The Official Site of Author Judy Alter

Spring 2023

Irene Deep in Texas Trouble

Through three books, Irene Foxglove has scorned all things Texan, especially; Texas foods. But now, she’s suddenly anxious to visit Texas—for Christmas, no less. Irene may not have known, but I always knew she would have to go to Henny’s home state. The lure of the culture clash was too great.

When TV chef and hostess Henny James leaves her show in Chicago to go home to Texas for Christmas and cater a wedding supper for her BFF from childhood, Irene volunteers to be sous chef—and brings a French delegation to Fort Worth. What follows is mayhem and murder—threatening notes, a kidnapping, nights in jail and a homeless shelter, a runaway young couple. Saving Irene this time is a real challenge for Henny and her beloved Patrick.

Despite the murder, Irene Deep in Texas Trouble is all about love and its many faces. A note on Irene’s changing face: readers have pointed out that the Irene on the cover of the first book, Saving Irene, looks older than subsequent covers. In the first book of course, she loses her husband to murder, sours on Chicago, and flees to France. By the second book, she has established her cafe in Peyrolles-en-Provence and sweeps into Chicago to cater Henny’s wedding—or so she thinks. She’s more self-confident, settled.

But ah, the third book: Irene is a woman in love. You can see it on her face, in her smile. And in this book? She is a woman well loved, secure enough to be a bit demanding, a bit manipulative. See it in her eyes?

What’s next for Irene? Only she can tell us, but her next adventure is probably going to be Missing Irene. She has taken up residence in a Chicago hotel and traditionally lunches every day at La Petite Folie on Hyde Park’s 55 th Street. But one day she doesn’t appear for lunch, and the worried owner of the café calls Henny. By evening Irene is still missing and so is her regular Uber driver.

What happens after that? I only wish I knew. Meantime, enjoy Irene’s Texas adventure. Some Texas recipes are attached—Irene doesn’t much like them, but you will.

This will be available for Kindle on April 22nd! Link to come soon. Keep an eye on my website at JudyAlter.com.

You can keep up with Irene—and me—through my two blogs. Seventeen years ago daughter-in-law Melanie told me I should blog, and when I protested, she named my blog “Judy’s Stew”—a blend of grandmothering, cooking, and writing, the things that make up my life. Ever since I’ve blogged almost nightly about everything from the weather to current politics (no holds barred), with a lot about my beloved dog Sophie, more about my grandchildren, and some about the writing life. Here’s a sample: Totally Content—Well, Almost.

Every Thursday I post to my food blog, “Gourmet on a Hot Plate.” That’s the title of my most recent cookbook, a phrase coined by a friend because in my cottage I am limited to a hot plate and a toaster oven by zoning ordinance. Still, I feed our family of four several nights a week and often entertain guests either for happy hour or a light supper. The original intent of the blog was to provide recipes for others with tiny kitchens, but it goes beyond that. I often find a recipe, fiddle with it until it is mine, and then share it. Here’s a recent sample: Gourmet on a Hot Plate: Some things just don’t need updating.

Books I’ve Enjoyed

A Killing of Innocents – This is the nineteenth in Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series. Proud to say I’ve read and relished every one of them. Crombie only produces a new title in the series every few years—the last came out in 2019—so it’s a treat when there is a new one. If I thought I’d lost touch with Duncan and Gemma and their world, I was wrong. I fell back into the London world easily, a world unknown to me but so familiar to Crombie. She gets the geography right—and includes a map—and is a master of British-speak. But suspense is where she excels. Crombie tells the story in short, seemingly unrelated scenes that often end with a hook. And she doesn’t draw all the various threads together until the very end. She really has mastered her craft, and reading her work is sheer pleasure. My red pencil never itches.

Aftertaste by Meredith Mineti is a culinary novel that opens in New York when chef and co-owner of the restaurant Grappa catches her husband and the new hostess in flagrante. Enraged, she attacks the other woman, resulting in arrest and complicated legal maneuverings which cost her share of the restaurant and result finally in exile to her home town, Pittsburgh. The early passages of this novel are dark, although the food descriptions are abundant and mouth-watering, but ultimately there’s a lot of redemption.

Artistic License by Julie Hyzy – I’m a big fan of Hyzy’s now-defunct White House Chef Series, so I was delighted to find this early stand-alone. I seem to be in a rut with “divorced woman finds herself” books, but this one is about an artist rather than a chef, and the ex in this case is a real scumbag criminal. Divorce is complicated by a pregnancy but Annie Callaghan persists. Commissioned to do a mural in an ice cream shoppe, she finds the hours she works on the painting the bright spot in her dark days—and the shop owner is pretty good too. Divorce and romance are threatened by bad guys trying to recover a stolen masterpiece in a twisty-turny plot, but it’s fun.

It’s great fun to hear my favorite authors’ stories come to life, read by professional actors. Recently there was an excerpt from Delia Pitt’s novel, Lost and Found in Harlem (Delia and I were once colleagues at a university, and I like the connection). Other recent shows have featured short stories or first chapters by authors such as Cleo Coyle, Elaine Viets, Jeri Westerson, Dennis Palumbo, Lori Rader-Day, Kate Carlisle, Ellery Adams, Jon Land, Maddie Day, and many more.

You can listen and subscribe at mysteryratsmaze.podbean.com, and find the episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more. Happy listening!

Here’s a recipe from Irene Deep in Texas Trouble that’s truly Texan in origins and ingredients. When Helen Corbitt, legendary food manager at Neiman Marcus specialty stores, first moved to Texas from the East Coast, she taught at the University of Texas in Austin. She was appalled at the food she found—platters of brown, fried food, soggy vegetables, and canned fruit. Perhaps she relived in her mind the question she’d asked when first offered the Texas position: Who the hell wants to go to Texas?

Within three weeks of her arrival, she was challenged to present a banquet using nothing but ingredients from Texas. Texans were—and still are—proud of their black-eyed peas, so she created Texas caviar:

• 2 No. 2 cans cooked dried black-eyed peas
• 1 cup salad oil
• ¼ cup wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic—or garlic seasoning
• ¼ cup thinly sliced onion
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Cracked or freshly ground black pepper

Drain liquid from the peas. Place peas in pan or bowl, add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Store in jar in refrigerator and remove garlic bud after one day. Store at least two days and up to two weeks before eating.

The recipe later appeared in her first cookbook, The Helen Corbitt Cookbook as “Pickled Black-eyed Peas.” According to Dallas Morning News columnist Frank Tolbert, members of the Black-eyed Pea Society were “aroused” (their word) that she was not a dues-paying member of the society.

Today, some cooks embellish the caviar with corn kernels, diced tomato, diced avocado, and everything but the kitchen sink. But then it is not truly Texas caviar, and I think the additional ingredients hide the flavor of the pickled peas.

You can serve this with heavy-duty tortilla chips as an appetizer or as a salad or a side dish with your main meal. Henny served it in lettuce cups as a salad at Charlie’s wedding supper. Irene did not eat any.

So Sophie and I are looking forward to Spring and better days. We wish you lots of sunshine, blooming flowers, happy days, and good books.

Sophie living her best life, note paw on leg.