Batter Off Dead #PotluckMonday from @MaddieDayAuthor #giveaway

MADDIE DAY here, with a special Potluck Monday. Some readers might remember my post kicking off this feature last year, in which I waxed nostalgic about potluck suppers I have known and loved.

But today's post is to celebrate my recent release of Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mysteries #10! The book takes place during a hot July in southern Indiana. 

Here's the blurb:

After the summer evening’s fireworks end in South Lick, Indiana, a senior citizen knitter is found dead, a puncture wound in her neck. The woman’s death echoes that of a decades-old unsolved homicide. To help find the killer, Robbie Jordan has to untangle the knotty relationships deep in the victim’s past . . .

The recipes I included in the book are things Robbie either serves in her country store breakfast and lunch restaurant, or meals someone else prepares, all of which are suitable to hot weather. She makes a Spanish gazpacho, a cold corn salad, and an orzo salad. And Robbie treats herself to a blueberry wine spritzer at the end of the day.

Are you hungry now? 

But she and her crew also serve up summer crepes one day. Crepes, of course, are made with batter. They can be savory, folded around gently sautéed mushrooms, shallots, ham, and gruyere cheese with sour cream and herbs on top. Or you can stuff them with cut berries and powdered sugar. If you have buckwheat flour, it's the same kind of recipe but they're called galettes, as made in Brittany and Quebec.

I'm writing this post at the last minute (yeah, busy author's life and over-full brain, go figure...), so I'm not going to document the full crepes recipe - but I will on Friday! And I never got around to buying buckwheat flour. But I thought a Sunday evening crepe dinner with mushrooms and ham would be fun, and we happened to have sour cream in the house. 

Don't those look yummy? Look for the recipe this week on my usual second Friday. 

Readers: What flavor crepes would you serve at a brunch, potluck or otherwise? I'll send one commenter a signed copy of the new book!

My most recent release is Batter Off Dead, Country Store Mystery #10, out now!

My next release is Murder in a Cape Cottage, the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery.

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell 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.

Caribbean Spice-Roasted Salmon

Here’s a quick and easy summer fish recipe. It crawled out of a box I was sorting (that's happening a lot these days), but it has absolutely no attribution on it, so I guess it’s mine. If you have some nice fish, it's a simple tasty dinner!

Caribbean Spice-Roasted Salmon

Ingredients:

2 half-pound fresh salmon fillets (skin on)

1 Tsp brown sugar

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp ground allspice

1 clove minced or pressed garlic if you want

1 lemon, zested and juiced

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Coat a large ovenproof skillet with a thin film of cooking oil and place it over medium-high heat.

In a small bowl, combined the brown sugar, coriander, cumin, allspice, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice. Add pepper to taste if you want.

Rub the spice mixture evenly on the salmon fillets.

Place the salmon fillets in the skillet, skin side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until well browned. Turn them over and cook for 2-3 minutes to brown the other side.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 8 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Transfer the cooked fillets to individual places and serve with lemon wedges.

You can use whatever spices you like, and increase the amounts for a bit more punch. Just don't overcook the fish--the short cooking keeps it tender and moist.

www.sheilaconnolly.com

Make Fab Fudge in your Microwave from author Cleo Coyle

“Oh, chocolate fudge I’ll eat. What I can’t swallow is fudging, as in fudging statistics, fudging results, fudging the truth. Mathematicians call it a fudge factor—putting an extra calculation into an equation just so it will work out as expected. It’s what we law enforcement types call a scam.” 

~ Detective Mike Quinn, Murder by Mocha 

Scamming does indeed play a role in the plotline of my latest Coffeehouse Mystery, Murder by Mocha, but there is no fudging in this fudge recipe. The claim that you can make it in a microwave is true, and the results are delicious.

I’m especially confident stating this because my husband is a fudge fiend. While growing up, he gobbled homemade fudge that was continually cooked up by his mom. He enjoys sampling the treat wherever he travels; and every year, for his birthday, I ship handmade fudge to our New York home from the famous fudge makers of Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Cleo Coyle, spouse to a
fudge fiend is author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Marc was highly skeptical about this recipe, but after tasting it—and more of it, and even more of it, he declared it to be nearly as good as his mother's. 

Microwave fudge is nothing new, of course. You will find renditions of it all over the Net. This (crunchless) chocolate-hazelnut version is simply my take on the ingredients, ratios, and process. Why do I say crunchless? Because the light note of hazelnut in this treat comes not from actual nuts but Nutella, so the fudge stays smooth, creamy, and dreamy!

I’m sure 99% of you know what Nutella is, but for the 1% who don’t it’s a delicious spread (not unlike peanut butter) that blends chocolate and hazelnuts. If you’ve never bought it, look for it in your grocery where peanut butter is sold. 

