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THE COZY TIMES

Special Edition

This is a weekly online publication focused on connecting cozy mystery readers to favorite cozy characters by way of their town's newspapers. 

Today The Cozy Times is featuring the 

Wolverhampton Weekly Howler

This week The Cozy Times reached into the Howler archives to bring you some of the Christmas season happenings in Queensville, Michigan.  

Check it out!

Recipes of Christmas Past

By: Jaymie Leighton

THE season is coming, that one every kid I know can’t wait for. Toys and good food, fun and family… no matter the year, folks have always enjoyed Christmastime. For many of us adults, through, the food has us harkening back to days – and years - gone by.

I’ll never forget being a kid and having my Grandma Leighton in the house; that lady could – and still can – cook! But it’s what she did with Thanksgiving and Christmas leftovers that I remember best. Casseroles were big in our house. Grandma took leftover turkey, chopped it into bite sized pieces, and layered it in the bottom of a casserole dish. She sprinkled a little poultry seasoning over it, added leftover veggies, like corn or peas, and a good ladle of leftover turkey gravy. She’d then layer on some leftover stuffing and even grated cheese… just because! She baked this at about 350° degrees for half an hour, and dinner was served!

The beauty of an ‘un’recipe like this is that you can customize it to however many people (and however much leftovers) you have!

I’ll be back next week with a true VINTAGE recipe, a no-bake fruit cake you can make even just a few days before the big day! Until then, don’t let the Christmas rush get you down… party like it’s 1899 at Queensville’s Dickens Days Christmas festivities, now until New Years’ Eve!

*****

*****

Crimebeat

Tragedy at Dickens Days Festivities

By: Nan Goodenough

Queensville residents remain tightlipped today in the wake of a tragedy on the first evening of the town’s annual Christmas festival, Dickens Days. Local resident and Wolverhampton Weekly Howler food columnist Jaymie Leighton discovered a badly beaten young woman in the work shed belonging to Bill Waterman, a local handy and craftsman. Wolverhampton Hospital inside sources reveal that she has lapsed into a coma, but the hospital and police are not releasing any more details.

Detective Angela Vestry of the Queensville PD would not comment on the nature of the crime, other than to say it was a brutal beating. Leighton, shaken by the viciousness of the attack, would only say she hopes the victim makes a full recovery. The Howler will release more details as they become available. Watch our website for up-to-date information on this and other stories.

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A big thanks to Jaymie Leighton and Nan Goodenough for allowing The Cozy Times to use their articles. 

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That's this week's edition of 

The Cozy Times.

  

I hope you enjoyed!

To learn more about Queensville, Michigan and 

it's residents, read the 

Vintage Kitchen Mystery series by author 

Victoria Hamilton. 

Articles in this edition of The Cozy Times are based on book 5 in the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries

WHITE COLANDER CRIME

In the new Vintage Kitchen Mystery from the author of No Mallets Intended, the Heritage Society is re-creating a perfect Victorian Christmas—until good tidings go bad...

 
Queensville has great expectations for their Dickens Days festival. A tourist-trade boon boom means a big turnout for the opening of Queensville Historic Manor and for Jaymie Leighton, food columnist and vintage cookware collector, a chance to promote the manor and give away homemade goodies.  At the end of a long day of festival fun, Jaymie discovers the battered body of local woman Shelby Fretter.

Shelby predicted her own murder in journal entries—and all clues point to Cody Wainwright, the troubled son of Jaymie’s beleaguered newspaper editor. But considering the entire Fretter family had its share of dirty secrets, Jaymie’s not convinced  by the case against Cody. With twists all over, she’s going to have to work like the Dickens to wrap up this investigation before Christmas—especially with the real killer ready to kill again.
 

Book One                                  Book Two

Book Three                                      Book Four

About the author

Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson.

She now happily writes about vintage kitchen collecting, muffin baking and dead bodies for Berkley Prime Crime in the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mystery series. Besides writing about murder and mayhem, and blogging at Killer Characters, Victoria collects vintage kitchen wares and old cookbooks, as well as teapots and teacups. 

Victoria also writes the Teapot Collector Mysteries as Amanda Cooper! You can find out more about her and all of her series at her website, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest.

Victoria Hamilton Mysteries: www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com

Victoria Hamilton Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton

VKM Facebook: facebook.com/VintageKitchenMysteries

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/vintagekitchenm/vintage-kitchen-mysteries-by-victoria-hamilton/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MysteryVictoria - or - @MysteryVictoria

Is there a cozy town you'd like to see featured in 

The Cozy Times? 

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