Guest Joy Ribar with Dairyland Autumn Quiche plus #giveaway

Molly MacRae: Molly, here, welcoming Joy Ribar and her delicious-looking quiche to the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen today. Thanks for being my guest, Joy, and thanks for offering two e-books to two lucky commenters!

Joy Ribar: Thanks, readers, for dropping by the Kitchen today, especially since many of you, like me, have just gobbled your way through a Thanksgiving feast. I’m Joy Ann Ribar and I write the Deep Lakes Cozy Mystery Series set in central Wisconsin.

Deep Dire Harvest, Book 4 in the series, released in September, just in time for the colorful fall season in Wisconsin. My MC, Frankie Champagne, has her hands full, literally full of grapes. The tourist season hasn’t dropped off yet, and Frankie’s Bubble & Bake shop is bustling with customers in her combination bakery/wine lounge as she prepares to harvest her vineyards and craft new autumn vintages. 

Frankie didn’t plan to investigate a murder too, but when a body is found floating on Blackbird Pond, right outside her vineyard property, she becomes curious. The dead woman is an ornithologist, and beloved cousin to two Bubble & Bake employees, propelling Frankie to dive into the investigation, nose first. Plenty of suspects and clues, including a coded journal, will keep readers busy sleuthing along with Frankie to uncover the dirty bird and restore order to the Deep Lakes flock.

I’m happy to share an autumn quiche recipe with you from Frankie’s Bubble & Bake kitchen.

Dairyland Autumn Quiche (A delicious harvest recipe with a surprise ingredient)

Ingredients: 

1 pie crust of choice

4-6 oz cooked bacon, crumbled

1/2 small onion, diced

1 large apple - peeled, cored, sliced (cut slices in half)

1 TB chopped garlic

3/4 cup whole milk

1/2 cup sour cream

3 lg. eggs

1 tsp kosher salt

¼-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 TB dried sage

Directions: 

Press crust into 9 or 10 inch deep dish pie dish. Blind bake at 425° until golden, 10-12 min. Take out and cool. Reduce oven temp to 325°

Sauté onion in oil or butter until translucent. Add in apple and cook until tender (3-5 min.) Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Remove from heat, stir in crumbled bacon.

Whisk milk, sour cream, eggs, salt, cinnamon in a large bowl.

Layer apple mixture, cheddar cheese, egg mixture in the prepared crust in that order. Sprinkle sage over the top. Bake at 325° until set and golden brown. 30-40 minutes depending on your oven. 

Let it sit out of the oven about 15 minutes before cutting. 

Joy takes a bite. MMmm!

Like Frankie, I love to bake and visit wineries for tastings and food pairing ideas. Hiking in all weather is one of my favorite pastimes, but I particularly enjoy walking through any woods that are decked out in fall colors. What are your favorite fall activities?

I’ll give away two e-books of Deep Dire Harvest, later today, so please comment or ask questions. I’ll be looking in on all of you throughout the day. (Sorry, U.S. only.)

Buy Deep Dire Harvest

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Welcome to Monday Potluck from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway!

MADDIE here. We're starting a new feature today: Potluck Monday. 

The Mystery Lovers' Kitchen authors will rotate hosting, and I was delighted to draw the first slot. The host decides the content, so you might be introduced to a special guest, read about a new recipe, or find other surprises. I decided to focus on the word "potluck" itself and its delightful foodie manifestations.

What's a potluck? The term dates from the 1590s, meaning a meal accepted from another. You take your chances - or luck - with what might be in the pot. Now it signifies a gathering where each person who shows up brings food to share with all. 

Some groups try to organize the offerings with signup sheets for different categories of food. I rather prefer a true potluck. In July you might get mostly salads, and that's fine. A winter potluck could see an array of soups and stews with not a fresh veggie in sight. That's okay, too!

