HERE at the Westemeier house, we head to church on Christmas Eve and we spend Christmas day lounging in our sweatpants. I hate missing any of the fun playing games, watching movies, and dancing to the playlist streaming on the speaker, so I designed our menu to keep me out of the kitchen. With three adult sons and a husband all over six feet tall, you better believe I need to set out a spread, and that’s where this favorite soup recipe saves the holiday!
Soup is good food, and it’s especially satisfying when eaten with friends and family. Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup is a wonderful way to use up leftover holiday ham without putting too much pressure on the kitchen staff (usually just me). Paired with a loaf of crusty bread and sliced apples, cheese (because HERE in Wisconsin, it’s a food group on its own) and Christmas cookies, Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup satisfies even the hungriest dinner guest. We can dip into the crock pot whenever hunger hits, and this recipe makes enough to serve any visitors who might come to our door.
Except for the potatoes, the soup’s ingredients can be prepped the night before, and it doesn’t take more than twenty minutes to produce this hearty main course. I love the options for cooking time, too. Best of all, nearly every ingredient in this recipe has a long shelf life, making the cook’s life even easier!
Just as my family gathers HERE for holidays, the residents at The Abbey: Senior Living in my Nun the Wiser Mysteries enjoy a communal meal together in the old sanctuary now appropriated as a dining room. The cooks prepare Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup for the residents to satisfy their hunger and warm them up on a cold day.
And after the party’s over, what’s cozier than a bowl of soup, a cup of cocoa, and a cozy murder mystery by any of these fine Tule authors while you’re snuggled up in your favorite chair? Sounds like the perfect ending to a holiday celebration!
Melissa Westemeier grew up around the edge of nerd culture, but marriage and motherhood with three sons immersed her in it. She’s fluent in Marvel, DC, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Godzilla, and more thanks to their influence. Her fiction work includes rom-com and a trilogy loosely based on her experience tending bar on the Wolf River in Wisconsin. She’s thrilled to realize her childhood dream of writing murder mysteries. Her books blend her humor and appreciation for nerd culture while tackling serious themes and unpacking the puzzle of whodunnit (and how and why!). In her spare time, Melissa needs to be outside or near a window. Her passions include hiking, swimming, biking, reading, and fantasizing about her next vacation destination.
Happy Holidays, EVERYONE! I hope you’re having a chance to spend time with those close to you. As I sit down to write this post, the weather is chilly, damp, and dark. In other words, typical for Central Indiana this time of year. Not exactly conditions that are conducive to merriment, know what I mean?
That got me thinking. What if I took a page from Elmo Simpson, the amateur sleuth and namesake of my Tule mystery series? Elmo left Indianapolis, and after taking a rather winding path, settled down in the fictional town of Paradise Springs, in the real-life Florida Panhandle.
Would I move to a tropical locale? I would absolutely love to! As long as I don’t find myself being asked to solve a murder mystery. I’ll leave that to the experts. Would my life be different? I’m sure it would, including how I’d celebrate the holiday season.
First, the decorations would be different. Currently, our Christmas tree is an artificial white pine. If I lived in the tropics, I’d replace that by decorating a palm tree. Something like this, perhaps.
Yeah, that would get the tropical holiday vibes started.
What about decorations for my new domicile? My wife and I currently have four plastic crates that we store our ornaments, figurines, and other festive items in. I certainly wouldn’t abandon all of those items. Memories, after all.
I’d prioritize the placement of these two statuettes, though
I mean, my author friends don’t call me The Flamingo Kid for nothing! By the way, the flamingo on the right was a gift from one of my sisters, so my family supports my tropical madness dreams.
Once the tree and the house are decorated, I’ll turn my attention to music. Holiday music, from the classics delivered by Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby to more recent deliveries from the Brian Setzer Orchestra, is played a lot during the final few weeks of December. Not much of that would change, though, I’d add a lot more Jimmy Buffett. He has two Christmas albums, “Christmas Island” and “’Tis the SeaSon.” If you haven’t listened to them, do yourself a favor and do it soon. You’ll be glad you did.