Cleo Coyle's

Smooth and Dreamy
Chocolate-Hazelnut
Microwave Fudge

For a free PDF of this recipe that you can save, share, or print, hit the "print friendly" button on the bottom of this post or click here.

Ingredients:

1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 (12-ounce) package of good quality semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread (room temperature)

Step 1 – Prep pan: Crisscross the bottom of an 8 x 8 square pan with two sheets of parchment paper. The parchment sheets should be long enough to extend, like handles, over the edges of the pan. 

Step 2 – Melt with microwave: Place the milk into a microwave safe bowl. Cut the butter into the milk. Pour in the chocolate chips, and microwave it all for 30 seconds. ONLY 30 seconds. Remove and stir. Nuke it for another 30 and remove to stir again. This should be enough time to melt the chocolate and butter. If not, continue microwaving and stirring in 20 second increments until everything is melted.

NOTE: Do not simply microwave this mixture for 2 solid minutes without stirring. You run the risk of scorching the chocolate and completely ruining the fudge. Once chocolate is burned, there is no saving it. Be sure to melt it slowly, in increments. 

Step 3 – Finish the fudge: Into the melted mixture, sprinkle the salt and measure in the vanilla and Nutella. 

NOTE: Nutella should never be cooked in a microwave (this advice is also written on its label). High heat alters the texture and flavor, which is why I'm careful how I use it in recipes. What I want you to do is simply stir the Nutella into the warm, melted mixture that comes out of the microwave. Be sure to stir from the bottom, lifting and folding to blend everything well.

Step 4 – Chill and cut: Now pour the chocolate mixture into your lined pan. Using a rubber spatula or back of a spoon, smooth the top, leveling it off. Chill the pan in the refrigerator until firm—this will take approximately 3 hours. Remove and cut into small squares. To store, place fudge in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator, and, of course...

Eat with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle, author of 

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

To get more of my recipes, enter to win

free coffee, or learn about my books, including
my bestselling Haunted Bookshop series, visit my online coffeehouse: CoffeehouseMystery.com

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are national bestselling

culinary mysteries set in a landmark Greenwich Village 

coffeehouse, and each of the ten titles includes the 

added bonus of recipes. 

 

The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure

Book #1 of 
The Haunted Bookshop
Mysteries, which Cleo writes
under the name Alice Kimberly
To learn more, click here.

Calico Salad

Nothing beats a hot, steaming 3-bean salad.

Unless…it’s 100 degrees. Then the last thing I want are hot vegetables.

I’ve been eating sliced tomatoes as part of lunch all summer. And I make salads like calico salad to get my veggie fix in…in a cooler way.

Now, this recipe is the crack-open-a-can and mix it together type. Would it be even better with fresh veggies from your garden or farmer’s market? I’m sure! You might want to give it a go. I’m being a little lazy this summer (we’ll blame the heat. I’m sure that’s it.) :)

I love the pimentos in the recipe (or, as my fellow Southerners will say, pahmennas!) And the chickpeas are yummy, too.

Calico Salad

2 small or 1 large cans of shoepeg corn, drained
14 oz early peas, drained
1 can lima beans, drained
14 oz french green bean, drained
1 cup chickpeas, drained
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped pimento
1/2 cup chopped red onion

Dressing:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 c vinegar
1 T water
1 c sugar
1 t salt
1 t pepper

Mix together the drained vegetables. Mix the ingredients for the dressing and boil for one minute. Cool the dressing and pour over the vegetables. Chill overnight.

Eat your veggies! And stay cool. :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (Riley Adams)
Finger Lickin’ Dead—June 7 (book 2 of the Memphis BBQ series!) It’s here! Download it on Kindle: http://amzn.to/kh7MAp
Mass market paperback: http://amzn.to/lfUE2N

Enjoy the Fruits of the Season—Simple Fruit Salad

One of my favorite things about summer is the produce.

The veggies are wonderful, and the fruit is just to die for.

We eat a lot of just sliced fruit at our house as sides for our suppers and lunches. But for a special treat, the kids ask for fruit salad. It really is more like a dessert than a side, so they usually have it at the end of a meal. :)

Because it transports well, I’ve taken my fruit salad to cookouts and parties—it’s pretty, so it makes a nice splash when I bring it in.

Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of grapes
2 bananas, sliced (soak the slices in lemon juice to keep them from browning)
1 pint fresh strawberries
Sliced pineapple (sometimes I’ll cheat and buy the canned chunks—20 ounce size)
3 sliced kiwis
21 ounce can of peach pie filling
1/2 t cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients and serve!

It’s sweet and refreshing…and easy. The longest part of the whole process is the slicing, and I’ve gotten so that I’m able to do it pretty fast—because I want to start eating the salad!

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (Riley Adams)
Finger Lickin’ Dead—June 7 (book 2 of the Memphis BBQ series!) It’s here! Download it on Kindle: http://amzn.to/kh7MAp
Mass market paperback: http://amzn.to/lfUE2N