Steamed to Death Coming June 2013

Caldo Verde

By Peg Cochran

This year we decided to mix things up on Christmas Eve.  We normally have a sit down dinner with some Italian dish—a nod to my half Italian heritage.  But with a nearly three year old granddaughter, we wanted to eat earlier so she could get to bed and start dreaming about Santa!

I decided to make two different pots of soup and a sandwich that’s a specialty of a handful of New Jersey delis—we call them Sloppy Joes, but they’re not ground beef on buns.  They’re three layers of rye bread, cole slaw, deli meat of your choice, swiss cheese and Russian dressing.

For one of the soups I decided on Caldo Verde—a wonderful Portuguese Kale soup my late husband and I enjoyed on our trip to Portugal.  I made a few variations.  Normally I use turkey sausage instead of chorizo to cut down the fat (and because chorizo isn’t on every street corner in Grand Rapids) and since my current husband doesn’t care for kale, I usually substitute baby spinach leaves.  And this time, since I had two boxes of unopened elbow macaroni in the pantry (???) I decided to use those instead of buying ditalini which are very similar in size.

I made a very detailed shopping list for all the Christmas meals but managed to forget the hot turkey sausage for the soup.  So…off to the local grocery store to get the one thing that I was missing.  Somehow I came out with several bags and a $70 bill.  Not quite sure how that happened…and they didn’t have turkey sausage so I bought the real deal and made sure to render it first.

Caldo Verde means “green pot” because of the green from the kale.  You will notice that my soup is not green…  I had to resort to using the deck as additional refrigerator space and my spinach froze and besides, I forgot all about it.

The soup was delicious anyway and sad to say is all gone!  I never get tired of good soup!

1 TBL olive oil

1 lb chorizo sausage (or hot Italian sausage—turkey or regular)

1 quart chicken broth

1 large onion, diced

4 large potatoes, cubed

1 bunch kale, stemmed, washed and chopped (or use baby spinach)

1 ½ cups ditalini macaroni (elbows will work too)

1 15-ounce can cannellini beans

½ TBL paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Remove casing from sausage and cut into small, bite-sized pieces.

A warm, delicious bowl of soup!

Heat oil in soup pot and sauté sausage and onion about 3 to 5 minutes.  Drain on paper towels (not necessary if you use turkey sausage).

Add other ingredients except kale and pasta.  Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes.

Add kale, pasta and simmer about 8 minutes until both are tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve piping hot.  The finished product will be more of what Rachel Ray calls a "stoup" --combination soup and stew.  If you like it thinner, add more broth or a cup of water.

Rendering fat from sausage

Draining sausage. Not necessary with turkey sausage.

The Reg Man waiting for something to drop....

Cut your potatoes into small cubes

Elbows substituting for ditalini in my cool mise en place bowl!

Soup simmering on the stove. 

Around the Kitchen Table: Holiday Brunch--Our Favorite Meals for Holiday Eves

 

LESLIE KARST: Plenty is written each year about our favorite meals for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years—and for that matter, Festivus. But my question today is: What is your traditional meal for the night before the holidays you celebrate? Is it something light and simple, as a way to prepare for all the eating to come, or a grand banquet to commence the festivities with a bang?

In our family, Christmas Eve was a big deal growing up. We’d all pile into the station wagon and drive over to Pasadena to my grandparents’ house, where Deedee would have prepared two enormous pots of soup: clam chowder for the grownups, and corn chowder for the kids. Clams? Ewwwww! (I now adore the delectable mollusks, of course.) I’m sure there was also a big green salad—a must in pretty much all Karst family dinners back then—as well as bread or biscuits or what-have-you. But what I remember best besides the soup is the enormous tray of “Deedee (aka spritz) cookies” we kids would stuff ourselves with after dinner. And I still adore these buttery delicacies pressed out of a cookie press. Here’s a recipe (with cream cheese—yum!) from the MLK archives by Krista Davis. 

