Fabulously Moist Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts #Recipe by @Libby Klein

Libby Klein The merest hint of chill in the air, the first leaf to turn colors, and I fly into action baking fall treats. Autumn is my favorite time of year and I will it to start when the days are so muggy you need a shower after checking the mailbox at the end of the driveway. 

Pumpkin bread isn't new, and I'm not doing anything special with it here. But this is a fantastically moist recipe that turns out every time. If you want to fancy it up, try a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds on top of the loaves before they go into the oven. Or make a cheesecake spread or orange honey butter to slather on the slices and eat them for dessert or breakfast.

Quick breads are muffins made in loaf pans, so they could not be easier. Mix your dry ingredients in one bowl, your wet ingredients in another, then combine them. Fold in your extras and pour into pans. Voila. The house smells like Fall. You're welcome.

I'll use any excuse to put nuts in a recipe. If they're optional, I always use the option. How about you? What do you add to pumpkin bread? Or are you a purist adding nothing but the love? Let me know in the comments.

Fabulously Moist Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts

Yield 2 loaves

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
⅔ cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 ½ cups gluten-free 1-to1 flour (or all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (I love the Spicewalla blend)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.

Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spice together in a large bowl. 

Mix pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar in a separate bowl until well blended. Fold in the walnuts.

Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this ​unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.

Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.

After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .

Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .

Libby Klein writes ridiculously funny murder mysteries from her Northern Virginia office with a very naughty calico Persian named Miss Eliza Doolittle, and a sweet black Lab named Vader. She can name that tune for 70s and 80s rock in the first few notes, and she's translated her love of classic rock into her Layla Virtue Mysteries. Libby was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that prevents her from eating gluten without exploding. Because bread is one of her love languages, she includes the recipes for gluten free goodies in her Cape May based Poppy McAllister series. Most of her hobbies revolve around travel, and eating, and eating while traveling. She insists she can find her way to any coffee shop anywhere in the world, even while blindfolded. Follow all of her nonsense on her website www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Blistered Broccoli Pasta with Walnuts, Mint, Lemon, and Parmesan #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

 

Don’t you think fresh, green herbs and vegetables are appealing in the spring? And pasta is appealing all year long. This recipe hits all the right notes with crisp-tender-charred broccoli, fresh mint, and tender pasta. Add the warmth of toasted nuts, the zip and zing of red pepper flakes and lemon, and always wonderful grated cheese, and you have a perfect meal that doesn’t take terribly long to make. The New York Times says 15 minutes. Well, no. It takes longer than that, but not so much longer that it’s annoying. Next time I make it, though, I think I’ll try roasting the broccoli.   

Blistered Broccoli Pasta with Walnuts, Mint, Lemon, and Parmesan

(adapted from Dawn Perry in The New York Times)

 

Ingredients

12 ounces fusilli or other short pasta

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup walnuts (measured), about 1/2 cup chopped

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

1 1/2 pounds broccoli (untrimmed), floret roughly chopped, stalks peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick

1 lemon, zested then quartered

1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving

1 cup packed fresh mint leaves

 

Directions

Cook pasta according to package instructions until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add chopped walnuts and red pepper flakes (optional), stirring, until walnuts are browning and fragrant, about 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon to transfer walnuts and pepper flakes to a small bowl. Season walnuts with a little salt and pepper.

Add broccoli to the skillet and toss to coat in the oil. Shake skillet so broccoli settles in an even layer. Cook, undisturbed, 2 minutes. Toss and shake to arrange in an even layer again and cook, undisturbed, another 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Drain pasta and add to skillet with lemon zest, cheese, toasted walnuts, and mint leaves. Toss to combine. Serve with more cheese and lemon wedges to squeeze juice on top (optional but good!).

 

Look for Molly’s new series—the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries—coming in June 2025!

Book 1: Come Shell or High Water

 

When widowed folklorist Maureen Nash visits a legendary North Carolina barrier island shell shop, she discovers its resident ghost pirate and the mystery of a local’s untimely death . . .

Buy links:

IndieBound (locally owned independent bookstores near you)

Barnes & Noble

Amazon 

 

And in the meantime, you can enjoy Molly's other books.

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction and Guideposts. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction.

Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted Squash, Spinach, Walnut, and Cranberry #salad #recipe @lucyburdette #cleansweepweek

LUCY BURDETTE: are you a fan of Pinterest? I confess that I find leafing through food boards very relaxing – almost like the effect that coloring books seem to have on other people. Of course I have boards for my Key West books, and mystery lovers kitchen, and the writers life, but I also have a catchall board called "Food, glorious food." And here is where I pin photos of dishes that looks delicious. Most of them are recipes that I think I could tweak to become low sodium. When I needed a new idea for a New Year's day side dish, that would include the cranberries I overbought from King Arthur flour, and the couscous buried at the back of my cupboard, I went to this board. And there I found a recipe from Gimme Some Oven that looked like a good start. She used cheese and commercial packets of toppings, both of which I removed. And I changed the kale to spinach...