I'm a big fan of potluck suppers from way back. When I was in college, long long ago in southern California, a bunch of us lived off campus near the beach in off-season rental houses. Three houses of friends all snagged abodes on the same street (Onyx Street on Balboa Island, if you know the area). We had potlucks all the time, including one epic vegetarian Thanksgiving meal at the house I shared with three other girls. Everybody dressed up in our quirky hippy best and we each wore a flower in our hair (the guys had lots of hair at the time). 

For the last couple of decades, my Quaker faith community has been meeting for monthly social potluck dinners. We don't always have time to visit as much as we'd like during our fellowship hour, and this is a way to get to know each other better. Different members host in their homes. 

An indoor potluck at my house

But our house has stairs going into it both front and side. After the church gained several mobility-impaired members, I started hosting the potluck in June on our driveway. The days are long, and nobody was restricted from coming.

Darkness was starting to fall in the driveway by the time I remembered to take a photo

So what's a good dish to bring to a potluck? I like to accommodate vegetarians who might be attending as well as the gluten-free crowd if I can. A cheese quiche is a good bet. I make mine with a brown rice crust, because it's easier and healthier, and that lets those who avoid gluten partake, too.

As it turns out, way back in 2013 I was a guest on this blog with my Herbed Spring-Garlic Quiche recipe! It appears in my first Local Foods Mystery, A Tine to Live, a Tine to Die (the paperback version of which is currently on sale).

I also have a recipe for a vegetarian leek tarte in the 2015 Mystery Writers of America Cookbook.

But really, you can bring anything. One of our Quaker members picks up a to-go pizza. Another always makes a broccoli-walnut dish. The member with chickens invariably brings deviled eggs. Of course, because of COVID we haven't had a third Friday potluck in nearly a year. (Sigh.) But we'll get back to it. Maybe even in my driveway this June.

We hope you enjoy our new Monday Potlucks. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in the pot each month!

Readers: Share your potluck experiences. What's your favorite recipe to bring? I'll send one commenter a copy of one of my Country Store Mysteries except the first one - your choice!

My most recent book is Candy Slain Murder, the eighth Country Store mystery. As with all my books written as Maddie Day, you'll find easy recipes in the back.

The next book out in late March will be the wide release of Murder at the Taffy Shop, the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery - up for preorder now!

After that, my alter-ego has A Changing Light, our seventh Quaker Midwife Mystery releasing on April 13! It's also up for pre-order.

I hope you'll visit 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.

Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Quiche @LucyBurdette #recipe

LUCY BURDETTE: At our local farmers market in Connecticut, one vendor sells all kinds of mushrooms. I confess that I am a white mushroom consumer, though I have started using baby Bellas to branch out a bit. But this man's mushrooms look so good that I decided to try a recipe that could use one of his more adventurous varieties. He recommended shiitakes. I found a recipe in the Moosewood cookbook for a mushroom Swiss cheese quiche, and then set about tweaking to taste.

Ingredients

One large onion

1/4 pound mushrooms of your choice

Herbs of your choice (I used dill and thyme from our garden)

Four eggs

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

 A couple shakes of Tabasco or cayenne

One crust 

Make the crust and set it aside. My father's recipe is pretty darn foolproof, but I tried the Moosewood version this time--cut 6 tablespoons of butter into a cup and a half of flour. Add water one tablespoon at a time until the mixture holds together in a mass. Roll out between two sheets of waxed paper and plop into the 9-inch pie plate. (Delicious, by the way--and not a grain of salt in it!)

Next up: Grate the cheese. Chop the onions and put these to sauté in a tablespoon of olive oil. Wipe the mushrooms down, slice them, and add them to the sauté pan. Cook until soft and slightly brown. Sprinkle in the herbs of your choice. 

Whisk together the milk, flour, and eggs and mustard – I used the food processor and it couldn't have been easier. Add a few drops of Tabasco sauce.

Layer the ingredients into the crust: Cheese, followed by vegetables and herbs, milk and egg mixture.

Bake at 375 until golden and the center is set.

Serve this with a green salad at the temperature you prefer – hot, warm, or room temperature. 

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries--find them wherever books are sold! Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest--Instagram too...

Now a question, do you post reviews and photos of books you've read on Instagram? I hear it's quite a thing these days....

