Mulled Honey Wine
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole allspice
5 black peppercorns
5 cardamom seeds
7 whole cloves
3 one-inch pieces of candied or fresh ginger
1 orange, sliced
2 liters mead (I like Blessed Bee)
Honey to taste
Amaretto (optional, but recommended)
6 inch square of cheesecloth
Kitchen twine
Wrap the spices in a piece of cheesecloth and secure it with twine to make a spice bag. Combine the mead, the spice bag, and the orange slices in a pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Let the mead and spices simmer for at least 30 minutes, then discard the orange and spice bag and add honey to taste.
Serve hot in a glass (with an optional shot of amaretto). If desired, garnish with an orange twist or a cinnamon stick.
Halloween Pumpkin Bars
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 cup flour
¾ cup pumpkin, canned or cooked
3 oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
6 tbs butter, softened
2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy, then beat in eggs. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and beat until smooth, then beat in baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Mix in flour alternately with pumpkin. Do not overmix. Spread in buttered and floured 9" x 13" baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Cream cheese frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy, then add confectioners sugar , 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp almond extract. Beat until smooth. Frost cooled pumpkin bars.
Lucy’s Apple Dumplings
Unbaked pastry for double-crust pie (use frozen from the store or your favorite recipe)
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
½ cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups water
2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and butter a 9x13 inch pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into a large rectangle, about twenty-four by sixteen inches, and cut into six square pieces. Place an apple on each pastry square with the cored opening facing upward. Cut butter into eight pieces and place one piece of butter in the opening of each apple, reserving the remaining butter for sauce. Divide the brown sugar between apples, poking some inside each cored opening and the rest around the base of each apple, and sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples.
With slightly wet fingertips, bring one corner of the pastry square up to the top of the apple, then bring the opposite corner to the top and press together. Bring up the two remaining corners and seal, then slightly pinch the dough at the sides to completely seal in the apple. Repeat with the remaining apples. Place in prepared baking dish.
In a saucepan, combine water, white sugar, vanilla extract, and reserved butter. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for five minutes, or until sugar is dissolved, and carefully pour over dumplings.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. To serve, place each apple dumpling in a bowl and spoon some sauce over the top.
Spiced Pumpkin Butter
(with thanks to Chloe Shepard)
1 lb. sugar pumpkin or 15 oz. pureed pumpkin
½ cup apple cider
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs maple syrup
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
If using fresh pumpkin, cut the pumpkin into pieces, removing seeds and stringy parts, and remove the stem and “butt.” Place pumpkin, skin side down, on a baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour. Let cool. Remove the skin and puree the pumpkin in a food processor, adding a small amount of water if needed.
Mix pumpkin and remaining ingredients together in a large saucepan. Bring mixture to a full boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and continue cooking ten to fifteen minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. When slightly cooled, spoon into clean jars and refrigerate.
Acknowledgments
First, many thanks to my family, Eric, Abby, and Ian, not just for putting up with me, but for continuing to come up with creative ways to kill people. (You should see the looks we get in restaurants.) I also want to give a shout-out to Carol and Dave Swartz, Dorothy and Ed MacInerney, and Bethann and Beau Eccles for their years of continued support. Special thanks to the MacInerney Mystery Mavens (who help with all manner of things, from covers to concepts), particularly Mandy Young Kutz, Georgette Thaler, Rudi Lee, Olivia Leigh Blacke, Alicia Farage, Samantha Mann, Azanna Wishart, Priscilla Ormsby, and Chloe Shepard for their careful reading of the manuscript. What would I do without you??? Kim Killion, as usual, did an amazing job on the cover design, and Randy Ladenheim-Gil’s sharp editorial eye helped keep me from embarrassing myself. I want to give a big shout-out to the folks at Trianon, particularly Chloe, Ashley, and Stephen, for keeping me motivated (i.e. caffeinated) and being such terrific company. Thanks also to John Carlton and Kaori Sakamoto for their generous technical advice (any errors are mine, not theirs), and to Jason Brenizer for being my faithful writing buddy and plot brainstormer. And finally, thank you to ALL of the wonderful readers who make Dewberry Farm possible, especially my fabulous Facebook community at www.facebook.com/karenmacinerney. You keep me going!
About the Author
Karen is the housework-impaired, award-winning author of multiple mystery series, and her victims number well into the double digits. She lives in Austin, Texas with two sassy children, her husband, and a menagerie of animals, including twenty-three fish, two rabbits, and a rescue dog named Little Bit.
Feel free to visit Karen's web site at www.karenmacinerney.com, where you can download a free book and sign up to receive short stories, deleted scenes, recipes and other bonus material. You can also find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorKarenMacInerney or www.facebook.com/karenmacinerney (she spends an inordinate amount of time there). You are more than welcome to friend her there—and remind her to get back to work on the next book!
@KarenMacInerney
karenmacinerney
www.karenmacinerney.com
[email protected]
Deadly Brew (Dewberry Farm Mysteries Book 3) Page 20
