Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **AUTHOR SPECIAL** with STEPHANIE KANE!

Welcome to my Friday bonus feature called Karen’s Killer Fixin’s **Author Special**!! Today, in lieu of one of my own recipes, I’m going to introduce you to a new author who will share one of her favorite recipes. Not only will you and I occasionally learn how to make something new and delicious, but we’ll get a chance to check out some wonderful authors. Introducing author, STEPHANIE KANE, and her favorite recipe for KILLER BLOODY MARY!

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OBJECT LESSONS
A Crime Novel
BY STEPHANIE KANE

Blurb

OBJECT LESSONS
A Crime Novel
BY STEPHANIE KANE

Editorial Note: Edited for some language.

Excerpt

A small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.

— Lucretius, De rerum natura

“Miko!” she called.

She waited for him to jump up on the bed. Had she forgotten his kibble? She gave him another moment. When she turned the swivel-mounted TV on, the nightlight flickered and her irritation grew. Par for the course. Bill wired it. Gratitude, gratitude…she reminded herself.

Sipping her chamomile tea, she surfed the news.

Sunday evening was feel-good stories. A couple in separate nursing homes celebrating their seventieth by Zoom, a gal in Britain hatching ducks from a carton of grocery store eggs.

“Miko?”

If he was punishing her, he couldn’t be far.

In slippers she padded to the railing and looked down. Except for Miko, all was in its place. Everything in her domain sparked bliss: kitchenette off the cozy den, clawfoot basin in the bath, nook with fold-down desk for her laptop. What she’d kept of her old life spoke to her heart, and she wasn’t about to lose it to an asshole who wired a lamp to a TV.

“Mi-ko—”

A strange scent overtook the chamomile.

She descended the ladder and checked the stove’s burner. Off, but Bill had just replaced the propane. Did he f**k that up, too? Gratitude, gratitude. Him no longer cluttering her life was enough. Now the smell was stronger, acrid—chemical. From outside.

She shook the little container of kibble.

“Mi—ko!”What Miko really wanted was a field mouse, preferably blended. The mini-Keurig on her counter took up too much space to have a Vitamix, but cats were hunters. Had he been inside when she came home? Through the window a full moon glinted off the For Sale sign. Bill and his lawyer thought they had her over a barrel, but she’d come out on top. Soon he’d be out of her life for good.

A movement caught her eye. Something furtive— a fox, or worse a coyote?

She pulled on her rubber gardening boots. Heedless of her thin robe, she unchained the door and rattled the knob. It stuck. Trust him to install a cheap one. She turned harder and the knob came off in her hand. She stepped back and took two deep breaths. Gratitude… She pushed the door with both hands, then threw her hip behind it.

Through the window a torch clashed. Twin jets glowed ice blue.

The stench was overpowering.

She flung herself against the door.

The tiny house exploded.

About Author Stephanie Kane…

Stephanie Kane is a lawyer and award-winning author of seven crime novels. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she came to Colorado as a freshman at CU. A second-degree black belt, she owned and ran a karate studio in Boulder. After becoming a corporate partner at a top Denver law firm, she quit to do criminal defense work. She lives in Denver with her husband and two black cats.

Stephanie’s legal thrillers starring defense lawyer Jackie Flowers have won the Colorado Book Award for Mystery and two Colorado Authors League Awards for Genre Fiction. She belongs to Mystery Writers of America, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and the Colorado Authors League.

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Karen

P.S. We’re at 553 recipes and counting with this posting. Hope you find some recipes you like. If this is your first visit, please check out past blogs for more Killer Fixin’s. In the right-hand column menu, you can even look up past recipes by type. i.e. Desserts, Breads, Beef, Chicken, Soups, Author Specials, etc.

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KILLER BLOODY MARY
[Serves 2]

Ingredients:

16 oz tomato juice
2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 T lime juice
1/2 T Worcestershire sauce
a few shakes of Tabasco
1/2-1 T prepared horseradish
2 t pickle juice
1 t olive juice
1 t pepperoncini juice (optional)
a few shakes black pepper
1/2 t Old Bay seasoning
4-6 oz good quality vodka

Garnish ideas: Pickle spear, celery stalk, green olives (plain or stuffed with blue cheese), shrimp (lightly dusted with Old Bay), whole pepperoncini, lemon or lime slice

Instructions:

1. Wet the rim of 2 glasses with a piece of fresh lemon. Dip the glass rims into 1 T Old Bay seasoning.
2. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Fill glasses halfway with ice.
3. Mix all ingredients together in a separate pitcher, stir it up well, then pour mixture into cocktail shaker, one batch at a time. Give it a good shaking to get it nice and cold, then pour the contents into your prepared glass.
4. Add any and all garnishes that appeal to you.

(To make a Virgin Killer Mary eliminate the alcohol.)

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Special Giveaway: Stephanie is giving away a digital copy each of all three books in the Lily Sparks Series:

to one lucky reader who comments on her Karen’s Killer Fixin’s blog.

Happy Reading!

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Thanks, Stephanie, for sharing your story with us!

Don’t miss the chance to read this book!