Lisa Ks Book Reviews

Way Back Wednesday!

With thanks to Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman

I have taken the Way Back Machine to

October 31, 2014

and the biggest Cozy Food Friday ever, courtesy of

The Cozy Chicks!

Wait until you see all of these wonderful recipes!

Enjoy!

It's

Cozy Food Friday!

That means it's time to share a recipe from

another great cozy mystery!

The month of August, and all this month, I have had the pleasure of hosting the great authors that make up

The Cozy Chicks.

I've featured awesome recipes from their book

THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN

A Killer Collection of Recipes by the

Bestselling Authors of the Cozy Chicks Blog

SECOND EDITION

This fantastic cookbook contains recipes from cozy mystery favorites,

Ellery Adams / J.B. Stanley

Lorraine Bartlett / L.L. Bartlett/ Lorna Barrett

Deb Baker / Hannah Reed

Kate Collins

Mary Kennedy

Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott

Maggie Sefton

and

Leann Sweeney

Lisa's Note: Author Duffy Brown is also a Cozy Chick and will be featured on Cozy Food Friday, however, she is not in The Cozy Chick's Kitchen.

You can follow The Cozy Chicks blog here...

www.cozychicksblog

Today's featured recipes are from

ALL the Cozy Chicks!

That's right, a recipe from each wonderful author!

Let's get started!!!

~*~*~*~

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN

Pull up a stool and let us pour you a cup of coffee. We'll have a chat as a pot of tomato basil soup bubbles on the stove. While the soup is simmering, feel free to sit back, relax, and listen to the sizzle of lemon chicken cutlets crisping to a golden brown in the frying pan. By the time we catch up on work and family and start discussing the last book we've read, the buttery cinnamon scents of the apple ginger pie baking in the oven will curl around our shoulders like a warm shawl and coax a sigh of contentment from our lips.

AUNTIE KIKI'S FUN FALL DIP

by Duffy Brown

(Note: This recipe is not in THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN)

Ingredients

  
1can black beans rinsed
1 can corn or use fresh corn from the cob about 3
1/2 yellow and 1/2 red pepper
1 jalapeño pepper seeded
1 fresh tomato cut and seeded
Red onion
1/4cup chopped cilantro

Mix together 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1-1/2 teaspoon sugar, dash salt and juice of 1 lime

Pour over above ingredients. 

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve with Tostitos Scoops

ELLERY'S DARK CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

by Ellery Adams

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 1/2 ounces butter (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon), soft enough for mixing

1 cup superfine sugar

4 ripe bananas, good and smashed

(Ellery likes to use her fists!)

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.

Mix the butter, sugar, bananas, eggs, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl. Add chocolate chips.

Add to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Do not over mix. Ellery likes to fold the dough careful until just mixed. This makes the bread light and airy.

Pure the batter into a lightly greased and floured 8 x 4-inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hours and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack.

Yield: 1 loaf (12 - 16 slices)

STUFFED PEPPER SOUP

by Lorraine Bartlett / LL Bartlett

Ingredients

2 pounds ground sausage (mild or spicy, your choice)

2 quarts water

1 28-ounces can diced tomatoes, do not drain

1 28-ounces can tomato sauce

2 cups cooked long grain white rice

2 cups chopped green pepper

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large sauce pan or Dutch oven, brown the sausage and drain.

Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 30 - 40 minutes or until the peppers are tender.

Serve with a loaf of warm, crusty bread.

Yield: 8 - 10 servings

KITTY'S FRIED DOUGHNUTS

by Deb Baker (aka Hannah Reed)

Ingredients

5 cups white flour

4 teaspoons baking power

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup mashed potatoes

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup butter milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

oil for frying

confectioners' sugar or granulated sugar

cinnamon (optional)

Sift together the flour. baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add mashed potatoes and sugar. Mix well.

Blend with eggs and melted butter.

In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon rind.

Add to flour mix, blend well, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough and cut with a doughnut cutter.

Fry in oil in a pan or deep fryer until golden brown. Turn with a fork, then brown the other side.

Remove and lay on a paper towel to drain and cool.

Shake the doughnuts in a bag with granulated or confectioners' sugar.

Try 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon for a special treat.

Serve warm. Yield: 18 doughnuts

ALL PURPOSE GRAVY

by Kate Collins

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine

1 stalk celery, chopped fine

1 onion, minced

1/4 cup flour

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 cups low sodium beef broth

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon thyme

5 whole peppercorns

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add the veggies, cook until soft an well-browned, about 9 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until thoroughly browned, about 5 minutes.

Gradually whisk in the broths and bring to a boil.

Add the bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns.

Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 20 to 25 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms on the surface.

Pour gravy through a fine mesh strainer (or cheesecloth) into a clean saucepan, pressing on the solids to extract the liquid. Discard the solids, or combine them with the leftover gravy and use as a vegetable sauce over leftover potatoes or rice for another meal.

Serve with any type meat.

This recipe can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 4 days, or frozen. Reheat over a low heat, whisking to recombine, or microwave 1 to 3 minutes, stirring until smooth.

Yield: 4 cups

GLAZED PECANS

by Mary Kennedy

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

pinch of salt

1 cup pecans

Melt butter in a skillet, add the brown sugar and corn syrup; stir until combined.

