Friday, March 17, 2023


Flashback from 
March 9, 2018
from the 
Kebob Kitchen Mysteries 
by 
Tina Kashian

AZAD'S TABBOULEH SALAD

Photo property of gimmiesomeoven.com

Photos  found via Google Images, and its contributors, with many thanks. 
Your finished dish will vary in appearance.

This parsley and bulgur salad is a favorite and a healthy alternative to any mayonnaise based potato or macaroni salad.

Ingredients

½ cup small bulgur (cracked wheat)
4 cups freshly chopped fresh leaf parsley
1 cup chopped scallions or onions
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup freshly chopped mint leaves or
        2 tablespoons dried crushed mint
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup fresh lemon juice

Photo property of keeprecipes.com

Directions

   Soak bulgur in a small bowl for a half hour, then drain and squeeze out all the excess water. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. 
   Refrigerate and serve cold. 

Photo property of geniuskitchen.com 

With summer coming, this will be the perfect
dish for so many occasions!


As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 
upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

Thursday, March 16, 2023


What's Cooking?
Yummy, sweet goodness!


Baking legend Mary Berry, longtime judge of The Great British Baking Show, presents this revised and updated edition of her seminal baking book, featuring 250 recipes, including 20 all-new bakes, updated photography, and Americanized measurements.

Mary Berry’s Baking Bible has been thrilling home bakers with delectable, no-fuss, trustworthy recipes for more than a decade. Now the queen of British baking brings her straightforward advice and expertise to this fully revised edition of classic bakes. Her biggest collection yet also features 20 new recipes plus mouthwatering photography. A sampling of her beloved desserts includes:

• Cakes: Victoria Sandwich; Very Best Chocolate Fudge; Lemon Yogurt
• Cookies and Bars: Melting Moments; Orange and Chocolate Shortbread; Bakewell Slices
• Traybakes: Lemon Drizzle; Coffee and Walnut; Double Chocolate Chip and Marshmallow
• Tarts and Pastries: French Apple Tart; Chocolate Eclairs; Profiteroles 
• Breads: Crunchy Orange Syrup Loaf; Quick Sourdough Loaf; White Cottage Loaf
• Puddings and Pies: Sticky Apricot Pudding; Classic Apple Pie; Crème Brûlée
• Cheesecakes: American Chocolate Ripple; Buttermilk and Honey; and Key Lime Pie

Readers will also be delighted to discover that many of her treasured recipes have been updated and simplified to suit the needs and tastes of today’s home bakers. And, as always with foolproof recipes from Mary Berry, there will be no soggy bottoms!

       

Author Mary Berry’s revised and updated, MARY BERRY’S BAKING BIBLE, is a comprehensive guide of just about anything you need to know about baking.

Before you ever get to recipes, 31 informative pages covering the introduction, techniques, and conversion tables, will testify to the knowledge Ms. Berry has amassed on the subject and science of baking.

Recipes (as seen in blurb) include . . .

Cakes: Victoria Sandwich; Very Best Chocolate Fudge; Lemon Yogurt
• Cookies and Bars: Melting Moments; Orange and Chocolate Shortbread; Bakewell Slices
• Traybakes: Lemon Drizzle; Coffee and Walnut; Double Chocolate Chip and Marshmallow
• Tarts and Pastries: French Apple Tart; Chocolate Eclairs; Profiteroles 
• Breads: Crunchy Orange Syrup Loaf; Quick Sourdough Loaf; White Cottage Loaf
• Puddings and Pies: Sticky Apricot Pudding; Classic Apple Pie; Crème Brûlée
• Cheesecakes: American Chocolate Ripple; Buttermilk and Honey; and Key Lime Pie

Those are only a small sampling of the 250 recipes included.

Overall, I really enjoyed getting lost in the pages of, MARY BERRY’S BAKING BIBLE.

As is my main complaint with most cookbooks, there isn’t a photo for every recipe. I really want to see the finished product. I want to be able to compare my finished recipe to the one in the book. Having said all that, the photos included are stunning color photos that had my mouth watering.

Rather you are an aspiring baker, or already accomplished in the art, MARY BERRY’S BAKING BIBLE is one to add to your collection.
As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 
upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

 

Ready for more April cozy mystery releases?
Here you go!

Part 2

APRIL 25


Midwife Sarah Malloy and her private investigator husband, Frank, must stop a killer lurking among a young family in the newest installment of the USA Today bestselling Gaslight Mysteries.

