Spotlight on Kim Davis #SpotlightSunday #giveaway

KIM DAVIS: Since my next upcoming cozy mystery release, Essentials of Homicide, (September 2026) is from my Aromatherapy Apothecary Mysteries, and my latest book, Essentials of Death just released in audiobook, I thought I'd take you to my setting. 

(Be sure to scroll down to the end to find out how to win a copy!)

When I started writing the Aromatherapy Apothecary Mysteries, I knew I needed a small town or a small community feel with a cozy vibe. It was fairly easy to create and develop the characters, but I needed an original setting for them to share their stories and solve the murders. And somewhere that wouldn’t fall into the Cabot Cove trap… we don’t want to kill off the entire population of a town! I needed a place that would attract a lot of fresh bodies, err, tourists. I also wanted it based in Southern California (my first series is in Newport Beach, CA, close to where I live and used to work) and at least based on somewhere I knew well or could easily visit to get the “flavor”. I wanted a place unique enough that it could almost be its own character.

 

 

And then inspiration struck: I could base my setting on the small tourist town (population less than 8,000) I grew up in until the age of 14, when my parents moved us to an even smaller town with less than 1,500 residents (which would not make for a good setting for a murder mystery series). Ojai (pronounced OH-HIGH) is about 80 miles from Los Angeles and attracts movie and television studios for on-location filming.

 

 

The Spanish-style architecture and the mountains surrounding the town make for a gorgeous backdrop, whether for filming, weddings, or vacationing. There are wineries, spas, artists’ retreats, and outdoor attractions like golf, tennis, and horse and biking trails. In addition, the city hosts a variety of annual festivals that attract people from all over. It would give me an excellent source of victims, bah-hah-ha.

 

I’d like to say I’m a pay attention to details kind of person, but I’m not. One of the first things I did was turn Ojai into the fictional town of Oak Creek Valley. I didn’t want sharp readers to find errors in my directions or street names, and unless the sun is rising or setting, I’m not sure I know if I’m headed east or west. Forget about north or south directions…which is why I can’t drive anywhere new without my navigation system blaring directions at me.

 

 As I began developing my character, Carissa Carmichael, I added some small things that I’d experienced during my time in Ojai. I have her living in an avocado orchard, just like a couple of my friends did. Carissa and her dad spent long hours in the saddle, trail riding in the surrounding Topa Topa Mountains. I too spent a lot of afternoons horseback riding with friends.

 

I also liked that Carissa could use the bounty from the orchards and farms in the area, from avocados to olives to citrus to lavender, in her essential oils. When I revisit the area, I adore driving with the windows down to breathe in the fragrant blossoms from the trees, which also make incredibly delicious honey. 

And even better are the many wineries and tasting rooms to try out!

As I prepare for the release of Essentials of Homicide, the third book in the Aromatherapy Apothecary mysteries, it’s like taking a step back in time for me and reliving some of my childhood memories…which thankfully did NOT include murder.

 

Many thanks to my cousin and fellow former Ojai resident, Mary Karnes, for allowing me to use her photos of the locale today! I'm including a photo of the both of us at the Ojai Valley Inn enjoying lunch together a while ago. Photos of food and wine are mine... priorities you know! 

 

You can visit coastal Southern California in my Cupcake Catering Mysteries or visit Ojai, aka Oak Creek Valley in my Aromatherapy Mysteries!

Books available at most online retailers

 

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Apple

 

Cupcake Catering Mysteries * Essentials of Murder* Essentials of Death

 

About the Author:

Kim Davis writes the Aromatherapy Apothecary cozy mystery series, and the award-winning Cupcake Catering cozy mystery series. She has also written several children’s nature articles published in a variety of magazines. Kim Davis is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

She lives in Southern California with her husband and rambunctious mini Goldendoodle, Missy, who has become an inspiration for several plotlines. When she’s not spending time with her granddaughters or chasing Missy around, she can be found either writing on her next book, working on blogs, or in the kitchen baking up yummy treats to share.

