#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR C. HOPE CLARK

Blue Crabs

C. Hope Clark has written six novels in two series, with her latest being Echoes of Edisto, the third in the Edisto Island Mysteries. Mystery continues to excite her as both reader and writer, and she hopes to continue as both for years to come. Hope is also founder of FundsforWriters, chosen by Writer’s Digest Magazine for its 101 Best Websites for Writers. Learn more about Hope and her books at her website.             

Crab, Shrimp, and a New Edisto Beach Mystery

My mind lives at a particular beach, and my body goes there several times a year – Edisto Beach, at the tip of Edisto Island, an hour south of Charleston, South Carolina. Having grown up within a half hour of the beach, it’s in my blood. When I lay eyes on a massive, five-hundred-year-old oak in all its dangling Spanish moss swaying in humidity-laden breezes. . . when I cross a bridge from the mainland to the island and take in the aroma of pluff mud . . . when white egrets and great blue herons coast on warm sea air with nary an effort . . . then I am where my soul needs to be.

Edisto Beach

Edisto Beach is like no other Carolina beach. It’s secluded, almost jungle-like, lacking the neon, franchises, and motels of other beaches that prefer the more commercial flavor. It’s where people cross the McKinley Washington Bridge over the Dawhoo River and leave their worries on the mainland behind them. All of which made for the perfect setting to take my broken character, an ex-big-city detective, freshly widowed with no desire to return to law enforcement. And of course I make crime follow her, or have her the only person able to see it, because, after all, crime doesn’t happen on Edisto. No, ma’am. No, sir.

Echoes of Edisto is book three in a series that coastal South Carolina has come to love, and I almost let Callie Jean Morgan settle in this time and decide she’s found her calling . . . but of course I have to rock those doubts. But that story’s for another time.

When Callie isn’t dealing with the unusual threats that come with island living, she is like everyone else, enjoying the seafood so easily available. And with the easy availability of seafood comes unique and handed-down ways to fix it.

But some folks aren’t into the richer sauces, the fried, or the casserole compilations. Instead they prefer the simple, which is Callie’s preference. Crab and shrimp, mainly, and here are two ways that locals eat these favorites. I’d say they eat these quick-fix dishes because of time constraints, but that’s rarely the issue. Instead, the simplest way to eat seafood is the healthiest and the best tasting, and require nothing special. Plus, you can close your eyes when you taste these recipes, and feel like your feet are in the sand.

Citrus Shrimp

(Measurements below are per person in your party)

1 pound of raw shrimp

2 Tbsp butter

Garlic to taste (don’t feel you have to go lightly here)

Salt to taste (but don’t overdo the salt)

Pepper to taste (optional)

1 orange, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

Turn on your oven broiler. Put shrimp on a sheet pan and dot with butter. Sprinkle seasonings. Cover shrimp with orange and lemon slices. Broil until shrimp are pink, stirring often.

Now, let’s go to the crab. You can substitute the type of crab used, but blue crabs are common on the Carolina coast. They are pretty but they aren’t big, so feel free to eat several. As with all seafood, great with beer!

Steamed Blue Crab

Can of beer

Same amount of water

Same amount of vinegar (apple cider preferred)

Old Bay seasoning to taste

One to two dozen blue crabs (live, please. Just look the other way when you put them in the pot.)

Put three liquids into a stock pot. Place rack into the pot. Put one layer of crab, layer of seasoning, and repeat. Steam 15 minutes or until the crabs turn deep red.

NOTE: Don’t have Old Bay Seafood Seasoning? Use the following ground spices in amounts that you prefer: bay leaf, dry mustard, pepper, ginger, paprika, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, and some crushed red pepper flakes.

Echoes of Edisto

Murder came in with the tide . . .

Edisto Island is a paradise where people escape from the mainstream world. Yet for newly sworn-in Edisto Police Chief Callie Jean Morgan, the trouble has just begun . . .

When a rookie officer drowns in a freak crash in the marsh, Callie's instincts tell her it wasn't an accident. As suspects and clues mount, Callie's outlandish mother complicates the investigation, and Callie's longtime friendship with Officer Mike Seabrook takes a turn toward something new—but is shadowed by the unsolved mystery of his wife's death. Everyone's past rises to the surface, entangling with death that cuts to the bone.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR KIMBRA KASCH AND CIOPINNO

Kimbra Kasch stops by today to give a Killer Cooking Class on Ciopinno. Learn more about Kimbra and her writing at her website. 

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

That’s what little girls are made of.

QUESTION: But what are ladies made of?

ANSWER: It’s a complete mystery. Just like deciding what makes a dynamite dinner or delicious dessert. It’s hard to say.

One person likes chocolate; another wants the tart taste of lemon meringue. So, how do we decide between sweet and savory?

Sometimes the best answer is not to decide at all but instead to have a little bit of both. We do this exact thing when we serve dinner with dessert. If you want to see what I’m talking about, simply follow along on this Killer Cooking Class and learn how to make homemade Ciopinno.

First you might ask: just what is Ciopinno?

Italian fishermen came up with Ciopinno (or Seafood Stew) back in the mid 1800's. It was probably the first potluck. The Fishermen would come home from sea hungry after a hard day on the water, and someone would called out, “Chip in” or “Ciopinno.” Everyone threw a little something they’d caught into the pot, and it became a beautiful blend of seafood.

I begin with a little homemade fettuccine:

Ingredients:

5 eggs

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon water

Pile the flour up in a circle, crack the eggs in the center of the flour, and slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs with a fork. After you have the dough formed into a ball, add the water, olive oil and salt. Blend until smooth being careful not to overwork or the dough will become rubbery.

