THE INGREDIENTS;

Links: https://kyoung18.wixsite.com/kelly-young-author
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kelly-Young/author/B00927WCK8
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5781387.Kelly_Young

Kelly writes the Travel Writer Cozy Mystery

Breakups are never easy. But when a young woman disappears after a very public breakup, leaving everything, including her medication behind, a small town’s Pumpkinfest celebration is disrupted. Will travel writer and sleuth Casey find the woman in time? It’s an urgent quest at Pumpkinfest. Book Link

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the blog post by answering the following questions:
What inspired you to choose the particular culinary setting for the book?
While the series is not culinary, but travel, the second book is culinary and I chose the real event of Pumpkinfest in Port Elgin for the setting, as I am familiar with that area and event.

What kind of research goes into creating the culinary aspects?
In each book in the series, we see the characters getting together over food at actual restaurants located in the actual settings. This always involves trips to the town in question, so I can get a feel for it, its events, and people. For Urgent Quest at Pumpkinfest, I enlisted the help of family and friends to submit pumpkin recipes and included them at the end of the book.

Do you have any personal culinary experiences that influenced your writing?
The aforementioned eating establishments mentioned in my books are ones I have frequented myself, and my main character usually eats the same type of food as I would eat.

Bake our readers’ interest by providing some additional information
How do you use culinary elements to develop your characters and their relationships?
I am a firm believer that many of the important moments in life happen around a table. For my characters, they meet up around various tables to discuss not only the work the travel writer is engaged in, but the case they are embroiled in, and in the process solidify and develop relationships.

What are some challenges you face in blending culinary themes?
Culinary themes in my books are something that I attempt to have appear comfortably in the background as the characters enjoy a meal together. The challenge is to not sound like a restaurant menu, but have the food being shared flow into the story with humour and a sense of realism.

SERVE WITH A RECIPE FROM YOUR BOOK (or your favorite recipe)

A Pumpkinfest recipe

My niece has her own baking business – Hammond Baking Co. – and when I asked for a pumpkin recipe, she crafted the following recipe for Pumpkin Pretzels, specifically for the book.

(makes 5) * 1 cup of milk * 2-1/4 tsp quick rising yeast * 3 tbsp brown sugar * 2 tbsp soft butter * 2-1/4 cups all purpose flour * 1 tsp salt * 1/3 cup baking soda * 1 tbsp cinnamon sugar * 1/4 cup icing sugar * 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice * 1 tsp of vanilla * 1 tsp water

1. Heat milk in saucepan over med heat until steaming
2. Transfer to a mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast on top. Wait 2-3 mins until yeast soft
3. Stir in brown sugar
4. Transfer to kitchen-aid bowl, with wooden spoon mix in butter and 1 cup flour until gooey like paste
5. Add remaining 1-1/4 cup flour and salt and set on low/medium speed with dough hook until tacky dough forms
6. Place the ball of dough in a greased bowl and spray top of dough with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hr
7. Preheat oven to 450
8. Cut dough into 5, roll with palms of hand starting in the middle and rolling outwards, slapping dough to lengthen
9. Roll into a pretzel shape
10. Add baking soda to 4 cups of warm water
11. Dunk pretzels into water solution quickly and place them on baking sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
12. Bake 14 mins, rotating pans halfway through
13. While baking, mix icing sugar, vanilla, water, and pumpkin pie spice together to make glaze
14. When pretzels come out, move to cooking wrack and brush with glaze
15. Eat! by Emma Hammond

THE INGREDIENTS;

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Michelle writes the Cheese Cafe Cozy Mystery series.

In Brianna West’s new cheese-themed café on quaint Driftwood Island, she plans to serve mascarpone croissants and asiago scones to friends new and old. But when Brianna follows her eccentric Aunt Dot’s escaped goat and discovers the water buffalo farmer next door with Dot’s pitchfork in his back, her aunt is suspect number one. With the help of her chatty best friend, the inflated egos of the local Gourmand Society, and a handsome local Mountie in charge of law enforcement, Brianna sets out to prove her aunt’s innocence. Poison and Parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the blog post by answering the following questions:

What inspired you to choose the particular culinary setting for your mystery series?
I’ve been a lover of cheese since I was old enough to say the word. When I went to choose a subgenre to write my cozy mysteries in, I had choices between animals, hobbies, food, and many others. Food was the obvious choice for me! When I was brainstorming ideas, I kept coming back to the thought of a cheese-themed bakery-café. I mean, who wouldn’t want to visit that? If it existed in my town, I would eat there for sure. A lot of my mystery writing is wish-fulfillment in the cozy little town of Snuggler’s Cove.

What kind of research goes into creating the culinary aspects of your mysteries?
Buying and eating all sorts of cheese, of course! I also test and modify recipes, because I make companion cookbooks for my readers to enjoy along with their novels. My newsletter often gets the early versions to try out. So, plenty of eating and baking for me. It’s a hard life!

Do you have any personal culinary experiences that have significantly influenced your writing?
I have no formal training in the culinary arts. My two main sources of learning were: my mother, who is an excellent cook and taught me how to make things from scratch that taste amazing; and plenty of testing in my own kitchen! The school of experience is my teacher.

Bake our readers’ interest by providing some additional information

How do you keep the culinary elements in your series fresh and exciting with each new book?
Each book features a new type of cheese, and it’s been fun to think of inventive ways to incorporate each one into the plot. Murder and Mozzarella focuses on the murder of a water buffalo farmer (the type of milk that traditional mozzarella is made from). Fraud and Feta features a suspect with Greek origins, as well as an unsettling ritual with the cheese. Poison and Parmesan uses the cheese in the plot, but I won’t say more in order not to introduce spoilers!

Are there any food-related subplots in your series that you find particularly compelling or fun to write?
I adore the Gourmand Society that Brianna is a member of. It’s a glorified cheese club, but the president is a food snob, grumpy with a heart of gold. The rest of the members are just as colorful, and they are a joy to write in all their quirky hilarity. They tend to help Brianna solve the mystery in their own special ways.

How do you use culinary elements to develop your characters and their relationships?
The local law enforcement are Mounties, since this is a series set in small-town Canada. One of the officers is very fond of Brianna’s scones and comes in regularly to buy them. They have some chemistry, and the scones are a great excuse for them to see each other.

SERVE WITH A RECIPE FROM YOUR BOOK (or your favorite recipe)

A timer dinged from the kitchen, and Brianna held up her finger. “And
fresh rosemary and paprika mozzarella bites made with Montague
buffalo milk.”
Magnus sniffed and glanced at the offerings behind glass.
“I’d better order the mozzarella,” he said gruffly.

ROSEMARY-PAPRIKA MOZZARELLA BITES

D I R E C T I O N S
1) Cut 12 oz mozzarella cheese into one-inch pieces.
2) Dip cheese into a bowl of 1 cup milk, one handful at a time. Transfer mozzarella with a fork to a bowl of 1 cup all-purpose flour and dredge.
3) Dip back in milk, then in a bowl filled with a mixture of 2 cups panko
bread crumbs, ¼ tsp salt, 1 tsp paprika, and 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried rosemary) until evenly coated.
4) Place mozzarella bites on a plate and freeze for at least 2 hours.
5) Heat up 2 tbsp oil on medium heat. Fry mozzarella bites in hot oil, turning occasionally, until golden brown (a few mins). Be sure to take them out of the oil before they get too hot or cheese will ooze out of
breading.
6) Serve warm, with marinara or other sauce if desired (although they’re delicious plain).
Makes 4-6 servings.

Victoria LK Williams
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