Add the pecans and cook, stirring constantly for five minutes.

Make sure all the pecan pieces are covered with syrup.

Spread on a baking tray covered with parchment paper and cool.

You might want to double the recipe; these are delicious and will go fast!

Yield: 6 servings

CHICKEN ROASTED WITH APPLES

by Mary Jane Maffini

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 chicken (about 4 pounds)

2 - 4 apples, peeled and diced (about 2 cups). Gala or Fuji or any one of the sweeter varieties.

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/2 cups chicken stock

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or dried (you can use rosemary instead)

salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Heat butter over medium high heat in a Dutch oven or ovenproof pot large enough to hold the chicken.

Brown the chicken on all sides, about 2 minutes a side, until golden.

Remove chicken from the pot.

Add apple and sauté for 2 minutes or until lightly golden.

Add cider vinegar, chicken stock, and bay leaves, and bring to boil.

Sprinkle the chicken with thyme, salt and pepper.

Baked covered for 60 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Remove the bay leaves.

Cut up the chicken and serve with the apples and sauce.

Yield: 4 servings

AUNT HELEN'S GINGERSNAPS

by Maggie Sefton

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/4 cup unsulphured molasses

2 tablespoons freshly great lemon peel

1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease cookie sheets.

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.

Cream butter and brown sugar together in a medium bowl, mixing well for at least two minutes until well-blended, pale and fluffy, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Beat in egg, then the molasses and lemon peel until blended.

Slowly add half the flour mixture, mixing with a wooden spoon just until blended, then add the remaining flour, mixing well.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes.

Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into approximately 1 1/4 inch balls.

Roll the balls in the granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on a prepared cookie sheet(s).

Bake just until puffed and cookies look dry---anywhere from 9 to 14 minutes, depending on your oven. (Do not overbake or the cookies will become hard).

Cafefully remove the cookies with a metal spatula to a wire rack to cool.

Maggie usually doubles this recipe when I make it, because those amounts are easier to work with. But---be prepared for a lot of cookies.

(Not: At Colorado altitude of 5000 feet, Maggie sets her oven to 325 degrees. Adjust your over accordingly).

Yield: approximately 32 cookies

SLOW COOKER SPOONABLE LASAGNA

by Leann Sweeney

Ingredients

1 24-ounce jar of your favorite marinara sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1 16-ounce container whole milk ricotta cheese

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon oregano

1 10-ounce container refrigerated Alfredo sauce

1 package lasagna noodles-uncooked

Brown ground beef, onion and garlic in the olive oil.

Add the marinara sauce and simmer.

Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, Parmesan cheese, salt and oregano.

Ladle enough of prepared sauce in the bottom of the slow cooker to just cover.

Break the lasagna noodles. Place about 1/3 of the package over the sauce.

Spoon the cheese mix in globs over the noodles; spoon 1/3 Alfredo sauce over this.

Top with a layer of mozzarella and then more sauce.

Repeat the layers, ending with a layer of sauce and mozzarella.

Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

It is spoonable the first day, but the second day, after chilled, it can be cut like regular lasagna.

Yield: 6 - 8 servings

Bonus Recipe

RASPBERRY BARS

by Mary Kennedy

(Note: This recipe is not in THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN)

Ingredients

1 package yellow cake mix (regular size)

2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 jar (12 ounces) seedless raspberry preserves

1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oats and butter until crumbly.

Press 3 cups of the crumb mixture into a greased 13 x 9-in. baking pan.

Bake 10 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir preserves and water until blended.

Spread over crust.

Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.

Bake 25-28 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool on a wire rack.

Cut into bars.

Yield: 2 dozen.

I don't know about you, but I'm starving!

Which one are you going to try first?

You can find

THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Book Depository

Welcome to our kitchen! The kitchen is the heart of the home. This sense of warmth and companionship is what The Cozy Chicks try to invoke in our novels. And now, our cookbook will allow you to enter the heart of our cozy mystery worlds—the stories of our characters, of their authors, told through food. For a short while, our heroines have taken a break from crime solving to don aprons and wield spatulas and wooden spoons. And they’d like nothing more than to spend some time with you. THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN is chock full of mouthwatering gems. Everything is here: main dishes, desserts, salads, soups, drinks, and did I mention desserts? Don’t miss this fabulous collection. I’ve got both the ebook version and a hardcopy. Get yours today! --Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author of the White House Chef and Manor House mysteries The Cozy Chicks Are Bestselling Authors: Ellery Adams / J.B. Stanley, Deb Baker / Hannah Reed, Lorna Barrett / Lorraine Bartlett, Kate Collins, Mary Kennedy, Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott, Maggie Sefton, Leann Sweeney

And fellow Cozy Chick, Duffy Brown (Not in The Cozy Chicks Kitchen)

To learn more about The Cozy Chicks,

check out their blog

www.cozychicksblog

Learn more about each author on their websites

www.elleryadamsmysteries.com

deb-baker.blogspot.com

www.lorrainebartlett.com

www.duffybrown.com

www.katecollinsbooks.com

www.marykennedy.net

www.maryjanemaffini.com

www.victoria-abbott.com