by Nancy Lynn Jarvis
Cozy Food came about because I spotted a perfect cozy cookbook cover. The graphic was so cute, I purchased it. I’d take a peek at it every once in a while and it always made me smile and wish I was doing a cookbook instead of writing mysteries. Finally I figured the only way to end my growing obsession was to have other writers talk me down.
After writing six books, I’d come to “know” a fair number of cozy writers because of online connections. I sent them emails and waited for them to say doing a cookbook was a ridiculous idea. Not one of them did. Instead, they wanted in and asked where to send their recipes.
Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes has more than 224 recipes that are as varied and interesting as an amateur detective’s day job and is filled with the wit, inventiveness, and adventure found in cozy mysteries. 
Writers sent in recipes from their amateur sleuths who work as event planners, book store owners, crafters, journalists, and culinary masters, as well as from those who put food on the table in less conventional ways working as morticians, square dance callers, and fugitives hiding in plain sight in dead end jobs, to name a few. Recipes are related to sleuths of all ages and mental conditions, too, like one from an octogenarian cruise ship sailor who detects while dealing with short term memory loss.
The recipes in Cozy Food come from various times. Most are current, but there are recipes from the 1930s and the 1880s (one is delivered in verse) and if the recipe title “Dried Mammoth Meat Jerky adapted for Cro Magnons and Modern Humans” is to be believed, even from prehistory.
COZY FOOD back cover
Cozy Food has terrific recipes for traditional meals from breakfast thru dinner, but there’s a “Quick, Easy, Quirky, Saucy & Even Pet Treats” section to handle recipes that don’t fit in more conventional categories. You can learn how to use cookies and frosting to make miniature hamburgers, use real White Castle hamburgers to make pate, or use catnip to make burgers for you kitty.
The recipes are introduced by their authors and linked to writer bios in the back of the book. You can look up a cozy writer and see which recipes are their favorites, or you can enjoy a dish and then link to the recipe’s author’s biography and books. Even if you love cozies, I bet you can’t name 128 cozy writers—more if you count AKAs. Have a look around. Either way you enjoy the cookbook, you’re sure to find great new recipes to make and terrific new cozy authors to read.
To enter to win a copy of Cozy Food, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “cozy food,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 23, 2016. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.
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Looks like you did a good job on this
I would enjoy it and I am sure many others would too
I love cozy culinary mysteries and I always say I’m going to try some of the recipes from the books, but when I’m ready I can’t remember what book the recipe was in. It would be great having a cook book with all the recipe in one place. Great idea!
diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com
Sounds terrific….excuse me…..must go find my bib, so when I drool over the recipes, it does not get on my shirt.
Culinary cozies are my favorite! I’ve read all of Joanne fluke and Diane Mott Davidson’s books multiple times- they are good no matter how many times you read them! I’d love to win this to try out some new recipes and get inspired to read some new cozy authors!
I purchased A Taste of Murder many years ago, and had to buy Donna Leon’s Brunetti Cookbook when it was issued. I agree that the recipes sound wonderful, but I also forget where they are when I need something new to try. So glad to see this published by a new to me author Nancy Lynn Jarvis.
I like this. Not just one author but a slew of them.
Kckendelr@gmail.com
The first time I have seriously considered buying a cook book. This sounds like a good one & worth a try. Thanks for the chance to win.
Looks like a fun book. I’m not much of a cook, and it might help.
Margaret
Yum, I frequently try the recipes that come with mysteries and have never found a bad one!
This sounds like it would be a wonderful addition to my cookbook collection. There’s nothing better than cozy recipes for people and for pets!!
I need this cookbook!
You idea for a Cizy Cookbook sounds pretty good to me! My mother enjoys Elaine Orr’s Cozy Mystery series, so I’ll try for a chance to win one!! Thanks for the opportunity to get one!!
Looks interesting. I’m something of a cookbook/recipe collector, and have a friend who writes cozy mysteries (a term I’d never heard of until I met her!), and who tipped me off to this post. I’m glad she did!
OK, I was a bookseller. I am a cozy reader, I’d love to win this one! Thanks for the opportunity!
Would love to have these. Have tried a half dozen or so from the different books I’ve read. And to have a bunch at hand would be lovely. Plus some I’ve never seen
We have a winner!
This can be the next book that is going to be added to my cook book collection. Last time, I bought a book named DANDELIAN AND QUINCE. But this book is only for vegetarian dishes. I need a book being ‘all in one’. And I decided to buy this in the next week! 😀
Looks interesting. I’m a new reader your website. I need this cookbook!