Hugh Breedlove is far from the most agreeable client private investigator Frank Malloy has ever had, but his case is impossible to refuse: his young niece, Julia, has been wrongfully committed to an insane asylum by her cruel and unfaithful husband, Chet Longly. Though Breedlove and his wife seem more interested in protecting the family reputation than their niece’s safety, Frank and Sarah agree to help for the sake of Julia and the young son she left behind.

Frank and Sarah’s investigation reveals a dark secret—a maid at the Longly home died suspiciously under Chet’s watch, and now it seems Julia’s son might also be in danger. The Malloys fear they are dealing with a man more dangerous than they had anticipated, one who will do anything to defame his wife. But all is not as it seems in the Longly family, and perhaps another monster is hiding in plain sight....


Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust is the second book in Mindy Quigley's delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.

Newly single pizzeria owner Delilah O’Leary is determined to keep her restaurant afloat in the picturesque resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. To boost her bottom line, she sets her sights on winning the hefty cash prize in the town’s annual “Taste of Wisconsin” culinary contest. In her corner, she’s got her strong-willed, “big-boned” cat Butterball, her wisecracking BFF, her cantankerous great-aunt, and a 
nearly-flawless recipe for Pretzel Crust Deep-Dish Bratwurst Pizza. But while Delilah and her team have been focused on pumping out perfect pizza pies, her ex-fiancé has cozied up to a new squeeze, juice bar owner Jordan Watts—Delilah’s contest rival.

When one of Jordan’s juice bar customers is poisoned by a tainted smoothie, Delilah lands deep in the sauce. Accusations fly, suspects abound, and a menacing stranger turns up with a beef over some missing dough. Between kale-juicing hipsters and grudge-bearing celebrity chefs, Delilah must act quickly before another one bites the crust.


Ginger Bolton returns with the latest installment of her Wisconsin-based Deputy Donut cozy culinary mystery series!

Weeks before summer begins, Deputy Donut Café owner Emily Westhill has it all—a tabby cat by her side, cinnamon twists powdered to perfection, and a murderer on her case . . .

An ordinary late-spring afternoon for Emily becomes one that will remain baked into her memory from the moment a customer gives Emily’s cat a toy donut and then flees Deputy Donut, dropping an earring in her panic. Concerned about the customer, Emily attempts to return the earring . . . only this time the customer doesn’t have a pulse. Things get more complicated when an ambitious police detective finds the earring and an unsealed envelope addressed to Emily at the murder scene. The envelope contains a cryptic letter and a fading photograph of a woman standing in front of Emily’s house.

Why did the customer grab her cinnamon twists and flee Deputy Donut? With the detective eying Emily as a prime suspect, Emily is determined to find out. But once a donut-shaped murder weapon is discovered in her own backyard, Emily has no time to lose as she pulls apart the connection between the victim and the strange history of her property—while stopping the real culprit from ensuring her fate is done and sugar-dusted . . .


The island village of Eastport, Maine, is full of delights—including the delicious treats sold at The Chocolate Moose, the waterfront bakery run by Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White. But a new bakery in town is proving that you can have too much of a good thing . . .

Summer in Eastport means lobsters and blueberries, though tourists and locals alike always leave a little room for baked goods from The Chocolate Moose. This year’s arts festival, featuring food, games, and rollicking local musicians, means even more sweet-toothed customers. But it’s also bringing competition from a new rival, Choco’s, that’s trying to slice into the action.
 
Choco’s owner, Brad Fairway, is pulling sneaky stunts to divert Moose patrons to his own shop, and Ellie finally confronts him about his tactics. But when Brad is found dead next day—and the weapon is a gun that belongs to Ellie—it’s only a matter of time before she is charged with the crime.  
 
Sifting through the victim’s connections, Jake and Ellie sense they’re getting close to the real culprit—a little 
too close. Can they serve up the solution before the killer dishes up another helping of murder?
 
Includes a Recipe!


Ellison Jones is used to sirens in the night (unfortunately, they’re usually coming to her house).

So, it’s a surprise when the sirens that wake her from the dead come from across the street.

Nosy neighbor Marian Dixon’s house is on fire.

Luckily, the Dixons are out of town.

Unluckily, there’s a body found in the ashes—a body not killed by the fire.

With Ellison’s husband, Detective Anarchy Jones, investigating, the neighbors are eager for a quick resolution. But a cunning killer has other plans.

Can Ellison and Anarchy uncover the truth, or will their lives (and the rest of the block) go up in flames?