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: When my paternal grandfather was alive, we would go to their house on Christmas Eve and he would make pasta with lobster sauce, which, as a kid, I didn't appreciate! One year we were invited to a cousin's house for Christmas Eve and the Italian feast of the seven fishes. I was a grown-up by then so I really enjoyed it but I'm not so sure my kids did! In honor of my grandfather, I have continued the tradition of pasta on Christmas Eve (although not with lobster alas) and usually make some sort of baked pasta dish. I use our Christmas placemats (found in Target years ago) and our red and white toile plates (snapped up from Home Goods.) One year I did deviate from the norm and made two different pots of soup, including caldo verde, a Portuguese soup and New Jersey Sloppy Joes (3 layers of rye bread, deli meat, Cole slaw and Russian dressing) for a more casual meal. This year the Christmas Eve menu is still under consideration!

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MAYA CORRIGAN: A grand banquet is what my family always had on Christmas Eve. It started with a variety of appetizers, including shrimp, pickled herring, and smoked salmon. Then we had the main dish, usually a roast. The desserts always included cookies plus pies and/or cakes. Why am I using the past tense? Though our numbers have dwindled, and those of us who are left live 1,000+ miles apart, we still have the seafood appetizer, the roast, and the desserts, just not as much food for the group of five that have spent the holiday together since Covid. 

Holiday Eve Appetizer Platter

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Mr. Right and I are typically home alone on Christmas Eve, and we enjoy continuing my parents' tradition of what we call "fun foods," aka appetizers or nibbles, and a special cocktail. (You'll get a taste of last year's cocktail treats in my post on Tuesday -- we haven't decided on this year's yet.) Baked brie, often in puff pastry with fig or cranberry jam. Marinated artichokes and asparagus. Salami. Shrimp. Mini crab cakes? Maybe! Spiced nuts, definitely -- maybe this Spiced Glazed Nuts and Pretzels Mix, from Assault & Pepper. Bruschetta, possibly, or a baguette or a favorite cracker. My hunny makes a fabulous baked artichoke dip, from the recipe he stole from me and made better, and I shared here a few years ago! And lots of leftovers, to dip into over the lazy days after Christmas.

However and whatever you celebrate, I wish you a season filled with love, joy, and good food!

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MADDIE DAY: I don't have a particular food tradition for Christmas Eve. For most of the last twenty years, my sons alternated every other year between Christmas Eve with me or with their father. On either the Eve or the day, we started a post-divorce tradition of making sushi. 

This year my older son and his wife will be with us for the whole holiday (yay!), and we'll spend Christmas Eve with our close friends sipping eggnog and watching the little kids go crazy on cookies. Sushi will be on the menu for Christmas Day, I expect, although without fish for the visitors. I might make a French onion tart, too. What's important is being together.

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LUCY BURDETTE: I can't remember a Christmas Eve food tradition except for lots of cookies--the emphasis was on Christmas day, with a big feast something like Thanksgiving. In my hub's family, kielbasa and shrimp were absolutely necessary. These days as we're usually in Key West, we continue that with a shrimp dish using Key West pinks--the best ever! I love the idea of the feast of the seven fishes, but I also love the all-appetizer idea. Hmmm, I wonder what we'll come up with? Here's the seafood pie I made a couple of years ago...

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CLEO COYLE: Because our beloved parents and grandparents are gone now, both Marc and I are sentimental about our holiday traditions. I grew up in a big, food-loving Italian-American family, where Italian foods (from wedding soup and gnocchi to pizzelle and biscotti) were served right along with American treats. And every Christmas eve, we ate the famous "Feast of the Seven Fishes." So did Marc's family. In fact, one of his most memorable meals took place on a Christmas eve. "As the oldest grandson," he told me, "I sat at the adult’s table for the first time, beside my cousin Loretta. We listened to their conversation—some of it in Italian—and shared a wee bit of wine and a drop of after-dinner anisette."

