#COOKING WITH CLORIS--CORN CHOWDER WITH GUEST AUTHOR BEVERLEY BATEMAN

Beverley Bateman is a Canadian author who writes romantic suspense while sipping a local wine overlooking the lake in beautiful British Columbia, where she lives with her husband and two Shiba Inu dogs. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.

In my series, the Hawkins’ family, Annie Hawkins, the mother, has an herb garden. She’s always grown her own herbs and uses them in her cooking. Her kitchen is usually filled with the wonderful scents of rosemary, thyme, lemongrass and basil, to name a few. References to the herb garden are in every book, including Missing, and bring back nostalgic memories of hanging out in Annie’s kitchen. And she’s always cooking up something for her family members and friends. Here’s a recipe for one of her wonderful soups.

Annie’s Corn Chowder

(serves 8 – 12)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon butter

1/2 pound bacon, diced

1-1/2 cups chopped onion

Kosher salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme

1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons flour

6 cups chicken broth or stock

5 cups peeled, finely diced all-purpose potato

3 cups fresh (or frozen) corn kernels

1-1/2 cups half-and-half

Add the butter into a soup kettle and melt over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook till crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Pour off all but 1/4 cup of fat from the pot. Add the onions and season them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook till soft, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add flour and mix into the veggies.

Add broth and potatoes. Cover the pot and bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Add corn. Cover and simmer everything 5 to 6 minutes.

Stir in the half-and-half. Season with the basil and thyme and 

add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a basil garnish and serve.

Missing

Running from a disastrous engagement, and an over-powering father, Dr. Allie Parsons agrees to help out an old friend and travels to Duster, Montana. She’s agreed to help the local doctor until he can find a permanent new doctor.  A city girl, Allie is greeted with culture shock in small town Duster, but she also finds a warm, friendly community. And the doctor turns out to be young, tall, dark and handsome. He sends her emotions shooting sky high. She’s welcomed into the Hawkins family and develops a relationship with the doctor’s daughter. A mysterious stranger leaves notes at the clinic and Allie fears they are a warning he’s going to kidnap the doctor’s daughter.

Luke Hawkins, one of the Hawkins’ brothers, is looking for a doctor to take over half the practice from the retiring doctor. He’s not expecting his temporary replacement to be a young, sexy, single woman from New York. He knows she’s the woman he’s been searching for all his life, but he also knows she won’t stay in Duster. Now he has to convince the woman he loves that she really is a small town doctor at heart.

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--CROSS STITCHED CLADDAGH

photo courtesy of Royalcladdagh

I have a Pinterest page on which I post all the crafts and recipes that appear on Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. Two years ago I posted a cross stitch design for a Celtic knot on the blog. That design has been repinned on Pinterest more than anything else on any of my Pinterest boards. So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day coming up in a little over a week, I’ve decided to post another Irish cross stitch design. This one is for a Claddagh.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Claddagh, it’s the design used in a traditional Irish ring. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, and the crown represents loyalty. Claddagh rings are sometimes used as friendship rings but more often as engagement or wedding rings. In many Irish families the rings are passed down from mothers to daughters.

The Claddagh ring had its origins in Roman times, but the ring as we know it today comes from the small fishing village of Claddagh, located outside of Galway and was first made in the seventeenth century.

The cross stitch design below is 37 stitches wide x 29 stitches high. When stitched on 14-ct. fabric it will be approximately 2-2/3" x 2".

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AUTHOR CLEA SIMON

Clea Simon is the author of seventeen mysteries in the Theda Krakow, Dulcie Schwartz, and Pru Marlowe pet noir series. The latter two are ongoing and include her most recent books. Learn more about Clea and her books at her website. 

What a winter! Up here in Massachusetts, we’re all going stir-crazy with the cold and the record-breaking snow. I know I’m crazy to get out. But my kitty, Musetta, is not. While she may have a more luxurious coat than I do (mine’s pink down, so yes, I do look like a marshmallow), my tuxedo medium-hair beauty is definitely a house cat – and that’s the way we like it.

You see, I’m a big proponent of keeping kitties indoors. There are just too many dangers out there for domestic beasts: coyotes (even in the suburbs,) hawks, fisher cats (which aren’t cats at all, but nasty weasel-y things with huge jaws,) and aggressive dogs, not to mention cars and the occasional evil human. Besides, it’s only natural for your kitty to hunt, and wouldn’t you rather your pet “hunt” a toy than a songbird?

“But doesn’t your cat get bored?” I get that question all the time. The answer is no, partly because I don’t let her get bored. In fact, I think part of the deal we make when we take in a cat is to keep her or him entertained and exercised. That keeps her healthy and trim and out of trouble (for the most part.) The key is to keep in mind that cats are hunters – obligate carnivores – so they’re evolutionarily designed for short bursts of intense energy. Now, originally, those might have been for chasing gazelle on the veldt. But in the house, that means two or three play sessions a day. The rest of the time can be spent napping  – and dreaming of that long-ago veldt!

