#COOKING WITH CLORIS FEATURING ANN MYERS' SOUTHWEST-STYLE EGGS IN PURGATORY

Ann Myers, author of the Santa Fe Café Mystery series, loves cooking, crafts, and cozy mysteries. She’s also one of the authors who contributed to We’d Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips, for which a percentage of the profits of are donated to No Kid Hungry. Learn more about Ann and her books at her website. 

Southwest-Style Eggs in Purgatory

I love the name of this dish of eggs suspended in a bubbling tomato sauce. It’s also quick, inexpensive, and flexible. Classic recipes use Italian or Middle Eastern herbs and spices, but here the fire comes from Southwest chili.

Prep time: 10 min.

Cooking time: 25–35 min.

Serves: 4

1 T. olive oil

1 sm. onion, diced (about 2/3 cup)

1 clove garlic, minced

1-2 tsp. chili powder, to taste

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/4–1/2 tsp. salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

Red pepper flakes (optional)

2/3 cup water or broth, divided

28 oz. canned diced tomatoes (or an approximate equivalent amount fresh tomatoes, whirled in a food processor until saucy but still chunky)

4 eggs

1/2 cup grated cheddar, Monterey Jack, fresh farmer’s or Mexican cheese

Corn or flour tortillas, crusty bread, fluffy sopapillas, or rice

Optional garnishes: sour cream, Mexican crema, chopped cilantro and/or chives, diced avocado dressed in lime juice, and salt.

Heat oil in lg. skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions, stirring frequently until onions are soft and translucent.

Mix in minced garlic, cumin, coriander, and red chili. Stir 1-2 min. Add tomatoes, 1/3 cup water or broth, oregano, salt, and pepper. Simmer gently about 15 min.

Taste for seasoning and check that the mixture is still somewhat soupy (add the extra water or broth if it seems dry.) Create little wells for the eggs in the tomato mixture. Crack an egg into each well. If you’re concerned about stray shells, crack each egg into a bowl and pour from there into the tomato mixture. Cover and cook eggs 5-7 min. or more, depending on how you like your eggs. Check occasionally, jiggling the pan so that the eggs don’t stick to the bottom. Sunny or medium-side up works well in this recipe because the eggs will cook more when broken into the hot tomatoes.

When eggs are nearly done, uncover and sprinkle with cheese, aiming for the tomato and egg whites rather than the yolks. Let the cheese melt 1-2 min. Serve immediately in wide pasta or soup bowls, garnished with the optional toppings and a side of seasoned pinto beans or green salad.

We'd Rather Be Writing

88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips

Have you ever wished you could find more time to do the things you want to do, rather than just doing the things you have to do? Most authors juggle day jobs and family responsibilities along with their writing. Because they need to find time to write, they look for ways to save time in other aspects of their lives.

Cooking often takes up a huge chunk of time. In We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll find easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and vegetarian meals. All of the recipes require a minimum of prep time, freeing you up to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with family, or whatever.

Within the pages of We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll be introduced to authors who write a wide range of fiction—everything from mystery to romance to speculative fiction to books for children, young adults, and new adults—and some who write nonfiction. Some of the authors write sweet; others write steamy. Some write cozy; others write tense thrillers.

Some are debut authors with only one published book; others are multi-published and have had long publishing careers. Some are New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors who may or may not be familiar to you, but being a bestselling author doesn't mean they still don't have to juggle their day job along with their writing.

The authors who contributed to this book are a rather creative and resourceful bunch when it comes to carving out time from their busy lives. So in addition to timesaving recipes, within the pages of this book you'll find timesaving and organizational tips for other aspects of your life. And if you happen to be a writer, you'll also find a plethora of great ideas to help you organize your writing life.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR RADINE TREES NEHRING

Radine Trees Nehring fell in love with the Arkansas Ozarks as a visitor in 1978, wound up moving there, and has since shared her love of the region in both her fiction and nonfiction. Her eighth Ozarks-related mystery novel, A Portrait to Die For, was released in April. Learn more about Radine and her books at her website. 

How Important Are Cooking Skills to an Amateur Detective?

