What are my characters eating in Willow Creek, Pennsylvania, deep in the heart of Amish country? Anything sweet or hearty that will accompany tea.
Daisy Swanson and her Aunt Iris co-own Daisy’s Tea Garden in Willow Creek. Many of the foods my characters enjoy are based on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Daisy at the tea garden tries to give them a twist, as does her kitchen manager, her best friend from high school, Tessa Miller. Daisy’s Tea Garden offers sweet and savory items from potato and leek soup, carrot-grape-pecan salad to lemon tea cakes and cinnamon scones that are involved in solving the murders in this small community. In each novel I include at least three recipes that have appeared in the mystery.
Daisy’s teenage daughters Jazzi (Jasmine) and Vi (Violet), have their own favorites. Both girls enjoy whoopie pies—soft chocolate cookies with peanut butter cream or vanilla cream centers as well as their mom’s lemon pepper tomato mozzarella salad.
Frequent visitors to the tea garden have their own favorites. Jonas Groft, a former Philadelphia detective, owns a woodworking shop WOODS down the street from Daisy’s. Although, after her husband died, she decided never to need a man again, she feels something electric whenever Jonas is in the same room. He has a protective attitude that sometimes rankles, but with his help, she finds herself solving murders! His favorite soup is beef barley.
A friend from high school, Cade Bankert, is another frequent visitor to the tea garden. Cade had escorted Daisy to her high school prom. He is a real estate agent who found Daisy and Aunt Iris the tea garden property as well as the old barn Daisy had renovated into a home for her and her daughters. His favorite tea is orange pekoe and he’s fond of Daisy’s cookies.
When Daisy visits her Amish friend Rachel Fisher, she is invited to share a slice of shoo-fly pie with Rachel and her family. Rachel and her husband Levi own and run the shop, Quilts and Notions, across the street from Daisy’s Tea Garden.
If you enjoy tea, desserts, salads, and soups, as well as murder-mystery with a touch of romance, stop in to Daisy’s Tea Garden for a visit.
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Karen!
You can find Karen here:
No comments:
Post a Comment