Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Pot Pie #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #Thanksgiving

 Libby Klein Thanksgiving is upon us! It's really late this year too. I know you're probably in the midst of planning and shopping. Maybe things are hectic for you, or maybe you're sitting back, reading a book, and letting someone else do the cooking. Either way, I hope you enjoy your holiday. I always make way too much food. The problem is, I have a big crowd and we each have our favorites. All the holiday favorites have to be represented. We have to have chunky cranberry sauce with oranges and cloves AND the one that comes out the shape of the can. Holidays can be complicated. One thing that I'm going to make easy for you is the leftovers.

I give two days to take the victory lap around the big meal with a leftover plate of all my favorites, and the very important turkey sandwiches. After that I need to do something with all this food. My favorite solution is pot pie. You can use almost every leftover from the typical Thanksgiving dinner and put it in pot pie. I bake mine in little single-serving ramekins, but you can make one big pie - or - you can dish yours out into single-serve freezer proof dishes to bake later. Just thaw and warm in the oven. No need to fuss with a tricky pie crust, just top your warm pot pies with puff pastry and you've got a tasty meal.

Thanksgiving Pot Pie

Filling

2 cups Leftover Turkey, chopped or cubed

Veggies – whatever you have. I used 1 bag frozen peas, 1 bag frozen carrots, and 2 cups leftover green bean casserole. If you have roasted potatoes or brussels sprouts throw them in here!

3-4 cups Leftover gravy. I used the Kevin's Gluten Free Turkey gravy and it was AMAZING!

1 cup leftover stuffing - yep. It will make a nice thick gravy.

Frozen puff pastry, thawed and set up to room temperature. Below you'll see I have both gluten-free and glutened for the lucky folks. 

1 beaten egg for egg wash or 2 TBSP heavy cream for cream wash.

NOTE: ONLY THE SCHAR PUFF PASTRY IS GLUTEN FREE! THE PEPPERIDGE FARM HAS GLUTEN. I GIVE THAT ONE TO THE FAMILY.

Directions

Warm all the above on the stove until hot. Spoon into a casserole dish or individual casseroles - or into freezer proof dishes to thaw and bake later. 

Either bake the frozen pastry by itself on a cookie sheet (which will create a higher lift) and top the finished pot pies when ready to serve. Or cut into rounds to cover individual casseroles. Brush with beaten egg or heavy cream. Bake according to package directions.

Serve right away. If you make a large frozen pot pie to serve later, this makes a great solution for when you need to take something to a party, or make a meal for a friend at the last minute. Just be sure to do the pastry after the pot pie filling is hot.

 

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/

Roasted Butternut Squash With Feta and Dates -- a Thanksgiving #recipe

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  My hunny loves dates, so when I found boxes of them—pitted and unpitted—at Costco last fall, we went on a date spree. ((You’ll see two more recipes using them from me next month.) I spotted this recipe, using some of our favorite fall flavors, in a Washington Post column by Joe Yonan, who adapted it from “Piecemeal” by Kathryn Pauline (Chronicle Books, 2023). I’ve adapted it slightly. 

With squash, feta, rosemary, and ever-festive dates, the dish is a fun Thanksgiving side, but it would also make a great gluten-free, vegetarian main dish. It can be served hot, warm, or at room temperature, which is extra nice on a day when oven space is hotly contested.

I bought the butternut squash already cut. If you buy a whole squash, cut the bell and neck apart. Slice off the ends. Stand each piece upright on a cutting board and peel with a sharp knife. 

You’ll have extra vinaigrette; I’ve used the extra to moisten leftovers, but it would also dress up other roasted vegetables, especially broccoli or cauliflower. I used balsamic vinegar both times we’ve made this, but red wine vinegar would work nicely too. 

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers! We are grateful for your friendship and readership. 

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

Roasted Butternut Squash With Feta and Dates 

For the vinaigrette:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons balsamic or red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons water

1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup

1 clove garlic, finely grated or pressed

1/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

For the squash:

1 medium butternut squash (2 pounds), peeled and cubed

1 small red onion (6 ounces), halved and thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

6 ounces feta, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for serving

8 Medjool dates, pitted and cut into eights (quarter them, then cut crosswise)

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Make the vinaigrette: In a small jar, combine the oil, vinegar, water, mustard, maple syrup, garlic and salt. Screw on the lid and shake to emulsify. Taste, and season with more salt as needed.

Roast the squash: Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper and place the squash and onions on it. Drizzle over 1/4 cup of the vinaigrette and stir or use your hands to coat evenly. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer—as Julia Child says, don’t crowd the pan! Tuck the feta around the squash; it’s fine if the pieces break. Sprinkle with the rosemary.

