Food Fiction with Hairstylist Marla Vail
I’d never thought much about
my food sources before my recent adventures. But learning that a lot of the
items we buy in stores are mislabeled was an eye-opener for me. Normally, I
work all day at my salon that I own along with an adjacent day spa. When I get
home, it’s near dinnertime and I’m in a rush to fix a meal for my husband and
teenage stepdaughter. Tonight, for example, I’ll pull together whatever is
convenient from my kitchen.
I’ve always enjoyed
experimenting with cooking when I have the time. In my previous marriage, I liked
to create recipes using tropical fruits. So it wasn’t any big stretch when my
friend Tally coaxed me into entering a bake-off contest at a fall harvest
festival. The event was hugely fun, despite the fiasco that followed. I love
farmer’s marketplaces, don’t you? It’s even better when the farmers use sustainable
growing techniques.
Food blogger Alyce Greene,
another entrant in the contest, has a lot to say on the subject of food sources.
I interviewed her after I found food magazine publisher Francine Dodger dead in
the strawberry field. Alyce bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead woman. I’d
even wondered if the killer got the wrong target.
Alyce was eager to tell me
about how restaurants and fresh markets offer seafood at high prices when the
item is actually a lower-priced variety. Take Florida-caught shrimp, for
example. Through DNA testing and tracing the bills of sale, she discovered it
came from a fish farm in India. She
found “locally grown” heirloom tomatoes that came from Mexico, Florida blue
crab that came from the Indian Ocean, and Alaskan pollock that was frozen fish
from China.
Alyce did a service to
consumers through her reports, but how many providers had she offended along
the way? Did she ruin someone’s business without being aware of the damage
she’d caused? I suggested to my husband, homicide detective Dalton Vail, that
Alyce may have ticked someone off enough to want to kill her.
After this conversation, I
decided to eat home for a while. At least that way, I could control the
ingredients that went into my meals. Fortunately, I know the source of my
Florida blueberries. I pick them myself at Beck Brothers Blueberry Farm in Windermere when I visit Orlando. Sometimes my author comes along, too!
Here’s a luscious dessert recipe using this fruit.
Blueberry Crumble
Ingredients:
2 pints fresh blueberries
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 packet flavored instant
oatmeal
4 Tbsp. butter, softened
Cinnamon sugar
Grease square baking pan and
preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread blueberries in bottom of pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cinnamon,
and sugar. In separate bowl, combine flour, contents of oatmeal packet, and
softened butter. Mixture should resemble small crumbs. Spread over blueberries.
Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes or until
browned and bubbly. Serve warm with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.
Question for Readers: Do you examine labels for the origins of what you
buy in the supermarket? Do you care where they originate? Leave a comment
below, and you’ll be entered into a random drawing for a digital copy of Hairball Hijinks short story.
Trimmed to Death
Savvy
hairstylist and amateur sleuth Marla Vail enters a charity bake-off contest at
a fall festival sponsored by a local farm. While she waits to see if her
coconut fudge pie is a winner, Marla joins a scavenger hunt where people
playing character roles are the targets. Instead of scoring points with a live
person, she finds a dead body planted face-down in the strawberry field. Who
would want to cut short the life of food magazine publisher and fellow bake-off
contestant Francine Dodger? As she investigates, Marla learns there’s no
shortage of suspects. Can she unmask the killer before someone else gets
trimmed from life? Recipes Included!
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