APRIL 27


Southern Hospitality with a Smidgen of Homicide


Merry Wrath has been out of the spy biz so long that she's sure the CIA has forgotten all about her. Life in suburban Who's There, Iowa is pretty quiet in comparison to the Company, and as long as her Girl Scout Troop isn't inadvertently burning down her garage (again), Merry is thinking it's time to clean out all the plastique and booby traps she's been hiding in the basement, once and for all. That is, until assassin Hilly Vinton (who isn't an assassin because the CIA doesn't have assassins...but totally is) shows up with an agency-ordered Termination Contract on Merry.

This has to be an elaborate prank. Or so Merry thinks, until she learns that the contract also went out to the Russians, Chechens, and Colombian cartels. It isn't long before Merry's small hometown is flooded with interested bad guys. When these killers start showing up as bodies, Merry isn't sure if she should go on the lam (which has Hilly's enthusiastic vote) or stay to protect Who's There. There are too many questions! Can she solve the murders before the murderer gets her? Should she stay or go? How's it possible that the troop's future-predicting cootie catcher is so accurate? And why does the CIA want Merry Wrath dead?


As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 
upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions. 

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Can you believe we're almost halfway through March?
Do you know what that means?
April cozy mystery releases are just around the corner!

Part 1
 

APRIL 4


When a local bluegrass musician disappears and a jug of her shop’s corn liquor is implicated, moonshiner Hattie Hayes must stop further trouble from brewing in this delightful cozy mystery series.

It’s August in Chattanooga, Tennessee and moonshiner Hattie Hayes has collaborated with a nearby vineyard to serve her moonshine at a Wine and 'Shine event. Not only is this an opportunity for Hattie to gain more moonshine fans, but she’s also excited to hear the Bootlegging Brothers, a popular bluegrass band. But not every attendee is looking for harmony. When one of the brothers disappears and is presumed dead, Hattie realizes her grace note gathering has suddenly turned more sour than her mash.

Unearthing what happened to the missing musician is more difficult than Hattie first expected. Hattie’s moonshine is tied to the crime and there’s no time to fiddle around—she has to step up to solve the case. Luckily, Hattie’s cool head and quick mind help her understand that when investigating a musical crime, always stay sharp.


In Fateful Words, the eighth Scottish Bookshop Mystery from beloved author Paige Shelton, bookseller Delaney Nichols stakes her reputationand her lifewhen a literary tour turns deadly...

When Edwin, Delaney’s boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls—or is pushed—off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in her wake.

In a race against the clock, Delaney sets out on the expedition of her life, following clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery. Exploring sights from Greyfriars Bobby to the Royal Mile to the Sir Walter Scott Monument, she'll have to put the pieces together quickly, or the bookstore's survival could be on the line...as well as her own.


The small idyllic town of Sea Isle, Scotland, harbors some dark secrets, and Dr. Emilia McRoy is determined to uncover all of them—no matter what the diagnosis in this charming cozy, sure to enchant fans of Sheila Connolly and Charlene O’Connor.

Sea Isle was supposed to be the fresh start Dr. Emilia McRoy dreamed of. Far from the busy emergency room across the Atlantic in Seattle, she hoped to settle down and begin this new chapter as a small-town doctor to the quirky residents who immediately welcomed her. When she stumbles across a dead body, she starts to think that she may not be as Scot free of the drama and intrigue as she initially thought.

Emilia soon learns she has bigger issues at hand. It starts with realizing she'll work closely with the less than helpful local constable, Laird Ewan Campbell. Her luck continues when she discovers that part of her new responsibilities includes being the coroner for the very body she found. Finally, when the body goes missing before she can even begin the autopsy, Emilia must convince the townspeople that a crime did, in fact, occur. The deeper she digs into the picturesque town, the more suspicious she becomes. And then there are her sleep issues. It may be due to the ever-growing list of suspects, a number of threatening letters, or the surprise visitor who breaks into her house at night. But she’s never backed down before, and she doesn’t intend to start now.

Someone doesn’t want this doctor to treat the ailments of Sea Isle, but Emilia McRoy is determined to find the murderer before they 
kilt again.


In a fresh new Maine-set cozy from author Sherry Lynn, Kinsley Clark must root out a killer before the killer roots out her.

