#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MYSTERY AUTHOR NANCY J. COHEN'S HANUKKAH BRISKET RECIPE

Nancy J. Cohen returns today to celebrate offer us a Hanukkah recipe. Nancy writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Her books have won numerous awards, including her instructional guide, Writing the Cozy Mystery. Her latest title is A Bad Hair Day Cookbook: Recipes from Nancy J. Cohen’s Cozy Mystery Series. When not busy writing, Nancy enjoys cooking, fine dining, cruising, visiting Disney World, and shopping. Learn more about Nancy and her books at her website and blog.

Hanukkah Traditions

Hanukkah was never as big a deal as Christmas when I grew up. Nonetheless, we made the holiday festive and celebrated the traditions. When I had kids, I continued these practices and added blue and silver decorations as they became prominent in stores.

As I prepared the holiday meal, I would play a CD with Hanukkah music. The strains of “I Have a Little Dreidel” played in the background as I made the brisket and potato latkes for a traditional meal. After dinner, we’d light our eight-branched menorah with the shamashcandle and exchange gifts. Staring at the lit candles, I would remember how an oil lamp had started the holiday.

In the old days, the Syrians—under the leadership of a tyrant named Antiochus—defiled the holy Temple in Jerusalem and abolished the practice of Judaism. Jews were given a familiar choice: conversion or death. But a resistance movement grew strength, led by Judah Maccabee. His forces liberated the Temple from Syrian armies. To purify the Temple, the saviors lit the eternal lamp that is in every synagogue to this day. But there was only enough oil to last for one night. Miraculously, the lamp burned for eight days. Hence, Hanukkah is known as the Festival of Lights. It symbolizes freedom from oppression. This is why we eat potato pancakes, because they’re fried in oil. Jelly doughnuts are another traditional food.

Each night, we add another candle from right to left. Normally, the kindling is done from left to right so the newest candle is lit first.

Children play the dreidel game and eat the foil-wrapped chocolate coins known as gelt. At our house, we gave a gift each night of Hanukkah. Our kids got used to having at least eight wrapped presents over the holiday. It’ll be interesting to see how they celebrate these traditions with their offspring.

Brisket with Dried Plums

If you want a recipe for Hanukkah, try this one. You get a side of tzimmesout of it with the sweet potato chunks, prunes and apricots. You can serve potato latkes on the side with a dollop of applesauce.

Ingredients:

3-1/2 lb. flat cut beef brisket

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 medium onions, sliced

1 cup beef broth

1/4 cup sweet Marsala wine

3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 Tbsp. honey

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup pitted dried plums (prunes)

1 cup dried apricots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Trim fat off brisket. Heat olive oil in Dutch oven. Sear meat on both sides until lightly browned. Remove brisket and set aside. 

Add onions and sauté until wilted, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix beef broth, Marsala wine, balsamic vinegar, honey, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon in a bowl. Place brisket on top of onions in pot. Pour broth mixture over meat.

Cover and cook for 3 hours. Then add sweet potato chunks. Scatter dried fruit on top. Cover and bake 1/2-1 hour more until meat is fork tender.

Transfer brisket to cutting board. Cover with foil and let rest for 15 minutes. With slotted spoon remove fruit and sweet potatoes from pot into a separate bowl. Ladle any pan juices into gravy boat. Slice meat and serve warm with fruit and potatoes on the side along with pan juices.

Facials Can Be Fatal is my book with a Hanukkah theme.

Facials Can Be Fatal 

Salon owner Marla Vail’s new day spa hits a snag when a client dies during a facial. The victim, Valerie Weston, was a major donor for Friends of Old Florida, a historic building preservation society. Marla’s stylists are scheduled to work backstage at their upcoming fashion show, but Val’s demise might put a crimp in their plans. Hoping to salvage her reputation, Marla determines to track down the killer. As she learns more about Val, she realizes the benefactress might have stumbled onto secrets others would kill to keep. She’d better prepare for a body count that has nothing to do with hot stone massages and everything to do with murder.