Early on in the Carrie McCrite/Henry King To Die For mystery series, readers learn for the first time that Carrie is not a willing cook. Chapter Three of the first novel, A Valley to Die For, opens:

"The committee ate Carrie's brunch as eagerly as if she'd spent all morning in the kitchen preparing it. 'There,' she thought, 'that proves it doesn't take a zillion-ingredient recipe and stacks of dirty pans. All it takes is friends getting together--then no one cares whether your kitchen helper was Julia Child or the Pillsbury Doughboy.' "

 Carrie's kitchen helper would definitely be the Pillsbury Doughboy. She lived with her parents until she was thirty and her mom insisted on doing all the cooking. After marriage to Amos McCrite, a wealthy criminal lawyer, Carrie still spent little time in the kitchen because he employed a full-time cook. Now, on occasions when she does cook, (especially after Amos's death), she usually depends on take-out, or ready-prepared meals from the grocery. We learn in A Treasure to Die For that, before moving to Arkansas after Amos's murder, she disposed of the many (unopened) cookbooks helpful friends gave her over the years. ("All that woman needs is a good cookbook," they frequently said.)

When the need to make meatloaf comes up as part of the plot in A Treasure to Die For, a result is "No Thaw Meatloaf." This bizarre and so-o-o easy meatloaf shows up on the Nehring dinner table every few months and, according to reader response, probably on many other tables as well.

At one time Carrie apologizes to her adult son, Rob, about the lack of "home-made, mom-cooked meals" while he was growing up. He assures her that, as a bachelor college professor, he's grateful to have learned her meal prep methods early in life.

Bowing to reader requests, I always include two or three recipes at the end of each novel.

Of course I enjoy writing about Carrie's adventures into crime solving with her new husband, Henry King (a retired Kansas City Police Major), and about the very real tourist-friendly Arkansas locations where each story is set. Though it's sometimes challenging, I also enjoy coming up with the Carrie-style recipes used in each story. "Baggie Omelets" is one of the most popular with readers. It's from A River to Die For.

(And yes, special recipes even fit into my recent Carrie and Henry novel about art crime--A Portrait to Die For, set largely in Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.)

Here is Carrie's recipe for Baggie Omelets:

Ingredients

one-quart zip shut freezer bag

2 eggs

Whatever you like in an omelet: chunks of onion, green pepper, bacon, sausage, olives, etc.

Shredded cheese of choice

Salt and pepper

One large kettle of boiling water (rolling boil)

If using raw vegetables, soften in the microwave. (If on a picnic, cook lightly in a pan) Cook any meat you plan to add. Chop everything you will be adding to your omelet into small pieces.

Break two eggs into a baggie. Seal, removing as much air as possible. Squeeze and squish until eggs are well mixed.

 

Open baggie. Add vegetables and/or meat.  Add seasonings.

Seal bag again, removing air, and squish to mix.

Drop bag(s) in kettle of boiling water and boil for exactly thirteen minutes. Remove from water and roll or spoon omelet out on a plate. Add shredded cheese immediately.

Carrie and I think this is the best way in the world to cook eggs. Delicious--and no cleanup of messy egg residue.

Happy cooking!

A Portrait to Die For

Carrie discovers two versions of a supposedly original portrait in a loan exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. When a reporter who interviewed Carrie at the museum disappears, Carrie must choose between her promise to stop crime-solving or work to find the woman--a college friend of her son's.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR BARBARA RAFFIN AND SAUSAGE & EGG BISCUITS TO GO

Award winning author Barbara Raffin writes paranormal, contemporary and historical, all containing romance and some with suspense. Her latest book, Finding Home, made the finals of Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award Contest, Wisconsin Romance Writers' Write Touch Award, and is a BTS eMag's Red Carpet Review nominee for 2014. You'll find Barbara most mornings in her home-based office where her window overlooks the wooded beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Learn more about Barbara and her books at her website and blog.

I'm currently working on Book Four of my St. John Sibling Series with Book Three, Craving a Hero coming out in October of 2014. This is my first series and I'm having a blast discovering the stories of these five remarkable siblings who grew up living a nomadic lifestyle, yet have stability with parents who created a home for them wherever in the world they lived.

