#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST MYSTERY AUTHOR JULIA BUCKLEY'S CHICKEN PAPRIKAS

Mystery author Julia Buckley, who writes The Writer’s Apprentice Series, The Undercover Dish Series, and the new Hungarian Tea House Series, is the child of European parents—one Hungarian, one German. She grew up eating good food. Chicken Paprikás was one of the staples of her diet, and she joins us today to share the recipe for it. Learn more about Julia and her books at her website.

Chicken Paprikás: A Hungarian Meal You Won’t Forget

In my new mystery novel, Death in a Budapest Butterfly, Hana Keller often consumes food made by her grandmother, an innate cook who was born in Hungary and cooks, as my own grandmother did, by instinct.

Chicken Paprikás is a popular Hungarian dish; I’ve tasted a lot of versions of it in my life, and not one has yet rivaled my grandmother’s. I’ve tried for years to come close to the flavor I remember from my childhood, and now I’ve got my husband on the case, since he is the cook in the family.

The recipe is relatively simple and surprisingly delicious when you consider the paucity of ingredients. But it’s in the blending of the ingredients that the genius lies (and, I fear, in the lard that was a staple of my grandmother’s cooking and which heart specialists encourage us not to eat nowadays).

Another trick to making good paprikás is the paprika. If it’s not from Hungary, you’re not getting the flavor you could be achieving. I recently found that I could order from Bende, Inc. online and get Szeged paprika imported from Szeged, Hungary. I got a large bag and it’s delicious.

Chicken Paprikás (Csirkepaprikás)

1 chopped onion

1 tablespoon shortening

1 tablespoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons salt

4–5 pound chicken, disjointed

1-1/2 cups water

1/2 pint sour cream

Sauté the onion in either shortening or butter. Add paprika, pepper, and salt and stir well; lay chicken pieces in pot and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add water to the mixture, cover, and simmer until chicken is tender. Remove chicken (place temporarily on plate or platter) and add sour cream to the spices and drippings; mix well. Add dumplings and place chicken on top of dumplings. Heat and serve. If more gravy is required, add ½ pint sweet cream to the sour cream mixture.

When the dish is finished, you’ll normally want to pair it with dumplings, and there are a variety of recipes for Hungarian dumplings online. You don’t want the little German spaetzli, but the dumplings called Nokedli. However, you don’t need to push them through a pasta strainer, as the fancy recipes say. My mom just made them in a glass bowl with a spout, and she flicked the dough into boiling water in one-inch sections, one after the other. The dumplings are finished when they rise to the surface. Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom.

In my husband’s latest crack at paprikás, he substituted chicken breasts for the legs, but I think you lose some of the flavor when you don’t have the bone-in chicken. Also, he used egg noodles at the end (delicious, but not the same).

Try making this dish for your family; if you’ve never had it before, the flavor will be your reward! If you’ve eaten this dish in the past, then you know how good it is. Enjoy!

Death in a Budapest Butterfly

A Hungarian Teahouse Mystery, Book 1

Hana Keller and her family run Maggie's Tea House, an establishment heavily influenced by the family's Hungarian heritage and specializing in a European-style traditional tea service. But one of the shop's largest draws is Hana's eccentric grandmother, Juliana, renowned for her ability to read the future in the leaves at the bottom of customers' cups. Lately, however, her readings have become alarmingly ominous and seemingly related to old Hungarian legends...

When a guest is poisoned at a tea event, Juliana’s dire predictions appear to have come true. Things are brought to a boil when Hana’s beloved  Anna Weatherley butterfly teacup becomes the center of the murder investigation as it carried the poisoned tea. The cup is claimed as evidence by a handsome police detective, and the pretty Tea House is suddenly endangered.  Hana and her family must catch the killer to save their business and bring the beautiful Budapest Butterfly back home where it belongs.

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MYSTERY AUTHOR JULIA BUCKLEY SHARES SOME OF HER FAVORITE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

Julia Buckley was born five days after Christmas and was sent home from the hospital in a Christmas stocking; perhaps that's why she has always loved the Christmas season and all its attendant joys. She writes the Undercover Dish Mysteries and the Writer's Apprentice mysteries, and has just completed Book One in a The Hungarian Tea House series. Learn more about Julia and her books at her website.  

I love the Christmas season, and I find great joy and comfort in the decorations I put up each year. It was a tradition that both of my sons would get one new ornament each year, so our tree has many wonderful memories hanging on its branches.

You can see our traditional tree behind Panther up there in the corner, and then two ornaments that my boys made when they were in pre-school—treasured more than anything else on the tree. The “hope” ornament came from a Secret Santa and has provided much encouragement over the last few years, as has the straw star that is reminiscent of the beautiful German ornaments my late mother would hang on our family tree.

