Gluten-Free Ultimate Ginger Cookies #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #Christmas

 Libby Klein My son-in-law doesn't like sweets. That is a fact that shocks me on every level. He even gets nauseated when sweets are baking which makes me want to hug him and ask, "Who hurt you?" I make sure to do all my Christmas baking before he arrives. No need to start the holiday off with drama. There's plenty of time for that. One of my new cookies I started making a few years ago was based on Ina Garten's Ultimate Ginger Cookies. I love the addition of chopped, candied ginger. So when I discovered that my son-in-law kept sneaking into the kitchen to get a handful of these cookies while we were distracted with our games, I knew I had a recipe I'd make every year. He demolished the entire can almost single handedly. Thank you Ina Garten!

Mitch’s Ginger Cookies
Adapted from Ina Garten’s Ultimate Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1 extra-large egg, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups chopped crystallized ginger (6 ounces)
Granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and then combine the mixture with your hands.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar, oil, and molasses on medium speed for 5 minutes. 

Turn the mixer to low speed, add the egg, and beat for 1 minute. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat for 1 more minute. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the crystallized ginger and mix until combined.

Scoop the dough with 2 spoons or a small ice cream scoop. With your hands, roll each cookie into a 1 3/4-inch ball and then flatten them lightly with your fingers. Press both sides of each cookie in granulated sugar and place them on the sheet pans. 

Bake for exactly 13 minutes. The cookies will be crackled on the top and soft inside. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all. 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her 
classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Apple Raisin Muffins -- a fall #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  In my first year out of law school, I set about teaching myself to cook. I knew how to bake—my late mother’s great kitchen skill—but she’d rarely made muffins, which I loved. Still do. I bought a couple of cute little muffin cookbooks I still use, and a spiral bound pack of index cards to write out recipes I culled from other sources. These Apple Raisin Muffins were one of the first entries. The bears left us a decent apple crop this year, so I made a batch. They freeze well, and I’m looking forward to the taste of autumn all winter long.

Do you have a favorite recipe from your early days of cooking?

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Apple Raisin Muffins 

4 cups diced apple (no need to peel; 1 medium apple is about 1 cup)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine apples and sugar; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 

Add the apples and sugar and stir to combine. 

Use the empty bowl to mix eggs, oil, and vanilla, then add to flour mixture. Stir in raisins and walnuts.

Spoon into muffin tin. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12-15 muffins. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

TO ERR IS CUMIN:A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, out now in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.

AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE: THANKSGIVING FAVORITES + 6-BOOK GIVEAWAY

 

KORINA MOSS: Happy November! Are you one of those people who jumps right from Halloween to Christmas? As much as I love the Christmas season, I am a sucker for Thanksgiving. It probably helps that I’m usually a guest at the Thanksgiving table rather than the cook. I love all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. My most oft requested contribution is my apple pie with crumb topping, a recipe handed down from my mother. It’s made with Macintosh apples bathed in cinnamon, brown sugar and butter with a brown sugar crumb topping. I like to eat it warm with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream.  

What’s your Thanksgiving must-have? Do you have a dish that your family insists you make? Or a dish you love to eat that absolutely must be on the Thanksgiving table?  Join our conversation in the comments and you will be entered to win a prize package of terrific mysteries. 

🦃 🍎 🥧

LESLIE KARST: I’m an avowed cream hound, so this one’s a no-brainer: Creamed onions. Just like my grandmother used to make. Which ends up being a pain most years, because if you can locate them—a big “if”—fresh pearl onions are incredibly laborious and time-consuming to peel. 

 

 

 

And although the frozen kind work fine as well (and are so much easier to use), I can almost never find them in Hilo, Hawai‘i, where I now live during the holiday season. So I often make do with using regular white onions and then quartering them for the dish. Grammy would have tsked, but they still taste delicious!

 

🌿 🍶 🍃

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Mr. Right and I are classic trailers, the much-younger siblings expected to travel for family gatherings at the holidays -- always fun, but that meant we didn't create a lot of traditions of our own. These days, we tend to stay home at Thanksgiving and travel at Christmas. We're mostly likely to buy a turkey breast. We've roasted it, rolled it, stuffed it -- what can I say? We like playing with our food. Broccolini or Delicata squash, or both. Mashed potatoes. Gravy because he loves it. Cranberry sauce because I love it. I make a pecan pie because we both love it. A bottle of pinot noir. 

