you for joining in our daily dose of deliciousness, and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy or blog for years to come! ~ Cleo ☕
9 B O O K
G I V E A W A Y
Readers: Let us know, how has your cooking changed over the past fifteen years? Include your email address in case you win our fabulous giveaway!
Assault & Pepper by Leslie Budewitz
A Scone of Contention by Lucy Burdette (paperback)
Murder is a Piece of Cake by Valerie Burns
Honey Roasted by Cleo Coyle
Gingerdead Man by Maya Corrigan
Murder at the Rusty Anchor by Maddie Day
Mischief Nights Are Murder by Libby Klein
A Deadly Dedication by Margaret Loudon (Peg Cochran)
Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae
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Mystery Lovers' Kitchen Recipe Card Packet!
