It's

Cozy Food Friday

That means it's time to share a recipe from 

another great cozy mystery!

CHERRY PIE OR DIE

Book 1 in Baker Street Cozy Mysteries

by CeeCee James

USA Today best selling author!

After a traumatic life event, Georgie Tanner returns to her hometown to start her life over... at 31 years old. Add sporadic memory loss to the mix and Georgie is a certified hot mess. Luckily, Aunt Cecelia is there with a job for Georgie. She might not feel able to take on the world, but she's think she's up for taking tourists through Gainesville, Pennsylvania's historic downtown. 

The place is as American as apple pie, steeped in rich Revolutionary history, Amish settlements, ghost stories, and colonial manors. Georgie knew it was a safe place to go to piece back her memories. After all, what could go wrong in a sleepy town like this?
 Until she leads a group of tourists through the Three Maidens' Manor, a battle site converted into a museum. When the power goes out during the tour, Georgie thinks it's a crazy fluke. But when it returns, she has six panicked guests, and a dead man in her midst. Who would want to kill him? And more importantly, which one of them was the murderer?

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On To The Recipe!

AUNT CECELIA'S CHERRY PIE-SO-GOOD-IT'LL-MAKE-YOU-CRY

Photo property of mysugarpie.com

Photos  found via Google Images, and its contributors, with many thanks. 

Your finished dish will vary in appearance.

   First make pastry for crust and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.

   Pastry recipe to follow.

   Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (220 C)

Ingredients

Filling - 

1½ tablespoons softened butter, to dot

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons separated sugar to use at end

2 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

2 (14½ ounce) cans pitted tart cherries, drained, reserving ½ cup of the juice

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla 

1 pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie

1 egg (yolk separated and saved for egg wash)

Pinterest

   Drain cherries, reserving ½ cup liquid. 

   In a small bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine cherry juice, almond extract, vanilla and lemon juice. Add to dry ingredients and mix well.

   Add cherries and mix well again. Let it sit for fifteen minutes.

   On lightly covered surface, roll out half of the pastry into an 11 inch circle. Place int 9 inch pie dish. Trim overhanging edges.

   Roll other half of the pastry into another 11 inch circle. With a knife or pastry wheel, cut ten ¾-inch wide strips. Wider strips are easier to weave together. 

   Pour cherry mixture into pie crust. Dot with butter. Finish top with weaving lattice with pie crust. Lightly brush lattice with egg yolk and sprinkle with remaining two tablespoons of sugar. 

Bake for 50 minutes.

comfortablydomestic.com

Ingredients

Pastry Recipe-

1½ sticks very cold unsalted butter

2¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

a tablespoon sugar

½ cup ice water

   Combine flour, salt, and sugar. Pour into a mixer or food processor. Cut butter and add, mixing until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle with ¼ cup ice water. Mix until dough is mixed to pea-sized crumbles but holds together when squeezed. If needed, add more water one tablespoon at a time, until the dough reaches that consistency. Don't over mix.

   Divide into two balls and then flatten into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Photo property of tastebettermadefromscratch.com

You know you want to make this!

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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

CHERRY PIE OR DIE

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

The day was unseasonably warm for autumn, in just the type of way that made me regret wearing my cranberry-colored merino wool sweater.

My 56%

"Just you and one of the witnesses, you mean", he said, now raising an eyebrow at me.

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

WHAT'S COOKING?

 Cooking shortcuts from Nana!

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NANA'S FAMILY COOKBOOK

by Hannie P. Scott

Nana's Family Cookbook ♥ A Tribute to Mom

Out of the many cookbooks I've created over the past few years, this one is by far the most special. These are my mom's recipes and a few other recipes from family members. This book means more to me than any other book I've ever created. These recipes are what I grew up on. These recipes are what I'm made of (literally)!

A family gathering wouldn’t be a family gathering without these foods. Just the smell of some of these dishes brings back so many fond childhood memories. This cookbook is full of homemade recipes, soul foods, and comfort foods that just make life so much better. I made this family recipe book with lots of love for my family and friends. It is my deepest hope and wish that you and your family can enjoy them all the same.