Roast for 10 minutes, then top with the dates. 

Continue roasting for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the feta is charred in spots and the squash has cooked through but isn’t mushy. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with more rosemary, and drizzle with a little more vinaigrette, to taste, if you’d like. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Servings: 4-6 (makes about 6 cups)

Refrigerate leftovers and any extra vinaigrette, separately, for up to 4 days. Leftovers can be warmed in the microwave. 

💕 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.

Banana Graham Muffins by Maya Corrigan #Recipe #Thanksgiving

Mr. Turkey watching over Thanksgiving breakfast

Yesterday a large overripe banana presented me with a challenge. I usually make banana bread with mushy bananas, but my favorite recipe for it requires 2-3 mashed bananas. I was lucky to find a recipe for banana muffins on the graham cracker box in my pantry. The recipe would work with one banana, as long as I adjusted the ingredients to bake eight muffins instead of twelve. 

If your Thanksgiving guests stay over, these muffins make a (relatively) healthy breakfast or tea time treat. Graham flour gained a reputation as a health food in the early 19th century. The coarsely ground whole wheat flour was for named for Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer. He promoted temperance and vegetarianism, and believed whole grains were a remedy for poor health. His followers, known as Grahamites, developed and marketed graham flour, bread, and crackers.

The ingredients below make 12 muffins. I used approximately 2/3 of each ingredient to match the amount of mashed banana I had. I also substituted 1% milk for the fat-free version, and I left out the nuts.  

Ingredients

16 Nabisco graham crackers, finely crushed (approximately 2-2/3 cups)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup fat-free milk

2 Tablespoons honey

2 fully ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup walnuts, used a topping for each muffin

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Break up the graham crackers into smaller pieces and put them into a resealable freezer bag. Flatten the bag to remove excess air and seal the bag. Use a rolling pin to crush the crackers into crumbs. Instead, you can use a food processor to turn the crackers into crumbs.

Crackers in pieces appear at the bottom.
Crushed crackers are shown at the top.

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and baking powder. 

Combine the egg, milk, honey, and mashed banana in a large mixing bowl. Add the crumb mixture and stir until the batter is moistened. Spoon it into paper-lined or buttered muffin cups. Top each muffin with nut pieces if you're using them. 

The photo might not make it obvious that I filled the unused cups with a little water. I learned years ago to fill any empty cups. The purpose might be to add moisture to the baking environment and/or to keep the empty cups from getting too hot and burning. 

Bake the muffins for 15 to 18 minutes. To test they're done, insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin. It should come out clean when the muffin is sufficiently baked.   

Cool the muffins for 5 minutes. Then remove them and put them on a wire rack to continued cooling. 

READERS: Do you have a favorite breakfast dish for Thanksgiving Day or the day after?

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

📚

The gift-giving season is coming up fast. If you have a friend who'd enjoy a holiday mystery, Gingerdead Man would make a great gift. 

"A wonderfully seasonal cozy mystery"

--Criminal Element

Gingerdead Man: Five-Ingredient Mystery #7 features cafe manager Val and her energetic grandfather solving murders in their Chesapeake Bay town.

During Bayport's Dickens of a Holiday festival, Val is hosting a private tea party for the volunteers dressed as Dickens characters including Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past. A Santa who's more naughty than nice also comes to tea. An unexpected guest arrives, "shrouded in a deep black garment" like the eeriest Dickens ghost, and hands out gingerbread men with white icing skeleton bones. Though the creepy treat called a gingerdead man looks like a Halloween leftover, cookie addict Santa can't resist it. When the man in red turns blue, Val and Granddad have a cookie-cutter killer to catch.

"If you are looking to settle in with a well plotted cozy this Christmas, Gingerdead Man is for you. Grab a gingerbread man and some hot chocolate and enjoy." -- Mark Baker, Carstairs Considers

"Plenty of red herrings, mixed motives, and recipes for foodies make for a spirited holiday cozy." -- Kirkus Review of Gingerdead Man

"Maya Corrigan is skillfully able to take elements from several of my favorite Golden Age mysteries and weave them together....Gingerdead Man is a superb mix of cozy Christmas mystery shenanigans and hair-raising thrills." -- Miranda Owen, Fresh Fiction

 Purchase Links and Sample Chapter

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website for book news, easy recipes, and mystery trivia.

📚

\

Chili Under a Slab by Ang Pompano #giveaway #Thanksgiving

LUCY BURDETTE: Today I’m delighted to welcome my dear friend Ang Pompano who brings an easy recipe for the day before Thanksgiving, plus a giveaway of DEVIL’S SNARE, the brand-new short story anthology from Crime Spell Books. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing...US and Canada readers only please...