So how to keep kitty amused? That’s simple! I’m a total sucker for every new toy that comes on the market – if it has catnip, so much the better. Our current favorites are the rattling fur mice made by Zanies. A friend brought one over and now we’re addicted! (We buy them in bulk, which is useful because Musetta tends to disembowel them pretty quickly.) But in truth, the best and longest lasting toys are the ones you can make yourself: a bunched-up ball of foil or a wine cork. As long as you can throw it, and she can bat it around, you’re all set up for hours of fun – and a healthy, happy indoor cat.

If only my own cabin fever were so easily resolved!

Kittens Can Kill

The dead don’t keep pets. So when animal behaviorist expert Pru Marlowe gets a call about a kitten, she doesn’t expect to find the cuddly creature playing beside the cooling body of prominent Beauville lawyer David Canaday. Heart attack? His three adult daughters angrily blame drug interactions, feline allergies—and each other. And begin to feud over their father, his considerable estate, and that cute ball of fluff. While the cause of death is pending, each sister has an axe to grind—with arguments that escalate when David’s partner reads out the will. Pru’s special sensitivity to animals, which caused her to flee the cacophony of Manhattan for the quiet Berkshires, adds further problems. The local vet is overwhelmed as the animal hospital's money runs out. There’s a needy Sheltie and some invasive squirrels, too. But the dead man’s kitten, his former partner, and his troublesome family keep drawing “wild-girl” animal psychic Pru back in. Despite the wry observations of her trusty tabby Wallis, now the wrongfully accused kitten’s guardian, and the grudging compliance of her cop lover, this may be one time when Pru can’t solve the mystery or save the kitten she wants to believe is innocent. A single witness knows the truth about that bright spring morning. How far can Pru investigate without risking her own hidden tale?

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#TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR SHEILA CONNOLLY ON IRISH PUBS

Connolly's pub as it looked when Sheila first visited.

New York Times bestselling author Sheila Connolly writes three mystery series, a paranormal romance series, and romantic suspense. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

I write a series, the County Cork Mysteries, set in a pub in Ireland. Anybody who has known me for a long time knows I have never been a pub kind of person. So how did this happen?

I attended a women’s college in a dry town, so while I won’t say there wasn’t liquor around (our favorites, off the record, were Mateus and Tang mixed with vodka), we weren’t exactly into partying. More like studying, with playing bridge to fill in the gaps.

I spent four years living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in graduate school. I could even drink legally by then. But I can still count on my fingers the number of times I ventured into a bar. Now and then with a group of friends, maybe, but we were all broke and couldn’t afford it often.

Sheehan's

Then I got married, and we lived in the Bay Area in California for a decade. But there I much preferred the outstanding restaurants or driving up to the Napa Valley to tour wineries, to sitting in any kind of bar. (Although the Claremont Hotel bar had spectacular views.)

And then life got in the way, and there were mortgages and a child and all that stuff. No pubs—until I went to Ireland.

When my daughter was in middle school, my husband and I decided we would take her to see England, Wales and Ireland (all in two weeks—ha!). When we landed in Ireland, the first pub we walked into (in Carlow, near where my grandmother was born) was eye-opening: on a Sunday afternoon, it seemed like everybody in town was in the pub, eating Sunday dinner. Grandmothers, kids, probably dogs as well. Sure, you might have a pint with your corned beef, but mostly people were there to talk to each other.

Inside Connolly's

After lunch we drove to Leap in County Cork, the village closest to where my grandfather was born. Leap has a population of just over 200 people—and four pubs, or maybe it’s five, depending on how you count. One was Sheahan’s, attached to the hotel (run by the same family for 135 years), and then Kickshaw’s, both with restaurants. There was one that seemed to have no name, and when I peered in once, it seemed to be filled with large silent men, and one next to it on the corner (three in a row there.) And then there was Connolly’s.

Obviously I should have recognized fate when it slapped me in the face. Of course I checked it out, and I’ve been going back ever since. If Eileen Connolly, the owner, is a relative, we haven’t figured out how we connect—yet. You see, there are two groups of Connollys in the townlands north of Leap—the families have been living a couple of miles apart for the last few hundred years, but you must not confuse them! Eileen is a Reavouler Connolly, and I’m a Knockskagh Connolly. But we get along just fine.

Connolly's pub as it looks today.

So we visited Connolly’s on that first trip. And the next year I went back with just my daughter, and we spent time there again (the Irish don’t seem to have a problem with children in places that serve liquor.) I’ve been back many times since. Each time I’ve paid attention: I listened to people, and I talked to people. Finally I realized that pubs are not about drinking—they’re about community. The TV show Cheers actually got it more or less right—a place where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. At the same time, if you want to be left alone in an Irish pub, that’s fine, too. Up to you.

