"There are only six sweet potato muffins left," said Alene. < Back Vegan Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Muffins August 13, 2019 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 10 Minutes Serves: 12 Servings Tags: Muffins and Breads, Vegan, Breakfast About the Recipe p. 8 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery “Your new pastries are going to be a huge winner, Nine,” she told Ruthie, using her college nickname. “There are only six sweet potato muffins left.” “That, my dear Six,” Ruthie responded, with Alene’s college nickname, “is because no one wanted the ugly ones.” Just then, Olly Burns pushed through the swing-door into the kitchen carrying dirty dishes and bad news. “Jack Stone’s out front,” he said in his sing-song voice. “Apparently he wants to work here. With us.” Alene rested her knife on the counter and cringed. She’d once smacked Jack Stone when he’d drunkenly tried to feel her up, about a decade before. He might have been somewhat attractive if he matured and cleaned up, but as far as Alene knew, he’d never been able to overcome his drinking problem. “Gary Vanza asked me to hire Jack, as a favor, to last week,” she said, “but he’s probably never held a job longer than a few months.” She paused with her knife in the air, imagining Jack Stone working in her café with his long, greasy hair and torn jeans. Alene glanced briefly at Kacey and added, “I’m a little worried about trying to teach an old dog new tricks.” Ingredients ¾ cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk ¼ cup EVOO, canola or coconut oil ¾ cup cooked, mashed sweet potato or canned pumpkin 1 cup packed dark brown sugar ¼ cup unsulphured molasses (use same cup you use to measure the oil) 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar 2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 ½ cups all-purpose and ½ cup whole wheat flour) ½ tsp salt 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp baking soda Preparation Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray oil into 12 cupcake liners Combine first 7 ingredients in a blender or processor and blend until smooth Stir together flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and baking soda Add to blender and pulse 3 or 4 times just until blended Pour into sprayed cupcake liners (about ¾ full) Bake about 10 minutes in preheated oven Lower oven to 350 degrees, bake an additional 10 until tops are springy Remove from oven Cool and remove from baking pan Serve with maple syrup, berries, whipped coconut milk, chocolate frosting, or jam Variation: stir in a package of mini chocolate chips before baking Previous Next

Only 4 ingredients and great for last minute cookies anytime of year, but I make these during Passover, when we don't use flour or leavening of any kind. < Back Chocolate Passover Cookies April 5, 2023 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: About 12 minutes, remove from oven, cool about 15 minutes before tasting. Serves: 18 Cookies Tags: Cookies and Brownies About the Recipe These cookies are also good for dipping in the chocolate sauce that I usually serve with dessert - Ingredients 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 6 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 cups fine almond flour Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking pans. In a medium glass bowl, microwave the chocolate chips 1 minute, stir. Microwave an additional minute. Stir until smooth. Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the vanilla extract. Stir to break up yolks. Add egg mixture to melted chocolate and stir (don't stop stirring until mixture is smooth). Add almond flour to mixture and stir until blended. Pour tablespoonfuls on the lined pans, leave room for them to spread. Optional: sprinkle an additional 1/4 cup of chocolate chips into the mixture before pouring spoonfuls onto the baking pan. You could also add 1/4 cup of sugar (when you add the almond flour) for a sweeter cookie, although we like them just the way they are! Previous Next

Sujata Massey: Perveen Mistry and Rei Shamuro Mysteries < Back Sujata Massey Author of The Perveen Mistry and Rei Shamuro Mysteries January 5, 2022 Born in England to parents from India and Germany, Sujata Massey was raised primarily in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she’s lived for over thirty years in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s written fourteen novels, two novellas, and numerous short stories published in eighteen countries. Sujata earned a B.A. in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and wrote features for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper before becoming a novelist. Her novels have won the Agatha, Lefty and Macavity awards and been finalists for the Edgar, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark prizes.Sujata spoke about her journey, “The Journalist’s Guide to Mystery,” at our Sisters-in-Crime-Chicagoland November 2021 Zoom meeting! What a lovely, engaging woman! Her story included pictures of her at different times of her life and she gave us glimpses of her writing process. I already loved the first three books in her Purveen Mistry series – set in 1910 India and filled with observations about the cultural/political landscape. Good thing I’ve only read the first book in her Rei Shimura series, set in contemporary Japan, so I’ll have more time with Sujata down the road. Previous Next