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MY REVIEW

The title of this cookbook really appealed to me. I mean, recipes from someone’s Nana? They would have to be wonderful, right? But these aren’t all the made from scratch recipes that my Mommom made. Several of the recipes included take help from per-packaged items. However, I don’t find that this has to be a negative thing. For days when you can’t spend a lot of time preparing your meal, there’s nothing wrong with store bought help.

My main disappointment with NANA’S FAMILY COOKBOOK is the lack of photos. I’m sure for smaller press or self-published cookbooks it’s more expensive to include photos, but out of the forty recipes in this book, it would have been nice to have a few to reference.

Some of the recipes you’ll find in this cookbook are . . . Maw Maw’s Blueberry Muffins, Hannie’s Avocado Toast, Crab Dip, Cole Slaw Salad, Porcupine Meatballs, Crawfish Chowder, Chocolate Chip Pound Cake, Mississippi Mud Pie, and over 30 more.

NANA’S FAMILY COOKBOOK does come in print, but I picked my Kindle copy for free!

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

BOOK TOUR

I'm so happy to be a stop on the 

blog tour for author

Maddie Day

and her new book

BISCUITS AND SLASHED BROWNS

Book 4 in the Country Store Mysteries

For country-store owner Robbie Jordan, the National Maple Syrup Festival is a sweet escape from late-winter in South Lick, Indiana—until murder saps the life out of the celebration . . .
 
As Robbie arranges a breakfast-themed cook-off at Pans ‘N Pancakes, visitors pour into Brown County for the annual maple extravaganza. Unfortunately, that includes Professor Connolly, a know-it-all academic from Boston who makes enemies everywhere he goes—and this time, bad manners prove deadly. Soon after clashing with several scientists at a maple tree panel, the professor is found dead outside a sugar shack, stabbed to death by a local restaurateur’s knife. When an innocent woman gets dragged into the investigation and a biologist mysteriously disappears, Robbie drops her winning maple biscuits to search for answers. But can she help police crack the case before another victim is caught in a sticky situation with a killer?

LKBR:  Thank you for being here today!

MD: Thanks so much for having me.

LKBR: Please tell us a bit about your book/series.

MD: Biscuits and Slashed Browns is the fourth Country Store mystery, with chef/carpenter Robbie Jordan flipping pancakes and solving crimes in fictional South Lick, Indiana. She’s a transplant from Santa Barbara, California, but her mom was from Indiana and her quirky Aunt Adele still lives in town.

LKBR: How did you come up with the concept for this series? How about the idea for this installment?

MD: I lived in southern Indiana for five years when I earned a PhD at Indiana University. A fellow grad student dropped out and bought a general store in scenic Brown County. He and his girlfriend fixed it up into a restaurant and bed-and-breakfast rooms. I fictionalized that, made up a town, and sold the series. Readers love the small-town Midwestern setting, so I guess it was a good idea!

For this book, I learned that Brown County has an annual Maple Festival, so I used that as the backdrop for murder, plus a few  subtle discussions of climate change and how it affects maple trees.

LKBR: Do you have a favorite character in your book/series?

MD: I like Robbie, of course, but I’m particularly fond of Lieutenant Buck Bird. He’s super tall and skinny with a huge appetite. His speech is full of colorful southernisms, and he doesn’t sound that educated, but he’s on top of his game and has become a good friend to Robbie.

LKBR: In your writing, have you ever used experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

MD: I might use a trait – positive or negative – from someone I know in a character. I’ve used aspects of my life in my books, for sure. In the Country Store Mysteries, Robbie is not only a chef, but she’s also a carpenter, and I have her renovating the upstairs of her building into bed and breakfast rooms. My Hugh is in the business of renovating antique homes, including ours, so I used a lot of what I’ve lived through and watched in some of the scenes in the new book and book three, When the Grits Hit the Fan. Also, a Hoosier I knew in graduate school was named Buck and talked just like my Buck does.

LKBR: When you’re in the process of writing/creating a book, do you use a computer, typewriter, dictate, or use pen to paper?

MD: I write on a big laptop in my upstairs home office. But I’ve been known to write a scene on a pad of paper if I’m out somewhere without a computer, and I often dictate ideas to myself on my phone when I’m out walking.

