The Case of the Noisy Parrot

The talkative parrot who shows up near the end of A Plain Vanilla Murder has developed his own personal following, it seems. Maybe  you remember him from the book. His name is Mr. Spock. China Bayles describes him as “a stunning green parrot with an orange beak and splashes of red and blue under his […]

Read More

BookScapes: Review of HEARTLAND, by Sarah Smarsh

Our Story Circle reading circle met yesterday to talk about Heartland, by Sarah Smarsh–a lively discussion that spilled over into a second hour, with lots to say, lots to share. For me, reading Heartland was a heart-breaking, evocative experience that brought back my childhood and young adult years, spent on a farm and in a small rural community […]

Read More

Mystery Unscramble Giveaway

Contest closed–congratulations to the winners! I’ve teamed up with 10 other mystery authors to bring you a Mystery Unscramble Giveaway–both a contest and a word game. (Mystery readers love word games, right?) For each author’s name you correctly unscramble, you’ll get one chance to win that author’s book, plus one chance to win the grand […]

Read More

Appetizers, Snacks, Other Goodies

Stuffed Mushrooms Herbed Cheese in a Pot Broiled Shrimp on Rye Rounds Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s Nutty Cheeseball Cucumber-Chives Rounds Pumpkin Seed Halloween Nibbles Slow-cooked Tex-Mex Spiced Pecans Fannie’s Prickly Pear Jelly Stuffed Mushrooms For parties, prepare, stuff, and refrigerate ahead of time. But don’t bake until you’re ready to serve. I bake a batch, serve them, […]

Read More

Breakfast and Brunch

McQuaid’s Breakfast Burritos China’s Ginger-Peachy Breakfast SmoothieCass Wilde’s Quiche with Thyme and Lavender A Dilly of a Spanish Frittata McQuaid’s Breakfast Burritos There are many variations on this popular recipe, which is a basic breakfast wrapped in your favorite tortilla. We make these for the freezer and microwave for breakfast-on-the-go. Since it’s McQuaid’s favorite breakfast, […]

Read More

Drinks

Xocolātl (Spicy Hot Chocolate, Aztec Style) Cranberry-Rosemary-Cinnamon Cordial Chocolate Coffee Golden Milk (Turmeric Tea) Pomegranate Cranberry-Orange Party Punch Ginger Tummy-Trouble Tea Xocolātl (Spicy Hot Chocolate, Aztec Style) Cacao plants were first cultivated in Mesoamerica some three to four thousand years ago. The Olmec people ground cacao’s dried, fermented seeds into a paste and mixed with […]

Read More

Breads, Biscuits, Bagels and Such

Slow Cooker Herb Loaf Mesquite Cornmeal Muffins Rosemary Bagels China’s Jalapeño Cornbread Queenie’s Rosemary Biscuits Currant-Rosemary Scones Slow Cooker Herb Loaf I love this recipe. It’s a great alternative for those of us who love home-baked bread in the summer but don’t own a bread machine and hate to light the oven. And when the […]

Read More

Soups, Stew, and Chili

Bill’s Favorite Italian Sausage Stew A Dilly of a Soup A Thymely Potato-Leek Soup Green Herb Soup Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales Chili Chicken and Gnocchi Soup Bill’s Favorite Italian Sausage Stew We like to make this super stew with a spicy Italian or Italian-spiced turkey sausage. Cooking for a crowd? This recipe is infinitely expandable, […]

Read More

Veggies

Roast Vegetables with Garlic and Herbs Homemade Onion Soup Mix Red Cabbage and Greens Carrots with Garlic, Ginger, and Green Herbs Grilled Lemon Zucchini with Herb Tomatoes with Mozzarella, Onions, and Basil Spinach and Peas with Herbs and Brown Rice Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Herbs Roast Vegetables with Garlic and Herbs If you spread […]

Read More

Main Dishes

Pork Tenderloin with Herb Rub Penne with Seven Fresh Herbs Creamy Basil Lasagna Chicken and Asparagus with Herbs Lemon-Herb Salmon Pork Tenderloin with Herb Rub The USDA now advises us to cook pork to an internal temperature of 145°F, then allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes. The lower temperature makes for a more […]