And so here is what I offer for our curiosities from the cupboard week!

Ingredients

One small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced into half inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Three-quarter cup couscous
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 to 3 cups fresh spinach
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts
Freshly ground pepper
Benton's Table Tasty

Lemon mustard vinaigrette (Whisk together 1 teaspoon good grainy mustard, the juice of half a Meyer lemon, and olive oil to taste)

Douse the squash cubes in olive oil, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and Benton's table tasty, and roast in a 350 oven for 15 minutes. Remove the pan, stir the squash, and add the walnuts. Roast for another 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile bring the broth to simmer in a small pan, and add the couscous. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the couscous to cool.

Wash and dry the spinach and add to the salad bowl. When the squash and nuts and couscous are cool, distribute them over the top of the spinach. Sprinkle the cranberries over top of that.

When you're ready to serve, add the lemon mustard vinaigrette and toss well. Of course this would also be tasty with some added cheese if you're not watching sodium, say feta or goat or what used to be my favorite, gorgonzola.

KILLER TAKEOUT is coming in April, but available for pre-order today!

And you can follow Lucy on Facebook,
Twitter,
Pinterest,
and Instagram! 

The Many Layers of Baklava #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Our daughter and son-in-law visited Turkey this fall and look at what they brought back to us: samples of one of my favorite desserts, baklava. Isn't that the best gift ever? Those tasty nuggets inspired me to try making it--again.

Quite a few years ago, I was asked to help our son's elementary school class make baklava. (They must have been studying food from various countries around the world.) Though I've always been a fan of this pastry, I had never had the nerve to try making it myself. Believe me, if a group of schoolkids could make it, anyone can:). The only problem we had was discovering occasional brush bristles in the finished pastry--this I blame on poor quality pastry brushes and intense paint strokes...

Ingredients 

1 pound package of phyllo dough, thawed overnight, then brought to room temperature

1 pound walnuts or mixture of pistachios and walnuts (I used 1/3 salted pistachios and 2/3 walnuts)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 sticks unsalted butter, melted

12 ounces honey



Chop the walnuts and pistachios finely in a food processor and then add the sugar and cinnamon and pulse to combine these.  Set this aside.

Remove the phyllo dough from the package and unroll it on a clean counter. Butter a 13 x 9" baking dish and layer in 8 of the phyllo sheets, one at a time, buttering each sheet with a pastry brush dipped in the melted butter.

As you work, cover the remaining sheets of phyllo with a damp towel so they don't dry out. (Don't sweat any little tears--they won't show up in the end.)
 
Pour 1 cup of the nut mixture over the eight layers of phyllo and spread this evenly to the edges. Continue to layer eight more sheets of dough, painting each with melted butter. 

Spread another cup of the nut mixture over the top. Repeat the layers and the nut mixture until all the nuts are used, ending with phyllo. 

With a sharp knife, cut the baklava into diamond shapes. Bake at 325° for 45 minutes or until golden. 

Remove the dish from the oven and drizzle honey over the dough until it does not absorb any further. To the left is the honeyed pastry before it has soaked in. (I used a full one pound jar of local honey.) Then sprinkle with some ground up pistachios if you like that look. (I did.)











Let cool and sit for six hours or overnight, then serve at room temperature, well wrapped. Oh the agony of waiting! But it's worth it. My guests told me this was the best baklava they had ever eaten. My hub and I had to agree. 

These little squares could make a splendid addition to a Christmas cookie platter!

Question:  How is a good mystery like a piece of baklava? 

Answer: Many layers!


 DEATH WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS is here in time for Christmas stockings! 

Follow Lucy on Pinterest.

Or Twitter.

Or Facebook.

APPLE WALNUT CREAM CHEESE BARS

by Sheila Connolly

My new toy!

I warned you that the new old apple peeler was coming, and here it is! I bought this at Brimfield, just because I really wanted to see how it worked. It may or may not be a true antique: there’s a company that bought up the old molds and started manufacturing it again (and asking a ridiculous price, far more than I paid for mine). The claims for it are glowing, of course, and I wanted to see if they were true.

Re the apples I used here: it’s harvest season. My tiny orchard is producing apples! Some the squirrels steal. Others rot before I can pick them (because I don’t use any chemicals on them). They ripen at different times. As a result I find myself harvesting them one at a time, which means that it takes a while to collect enough for a recipe. This time I supplemented them with the Paula Reds I bought on the Massachusetts Turnpike. The ones from my orchard, you may notice, included the last of the Pink Pearls, which have pink flesh.