And I almost always make Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins the next day, drawing on the flavors of the season. Looks like I've never shared the recipe here at the Kitchen. Hmm. I'd better change that sometime soon!  

🦃 🍎 🥧

LUCY BURDETTE: If I'm hosting, I make the regulars, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie. I never cared that much about stuffing until I made a cornbread-sausage version for the 9th Key West mystery, A DEADLY FEAST. From time to time I've made the mashed rutabaga potato combination my mom used to serve, and also those creamed onions. My dad too was a huge fan of mince pie, with lots of hard sauce. A waste of dessert, I say!

🦃 🍎 🥧

LIBBY KLEIN: I love Thanksgiving. As my family has grown over the years I find myself having to make two turkeys just to have leftovers! I always think my favorite side dish is the sweet potatoes, but there's something about that green bean casserole that I just can't get enough of. And I am a cranberry sauce girl! I put it on my turkey sandwiches. If you've not tried it you're missing out. The dish I have to make every year is a weird one because it was never meant to go with turkey. It's my Pineapple Stuffing. Yes, the same recipe that was hijacked by my friend Connie! It's the perfect side dish for ham. Everyone loves it. My husband can't get enough of it. I've seen my in-laws hide little dishes of it in the back of the fridge to ensure they get some before it's gone. I make it every year to please them. Thankfully, one of my best friends has come to the rescue and now brings a ham to Thanksgiving dinner. 

🦃 🍎 🥧

MADDIE DAY:  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I host us, whichever sons and wives (and now a grandgirl) are around, our close family-by-choice (which now includes 3 grandkiddos), and several other regulars every year. Food, loved ones, and no gifts expected or required? It's my kind of celebration.

Because I host, I provide the turkey and gravy, my mother's bread stuffing, smashed potatoes, and pies (apple, pumpkin, and pecan), plus a pretty table, and the guests bring everything else. Here's one of my world-famous sky-high apple pies.

Oddly, it appears I have documented none of these fabulous dishes! So I can't add links. We now always spatchcock the Thanksgiving turkey, and here's how I made a spatchcocked chicken using the same procedure. 

But my mother's bread stuffing is my very favorite (well, tied with the pumpkin pie). There's something about the delicious smell in the morning of onions sauteing in lots of butter that makes me feel like I'm in another country, where home cooks everywhere (usually women) are preparing a big midday repast. Add celery, herbs like rosemary and thyme, chopped walnuts, loads of torn stale bread, and some simmering turkey stock (from the neck and innards you already took out and set to boil with an onion and the celery tops), and call it heaven.

🦃 🍎 🥧

VMBURNS: One of the things I look forward to the most is cornbread dressing. Growing up, my mom rarely made dressing any other time. I think it's because its very time consuming. She would start cooking cornbread days in advance (it needs time to dry out). Then, on Thanksgiving morning, she would start. The house smelled amazing. I never learned to make my mom's cornbread dressing (my mom didn't measure anything), but my sister did. A few years ago, I went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving and watched (and took notes) while she made it. It was tedious and took longer than normal while we measured and documented the process so I could include it in Steal Away, the third book in my RJ Franklin Mysteries. Even though I can make this recipe whenever I want, I still don't make it until Thanksgiving. 

🦃 🍎 🥧

MOLLY MACRAE: I’ve always loved Thanksgiving and have great memories of big and small family gatherings—turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy with giblets, lima beans, cranberry sauce, watermelon pickles, olives! Interesting, though, I don’t remember dessert. Pie, probably, but who knows?

I’ve been doing the dinner with all the usual trimmings, for whichever part of the family is around, since 1983. In 2003 I added roasted sweet potato spears with molasses horseradish to the lineup. That first time of making them I got caught up talking and laughing on the phone with my sister Jenny and I roasted the potatoes quite a bit longer than the recipe called for. The partially caramelized spears that resulted were a revelation! Darker than the picture in the magazine, but with a terrific, dark flavor, and I’ve made them that way ever since. These sweet potato spears will make you stand up and cheer!