Read More

Desserts

Lemon-Rosemary Scones Orange-Rosemary Apple Pie Favorite pairings of herbs and fruits Lavender Madeleines Orange Mint Mini-Mousse Mint Nut Bread Ruby Wilcox’s Hot Lips Cookie Crisps Lemon-Rosemary Scones Luscious tea-time treat. 2 1/2 cups flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 stick butter, very cold, cut in small […]

Read More

BookScapes: Review of THE FIVE, by Hallie Rubenhold

Exceptional research underpins this riveting study of the five victims of Jack the Ripper. These are well-told stories of women’s lives in mid-to-late 1800s, converging in the Whitechapel slums of London in the summer and early autumn of 1888. Rubenhold’s book is a much-needed corrective, staying away from the murderer and the murders but focusing […]

Read More

New Mexico Sunflowers

It’s late summer here in the New Mexico mountains, almost autumn, and the meadows are filled with the rich gold of sunflowers, accentuated by tall spires of mullein. We’ll be here another week or so, enjoying the warm days and crisp, cool nights–a big change from the uncomfortable heat and humidity back in Texas. The […]

Read More

BookScapes: Briefly 08/29/2019

Briefly, two true crime narratives about the current challenge of keeping libraries safe as the value of their special collections skyrockets and criminal collectors look to them as a source of valuable goodies. Disappearing Ink: The Insider, the FBI, and the Looting of the Kenyon College Library, by Travis McDade, is the  fascinating story of […]

Read More

BookScapes: True Crime Addict

I’ve been intrigued by true crime since the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966. I’ve watched the genre evolve from its beginnings in books about the crimes (sensational, usually gory), the criminal (usually gruesome), and the cops that investigate the crimes and catch (or don’t) the criminals. True Crime Addict, by James Renner, belongs in the latest […]

Read More

BookScapes: The Gown

Jennifer Robson has chosen a winning subject for her fifth novel, a story about the creation of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown and the transformative role it plays in the lives of three women: Ann Hughes, an embroiderer in the London workroom of designer Norman Hartnell; Ann’s co-worker, Miriam Dassin, a French emigre and Holocaust survivor; […]

Read More

Mesquite Season in the Hill Country

It’s mesquite bean season here at Meadow Knoll, and as usual, our honey mesquite trees are loaded. These were a prized native food, rich in plant protein, calcium. potassium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. The beans were usually ground into flour and baked as a flat cake or mixed with venison and smoked or dried as […]

Read More

BookScapes: Briefly 08/07/19

Every now and then, I happen on a book I really like, but which bothers me. Recently, I’ve happened on two books, both excellent, that bother me in the same interesting way. Here they are, briefly. Once Upon a Time: A True Tale of Memory, Murder and the Law  by Harry N. MacLean This book […]

Read More

BookScapes: The Last Stone

I write crime fiction, so I read a lot of true crime. I often find the genre difficult, but it’s fascinating at the same time, especially as it has evolved over the last couple of decades. Recently, one of my author colleagues (Leia Francisco) made a distinction between “liking” a book and “appreciating” it. We […]

Read More

LifeScapes: Button Bush and a Major Chicken Event

The button bushes (Cephalanthus occidentalis) that grow along our little creek are in full bloom just now, their round, highly symmetrical blossoms delighting the bees, hummingbirds and butterflies–especially the giant swallowtails, no doubt graduated from the larvae that completely stripped my dill this spring. No problem, though.  I plant much more dill than I need. […]

Read More

Bookscapes: The Pink Suit

The Pink Suit, by Nicole Mary Kelby. “What a strange power there is in clothing.”–Isaac Bashevis Singer The Pink Suit (Little, Brown, 2014) is the story of Kate, a talented Irish seamstress who works in Chez Ninon, a New York fashion house that has been commissioned to copy a Chanel suit, in raspberry pink, for […]

