Leslie Keller Books

Readers have been asking me for recipes from the Wild Bronco Steakhouse where my character Jayne works. I haven’t included them in the release of Menu for Murder or Cocktails at Sunset so I decided to post them on my blog. This recipe will be featured in an upcoming recipe anthology by Desert Sleuths so you are getting an early preview. This is the easiest almost homemade dessert I make and is so popular I can serve it at any gathering. Even better, it takes only minutes to prepare. This recipe is one I think Wild Bronco would offer as a delicious dessert with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.   The guests don’t need to know how easy it is for the chef to make it! Easy Apple Crumble Ingredients: 2 cans apple pie filling 1 pouch (l lb. 5 ounce) Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix ½ cup butter melted ½ cup chopped pecans – optional Instructions: Preheat oven to 350° Spray bottom and sides of an 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish. Spread apple pie filling in the bot...

Restaurant wines can be challenging. What you might purchase at Costco for $20 a bottle will likely cost two to three times that in a restaurant. Really good wines can run hundreds of dollars. Are they worth it - some definitely are but you can enjoy a great glass of wine while dining out without taking a second mortgage on your house. The first question you should ask is how many glasses will you or your party drink?   It's almost always more economical to purchase a bottle.   Standard restaurant pours will yield four glasses per bottle.   Individual glasses may cost more simply because once opened the wine has a shelf life. For a restaurant to open an expensive bottle only to pour one glass isn't good for the bottom line. Let's say there are four wine drinkers at your table. Two prefer white wine and two prefer red. If all four will drink two glasses each, buy two bottles. Many restaurants will cork the bottle for you to take home. Check the law in your area to see i...

Recently my mother moved from Virginia to Arizona to a lovely place which provides activities and entertainment. One of the featured performers, who we are looking forward to seeing, is the Singing Cowboy, Gary Sprague and his horse Dusty.  Although I've never heard him, I have passed by Gary in Old Town Scottsdale on the street with Dusty. This made me think about the origin of the singing cowboy. Although before my time, the earliest singing cowboy I know of was Gene Autry. An actor, singer, songwriter and rodeo performer he came to fame in the 1930's and 40's on radio, movies and television. he was most known for a song he didn't write, "Back in the Saddle Again", not to be confused with the Aerosmith song of a similar name. However, he did write Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, much to my surprise. My research shows that there was, in fact, an earlier singing cowboy, Ken Maynard sang in 1930 followed by Bob Steele and, my most shocking fact, John Way...

Part nine of the short story installment picks up where we left off.  I'm including part eight in case you don't want to re-read it. Part 8 “I gave up on happily ever after. Maybe I'm not cut out for a relationship. Maybe, I just don't like being committed to one person for longer than two weeks.”             Clare stood in the drive waiting to see if Wyatt would return. Her answer came when the porch light was turned off. She didn’t like to admit when she made a mistake and, in fact, she believed she rarely did. But this time she realized she had gone too far. What did she care where his wife was?   As much as she tried to avoid it, the thought pierced her heart that perhaps Charlotte’s mother had died and now, with his father on the brink himself, her behavior had been selfish and inappropriate.             She couldn’t face Mae and didn’t know how to ...

This month’s crazy criminals are from the great state of Georgia, known for its peaches, peanuts and Vidalia onions as well as the home state of President Jimmy Carter. Georgia did not produce a wealth of dumb criminals, but it was interesting to find that, according to the Atlanta Journal reporting on WalletHub’s annual ranking of best states to raise a family, the state ranked number 44 in personal finance in 2017.  Generally, that might lead to more crime but perhaps there just aren’t as many stupid ones. List25.com posted by Theodoros II, December 12, 2018 A con artist specializing in producing counterfeit money and false documents was really happy with the new printer he bought from a Target in Augusta, GA, so he decided to take it back and ask for a different one. His demand was satisfied but unfortunately the clerk noticed some “work” the customer forgot to remove from the old printer—a few counterfeit bills that, of course, cost him his freedom. =================...

There's a new dance club/restaurant/comedy club in town and I love it.  Copper Blues Live (also known as CB Live) opened at the Desert Ridge Marketplace in north Phoenix.  If you look up the name don't be confused with another place similarly named that is in downtown Phoenix.   There are two sides to the establishment so make sure you know whether you are going to the comedy club or the restaurant.   I recently visited with three girlfriends on a Saturday night. Luckily, we had a table reserved for 6 pm and were seated promptly. This place doesn’t fill up until later and I heard a rumor that there is a line out of the door on certain nights. Once the comedy show is over, a wall opens between the two and there’s lots of tables. We started with wine and cocktails.   Two of us had the delicious and refreshing Champagne Supernova and fought the urge to gulp it down too quickly.   Wine options were standard for a bar but good.   For dinner we ...

Secrets in a Bottle (A Whodunut Antiques Book 1) by Shelly West by L. A. Keller This is a cozy mystery which left me confused and pained. We are introduced to the main character, Abigail in the first sentence when she is awakened by a loud noise. This writing technique attempts to grab the reader’s attention, as if something ominous is about to occur. However, it’s overused to the point of boring.   Further in chapter one, we learn that Abigail doesn’t know anything about her family. Her mother has kept secrets from her as to who her father is and whether or not her grandparents (on either side) are alive. This plot is older than the antiques in the fictional shop. She knows only her grandmother’s name, Mrs. Lane. We do have internet today and it would be very hard not to track your relatives if you weren’t adopted. There will be some spoilers in this review, but I feel compelled to provide them in order to save you the time reading this book. When Abigail’s mother leav...