It's

Cozy Food Friday!

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

This week I have picked

DEATH ON THE MENU

Book 8 in the Key West Food Critic Mysteries

by Lucy Burdette

Perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier, national bestseller Lucy Burdette's eighth Key West Food Critic mystery sees the return of fan-favorite food critic Hayley Snow, who must once again get to the bottom of a bitter murder.

When a killer strikes just before flan time, beloved food critic Hayley Snow is forced to sniff out the killer before someone else bites the dust.

Hayley Snow, fiery food critic for Key Zest magazine, has just landed a ticket to one of the most prestigious events in Key West: a high-brow three-day conference at the Harry Truman Little White House. Even though she’ll be working the event helping her mother’s fledgling catering business, there’s plenty of spicy gossip to go around. But just before her mother’s decadent flan is put to the test, Key West’s most prized possession, Hemingway’s Nobel prize gold medal for The Old Man and the Sea, is discovered stolen from its case. 

Unsavory suspicions point to Gabriel, a family friend and one of the new busboys working the event, who mysteriously goes missing moments later. Anxious to clear his name, Gabriel’s family enlists Hayley to help find him, but right as they begin their search, his body is found stabbed to death in the storeroom. 

Hayley has no shortage of suspects to interrogate and very little time before the killer adds another victim to the menu in national bestselling author Lucy Burdette’s delectable eighth Key West Food Critic mystery, Death on the Menu.

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BLACK BEAN SOUP

photo property of  www.genuiskitchen

Photos  found via Google Images and or Pintrest, and their contributors, with many thanks. 

Your finished dish will vary in appearance.

All the most authentic Cuban black bean soup recipes I came across shared two instructions: First, soak the beans in a pot the day before you plan to cook, along with an onion and a green pepper. Second, cook these vegetables along with the beans, and then puree them and add them back into the soup. I was dubious, but I followed these instructions and was very happy with the results. ~ Lucy Burdette  

Ingredients

1 pound dries black beans

2 onions, peeled, one halved, one diced

2 green peppers, one halved, one diced

2 bay leaves

¼ to ½ teaspoon salt

2 jalapño pepper, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups good beef stock

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon sugar

a tablespoon red wine vinegar

photo property of  www.cookieandkate

Directions

   Cover the beans, the halved onion, and halved pepper with water in a pot and refrigerate overnight. The next day, simmer with the bay leaves until tender, up to an hour. Stir in salt. 

   Make the sofrito:

   Sauté the diced onion, diced green pepper, jalapeños, and garlic in olive oil until soft. Stir this mixture into the beans. 

   Remove bay leaves. Take the mushy onions and green pepper along with 2 cups of beans and process them in a blender until smooth. Add this back into the pot along with the beef stock. Stir in oregano, cumin, sugar, and red wine vinegar. Simmer at least another 30 minutes, though the dish can go longer. 

   Serve with white rice, sour cream, and sprinkle of fresh cilantro. 

photo property of  www.diffen

Cool weather is coming (soon please!). What better cool weather meal than a hot hearty soup?

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Please keep reading to check out my 

installments of 

Book Beginnings on Fridays

and

The Friday 56

Both the BB and 56 are from

DEATH ON THE MENU

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

Some days you can take the temperature of our island's anxiety by reading the column in the Key West Citizen called "Citizens Voice".

My 56

"Why isn't anyone doing anything? Where in the world are the paramedics?" I asked, feeling a rising tide of panic.

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