When I was writing Book Two, Finding Home, I realized the St. John Siblings weren't the characters with the big issues. It was the people they fall in love with who each need a healing dose of St. John love. Even in Taming Tess, Book One, which is a modern day Taming of the Shrew story, while big brother contractor Roman St. John may need to loosen up, it's the career minded architect Tess whose father has betrayed her and who needs to learn not all men believe women belong in the bedroom not the boardroom.

Even middle brother Dane St. John, the golden boy action movie star in Craving a Hero, into whose lap all good things fall, needs to learn what it feels like to almost lose something, or rather someone, he truly loves. Yet it's Conservation Officer Kelly Jackson, the love of Dane's life who comes along at the wrong time, who must face down her fear of abandonment in the most emotional book of this series so far.

But, it's Finding Home, set in an old Victorian Farmhouse turned restaurant by the only female St. John sibling, Dixie, that's the perfect focus of this blog. Owner Dixie is as sweet as her homemade cinnamon buns, while Chef Sam Ryan is like the breakfast sandwiches in my recipe: tasty, multi-layered, and a little rough around the edges with a tendency to be eaten on the go.

Sam so badly wants a family, he's willing to do anything the uncle who raised him requests, and Uncle Stuart wants Sam to dig up dirt on Dixie, Sam's cousin's widow, so Uncle Stuart can gain custody of Dixie's son Ben. But, practically from the minute Sam meets Dixie, he knows there's no dirt to dig up and his modus operandi to run from responsibility kicks in.

But Somehow, every time he tries to run, he can't seem to make himself leave Dixie, her family, and her barnyard of cast off animals. Sam not only finds the right family for himself In Finding Home, but this family black sheep even manages to stand up to his uncle and make things right for the woman he's fallen in love with. He even faces down her quartet of protective brothers. Ya gotta love Sam.

As for that breakfast sandwich I liken Sam to… It's as satisfying and yummy as he is.

Sausage Egg Biscuits to Go

Ingredients:

8 pack tube of Pillsbury Biscuit dough (original, flaky, buttermilk, another brand, your choice,)

1 lb. bulk sausage (I use Italian, but you can use whatever kind you like)

2-3 eggs

salt and pepper

a dollop of milk

enough butter or butter substitute to lubricate your pan when frying eggs.

Tip: you can also bake your own biscuits, use croissants, or English muffins

Preheat oven per direction on biscuit container. Bake biscuits according to directions on package. While biscuits are baking, divide bulk sausage into eight thin patties no large than the size of your biscuit. Fry on medium heat.

Split baked biscuits in half. Set cooked sausage patties aside.

Whisk eggs, add dollop of milk, and salt and pepper while butter is melting in 8”-9” frying pan on medium heat. When butter sizzles, pour half the egg mixture into the pan. Add remaining egg. Use spatula to lift edges of egg and tilt pan so some of the uncooked egg slips under the cooking egg. This will help eliminate the hard crust on the frying side (unless you like your eggs like that.) Cut egg into four wedges and flip each wedge to finish cooking. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. It'll still taste great.

Layer a sausage patty on the bottom slice of biscuit, fold egg on top of sausage, and cover with biscuit top. Add optional cheese or a slice of tomato. Use your imagination and create what you like.

Let those biscuits you don't eat immediately cool, wrap the leftover biscuits in paper toweling, and store in a plastic bag in the fridge. Reheat 35-45 seconds in a microwave.

Finding Home

When life handed Dixie Rae Carrington lemons, she made lemonade. When life handed Sam Ryan lemons, he ran. Good thing for him he's run head long into love with Dixie, the one woman who can teach him how sweet lemons can be. Now he just has to hope she doesn't find out what really brought him into her life.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR JESSE KIMMEL-FREEMAN AND ARTICHOKE FRITTATA

original photo by flagstaffotos.com.au, derivative work by Itzuvit

Jesse Kimmel-Freeman has written six novels, four short stories, four illustrated children's books, been part of several anthologies and is actively working on the next pieces to her series. Learn more about Jesse and her books at her website.

