It's

Cozy Food Friday

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

Today I'm featuring 

DEADLY DESIRES

Recipe Book

by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Deadly Desires is a buffet of delicious and unique recipes and the mysteries they came from by National Best-selling authors Joyce and Jim Lavene. From their first mystery series, Sharyn Howard Mysteries in 1999, the authors have been writing recipes into their books and adding to food blogs across the Internet. Their series of mysteries include the Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries, Renaissance Faire Mysteries, Missing Pieces Mysteries, Pie in the Sky Mysteries (under the name Ellie Grant), Biscuit Bowl Mysteries and Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries (under J.J. Cook), and The Retired Witches Spell Book Mysteries. Each recipe contains a small vignette of the books and the characters they come from. With a forward by the authors.

My friend Karen Kenyon gave me a copy of

DEADLY DESIRES

as a Buy A Friend A Book Day gift.

(August 29 is Buy A Friend A Book Day)

I couldn't be more thrilled with this little cookbook. I'll have a review on a future

What's Cooking? Cookbook Reviews day.

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On to the recipe!

LOTSA LEMON MERINGUE PIE

- an old favorite

All food photos are borrowed from Google Images and its contributors, with many thanks. 

Your finished dish will very in appearance.

From the Pie In The Sky Mysteries

by Joyce and Jim Lavene

writing as Ellie Grant

Ingredients

   Bake 1 nine inch pie shell 

(Lisa's note: Take help from the store and buy a frozen crust)

1 cup sugar plus four tablespoons (or alternate sweetener)

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon butter

3 eggs, seperated

Grated rind and juice from one lemon

Preparation

   Mix 1 cup sugar and cornstarch in a pot.

   Add boiling water slowly then continue cooking on low heat, stirring constantly.

   Beat egg yolks slightly. Add butter and yokes slowly to mixture in pot.

   Cook in a double boiler until thick, stirring constantly. 

   Add lemon rind and juice and let cool.

Meringue

   Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until frothy.

   Mix in 4 tablespoons sugar.

   Continue beating until stiff.

Put lemon pie mixture into the baked shell. 

Swirl meringue over the top onto peaks.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 1o minutes, or until slightly golden. 

Doesn't this sound perfect for these last hot days of August? And if where you live is anything like where I live, the still to come hot days of September.

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Please keep reading and check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

Both the BB and 56 are also from

DEADLY DESIRES

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

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

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 Book Beginnings

From the forward

written by the authors

Nothing goes better together than food and mystery!

Readers and authors have found this to be true. That's why we see so many foodie mysteries. These include all flavors of pies, cakes, cookies, ice cream, and fruit. 

Any food can be paired with a mystery. 

My 56

This little book doesn't have 

56 pages. I am using the

"About the Authors" on the

last page of the book.

Lisa's Note: These talented authors, and amazing human beings have both passed on. I was blessed enough to be in daily contact with them through Facebook, and got to meet them both just months before Joyce's passing.

I have edited the following to past tense.

Joyce and Jim Lavene wrote mystery together.

They have written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications.

Pseudonyms include J.J. Cook, Ellie Grant, Joye Ames, and Elyssa Henry.

They lived in rural North Carolina with their family, their cat, Quincy, and their rescue dog, Rudi. They enjoyed photography, watercolor, gardening, long drives, and going to their local Renaissance Fair.