Peggy Ehrhart's Blog, page 4

November 3, 2020

The Halloween That Wasn't

I wrote KNIT OF THE LIVING DEAD over a year ago, but since I knew it would be released in time for Halloween 2020, I made sure to check what day of the week October 31 would fall on, and I even included a full moon--though I didn't realize the full moon would be that rare thing, a blue moon.

I also didn't foresee the Covid epidemic or its effect on the usual Halloween traditions.

Last year my husband and I gave out 200 pieces of candy and still goblins kept coming. We had to turn off the porch light and pull the shades. During the afternoon, so many children were showing up with outstretched hands and bags that for a while my husband just stationed himself on the porch steps with a basket of goodies.

This year I debated whether to stock up on candy just in case--though in our area people were advised to find ways other than trick or treating to celebrate. Finally the thought that my husband and I might end up eating mountains of unclaimed candy made me decide to post a sign on our front walk: "We are sorry but because of Covid we are not doing trick or treat this year. I hope to see you in 2021."

As it turned out, a few people did muster out to trick or treat but they seemed philosophical about the fact that not every house on the street was open for business. A neighbor even strung crime-scene tape across her porch!

As a sort of footnote to the Halloween that wasn't, squirrels attacked my uncarved pumpkin the day after I set it on the porch. It became so unsightly, with giant holes, that I moved it to the backyard and within a few days they had eaten it completely.
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Published on November 03, 2020 11:13

October 17, 2020

Dead Flowers, Review, and Book Giveaway

KINGS RIVER LIFE has a nice review of KNIT OF THE LIVING DEAD up now, and to go with it I was invited to contribute a Halloween craft project. I came up with "Send Me Dead Flowers--Spooky Halloween Flower Arrangement with Optional Spider."

For a photo of "Send Me Dead Flowers," as well as directions to make your own spooky flower arrangement, visit https://kingsriverlife.com/10/17/knit...

The review is there too, along with a chance to win a copy of KNIT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
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Published on October 17, 2020 09:57

October 5, 2020

Author's Angst at Aardvark Appeal

When I named Arborville High School's football team the Aardvarks in DIED IN THE WOOL, I was obviously going for alliteration. This post is about the DIED IN THE WOOL aardvarks, so I decided to have a little fun with alliteration in the title.

In DIED IN THE WOOL, the members of the Knit and Nibble knitting club knit toy aardvarks as a fundraising project for the sports program.

I have to confess I left the knitters to their own devices to figure out how to do this. I had never seen a pattern for a knitted aardvark, let alone knit one. But the very talented artist who creates the covers for the Knit & Nibble series depicted the results of the knitting project quite marvelously.

Then last week I got an email from a reader inquiring where she could find the pattern to knit the aardvarks on the cover! I was quite mortified to have to tell her that they were not an example of the writer's dictum, "Write what you know."

But I also went searching online for knitted aardvarks and I actually found a pattern at Ravelry.com, available for $5. It's a wonderful rendition of an aardvark--very realistic if you can imagine a yarn creation resembling a real animal.

It's also quite different from the aardvarks on the cover of DIED IN THE WOOL, which are more what I would call "teddy bear aardvarks"--recognizable as aardvarks by their heads and tails but as unlike a real aardvark as a teddy bear is unlike a real bear. In DIED IN THE WOOL, however, they are supposed to be children's toys, so the cover artist's impulse to make them like teddy bears was a good one.

I emailed back to the woman who had inquired about the aardvark pattern to report on the Ravelry pattern and also to steer her to a few other online patterns that could resemble aardvarks with a few tweaks. She responded that she thinks she's figured out a way to do it. I asked her to send me a photo of the result for my website and I hope she does!
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Published on October 05, 2020 12:58

September 17, 2020

The ABCs of Cooking

I did a guest post for the Wicked Authors blog a few days ago. The Wicked Authors are six cozy-writing women and the blog is great fun to explore.

My post is "The ABCs of Cooking"--all about my 2019 New Year's resolution to dive into the mountain of recipes I've collected over the decades and make a different one once a week, starting with A, ending up with Z, and then starting all over again. Tonight is Salade Nicoise.

