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Posted in Cozy Mysteries

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Evidence in the Espresso

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A cozy small-town Thanksgiving featuring a wedding, a cook-off, and a murder.

The Inn at Holiday Bay is a heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

In book 30 in the series, Georgia and Tanner plan to finally tie the knot the same week that the television station Georgia works for sponsors a Thanksgiving themed cook-off. Georgia, Amy, and chefs from three other local restaurants are asked to be judges, which turns out to be a lot more of a commitment than any of them planned for. When one of the cameramen assigned to the week long event goes missing, his fiancé shows up to track him down.

Posted in #allrecipes

Champion Chili Recipes for Winning Cook-Offs

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

These top-rated recipes are tried-and-true chili cook-off winners. And they could be your ticket to a blue ribbon, too. From classics to spicy new favorites, you’ll want to try all of these prize-winning chili recipes.

  • Boilermaker Tailgate Chili
  • Debdoozie’s Blue Ribbon Chili
  • Fusion Chili
  • Best Damn Chili

Allrecipes

Posted in #Classics

Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance (Jack Ryan Book 16)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

President Jack Ryan deals with the worst breach U.S. intelligence has ever suffered in this “compelling and frighteningly realistic”* thriller in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.

A massive data breach has compromised the personal information of millions of American military officers and intelligence agents. After several deadly attacks on off-duty personnel and their families, President Jack Ryan faces one of the greatest challenges of his career. Can he find the hackers and cap the flow of information before it’s too late?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance

“Delivers all the elements that fans expect from the franchise…[Greaney] handles the tech side with grace and has fleshed out the cast and given them depth. Clancy fans will enjoy True Faith and Allegiance.”—Associated Press

“A magnificent page turner…An artful mosaic that converges with breakneck speed toward the end of the book, bringing the story to a climax and conclusion that are ultimately very satisfying.”—*New York Journal of Books

“Tense, fast-paced action reels out ripped-from-headlines homeland terror attacks. A generation past Red October, the America-hating bad guys have added spyware, hacking, the dark web, and Bitcoins to those ubiquitous AK-47s.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[Greaney] continues the Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan tradition in a way that would make Clancy extremely happy…Yet another true, fresh, thrilling page-turner.”—Suspense Magazine

Posted in From My Kitchen

5 Big-Batch Soups That Are Perfect for Stocking Your Freezer

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Whether you’re craving some cozy comfort on a snowy day or need an easy meal because you’ve got a case of the sniffles, there’s no better choice than a warming bowl of homemade soup. But, what do you do when cooking from scratch isn’t an option? With a little planning, you can simply reach in your freezer!

Stocking your freezer with soups may seem like a big task but it’s surprisingly simple to do. Just make a big batch on the weekend, let the soup cool completely and then tuck it away in your freezer. Most soups are freezer-friendly as long as you store them correctly.

When it comes to tucking them away in your freezer, less is more — meaning that it’s better to save the soup as several small portions than it is to freeze the whole batch in one big container. If you don’t have the right size or shape containers for maximizing freezer space, you can pour the soup into several gallon zip-top bags. Freeze the bags flat on a sheet pan so that you have several thin, frozen packages that are easy to stack and store. (You can also vacuum-seal portions of soup and freeze the same way.)

So, which soups freeze best? Most soups work well although ones that include a starchy element (like rice or pasta) are better if you undercook that ingredient just a touch. That way, when you reheat the soup the rice or pasta will be perfectly cooked. If that feels too complicated, just go ahead and make the recipe as directed, cool and freeze — I promise, it will be fine. Your rice or pasta will be just a little bit softer.

One ingredient you should avoid when you’re freezing soups though, is potato chunks. They don’t reheat well. If your soup calls for chunks of potato you can omit them and cook them fresh when you’re ready to serve your soup. Or, simply stick to soups where the potatoes are pureed (like Ree’s Perfect Potato Soup, below).

Ready to give it a try? These five big-batch soups will help you get started.

Food Network

Posted in Cozy Mysteries

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Trouble in the Theater

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

In book 29 in the series, Abby is starting to feel the weight of having too many irons in the fire after Lacy is asked to produce the annual Halloween pageant at the last minute and Abby finds herself offering to help. While Lacy really could use the help, Abby realizes that between helping Georgia settle on wedding plans, ensuring that Bailey has everything she needs to deliver a healthy baby which is due any day now, an inn full of leaf seekers, each with their own personal drama, and an untimely death in the community, she really is going to need every ounce of energy she can muster to keep her promise to Lacy as well as everyone else.