I was thrilled when I found out that the Food Lovers’ Village Mystery series by Leslie Budewitz had found a new home with Midnight Ink! After what seemed like a long wait I finally had the chance to read TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST and it did not disappoint!
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The protagonist, Erin Murphy, is the manager of her family’s shop, Murphy’s Mercantile, in Jewel Bay. The author paints a vivid picture of the town and the gorgeous location, so much that it makes me want to visit. She weaves in both scenery and the activities that this slice of Montana paradise has to offer so that the reader feels like they are participating, albeit vicariously, through Erin and her friends. Erin and the cast of characters who surround her seem like real people and it was a pleasure getting reacquainted with them. I love that they are moving forward, growing as individuals and as a community, making changes that aren’t always easy. Leslie provides a list of the characters at the front of the book which is particularly helpful for readers who pick the series up in the middle (or start with TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST) instead of beginning at book one. But overall each book is easily read as a standalone.
I truly enjoy the creativity the author shows in developing festivals for the town. I especially liked the Jazz Festival theme used for this book since it’s one of my favorite types of music to listen to while reading and enjoying a glass of wine. I just wish there could be a sound track to go with the print and e-book versions 🙂 The murder plot was complex with plenty of viable suspects and I was quite surprised by the ending. Erin feels compelled to get involved and solve the case because her boyfriend was the one to find the body. She also freely admits she’s nosy and likes to snoop… which in itself is reason enough to get involved.
There are so many delectable recipes provided at the back of the book and I want to try them all. Rhubarb Custard Pie was a family favorite that the author’s mother made and I’m honored that I am able to share her family recipe with you!! According to Leslie, while her mother was not a good cook she did bake well and her family loved this pie. Regular rhubarb pie was my husband’s mother’s specialty, but I hadn’t heard of Rhubarb Custard Pie until now. I love the addition of the eggs which made it creamy and tempered the tartness of the rhubarb. The text I got from my granddaughter when she tasted the piece of pie I saved for her was, “It’s SOOOOO good!!!” And that says it all!
A very special thank you to Midnight Ink for providing (2) – print copies of TREBLE AT THE JAM FEST for two lucky winners! This giveaway is administered by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours and you can use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. Contest ends June 19, 2017 and is limited to U.S. residents only. Winners will be announced on this page and on Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours site, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 6 tablespoons cold water (more, if you live in a dry climate)
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Dash salt
- 3 eggs
- 4 cups rhubarb, cut into 1-inch slices
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt.
- Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter pieces no larger than small peas.
- Add the water and mix with a fork just until the dough pulls together.
- Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the processor bowl.
- Add the butter and pulse to blend, then mix on low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas.
- Add the water and mix just until the dough pulls together, or "gathers".
- Place dough on a sheet of waxed paper or a lightly floured cutting board, shape into a ball, and divide in half.
- Flatten each ball into a disk. Flatten it with your hands or the rolling pin, then top with another piece of waxed paper and begin rolling, from the center. Turn the paper or cutting board so you can roll it out evenly, to about 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick.
- Repeat with second disk.
- Makes one 9-inch double crust or lattice top pie.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F).
- Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Beat the eggs until smooth, and add sugar and flour mixture.
- Stir in rhubarb.
- Prepare the pie dough. Line a 9-inch pie plate with dough.
- Fill with rhubarb mixture. Dot with butter.
- Cover with top crust or lattice, and seal. If you're not using a lattice top, cut 6 - 8 one-inch slits to allow steam to escape.
- Some bakers sprinkle white sugar on top.
- Bake about 50 minutes, until golden. If crust browns too quickly, cover edges with strips of foil.
- Cool completely before serving.
- When measuring the flour for the filling, firmly scoop and level the flour instead of spooning and leveling.
- I completely forgot to add the butter before putting the lattice crust on top of the filling... it was still good!
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Tour Participants
June 6 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW
June 6 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW
June 6 – View from the Birdhouse – SPOTLIGHT
June 7 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 7 – A Cozy Experience – REVIEW
June 8 – I Wish I Lived in a Library – REVIEW
June 8 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST
June 9 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
June 9 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT
June 10 – Valerie’s Musings – REVIEW
June 10 – Bookworm Cafe – SPOTLIGHT
June 11 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT
June 11 – A Holland Reads – SPOTLIGHT
June 12 – Author Annette Drake’s blog – INTERVIEW
June 12 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 13 – Books Direct – GUEST POST
June 13 – Queen of All She Reads – SPOTLIGHT
June 14 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW
June 14 – Deal Sharing Aunt – INTERVIEW
June 15 – Classy Cheapskate – REVIEW
June 15 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – GUEST POST
June 16 – Varietats – REVIEW
June 16 – Teresa Trent Author Site – SPOTLIGHT
June 17 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW
June 18 – A Blue Million Books – INTERVIEW
June 19 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 19 – My Journey Back – REVIEW
I was provided an advanced copy with the hopes I would review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Congrats on the new release, Leslie! I will be looking forward to reading it!
