PLEASE WELCOME OUR GUEST, KATE CARLISLE!!!
Kate Carlisle’s Favorite Cookbook (plus Asparagus Recipe)
By Kate Carlisle, author of A COOKBOOK CONSPIRACY
Award winning author Kate Carlisle spent
over twenty years working in television production as an Associate Director for
game and variety shows, including The Midnight Special, Solid Gold and The Gong
Show. She traveled the world as a Dating Game chaperone and performed strange
acts of silliness on The Gong Show. She also studied acting and singing, toiled
in vineyards, collected books, joined a commune, sold fried chicken, modeled
spring fashions and worked for a cruise ship line, but it was the year she
spent in law school that finally drove her to begin writing fiction. It seemed
the safest way to kill off her professors. Those professors are breathing
easier now that Kate spends most of her time writing near the beach in Southern
California where she lives with her perfect husband.
A lifelong love of old books and an
appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries,
featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and
restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Find
Kate online at www.katecarlisle.com.
Time and time again, I turn to a cookbook that I bought from
a sale rack at the local bookstore. Just a lucky find. It’s a thick old thing
that would normally intimidate me. (I don’t cook much, so I tend to stick with
friendly little cookbooks with lots of pictures and words like “quick and easy”
on the cover.) But it was on sale, so
how could I resist?
It’s become my go-to cookbook because this thing has recipes
for just about everything. It’s 20 years old by now, with food stains on many
pages and notes scribbled in the margins. “This one is delicious!” or “Yum!” or
“Under no circumstances should you ever attempt this one again.”
In
my latest Bibliophile Mystery novel, A COOKBOOK CONSPIRACY, Brooklyn Wainwright
is asked by her sister Savannah to restore a leather-bound cookbook/journal
she’s planning to give to her ex-boyfriend, an obnoxious celebrity chef.
Brooklyn immediately sees that this book is a treasure. It was handwritten
during the Revolutionary War by Obedience Green, an indentured servant who may
also have been a spy. In the margins of this cookbook, in addition to notes
about the recipes, there are strange symbols that could be a secret code.
Then the obnoxious chef is murdered, Savannah is discovered
hovering over his body with a bloody knife in his hands, and the priceless
cookbook is… gone. Vanished. Is it possible that a 200-year-old conspiracy had
something to do with his death?
In my go-to cookbook, I recently tried a recipe called
Chinese Asparagus. “Yum!” I wrote. Then I decided to modify it… and I’m proud
to say, I like my Asparagus Sauté even better. It’s colorful and delicious!
Kate Carlisle’s Asparagus, Cashew and Cranberry Sauté
2 lb
asparagus, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 T
cornstarch
2 T cold
water
1 C chicken
broth
1 T soy
sauce
1 T dry
white wine
1 t maple
syrup
2 T sesame
oil
1 T olive
oil
½ C cashews
½ C dried
cranberries
In a small sauce pan, mix together cornstarch and cold water
with a whisk. Add broth, soy sauce, white wine, and maple syrup. Heat to
boiling, stirring constantly. Simmer until slightly thick, about one minute.
In a wok, heat both oils until shimmering. Add the asparagus
and cashews. Sauté for 3 minutes. Add the sauce and cranberries. Cook for one
more minute. (Note: If you want to make this a complete meal, sauté shrimp
along with the asparagus and cashews, then serve over white rice.)
* * *
Thank you, Kate, for a delish posting! As always, delightful. ~ Daryl aka Avery