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MYSTERY AUTHOR NEIL S. PLAKCY ON HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR FICTIONAL FRIENDS

Neil S. Plakcy’s golden retriever mysteries have been inspired by his own goldens, Samwise, Brody and Griffin. Neil and his partner live in South Florida, where Neil is always writing, and Brody and Griffin are either sleeping or chewing one of their collection of dozens of plastic and rawhide bones. Learn more about Neil and his books at his website. 

Holiday Gifts for Fictional Friends

Come the holidays it’s often a struggle to come up with the perfect gift for not only our nearest and dearest, but the maid, our kids’ teachers, the letter carrier, and others. When I was a kid, my mother had contacts in the jewelry business in New York, so all my teachers got gold pins in the shape of a circle, which I’m sure went over better than perfume or scarves.

Pictured above is the first menorah I bought for myself, with the Lion of Judah at its base, all ready for the start of Hanukkah. The blue candle is the shamash or leader; you light that one first, and use it to light the others. The white candle is in place for the first night-- just as Hebrew is read from right to left, that's the way we insert candles (though we always light the newest candle first.)

It takes a lot of thought to go into the perfect gift—and it’s that much harder when your friends are fictional rather than real. But when you write a cozy mystery set at the holidays, like my Dog Have Mercy, there have to be gifts. Not only do they need to be relevant to the giver and the recipient, they also ought to have some larger resonance to the plot.

A lot of work for a few words on the page, right?

The protagonist for my (now) nine-book series is Steve Levitan, a forty-something guy who served a year in prison in California for computer hacking. He returned to his hometown, Stewart’s Crossing, Pennsylvania, with his tail between his legs, and he’s been trying to rebuild his life.

His partner in crime (solving) is his golden retriever, Rochester. It’s pretty easy to come up with gifts for the dog—Steve gives Rochester ropes for tugging and bones for chewing, as I give to my two goldens.

Steve also has a live-in love, photographer and college professor Liliana Weinstock. Since both of them are Jewish, their gift-giving takes place at Hanukkah. I admit, I was a spoiled only child. I got small gifts every night for eight nights—a book, a Toblerone bar, a box of my favorite cookies. I got my big gifts on Christmas day—bicycles, chemistry sets and so on.

I decided that Steve and Lili would exchange their gifts on the first night of Hanukkah, as my partner and I do. Steve’s a computer guy, and around that time my partner had given me my first iPad. It seemed like a great gift for Lili to give Steve.

Here’s what Steve gives Lili:

I handed her the square box, which I’d wrapped in paper festooned with menorahs and dreidels. She carefully slit the seam, and I said, “Go on, rip the paper. You know you want to.”

She laughed. “Fine.” She ripped it open. “It’s a lens for my iPhone!”

“Four lenses in one,” I said. “I know you take pictures sometimes with your phone when you don’t have a camera with you. This way you’ll have a 10x magnifier, a 15x, a fish-eye, and a wide-angle, all in one.”

“I love it!” she said. I got down from the chair and we kissed. “Thank you! I can’t wait to try it out.”

“Well, there’s a dog on the stairs who loves to have his picture taken.”

*

I tried to make the gifts relevant to each character, and of course at the end to tie them back to Rochester, who believes he’s the star of the books. And no one’s going to tell him he’s not!

Dog Have Mercy

A Golden Retriever Mystery, Book 6

In the sixth golden retriever mystery, Dog Have Mercy, Christmas and Hanukkah approach and reformed hacker Steve Levitan tries to help a fellow ex-con now working at the vet’s office in Stewart’s Crossing. His curiosity, and the crime-solving instincts of his golden retriever, Rochester, kick in when liquid potassium ampoules are stolen from the vet and Steve’s new friend is a suspect.

Is this theft connected to a drug-running operation in North Philly? Or to a recent spate of deaths at the local nursing home? And can Steve continue to resist his computer-hacking impulses or will his desire to help others continue to lead him into trouble?

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