Set on the Maine coast, where the Howland family has lived for almost 400 years, the grandfather, John Howland, lives in a fantasy that still places him at the center of the world. < Back A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed Jason Brown January 7, 2020 The ten linked stories in Jason Brown 's A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed (Missouri Review, 2019) follow John Howland and his descendants as they struggle with their New England legacy as one of the country's founding families and the decaying trappings of that esteemed past. Set on the Maine coast, where the Howland family has lived for almost 400 years, the grandfather, John Howland, lives in a fantasy that still places him at the center of the world. The next generation resides in the confused ruins of the 1960s rebellion, while many in the third generation feel they have no choice but to scatter in search of a new identity. Jason Brown earned his MFA from Cornell University, and was a Stegner Fellow and Truman Capote Fellow at Stanford University, where he taught as a Jones Lecturer. He has received fellowships from the Yaddo and Macdowell colonies and from the Saltonsall Foundation. He taught for many years in the MFA program at the University of Arizona and now teaches in the MFA program at the University of Oregon. He has published two books of short stories, Driving the Heart and Other Stories (Norton/Random House) and Why the Devil Chose New England For His Work (Open City/Grove Atlantic). His stories have won several awards and appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Atlantic, Harper’s, TriQuarterly and other magazines and anthologies. Several of his stories have been performed as part of NPR’s Selected Shorts, and his collection Why The Devil Chose New England For His Work was chosen as a summer reading pick by National Public Radio. Stories from the new collection have appeared or will appear in Southern Review, Prairie Schooner (winning their editor’s prize and receiving special mention in the back of Best American Short Stories), Electric Literature, Bellevue Review, Dalhousie Review and the Editor’s Prize from the Missouri Review . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Set in 1898, Harriet Morrow is 21, supports her 16-year-old brother, and has been accepted as the first female detective at the Prescott Agency. < Back The Case of the Missing Maid Rob Osler December 24, 2024 Set in 1898, Harriet Morrow is 21, supports her 16-year-old brother, and has been accepted as the first female detective at the Prescott Agency. She’s given one week to find Agnes, maid to the wealthy Pearl Bartlett, who lives in one of the Prairie Street mansions on the south side of Chicago. Harriet, who prefers wearing men’s shoes and hats and has no intention of ever getting married, immediately notices that Agnes has been taken, probably by force, from her attic apartment. Harriet visits Agnes’s family and neighborhood and riding her trusty bicycle begins searching for clues across the city while grappling with someone in the agency who is trying to sabotage her. If she doesn’t solve the case, she’ll be booted from the agency, and Harriet Morrow can’t let that happen in Rob Osler’s charming novel, The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington Books Publishing 2024). Rob Osler was born and raised in Boise, Idaho and earned a B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Soon after, he moved to Chicago and began a decade-long career as an advertising copywriter, creating television campaigns for Kellogg’s and Tropicana, among others. After a transition to brand strategy and returning to school for an MBA at the University of Washington in Seattle, he spent two decades in senior roles at agencies and corporations in Seattle and San Francisco. Writing throughout, his focus was on business communications and brand strategy, with published articles in The Journal of Brand Management. Rob turned to fiction writing in his fifties. His first-ever publication was a short story, ANALOGUE, set in Seattle’s tech industry, published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The story won the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award. His debut novel, DEVIL’S CHEW TOY, also set in Seattle and published the following year, was a finalist for the 2023 Anthony, Agatha, Lefty, and Macavity Awards and was A Year’s Best by CrimeReads. His second-ever published short story, MISS DIRECTION, set in Palm Springs, CA, and appearing again in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, was a finalist for the 2024 Edgar Allen Poe Awards. His new historical series “Harriet Morrow* Investigates,” set in Chicago during America’s Progressive Era, launches with THE CASE OF THE MISSING MAID, which earned a Publishers Weekly Starred Review and is an Amazon Editors Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. After living in Boise, Chicago, and Seattle, Rob now resides in California with his husband and a tall gray cat, who, depending on the day, goes by the name Noodles, Mr. Chomps, or Monkey. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Immigration problems, climate issues, dysfunctional families, road barricades, and the division between haves and have nots play a role in this dream-like novel. < Back News of the Air Jill Stukenberg October 4, 2022 Immigration problems, climate issues, dysfunctional families, road barricades, and the division between haves and have nots play a role in this dream-like novel. Set in Wisconsin’s stunning Northwoods, News of the Air (Black Lawrence Press, 2022) by Jill Stukenberg centers on a mother, father, and their teenage daughter, who voice the story from each of their perspectives. The novel opens with a pregnant Allie recalling her divorce, worried about her future, avoiding roadblocks to get to work at a Chicago museum, and frantic because of nearby eco-terrorism. In the next chapter, Allie and her husband Bud are proprietors of a far north rustic resort, and their previously homeschooled daughter Cassie, is about to finish her schooling in the local high school. Then two children show up in a canoe, and there is confusion about who they are and what they’re doing in the Northwoods. Jill Stukenberg’s short stories have appeared in Midwestern Gothic , The Collagist (now The Rupture ), Wisconsin People and Ideas magazine, and other literary magazines. News of the Air, her debut novel, won the Big Moose prize from Black Lawrence Press. Stukenberg is a graduate of the MFA program at New Mexico State University, has received writing grants from the University of Wisconsin Colleges, and has been awarded writing residencies at Shake Rag Alley and Write On, Door County. Jill is an Associate Professor of English at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point at Wausau. She grew up in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and has previously taught in New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. Jill enjoys cross country skiing, hiking, and sailing on Green Bay in a small, very old, but still bright blue sailboat with a cracked wooden tiller. She lives in Wausau with the poet Travis Brown and their eight-year-old. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Author and scholar David Wright Faladé tells the story of Richard Etheridge, who towards the end of the Civil War joined America’s first and only “African Brigade.” < Back Black Cloud Rising David Wright Faladé June 14, 2022 In Black Cloud Rising (Grove Press 2022), author and scholar David Wright Faladé tells the story of Richard Etheridge, who towards the end of the Civil War joined America’s first and only “African Brigade.” Later recognized as a state hero, Etheridge is a young man when he joins the brigade in late 1863. Led by the one-armed General Edward Augustus Wild and Captain Alonzo G. Draper, the mission is to flush out rebel guerrillas, “bushwackers,” who continue to fight in Union-won territory. Their other mission is to prove that freed slaves can be trusted as combat soldiers. Set mostly in the swampy barrier islands of northeastern North Carolina, Richard is the son of the master of the house and a black slave. As children, he played with his cousins Patrick (Paddy) and Sarah, until they learned that he was a slave, and they the masters. The Etheridge family sign loyalty to the Union, but Paddy joins the Confederate Partisan Rangers. As the African Brigade moves forward, their raids free those still being held as slaves, and Richard moves closer to reuniting with his childhood love, Fanny. This is a novel about identity, integrity, and the fight for human dignity. David Wright Faladé is a Professor of English at the University of Illinois and the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Raised in the Texas panhandle, he’s the recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, and has written for the New Yorker, the Village Voice, the Southern Review, Newsday, and more. Faladé is co-author (with Luc Bouchard) of the young adult novel Away Running and coauthor (with David Zoby) of the nonfiction book Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers (a New Yorker Notable Selection and the St Louis-Post Dispatch Best Book of 2021). Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Eliyah is 25 when she travels from Tel Aviv to Paris to meet up with her husband, who turns out to be having an affair with a French woman. As her life crumbles, Eliyah plunges into a deep depression, returns home to her childhood bed, and slowly descends into madness. < Back The Woman Beyond the Sea Sarit Yishai-Levi March 28, 2023 Eliyah is 25 when she travels from Tel Aviv to Paris to meet up with her husband, who turns out to be having an affair with a French woman. As her life crumbles, Eliyah plunges into a deep depression, returns home to her childhood bed, and slowly descends into madness. The therapist assigned to her after a suicide attempt manages to help her rebuild her life, but she still grapples with Lily, her not-very loving mother. Then Eliyah and her mother journey across the sea to discover the truth about who they both are. Moving but sometimes horrifying backstories set around the world fill out the lives of the characters - Eliyah’s mother, father, her new boyfriend, and her grandparents. This is a sweeping saga about trauma, betrayal, antisemitism, expulsion from home and country, and secrets. Sarit Yishai-Levi Yishai-Levi was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardic family that has lived in the city for eight generations. She’s been living with her family in Tel Aviv since 1970 and is a renowned Israeli journalist and author. In 2016 she published her first book, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem . It immediately became a bestseller and garnered critical acclaim. The book sold more than three hundred thousand copies in Israel, was translated into ten languages, and was adapted into a TV series that won the Israeli TV award for best drama series. It also won the Publishers Association’s Gold, Platinum, and Diamond prizes; the Steimatzky Prize for bestselling book of the year in Israel; and the WIZO France Prize for best book translated into French. Yishai-Levi’s second book, The Woman Beyond the Sea , was published in 2019. It won the Publishers Association’s Gold and Platinum prizes and was adapted for television by Netflix. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Emma lives in New Jersey, works as a civil engineer, has a reliable boyfriend, and had a wonderful best friend from college who she always secretly loved even. < Back The Almond in the Apricot Sara Goudarzi March 8, 2022 Today I talked to Sara Goudarzi about her novel The Almond in the Apricot (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2022). Emma lives in New Jersey, works as a civil engineer, has a reliable boyfriend, and had a wonderful best friend from college who she always secretly loved even. Not long after her best friend is killed crossing the street in Manhattan, Emma begins having nightmares. In these not-at-all-normal dreams, she is a young girl name Lilly whose life is continuously upended by bombs that force her and her family into a bunker. Unlike normal dreams, Emma’s are continuous and chronological, and she truly inhabits the little girl’s life, including playing with her friends, skipping home from school, or working on her math homework. Lily also finds a wonderful best friend, and when his life is at risk, Emma wants to go back to her dreams to rescue him, but how? Sara Goudarzi is a Brooklyn writer and holds an M.A. in journalism from New York University and an M.S. in engineering from Rutgers University. Her non-fiction, poetry and translations have appeared in Scientific American , The New York Times, National Geographic News, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail, Scholastic’s Science World magazine, The Adirondack Review and Drunken Boat, among others. Sara is the author of Amazing Animals, Leila's Day at the Pool (2022) and several other titles from Scholastic Inc. and has taught writing at NYU and mediabistro. She is a 2017 Writers in Paradise Les Standiford fellow and a Tin House alumna. When she’s not writing, she loves swimming, going to the beach, gardening, traveling, and of course reading! Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