Anyway--here is the link if you'd like to read the post: https://wickedauthors.com/2020/09/15/...
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Published on September 17, 2020 10:50

August 30, 2020

In Search of Spoon Bread

Besides the Strasburg Heritage Society cookbook, which I blogged about last time, my cookbook shelf also contains FOODS AND RECIPES OF THE SMOKIES, perhaps bought long ago on some adventurous road trip. Not only does it contain the recipes that a hardy and creative people devised for a rather limited range of ingredients, mostly raised by them—pork, corn, beans, cabbage, or foraged and hunted from the woods that surrounded them—berries, wild greens, possum. It also includes photos of such things as a sorghum mill powered by a mule.

I took it off my shelf recently to search for a specific recipe. The New York Times had featured “Strawberry Spoon Cake,” accompanied by a preamble in which the author mentioned spoon bread as an inspiration. Spoon bread sounded fascinating to me—something called “bread” but served, and perhaps eaten, with a spoon.

It’s a very old Southern dish, I learned, and it appears in many cookbooks. And there it was, a few different versions even, in FOODS AND RECIPES OF THE SMOKIES.

Two key elements are cornmeal and egg whites beaten stiff, then folded into the batter right before baking. I pictured a country housewife without electricity putting the elbow power into beating egg whites stiff. What a testimony to the human appreciation for good food and a cook’s devotion to her craft!

Usually spoon bread is a side dish, not a dessert. But taking off from the Strawberry Spoon Cake idea, I decided to invent my version of a dessert spoon bread. And since August is the peak season for peaches, I decided to use peaches rather than strawberries.

Well, it turned out great! The slightly acidic quality of the peaches goes just right with the hint of cornmeal in the “bread,” as if the two flavors were destined to meet and marry. And maybe they were, peaches and corn both growing in similar climes, like the made-in-heaven match between salmon and dill or tomatoes and basil.

My “Summer Peach Spoon Bread” is the guest blog today (8-30-20) at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: https://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/...

Take a look—the whole recipe is there, along with many in-progress photos. And if you leave a comment, you’ll be in the running to receive a copy of KNIT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which was just released, as well as an advance copy of CHRISTMAS CARD MURDER, Kensington’s 2020 Christmas anthology containing my novella, DEATH OF A CHRISTMAS CARD CRAFTER.

The link will remain live long after today, but the book-giveaway will end Tuesday..
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Published on August 30, 2020 09:04

August 10, 2020

An Old-Fashioned Cookbook

Among the cookbooks on my cookbook shelf is a collection of recipes published in the early 1970s by the Strasburg (Pennsylvania) Heritage Society. It’s illustrated with early 19th-century photos of this charming town and was produced as a fundraiser to support the worthy activities of the group.

The early 1970s were a time of exciting ferment for young woman, but this cookbook was produced by earlier generations—the mothers and grandmothers of the young woman who pictured themselves stepping out of the kitchen and into fulfilling careers.

A whole dissertation could be written on what this cookbook tells us about the lives of those earlier generations. But here are a few tidbits.

Being married was important. Most of the women who contributed recipes sign their names as Mrs. Whoever—sometimes Mrs. Jane Smithers, for example, but equally often as Mrs. James Smithers.

Days were busy, though filled with housework and volunteer activities, not paid employment. This is made explicit in “Busy Day Casserole” and it’s implicit in the many recipes that rely on canned soup as a major component.

On the other hand, many many recipes are identified as perfect for parties or to serve a crowd. Entertaining was clearly among these women’s duties. A special section is devoted to “Cooking for a Crowd.” Slaw for 50 people, for example, requires 10 pounds of cabbage.

Adding soy sauce and pineapple is a quick way to make almost anything “Hawaiian.” And Jello is a major component of at least half the salads in the Salad chapter—also mayonnaise.

Days were busy but there was time to bake! Separate chapters in the cookbook are devoted to Cakes, Cookies, Pies--and Desserts. (Because not all goodies are cakes, cookies, or pies!) There’s also a whole chapter on Candy.

For some reason, though, I enjoy paging through this cookbook, despite the fact that I consider myself a modern liberated woman. I love to cook, and a world in which attention is paid to cooking is a comforting world--especially in these uncomfortable times.
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Published on August 10, 2020 10:39

July 17, 2020

Keeping It Real

I've been away from the blog for quite a while because I was finishing Knit & Nibble #7, KNITTY GRITTY MURDER. I emailed the manuscript to my editor at Kensington two days ago and now it's time to catch up.

KNITTY GRITTY MURDER takes place in May and involves two murders in Arborville's community gardens. I started writing it in early February, which in New Jersey is pretty bleak, though this year we hardly got any snow. I try to give a sense of time and place in my books, and all the more so in this one with its garden setting.