The Pink Pearls are in front, and yes,
they've already been peeled

Back to the peeler. First you have to clamp it to a work surface. But then all you have to do is impale the apple on the three-prong thingy and turn the crank. The blade moves around the apple, removing a thin strip of peel (all the way to the ends!), and when it’s done another part pushes the apple off the prongy-thingy. No fuss, no muss. (The only warning is that you have to use crisp fresh apples.) No waste, either. I love it! I was so excited that I peeled more apples than I needed. How often does a gadget do exactly what it claims to do, and does it well?

Oh, right, now to use all those apples I peeled. This recipe lies somewhere between bar cookies and apple crisp. I made it thick, using a 9” square pan (another vintage find). I think if I had used a larger pan, the results would have been more bar-like, but the cream cheese filling might have gotten lost along the way.

Apple Walnut Cream Cheese Bars

Crust and topping:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup (one stick) salted butter

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Cut in the butter (use a pastry blender, your fingers, or a food processor) until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Set aside 2 cups of the mixture (for the topping), and press the rest into an ungreased pan (the size will depend on the thickness you want).

Filling:

1 8-oz. package of cream cheese, softened

2 Tblsp whole milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg (at room temperature), lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups apples, cored and coarsely chopped (you may use any number of varieties, although cooking time may vary based on the apple type). Try to find a variety that doesn’t turn to mush when cooked.

Beat the cream cheese and milk with an electric mixer until they are well blended. Stir in the sugar, egg and vanilla and blend. Pour over the bottom crust in the pan.

Spread the chopped apples over the cream cheese mixture. Then sprinkle the remaining crumbs over the top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the apples are tender (poke one with a sharp knife to check—if not done, bake a little longer) and the top is browned. Cool slightly before cutting into squares.

My husband and I ate the whole thing (not all at once!), and it held up well. 

And now for the BSP: This week I released Seeing the Dead, a sequel to last year's Relatively Dead, which was a New York Times ebook bestseller. I never planned to write this series, but after Relatively Dead I found I wanted to know what came next for Abby and Ned. And there will probably be a third one next year (I'll give you one clue: witches!).

Available in all ebook formats I've ever heard of, including Amazon and Nook.

How to Make Wet Walnuts: Easy Maple-Walnut Caramel Topping for Ice Cream, Yogurt, Oatmeal, + More by Cleo Coyle

I'm making homemade
Wet Walnuts today!

My favorite breakfast lately has been a parfait of oatmeal, Greek yogurt, sliced banana, walnuts, and maple syrup. This combo is not only delicious, it's highly nutritious and recommended as a "probiotic-prebiotic" elixir. 

And what is a P&P elixir? Well... 

If you've seen a yogurt commercial lately, than you know that probiotics are the healthy bacteria that live in your gut. They're also found in fermented foods like good quality yogurts with live and active cultures.

Prebiotics are nondigestible carbohydrates, and they can be found in bananas, oatmeal, maple syrup, honey, and high-fiber foods. 

When these two "P" foods (pro- and prebiotics) are paired in a single meal, they contribute to healthy digestion and immune function. They also have a "synergistic relationship, because prebiotics feed the probiotics," as registered dietitian Nancy Clark puts it. You can read more on this subject at the Mayo Clinic website, by clicking here.

Whether or not you join me in my P&P parfait, I hope you'll enjoy today's recipe. In my kitchen, this amazing topping is a marriage of convenience between the walnuts and the maple syrup that I use in my P&P parfait. I keep my Wet Walnuts in small jars in the fridge, where I can quickly dip in a spoon and drizzle them with joy. 

(Truth) my husband (and partner in crime-writing) has no interest in my P&P parfaits, but he does absolutely love these Wet Walnuts spooned over vanilla Häagen-Dazs. So no matter how you serve them, I sincerely hope you will...

Eat with joy! 

~ Cleo

To download this recipe
in a PDF document that 

you can print, save, 

or share, click here. 

Cleo Coyle’s 

Homemade Wet Walnuts 

(Maple-Walnut Caramel Topping

for Ice Cream, Yogurt, Oatmeal, and More...) 

Cleo Coyle, who is nuts
about nuts, is author of The
Coffeehouse Mysteries

Natural maple syrup is transformed during the cooking process of this recipe, and the resulting sauce tastes like caramel--but a caramel that's made without butter, cream, or refined white sugar. To learn more about maple syrup's nutritional and health benefits compared to white sugar, read my recent blog post on maple syrup (and tips on understanding its various grades) by clicking here.

TIP: Use the freshest walnuts you can find and you'll be happy with the result. I buy whole nuts, freshly shelled, from a local green grocer, and chop them myself. Sometimes I toast the nuts, sometimes not--so make that decision based on your own taste. According to LiveStrong.com, roasting nuts does not significantly damage their nutritional value. Read more here.