LKBR: Do you have any writing quirks or rituals that you do before, during, and/or after writing a new book?

MD: This is more a practice than a ritual, but I check with a group of other writers on Facebook every morning just before seven o’clock. Then we all write like crazy for an uninterrupted hour. It’s hosted by Ramona DeFelice Long, a writer and editor in Delaware. She calls us her Writing Champions, and the hour of work a sprint. I love that we’re scattered all over the country (globe, really) and all doing the same thing. It’s a great way to start my writing morning.

LKBR: What does your family think about your writing? How important is their support?

MD: They are so happy for me. My sisters and sons are some of my biggest fans. I live with a man who doesn’t read fiction and doesn’t get what I do. Still, he’s happy for me, too. I would do this work even if they all scoffed at me, because I have to write, but I’m glad I get cheers rather than jeers.

LKBR: Who/What inspired you to write your first book?

  

MD: I started writing a mystery novel back when I had a small farm and small children. When my younger son went off to kindergarten and I suddenly had every morning to myself, my husband at the time said, “You like to read mysteries so much, why don’t you write one?” Bingo! One of the best things he ever said to me (we are no longer married). I think he thought I’d make a lot of money fast, so in that sense he was clueless, but I have to credit him with jumpstarting what many years later has become my favorite job.

LKBR: What was one of the most surprising thing(s) you learned when trying to get your first book published? 

MD:  How very hard it is to land an agent. Oh, my. It’s good I don’t give up easily. 

LKBR: Do you have any advice for aspiring cozy writers?

MD: Keep your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard, and write the best book you can (you can’t fix what you haven’t written). Find your tribe of fellow writers. Find a good editor. And then write the next book!

LKBR: Where can readers go to learn more about you and your books?

MD: My web site, edithmaxwell.com, includes information about all my writing, including my historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries, my other contemporary series, and my award-winning short stories. Please stop by, and sign up for my newsletter, too. You can also find me at the following links:

Facebook: Maddie Day and Edith Maxwell

Twitter: @edithmaxwell and @MaddieDayAuthor

Pinterest: EdithMaxwell

Instagram: EdithMaxwellAuthor

LKBR: Thank you so much for letting us get to know you better!

MD: I’m always happy to visit and to connect with new (and not-so-new) fans.

!!!GIVEAWAY!!!

Winners will be chosen after February 11

at the end of the tour

2 lucky readers will win print copies of

BISCUITS AND SLASHED BROWNS! 

USA only

Enter using the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post.

This giveaway is through Great Escape Book Tours, not Lisa Ks Book Reviews.

www.escapewithdollycas.com

MY REVIEW

I’ve loved this series from the very first page of book one, FLIPPED FOR MURDER. The characters, the location, and of course author Maddie Day’s writing, continue to bring me back again and again.

BISCUITS AND SLASHED BROWNS was a fast paced tale, with a well plotted mystery that left me hanging onto my seat through all of the twists and turns. When the action packed reveal came, I was really taken by surprise.

Another delightful installment of the Country Store Mysteries, BISCUITS AND SLASHED BROWNS is one mystery fans will want to add to their ever growing TBRs.

As always, you’ll find some amazing, tasty recipes at the back of the book.

 

Maddie Day is a talented amateur chef and holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-nominated author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and three cats in Massachusetts.

As Edith Maxwell, she writes the Local Foods Mysteries (Kensington Publishing) and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Midnight Ink).

You can find all Maddie's/Edith's identities at www.edithmaxwell.com. She blogs every weekday with the other Wicked Cozy Authors at wickedcozyauthors.com. Look for her as Edith M. Maxwell and Maddie Day on Facebook and @edithmaxwell and @maddiedayauthor on Twitter.

Purchase Links

Amazon   B&N    kobo

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

January 29 – The Ninja Librarian – REVIEW, GUEST POST
January 29 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
January 30 – A Holland Reads - CHARACTER GUEST POST
January 30 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW
January 31 – Sapphyria's Books – REVIEW
February 1 – Readeropolis – INTERVIEW
February 1 –Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT
February 2 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
February 2 – Book Babble – REVIEW
February 3 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW
February 3 – Laura's Interests – REVIEW
February 4 – MJB Reviewers – REVIEW
February 5 – My Reading Journeys - REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 5 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews - REVIEW, GUEST POST
February 6 – Teresa Trent Author Blog – SPOTLIGHT
February 6 – A Blue Million Books - CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 7 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews - REVIEW, INTERVIEW
February 7 – Melina's Book Blog – REVIEW
February 8 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW
February 8 – Carstairs Considers – REVIEW
February 9 – Varietats - REVIEW, GUEST POST
February 9 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
February 10 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW
February 10 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST
February 11 – Island Confidential – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 11 – The Montana Bookaholic – REVIEW

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.

Take a look at the great titles that

were released today!

Paperback

A haunting vision reveals a ghostly grave in the latest Bay Island Psychic Mystery from the author of Occult and Battery.

Whoever said that dead men tell no tales has never met Cass Donnovan...

Cass has always relied on her abilities to guide her, but after communications with a ghost land her in the middle of a murder investigation, she has to wonder if her gifts are really more a curse.

Cass knows she is meant to help track down the killer--much to the chagrin of local law enforcement--when the apparition leads her to a dead body on the beach near her psychic shop, Mystical Musings. But the police are not the only ones who wish Cass would stick to reading palms. Someone is trying to scare her off, and it will take all her powers of premonition to catch the killer before Cass herself becomes the next victim...

Paperback

Sarah Grayson and her trusty companion, Elvis, race to tail the right suspects in the fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mysteries.

Sarah Grayson owns Second Chance, a shop that sells lovingly refurbished items, in the charming town of North Harbor, Maine. But she couldn't run the store without the help of her right-hand man, Mac--or her dashing rescue cat, Elvis.

Mac's life before North Harbor has always been a little bit mysterious, but it becomes a lot more intriguing when a woman from his past shows up in town, and then turns up dead. Suspicion falls on Mac, but Sarah--and Elvis--know he can't be the killer, and they hope they can prove his innocence quick as a whisker.

Paperback Edition

In this reprint of New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs's latest Tea Shop Mystery, Theodosia Browning attends a "Rat Tea," where the mice will play...at murder.

When Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is invited by Doreen Briggs, one of Charleston's most prominent hostesses, to a "Rat Tea," she is understandably intrigued. As servers dressed in rodent costumes and wearing white gloves offer elegant finger sandwiches and fine teas, Theo learns these parties date back to early twentieth-century Charleston to promote better public health.

But this party goes from odd to chaotic when a fire starts at one of the tables and Doreen's entrepreneur husband suddenly goes into convulsions and drops dead. Has his favorite orange pekoe tea been poisoned? Theo smells a rat. And as she reviews the guest list for suspects, she soon finds herself drawn into in a dangerous game of cat and mouse...

Kindle

Come for the cozy, stay for the thrill of it

The first in a brand new series: A Gluten Free Mystery

Mona Reilly is preparing for the grand opening of Jammin’ Honey, a local Jam and Honey shop, in the small town of Magnolia Falls. Her best friend, Vicki, supplies the shop with honey and homemade lotions, candles and royal jelly. While Mona and Vicki are off taste testing the gluten-free catering the shop mysterious burns down. When a body is recovered from the fire, Vicki’s brother, incidentally the most handsome cop Mona has ever laid eyes on, is assigned to the case. Everyone in town has a motive and it's up to Mona to solve this sticky situation.

Trade Paperback (Large)

Shawn Reilly Simmons has cooked up something rocky this time, and it’s going to be a delicious read. After surviving a brazen attack at one of her favorite local cafes, Penelope Sutherland is ready to escape the big city and head to her next film set. She and her Red Carpet Catering crew set up their kitchen on location in the tranquil mountains of Vermont. But peace and quiet aren’t on the menu. It starts to get hot when a series of accidents befall the celebrity tennis pro consulting on the film. Then mix in an uptight director, an isolated location, and a quirky bunch of locals with secrets of their own and that’s a recipe for disaster. Penelope soon suspects a connection between the cafe attack and the incidents on set, and you know what comes next. She must uncover the truth before her goose gets cooked. This page-turner is serving up the coziest of entertainment, and you do not want to miss it.

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by 

clicking on the link in the 

upper right hand corner of this page.