As for the menu, Marc’s grandmother was a poor orphan from Naples, but (as he put it) "she could have been a master chef." The seven seafood dishes she served that night were: (1) shrimp cocktails with white garlic sauce, (2) savory fritters with anchovies; (3) smelts; (4) baccàla (dried and salted cod) in red sauce; (5) calamari, coated with seasoned flour and fried "to perfection." (Marc remembered the tentacles resembling "dried flower blossoms" though his cousin Loretta was "thoroughly grossed out by them!") The main course included (6) a whole fresh cod, stuffed with crabmeat, and finally (7) fried shrimp coated with a breading with Italian herbs and parmesan cheese. Every year, Marc and I still make and enjoy that wonderful "Italian-fried shrimp." We love it so much that we shared our version of the recipe with a fun twist for our Coffeehouse Mystery readers. (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RECIPE.) Whatever your traditions, may your own holidays season be delicious!

Click for Cleo Coyle's
"Feast of the Seven Fishes" Recipe,
narrated by a popular character from her series.

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MOLLY MacRAE: Christmas Eve! In my family we've always had the feast the night before Christmas - succulent, brown, roasted turkey, savory stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes swimming in gravy, vegetables (obviously not the noteworthy part of the meal because I can't name them), black and green olives, watermelon pickles, spicy mango chutney, pies, and plum pudding with hard sauce. And always plenty of leftovers so that mom could relax and enjoy the mayhem of six children opening presents on Christmas day. That's the tradition I've carried over with my own family. These days we also burn a bayberry candle (always sent to us by a dear friend) for good luck. May you all have health, happiness, and good luck in the new year! 

 

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TINA KASHIAN: We always visit my in-laws in the Poconos for Christmas Eve. A gingerbread house is ready for all the grandkids to decorate. My two girls love this tradition. Of course, they end up eating just as much candy as they use to decorate the gingerbread house. It’s a fun, family event. Here’s a picture of my girls with their grandparents.

 

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Join us in the comments...

What are your traditions for the night

before the holidays you celebrate? 

Around the Kitchen Table: Food on our Travels + #Bookgiveaway

Around the Kitchen Table: Food on our Travels

VICKI DELANY: I travel a lot and one of the things I enjoy the most about visiting new places is the local food. In Vietnam I took a cooking class and went on a street food tour. In Malaysia we ate our way though one of the worlds’ primary food destinations, George Town on the island of Penang.  The variety of the marvellous curries in India! In Mozambique I couldn’t get enough of the prawns. This month I’m off to Russia and excited about what that cuisine has to offer. Do I ever bring any recipes home with me? Not even once. Maybe I worry that trying those things at home will spoil the memory.  

After the feast 

Street Restaurants in Malaysia

Food stall tour in Malaysia

Mozambique market

Prawns!

Buying spices in Vietnam

Making curry in India

What about the rest of you? What favourite foods do you remember from your travels and do you ever try to recreate them at home?

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DENISE: My husband and I used to travel a lot, but as we aged (and more importantly our parents got older) we now are limited to one cruise a year and a couple of weeks in Florida. One of the great joys of traveling has always been exploring the local food. We even tasted kangaroo in Australia--sort of reminded me of venison. 

On our last cruise we were able to take  a cooking class taught by a wonderful chef in Mexico. Truthfully, I've never been a huge fan of Mexican food, but now that I've tasted the authentic flavors, I've been won over.

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LESLIE:  Ten years ago, Mr. Right and I spent a month in France. While we haven't been brave enough to try recreating the duck confit he loved so much, the Beouf Bourgignon and Chocolate Mousse we adored in Paris -- so much that we went back to each restaurant a second time -- have become regulars in our kitchen. Although I haven't shared either recipe here, the recipes for the mousse and my huckleberry version are in Death al Dente, my first Food Lovers' Village Mystery.