ANG POMPANO: As Thanksgiving approaches, most people are gearing up for turkey, stuffing, and pies. Meanwhile, in our house, we jokingly call it the Famine Before the Feast—when my wife, Annette, won’t let me touch any of the food prepared for the guests. To keep myself fed and lend a hand, I make our meal the day before Thanksgiving. One of my go-to favorites is her recipe for a cast iron skillet chili with cornbread baked right on top.

Being a mystery writer, I had to give it a name with a bit of intrigue, so I call it Chili Under a Slab. It’s a one-pan wonder—made, baked, and served in the same skillet—which means no extra bowls to wash, and that’s right up my alley. Whether you need a quick meal before the holiday madness or a cozy dish to tide you over until the feast, this chili is the perfect solution to the mystery of what’s for dinner.

This recipe is designed for a 14-inch cast iron skillet. If using a smaller skillet, reduce the ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lbs ground beef

• 1 small red onion, chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, cut into ½-inch chunks

• 1 (15 oz) can black beans, undrained

• ½ cup salsa

• ½ cup canned corn, undrained

• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning

• 2 teaspoons dried parsley

• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes

• 1 cup water

•

Cornbread Topping:

• For 14-inch skillet: 2 boxes corn muffin mix, 2 eggs, ⅔ cup milk

• For smaller skillet: 1 box corn muffin mix, 1 egg, ½ cup milk

Instructions:

1. Brown the ground beef (I used ½ ground beef and ½ ground turkey) in the skillet over medium heat. Drain the fat and set the beef aside.

2. In the same skillet, sauté the onion and bell pepper until softened. Return the cooked beef to the skillet.                                

3. Add the diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, salsa, taco seasoning, parsley, and water. Stir to combine, then let it simmer for 10 minutes.

                                                

4. Prepare the corn muffin mix according to package instructions:

o For the 14-inch skillet, mix 2 boxes with 2 eggs and ⅔ cup milk.

o For a smaller skillet, use 1 box, 1 egg, and ½ cup milk.

5. Spread the cornbread batter evenly over the chili mixture in the skillet.

                   

6. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

7. Bake the skillet in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown.

8. Sprinkle ½ to 1 cup of shredded cheese (cheddar or Mexican blend) over the top. Return the skillet to the oven for 2-3 minutes, just until the cheese melts.

9. Serve hot and enjoy!

Fans of Mystery Lovers Kitchen, what’s your favorite “secret ingredient” for chili? Share it in the comments below for a chance to win a copy of Devil’s Snare in our drawing!   Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, and publisher. He created the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency and Reluctant Food Columnist series, both published by Level Best Books. His Agatha-finalist novel, When It’s Time for Leaving, will be re-released in January 2025, followed by a new book, Blood Ties and Deadly Lies, in February 2025.

In addition to his writing, he is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books, alongside Susan Oleksiw and Leslie Wheeler. Together they publish the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. The latest installment, Devil’s Snare, featuring stories from both established and emerging New England writers has just been released and is available at the purchase link here.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread #Recipe Peg Cochran/Margaret Loudon #Thanksgiving

 

This is SO good!  It's from Sally's Baking Addiction.  Her recipes never disappoint.  I made this for Thanksgiving breakfast--I think it would be perfect.  I doubt it will last that long though and I suspect I'll be making another one.  It's easy to put together--no mixer needed!  It's also rather impressive to look at with the cinnamon swirl running through it.  The yogurt, milk and egg should all be at room temperature.

Cinnamon Swirl:

1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

Reserve 2 tablespoons for top of bread

Bread

2 cups flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt/Greek yogurt)

2/3 whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

Preheat oven to 350°F). Spray a 9x5 inch pan with nonstick spray.

Cinnamon Swirl:

Mix the 1/2 cup sugar and 1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon together. (Reserve 2 tablespoons)

 

Bread:

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and 3/4 cup sugar together until combined. 

Whisk in the oil, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. 

 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then whisk to completely combine. Avoid over-mixing.  

 

Spread half of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle almost all of the cinnamon sugar evenly on top (reserve about 2 Tablespoons for topping). 

 

Spread remaining batter evenly on top. 

 

Sprinkle top with the rest of the cinnamon sugar. Using a knife, make a large swirl down the loaf pan.

 

Bake the bread for 50-65 minutes, covering loosely with foil about halfway through to prevent the top from over-browning. 

 

 

 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.)