So you see, using a small pub in a small town as a setting makes perfect sense if you’re writing a traditional mystery: sooner or later everyone in town, not to mention the tourists, the local police, and the occasional criminal, passes through and ends up talking to friends and strangers alike. What better way to collect information to solve a mystery? You’ll learn everything you need just by listening.

An Early Wake

Pub owner Maura Donovan may have Irish kin, but she doesn’t seem to have the luck of the Irish. Who could have foreseen that bringing live music back to Sullivan’s Pub would lead to a dead musician? 

Summer is ending in County Cork, Ireland, and with it the tourist season. Expat Maura Donovan is determined to keep Sullivan’s Pub in the black as the days grow shorter—but how? When she hears that the place was once a hot spot for Irish musicians who’d come play in the back room, she wonders if bringing back live music might be Sullivan’s salvation.

As word gets out, legendary musicians begin to appear at the pub, and the first impromptu jam session brings in scores of music lovers. But things hit a sour note when Maura finds a dead musician in the back room the next morning. With a slew of potential suspects, it’s going to take more than a pint and a good think to force a murderer to face the music.

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HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE--GUEST AUTHOR KATHRYN JANE ON FOOD ALLERGIES

photo montage by David Castor from photos by Guillaume Paumier, NaJina McEnany, Abanima, Frank C. Muller, Scott Bauer and Fir0002

Addicted to the ocean and the color turquoise, award-winning author, Kathryn Jane, lives on the west coast of Canada with an obnoxious cat, a pathetically faithful dog, and the man of her dreams. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Food Allergies and Sensitivities

Living with food allergies and sensitivities can be complicated—and the ridiculously fine print on grocery item packaging, well, that's just plain annoying.

Developing food allergies after the age of forty, has been educational to say the least, and having a sense of humor is a life saver, although sometimes, it’s hard to keep a straight face.

This actually happened to me at a social function.

Hostess: “Have a cookie.”

Me: “No thanks, I’m allergic to nuts.”

Hostess: “Oh, but these have no nuts, I made them myself this morning. Just flour, sugar, butter, and peanut butter.”

Seriously? I thought. Do I just laugh and decline, or do I point out that peanuts are, hello? Nuts?

Me: “I’m allergic to peanut butter, too.”

Often when asked exactly what I’m allergic to, I reply, “It would be easier to list the thirteen food items I’m not allergic to.”

I then get, “Oh, you must be a very healthy eater.” I just smile and leave it there instead of saying, “Actually, no.”

I live on chicken, white fish, white flour, white rice, white sugar, and plain no-fat Greek yogurt, as well as potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, quinoa, Jell-O, and Becel margarine (the Canadian one with no Soy.)

As my allergist/immunologist once said, “The more colorful and healthy a food is, the more likely it will cause you to have a reaction. So my diet is all about lack of color.

But here’s the funny part. I’m extremely healthy. I take no supplements (most contain things I’m allergic to). My doctors do blood work and shake their heads in amazement when all the numbers fall within the normal parameters.

And something my friends shake their heads at? I watch the food channel on TV, a lot. I love being around food. When we go to a restaurant, I enjoy the aroma-rich air while I eat my baked potato, or steamed rice, and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

I think it’s a bit like watching sports. Most of us could never be Olympic athletes, but we sit in front of the television and lean into the wind with the ski jumpers.

I’d like to leave you today with some little tidbits I've learned over the last few years.

Did you know…

Ice cream often contains eggs?

Fruit juice may contain carrot juice.

Most packaged foods, like cookies, bread, frozen meals, and meal replacements contain SOY.

I just looked at a few cans in our pantry—the hubby doesn’t have to conform to my diet—and I found soy listed on the labels of chili con carne, vegetable beef soup, prime rib soup, vegetable soup, and mushroom soup. Soy’s also in the frozen French fries/chips, soda crackers, and of course, Teriyaki Sauce.

Many packaged foods contain corn in the form of cornstarch as a thickener.

In the US, the top eight foods most likely to cause an allergic reaction are: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.

Voices

Intrepid Women series, Book 4

Kickass women and the men who dare to love them.

She’s desperate to stop a killer…. 

Rachel Meyers has been on the run long enough—hiding from more than just death. But now the murders happening around her are forcing her to take a stand and the only person she can trust to help is the man she ran away from. Her husband.

He’s desperate to have his wife back….

Quinn Meyers has spent two years searching for Rachel. Now she’s back, scared and asking for help. But Quinn wants answers. Helping her is a given, he won’t say no, but he also won’t let her go again. Not without a fight.