Recreating discoveries of travel is part of the joy, both of the trip and of home cooking. On a trip to the Malice Domestic Mystery Convention, a friend and I met at Teaism, a D.C. cafe. The Salty Oat Cookies were absolutely fabulous. Alas, while often asked, Teaism didn't share the recipe, but a Washington Post food reporter proved that the WaPo's tradition of investigative journalism is not limited to politics! I put my version in Guilty as Cinnamon, my 2d Spice Shop Mystery, and the fabulous Kim Davis of Cinnamon and Sugar and a Little Bit of Murder recreated them with a terrific photo recreation. And last winter, when I went to NYC for my first Mystery Writers of America board meeting, I discovered the very best Cold Sesame Noodles, and you guessed it, set about searching for the recipe, which -- finally! -- I shared here on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. I suspect they'll be part of the next Spice Shop mystery, currently spread out on my desk. It's just too much fun not to share! 

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DARYL:   I used to travel to Hawaii a lot and I often recreated foods from the islands. Cooking fish the Pacific Rim way, simply adorned, is a favorite of mine. I bought a couple of cookbooks and use them frequently for inspiration.  

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KRISTA:  Years ago, when visiting Hong Kong, I had a guidebook that revealed the location of a store with rock bottom prices on clothes with Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstorm labels. You bet I was going there! We found the store and it was every bit as wonderful as the book said. However, it was way off the beaten path where tourists usually go. After shopping, my mom wanted lunch. Right then! So we wandered the streets looking for a restaurant. We found one on the second floor of a building. It was huge. Every few minutes someone would say something over a loudspeaker, which I assumed meant something like "order for table 20 is ready." None of the staff spoke English. We ordered by pointing at what other people were eating. (How impolite is that?) They stationed a waitress at our table, which made us feel very guilty because the place was packed. They brought food, and more food, and yet more food. Certainly enough to feed four people. It was delicious. Absolutely the best! I am ashamed to say that my mom and I ate every last bite. We stopped short of licking the dishes, though. And after all that, those wonderful people refused to accept a tip. But they gave us a lovely memory that neither one of us will ever forget.

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LUCY BURDETTE: We've been lucky enough to do quite a bit of traveling lately, and the food is one of the best parts! Right now I'm deep into a run of scones, borrowed from the Scottish trip we took earlier in the summer. 

You'll see some of those recipes in the next few months. 

Meanwhile, here were posts on sushi in Japan and fish in France!

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SHEILA: I am seriously addicted to farmers' markets anywhere. I've already shared the Skibereen market weekly market with you, and no doubt you'll see it again, but the one that sticks in my memory was in Merida, in the Yucatan, on my first and only trip to Mexico. It was a covered market with a wonderful variety of unfamiliar items, including clusters of octopus hanging from the beams, and tables with piles of brightly colored spices (the piles were at least two feet high!). Wish I could share pictures, but this was so long ago that I was still using film (for slides because they were cheaper than prints). Most of the food I ate in that part of Mexico was wonderful, although I drew the line at eating turtle because I'd had pet turtles as a child.

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PEG: I had satay for the first time in Kuantan, Malaysia and loved it so much that I ordered it for the next four days of our stay there! I frequently make it at home. On our trip to the Far East I sampled mangosteens and durian (which you aren't allowed to bring back to your hotel because the exterior of the fruit smells so bad.) And while I've seen durian in our local Asian market, I haven't been tempted to buy it.  I also ate jelawat--a type of fish--that I'm certainly not going to find at our local supermarket, which doesn't go much beyond salmon, catfish and tilapia.  I loved the Portuguese soup caldo verde when we were in Lisbon and have made that at home as well.  Thanks to Julia Child, I've made numerous French dishes at home and also sampled them when in Paris.  On my bucket list is to take a cooking class in a foreign country--Italy perhaps?