Last, but not least, food. You aren’t fully embracing the holidays if you don’t partake in at least a little bit of feasting, right? I think I’d go with something like this mofongo dish. For those who aren’t familiar with it, mofongo is a traditional Puerto Rican dish made of mashed plantains and mixed with pork or other meats. Doesn’t it look amazing?
So, let’s see. I’ve got the tree and home decorated. I’ve got music playing. The holiday meal is ready. I think that means it’s time to celebrate the season in tropical style.
How about you? Would you like to celebrate the holidays in a different part of the world? If so, where and how would you do it? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, cheers!
J.C. Kenney is the bestselling author of The Allie Cobb Mysteries, The Darcy Gaughan Mysteries, and The Elmo Simpson Mysteries. He’s also the co-host of The Bookish Hour webcast. When he’s not writing, you can find him following IndyCar racing or listening to music. He has two grown children and lives in Indianapolis with his wife and a cat.
My mom died when I was in my early twenties, leaving an impossible void in our lives. Of course, no one could replace her, but my grandmother became a surrogate mother to my brother and me.
Even though we lived about 1,200 miles apart, we spoke almost daily. She was my confidant, my example, and a fountain of sage advice. She meant the world to me.
She tried to visit for holidays as often as she could, but when she couldn’t, she would send a box of her homemade Christmas candy and cookies. It was so exciting when the box arrived – always well before Christmas, which meant not only did she make and package the goodies far enough in advance to accomplish this, but she also got the package to the post office in plenty of time for us to enjoy the treats in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
The box, always addressed in her beautiful handwriting, would be packed with holiday tins, each one containing a batch of one of delicious confections FROM her kitchen: 7-Layer cookies; divinity; chocolate peanut clusters; peanut brittle; chocolate fudge; and peanut butter fudge.
Like all earth angels, she was only on loan to us. We lost her several years ago, but I keep her memory alive by cooking her recipes – especially her Christmas candy. Often, I work her recipes into my books. There’s a lot of my grandmother in the treats that Tess creates at the Briar Patch Bakery in the Wedding Bell Mysteries series.
Here are her recipes for 7-Layer Cookies and Peanut Clusters. They’re in her own words – not necessarily in conventional recipe format, but they’re just as she sent them to me. I can hear her voice as I read them.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, my friends!
MY GRANDMOTHER’S 7-LAYER COOKIES
Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9 x 13 pan.
Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over the butter (about one cup or so)
Next sprinkle a 12 oz. package of butterscotch chips over the graham cracker crumbs, then sprinkle a 12 oz package of chocolate chips
Then sprinkle some angel flake coconut over the top of the chips.
You can add 1 cup of chopped nuts if you like. I use pecans.
Drizzle 1 can Eagle Band sweetened condensed milk over the top of everything. (see my note below and make sure you don’t use evaporated milk – that won’t taste very good. It has to be sweetened condensed milk. I like the Eagle Brand.)
Preheat the oven to 350 and bake until it begins to brown a little around the edges and bubbles a little. You just need to let the chips melt. Let it cool before trying to cut it into small squares.
* Note about the Eagle Brand milk – I found out that if you put the Eagle Brand milk in a pan of hot water while you’re getting the rest of the ingredients ready, it will be easier to drizzle. Otherwise, it is so thick it is hard to get out of the can. Be sure the can is unopened when you put it in the hot water. Don’t open it until it’s heated and you are ready to pour it. The first time I tried that, I opened the can first and got some water in the milk and I had to throw it out and start over. Be very careful not to burn yourself when you take the can out of the water and open the can. Use tongs and pot holders.
MY GRANDMOTHER’S PEANUT CLUSTERS
12 oz. chocolate chips
3/4 package almond bark *see note
Large jar dry roasted peanuts (unsalted)
Melt chips and almond bark in a double boiler.
Add peanuts and mix well. Put tablespoons full on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Let them set up before you try to remove them from the cookie sheet.
* I found out that it is too much if you use the whole package of almond bark. I made a smaller batch with some cashew nuts and the leftover bark, and it was so good! But I know you’re partial to the peanut variety.
Award-winning author Nancy Robards Thompson has worked as a newspaper reporter, television show stand-in, production and casting assistant for movies, and in fashion and public relations. She started writing fiction seriously in 1997. Five years and four completed manuscripts later, she won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart award for unpublished writers and sold her first book the following year. Since then, Nancy has sold 30 books and found her calling doing what she loves most – writing romance and women’s fiction full-time.