I think my favorite ornament, though, is the one in the last box—a depiction of Bob Cratchitt with his son Timothy Cratchit, famously known as Tiny Tim. This father/son duo from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has come to symbolize the beauty of familial devotion and, with the involvement of Scrooge, the possibilities for love, redemption and joy that Christmas can bring.

When the curmudgeonly and grasping Scrooge first meets Tiny Tim, he is supported on his father’s shoulder. The child walks with a cane, and his “limbs supported by an iron frame.” Scrooge is told by the Ghost of Christmas future that Tiny Tim will die of his ailments unless something is done to change his fate.

In the meantime, the reader sees Bob Cratchit’s absolute devotion to his youngest son, even though the son is a burden on the family. Bob cannot imagine life without his boy, something Scrooge does not understand until his eyes are opened, and his heart is magnified by a new awareness.

In this passage, we learn of little Timothy’s gift for philosophy:

“And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.

 “As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”

Though Tiny Tim is a minor character, it is he more than anyone else who appeals to Scrooge’s miserly heart, and it is his father more than anyone else who makes Scrooge see what it is to love a child, and why it is important to love and care for all children. It is eventually understood that the author uses childhood to represent our purest vision for the world. Dickens sums this up nicely in Stave III, when Scrooge is allowed, through a ghost, to witness a holiday party at his nephew’s house.

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” 

I love books, I have always been inspired by great literature, and I’m a sucker for any literary allusions, so it’s not surprising that a Dickens Christmas ornament is on my list of favorites. This one little cloth ornament depicting a father’s love holds many holiday-appropriate symbols, the best of which is the idea that we can all be redeemed through good works, just as Scrooge, so cold and callous at the beginning of the novella, was transformed into a good man by its end. “To Tiny Tim,” we are told, “Scrooge became a second father.”

Every year my Bob and Tim ornament reminds me of the hope of the season (and in fact it hangs just under my hope ornament). It encourages me to offer support to others when I can, and it verifies the power of a good book.

Don’t get me started on good books! That’s a topic for another blog post.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays to all!

Cheddar Off Dead

The Christmas holidays are one of Lilah’s favorite times of the year, filled with friends, family, and, of course, tons of food orders for her covered dish clients. But Lilah’s Yuletide cheer ends when she sees a most Grinch-like crime: the murder of a Santa in a school parking lot.

It turns out the deceased Kris Kringle was a complicated tangle of naughty and nice, with a long list of people who might have wanted him dead. And whoever did the deed wants to make sure that Lilah keeps quiet. Now, Lilah will have to team up with her former fling, Detective Jay Parker, to unwrap the mysteries of a deadly Christmas killer and stay alive long enough to ring in the New Year... 

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FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS--GUEST AUTHOR JULIA BUCKLEY

The Author's Office 

Julia Buckley is a Chicago area writer. She is going into her 28^th year of teaching high school English and journalism, and she lives at home with her husband, two sons, three cats and a Lab puppy who is now as big as a small horse. Learn more about Julia and her books at her website. 

My Favorite Things in My Office

A couple of years ago my office had become a junk land, where everyone put piles of stuff that had no home. It looked horrible, so I made it my summer project to de-junk, re-paint, and re-imagine the office. It required a lot of work and some money to replace some elderly furniture, but today the office is so nice I have to fight the rest of my family for the right to sit in there. (see photo above)

At least, this is what two walls of it look like. On the computer you can see an image of a deceased but still-beloved cat, Rose. There are two desks—one for paying bills and doing correspondence, and one for creativity and video watching.

Instead of junk, the office is now filled with many things that are meaningful to me (or are enjoyably decorative).

First, there’s the knight. I got him on one of my birthdays, and I decided that he would become the guardian of my writing life: he would remind me with his presence that I should write each day, but he would also champion my writing when no one else believed in it. Naturally, he lives in the center of the desk.

Second, there is a globe paperweight of the world, given to me by my nephew.  It’s lovely, heavy and smooth, and I like to hold it when I’m contemplating an idea (or deciding which bill to pay first).

Next comes my little typewriter coin bank. A bit dusty, but always a reminder of what I love to do so well.

And while we’re on the subject of typewriters, I got this vintage Smith Corona on E-bay, and it adds style to my office.

Also on the desk is this antique Hungarian alphabet book, on loan from my father, so that I can try to master the very difficult pronunciations. I am writing a book with Hungarian characters, and my dad thought this would help.

This awesome red octopus was a birthday present for my husband one year, but we didn’t want to leave it around for the animals to chew, so it lives on the computer tower.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of my sons, Ian and Graham. It was taken at a Christmas gathering at my parents’ house before my mom went into assisted living.

My William Shakespeare beanie baby guards some copies of my last book, The Big Chili.

If my husband had his way, our house would be filled with guitars. This one, a 50^th birthday present to him, hangs above the desk.

This is one of my favorites; some artisan took old Nancy Drew books and turned them into journals. I keep some notes in here.

Pictures of my mom and dad are tucked into one shelf.

I always loved the TOOT and PUDDLE books that I read to my sons. One came with little felt character dolls, and I never had the heart to get rid of them, so these little piggies are tucked on top of my books. (Great books to read to little ones!)

On another shelf is a treasure chest I bought for one of my sons, but it turned out he didn’t love treasure chests as much as I did.  Now I keep stationery in it.

On the top of the bookcase I stack hardbacks that I want to save. I’m doing a lot of book stacking in my new attempt at order.

On another wall is a second guitar and a big canvas replica of my new cover—A Dark and Stormy Murder. I loved the cover so much, I found one of those canvas photo deals and preserved it forever. I thought it was appropriate to hang it where I do my writing.

Thanks for letting me share my favorites with you! 

Virginia Woolf said that every person needed “A Room of One’s Own.”  I love my office because it preserves all that is special to me and is filled with talismans for my writing life.

A Dark and Stormy Murder

Lena London's literary dreams are coming true—as long as she can avoid any real-life villains...

Camilla Graham’s bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla’s new assistant, she can’t believe her luck. Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she’ll get to live rent-free in Camilla’s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.

But Lena’s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without—a dead body, found on her new boss’s lakefront property.

Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla’s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist’s mysterious estate—before the killer writes them both out of the story for good...

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR JULIA BUCKLEY AND LILAH'S BREAKFAST FRITTATA

Julia Buckley is the author of the Undercover Dish mysteries and the Writer's Apprentice mysteries. Her twenty-seven years (and counting) of teaching high school English provide endless ideas for characters in her books. In her nearly non-existent spare time she enjoys watching Netflix series, playing Words with Friends, reading good mysteries, photography, and singing along with the radio. Learn more about Julia and her books at her website and the Mysterious Musings blog.

How Lilah Drake was Born

I am very excited to have published The Big Chili this past October. I’m even more excited by the reviews, and I’m hoping I’ll get to continue the story of Lilah Drake for a while.

Initially I had written a book about Hungarian food--my Dad is Hungarian, and I grew up eating all sorts of Hungarian delicacies made by my grandmother. As a child, I routinely ate things like Kocsonyas (kah-chawn-yah), which was a dish of pigs’ knuckles preserved in aspic. As an adult, I enjoyed reading culinary mysteries and thought that I could write a good one, so I wrote my tale, set in a Hungarian restaurant in Chicago (alas, something that does not exist), and started querying agents. While I got bites from three agencies, they all said my Hungarian mystery wasn’t cozy enough.

One agent—who became my agent—said she liked my writing, but would I consider writing something different? And she suggested the idea of a character who is a brilliant chef, but who sells her covered dishes anonymously to people who want to claim the credit for her creations.

I said yes, I thought I could do this, and that was how The Big Chili and The Undercover Dish mysteries came to be. The first book is filled with food that Lilah makes for friends, neighbors, and parishioners, and in the back are a few recipes for readers to try.

At one point in the story, Lilah makes a breakfast frittata for her landlord Britt, a wealthy sophisticate who owns an art gallery but isn’t particularly good in the kitchen. Lilah whips up the batter for Britt the night before one of her elegant brunches, and Britt is able to make something delicious for her clients.

Digby 

Lilah’s daily companion is her chocolate Labrador, Mick. I came to like Mick so much in the writing of the stories that when our elderly Beagle passed away last year and the house was empty and sad, I eventually thought about getting my own Mick-like dog. My sons wanted to get a shelter pup, so we settled on a Lab mix that we named Digby. He has a lot in common with the wonderful Mick, who has a very special talent that I won’t reveal here. 

Meanwhile, here’s a recipe for Lilah’s breakfast frittata. We’re big fans of feta cheese in my family, but you can probably substitute the cheese of your choice.

Lilah’s Breakfast Frittata

Variation Four: Frittata with red peppers, onions and potatoes

1 large onion
6-8 small red potatoes (about 12 ounces), diced
2 red peppers, diced
dash of pepper

dash of thyme

8 eggs
4 ounces crumbled feta

Preheat oven to 400°

In a frying pan, sauté chopped onion, chopped potato, and chopped red peppers.  Add thyme and pepper to taste.  Mix until vegetables are desired consistency.

Add the eggs to the pan and mix in vegetables; pour into greased baking pan and sprinkle feta over the top of the mixture.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until the eggs are completely set, look golden brown, and pull away from the sides of the pan.