🦃 🍎 🥧

PEG COCHRAN:  I've hosted Thanksgiving for years.  Some years we were a huge bunch--my in-laws, hubby's sister and brother-in-law, his aunt, my sister and niece, my parents and my two daughters.  Our table has dwindled over the years and I've got my fingers crossed that this year my younger daughter and her husband will come and bring our newest grandbaby--Oscar!  We always have turkey, never ham.  I make stuffing but it's actually dressing since I don't stuff the turkey. Green bean casserole is a must (with bechamel sauce no cream of something soup), sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, gravy and mashed potatoes.  I have to have mashed potatoes!  I absolutely love them and with gravy they are heavenly.  And of course cranberry sauce! Ever since I wrote my Cranberry Cove Series (#9 out now!) I have been trying all things cranberry.  One year I made this divine Cranberry Fig Compote that put a different spin on the usual recipe.

🍎🍎🍎

MAYA CORRIGAN: We were the designated Thanksgiving dinner hosts for decades. Family members had different ideas about how cranberries should be served, but everyone agreed that the stuffing/dressing was terrific. Our foolproof recipe is based on Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing mix. We modified the recipe that comes with the mix, filled the turkey cavity with as much stuffing as could fit, and served the rest as a side dish of dressing. 

🍂 🦃 🍂

CLEO COYLE: For us, it's not Thanksgiving without the turkey! Marc and I not only love the main event, we look forward to all the leftovers: turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey salad, turkey stroganoff, which is why we take care to cook that Thanksgiving bird just right. Getting that skin golden brown and nice and crispy while keeping the meat moist is a technique we've honed over the years. We shared our recipe and tips a few years ago, and we're happy to share them again for anyone curious about how we make our Thanksgiving bird. 

Click here or on the image below to see our blog post (with mini videos) on The Secret to Crispy-Skinned Roast Turkey, and happy Thanksgiving month, everyone! 

Click here to see Cleo's recipe post (with mini videos)
on the "Secret to Crispy-Skinned Roast Turkey
with Herb Butter"

GIVEAWAY!

Readers: Do you have a dish that your family insists you make? Or a dish you love to eat that absolutely must be on the Thanksgiving table?  Join our conversation in the comments and you will be entered to win a prize package of some terrific mysteries. Be sure to include your email address so we may contact the winner.

Join the conversation!

Comment below to win these 6 great mysteries!

Include your email address so we may contact the winner.

Giveaway Prize Package:

SILENT NIGHTS ARE MURDER by Libby Klein

MURDER UNCORKED by Maddie Day 

FONDUE OR DIE by Korina Moss

STEAL AWAY by V. M. Burns 

HONEY ROASTED by Cleo Coyle

COME SHELL OR HIGH WATER by Molly MacRae

🦃

Comments open through 

Wednesday, November 6

Pumpkin Cottage Cheese Bread #Recipe Peg Cochran/Margaret Loudon

 

Cottage cheese is definitely having a "moment."  I've seen recipes using it in all sorts of things from ice cream to pancakes.  The goal is to add protein to whatever it is you're making.  Okay.  I decided to try this "healthier" version of pumpkin bread (if anything with a cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of maple syrup can be considered healthy.).  The recipe is from RachLMansfield but I made a few tweaks.  I substituted pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon and I used gluten-free flour.  It was very tasty and incredibly moist.  I can see possibly adding chopped nuts, raisins or cranberries.  Next time. It was gone in a flash!

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled 

2 eggs

3/4 cup pumpkin purée 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup cottage cheese or Greek yogurt

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups regular flour or gluten-free

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon cinnamon or substitute pumpkin pie spice

 

Preheat oven to 325 Degrees.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper creating a “sling” and spray with cooking spray.

Blend melted, cooled butter, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, cottage cheese or yogurt and maple syrup.

 

Blend in flour, cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice) and baking soda.  Mix well.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes (time may vary based on your oven.)

 

Cool before serving.

 

 A Berry Suspicious Death is now out!

 

    AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE    

 

Weddings are murder in the new Cranberry Cove Mystery from USA Today bestselling author Peg Cochran!

The cranberry bogs at Sassamanash Farms have never looked more festive than when Monica’s half-brother celebrates his wedding there. It’s a genuinely joyous occasion, and even greeting a strange assortment of guests and witnessing a heated argument can’t spoil Monica’s mood. But that all changes when one of the guests is found murdered at the reception—and then one of Monica’s employees is accused of doing the deed to get his hands on the dead woman’s money.

