My publisher asked how much of my life I put into Cooking up a Mystery, and I couldn’t help but smile.
The story shows the struggles of a young woman, Laney, who battles insecurities, loss and a criminal who attempts to destroy her tea house and catering business. She and her mom started the enterprise in her mother’s kitchen after Laney’s husband left her for another woman. Then both of Laney’s parents died. Laney fears she can’t run the restaurant without her mother’s help. However, George, her assistant tells her she has him and God, who knows her needs. Then he adds, “You … have your mom’s wonderful recipes and you whip them up like a pro.”
That’s where I come in with my real life experience. I learned to cook when I was ten years old. The reason, according to my father—I’d know how when I got married. I didn’t marry until I was thirty. By then, I’d received lots of instruction, so I knew how to prepare some pretty good dinners. After we were married my husband said, “You could start a restaurant.” I wanted to do other things instead, such as write, but I started one in this book.
A section in the back of the book, Laney’s Chefs in the Making, has over two dozen recipes. Only Laney’s Pineapple Rice is mine. The rest are from a book, Heavenly Delights, authored by my friend, Pam Nichols Griffin, as a fundraiser for Mission Love Seeds, a charity that helps children throughout the world and responds locally after disasters to demonstrate God’s love. They’re online at missionloveseeds.org and on Facebook.
Laney shares her recipe for Pineapple Rice.
Ingredients:
Rice (can be instant, but not boil-in-the-bag)
Cooking oil or spray
One small onion (chopped thin)
Five cloves garlic (or minced gloves equaling five cloves)
One tablespoon fresh grated ginger
One cup fresh pineapple
Small amount of pineapple juice
One teaspoon sugar
One lime
Cook rice according to directions on the box, but substitute a couple of tablespoons to 1/4 cup pineapple juice (depending on taste) for part of the water.
Chill rice.
Coat a heavy bottom skillet with oil. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, pineapple and sugar and stir. Add cold rice, break up, squirt with the juice of one lime and stir until heated and blended.
Laney Eskridge worked to put her husband through dental school. Then he left with another woman. She’s on edge from the emotional scars and her parents’ deaths. Then she hears unexplained noises in her new tea house, and her anxiety is tripled. Add a budding romance with Eric—a guy with a fear of commitment—and it’s all too much to handle. She cuts ties with Eric and plunges into making her business pay off.
When Eric discovers that Laney’s in danger, he vows to protect her. But can he make a lasting promise? Will she trust him? . . .and when they overhear a threat that could cause national turmoil, will anyone believe them? There’s more brewing than herbal tea in Cooking up a Mystery.
Buy Cooking Up A Mystery:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Pelican
Gail Pallotta’s a wife, Mom, swimmer, and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. A 2013 Grace Awards finalist, she’s a Reader’s Favorite 2017 Book Award winner and a TopShelf 2020 Book Awards Nominee. She’s published six books, poems, short stories and several hundred articles. Some of her articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. She loves to connect with readers. Visit her at her website.