Roll out the dough. Using a pasta machine, work the dough through the rollers until it’s thin. Then run the dough through the cutters to prepare your fettuccine. If you don’t have a pasta machine simply roll the dough up, like you would for a Christmas yule log, and slice the ribbons by hand.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta for 3-5 minutes at a full boil. Strain pasta and cover to keep warm while you make the stew.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of clams, mussels, scallops and shrimp

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, diced

1 package of mushrooms

2 jalapeno chile, finely chopped

1-1/2 cups dry white wine (Chardonney)

Zest and juice of 2 large or 3 small limes

1 cup chopped parsley

Using a small saucepan, sauté onion until clear.

Using a large saucepan, heat olive oil then add garlic, then onions, mushrooms and chile.

Pour in wine. Add zest and juice. Add clams, mussels scallops, and shrimp. Heat 5 minutes, then turn off and cover.

Place a helping of pasta in bowl and pour some of the Cioppini over the top and serve with a side salad.

For dessert serve a store-bought sweet. This is the simple part of the dinner…the dessert. The sexy part is the Cioppini.

Having a dinner that’s sweet and spicy is like reading a story that’s sweet but with a romance woven into the middle, just like The Cats of Cullaby Creek. There’s plenty of mystery stirred into the story because when Savannah meets Kyle, its love at first sight. And why wouldn't it be? He's perfect, as far as she can tell. But Kyle appears whenever things go wrong. Maybe he isn't everything she thought he was. This is another complete mystery until she discovers the water in Cullaby Creek is being bottled and sold as vitamin “infused” water. Mistic Water promises the impossible. And then, like a magical elixir, it delivers. People who drink it feel younger, smarter, faster...healthier. But it doesn’t take long before side effects hit. Literally. The secret has to be in the water…or is it something more? To find out, you’ll want to read the entire delicious story. And, if you do, I’ll want to hear what you think of it. Was it savory enough for you?

The Cats of Cullaby Creek

Savannah meets Kyle and quickly starts to fall for him. And why wouldn't she? He's per-fect, as far as she knows. But when she starts finding dead animals in her yard and hears something scratching at her window, after the sun goes down, she starts to worry. Maybe Kyle isn't everything she thought he was - maybe he's something more.

It's a complete mystery until she discovers something about the water in Cullaby Creek, which is being bottled and sold as Mistical Water. And there’s definitely something mystical about that water, everyone who drinks it begins to change. They are “morphing” or mutating into animals. The secret to the animal they morph into is in the water.

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Want a chance to win a free copy? Kimbra is giving one away. Post a comment to enter the drawing she'll be holding.

WE'D RATHER BE #WRITING #COOKBOOK

Last year I had an idea for a cookbook featuring my fellow authors. The result was Bake, Love, Write: 105 AuthorsShare Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing. My hope was that people who bought the book for the yummy recipes would be introduced to authors new to them, thus gaining new readers for my fellow authors and me. I donated a portion of the profits from the sale of the book to my local food bank.

When Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing became an Amazon bestseller, many of the participating authors suggested a follow-up cookbook.

After giving it some thought, I came up with:

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 BeWriting: 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 ShareTimesaving 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.

Once again, a percentage of the profit from the sale of this new cookbook will be donated to charity. The charity I’ve chosen this year is No Kid Hungry.

Authors who contributed to We'd Rather BeWriting: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips include: Lisa Alber, Reggi Allder, Judy Alter, Krista Ames, Rose Anderson, Cori Lynn Arnold, Judy Baker, Beverley Bateman, Donnell Ann Bell, Paula Gail Benson, Kris Bock, Maureen Bonatch, Ava Bradley, Susan Breen, Lida Bushloper, Michelle Markey Butler, Ashlyn Chase, Judy Copek, Maya Corrigan, Mariposa Cruz, Melinda Curtis, Lesley A. Diehl, Conda V. Douglas, Nancy Eady, Helena Fairfax, Jennifer Faye, Flo Fitzpatrick, Kit Frazier, Shelley Freydont, Mariana Gabrielle, Rosie Genova, Marni Graff, Joanne Guidoccio, Margaret S. Hamilton, L.C. Hayden, Linda Gordon Hengerer, Heather Hiestand, R.Franklin James, Kathryn Jane, M.M. Jaye, Elizabeth John, Stacy Juba, Gemma Juliana, Carol Goodman Kaufman, Melissa Keir, Kay Kendall, A.R. Kennedy, Lynn Kinnaman, Marie Laval, B.V. Lawson, Claudia Lefeve, Alice Loweecey, Cynthia Luhrs, Sandra Masters, Lisa Q. Mathews, J.M. Maurer, Sandra McGregor, Kathy McIntosh, Claire A. Murray, Ann Myers, Tara Neale, Stacey Joy Netzel, Jayne Ormerod, Alice Orr, Laurel Peterson, Irene Peterson, Pepper Phillips, Caridad Pineiro, Kathryn Quick, Renée Reynolds, Josie Riviera, Elizabeth Rose, C.A. Rowland, Cindy Sample, Sharleen Scott, Terry Shames, Susan C. Shea, Judy Penz Sheluk, Joanna Campbell Slan, Karen Rose Smith, Lynette Sofras, Kaye Spencer, Skye Taylor, Lourdes Venard, Lea Wait, Regan Walker, Lois Winston, and Aubrey Wynne.

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