Yep, you read that right. We are hosting our largest giveaway yet and it’s super simple to win.
We have had several of Tule’s Cozy authors write blog posts starting on the 13th and ending on the 24th. Each blog post will contain one hidden word, all you have to do is follow along every day to find all 12 hidden words. Once you do, send us the secret message!
All blog posts will be released at 5am.
Winner(s) will receive: 1st place – a digital copy of all 12 books, 2nd place – winners choice of 6 books, 3rd place – winners choice of 1 of the 12 books.*
I love to bake, so it was no surprise that in my Hart of Texas Murder Mystery series, Rosie Hart also loves to bake. In fact, she has her own baking business, From the Hart, and she’s way more skilled than I am! Actually, Rosie hasn’t yet made a pavlova, but I wanted to include a recipe that reflected our Christmases here in Australia, and not too complicated. We all get busy enough at this time of the year, so something relatively easy that’s still a decadent treat? Yes, and yes!
I’ve been making this pavlova for over 40 years. The recipe was passed from a friend, and quickly became the most often requested, especially by my family. Our Christmas Days are hot, and this is just a lovely light dessert after a big meal. I guess it wouldn’t be Christmas here without what the kids call Kaz’s Pav!
Light as a Feather Pavlova
INGREDIENTS
6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. white vinegar
Good pinch cream of tartar
Topping:
1 pint double cream
1 banana
Handful of strawberries
3 fresh passionfruit
2 dessertspoons lemon juice or 1/2 cup fizzy lemonade (dip banana slices to prevent from turning brown.)
DIRECTIONS
Set oven to 350F (180c)
Separate eggs very carefully. (Even the tiniest speck of yolk will not allow whites to whip properly.)
Ensure the mixing bowl is perfectly clean and dry before adding egg whites.
Using a stand mixer, thoroughly whip egg whites until peaks form.
Add sugar slowly while continuing to whip.
Add vanilla, vinegar and cream of tartar.
Continue whipping until the mixture is very firm, and the peaks will stand by themselves. (Feeling brave? Hold the inverted bowl over your head. It’s a sure test.)
Cover a flat baking tray with baking paper. Use little dabs of prepared meringue mixture in 4 or 5 places to secure the paper so it doesn’t slip around.
Carefully spoon the mixture onto the tray, building a high little drum-shape that is about 7 inches – no more – across. Smooth sides and flatten top with a spatula. The mixture will spread in the oven and there will be plenty, but it’s important to begin with this shape to ensure that lovely feather soft, marshmallow-like center. Otherwise, it will spread too thin and become hard and crunchy.
Place in oven and bake for 5 minutes only at 350F (180c).
Lower oven temp after 5 minutes to 240F (120c) and continue baking for one hour.
When the time is up, turn the oven off, but leave the pavlova in oven to cool completely. (At Christmastime, I will bake this the day before, the last bake of the day, and leave it in the oven overnight.)
It can also be stored for a day or two in an airtight container. Top with cream and preferred fruit – and serve!
Or top with cream, then add chopped pink and white marshmallows and grate chocolate, or crumble a Cadbury Flake bar, over the top. That’s how my grandchildren prefer it, and I often have to decorate the pavlova half and half to satisfy everybody.
This will serve 8 or more depending on serving portions.
For the topping:
Note: any preferred fruit can be used. I simply recommend the addition of at least one selection with a natural tartness or tang, such as fresh passionfruit. This can cut through all the sweetness of the meringue and give your dessert balance.
First, prepare the fruit – wash, peel, slice. Then whip cream until stiff. (Sugar is not needed as the meringue is so sweet.)
Additional notes:
This is an easy recipe to tweak to your own size requirements. E.g. 4 egg whites = 1 cup of sugar. 8 egg whites = 2 cups of sugar. (The size I usually have to make, though the accompanying image is simply a 4-egg version.) Temperatures and baking times will remain the same. Adjust the other ingredients accordingly. Also, the pav may split or collapse somewhat as it cools. This is fine. It all gets covered, and you will still have a soft, high pavlova inside.
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