It doesn’t take long for Monica to discover that the victim had amassed her fortune by marrying a very wealthy—and very ill—older man. What’s more, the old man’s daughters despised the scheming, gold-digging woman, and thought the inheritance money should have been theirs. That seems like motive enough for murder, but Monica suspects there’s more to this case than simple greed. With her employee in hot water and time running out, Monica will have to act fast to catch the killer, before a case that started with a family wedding ends with her own funeral . ..

AMAZON

                BARNES & NOBLE

 

 

Website

Facebook Page

 

Peg Cochran is the author of the Open Book Series (writing as Margaret Loudon), the Cranberry Cove Series, the Murder, She Repored series, the Farmer's Daughter Series, the Lucille series and the Sweet Nothings Lingerie Series (writing as Meg London.)

 

Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls Without Rolling from Vicki Delany

As you know I use my slow cooker a lot, and one of the cookbooks I consult most frequently is Ricardo: Ultimate Slow Cooker by Ricardo Larrivée, a Montreal chef.  This recipe takes the usual cabbage roll ingredients and puts them in a slow cooker, without having to do all that rolling and folding, and making a mess. 

Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls Without Rolling

INGREDIENTS

3/4 lb (350 g) hot or mild Italian sausages, meat removed from casing

3/4 lb (350 g) ground beef

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsp (10 ml) dry mustard

1 tsp (5 ml) celery salt

1 tsp (5 ml) dried oregano

1/2 cup (125 ml) long grain rice, uncooked

1 can (28 oz/796 ml) diced tomatoes

8 cups (2 litres) thinly sliced green cabbage

3/4 cup (180 ml) chicken broth

Salt and pepper

PREPARATION

In a bowl, combine the sausage meat, ground beef, onion, garlic and spices. Season with salt and pepper.

Crumble half of the meat mixture in a slow cooker. Layer with half of the rice and a third of the tomatoes. Cover with half the cabbage and press lightly. Season with salt and pepper.

Layer with the remaining meat and rice. Add a third of the tomatoes and cover with the remaining cabbage. Press lightly. Season with salt and pepper. Top with the remaining tomatoes and drizzle with the broth. Cover and cook on Low for 4 hours.

Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com.  She’s on Facebook at www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor (as Vicki Delany & Eva Gates) and Instagram @vicki.delany. To sign up for Vicki’s quarterly newsletter, go here: Vicki Delany – Canadian Author of Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels » Contact

Now available: The seventh Year-Round Christmas Mystery, A Slay Ride Together With You.

 

 

 

  

Cheese Ball Dressed as a Pumpkin! by Lucy Burdette #Halloween

 

LUCY BURDETTE: For some reason, my Facebook feed seems to be full of videos of people making food. Actually, I know the reason—I can’t stop watching them and the more I watch, the more they send me. This pumpkin look-alike cheese ball was one of them, and I determined that I must recreate it for you. I made it for some friends and was so tickled when the wife thought it was a real mini-pumpkin:). This is my Halloween recipe, but it would work for thanksgiving too! It’s all in the presentation…

Ingredients

One package Boursin cheese, flavor of your choice

Sharp orange cheese—the more orange the better 

One stem from a bell pepper

Shape the Boursin into a ball. Grate the orange cheese finely. Roll the ball into the grated cheese so the entire surface is covered. You may have to tap the cheese into place with your fingers. 

Cover the ball of cheese with plastic wrap. Tie four pieces of string around it to make 8 indentations so it resembles the sections of a pumpkin. Refrigerate. Remove the cheese from the plastic wrap, and add the pepper stem on top. 

Make sure to take the cheese ball out of the fridge an hour or more ahead of party time, so it isn’t too crumbly to cut and serve.

Serve with crackers and vegetable slices (such as the pepper you sacrificed for the pumpkin!) Happy Halloween!

Lucy circa 1982

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling A POISONOUS PALATE and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. 

You can order that wherever books are sold. If you’re all caught up, try Lucy’s first women’s fiction title, THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS.

Also follow Lucy on Facebook, and sign up for her mailing list right here.