It can be hard to imagine in February what May looks and feels like, and one of my special pet peeves when I'm reading is to notice that an author has daffodils blooming in August or ripe apples hanging on trees in April.

The internet, of course, comes to the rescue. With a few keystrokes one can summon up charts listing what's blooming when anywhere in the world.

I wanted to feature strawberries and rhubarb in the Nibble components of the book, and I was pretty sure a good crop of rhubarb could be harvested by mid-May, and that May was the peak season for strawberries that hadn't been flown in from the southern hemisphere. But I was happy to be able to verify my hunches, and to learn that May is actually National Strawberry Month.

Turning to a crop I wasn't familiar with at all--one of my characters (a murder suspect, in fact!) grows flax on her community garden plot. I had no idea of the optimum time for planting flax or what it even looks like growing. Early spring and spiky are the answers--and of course my web search turned up many many MANY pictures of flax growing. It gets a pretty blue flower--who knew? But the plants would still be quite small in May in New Jersey, with no flowers in sight.

Since the book wasn't due till mid-July, I was still writing when May rolled around and I was able to supplement some of my imagined description, of azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom, for example, with first-hand observation. I was also able to make sure I hadn't made the sun come up too early or go down too late--though those details can also easily be checked online.

KNITTY GRITTY MURDER will come out next spring. The cover has already been designed and I'll be putting it up on my website soon. It features a surprise character, Precious the Siamese cat. She belonged to the first murder victim and Pamela is enlisted to give her a new home.
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Published on July 17, 2020 12:58

May 7, 2020

Why Rhubarb?

My husband has always loved rhubarb. When he was growing up in Illinois, a huge patch of it grew (uninvited) in his family's yard. His mother did not love rhubarb and would send him out to try to eradicate it, but the next spring it would come back more luxuriantly than ever.

He also loved to watch his mother cook, so he decided he would learn how to make rhubarb pies. This was when he was about twelve years old--and he has continued making rhubarb pies to this day.

The thing is, though, rhubarb doesn't always appear reliably in the grocery stores. Who would want to eat the sour stem of an otherwise poisonous plant in an era when fresh pineapple, mangoes, strawberries and a whole host of other delicious perishables can be shipped around the globe at any season? In earlier times people welcomed rhubarb as one of the first edible fresh things to appear in the spring and used plenty of sugar to make it tasty.

We tried--twice--to grow our own rhubarb. I ordered the rhubarb crowns from an online nursery and planted them carefully in a spot that I thought they would like. A few small leaves appeared and then withered and that was the end of that. Both times.

Apparently if rhubarb is growing where it wants to be, it can't be eradicated, but if it isn't where it wants to be it absolutely will not grow.

All this is a long preamble to explain why the "nibble" in the Knit & Nibble I'm writing now is going to be based on rhubarb. I found some at my favorite Giant Farm Market and experimented with a rhubarb cheese cake over the weekend. It's delicious and is slowly being transferred from the serving plate to my hips and my husband's waistline. But it came out of the springform pan too messily to look nice in a photo on my website, so I am going to try again.

Meanwhile, I baked a more traditional rhubarb pie long ago when I posted a music-themed pie every month for a year on my website after my blues mystery, SWEET MAN IS GONE, came out. Here's the link: http://peggyehrhart.com/april-rhubarb...
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Published on May 07, 2020 10:55

April 21, 2020

All the Comforts of Chocolate

I recently did a guest blog for Fresh Fiction on my adventures (and misadventures) baking chocolate goodies to include in my Knit & Nibble books. It's called "All the Comforts of Chocolate" and it's up now at http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=1...

Thank you to Fresh Fiction also for a really nice review of A FATAL YARN and for choosing A FATAL YARN as a Fresh Pick for April.

If you're not familiar with Fresh Fiction, it's a great site for book news and reviews, as well as interviews with authors and contests galore. Just visit http://freshfiction.com/ and browse among the various tabs.
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Published on April 21, 2020 10:35

March 26, 2020

Interview with Pamela Paterson

An interview with my sleuth Pamela Paterson is now up as the March 26 "Get to Know You" feature at Dru's Book Musings. Leave a comment March 26 or 27 for a chance to win an ARC of A FATAL YARN.

https://drusbookmusing.com/2020/03/26...

Dru's blog is a great source for information about new releases in the mystery genre--with lots of focus on cozies and traditional mysteries.

Thank you, Dru!
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Published on March 26, 2020 09:34