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MAYA: When my daughter spent a semester abroad in Valencia, Spain, the place where paella originated, we visited her and ate different varieties of this rice dish every day. The classic paella valenciana combines rice with meat (chicken, rabbit, and sometimes snails) and vegetables (butterbeans, flat green beans, and artichokes when in season). Paella de mariscos combines different shellfish and sometimes other fish and usually omits the vegetables. A mixed paella includes meat from land animals, seafood, and vegetables. Saffron, an ingredient in most paellas, turns the rice a lovely yellow color and adds a unique flavor. The rice simmers in a broth with the other ingredients, which might include garlic, onions, paprika, and tomatoes. In Valencia paella is cooked in a huge pan, several feet in diameter, over an open fire. I start mine on top of the stove and finish it in the oven. Paella makes a beautiful dish, with a variety of colors and textures, and it feeds a lot of people. My family’s cleaner-upper likes it because there’s only one pan to scrub, though it’s a big one.

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ESSIE LANG:  I've always enjoyed pasta but since a trip to Sicily, I love pasta! It was wonderful to devour so many different types of dishes and not worry about the wheat aspect of the pasta. I had heard that their wheat is a different, more easily digestible one (too much info?) and was delighted it was true. I daringly sampled pasta with octopus, pasta with clams, and squid ink pasta. Just so you know, be sure not to smile for a couple of hours after eating that one. I even, more daringly, tried fresh sea urchin that had just been pried from a cave wall.What can I say -- it was memorable!

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CLEO COYLE: When it comes to food and travel, Marc and I are most inspired not by jumping on a plane but following our feet. Yes, New York City can be loud, crowded, and expensive, but the World’s Fair of Food here makes this tough town more than worth tolerating. Even better, we live in Queens, a small area that holds one of the most diverse populations on the planet. Within a few blocks of our home, there are family restaurants run by immigrants from Thailand, Korea, Pakistan, Latin America, and the Philippines. A ten minute stroll in one direction and we’re in Little India (Jackson Heights). In another direction, we’re inside an Irish Pub (Woodside). One of our favorite stops these days is located in an unassuming strip mall. It's a local French bakery (Cannelle Patiserrie), opened by a Brittany-born genius who retired to Queens after working for decades as the Executive Pastry Chef of the Waldorf Astoria. On the other hand, we're always up for traveling, especially across the USA. From New England to New Orleans and the Midwest to the Southwest, America has its own unique foodie cultures and culinary favorites. To wit...

Cleo's Queso Fundido
Click for the recipe.

When we were last in San Diego (for ComicCon), Marc and I ate a fantastic Queso Fundido and decided to try one at home, with a little advice from our Hispanic neighbors here in Queens. The result is a recipe we shared in one of our Coffeehouse Mysteries, and we’re happy to share it again. For the recipe, click here or on the photo above, and...eat with joy!

GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment to win these 4 books, and leave your email so we can contact you should you win.

Stirring the Plot by Daryl Wood Gerber

Crypt Suzette by Maya Corrigan

The Diva Sweetens the Pie by Krista Davis

 Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle

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Click to see more of our
upcoming releases.

👓

What favourite foods do you remember from your travels and do you ever try to recreate them at home? 


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Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite Vacation Foods + 5-Book #Giveaway!

         

LIBBY KLEIN: It's summertime and that means Beach Vacation for the Libby clan. My family makes an annual trek back to Cape May where I grew up. We hit all the usual tourist spots - the beach, the boardwalk, the mini golf. But when it comes to eating, most of our favorite places fly under the general tourist radar. Well, they don't fly under the radar anymore. Not since everything is on the internet now. But back when the kids were little we had a lot of places only known to locals.

My favorite will always be The Milky Way frozen custard stand for a vanilla cone with crunch coat. If you don't know what that is, you clearly haven't read my series where I extoll the virtue of crunch coat - chopped peanuts with peanut brittle and rainbow jimmies (or sprinkles for your non-South Jersians.) This is a treat I look forward to for a whole year until I return to the shore. 

I bet you have a favorite summer vacation treat. Let us know in the comments what it is and you'll be entered to win some great books to go along with your summer reading. Be sure to include your email address so we know who to send the good news to. How about the rest of you Mystery Lovers' Kitchen bloggers? What is your favorite vacation food? 

