It's

Cozy Food Friday 

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

Today I'm featuring a recipe from

DRAPE EXPECTATIONS

Book 4 in the Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mysteries

by

Karen Rose Smith

Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mystery Series, Book 4 

These days, home stager Caprice De Luca's calendar is a full house. Her grandmother's health is failing, her wayward uncle is stirring the pot, and she's torn between two equally eligible suitors. With so much drama in her personal life, Caprice is grateful to have Ace Richland, a former 80s rock star, ask her to stage his girlfriend's house. But Alanna Goodwin is a tough customer who balks at Caprice's ideas and all but commandeers the staging. Caprice almost isn't surprised when the snappish Southern belle is strangled to death with a tieback from her tacky velvet drapes. But just as she draws back the curtains on the truth, Caprice realizes she may be next on a murderer's set list...

STAGED TO DEATH, Book 1

DEADLY DECOR, Book 2

GILT BY ASSOCIATION, Book 3

DRAPE EXPECTATIONS, Book 4

SILENCE OF THE LAMPS, Book 5 May 2016

MY REVIEW

Fans of the Caprice De Luca series will be thrilled with DRAPE EXPECTATIONS.

I’ve had the pleasure of following this series since book one, STAGED TO DEATH first came out. It’s been such a pleasure watching this series take off and grow. I eagerly look forward to more installments.

Author Karen Rose Smith has created wonderful characters for this series. They’re lead by protagonist Caprice De Luca who is such an original character in her career and her fashion and decorating choices. She may favor the retro look, but Caprice is a twenty-first century woman for sure. And, her love for animals certainly won me over.

In DRAPE EXPECTATIONS, Caprice finds herself in the position of trying to prove her friend Ace innocent of murder. This story was excellent from beginning to end. The victim certainly had the personality to make plenty of enemies, so suspects were not in short supply. Every question that arose seemed to only raise more. Lots of twists and plenty of intrigue kept this book moving at a quick pace straight through to the exciting conclusion.

Make sure to check out the back of the book for great recipes and a sneak peek of book five, SILENCE OF THE LAMPS.

On to the recipe!

Caprice's Chicken Cacciatore

from DRAPE EXPECTATIONS by Karen Rose Smith Copyright © 2015

All photos courtesy of Karen Rose Smith

Preheat oven to 350⁰

1 hour prep time

Approximately 1 and ½ hours baking time

Ingredients

1 pound Italian sausage cut into 1 inch pieces (sweet or hot – your choice!)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)

1 cup chopped sweet bell pepper (about 1 large pepper)

1 cup celery

3 cans fire roasted tomatoes

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1½ teaspoons salt

Add ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper if using mild sausage

Brown the sausage pieces in vegetable oil for about 10 minutes on medium, stirring to brown on all sides.  (Do not burn. You want the oil with sausage drippings to coat the onion, pepper and celery.)  

Add onion, pepper and celery and saute for about 3 minutes. 

To this mixture add the three cans of fire roasted tomatoes and the spices.  Simmer on low while browning the thighs.

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs (3½ pounds)

1 ½ cup flour

3 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons oregano

4 tablespoons butter

Put flour, salt, pepper and oregano in a Ziplock bag and shake to mix.  

Melt butter in 11–12" deep-sided skillet.  

Drop thighs into the bag with flour mixture two at a time and shake until they are coated.  

Then brown the thighs in the skillet on medium high until all sides are golden brown.  

Place the browned thighs in a lasagna pan.  

Pour sausage mixture over the thighs.  

Bake uncovered at 350⁰ about 1½ hours until thighs are tender and falling off the bone.  

Use meat thermometer to assure proper doneness.

This dish can be served over pasta (I cook a pound) of your choice or complemented by side dishes such as mashed potatoes.

What a wonderful, hearty meal for this cold winter weather!

Please keep reading and check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Book Beginnings and Friday 56

 for this week are from 

SILENCE OF THE LAMPS

Book 5 in the Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mysteries 

by Karen Rose Smith

Available April 26!

Pre-order your copy today!

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader

Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading.

My Book Beginnings...

Caprice De Luca caught sight of the guest who stepped over the threshold. She braced for trouble on this balmy June Saturday afternoon.   

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice

Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's okay.) *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you. *Post it.

My Friday 56...

Caprice knew that devastating news was enough of a shock to make a person forget her name. She said, "We don't want to keep you. We just wanted to give you our condolences. Do you have someplace you can stay? I imagine the forensics unit will have the house tied up at least through tomorrow." 

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

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