Thanks! It’s great to have a book releasing during the season when the story takes place, so we can enjoy the food and weather twice!
Can’t wait to read this book!
Thanks, Kathleen. Try the pie, too!
Your book sounds wonderful. I look forward to reading it. Thank you for the chance.
Thank you for the chance to win. I’m looking forward to reading.
And eating? 🙂 Enjoy!
Congrats on the new release, Leslie! I will be looking forward to reading it! The pie recipe looks good. Thank-you.
Thanks! And you know the pie is good because Kim’s granddaughter says so!
Sounds great. Thanks for a chance to win a copy.
My pleasure, Elaine — thanks for stopping by!
I’m so excited for this installment of the Food Lover’s Village series. My grandma and I read and share them. I love it!!!
I cannot tell you how happy that makes me, Amanda! Enjoy!
My mom would go crazy over this pie since she likes regular rhubarb pie to begin with. It does look pretty yummy. Congrats on the newest release!
Thanks, Tari. There’s also a rhubarb jam recipe, since the jam plays an important role in the story ….
I will be making this pie soon. Rhubarb is my favorite flavor.
Oneponychick66@hotmail.com
Thanks, Sandy — enjoy book AND pie!
Sounds great and thanks for the chance! ptclayton2@aol.com
My pleasure, Peggy!
Anything rhubarb is a win in my book!
That’s the spirit!
Thanks for the chance to win. This is just the kind of book I like to read!
And if you like it, the first three in the series are readily available, and at least one more to come!
congrats on the new release. I just read the first of this series a few days ago and am very anxious to read this title!
Thanks, Johnna! Death al Dente — pasta, murder, and the search for the perfect huckleberry chocolate!
Talk about a “just in time” recipe—-I must pick my rhubarb today and I love a good rhubarb pie.
Yay! I can almost guarantee this will be a hit!
Thank you for the chance to win a print copy Treble at the Jam Fest by Leslie Budewitz. Sounds like an interesting read.
Thank you for the recipe. My son-in-law loves Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie but has never tried Rhubarb Custard Pie and I think it sounds wonderful.
This is a great series & the pie looks tasty!
Congrats on your release!! Nice recipe. Love rhubarb. Used to grow it where I used to live.
The cover for Treble at the Jam Fest looks very inviting with the cats, I want to visit that open air shop! I enjoyed reading the blurb, these cozy mysteries are always so inviting and fun to read. The recipe for Rhubarb Custard Pie is one I need to try. It’s been about forty years since I last baked a rhubarb pie for my grandmother. Looking forward to Treble at the Jam Fest, adding to my list of must reads.
I love this series and can’t wait to read Treble at the Jam Fest! As soon as I read Butter Off Dead, of course. 🙂 Thanks for the review and the giveaway!
Great series. Looking forward to reading “Treble at the Jam Fest”. Pie recipe also looks amazing, haven’t had rhubarb in a long time.
Haven’t done anything with rhubarb since the move One of our faves was rhubarb crisp. And the old standby of strawberry/rhubarb pie.
I would love to go to the festival you based this on. There’s one kind of like it in Bar Harbor, Maine each August–The Guitar Intensive.
Took a short trip to the nearest store. This post made me hungry for something rhubarb. They don’t carry it. Not enough people want it. So will have to wait couple more days for my regular shopping.
I hope you can find it at your regular market! I know I had to go to 3 different stores to find fresh rhubarb but it was definitely worth it!
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Got some rhubarb. But not at any local stores. That I didn’t expect. Had to visit my sister in the next township yesterday so we checked round there. Found some. Finally. Happened to remember, my grandmother made a rhubarb/cherry sauce. I never made it. But she grew rhubarb and had cherry, plum, and apple trees around her garden. She put that sauce on just about any and everything. One time she put it on chicken. I remember thinking “Yuck. How gross.” With a little pressure I tried it. It wasn’t to bad. But not a fave. My younger sister loved it. I was about 9 if I remember right.
Thinking about my grandmother and rhubarb reminded me that she made relish and chutney with it as well as rhubarb/strawberry jam
It all sounds pretty amazing, Della! And how fortunate you were growing up with such delicious things coming from your grandmother’s kitchen!
Something else I remembered. We were touring, I was about twelve. But remember being really surprised to see Rhubarb Bars offered as a dessert option at a little hole in the wall diner. Place didn’t look like much. But inside it was clean and smelled wonderful. We stopped because us kids pestered the folks so we stopped sooner than planned. Turned out to be one of the best places we ever ate at. The food was top dollar gourmet. The prices weren’t. This little Mom and Pop Diner. They grew many of their own veggies and herbs and had some growing in pots on the tables. Nothing beats fresh food and a light touch with herbs.