Hey everyone! Food is such an essential thing when writing. I mean our characters have to live off of something, right? There are certain things in each of my stories that if you know me, then you know why they’re there--like Barqs Root Beer and Galaxy milk chocolate bars!

But one of those things that’s really important to me is finding a way to connect my characters to each other. In the scene below, Emma and Dominic (two of the main characters from the Bella Vampires Series) are finally connecting to each other in the first book, Bella Notte. This meal that Dominic makes for Emma is so vital because there was such a HUGE disconnect between the characters in the beginning--he was a total jerk!

“So, what are we making?” I asked as I looked over the ingredients--artichokes, eggs, a lemon, some parsley, olive oil, dry white wine, and salt and pepper.

“We are not cooking. I am cooking for you. I am going to make you artichoke frittata. It is delicious. It is like an omelet but different. You will enjoy it.” He sounded absolutely sure of himself.

I sat and watched as he prepared the artichokes and placed them aside in water and lemon juice. Then as he beat the eggs and shook random amounts of salt and pepper into them. He sautéed the artichokes in the oil and wine. Then he threw in some more spices and then the eggs. It took only a few minutes but it was amazing to watch. I had never had someone close to me cook. Watching him cook was fun and exciting.

He cut it in half when he was sure it was done and had cooled then he served it to me. It looked a little on the scary side but I wouldn't let that stop me. I took a fork full and chewed. It tasted great. It was thicker than a regular omelet, but it seemed that this feature helped the flavor of the artichokes come through. We ate in silence. I helped to clean up afterwards through his insistent complaints.

“You cooked, I'll clean,” was all I said.

We said good night and I went to bed. I thought to look for another email from Mike but I didn't want anything to ruin the peaceful atmosphere that still clung to me from the kitchen. I enjoy being around him sometimes. He brings a peace to me. I closed my eyes.

The recipe itself wasn’t what was so important (although it’s quite tasty), but the connection that is finally beginning between these two! Emma was getting to see a completely different side than what she had experienced back in her hometown. This is the true beginning of them.

Artichoke Frittata

Ingredients:

4 artichokes (can use canned, 2-3 cans)

1/2 lemons

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

½ cup dry white wine

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (can use dried, 3-4 tbsp)

6 eggs

3 tbsp milk

2 tbsp butter  

black pepper, to taste

*Side note: Frittatas are tasty ways to include things you like for breakfast, so if you're not a fan on artichokes, throw something else in. Experiment! It's the kitchen sink of breakfast foods! Enjoy! :)

To prepare the artichokes, take off the tough inedible outer leaves, and slice the spiked tips of the remaining outer leaves. Slice about ¾” from the top of the heart, and cut off the stalk where it joins the base of the leaves. Rub the cut surfaces with the lemon to prevent blackening. Quarter each artichoke lengthways and remove the fuzzy centers from the heart. Cut the quarters lengthways into thin wedges or can make them thicker if desired. Squeeze lemon juice over them.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°/gas 4).

Heat oil (can use butter if you want) in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the artichoke wedges and gently saunté over low heat until brown on both sides.

Add the garlic, white wine and half the parsley. Cover and cook over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes until the artichokes are very tender and the liquid is basically gone. Season to taste.

Mix up the eggs in a bowl. Add the milk and whisk again until even color.

Add the cooked artichokes to the eggs. Season to taste and mix again.

Pour the mixture into buttered baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes until the eggs are set. Not all ovens are the same, so there might be a time variation.

Serve warm or cold but not hot.

Bella Notte

Vampires? Check. Werewolves? Check. Death prophecy to hang over your head? Double check. Seventeen-year-old Emma Hutchinson struggles to find her place in the world she has been born to as she tries to decide whether she should be with Michael, the boy she has been dreaming about since she was three, or if she belongs with Dominic, her betrothed.

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST COOK AND AUTHOR ROSIE GENOVA

It’s always a pleasure to welcome a fellow Jersey girl to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. With us today is Rosie Genova author of the Italian Kitchen Mysteries. An English teacher by day and novelist by night, Rosie also writes women’s fiction as Rosemary DiBattista. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

There’s a moment in my book, Murder and Marinara, when things look particularly dark for the staff of the Casa Lido, the restaurant at the center of the series. The chef responds by making a frittata, an egg-based dish that is one part quiche, one part omelet. And while the characters’ problems aren’t solved for another hundred pages, at least they get a warm, comforting meal.

