What do you do when you want to cook something special and filling for breakfast that is packed with vegetables and doesn't need eggs? < Back Almond Zucchini Apple Fritters February 12, 2023 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 15-20 minutes Serves: 4-5 Tags: Baking, Breakfast, Vegetarian, Vegan About the Recipe I've got a zillion variations of the theme of fritters - try switching out vegetables or replacing apple with banana. Ingredients 1 cup almond flour, 1 grated apple ½ cup grated zucchini Optional: chopped sweet red peppers ½ cup olive oil 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp flax meal 1 tsp pure vanilla extract ¼ tsp salt Preparation Stir everything together in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium. When hot, drop 1 Tablespoon size pancakes and turn when they start to bubble. Previous Next

Today I talked to C. P. Lesley about Song of the Storyteller (Five Directions Press, 2023). < Back Song of the Storyteller C.P. Lesley January 31, 2023 It’s 1546, and Ivan the Terrible is about to be coronated and married off. Government nobles are given 6 weeks to choose the most beautiful, highborn, fertile, and politically expedient brides from around the country. Before Tsar Ivan makes his choice, 16-year-old Lyuba is forced to go through a series of examinations as a potential bride, but she’s in love with someone else and planning to do everything she can to make herself as unappealing as possible. But anything too obvious could backfire, and her family would pay the price if she was anything but delighted to be a candidate. C. P. Lesley was born in England and lived in the states from the age of eleven. She earned a PhD in Russian History from Stanford and has always loved telling stories. Author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel , The Golden Lynx , The Winged Horse , The Swan Princess, The Vermilion Bird , and The Shattered Drum (Five Directions Press), she is currently working on the sixth book in her Songs of Steppe & Forest series, Song of the Steadfast . The series includes Song of the Siren (2019), Song of the Shaman (2020) Song of the Sisters ( 2021), Song of the Sinner ( 2022), and now Song of the Storyteller (2023). Lesley also hosts New Books in Historical Fiction , a podcast channel on the New Books Network. When not thinking up new ways to torture her characters, she edits other people’s manuscripts, reads voraciously, maintains her website, and practices classical ballet. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In 1979 during her freshman year at Denver East High School in 1979, Suzanne’s mother was murdered by an armed robber while working in her record store. < Back Anyone But Her Cynthia Swanson October 1, 2024 Today I talked to Cynthia Swanson about Anyone But Her (Columbine York, 2024). In 1979 during her freshman year at Denver East High School in 1979, Suzanne’s mother was murdered by an armed robber while working in her record store. Suzanne has always sensed ghosts, so she’s not surprised when soon after, she hears her dead mother warning her about her father’s new girlfriend. Now it’s 2004, and Suzanne is back in Denver with her husband, a mouthy teenage daughter, and a nine-year-old son with behavioral problems. The old record store space is available, and Suzanne follows her dream of selling women’s art and craft, but she can’t stop feeling like someone is watching her. At the same time, she starts researching her family history to figure out if there’s a genetic component to her son’s behavior. Suzann is strong, but she’s challenged in this suspenseful mystery about relationships, fidelity, and family secrets. Cynthia Swanson started out in college majoring in Architecture, because she's always loved design, and she thought she needed to pursue a "practical" career. (She can hear all the architects in the room laughing.) But after a few years, she returned to her first love—writing—changing her major to English and becoming a technical and marketing writer. Today, she writes psychological suspense, freelance edits, and occasionally teaches writing classes and seminars. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the novels The Bookseller , The Glass Forest , and Anyone But Her , as well as the editor of the Colorado Book Award winning anthology Denver Noir . She lives with her family in Denver, where in addition to writing, editing, and scoping out creepy locales for future books, she raises chickens and grows an extensive vegetable garden. Find Cynthia online and follow her on Facebook (Cynthia Swanson, Author) , Instagram (cynswanauthor) , and Threads (cynswanauthor) . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Thetis, the sea goddess who tried to make her son Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx, is now faced with trying to shield him from being killed in yet another war. < Back Achilles's Wife Judith Starkston July 7, 2026 Thetis, the sea goddess who tried to make her son Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx, is now faced with trying to shield him from being killed in yet another war. She hides him on a tiny island disguised as a girl, but in Judith Starkston’s latest novel, Thetis transforms him into a physiological girl. As Phyria, he befriends the King’s daughter, Mia, but when he’s discovered, Thetis transforms him back. He and Mia marry and have a son before he goes, as promised, to war. Sadly, the son is a miserable human being and Mia must make some difficult decisions in this well-researched, entertaining twist on a little-known character in Greek mythology. Judith Starkston writes historical fantasy and mythic retellings set in the Bronze Age of the Greeks and Hittites. Her six novels bring women to the fore—whether Deidamia or Briseis from the Trojan War cycle of myths or a remarkable Hittite queen whom history forgot, even though she ruled over one of the greatest empires of the ancient world. Judith traces her obsession with the ancient world and its stories—both historical and mythological –to her undergraduate days as a classics major at UC Santa Cruz and her graduate work at Cornell, which included a focus on Greek epic and tragedy. It’s true, as a college freshman, she decided to take ancient Greek on a whim, but once drawn in, she has never escaped. She taught high school English, Latin, and humanities for about twenty years until she decided she could not face grading another stack of dubiously argued essays. She blames her shift from historical fiction into historical fantasy on the nature of the ancient world, where gods and goddesses, rites the modern world would call magic, sorcerous curses, and hybrid mythical creatures are all part of the “normal” fabric of life. So, to portray the ancient Greeks or Hittites accurately, “fantasy” will necessarily be part of the story. These elements also make her novels more fun to write and read. Within the ancient world, the period Judith finds most engaging is the Late Bronze Age, about 1200 BCE, both in the Mycenaean world revealed in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and in the Hittite world unveiled through the recent translation of excavated cuneiform tablets. Archaeology is another major source of knowledge about these two related cultures that flourished around the same time in Greece, the Aegean islands, and Anatolia. Researching these worlds requires specialized study and, fortunately, significant travel. From reading archaeological site reports and other archaeological analyses, examining museum collections, and visiting key excavation sites where her characters most likely lived, Judith researches and builds historically accurate, immersive worlds depicting both the intangibles like decisions and beliefs and the everyday items like food, clothes, and buildings. Learn more at JudithStarkston.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Angus McDonald had to escape from Scotland or risk arrest. In 1838, he contracted with the Hudson Bay Company to trade in the Pacific Northwest. There he discovers majestic mountains, raging rivers, and buffalo. < Back The Shining Mountains Alix Christie December 5, 2023 Angus McDonald had to escape from Scotland or risk arrest. In 1838, he contracted with the Hudson Bay Company to trade in the Pacific Northwest. There he discovers majestic mountains, raging rivers, and buffalo. He meets and marries Catherine, who is related to Nez Perce royalty, and together they face competing claims of British fur traders and gold seekers, settlers and Native Americans who’ve lives for thousands of years in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. The real Angus McDonald left essays and articles, and newspaper clippings and official letters that describe his friendships, horses, passion for his wife, his trajectory as a trader and interpreter, and the rise and fall of the people he’s come to love. The Shining Mountains (High Road Books, 2023) is a brilliant, fictional exploration of a family’s clash between colonial expansion and native culture, based on the author’s blended Scottish and Nez Pierce ancestors. Alix Christie, a direct descendant of Angus McDonald’s brother Duncan, grew up in California, Montana and British Columbia. She is a prize-winning journalist and author of novels, reportage, and short stories. Her debut novel, “Gutenberg’s Apprentice,” the story of the making of the Gutenberg Bible, was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and long listed for the International Dublin Literary Prize. Her story “Everychild” won a Pushcart Prize and the 2021 Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize in fiction from The Missouri Review. As a longtime foreign correspondent based in England, France, and Germany, she has written numerous articles and stories set in other places and times, including “The Dacha,” a finalist for the 2016 Sunday Times (UK) Short Story Award. A letterpress printer and open water swimmer, she currently lives in Berlin, Germany, where she covers culture for The Economist. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

We were desperate for pancakes so I tweaked another recipe I was working on to make these. < Back Gluten-Free Pancakes January 24, 2021 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Serves: 10 Pancakes Tags: Muffins and Breads, Gluten Free, Baking, Breakfast About the Recipe Ingredients 1 cup gluten-free flour 1 cup almond flour 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp cinnamon 2 eggs 1 cup plain kefir or yogurt 1 cup water 1/3 cup canola oil 1 TBSP unfiltered apple cider vinegar 1 tsp pure vanilla extract Preparation In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl and pour wet ingredients into drive ingredients. Stir just until blended. Heat a large baking pan to medium high. Scoop a large spoonful of batter (it’s thicker than usual pancake batter), three or four at a time. Flip when bubbles form and bottom is golden brown. Place finished pancakes on a serving plate and cover lightly with a tea towel until all the pancakes are ready. We love eating them with Earth Balance and real maple syrup. Note: there is no sugar added to the batter. Previous Next

Mosely Albright works in a Mission house helping drug addicts, alcoholics and those who are down on their luck. The reverend has asked him to search for one of the men who isn’t capable of surviving in the freezing cold. < Back Speed of Dark Patricia Ricketts July 5, 2022 Speed of Dark (She Writes Press, 2022) by Patricia Ricketts opens with a black man getting off Metra train in Northbrook, Illinois to search for someone who might be hiding in the woods. Mosely Albright works in a Mission house helping drug addicts, alcoholics and those who are down on their luck. The reverend has asked him to search for one of the men who isn’t capable of surviving in the freezing cold. The man he finds is a different one though, and he’s gone when Mosely wakes up, stiff and frozen the next morning. He’s forgotten the way back to the station and knocks on Mary M. Phillips’s door to ask for a glass of water and directions. Mosely has the gift of seeing when people need help, and he knows that Mary Em is desperate. He wants to help her, but the lake, (Mishigami – its Ojibwe name) wants her in its icy waters. Told by Mary Em, Mosely, and Mishigami, Speed of Dark is a story about human connection, the plight of the great lakes, and the power of kindness, friendship, and love. Patricia Ricketts inherited a lifelong love of music, the written word, the visual arts, and healthy arguing from her Irish Catholic household. While teaching English to many wonderful students, Patricia raised two fine daughters and a stand-up son and now has six beautiful grandchildren who live in the Kansas City area. Throughout her life, she penned essays, short stories, poems, and novels; however, her passion for writing escalated after being awarded a scholarship for creative writing from the University of Edinburgh. Since then, she has had short stories published in New Directions, Slate, Meta, Blue Hour, Realize Magazines, and on NPR’s “This I Believe” website. The Peninsula Pulse awarded her third place among hundreds of entries in its short story contest. She is currently working on a new novel, tentatively titled The End of June. Patricia lives in Chicago with her partner, artist and photographer, Peter M. Hurley. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Traditional recipes never tasted so good! < Back Challah August 20, 2019 Prep Time: 90 Minutes Cook Time: Varies Serves: 1 Large Loaf or 2 Medium Loaves Tags: Muffins and Breads, Baking About the Recipe When I first started baking challah, it came out looking like pita. I was pregnant and we’d moved to Colorado Springs. I had to go to the library to look up high altitude baking (this was in the eighties) and while I was there, I picked up an old book on a display shelf. I stood there reading about an eccentric detective in NYC who liked growing orchids, reading, and eating gourmet meals prepared by his personal chef. It was Rex Stout, and it was riveting, but I didn’t borrow the book. I considered myself to be a reader of literature, not mysteries. I learned how to bake challah at altitude and ended up borrowing four novels that day. I’d always loved reading and usually read between forty and fifty books a year. Mysteries were iffy because they often included violence or disgusting discussions about the trajectory of blood and the placement of body parts. Mysteries, I thought, were a lower form of literature, like romances. I was a reading snob. Ingredients 6 cups (720 g) bread flour (If you can’t get it, use all-purpose flour and start the night before) 2 room temp eggs, lightly mixed (plus one egg white if you wish to do an egg wash before baking) 1 ½ tsp (9 g) fine-grained sea salt ¼ cup (50g) canola or any olive oil 1 packet or 1 TBSP (9g) active dry yeast ¼ cup sugar (50g) or honey (85g) 1 ½ to 2 cups of room temperature or lukewarm water (More as needed) Preparation In a large mixing bowl, stir the yeast, sweetener, and 1 cup of flour into 1 ½ cups of lukewarm water. It should start to bubble in a moment or two. Add the rest of the flour, eggs, salt, and oil to the bowl Use your hands or a scraper to pull the dough into a ball, adding water as needed into the bowl. When it forms a ball, remove and knead until the dough feels like an earlobe (even though it sounds gross) I count up to at least fifty turns, each turn including the right and left side. Place in a large, lightly sprayed bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature (not in front of the window!) until it is double in bulk (about an hour), or in the fridge overnight, or overnight on the counter (a good method if it’s a pandemic and you can’t get bread flour). Once the dough is doubled (or the next morning), punch it down, cover the bowl loosely with a tea cloth or plastic wrap, let it double in size again for about an hour If you are making authentic ‘Challah,’ this is where you take an olive-sized piece of the dough and bake it in the toaster after saying the traditional blessing. This dough is enough for 2 good-sized loaves, 4 small loaves, or 8 personal loaves if you want to give each guest a separate loaf. For 2 loaves, divide the dough in half, and divide one half into the number of pieces you want to braid. There are plenty how-to braid videos, and you can get creative! I do 4, 5 and 6 braid challahs, but 3-braided challahs taste just as delicious. For beginners who haven’t raised long-haired children, divide each half into 3 pieces of dough and roll them into foot-long ropes. Set the three ropes of dough in front of you on the counter and pinch them together at the top. Now take the rope on the right and place it over the rope in the middle. Take the rope on the left and place it over the NEW middle rope (the one you already moved). Again, lift the rope on the right and place it over the middle rope. Keep going. Before you know it, you’ll have a braid! Tuck the ends of each loaf under and set them in place with a little water. Place your braided loaves on a silicone mat-covered or sprayed baking pan with space in between. The loaves will poof up more. Cover the loaves loosely with a tea towel for the last rise, for about an hour, or until you are ready to bake. Then, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C OPTIONAL: Just before you set them in the oven, in a small bowl, stir the white of one egg with a teaspoon of honey and brush the loaves. You can also sprinkle the loaves with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or chopped dehydrated onion. Baking time will depend on the size of the loaves and on your oven. If you bake 2 loaves, check at 25 minutes – if they aren’t golden brown and hollow when you tap, bake for an additional 5 minutes. If you are baking 4 loaves, check after 20 minutes. If you are baking 8 loaves, check after 15 minutes. And in each case, add an additional 5 minutes if needed. Final internal temperature should be about 200° – but the golden brown and hollow sound will tell you that the loaves are done. Previous Next

