Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa from @KorinaMossAuthor

KORINA MOSS: We're just about to start a new year, so I'm sure many of you are like me and making resolutions for healthier eating. Healthy fish tacos get such a boost from this creamy dressing and mango salsa. This makes enough for about 2-3 tacos.

MANGO SALSA

Ingredients:

1 fresh mango, cubed (about 1 cup)

1 cup Roma or cherry tomatoes, diced (not shown -- didn't have) 

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp white sugar

1/2 TBL rice or cider vinegar 

1-1/4 TBL fresh lime juice

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Combine mango, tomatoes, red onion, and garlic (and cilantro)

In a separate small bowl, combine sugar, vinegar, and lime juice. Stir.

Pour lime mixture into mango mixture. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour. 

CREAMY DRESSING

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of scallions or red onion, diced

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (optional)

1 clove garlic, minced

3 TBL mayonnaise

3 TBL sour cream

1-1/2 tsp lime juice

Directions:

Mix mayo, sour cream, and lime juice. Add the rest of the ingredients. Chill for at least an hour.

TACOS

Ingredients:

White fish (Cod, tilapia, haddock, etc.)

soft tortillas, flour or corn

Red cabbage, chopped

Carrots, julienned

mango salsa

creamy dressing

Directions:

Grill, bake, or pan fry white fish. Grilled has the best flavor. You can also use fried fish. Season to taste. 

Warm tortillas

Chop up fish and place on tortilla

Add mango salsa

Add creamy dressing

Add cabbage and carrots

Enjoy! 

Readers: What's your favorite way to eat fish? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner of the Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP Magazine, and Writer's Digest.

The Cheese Shop Mystery series is available wherever books are sold. To find out more and subscribe to my FREE monthly newsletter, visit my website and follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

Cheese Shop Mystery #5: Fondue or Die   The small town of Yarrow Glen's neighbor, Lockwood, hosts an annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days. And Willa Bauer and her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, refuse to miss out on the fun. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite thing--after all, she is a cheesemonger--and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge. When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police aren’t sure whether the death was an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who steps in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who. 

Buy Now

Cheese Shop Mystery #6: Bait and Swiss
Yarrow Glen's newest business gives one unlucky resident the swiss of death. It’s been almost two years since Willa Bauer opened Curds & Whey in Yarrow Glen, and both cheesemonger and cheese shop are thriving in the Sonoma Valley. While Willa doesn’t eat chocolate, it’s true that life is like a box of chocolates. Unfortunately, life’s latest curveball is that Willa’s ex fiancé and ex-best friend―the reason for her chocolate aversion―are opening a chocolate pop-up shop across the street. By the end of the shop’s first day, the town’s newest reporter is the victim of death by chocolate. Now Willa’s ex wants her to be Swiss Congeniality, solve the case, and save the day. As much as Willa wants to hit him with the nearest cheese wheel, she can't stop herself from saying yes. And it’s not long before tourists decide to stay clear of town until the killer is caught. To save Yarrow Glen, Willa and Team Cheese have some work to do.

Preorder Now. Releases April 29, 2025

Korina Moss is also a freelance developmental editor specializing in cozy and traditional mysteries. Using her experience writing her award-winning series for a Big 5 publisher, she has the inside track on what editors, agents, and readers are looking for in a cozy mystery.  Whether you're a new writer hoping to be traditionally or independently published, or you're an established writer wanting some guidance with a manuscript, she can help you strengthen your book. You can find more information on her website and contact her at korinamossauthor@gmail.com. 

Cheese Plate by Numbers from Maya Corrigan

While browsing in the library, I spotted a book with an intriguing title: That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life. I didn’t believe that any cheese plate had that much power, but the book’s subtitle hooked me: Creative Gatherings and Self-Care with the Cheese by Numbers Method. I’m a sucker for anything “by numbers.” I remember Paint by Numbers kits that I had as a kid. As an adult, I bought a book called Flower Arranging by Number. Neither my paintings nor my floral creations came close to looking like their models. Maybe I’d have more luck with cheese.

