Do too many cooks spoil the soup? Not when they’re cozy mystery writers.
Cozy Food came about because of a graphic and Ellery Adams. I don’t think she knows that. I found a graphic that begged to be the cover of a cozy cookbook, but since I had no plans to do a cookbook, I filed the image in my brain and got back to finishing up The Murder House, book five in my Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series. Every once in a while I’d take a peek at that graphic and it never failed to make me smile.
My protagonist sometimes bakes cookies at open houses to entice buyers, and sometimes uses the cookie dough she keeps in her freezer to make emergency comfort food for friends and clients suspected of murder. After cookies kept coming up in my books, I created a recipe for Mysterious Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I had one recipe if I ever decided to do more than grin at that graphic.
On March 27th Ellery Adams posted a recipe on Facebook and, on a whim, I asked if I could use it in a cozy mystery writer cookbook. I expected she’d say no and that would be the end of my idea. Instead she said, “Of course!” So now I had two recipes and, if I could convince forty-eight more writers to share a recipe or two from their books or personal lives, I figured I could pull together a cookbook—or at least a cook-pamphlet—with a great cover.
Any cozy writer who’s amateur sleuth works a day job where organizing is key could have come up with the same idea and started cold calling, but like Regan, I was a Realtor for many years and coordinating transactions is in my blood—that’s internal, not the kind that occasionally winds up on the floor in my books — so I gave it a shot.
I sent out a letter as spammy as one from a Nigerian prince to writers I “knew” because of social media and blogs and started researching addresses of writers who had done interesting sounding cozies. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to send the letter to strangers — especially those whose writing talent impressed me — if the first group of writers hadn’t been supportive. But they were and so I did, and the most amazing thing happened. 126 other writers agreed to be in the cookbook and Cozy Food became more than a cute graphic.
Cozy writers submitted more than 220 recipes from their amateur detectives who work as event planners, book store owners, crafters, journalists, and culinary masters, as well as from those who put food on the table in less conventional ways working as morticians, square dance callers, and fugitives hiding in plain sight in dead end jobs, to name a few. Recipes came in related to sleuths of all ages and mental conditions, too, like one from an octogenarian cruise ship sailor who detects while dealing with short term memory loss.
The recipes in Cozy Food came from various times. Most were current, but there were recipes from the 1930’s and the 1880’s (one is delivered in verse) and if the recipe title “Dried Mammoth Meat Jerky adapted for Cro Magnons and Modern Humans” is to be believed, even from prehistory.
Cozy Food has terrific recipes for traditional meals from breakfast thru dinner, but there’s a “Quick, Easy, Quirky, Saucy & Even Pet Treats” section to handle recipes that don’t fit in more conventional categories. You can learn how to use cookies and frosting to make miniature hamburgers, use real White Castle hamburgers to make pate, or use catnip to make burgers for you kitty. There are even a couple of pages with outtake comments like the one from a hesitant author who said, “I haven’t done many recipes; I prefer to work in less perishable materials.”
Cozy Food is a cookbook filled with the wit, inventiveness, and adventure found in cozy mysteries. The recipes are introduced by their authors and linked to writer bios in the back of the book. You can look up a cozy writer and see which recipes are their favorites or you can enjoy a dish and then link to the recipe’s author’s biography and books.
Even if you love cozies, I bet you can’t name 128 cozy authors, so either way you enjoy the cookbook, you’re sure to find great new recipes to make and terrific new cozy authors to read and have lots of fun while you do.
Have you ever made a recipe from a celebrity/author cookbook?
GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on August 13 for the chance to win a copy of COZY FOOD. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, unless specified.
Meet the editor
Nancy Lynn Jarvis thinks you should try something new every few years. Writing her Regan McHenry Real Estate 
Mysteries series is her newest adventure and she’s been having so much fun doing it that she’s finally acknowledged she’ll never sell another house. She let her license lapse in May of 2013, after her twenty-fifth anniversary in real estate.
After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare Santa Cruz at UCSC.
Her husband Craig is her-go-to guy for everything computer, her initial editor (whether he wants to be or not) and co-editor of Cozy Food, although he doesn’t want credit for it. He’s the one who made the book work so you can easily find whodunit.
