Month: March 2022

Mystery Review

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Mia P. Manansala – Arsenic and Adobo

By good fortune, I found a new Culinary Mystery series at my local bookstore – A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery.

Our heroine, Lila Macapagal, has moved back to her hometown of Shady Palms, Illinois, to lick her wounds after catching her fiance in bed with a couple of her neighbors. So instead of pursuing her dream of opening her own cafe in Chicago, she’s working on saving her Tita’s (Auntie’s) restaurant….an endeavor which becomes even more challenging when a notoriously finicky food critic and Lila’s ex-high school sweetheart drops dead face first in a bowl of ginataang bilo-bilo. Even worse? Someone poisoned the dead man’s food! And Lila’s No. 1 on the detective’s suspect list!

There are several reasons why I love this book. Chief amongst them is the hook of Tita Rosie’s Kitchen series – the food. Now, I’m not very knowledgeable about Filipino cuisine. So reading a mystery, where it’s front and center, helps me learn something about it from Mia’s descriptions. Plus, the well-written recipes in the back of the book helped me cook some of the dishes myself. (Even more exciting, Lila’s a baker, and there’s an ube crinkle cookie recipe I’m dying to make!)

Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was Lila herself. She’s a complicated woman trying her best to balance her familial obligations with her own dreams and totally understands the chances of making her family happy while following said dreams are slim. Yet, this knowledge doesn’t make her bitter or the book dour – it adds layers.

Now I won’t say this is a flawless first book. However, it’s a very good one and well worth the reading time. If you need a further endorsement, directly after finishing the last page of Arsenic and Adobo, I not only ordered Mia’s second book (Homicide and Halo-Halo) – I pre-ordered her third (Blackmail and Bibingka)!

But seriously, if you enjoy culinary mysteries and want to read one set in a small family-owned restaurant filled with delectable scents and colorful characters, this is the series for you!

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Rye Sandwich Bread

So in a quest to master my new mixer, I tried my hand at rye bread, with mixed results.

Flavor-wise it was great, but the texture…was a tad disappointing. As I forgot, rye’s a much stickier dough, so I ended up adding too much flour.

This is the book where I found the recipe!

Now for once, other than over-adding by a smidge, I followed the recipe to the letter (shocking, I know). So, to keep my reputation of fiddling up to snuff, the next time I make this bread, I’m going to use bread flour in place of the all-purpose flour the recipe calls for and blackstrap molasses instead of the ordinary stuff….and perhaps add an extra dash of caraway seeds…

Christie: I think Hercule Poirot would enjoy rye sandwich bread. Especially if supporting a pretty and tasty open-faced sandwich called Smorrebrod – I learned about thanks to The Great British Bake Off series nine! (Here’s the link to what I’m talking about.)

Cooking With Christie!

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This Week’s Recipe: Hamburger Buns!

So this particular recipe came about thanks to my husband, who bought me a new mixer for Valentine’s Day. Some girls like diamonds. Others enjoy candy. But this one loves books and small appliances – especially since I’ve managed to wear out my fancy Kitchen Aid mixer!

In any case, said mixer, made by Ankarsrum (a Swedish company whose design I am totally in love with), came with a hardback cookbook. Which included a hamburger bun recipe that turned out perfectly on the first try! Which, considering how many I’ve attempted over the years, was downright astonishing!

(Now, Ankarsrum does have a blog with a bun recipe on it – but it’s not the one I used.)

The only changes I made to the recipe were using honey rather than white sugar (as I invariably get better results). And rather than dumping everything into the mixing bowl all at once, I add the honey, yeast, and warm milk (110-115 degrees F), stir it together – then let it froth up for six minutes – then I slowly add the flour, then the salt, then the rest of the flour.

Christie: I think Colonel Race, our detective in Sparkling Cyanide, would on occasion enjoy a burger and chips!