The story of Ben and Nina, two people who meet at a college outside of Atlanta. < Back Songs by Honeybird Peter McDade May 31, 2022 In Songs by Honeybird , Peter McDade (Wampus Multimedia 2022) tells the story of Ben and Nina, two people who meet at a college outside of Atlanta. The chapters alternate between the voices of Ben and Nina, how they met and became a couple before unravelling and slowly moving on with their lives. Ben’s story focuses on his life as a graduate student and the research he does into a possible dissertation about an integrated band from the late 1960’s before two of its members died in a fire. Nina’s story involves her quest for meaning, philosophical discussions with her talking dog who is possibly an incarnation of the Buddha and facing the untimely death of her father when she was too young to understand. The author, a talented, working musician, wrote and recorded a soundtrack of original songs to accompany the novel. In addition to being about fathers, race, growing up, relationship, and understanding one’s history, this is a novel about seeking the truth. As a drummer (who started playing at eight-years-old) for the rock band Uncle Green, Peter McDade spent fifteen years traveling the highways of America in a series of Ford vans. While the band searched for fame and a safe place to eat before a gig, he began writing short stories and novels. Uncle Green went into semi-retirement after four labels, seven records, and one name change; Peter went to Georgia State University and majored in History and English, eventually earning an MA in History. His first novel, Weight of Sound, was published in the fall of 2017, and like Songs by Honeybird, has an accompanying soundtrack of original songs created with help from friends in the music world. He teaches history to college undergrads in Atlanta, plays drums for Paul Melançon & the New Insecurities, and spends time writing, making music, and with his family, trying to understand how to raise teenage girls. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Three members of a loving Minnesota family have a voice in Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s new thought-provoking novel-in-stories. < Back Geographies of the Heart Caitlin Hamilton Summie May 17, 2022 Three members of a loving Minnesota family have a voice in Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s new thought-provoking novel-in-stories, Geographies of the Heart (Fomite 2022). Sarah, the eldest daughter, Al, Sarah’s husband, and Glennie, Sarah’s younger sister take turns telling their story. The book begins with Sarah and Al’s courtship, their relationships with Sarah’s aging grandparents, their courtship trials, and their dream of being parents. There are moving chapters about Sarah and Glennie’s grandfather, his army buddies, his slow decline, and chapters about the family quilt, the aunt who disappeared, Sarah’s relationship with her grandmother. There are also heartbreaking chapters describing Sarah’s painful relationship with Glennie, her sister, whose dream of going to medical school and later career as an OB/GYN are all-consuming. Sarah is constantly disappointed by Glennie’s absence, until one day, everything changes. Everyone grows in one way or another throughout the course of this novel, which is ultimately about remembering and respecting the past, initiating or accepting forgiveness, and showing up for those we love. Caitlin Hamilton Summie earned an MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University, and her short stories have been published in Beloit Fiction Journal, Wisconsin Review, Puerto del Sol, JMWW, Mud Season Review, Belmont Story Review , Hypertext Magazine , and more. Her story collection, TO LAY TO REST OUR GHOSTS, won the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Book Award, Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, and was a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. GEOGRAPHIES OF THE HEART, her debut novel, was inspired by three stories in her story collection. She spent many years in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado before settling with her family in Knoxville, Tennessee. She co-owns the book marketing firm, Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, founded in 2003. When she’s not writing or marketing books, Caitlin loves pending time with her family, including their Aussiedoodle. She also loves reading, movies, and taking walks. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Serve as shown in sections in the bowl because it looks awesome. Then mix at the table. < Back Mango-Avocado Salad June 11, 2020 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes Serves: 4 Servings Tags: Vegan, Vegetarian, Entrees About the Recipe Ingredients 1 Mango cut in small pieces 1 Medium Avocado cut in small pieces 1 cup (or more) chopped Napa cabbage 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/2 cup chopped red onion Juice and zest of one medium lime 1/4 cup Trader Joe’s Chunky Salsa (my favorite – has a smoky flavor) Salt and Pepper to taste (optional) Preparation Serve as shown in sections in the bowl because it looks awesome. Then mix at the table. Or just serve it already mixed. It’ll taste delicious either way! Previous Next