Here’s a list of all the authors who contributed to this book:
Heavens! How I would like to try all those recipes – even the one from pre-history 🙂
I would love to try recipes from this book and I do love the cover!
I purchased this book, and it’s truly a charming collection of delicious, comfort food recipes with enough variety to please every palate. There are even a few recipes for pet treats!
Have you made any of the recipes?
I have to confess that I haven’t tried any yet. I’m leaning toward starting with the Killer Quiche Lorraine.
I love to cook and try new recipes, so would love to win this book. Sounds like so much fun 🙂
great book, hope i get a chance to read it, thank you 🙂
What a neat idea. I love the cover and have read books by many of the authors and would love to win a copy of Cozy Food
What’s better than cozy food while reading a cozy mystery
would like to give this a try…………
thank you!!
I’ve been looking forward to this book and would love to win it! Thank you for the chance. lisaksbookreview@aol.com
Wow, how nice to have recipes from some of my favorite authors in a book. I love it. Thanks for the opportunity.
What I wonderful idea and it certainly get these authors names out to readers who were not familiar with them before they read their recipe. Love this. Fun trying to take a chance on winning too. Have a wonderful weekend and next week too.
Cynthia
This book will give me more encouragement to get well and to cook and bake again. In the meantime hubby can make some of these recipes; he is doing great with the kitchen duties these days.
Cynthia
Who doesn’t love another cookbook? Especially if it has recipes from all the cozies we also love?
Dru,
Thanks for letting your readers know about Cozy Food. So you and the readers know, I have started making recipes from the book. I can promise the black bean brownies, limoncello cake, dates with goat cheese and basil, baba ganoush, and hummus for celebrating have all received rave reviews not just from me but from the people I made them for who were fighting over the last bit of them.
Sounds like a such fun cookbook.
I have read several books that contain recipes, but have never tried them. I haven’t tried any from cookbooks either.
Years ago I read a magazine with celebrity recipes. I still make the Cheryl Ladd chicken. It is a great recipe.
How great is that~~ I can learn about cozy writers that are new to me AND get new recipes in the same book! I’m in for hours and hours of great reading and fantastic meals!
Sounds great. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t yet. Working on my cooking skills and love to try new recipes. 🙂
I love any and all cookery books!
This is one that I really want!
What fun! This sounds like a great collection of recipes. Can’t wait to take a look at it!
What a terrific idea! I had fun reading your blurb and the list of authors who contributed. (I was happy to see so many whose books I’ve read!) I would love to win this!
Fantastic! Good for you.
Cookbooks and cozies are my two addictions so this is a MUST for my collection. Thanks for the giveaway. I’d love to win. Fingers crossed! 🙂
I just made The Chocolate Hazelnut Grackle Cookies from Joanne Fluke’s Blackberry Pie Murder! It was relatively easy and the cookies are fantastic! I have never had Nutella before and I love these cookies made from it!
That shows the power in asking. i’m not a foodie as such but i sure do enjoy cooking shows, clipping recipes and collecting cookbooks. i think this book fits right in with my lifestyle.
I love to cook and bake and I love mysteries. I want to win.
I love cook books , and this one looks awesome !
Love the cover! Would love to win a copy, but still will add as a future purchase on my TBR list. Thanks!
No, too many great recipes to choose from.
Love their books, maybe this will inspire me to cook again.
I’m a reluctant cook, but I think I might be tempted to try something new from these. Definitely attracted to the’ Quick and Easy’. Brilliant idea!
Love to try new recipies.
This sounds like the perfect book for me! Thanks for the chance to win.
I would love to read this…sounds fantastic..
I always love to try new recipes. It is fun especially if you like it.
would love this !!
I’m addicted to cookbooks and love to cook. To think I could have a cookbook with recipes from some of my favorite authors is a dream come true. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity and pick me — please.
I’ve tried a few recipes from Joanne Fluke’s books. Festive Baked Sandwich and Wacky Cake are my favorites.
That’s just so awesome. I love recipes and I can only imagine recipes in verse. I admit– I’m intrigued. LOL
It sounds like a fun and interesting book. I love the odd cover. Thanks for having the giveaway.
contest is closed.