Hot Dish Heaven by Jeanne Cooney.
Book Description from back of the book.
Publication Date: June 1, 2013
Cub reporter Emerald Malloy is assigned to gather “church food” recipes from the owner of Hot Dish Heaven, a café in a small town in the Red River Valley. Upon her arrival, she learns of a local unsolved murder. Confident that solving the case will catapult her from newspaper “gopher” to investigative reporter, she questions the locals while attending a benefit dinner-dance at the VFW. By the end of the night, she’s consumed lots of hot dish and bars while talking to everyone from the Irish-Catholic priest who lives among these Scandinavian Lutheran farmers to the café owner’s eccentric aunts. She also meets a hunky deputy sheriff and learns some tough lessons about herself. But the question remains, will she live long enough for any of it to matter?
Publication Date: June 1, 2013
Cub reporter Emerald Malloy is assigned to gather “church food” recipes from the owner of Hot Dish Heaven, a café in a small town in the Red River Valley. Upon her arrival, she learns of a local unsolved murder. Confident that solving the case will catapult her from newspaper “gopher” to investigative reporter, she questions the locals while attending a benefit dinner-dance at the VFW. By the end of the night, she’s consumed lots of hot dish and bars while talking to everyone from the Irish-Catholic priest who lives among these Scandinavian Lutheran farmers to the café owner’s eccentric aunts. She also meets a hunky deputy sheriff and learns some tough lessons about herself. But the question remains, will she live long enough for any of it to matter?
Leona's Review
I checked out this book from my library. I have been reading more mysteries
based in Minnesota lately.
Emerald, Emme, is a reporter for a newspaper in Minneapolis and her
assignment is to get recipes from a local cafe in Kennedy, Minnesota. When
talking to the owner, Margie Johnson, talks about a murder that was never
solved. Emme begins her search for the murderer and so this leads the reader to
the suspects and what their reason might be to kill Samantha Berg.
I did not care for some of the language that included the a*** and s***
words. Somehow I did not expect these words to be used by some ladies I have met
on Minnesota.
It was an easy read and this book does include lots of "hot dish" recipes
.I call them casseroles but they are "hot dishes" in Minnesota.
The recipes call for white Crystal sugar because this is from the beets
they harvest in this part of Minnesota.
Some recipes are:
Tater-Tot Hot Dish
Cheeseburger Hot Dish
Hester's Favorite Jell-O
Three- Bean Hot Dish
Nut-Goodie Bars
Recipe for Hester's Favorite Jell-O
"1 can cherry pie filling
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup hot water
1 large box of cherry Jell-o
1 can coca-cola
Dump the first 3 ingredients into a kettle and bring to a boil. Add cherry
Jell-O. Stir and let cool. Add the can of regular soda and stir until the
bubbles disappear. Chill until firm. Cover with Cool Whip. I know this sounds
like a weird Jell-O recipe, with soda pop and all, bit it's actually very
good."
I am giving it a 3 star rating. I will probably read the next book, Hot
Dish Heaven: A Second Helping of Murder and Recipes.
Joanne Cooney may be reached at http://www.jeannecooney.com
Leona Olson
