The Cornbread Dilemma

which is not a culinary mystery but totally should be.

Instead the dilemma is this: Lou Jane Temple's The Cornbread Killer has the most perfect recipe for cornbread I've ever come across, even substituting plain old milk for the buttermilk. And yet the book itself? Four attempts and I've never yet gotten past chapter two. I should probably give it another shot, though, if I'm going to make this recipe YET AGAIN.

Morsel: Macaroni and murder

"Where's Cassie been?" my mother asked after dinner. She had made macaroni and cheese -- she has some idea that this is my favorite dish (which it may well have been, at some point in my life) and she cooks it, as a small timid expression of sympathy, whenever something in the papers indicates that a case of mine isn't going well. Even the smell of it makes me claustrophobic and itchy. 

--Tana French, In the Woods

Morsel: Death Notes (2005)

I skipped my run, showered, brewed a quick pot on the Mr Coffee and found a box of Cheerios I'd forgotten I owned. The milk in the fridge had gone sour, though, so I threw the whole mess out and ate an Italian pastry from Cafe Roma in the car on the way out to her place. --Gloria White, Death Notes

P.I.s eat like crap.

Morsel: Leave a Message for Willie (1984)

I retrieved my snow cone from Don and started off in the direction the man had pointed.

The cone was melting fast, and I tilted the paper cup clumsily, smearing the sticky liquid on my face and hands. Don, used to my minor mishaps by now, merely rolled his eyes as I fished out a Kleenex.

"Well, it's melting faster than it should," I said, scrubbing at my chin.

"I know." He squeezed my shoulder and continued eating his own cone, which seemed to be surviving just fine.

Edible books: Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor

I don't think I'd ever have the heart to eat it though.

The truffles surrounding it, on the other hand, would be history.

Review: Fudge Cupcake Murder (2005)

The last of the customers had left, the front door of The Cookie Jar was locked, and Hannah and Lisa were in the kitchen, mixing up the cookie dough for the following day. Lisa tore off a strip of plastic wrap to cover a batch of Chocolate-Cherry cookies and glanced up at the clock. "Hannah?"

"Hmm?" Hannah retrieved the chocolate she'd melted for her batch of Black and Whites and added it to her mixing bowl.

"It's getting late and you've got class tonight. Why don't you go home now?"

Hannah glanced over at her petite partner and smiled. "You're still a teenager and you're trying to mother me?"

Synopsis: Yes, yes she is. Because almost everyone in Lake Eden tries to mother Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar. In this episode, in what's to become a recurring theme in the series, a body is discovered with Cookie Jar products all over, giving Hannah an excuse to investigate and do things she should probably be thrown in jail for.

Grade: B-

In this fifth installment of the Cookie Jar series, Hannah continues to be torn between responsible Norman and hot n' sexy Mike and--

Lady? PICK A DUDE. Or just come right out and tell them you're poly, and let the cards fall where they may.

Also, the sheriff gets murdered, covered in Hannah's fudge frosting (not as sexy as it sounds -- this is after all, Lake Eden) and brother-in-law Bill falls under suspicion for the deed. So there's good news and bad news about this book. The good news is that even though you can tell whodunnit on page 150, this is a decent book, and the author's found a couple of great ways to perk up the series: developing Andrea as a likeable character, giving the mom a beau to make her seem more human and less demonic (Laura Childs take note for possibilities for Delaine), and giving Michelle intriguing deviousness. The bad news is that there are 100 pages in the middle I just didn't care about, and I cannot believe the protagonist runs her own successful business, bakeshop or no, because in 300 pages, she spent so little time there that I'm amazed no one's stealing from the registers or smashing the windows. But overall a solid entry with great recipes.

Also, I am seriously in love with the cover designs for this series. I'll freely admit I'm a cover junkie, and for awhile I thought the whole "hide skulls in the details" cozy cover fad had died out. Very glad to see it alive and well with these. Seriously. Frameable.

A morsel from: The Not-So-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen (1993)

In the kitchen, Mom was stirring something at the stove. Liz was happily eating a samosa -- a pocket of bread stuffed with curried potatoes and onions. Sunita's grandmother squatted on a small stool, singing loudly with the music. A sharp, curved blade attached to a piece of wood and a basket were on the floor between her feet. Holding a chili pepper between the thumb and forefinger of both hands, she pushed it against the blade. Her fingers moved quickly. The blade flashed through the pepper and pieces of the chili fell into the basket.

Sunita dumped the ashes from the incense holder into the garbage can. "Why can't she use a knife and cutting board instead of that thing?" she asked her mother.

--The Not-So-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen