VMBURNS: It's a new month and I'm still feeling the New Orleans vibe. So, I tried Red Beans & Rice. This is NOT an authentic, Cajun recipe. It's an EASY recipe for red beans and rice that I found online and tweaked. The house smelled WONDERFUL. It tasted pretty darned good, too. What changes? I reduced the amount of cayenne pepper a smidge from 1 Teaspoon to 1/2 Teaspoon. I 

Larb (also spelled laab) is a dish popular in Laos and Northeastern Thailand made with ground meat, along with onion, aromatic herbs, fish sauce, and lots of lime juice, which is traditionally served wrapped in lettuce leaves.   It’s often made with minced pork, but I sometimes substitute ground beef or turkey if that’s what I have in my freezer. This time, I used Impossible Burgers (

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Books are often called "armchair travel," and that is certainly true of the Destination Murders anthologies, edited by our friends Cathy Wiley and Karen Cantwell. Each volume of short cozy mysteries by a rotating cast of authors takes readers to new places, near and far, introducing readers to authors, series, and characters we may not know. I was delighted to

CONGRATULATIONS to our own Leslie Budewitz on the release today of Murder in the Graveyard: A Destination Murders Anthology. Murder in the Graveyard features short cozy mysteries by Cathy Wiley, Karen Cantwell, Meri Allen, Leslie Budewitz, Misha Crews, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Tina Kashian, Daphne Silver, Shawn Reilly Simmons, and Rosalie Spielman. Look for Leslie's story, "The

CLEO COYLE:  Do you remember that classic Peanuts movie, aired yearly for decades: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? Or maybe you have fond memories of carving a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween? For reasons like these, I always think of October as a time to celebrate the humble pumpkin...👇Enjoy this fun little trip down the Great Pumpkin memory lane, courtesy of

  My granddaughter liked croissants...until she didn't.  I ended up with six croissants going stale (who left the bag open??). I hate wasting food so I decided to see if they could be turned into something.  Bread pudding seemed the most logical choice.  One recipe claimed you could even make bread pudding with leftover hamburger or hot dog buns or even donuts so why not

In the newest Year Round Christmas book, O Deadly Night, by Vicki Delany, Vicky Casey, owner of Victoria’s Bake Shoppe, writes a cookbook. Along with her favourite cookies, tarts, and cakes, she has suggestions for fancy holiday meals or quick suppers to feed the visiting crowd. For the first time in this series, there are some recipes in the book. One of them is a perennial favourite of mine (

 Lucy Burdette: Do you ever buy specialty ingredients and then forget how you meant to use them? The photo above shows my summer acquisitions. I haven't tackled the cheese powder or the orange flavorings yet, but I did use the Everything topping. Here's the story...A while back I shared Pat Kennedy‘s fabulous recipe for pigs in a blanket. (If you don’t remember, you can find it right here.)

Libby Klein I've just returned from a Mystery Writer's Conference in New Orleans where I did as many tours as I could squeeze into two pre-conference days. My favorite tour was a guided food tour of the city by a local chef. Even though I couldn't eat everything on the tour, I still found a new favorite. The Muffuletta. It's pretty close to being an Italian hoagie with olive and vegetable

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Who doesn’t love a hearty pasta made in one pot? This recipe is perfect for a weeknight dinner. It’s flexible, too – choose hot, mild, or unseasoned sausage, and hot or sweet peppers, as you prefer. The anise-y taste of fennel is a terrific compliment to the sausage and peppers. The method of cooking the chunk of sausage in one piece, rather than broken and stirred

   Where, oh where does the mystery writer write? My original idea for this Spotlight Sunday piece was to post some of my favorite pictures from the places where I’ve set my stories. But how to choose from the scads of pictures of Scotland, Ocracoke Island, the Tennessee mountains, Cape Cod, and the Monterey coast that I’ve taken over the years? As I sorted through them, I realized

  Earlier this month, Ang Pompano shared his recipe for grilled melon. It looks amazing! It also made me realize that we hadn’t grilled bananas even once this summer. We probably wouldn’t fire up the grill just for bananas, but if we have the fire going, anyway, then the bananas take very little time to prepare and only add about five minutes to the total grilling. This recipe is a

MADDIE DAY: After the worst of the warm weather abated earlier this month, I had a hankering for fresh bread, and it was finally cool enough to contemplate baking. I wasn't really up for my usual whole wheat yeasted kneaded recipe, and my sourdough starter is dead, so I hunted down a slow-rise, no-knead artisanal bread recipe. It turned out to be easy to make. When the result was as pretty

 VMBURNS: In September, I attended the world mystery conference, Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans is known for good food and I was not disappointed. I also found good cocktails. I had my first hurricane. It was delicious. So, of course I had to try to recreate the drink. I had most of the ingredients on hand, but passion fruit juice isn't in my normal routine. According

 Here in Santa Cruz, we’re lucky enough to still have the last tomatoes of the season on our vines. But with the cool weather fast approaching, it was time to do my final harvest this last week. And boy, was it a harvest—my single Roma tomato plant bore some fifty pounds of fruit this year! So what to do with all those glorious tomatoes? I decided to try my hand at a Slow-Roasted Tomato

From Cleo Coyle: Fall is now officially here. Whenever feel that brisk autumn chill in the air, I alway start craving pancakes, and these Pumpkin Pancakes make a fantastic fall meal. 🍂 Adding pumpkin is a great way to bring extra fiber, nutrition, and flavor to the table. These little cakes are amazing topped with my easy-to-make Warm Butter Pecan Syrup or try my

  Congratulations to our own... Kim Davis, on the release of ESSENTIALS OF DEATHthe second book in the Aromatherapy Apothecary Mysteries! After a scandalous arrest in San Francisco, Carissa Carmichael has moved back to her small Southern California hometown to start over as she opens her Aromatherapy Apothecary shop and reflexology services. A tourist destination,

 KIM DAVIS: Tomorrow is a the release day for ESSENTIALS OF DEATH, the second book in the Aromatherapy Apothecary Mysteries! As I was reading through it for the fiftieth time, hunting for any last pesky typos that escaped the attention of the editor, proofreader, and myself, I starting making note of any food mentioned during the story so that I could come up recipes to share on Mystery

 Today the Kitchen is pleased to present the marvelous Victoria Hamilton, with a delicious recipe from her Merry Muffin Mysteries. And she's doing an incredible GIVEAWAY of a "Hug From Canada" gift package! So be sure to leave a comment below, for a chance to win this terrific prize. Take it away, Victoria: Hello Mystery Lovers! My main character in the Merry Muffin Mysteries is Merry

 I didn't always like curry.  The first time I tasted it I thought it was horrible.  Somewhere along the line, I changed my mind and now I adore curries.  This recipe looks as if it has a lot of ingredients but it's quite easy and quick to make.  I imagine you could sub boneless chicken thighs for the breasts if you would prefer that.  Sadly, I didn't have any

This is a non-recipe recipe. Nothing I love more than tomatoes in season, preferably bought direct from the farmer who grew them.  Right now, here in Southern Ontario we’re overwhelmed with the bounty.  Although, due to the summer’s drought some home gardeners are reporting low yield. This is one of my favourite ways of using small, fresh tomatoes in a pasta sauce. It isn’t really a

 LUCY BURDETTE: I saw a recipe for this cherry dessert made by food writer Adam Roberts a month or two ago. He borrowed the recipe from Lydia Bastianich, and I decided I must try it since the cherries have been so good this summer. Mine did not turn out so perfectly cute, and for that I have two theories. As you can see in the photo, the crust unfolded as it baked. Why? Number one, I might

Libby Klein I was a huge fan of cooking shows in the 90s before they became all about competitions and judging. One that was a little unique was called Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. Who remembers that?Sandra Lee's recipes always called for things like boxed cake mixes, or instant pudding. I refused to make them back then because I was a wannabe chef and it seemed like cheating.

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: You know what happens: You see a recipe go by online and it sticks in your mind. And keeps on sticking, but you didn’t make a note of it and don’t know where to find it. Sometimes it’s not so easy, but other times, thanks to the magic search mice, you find what you’re looking for in a flash. That seems like a good sign. But is it?In the case of these Lemon Freeze Bars,

 ANG POMPANO: One of the earliest lessons I learned was, "Don't play with your food." But when I heard about grilling watermelon, I had to give it a shot. I had no recipe, no clue how it was supposed to be done—as a habitual griller, that just made it more tempting. I'd been waiting all summer to try, yet every time we brought one home, my family devoured it before I could get near the