Baking Up Holiday
Yummies by Maddie Day

Thanks
for having me back to the Stiletto Gang! I’m celebrating the release of Candy Slain Murder, my eighth Country Store Murder, and I’ll give
away a signed copy to one commenter. I had a two-release month in September,
and Linda kindly agreed to host me as a guest twice, once for each.

Can
you tell this new book is a Christmas cozy mystery? Robbie Jordan has her
country store all decorated for the holidays, and she and her assistants think
up fun Christmas-colored specials to serve, like a spinach-red pepper egg bake.

Of
course, quite a few Christmas cookies make it into the book, too. I grew up
making cookies with my mom, using recipes from both my grandmothers, and
continue to do a lot of baking in December every year. I still make Mexican
Bridecakes, English Butter Cookies, Red Sugar Cookies, red-and-green spiral
icebox cookies, Spritz cookies (otherwise known as Squeeze-Out cookies), and of
course, gingerbread people. Both my sons grew up baking with me, and I love
that the custom keeps getting passed down.

One
year recently my older son and I attempted a Buche de Noel. It was a lot of
work and a bit of a fail.That’s definitely one to buy from a bakery. A
successful non-sweet thing I baked was a cheesy Christmas tree, with
cheese-filled balls of biscuit dough arranged like a tree and sprinkled with
red peppers, parsley, and parmesan cheese. It’s a great holiday party
appetizer, or it was in the days when it was okay for multiple people to touch
the same piece of food (sigh).

Candy Slain Murder includes several recipes, including for
gingerbread people and for Holly Cookies, which are sugar cookies cut with a
holly leaf shaped cutter and dusted with green sugars. I hope you love a taste
of Christmas a couple of months early!

Readers: What’s your favorite holiday sweet? Do you bake family
recipes or preferto get your cookies at the bakery or at a cookie swap?

In
Candy Slain Murder, Country Store owner Robbie Jordan’s life
seems merry and as bright as the Christmas lights glistening around South Lick,
Indiana – until a man claims to be the long-lost half-brother of Robbie’s
assistant. A fire destroys the home of a controversial anesthesiologist,
exposing skeletal remains in his attic. The twin of the long-dead woman is
murdered. Unavoidably intrigued, all Robbie wants for Christmas is to stop her
winter wonderland from becoming a real nightmare.

Maddie Day
pens the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries.
Agatha Award winning Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife
Mysteries and short crime fiction. With twenty-three mysteries in print and
more underway, Day/Maxwell lives with her beau and their energizer kitten north
of Boston, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook. She
hopes you’ll find her on social media under both names, on WickedAuthors.com,
and at her web
site.