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MADDIE DAY: What a fun topic, Libby! At the Milky Way, I might opt for the soft serve cone with a dipped chocolate coating with chopped peanuts, but I digress. 

Growing up, our vacations every year were two weeks tent-camping in Sequoia National Park among the giant California redwoods. During those two weeks only, we got to have Tang instead of OJ (from a frozen concentrate), "real" Log Cabin maple syrup (instead of my mom's sugar syrup flavored by Mapeleine), bacon EVERY DAY, and S'mores over the campfire. These were huge treats for our family of six living on one schoolteacher's salary.

These days, Hugh and I sometimes take a summer week at different spots in Maine, where of course we'll sample the local lobster roll and hit up the best brewpub beer and fare.

Lobster roll, fish bisque, and beers on the harbor in Belfast, Maine.

But truly? I love staying home in summer. I can pick fat juicy blueberries from my bushes. There's nothing's better than a BLT made from a sun-warmed garden tomato, my own lettuce, and slices of my son's sourdough bread (or store-bought whole grain, in a pinch). 

Throw in an ear of of sweet corn from a local farm, a slice of my own peach pie with a scoop of Hodgies vanilla ice cream on top, plus a gin and tonic on the deck? I don't need to go anywhere.

Peach pie minus the ice cream, alas.

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LUCY BURDETTE: We had the grandkids here for a week and I can assure you that they are not gourmet eaters. Their idea of vacation food is hot dogs and ice cream. While they have hot dogs, I have my favorite tuna melt sandwich with a big pickle spear and a bag of chips. Sometimes a root beer float on the side. Yes, I put on a pound or two, but it was worth it! 

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Oh, vacation! Me, I love checking out -- and occasionally overindulging in -- the local specialties! Avocado every day in Mexico. Croissants or some other flaky puff pastry treat in France. And when I find something tasty on the menu, I love recreating it at home, like this BLT Salad with Jalapeno Aioli from our visit to Hilo, Hawaii last winter or these French Apple Turnovers, which might not look as perfect as the ones we bought in a tiny little Paris boulangerie and took back to the hotel for an afternoon bite with perfect cafe au lait, but I promise, they were just as tasty!

Although at this exact moment, one of Lucy's root beer floats would be terrific! Whatever your vacation treats, enjoy!

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KIM DAVIS: I love vacations because I allow myself to ignore all attempts at eating healthy, and indulge my taste buds. Back when my husband’s parents were still living, we’d travel to Danville, Illinois twice a year (for many, many years) to spend a week or so with them—at Mother’s Day and then in October for their anniversary. While it wasn’t a “real” vacation, there were two treats I always looked forward to. The first was my mother-in-law’s rhubarb pie. Even though she taught me how to make it, somehow hers was always so much better! I was known to get up early and finish the pie for breakfast before anyone else could claim that last piece. Dessert for breakfast is a vacation must!

The second treat I couldn’t wait to get was the Custard Cup’s turtle sundae. Swoon-worthy! This iconic custard stand was a family-owned business that started in 1949. As the owners aged, they only opened it from May to October (and could be why our visits coincided with those months, lol). I’ve heard that the owners finally sold the business and the new owners are still creating the same delectable custards. Since my in-laws have passed, we no longer visit the area, but I still crave those turtle sundaes! 

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LESLIE KARST: Here in Santa Cruz, we have the marvelous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, with its famous Giant Dipper roller coaster. But the seaside amusement part is also home to a variety of fun treats which I would never eat except when I make my annual visit to ride the Giant Dipper. In which case, I may indulge in a dipped soft-serve ice cream cone.

 

 

 

Or perhaps some cotton candy. Or a frozen Snickers bar. Or maybe even a deep-fried Twinkie (don't knock it if you haven't tried it!). But best of all is the salt water taffy, made and pulled as you watch. Yum!