Click here to sign up here for Kim’s newsletter: Newsletter

Connect with Kim: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Bluesky, Bookbub, Goodreads, TikTok, and website

 

G I V E A W A Y   T I M E !!!

I'm giving away a copy of Essentials of Death, your choice of format: print, ebook, or a Spotify audiobook.

Comment below and include your email (yourname at yourserver dot com) for a chance to win a copy of Essentials of Death. (Contest ends 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Print and ebook limited to US residents; audiobook is available for everyone on the Spotify app.)

Readers, do you have a favorite small town you enjoy visiting as a tourist?

Kimchi Jeon (Kimchi Pancake) #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

I jumped at this recipe because we love kimchi. We first came across the salted, seasoned, fermented vegetable Korean dish in the 80s in the produce section of our local grocery store in the northeast corner of Tennessee—hardly a cosmopolitan area at the time. It came in a large glass jar that showed mostly cabbage leaves packed in a brine red with seasonings and spices. Yum! It became a favorite even of our small boys.

The kimchi adds nice zip to this savory supper pancake. It reminds me of a recipe for zucchini egg foo young I used to make when we had enough sun in our yard to grow too many zucchinis.

I doubled the recipe to feed four. That’s easy enough to do, and I followed the cookbook’s suggestion of making the batter in two batches and cooking one pancake after the other.

Someday I might try making my own kimchi. If I do, and it works, you’ll see it posted here at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen.  

 

You’ll find a free, downloadable, printable pdf of the recipe below the cooking directions.

Kimchi Jeon

Adapted from The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen

Serves 2 

Ingredients for Dipping Sauce

5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar

5 tablespoons plus 1 soy sauce

5 tablespoons plus 1 water

1 1/2 teaspoons unseasoned rice vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

Ingredients for Pancake

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg white

1 cups cabbage kimchi, drained with 2 tablespoons juice reserved, chopped coarse.

3 scallions, white parts sliced thin, green parts cut into 1-inch piece lengths

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

 

Directions

For the dipping sauce

Simmer all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

For the pancake(s)

Whisk flour, egg white, and reserved kimchi juice together in a large bowl. Stir in the scallions and kimchi until combined.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 10-inch nonstick (or well-seasoned cast iron) skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pancake batter and spread into an even layer. Cook until well browned around the edges, about 4 minutes. Run a spatula around the edge of the pancake and shake to loosen. Slide the pancake onto a large plate.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the now-empty skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Invert the pancake onto a second large plate, then slide it, browned side up, back into the skillet. Cook until the pancake is well browned on the second side, about 4 minutes. Slide the pancake onto a cutting board, cut into wedges, and serve with the dipping sauce.

 

 

🍳click here for a free, downloadable, printable pdf of this recipe🍳

 

 

Now available for pre-order – All Shell Breaks Loose

book 3 in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries!

 

On North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Maureen Nash sells exquisite seashells to locals and tourists—with Bonny the shop cat and the ghost of a Welsh pirate for company. And when needed, she steps in to help the police solve a murder . . .

Dr. Irving Allred is boasting around town that he’s about to get his hands on an authentic haunted sword. But minutes after Maureen hears the story, a woman walks into the Moon Shell, sword in hand. She found it while walking her bulldog on the beach—and its blade is stained with what looks like blood. Looks like it’s time to call the sheriff’s department.

Allred is furious that his prize is now in police custody—and even more agitated that an unknown buyer was trying to outbid him. He’s convinced the sword will lead him straight to the ghosts he’s been hunting. He’s not the only one on the Outer Banks who’s been searching for spirits, though. An odd visitor also showed up at Maureen’s shop claiming the ability to sense them . . . though somehow she didn’t seem to notice Maureen’s spectral friend hanging about.

When a man who’d been camping nearby is found cut down along the shore, Maureen starts providing some unofficial assistance to Captain Rob Tate by digging into the island’s maritime history. But it’s not the only mystery she’s facing—because the shop’s resident ghost is seeing ghosts himself . . .

  

Happy reading!

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Pasta Salad

MADDIE DAY here, with a warm-weather dish. Yes, it's only mid-May, but we had a heat wave here this week, and I couldn't bear much cooking in 93-degree weather. I turned on the vent above the stove and boiled a pot of pasta, then threw together this salad once the pasta cooled.

It's adaptable to whatever vegetables and herbs you have around.

Spring Pasta Salad

Ingredients

Half a box of shaped pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 cup diced cucumber 

3 small tomatoes, cubes

1/4 cup diced yellow pepper

1/4 cup diced feta cheese

1 teaspoon capers

salt and pepper

Directions

Cook the pasta according the directions on the box. Rinse, toss with the olive oil, and let cool. Combine all other ingredients and toss, then add salt and pepper to taste. Fresh slivered basil would be a nice addition, but I didn't have any.

We ate outdoors with grilled salmon and chilled white wine. Bon appetit!

Readers: What do you like in your pasta salad?

🥗🍷🥗

A Poisonous Pour is out and available wherever books are sold!

Next up is Murder at the Toy Soldier, Cozy Capers Book Group #8, which releases in late August.

My most recent releases are Murder at Cape Costumers,

Scone Cold Dead, #13 in the Country Store Mysteries,

and A Case for the Ladies.

Check out all my writing.

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.

A Different Take on Ricotta Gnocchi à la the Smitten Kitchen from Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: You may already recognize that I am a fool for gnocchi. I’ve already made them here and also some potato gnocchi with Nikki Bonanni that I cannot find, darn it. But I wanted to try a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen. I own several of her cookbooks, but haven’t done more than admire things so far. I think it was the pistachio arugula pesto that pushed me over the finish line here. (See Smitten Kitchen Keepers for the original recipe.)

Ingredients for the gnocchi

2 cups whole milk, ricotta

One large egg

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (this is reduced from her amount, since I find the cheese, salty enough)

One cup all-purpose flour

Olive oil oil for frying.

Ingredients for the pesto.

1/2 cup shelled pistachios, mine were salted.

One small garlic clove (reduction, per me)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (reduced from 1 teaspoon)

Freshly ground pepper or red pepper flakes or both

One and a half cups arugula leaves, washed and dried

1/2 cup olive oil

To make the gnocchi, first drain the ricotta by scooping it out onto a paper towel or kitchen towel, covering it with a second one and patting it down. Leave it to dry while you prepare the next ingredients.

Beat the egg, the salt, and the Parmesan to combine. Beat in the drained ricotta. Mix in the flour until it is absorbed.

Scoop the batter onto a floured surface. Roll it out into a long rope and divide the rope into three-quarter inch sections freeze the pasta for 10 to 15 minutes to make for easier browning.

Meanwhile, blend the nuts, garlic, peppers, and salt in a food processor. Add the arugula and process until everything is roughly chopped. At this point, you can taste to see if you need more salt and add it as you see fit. Add a half cup of olive oil and blend that as well.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan (I added a couple tablespoons of butter too), and fry the little dumplings until they are browning. When all of them are cooked, add the arugula, pistachio pesto, gently stir, and grate more fresh Parmesan on top.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Next up...Rancho Gordo's polenta gnocchi, maybe with mushroom butter sauce?? Or possibly sweet potato gnocchi, what do you think?

Meanwhile, we hope you will be fools for Hayley Snow's 16th adventure, A DELICIOUS DECEPTION, coming July 14 at a bookstore near you!

USA Today bestselling author Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including A POISONOUS PALATE and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. Join her mailing list right here.

Coming July 14--isn't it gorgeous?

Book 15 in the Key West series, THE MANGO MURDERS, is in bookstores now!

The trade paperback edition of A POISONOUS PALATE is out now! 

And the trade paperback edition of A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS is out now!