With New Year's Eve parties a few days away, cheese plates seemed like a timely subject for a post. I borrowed the book from the library and gave the cheese-plate-by-numbers method a try. It involves using 6 basic ingredients to make a balanced plate: 1-cheese, 2-meat, 3-produce, 4-crunch, 5-dip, 6-garnish. 

Written by Marissa Mullen and illustrated by Sara Gilanch, the book contains photos of roughly fifty cheese plates. The collection use plates or boards of different sizes and shapes. The photos are so beautiful that they qualify as food art. For each plate there’s an ingredient list, a diagram of where the ingredients go on the plate, and images showing how to build the plate in six steps. 

The author describes various techniques for preparing the ingredients for the plate.  Illustrations show how to cut cheeses that come in different shapes, whether wedges, bricks, or wheels like brie. “To dive into different textures and shapes with a cheese knife is oddly satisfying," the author says. She explains how to make a salami river that flows through the plate. You fold each salami slice into a fan shape and then overlap the slices on the plate, creating an arc or an S-shape. 

There are vegetarian cheese plates and some for people with various food sensitivities. The book also  contains a handful of recipes for items that might go on a platter, for example, marinated goat cheese with herbs, Southern pimiento cheese, and baked brie. 

Having looked at all the book's photos of cheese plates, I decided to wing it when I made my own for a group of four. Instead of taking the author's list of ingredients to the supermarket, I used what was in the fridge and the pantry: two cheeses of different colors, grapes, broccoli, radishes, crackers, cheese sticks, nuts, and salami. The best I could manage with the salami was a small pond with ripples instead of a river. If I'd followed the rules, I would have put a dip in place of the nuts, and I didn't have any garnish on hand. At best, my cheese plate would have earned a C grade, but it was the most attractive one I'd ever made. I'll have to wait until my next attempt to discover if my life has changed in a small way or if I go back to slapping three different cheeses on a plate with crackers on the side.  

A week after I made my cheese plate, I visited friends who hadn't read That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life. Their cheese board was nonetheless quite attractive. 

 READERS: What nibbles are you planning for New Year's Eve?

I wish you all a happy, healthy 2025!

📚

Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mystery series. It features a young cafe manager and her young-at-heart grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. Maya has taught college courses in writing, literature, and detective fiction. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit her website for book news, mystery history and trivia, and easy recipes. Sign up for her newsletter there. She gives away a free book to one subscriber each time she sends out a newsletter. Follow her on Facebook.

A PARFAIT CRIME: Five-Ingredient Mystery #9

Set in a quaint Chesapeake Bay town, the latest novel in Maya Corrigan’s Five-Ingredient Mysteries brings back café manager Val Deniston and her recipe columnist grandfather – a sleuthing duo that shares a house, a love of food and cooking, and a knack for catching killers.

At the site of a fatal blaze, Val’s boyfriend, a firefighter trainee, is shocked to learn the victim is known to him, a woman named Jane who belonged to the local Agatha Christie book club—and was rehearsing alongside Val’s grandfather for an upcoming Christie play being staged for charity. Just as shocking are the skeletal remains of a man found in Jane’s freezer. Who is he and who put him on ice?

After Val is chosen to replace Jane in the play, the cast gathers at Granddad’s house to get to work—and enjoy his five-ingredient parfaits—but all anyone can focus on is the bizarre real-life mystery. When it’s revealed that Jane’s death was due to something other than smoke inhalation, Val and Granddad retrace the victim’s final days. As they dig into her past life, their inquiry leads them to a fancy new spa in town—where they discover that Jane wasn’t the only one who had a skeleton in the cooler.

Read an excerpt and see where to buy A Parfait Crime.  

Praise for A Parfait Crime

📚

 

Roasted Squash and Spinach Salad from Molly MacRae

 

This is a nice wintertime salad with warm spices and beautiful colors. It’s hearty enough to be a dinner salad with crusty bread on the side but also makes a good side for whatever main dish you’re cooking up. Be prepared, though. The recipe calls for tossing all the ingredients in a “serving bowl.” I have a few fairly large serving bowls but nothing gigantic enough to hold this salad. The solution? A soup kettle – not elegant but adequate and you can’t beat that.

