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