After a night in the refrigerator, it will be thick like a ganache. < Back Dairy-free Chocolate Frosting September 3, 2019 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: Varies Serves: 2 Cups of Spread Tags: Vegan, Gluten Free, Baking, Dips and Sauces, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe P.11 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery Alene cut through the alley, unlocked the back entrance and stepped into Whipped and Sipped’s kitchen. The comforting smell of yeast, the enticement of cinnamon and the complexity of chocolate all soothed Alene, who realized she’d been holding her shoulders and neck in awkward stiffness. Ruthie approached with a steaming cup of her favorite espresso topped with whipped almond milk, cocoa and cinnamon powder.” Ingredients 1 ¼ cup water 1 small baked sweet potato (with skin) ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Higher quality powder will taste better!) 1 TBSP instant decaf or coffee powder or crystals 1 tsp cinnamon (optional – you can also just use 1/2 tsp) ½ cup pure maple syrup 1 tsp pure vanilla extract ¼ tsp salt Other options: replace ¼ cup of water with a liquor Replace ¼ cup of water with any kind of milk add a whole peeled orange add ¼ brown sugar for a sweeter frosting or sauce only 1/2 tsp of cinnamon replaced with extra 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract Preparation In a high-powered blender, use the soup setting to blend the ingredients (Stop blender when the chocolate begins to look shiny). If you don’t have a soup setting, blend until smooth, pour into a microwave-safe container, and microwave on high for about 20 seconds. (Don’t let it boil). Stir for 20 more seconds until the sauce is silky. Mix in a few spoonfuls of water for a more spreadable frosting. After a night in the refrigerator, it will be thick like a ganache. Zap it again if you need it to be easily spreadable after being in the fridge. Use it to frost a cake, or dip strawberries, or enjoy teaspoonfuls of it all week (if it lasts that long). Previous Next

It’s 1895, and Tim Badger, who is quite familiar with the inside of a jail cell, and his intuitive friend Ben Watson, who is Black in a society that is weary of difference, are unlikely detectives. But Tim was once one of the Baker Street Irregular urchins who ran errands and spied for the great Sherlock Holmes, and the two young men are trying to be detectives. < Back The Isolated Seance Jeri Westerson July 18, 2023 Today I talked to Jeri Westerson about her book The Isolated Séance (Severn House, 2023). It’s 1895, and Tim Badger, who is quite familiar with the inside of a jail cell, and his intuitive friend Ben Watson, who is Black in a society that is weary of difference, are unlikely detectives. But Tim was once one of the Baker Street Irregular urchins who ran errands and spied for the great Sherlock Holmes, and the two young men are trying to be detectives. They’re struggling with their new detective agency when a potential client staggers in. Thomas Brent is being sought by police after his boss Horace Quinn is murdered during a séance in a closed room in his own house. The only other people in the room in addition to the dead man and his valet, Thomas, were the housekeeper, the maid, and the gypsy woman who led the séance. Thomas Brent hires Badger and Watson, who take turns telling the story. They get into a bit of trouble and occasionally find a clue, but Sherlock Holmes, Badger’s old boss, clearly wants them to succeed. He bails Badger out of jail, arranges a nice place for the two young detectives to live, and although Badger doesn’t realize it, sends clues about the case. Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson authored fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha to the Macavity, to the Shamus. Jeri currently writes two new series: a Tudor mystery series, the King’s Fool Mysteries, with Henry VIII’s real court jester Will Somers as the sleuth and a Sherlockian pastiche series with one of Holmes’ former Baker Street Irregulars opening his own detective agency. She also authored several paranormal series (including a gas lamp fantasy-steampunk series), standalone historical novels, and had stories in several anthologies, the latest of which was included in South Central Noir, an Akashic Noir anthology. She has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president, and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles) and is also a founding member of the SoCal chapter of the Historical Novel Society. In her copious spare time, Jeri acts as butler to her senior cat Luna, and loves to travel with her hubby and Luna in her vintage RV. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It's 1917 during WWI, and Rand Brandt is living with two dangerous secrets, either of which could destroy him: 1) he can grow any plant or tree, but everything he grows will die within days, and 2) he is gay during a time when the army does not accept homosexuality. < Back Dry Land B. Platek October 3, 2023 Rand Brandt, a forester in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, discovers that his touch can grow any plant or tree. In this tale of Magical Realism, he dreams of using his gift to restore landscapes ruined by the lumber industry, but first needs to test his powers. Gabriel, his fellow forester, and secret lover, finds and saves Rand after he’s pushed himself by spending his nights sneaking into the forest instead of sleeping. It’s 1917 and the foresters are drafted to join in the fight in France. An old friend of Rand’s joins the press covering his unit and helps him cover his tracks. A commanding officer learns about Rand’s gift and demands that he grow forests for the wood needed to win the war, but Rand learns that everything he grows will die within days. Now, he’s keeping two major secrets, either of which, if discovered, could destroy him. Ben Pladek is associate professor of literature at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His first novel, Dry Land , appeared in September 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press. He’s previously published short fiction in Strange Horizons, The Offing, Slate Future Tense Fiction, and elsewhere. As a colleague pointed out to him, his short fiction is often set in the near-future and his longer fiction in the near-past; other recurring interests include ecology, messy relationships, messier bureaucracy, and people feeling guilty. He’s also written an academic book called The Poetics of Palliation: Romantic Literary Therapy, 1790-1850, that came out from Liverpool University Press in 2019, as well as a number of articles on British Romanticism. Before getting hired at Marquette, he did his PhD at the University of Toronto and taught for a year in the fantastic Foundation Year Programme at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When he moved to Wisconsin, he fell in love with the landscape and the state’s fascinating history of conservation, including the writings of Aldo Leopold. Ben and his husband have hiked all over Wisconsin. They especially enjoy the Northwoods, Horicon Marsh, and the southwest “driftless” area. In Ben’s spare time you can find him reading, birdwatching, taking long walks around Milwaukee, admiring wetlands, eating peanut butter, and taking pictures of informational signs at historical monuments that he’ll never go back and read. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

n Karen Odden’s latest mystery it’s 1878 in London, and Scotland Yard inspector Michael Corravan, a former thief and bare-knuckles boxer, is battling demons, including his urge to drown his troubles in drink. < Back Down a Dark River Karen Odden January 11, 2022 In Karen Odden’s latest mystery (Down a Dark River , Crooked Lane Books 2021) it’s 1878 in London, and Scotland Yard inspector Michael Corravan, a former thief and bare-knuckles boxer, is battling demons, including his urge to drown his troubles in drink. In the wake of a police corruption scandal that threatens to shut down Scotland Yard, Corravan is assigned the case of a young, wealthy woman whose corpse has been set adrift in a small boat on the Thames River. At first, the murder seems to be linked to a stolen heirloom necklace, but then a second dead woman appears and then a third. As the press riles up London and blames Scotland Yard, Corravan’s search for clues takes him from insane asylums to jewelry stores and from brothels to wealthy Mayfair homes. Then his lady friend is threatened, and Inspector Corravan must confront the darkness in his own past to understand the killer and prevent yet another murder from taking place. KAREN ODDEN received her Ph.D. in English literature from New York University, writing her dissertation on Victorian railway disasters and the origins of PTSD. She has taught at UW-Milwaukee, written essays for numerous books and journals, and edited for the journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP). She freely admits she might be more at home in Victorian London than today, especially when she tries to do anything complicated on her iPhone. All of her mysteries are set in 1870s London. Her first novel, A LADY IN THE SMOKE, about a young woman in a 1874 railway crash, was a USA Today bestseller. In A DANGEROUS DUET, Nell Hallam, an ambitious young pianist stumbles on a notorious crime ring while playing in a Soho music hall. In A TRACE OF DECEIT, Annabel Rowe, a young painter at the Slade School of Art, must delve below the glitter of the art and auction world to uncover the truth about her brother's murder. DOWN A DARK RIVER is Karen's fourth novel and the first in the Inspector Corravan series; the sequel, UNDER A VEILED MOON, will be released in November 2022. An avid desert hiker, Karen lives in Arizona with her family and her rescue beagle muse, Rosy. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next