Easy, Tasty French Quiche plus #bookgiveaway from guest author Kylie Logan

           

Today at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen we welcome our good friend and prolific writer, known today at Kylie Logan. That's because she's also well-known in the mystery world as Casey Daniels. She's sharing something French today because her newest book French Fried, has just been released. Thanks for joining us with this tasty recipe, Kylie!

Quiche is one of those rare dishes that’s appropriate for any meal.  Hot or room temperature, quiche is an easy breakfast treat.  Add a green or fruit salad and a glass of crisp Chardonnay, and it’s perfect for brunch or dinner.

            It’s also the ideal food for me to make to celebrate the publication of  French Fried, book #2 in my Ethnic Eats mystery series.

            Let me catch you up on the premise: Laurel Inwood, former chef to Hollywood stars, is now helping out her aunt at a greasy spoon diner located in an old train station in Hubbard, Ohio.  Business is pretty much as terminal as some of the murder victims in the series.  That is, until Laurel decides to add ethnic food specials to the menu.  The series started with Irish Stewed and now, in book #2, Laurel is featuring French food.  She’s being helped by Rocky Arnaud, a local farmer who was born in France.  When Rocky is found dead, Laurel knows she has to investigate and find justice for the woman who was her friend.

            There are a couple yummy recipes for French food in the book, but one I didn’t add was the one for quiche.  It’s easy and delicious.  Bon appetit!

            All you need is a few simple ingredients:

            a pie crust

            1 C cheese of your choice

            1 C sauteed veggies (either buy your favorites or use up left overs)

            1/3 C milk

            1/3 C whipping cream

            3 eggs

           

             Don’t let the pie crust intimidate you.  I use frozen and bake it myself.  If you’re trying to impress your friends, you can always pop the frozen crust out of the tin it comes in and put it in your own pie dish.  Bake according to package directions.

            While the crust is cooling, saute your vegetables.  I started with mushrooms and added a splash of May wine because we were given the bottle and it’s two sweet to drink.  This is a nice way to use some of it.   Then I added half of a small Vidalia onion, a little bit of ham, and the last four grape tomatoes I found in the fridge because they looked kind of sad and lonely.

         

          Once your crust cools, sprinkle half a cup of cheese on the bottom (note: you’ll see I didn’t do that.  That’s because, alas, I’m allergic to cheese.  The quiche is equally good without it).  Then spoon in your veggies.

            Now, whisk those three eggs along with the whipped cream and milk.  Pour that over the veggies, and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.  Bake at 350 for approx. 30 minutes, or until your eggy filling is set.

         

             That’s it!  Quiche is elegant.  Quiche is delicious.  And it’s magnifique, too!

Kylie Logan lives in Northeast Ohio and writes both the Ethnic Eats mysteries and the League of Literary Ladies mysteries.  She is not fond of cooking, but she’s quite the fan of eating, so she’s always on the lookout for recipes that are both easy and delicious.  She’s convinced this recipe for quiche fits the bill.  Kylie is currently working on the third book of the Ethnic Eats series, Italian Iced, and munching her way through any number of scrumptious pasta dishes.  As Casey Daniels, she also writes the Pepper Martin mysteries.  Book #10 in the series is Graveyard Shift and has nothing to do with food and everything to do with solving a mystery for the ghost of Eliot Ness. 

To help celebrate the publication of French Fried, Kylie will send a copy of the book to one of the people who comments on this post.  US only, please.  She hates standing in line at the post office almost as much as she hates to cook!

           

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE release week + book #giveaway from author @AveryAames

It's out! It's here!  The 7th Cheese Shop Mystery: 

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE

It's release week for Sheila and me!  

I hope you've ordered, pre-ordered, or hope to get to a bookstore this week! 

Good reading for all.  Congrats, Sheila!

To celebrate, I have a give away below! 

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE is the 7th in the series. What's it about?

The whey to a woman’s heart is murder...