Let the frittata cool.  Then slice and serve with any of these elegant options:

Sliced fruit

Crusty bread

Green salad

Baked, oiled pita chips

Friends and family will ask for this delicious option again and again, and the magic of it is that it makes a good breakfast, lunch or dinner!

The Big Chili

An Undercover Dish Mystery

First in a delicious new mystery series filled with casseroles, confidences, and killers...

Lilah Drake’s Covered Dish business discreetly provides the residents of Pine Haven, Illinois with delicious, fresh-cooked meals they can claim they cooked themselves. But when one of her clandestine concoctions is used to poison a local woman, Lilah finds herself in a pot-lCoad of trouble…

After dreaming for years of owning her own catering company, Lilah has made a start into the food world through her Covered Dish business, covertly cooking for her neighbors who don’t have the time or skill to do so themselves, and allowing them to claim her culinary creations as their own. While her clientele is strong, their continued happiness depends on no one finding out who’s really behind the apron.

So when someone drops dead at a church Bingo night moments after eating chili that Lilah made for a client, the anonymous chef finds herself getting stirred into a cauldron of secrets, lies, and murder—and going toe to toe with a very determined and very attractive detective. To keep her clients coming back and her business under wraps, Lilah will have to chop down the list of suspects fast, because this spicy killer has acquired a taste for homicide…

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR JULIA BUCKLEY

Julia Buckley is our Book Club Friday guest today. Julia is a Chicago area writer.  Like her character Madeline Mann, she enjoys food more than she should.  Her first mystery, The Dark Backward, was released in June of 2006 and earned high praise from Crimespree and others; her next book, Madeline Mann, received glowing reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal.  It is now available for the first time on Kindle.  The second Madeline Mann mystery, Lovely, Dark and Deep, will soon be available, as well. Julia is currently at work on a new mystery series featuring an amateur sleuth and English teacher. Visit Julia at her writer’s blog  where she interviews fellow mystery writers and at her website. You can also find Julia blogging at Poe’s Deadly Daughters and Inkspot. -- AP

The Mystery of April 1^st and the Joy of Food

Happy April Fools’ Day, everyone!  It seems appropriate to note on a mystery blog that the origin of this holiday is, in fact, a mystery—although there are many theories.  Mention of the 1^st of April can be traced all the way back to Chaucer’s Canturbury Tales, but references to the playing of pranks on this day came later. 

The most popular theory, according to this National Geographic article is that the holiday originated in France, which changed to the Roman calendar in the 1500s and no longer celebrated its New Year on the first of April or May, with the dawn of spring.  However, (so the story goes), the country rubes didn’t get word of the change, and so they became the APRIL FOOLS who still celebrated in the old fashioned way.

Whatever its origin, April Fool’s Day is celebrated in many nations.  Some countries suggest that pranks can only be played until noon—after which the prank players become April Fools.  Other countries  (including ours) encourage the silly jokes all day long.  Even the “serious” mediums of government bodies, television programs, newspapers, and websites have joined in the fun with various “prank” announcements over the years.

My own theory is simply that people have always been so giddy with the arrival of spring that they are encouraged to do silly things, and that at some point the term April Fool could have sprung from the idea of spring shenanigans.

May you have some giddy spring fun of your own today!

And since I don’t have a book to offer as a giveaway today, I’d like to share a recipe.  In my book Madeline Mann, Madeline repeatedly asks her German mother to make Rouladen, her favorite since childhood.  Her mother never finds the time—until a frightening event makes her dote on her daughter with home cooking.

This traditional German dinner is made up of onion and bacon-stuffed beef rolls in gravy.  Delicious!  But you’ll need some time for preparation.

German Rouladen, Madeline Mann’s Favorite Dish

• 8 (4 ounce) pieces round steak, pounded 1/4 inch thick
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (can also add chopped pickles)
• ½ cup chopped red cabbage
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 8 slices bacon
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 (12 ounce) can beef broth
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (or as needed)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup sour cream (or, in Madeline’s case, a cup)

 Directions

1. Sprinkle the onion, cabbage, paprika, salt, and pepper evenly over the steaks. Lay one slice of bacon on each piece. Roll the steaks jelly-roll style and secure with toothpicks.
2. Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook meat on all sides until browned. Add the beef broth and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low; cover and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Remove the meat rolls. Strain the broth mixture and return liquid to the skillet. Whisk together the cornstarch and 1 cup of water. Slowly pour the cornstarch slurry into the skillet, stirring continually until the sauce has thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the sour cream. Return rolls to the sauce; serve immediately.
4. Tastes best with German dumplings (spaetzle) or egg noodles.
5. Madeline prefers a pat of butter on the dumplings.

Thanks for sharing with us today, Julia! Readers if you make Julia’s recipe and like it, she’d love to hear from you. Contact her through her website. -- AP