Please welcome our good friend and guest blogger, Janet Bolin, whose very entertaining mystery series: THREADVILLE MYSTERIES, set in the fictional town of Threadville, are some of the most delightful mysteries I've read.The second in the series, THREADED FOR TROUBLE, debuted this month. Read an excerpt from her stories by clicking this LINK. Enjoy!
Take it away, Janet.My father made every square inch of our garden produce. We had asparagus, rhubarb, red raspberries, peas, and leaf lettuce in the spring, carrots, tomatoes and green beans all summer, and more red raspberries, pears, apples, and Concord grapes in the late summer and into fall. Day after day, my mother filled canning jars with stewed tomatoes, beans, tomato juice, grape juice apple butter, pickles, jams and jellies, and something horrible (everyone else loved it, don’t ask me why) called piccalilli made from ground-up green tomatoes.
These (except for the piccalilli) would be great all winter.
However, in the summer, I found all this cooking ghastly. We didn’t have air conditioning. I went outside and played under trees and dined on popsicles made out of grape juice. It was a tough life . . .
I did, eventually, help with the canning. And I graduated from grape juice to my mother’s iced coffee. As I recall, this is how she made it (except she liked her coffee a lot weaker than I do):MOTHER'S ICED COFFEE:
Brew strong, dark coffee and stir in cocoa powder and sugar to taste. Freeze into a slush in your freezer. This can be done quickly in a largish pan containing only a thin layer of coffee. Or you might prefer the convenience of an ice cream maker. Spoon slush into a glass, filling it most of the way. Top up with milk. Grate nutmeg over it and serve with a straw.
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Janet's first novel, DIRE THREADS, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First novel, and was also nominated for the Bloody Words Light Mystery Award (the Bony Blithe.)
THREADVILLE MYSTERIES are available in stores everywhere.Visit Janet at facebook and twitter.