Roasted Squash and Spinach Salad

(adapted from Yasmin Fahr at the New York Times)

Serves 6 as a dinner salad and many more as a side

 

Ingredients for salad

1 butternut squash (about 2 pounds), halved and seeded

2 large red onions, halved tip to tip then sliced in 1-inch wedges

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

10 ounces baby spinach

1/4 cup salted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds

 

Ingredients for dressing

1/2 cup crumbled feta (with more for garnish, if desired)

1/4 cup full-fat yogurt

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Put the halved, seeded squash and onion wedges on a large sheet pan. Pierce squash all over with the tip of a sharp knife. Coat everything, including squash skin, with olive oil. Season cut side of squash with cumin and coriander. Put squash halves cut side down on pan and surround with onion wedges.

Roast until squash skin is blistered and easily pierced with a fork, 25 to 40 minutes, depending on thickness of squash.  

While squash and onions cook, combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

Remove squash and onions from oven and let sit until squash is cool enough to handle. Then scoop bite-size pieces from the skin, putting pieces on baking sheet to cool a bit more. Discard squash skin.

In a very large serving bowl (or inelegant soup kettle), toss spinach with dressing. Scrape squash and onions into bowl, tossing to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, and more feta if you like. Serve warm or at room temperature.

News!

Come Shell or High Water, book 1 in  the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries is out now,

but keep an eye out for 

There’ll be Shell to Pay, book 2 coming in June!

 

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 and Guideposts. 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, Pinterest, Instagram.

 

 

Turkey Tikka Masala @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here, in this lovely limbo week between Christmas and New Year's. 

Many people enjoy a roast turkey for Christmas dinner, but there's always the question of what to do with the leftovers. I subscribe to the New York Times recipes feature, and I ran across this yummy option. If you don't have turkey leftovers this week, save the recipe for next Thanksgiving!

Turkey Tikka Masala

Adapted from Samin Nosfrat’s recipe in NYT Cooking.

 

Ingredients

For the Marinade

2 teaspoons garam masala

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

4 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 teaspoon kosher salt

6 cloves garlic, finely grated or pounded in a mortar and pestle

4 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger

1 cup whole-milk yogurt

4 cups cooked turkey (about 1 pound), cut into 1½-inch pieces

For the Masala

4 tablespoons neutral oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

6 cardamom pods, crushed

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

1 teaspoon garam masala

1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, finely grated or pounded in a mortar and pestle

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes

2 cups light cream

¾ cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley), plus a few sprigs for garnish

Juice of 1 small lemon or lime

Steamed basmati rice, for serving

Preparation 

In a medium bowl, stir together garam masala, coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, kosher salt, garlic, ginger and yogurt. Fold in the turkey. Cover and chill for 4 hours or overnight.

 

On the stove top, heat a Dutch oven or similar pot over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons oil, then add onion, cardamom, paprika, pepper flakes (if using), garam masala and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are brown and tender, 10 to 15 minutes, adjusting temperature as needed so the onion doesn’t burn.

 

Make space among onions in center of pot and add 1 tablespoon oil. When oil begins to shimmer, add ginger and garlic and sizzle for about 10 seconds. Combine that mixture with the spiced onions. Stir in tomato paste. Add tomatoes and their juices, crushing them with your hands as you add them. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until the liquid is almost gone, 8 to 10 minutes.

 

Add cream and chopped cilantro (or parsley) to the pot. Season with 1 teaspoon kosher salt, then taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 40 minutes.

In the meantime, line a baking sheet with foil, turn on oven broiler, and arrange an oven rack about 6 inches from broiling unit. Lay the marinated turkey on the foil in a single layer. Stir any remaining marinade into the sauce. Broil until turkey begins to blacken in spots, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside.

Add turkey to the sauce and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until just warmed through. Just before serving, stir in lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt as needed.

To serve, garnish with cilantro (or parsley) sprigs (I forgot this step). Serve hot, with steamed basmati rice. Cover and refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months.

Readers: What's your favorite Indian dish, or other international food?

🦃🦃🦃

 Deadly Crush is out and available wherever books are sold.

My most recent releases are Murder at the Rusty Anchor,

 A Case for the Ladies,

And Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

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.