Read More

BookScapes: The Real Lolita

The Real Lolita, by Sarah Weinman I’m not a fan of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, although I’ve taught it when it was on a college course book list. If I had to teach it again, I would make The Real Lolita required reading. It puts Nabokov’s book into a newly relevant and important context and raises interesting questions […]

Read More

Mustard

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. —Luke 13:9 Most commentators agree that the mustard Jesus refers to in these passages is the ordinary black […]

Read More

Wormwood

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. —Proverbs 5:4 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood… —Lamentations 3:15 Bitter-tasting wormwood appears frequently in Scripture as a symbol of repentance, punishment, and suffering. The general term “wormwood” refers to a number of plants belonging to […]

Read More

Thistles, Thorns, and Nettles

And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. —Isaiah 34:13 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? —Matthew 7:16 Thistles—thorny weeds that thrive in uncultivated […]

Read More

Saffron

Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense… —Song of Solomon 4:14 Today, we recognize Solomon’s saffron as our own familiar fall-blooming crocus (Crocus sativus). In spring, much of the Holy Land is bright with the white, pink, purple, blue, or orange-yellow flowers of over a dozen different kinds of crocus, several […]

Read More

Rue

Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.. —Luke 11:42 Ordinary garden rue (Ruta graveolens) is the plant referred to in Luke. This shrubby, multi-stemmed perennial […]

Read More

Sunflowers: In Bloom This Week

                Every year, the sunflowers bloom along our lane, as dependable as the sun itself. This native sunflower is Helianthus annuus–native, that is, to the Americas, although it has now traveled around the planet. The Americans who were here before us used every part of the sunflower. They […]

Read More

Nigella

Doth he not cast abroad the fitches and scatter the cumin?…For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cumin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cumin with a rod. —Isaiah 28:25 & 27 There has been a great deal […]

Read More

Rose

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. —Isaiah 35:1 The desert “rose” of Isaiah 35:1, according to Biblical scholars, is most likely the Bunchflower daffodil or narcissus. (The original text uses the Hebrew word for “bulb.”) Known to botanists as Narcissus […]

Read More

Mint

But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.—Luke 11:42 The ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans used mint far more often than we do, both in […]

Read More

Cumin

When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer [awned wheat] as the border?–Isaiah 28:25 Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is the same plant that many people grow in their gardens today. It is an annual member of the […]

Read More

Onions, Garlics, and Leeks

We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. —Numbers 11:5 The virtues of the three most familiar of the Allium family—onions, garlic, and leeks—were well known in Biblical days. Onions and leeks were said to grow wild in […]

Read More

Flax

She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands…she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. —Proverbs 31:13 Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is the oldest known of textile fibers. It was used in the Holy Land for clothing, towels (John 13:4-5), napkins (John 11:44), girdles and undergarments (Isaiah 3:23 […]

Read More

Dill

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law. —Matthew 23:23 The word “anise” in this verse refers to dill (Anethum graveolens), which like coriander, is a member of the Parsley family. It was used in Biblical times […]

Read More

Coriander

..And it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. —Exodus 16:31 And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. —Numbers 11:7 These verses refer to the seed of the coriander plant, Coriandrum sativum. Coriander is a white- or […]

Read More

Castor Bean

And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd […]

Read More

Bitter Herbs

And they shall eat flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. —Exodus 12:8 The “bitter herbs” of Exodus were likely plants such as lettuce, endive, chicory, dandelion, watercress, and sorrel, which were eaten as a salad with the Paschal lamb and unleavened bread at […]

Read More

Bay Laurel

 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. —Psalms 37:35 The sweet bay (Laurus nobilis) grows in dense thickets in the Palestinian mountains. It retains its leathery, aromatic leaves and looks green and prosperous all year long. For the Psalmist, the “green bay tree” was a symbol […]

Read More

Anemone

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. —Luke 12: 27- 28 Most authorities now regard the Palestine anemone, Anemone cornaria, as the famous “lily of the […]

Read More