Adapted from the Vermont Maple Festival Cookbook (After experimenting with the original recipe, I altered the ingredients and amount of ingredients, and wrote up my own directions and variations, but the cookbook did inspire me!) 

Makes about 1-1/2 cups 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts (*see my note below on toasting)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon hot tap water

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/8 teaspoon table salt)

1-1/2 cup pure maple syrup (**see my tips below on choosing)   

1 teaspoon vanilla (***or see my other flavor options) 

DIRECTIONS:

Step 1 - Prep Ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, hot tap water, and salt. Use a fork or small whisk and work the mixture until you see no lumps. Set aside. If you’d like to use toasted nuts in this recipe, then prepare the nuts now. (My directions on toasting nuts are at the end of this recipe). 

Step 2 - Cook the sauce: During this step, the syrup will bubble up quite a bit, so be sure to use a large, heavy saucepan that allows enough room for the bubbling (see my photo below). Pour the syrup into the pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When the syrup bubbles up, turn the heat down, and simmer for one full minute while stirring continually. After a minute, stir in the cornstarch mixture that you prepared in the first step. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil again. Boil and stir for a full minute. Turn off the heat and take the pan off the hot burner.

Step 3 - Remove from heat and finish: For best results, make sure the sauce is well off the boil before you stir in the vanilla or rum or liqueurs. (You don’t want to boil off the flavoring.) Finally, stir in the chopped nuts. The syrup will thicken as it cools but should remain pourable right from the refrigerator. If chilled sauce becomes hard, simply re-heat in a pan or microwave and stir in a few teaspoons of water before returning to the storage container and the fridge.

Drizzle over ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal, pound cake, puddings, pancakes, waffles, even fruit pies (especially apple pie). The sauce can be stored in an air tight container or glass jar and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. 

NOTES:

*TOASTING NUTS: Spread the chopped walnuts on a single layer of a baking sheet and heat for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 350 F. Stir once about halfway through to prevent burning. Proceed with the recipe as written.

*PURE MAPLE SYRUP has one ingredient on the bottle--maple syrup. Do not use not "pancake syrup" or "maple-flavored table syrup" for this recipe; those products are artificial imitations of real maple syrup, which is made by boiling down maple tree sap. Look for Grade A, Medium or Dark Amber for this recipe. To learn more about maple grades, read my recent blog post on this subject by clicking here.

***FLAVOR OPTIONS: You can replace the vanilla with other options, including 1 tablespoon of dark rum; or 1 tablespoon of the following: Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur); Amaretto; or (if you can find it) Nocino (green walnut liqueur).

F o o d i e

P h o t o s

☕ Serve With 

Cleo's Cold Brew!

👇

Click here for Cleo's 

Cold Brew Recipe!

Eat (and read) with joy!

—Cleo Coyle

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries, now celebrating more than twenty years in print. With more than 1 million books sold, they have gained an enthusiastic following. Cleo's "relentlessly entertaining" (Criminal Element) novels have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Czech; earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus; received Best of Year selection honors from multiple reviewers; and have been recommended by Booklist as among the best culinary mysteries for core library mystery collections. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, Toho, and MGM. They live in New York City, where they write independently and together, including the nationally bestselling Haunted Bookshop Mysteries.

Visit Cleo's online coffeehouse here.

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Our Brand-New 

Coffeehouse Mystery!

National Mystery Bestseller 

(Triple) #1 Amazon Category Bestseller 

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"EASILY ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS THAT I HAVE READ THIS YEAR...10 STARS!"  —Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book 

 

"A KNOCKOUT STORY....one of the best books in this endearing series...a TERRIFIC READ..." —Dru Ann Love, Raven Award-winning reviewer, Dru's Book Musings

No Roast for the Weary
includes a killer menu of
tasty recipes. Get Cleo's

Free Recipe Guide below...

Click here or the image above for
Cleo's Free Illustrated Recipe Guide
to No Roast for the Weary.

"WILDLY ENTERTAINING"

~ Criminal Element

New Paperback Edition!

National Mystery Bestseller
#1 Amazon Category Best Seller

Fresh Fiction Readers' Selection
& 2 Best of Year Lists!

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🔎 KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Scads of red herrings, peeks behind the show-biz curtain, and bountiful appended recipes will leave fans smiling contentedly."

📚 BOOKLIST

"This twentieth Coffeehouse mystery (after Honey Roasted) brings together the history of the shop, ripped-from-the-headlines plot elements, [and] the drama of on-site filming."

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling works
of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark 
Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the 
21 titles includes the added bonus of recipes.  

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Title Checklist of Cleo Coyle's
Books in Order

Don't Miss Our Latest
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