Desperate love…

Quinn’s body still aches for Rachel, even though he’s guarded his heart since the day she left. Her continued secrecy is tearing apart any hope of saving their marriage. But more than love is at stake if Quinn and Rachel can’t find the killer.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR SHARLEEN SCOTT COOKS COWBOY CAVIAR

Romantic suspense author Sharleen Scott lives and writes in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Learn more about Sharleen and her books at her website. 

When I decided to write my romantic suspense/mystery series, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate place for my characters to inhabit than a place I dearly love. The rugged terrain, panoramic vistas, foggy mornings, and stunning sunsets of the Oregon coast created the perfect locale for murder, mayhem, and love. In book one of the series, Caught in Cross Seas, I needed a gathering point for my characters and the Sweet Stuff Bakery and Café was born. It’s a homey little place across the street from the beach in Angel Beach, Oregon, filled with a hodgepodge of secondhand store tables and chairs painted in blues and greens. The owner, homeless advocate Harlie Cates, serves clam chowder, crusty breads, pastries, and sandwiches to locals and tourists alike. Alongside those sandwiches a diner might find potato salad and chips or maybe a large serving of Cowboy Caviar.

Why does Cowboy Caviar fit into this scenario? Because of a cowboy, of course. When country music superstar Clay Masterson comes to Angel Beach in search of his missing father, former city girl Harlie does her best to resist his small town charm and beautiful blue eyes. She fails miserably and soon finds herself in the middle of a bunch of Montana cowboys, a serial killer, and a murder mystery where she could possibly be the next victim.

About the Cowboy Caviar…it’s a delicious combination of fresh ingredients such as avocado, garlic, cilantro, and tomatoes together with a few pantry items like canned corn and black-eyed peas. Mix it up with vinegar, salad oil, and enough hot sauce to suit your taste. Cowboy Caviar is a lot like a romance novel…some like theirs mild and some like theirs hot. Enjoy!

Cowboy Caviar

Ingredients: 

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1-1/2 - 2 teaspoons hot sauce

1-1/2 teaspoons salad oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 firm-ripe avocado

1 can (15 oz) black-eyed peas

1 can (11 oz) corn kernels

2/3 cup thinly sliced green onions

2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 pound Roma tomatoes, chopped

salt

tortilla chips

In a large bowl, mix vinegar, hot sauce, oil, garlic, and pepper. Peel, pit, and cut avocado into cubes. Add to vinegar mixture and mix gently to coat.

Drain and rinse peas and corn. Add peas, corn, onions, cilantro, and tomatoes. Add salt to taste. Serve with chips or as a side dish.

I double the recipe for potlucks and always bring home an empty bowl.

Caught in Cross Seas

When country music superstar Clay Masterson finds his supposedly dead father, he wants to do two things: buy dear ol’ dad a beer to thank him for being a great father for the ten minutes he spent at it, and kick his dad’s sorry butt to Montana to face an eighteen-year-old murder charge. Harlie Cates will try to stop him. Happily ever after could be a problem for them.

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR NORMA HUSS ON QUILT BARNS

A quilt barn in Harrison County, Ohio

Norma Huss, The Grandma Moses of Mystery, has written one ghost mystery (to please her grandchildren, of course) and two mysteries placed on Chesapeake Bay. Her non-fiction is her father’s true adventure. Learn more about Norma and her books at her website and blog.

Quilts and Barns

How do quilts, a handmade bedcover, and barns, a large building for cows, go together? Answer—when a barn sports a quilted decoration.

It’s a natural for the place where I live, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—the home of Amish quilts, dairy farms, fields of hay and corn. But we are sort of a Johnny-come-lately. Quilt trails are found in 48 states and Canada. A local quilting farm woman saw her first barn quilt in Ohio which inspired the one profiled in our local newspaper.

Some 7,000 wooden or Mylar quilts were created by groups such as the Grange (a farming organization I belonged to as a teenage farm girl.) They can be found following quilt trails, and they aren’t all on barns.

Here is the article from our local newspaper. And, of course, something so popular has its own Facebook page here. 

I had never before heard of quilts on barns, or quilt trails. In the summer, we have corn mazes, tours of dairy farms, and the Hershey candy factory. Do you have similar activities where you live? I’d love to hear about them.

A Knucklehead in 1920s Alaska

Nineteen-year-old Bill Collins travels to Alaska in the 1920s to work and save for college. He finds adventure, misadventure, and not much money. He faces hardships, finds friends, and has experiences that change a boy into a man.

During three summers and one winter, Bill survives hunger, earthquake, stomping caribou, and icicle frost. He learns about stopes, sluice boxes, and powder smoke. He finds friends, one willing to face a bear for him, and enemies eager to knife him or smash him with a twenty-pound sledge. He has one lucky day and more than a few really bad days.

This is the story of one hot-headed young man determined to earn his own way, but in his own words, a true knucklehead.

The e-book is free for five days, starting today. Yesterday’s News, a bonus short mystery is included.

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