At twenty-nine, Kinsley Clark is living the dream life she always envisioned for herself. She’s the proud owner of SeaScapes, a thriving landscaping company in wealthy Harborside, set on the rugged coast of southern Maine. Kinsley’s veins are filled with salty air, a myriad of colors, and the fragrance of fresh blooms. But one afternoon, while working at her aunt Tilly’s bed-and-breakfast, the Salty Breeze Inn, Kinsley digs up more than she bargained for—a high-heeled shoe. The once sparkly shoe, now caked in mud, is linked to a case the police had appropriately dubbed the "Cinderella Murder."


Kinsley panics.  Does this mean that her aunt and the inn are somehow connected to this murder? Will it scare away potential guests? Will it subject the inn to a rush of bad press? With Aunt Tilly’s reputation, and possibly her safety, on the line, Kinsley digs deeper into the crime to find out what the shoe was doing on her aunt’s property and who murdered Cinderella, whose real name is Daisy. As she investigates, more suspects rise to the surface, and eventually, Kinsley has to weed out a killer.

APRIL 25


The New York Times bestselling author returns with a mystery with a touch of magical realism and a strong, female bookstore owner and bibliotherapist at its heart.

Miracle Springs, North Carolina, is famed for its healing springs. But bookstore owner Nora Pennington has a tendency to land in a different kind of hot water. Though she loves to practice bibliotherapy by finding the perfect books for her customers while listening to their secrets, she also likes to bury her nose in the occasional local crime…

Nora escaped her past a decade ago. So it feels like a visit from another world when Kelly Walsh—the woman her ex-husband left her for—walks through the door of Miracle Books along with her son, a sweet, serious boy with a talent for origami. Kelly hasn’t come to gloat, though. As it turns out, she’s been dumped too. She’s also terribly ill, and all she wants from Nora is forgiveness.
 
Shockingly, however, this woman who’s been the victim of so much misfortune is about to become a murder victim. Who would do such a thing? Certainly not Nora, but that doesn’t stop the gossip and suspicion—especially after Kelly’s brother claims that he saw the two women arguing.
 
In seeking justice for Kelly, The Secret, Book, and Scone Society joins forces with the sheriff’s department, but they’ve barely begun their probe when life throws another wrench. After serving a twenty-year sentence, Estella’s father returns to Miracle Springs. And when his past comes back to haunt him, it might be more than the four friends can handle.
 
“Red herrings abound along with plenty of tips on choosing books.”— Kirkus Reviews


The latest installment in Lauren Elliott’s ever popular Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series starring Addie Greyborne, a book-themed cozy series perfect for fans of Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile series and Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lover’s series.
 
Wedding bells are about to ring again in Greyborne Harbor, and as Addie slips into her white dress her thoughts are focused on a bright future with Dr. Simon Emerson. But a discovery in her attic leads her to startling revelations about the past. As the owner of Beyond the Page Books and Curios and a lifelong bibliophile, Addie is delighted to find a rare collection of classic children’s books gathering dust in a secret room beneath the rafters, including a first edition of 
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. To her surprise, a handwritten inscription on the title page provides a clue to unraveling a complex mystery in Addie’s family . . .
 
But that’s only the first surprise in a series of shocking twists that will turn Addie’s vision of where her life is going and where she’s come from upside down—including a suspicious death in the present that suggests foul play.


A surprise wedding in France sets the table in the latest book in the ever-popular Lucy Stone mystery series set in Tinker’s Cove, Maine.
 
When Lucy Stone arrives at a sprawling French chateau with the whole family, it should be the trip of a lifetime—especially because she’s about to watch her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, marry the handsome, successful man of her dreams. But while navigating the vast countryside estate owned by her impenetrably wealthy in-laws-to-be, the jet-lagged mother of the bride has a creeping feeling that Elizabeth’s fairytale nuptials to Jean-Luc Schoen-Rene are destined to become a nightmare . . .
 
Maternal instincts are validated the moment a body is pulled from a centuries-old moat on the property. A young woman has dropped dead under mysterious circumstances—possibly at the hands of someone at the chateau—and unflattering rumors about the Schoen-Rene line and their inner circle flow like champagne. Then there’s the matter of Elizabeth’s hunky ex beau showing up on the scene as she prepares to walk down the aisle . . .
 
With tensions building, personalities clashing, and real dangers emerging at the chateau, Lucy is determined to protect her family, together for the first time in years, and expose the one responsible. She’ll have to locate the culprit among a list of worldly jilted lovers and potential criminal masterminds, or Elizabeth’s trip down the aisle could end in tragedy . . .
As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 
upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.