In real life, I’m a big fan of Italian food that might be categorized as cucina rustica, or as we say in English, comfort food. Particularly at this time of year, I turn to favorites like roasted sausage with peppers and polenta; pasta with pancetta; greens with garlic and white beans, and one I  recently served up: a lovely frittata rounded out with a green salad and homemade bread.

The frittata pictured came about at the end of a long day. I was tired, nothing was defrosted, and I didn’t want pizza. In the refrigerator were some leftover roasted potatoes with caramelized onions and a package of fresh mozzarella. I always have eggs on hand; ditto Progresso flavored bread crumbs, a staple no Italian kitchen is ever without. I sliced the potatoes thin, estimated how much cheese to slice (then added six more slices) and scrambled up some eggs with freshly ground pepper, salt, grated Parm, and the flavored crumbs, making sure to get every last piece of sweet browned onions in there. I started it on the stove in the cast iron pan and finished it off in the oven. While it set up, I threw together a salad and warmed up half a loaf of bread. With a glass of strong red wine, that meal was nirvana. And I put it together in just about the time it would have taken me to get to the pizza place and back. 

The recipe below is a more formalized version of my thrown-together version, but this is a dish with many variations:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 quarter of a large Vidalia onion, thinly sliced

5 ounces of baby arugula (or baby spinach, escarole, or other tender green)

8 large eggs

¼ pound of fontina cheese cut into cubes (or fresh or regular mozzarella)

½ teaspoon of salt, or more to taste

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, or several twists of a grinder

Italian flavored bread crumbs and grated cheese for topping

1.             Pre-heat oven to 350°.

2.             Heat oil in a well-seasoned 10-inch cast iron pan or other heavy ovenproof skillet. Cook the onion over medium heat, separating it into ribbons until nicely browned. Add arugula and cook, stirring frequently until wilted, about 2 minutes.

3.             Whisk together the eggs, cheese, salt and pepper until frothy. Pour over arugula and onions in the skillet and cook over medium heat without stirring until almost set, about 5-6 minutes.

4.             Remove from heat and sprinkle bread crumbs and cheese over the top. Bake for about 15 minutes until edges are golden brown and center is set.

(You don’t have to be limited to this recipe, however. You can do as I did, and use leftovers, any other veggies of your choice, or meats such as crumbled cooked Italian sausage, sautéed pancetta, or ham.)

Murder and Marinara

Hit whodunit writer Victoria Rienzi is getting back to her roots by working at her family’s Italian restaurant. But now in between plating pasta and pouring vino, she’ll have to find the secret ingredient in a murder.... 

When Victoria takes a break from penning her popular mystery series and moves back to the Jersey shore, she imagines sun, sand, and scents of fresh basil and simmering marinara sauce at the family restaurant, the Casa Lido. But her nonna’s recipes aren’t the only things getting stirred up in this Italian kitchen.

Their small town is up in arms over plans to film a new reality TV show, and when Victoria serves the show’s pushy producer his last meal, the Casa Lido staff finds itself embroiled in a murder investigation. Victoria wants to find the real killer, but there are as many suspects as tomatoes in her nonna’s garden. Now she’ll have to heat up her sleuthing skills quickly…before someone else gets a plateful of murder. 

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COOKING WITH CLORIS--ASPARAGUS AND TURKEY BACON FRITTATA

Cloris is back today with an asparagus and turkey bacon frittata recipe that works well for breakfast (served with toast, juice and coffee,) lunch, or dinner (served with a side salad.) – AP

Asparagus and Turkey Bacon Frittata

(serves four)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. sliced turkey bacon

16 thin asparagus spears

1/4 cup chopped onion

olive oil

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cut up bacon and asparagus into bite-size pieces. Heat small amount of olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook bacon, asparagus, and onion until bacon and onion brown.

Beat egg and milk. Pour into greased 7” x 11” baking dish. Distribute bacon, asparagus, and onion evenly over egg mixture. Add cheese to top.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.