• By Jacquelyn White
  • Posted Monday, October 31, 2016

In the Kitchen with Overdrive

The holidays are coming and we all know what that means... FOOD! This year, why not try something a little different. Digital cookbooks are a great way to bring in new recipes and create new family favorites.

Here are a few to get you started this holiday season:

“Holiday Slow Cooker: A Year of Hassle-free Celebrations" by Jonnie Downing

“Jewish Holiday Feasts" by Jeannette Ferrary, Louise Fiszer, Coco Masuda

“Holiday Crafting and Baking with Kids" by Jessica Strand and Aimee Herring

“Vegan for the Holidays" by Zel Allen

“How to Cook Everything Christmas" by Mark Bittman

Want more? Here's a listing of all the cookbooks available in our North Carolina Digital Library.

And for in between all the cooking and social gatherings, delicious mystery or two to solve:

“Earthly Delights" by Kerry Greenwood
Baking is an alchemical process for Corinna Chapman. At four am she starts work at Earthly Delights, her bakery in Calico Alley.

But one morning Corinna receives a threatening note saying 'The wages of sin is death' and finds a syringe in her cat's paw. A blue-faced junkie has collapsed in the dark alley and a mysterious man with beautiful eyes appears with a plan for Corinna and her bread. Then it is Goths, dead drug addicts, witchcraft, a homeless boy and a missing girl and it seems she will never get those muffins cooked in time.

With flair, chutzpah and a talent for kneading, Corinna Chapman will find out who exactly is threatening her life and bake some beautiful bread.

“Farmed and Dangerous" by Edith Maxwell
Cam is finding the New Year just as hectic as the old one. Her sometimes rocky relationship with Chef Jake Ericsson is in a deep freeze, she's struggling to provide the promised amount of food to the subscribers in her first winter CSA, and her new greenhouse might just collapse from the weight of the snow. Supplying fresh ingredients for a dinner at the local assisted living facility seems like the least of her worries--until one of the elderly residents dies after eating some of her produce.

Cantankerous Bev Montgomery had a lot of enemies, from an unscrupulous real estate developer who coveted her land to an aggrieved care provider fed up with her verbal abuse. But while the motives in this case may be plentiful, the trail of poisoned produce leads straight back to Cam. Not even her budding romance with police detective Pete Pappas will keep him from investigating her.

As the suspects gather, a blizzard buries the scene of the crime under a blanket of snow, leaving Cam stranded in the dark with a killer who gives new meaning to the phrase "dead of winter."

“Plum Pudding Murder Bundle with Candy Cane Murder & Sugar Cookie Murder" byJoanne Fluke
Plum Pudding Murder: The yuletide season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, guarantees a white Christmas, delectable holiday goodies from Hannah Swensen's bakery, The Cookie Jar—and murder. As a shadow hangs over her friends' Christmas wedding, Hannah's determined to cook a killer's goose before anyone else gets burned. . .

The Cookie Jar's busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time. . .for Christmas cookies, Hannah's own special plum pudding—and romance! She also gets a kick out of "Lunatic Larry Jaeger's Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot," a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green. But then Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office. . .

Now, with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn't want her to see the New Year.

Also includes: "Candy Cane Murder" By Joanne Fluke, "The Dangers Of Candy Canes" By Laura Levine, and "Candy Canes Of Christmas Past" By Leslie Meier

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