by Ellery Adams
The Red Bird’s Cranberry Kisses Mocktail
Serves 25
25 orange wedges
75 ounces cranberry juice cocktail
12.5 ounces fresh orange juice
Club soda or Sprite
Add juices to punch bowl. Fill with ice and club soda or Sprite. Pour into individual glasses and garnish with an orange slice.
Milla’s Black Bean Soup
Serves 2–3
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced jalapeños
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, with liquid
1 quart low-sodium vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
Sour cream, for garnish
Sliced avocado, for garnish
Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeños and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir to coat vegetables, and cook about a minute more.
Season with pepper, chili powder, and cumin and stir to coat.
Add black beans with their liquid and vegetable broth. Stir soup, add bay leaf, and bring to a boil.
Immediately reduce to a simmer and let simmer until slightly reduced, about 15 minutes. Remove bay leaf.
Using a food processor, blend the soup to desired consistency.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, sliced avocado, and cilantro.
Lindy’s Tuna Garden Pasta Salad
Serves 6
2 cups whole-wheat rotini (6 ounces)
1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1/3 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 cans tuna packed in water, drained
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup diced yellow or red bell pepper
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes, or according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold running water.
Whisk mayonnaise, yogurt, oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl until smooth. Add the pasta and tuna, and then toss to coat. Add tomatoes, bell pepper, carrots, olives, green onions, and basil; toss to coat well.
Tip: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
Dolly’s Buttermilk Pie
3 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch of salt
2 unbaked pie shells
Preheat over to 275 degrees F. Beat eggs and combine with buttermilk. Sir in the rest of the ingredients. Pour into 2 unbaked pie shells.
Bake for 10 minutes then increase the temperature to 300 and bake for 50 minutes.
Makes two because Dolly has a lot of customers who love this pie.
Mrs. Anderson’s Lentil and Vegetable Stew with Moroccan Spices
Serves 6
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon butter
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 cups finely shredded kale
4 (14-ounce) cans vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 large carrots, chopped
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon ground black pepper, to taste
Combine cinnamon, cumin, salt, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, and curry powder in a large bowl.
Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion in the butter until soft and just beginning to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in kale and spice mixture; cook until kale begins to wilt and spices are fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Pour the vegetable broth into the pot. Stir garbanzo beans, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, lentils, apricots, and honey into the broth; bring to boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until vegetables and lentils are cooked and tender, about 30 minutes.
Season stew with black pepper.
If you want to thicken the stew, dissolve 1 tablespoon of flour or cornstarch into 1 tablespoon of water; stir into stew and simmer thickened, about 5 minutes.
Books by Ellery Adams
The Secret, Book & Scone Society
The Secret, Book & Scone Society
The Book Retreat Mysteries
Murder in the Mystery Suite
Murder in the Paperback Parlor
Murder in the Secret Garden
Murder in the Locked Library
The Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries
Pies and Prejudice
Peach Pies and Alibis
Pecan Pies and Homicides
Lemon Pies and Little White Lies
Breach of Crust
The Books by the Bay Mysteries
A Killer Plot
A Deadly Cliché
The Last Word
Written in Stone
Poisoned Prose
Lethal Letters
Writing All Wrongs
Killer Characters
The Supper Club Mysteries
Carbs & Cadavers
Fit to Die
Chili con Corpses
Stiffs & Swine
The Battered Body
Black Beans & Vice
Pasta Mortem
Hope Street Church Mysteries
The Path of the Crooked
The Way of the Wicked
The Graves of the Guilty
The Root of All Evil
Fate of the Fallen
Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries
A Killer Collection
A Fatal Appraisal
A Deadly Dealer
A Treacherous Trader
A Devious Lot
A Killer Keepsake
Other Books by Rosemary Stevens
The Murder-A-Go-Go Mysteries
It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod Murder
Twist and Shout Murder
Secret Agent Girl
The Beau Brummell Mysteries
Death on a Silver Tray
The Tainted Snuff Box
The Bloodied Cravat
Murder in the Pleasure Gardens
The Cats of Mayfair (Regency Romance)
A Crime of Manners
Miss Pymbroke’s Rules
Lord and Master
How the Rogue Stole Christmas
About the Authors
New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams grew up on a beach near the Long Island Sound. Having spent her adult life in a series of landlocked towns, she cherishes her memories of open water, violent storms, and the smell of the sea. She now writes full-time from her home in North Carolina, which she shares with her husband, two trolls, and three keyboard-hogging felines. Adams loves coffee, champagne, kickboxing, 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles, Pinterest, and black jelly beans.
Her traditionally
published series include The Secret, Book, and Scone Society Mysteries; The Book Retreat Mysteries; The Books by the Bay Mysteries; and The Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries.
Her Indie series include the Supper Club Mysteries, the Hope Street Church Mysteries, and the Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries.
• • •
Rosemary Stevens is the author of the Murder-A-Go-Go retro mystery series set in 1960s New York City, the Beau Brummell mystery series set in Regency England, and four sweet Regency romances in the Cats of Mayfair series. Stevens won the Agatha Award and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for her first mystery, Death on a Silver Tray. She lives in Central Virginia with her family, including two Siamese cats whose wishes she caters to day and night. She loves British detective shows, anything vintage, chocolate, pizza, and Southern food, especially biscuits and gravy, and is perpetually on a diet.