Month: September 2025

Cooking With Christie: More From Molly on the Range

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Inspiration: Recently, summer gave our region a break from the heat. With the mercury hovering in the low seventies, I sprang into the kitchen to where my mixer lives. Months had passed since I sent treats off to my husband’s coworkers, and this situation needed rectifying. Plus, I had a new cookbook to try out.

Fresh off my challah win, I flipped a few chapters further into Molly On The Range (a cookbook by Molly Yeh that you should totally pick up) to her Chocolate Chip Cookies Without The Chocolate Chips recipe. (It has a shorter name, but this one is more fun.)

Let me tell you, these cookies are fabulous. 

The addition of flaky sea salt to the top of each scoop of dough adds way more to the experience than I could have ever imagined and is what makes Chocolate Chip Cookies Without The Chocolate Chips utterly fantastic to eat.

Above and beyond this, Yeh recommends making the dough one day and baking it the next, thus allowing the flavor to fully develop! A feature I absolutely love in a bake.

The scoops of dough before baking!

However, I did need to alter one aspect of Yeh’s recipe, the size of the cookie. In the book, she suggests forming the dough into a hockey puck sized disk. From past experience, my husband’s coworkers don’t care for cookies this size. They prefer a touch of something sweet to go with their coffee, not something the size of a teacup’s saucer. However, as adjustments go, switching to a smaller size was easy enough to accomplish.

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily envision Miss Marple making these when she wants a rich, delicious cookie that isn’t overly sweet. Even better? Without the inclusion of chocolate chips, she doesn’t run the risk of smearing slightly melted chocolate onto her yarn and staining whatever soft and woolly piece she’s knitting for a friend.

My 52 Weeks with Christie: A.Miner©2025

Mystery Review: The News From Fair Verona….

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Thus With A Kiss I Die — Christiena Dodd

Akin to many high school students, I read Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in English class during my sophomore year. During that month-long unit, in which we learned a bit of history, language, and the biography of The Bard himself, I did not find my love of Shakespearean plays. The protracted timeline of reading four acts stuffed with 25,993 words, plus the inevitable essay test at the end, completely drained the joy of reading the text away. 

Now, I understand the pressure our teacher was under, walking the tightrope between managing her classroom, the curriculum, and parents looking for any reason to censor/ban the play. In fairness, I have read Romeo & Juliet multiple times since high school. However, it’s been a minute since I delved into Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter, and I’d forgotten just how violent The Bard’s world could be — but fortunately, Christina Dodd didn’t. 

Within Thus With A Kiss I Die, we find our fair Rosaline faced with several mysteries, emergencies, and potential tragedies within Verona. Not the least of which: Who assassinated the last Prince of Verona? If, and it’s a big if, Rosaline is going to wed the current Prince (the son of said murdered man), this question needs to be laid to rest. Otherwise, how will she ever sleep safe and sound within the palace? 

Especially since the former Prince and potential father-in-law is now haunting her.

Thus With A Kiss I Die, the second installment featuring the daughter of Romeo & Juliet, is a tad darker than the first in series. However, as it pays homage to Hamlet, I’d expect nothing less. Never fear, Dodd does a masterful job of balancing these potentially tragic themes with wit and more than a bit of bawdy humor. 

Thus With A Kiss I Die is a superb follow-up to A Daughter of Fair Verona — which you should read before starting the second installment. Happily, Dodd doesn’t spoil the first book by giving away the murderer’s identity in the second (a pet peeve of mine). However, there are several ongoing storylines that might leave you a bit adrift if you’re not already acquainted with them. Plus, A Daughter of Verona is such an excellent read, I doubt you’ll feel vexed by needing to read the first book first.

BTW: You don’t need to know much more than the broadest of strokes of Romeo & Juliet to enjoy these books. So don’t let the literary influence deter you from reading these two books!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025

Cooking With Christie: Intimidation

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Inspiration: Despite shaping bread dough nearly every single week of the year, apparently, my brain doesn’t consider the basic cylinder I place in a loaf pan a shape. (My little grey cells can be real jerks sometimes.) Due to this perception, I’ve shied away from challah’s braided form for years, despite finding this style of bread intriguing.

Enter Girl Meets Farm.

I really enjoy watching and listening to Molly Yeh’s enthusiasm for food on her aforementioned television show. So, upon locating one of Yeh’s cookbooks on the shelves of my local indie bookshop, I immediately flipped it open….And spied a recipe for Pimento Cheese Babka. (Yes, this too is a shaped loaf, but I’m willing to try A LOT if there’s melted cheese in my future.)

What I didn’t realize, until after the book came home with me, was this savory take on babka was based on Yeh’s Basic Challah recipe. Moreover, in Molly On The Range, Yeh’s included six other variants above and beyond the babka. 

Figuring: If that there are that many different things you can do with a single recipe — it seemed reasonable to assume Yeh’s challah was probably a pretty forgiving dough. So on a recent random Monday, I screwed up my courage and gave this Challah recipe a whirl. 

Upon rereading the instructions on that grey morning, I noticed a line I had skimmed past in previous perusals — Yeh’s instructions on how to make the dough one day and bake it the next. A feature I really appreciate in any recipe.

Look mom, I did a thing!

How did the braided loaves turn out? I think the dough was a touch overproofed, as the plaits on my first loaf tore slightly whilst baking. Though, in retrospect, that could’ve been due to panically pulling the loaf from the oven five minutes after it hit the heat to apply the forgotten egg wash. And I completely spaced sprinkling the flaky sea salt called for onto said wash on both loaves.

All that being said, for a first try, my challah turned out great! Especially when topped with melted cheese and dipped in tomato soup!

I would highly recommend Molly Yeh’s cookbook, Molly On The Range. Above and beyond being well laid out, Yeh’s instructions are straightforward, clear, and broken up into sensible steps. Moreover, Yeh’s introductions to each recipe are generally brief and contribute to the overall understanding of the dish (and are often funny). 

Although you can find many of Yeh’s recipes online, the book provides better context and is easier to follow (for me at least) than their Food Network website counterparts.

Another variation on Yeh’s Basic Challah recipe!

Agatha Christie’s Canon of Characters: I can easily imagine Miss Marple, Tuppence, or Lucy Eyelesbarrow whipping up this bread to serve at a fete or feast with friends — as not only does the plaits look impressive but, apparently, it’s easy to impart complex flavors via this loaf to complement other dishes being served as well!

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2025