It’s time for the annual Cheese Festival in Providence, Ohio, and Charlotte Bessette’s Fromagerie is ripe with homemade specialties. Meanwhile, her friend Erin is prepping her dairy farm and inn for cheese makers, marketers, journalists, and one surprise guest from the past—Lara Berry, pretentious cheese whiz, pompous bestselling author, and pungent critic whose extra sharp tongue can crumble a reputation. 

Since any love for Lara curdled long ago, Charlotte isn’t surprised when the foodie is smothered to death in her room at Erin’s inn. Accusations start flying, but the one sticking to Erin strikes Charlotte as a crock. Now, to clear her friend’s name, Charlotte has to sift through Lara’s ex-lovers, former business partners, and unforgiving enemies to find a killer before Lara’s past casts a gamey pall on the festival’s future.

***

And, now, here's a delicious recipe that I created for For Cheddar Or Worse. You know there are recipes in all the books, right? And did you know that there has been a quiche recipe in every book since The Long Quiche Goodbye?

When I am in recipe-making mode for a book, which means I wrack my brain trying to figure out new and fun recipes to include, I try to imagine tasty items, but sometimes I have to force the issue. Now Charlotte, of course, is always thinking quiche since she offers those in the shop on a daily basis. So I, channeling Charlotte, decided upon quiche, too. I love when Charlotte and I are in synch. 

I love the texture of quiche. I love the combo of flavors. 

For this experiment...I had a ton of carrots in the refrigerator, just sitting there staring at me one day, and I knew that I needed to do someone with them. I'd recently made a carrot cake. I didn't need another.

Carrot quiche, I thought. Hmm. What would pair well with carrots? This time I scoured my cupboards and found pine nuts and thought, yes! Nice texture with toasty flavor. Perfect!

 Pine Nut Carrot Quiche

(serves 6)

1 frozen 9-inch ready-made pie shell (regular or gluten-free)

1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 cups shredded carrots

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. dried sage or 1 Tbs. fresh sage, chopped

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Remove pie shell from the freezer and thaw for ten minutes. Prick the bottom with a fork and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove crust from the oven to cool.
 [Of course you can make your own pie shell if you wish...this was just the easy way!]

Chop the carrots. I used my Cuisinart to shred really small. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan on medium-high. Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic powder (or garlic cloves, chopped), carrots, salt, white pepper, and sage. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute. Stir in pine nuts.

In a small bowl, mix Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. In another bowl, whisk milk and eggs together.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture on the cooled piecrust.  Top with half of the carrot-pine nut mixture. 
Add 1/2 cup cheese mixture and then remaining carrot mixture. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese mixture.



Don’t worry – I didn’t forget the milk mixture. First, place the pie pan on a sheet pan. 

Carefully pour in the milk mixture.  Bake for 40 minutes. Check. If necessary, cook another 5-10 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool slightly before cutting.

***

Now I have to knuckle down for recipes to include in my next Cookbook Nook Mystery, GRILLING THE SUBJECT.  Barbecue is the theme. I think I'm going to have fun! Don't you love the festive cover? 

By the way, do you get my newsletter? Are you part of the fan club? There are fun puzzles, special pictures, tidbits, and giveaways. One of my fans won this prize just a few days ago. Five more won books and mugs! 

Sign up today so you don't miss out in the future. I won't inundate you with mail. Just announcements about when special things are happening, like the release of FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE, release parties, giveaways, and more!  Good luck.

TODAY'S GIVEAWAY!

Leave your name and email so I can contact you if you WIN, and tell me if you like to attend festivals and such!  I'll be giving away a SAVOR THE MYSTERY MUG. Winner will be picked Friday, the 5th.

Savor the mystery and say cheese!

Daryl Wood Gerber aka Avery Aames

Tasty ~ Zesty ~ Dangerous!

Friend Daryl and Avery on Facebook

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Follow Avery on Twitter

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Plus check out our website with lots of trailers, excerpts, plus a fan club with puzzles and giveaways!

FUDGING THE BOOKS, the 4th Cookbook Nook Mystery, is HERE!  Click to order.

New in February

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE

Click to order.