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VICKI DELANY: Vacation food! What a great thing to think about.  Like Maddie, I rarely travel in the summer, I prefer to be home with the garden and the pool. I travel a lot the rest of the year, and my favourite vacation food then is - what’s on the menu! For the purposes of this topic, rather than travel for summer vacation, I often have family here. And I definitely have favourites I always like to make for them. In Ontario summer in blueberry season and this is just about the best way I’ve found to bake with blueberries.

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen:
Blueberry Almond Bars from Vicki Delany

 

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: When I was a kid, my family always spent a week on Cape Cod.  The biggest treat was a steamed lobster.  My father would buy them and bring them back to the rustic cottage we rented every year.  Another treat I looked forward to was fried clams.  I'd love some right now but clams are rather rare in Michigan!

 

Another much anticipated summer event was a trip to Asbury Park, NJ.  We always went in the evening when my father got off work.  They wouldn't tell us we were going until the last minute or we would have driven my mother crazy all day!  We strolled the boardwalk, played some games and of course I had to have cotton candy!  

 

I traveled a fair amount as an adult (BC--before children.) I loved sampling the local dishes.  One memorable vacation was in Portugal where the food was all so fresh and delicious.  When we came home, I had to try my hand at making caldo verde, the traditional Portuguese soup. 

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MOLLY MACRAE: The Custard Cup! Kim, we live within walking distance of the Champaign Jarling’s Custard Cup. We walk over there every time the grandchildren come here for vacation or to visit. It’s practically a law – no one goes back to Ohio until they’ve had their Jarling’s. 

When I was a kid we had a lot of picnics on vacation – packing sandwiches and fruit into the big wicker picnic basket. Some of those picnics were mighty cold but that didn’t stop us. Carrying that tradition forward, here’s a picture my husband snapped one cold and foggy picnic with our boys and my dad on top of Roan Mountain in Tennessee. Great times!

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Photos from our younger years!
Click here to learn more about us
and the books we write together
as Cleo Coyle.

CLEO COYLE: Summertime always revives wonderful sensory memories for me and my husband: the smell of fresh-cut grass, the crunch of corn on the cob, the splash of pool water, and swoosh and awe of fireworks. After all of these years, some of my favorite "vacation foods" are still wrapped up in those childhood memories.

Every year in June, after spending nine months cooped up in classrooms, we kids were rewarded with a special "school picnic" day at Kennywood, a charming, century-old amusement park south of Pittsburgh.

As a budding foodie, I looked forward to noshing on the park's carnival food as much as riding its landmark wooden coasters. Corn Dogs, CANDY APPLES, fresh-cut fries, cotton candy, and ICE CREAM (yes, all in one day of indulgence)...

If you missed my recipe post on how to make an easy
homemade (no-churn, no-machine) Vanilla Ice Cream, 
click here or on the photo above.

I loved going to Kennywood Park so much as a child that I even took a summer job there between high school and college. I was a "Rides" girl and worked on crews that ran everything from the Ferris Wheel and Bob Sleds to the Pirate Ship, and this locally famous old coaster: The Jack Rabbit...

Take a ride with us now in the front seat of this wonderful, landmark wooden roller coaster. To start the video, hit the white arrow in the center of the window below and don't forget to throw your arms up on the way down!

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The "Jack Rabbit" Roller Coaster video (above) is a real blast from my past and my husband's, who also grew in the Western Pennsylvania area. If you don’t see a window (above), click here to ride the coaster with us on YouTube, and have a delicious summer, everyone! ~ Cleo

GIVEAWAY!

To be entered in this week's drawing

for these terrific mysteries below,

join us in the comments.

What are your favorite 

vacation foods? 

Join the

conversation!

Include your email address,

so we can contact the winner!

THE MANGO MURDERS by Lucy Burdette 

ESSENTIALS OF MURDER by Kim Davis 
(choice of ebook or paperback) 

THERE'LL BE SHELL TO PAY by Molly MacRae 

MURDER AT THE RUSTY ANCHOR by Maddie Day 

BUTTLETPROOF BARISTA by Cleo Coyle 

Comments Open through

Wednesday, August 6

Don't forget to include

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