Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge - Crossword Cipher Chicken & Emerson Cookout Potatoes

Nancy Drew Fans are doing the Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge over at Facebook at the Nancy Drew Book Fans Group - join the group and participate!

Let's get to the bottom of the mystery of whether or not the Nancy Drew Cookbook recipes are good recipes! Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to select at least one recipe from the cookbook - feel free to make more than one however, and then share your findings - a review. Take pictures! You can also share at Twitter @nancydrewfans or Instagram @nancydrewsleuths and #nancydrewcookbook

This weekend I made what could best be described as delicious comfort food. From page 78 and 80 from the Nancy Drew Cookbook - the Crossword Cipher Chicken and the Emerson Cookout Potatoes.

Both were very tasty and Bess Marvin would have totally approved! I really didn't find a need to change the recipes as I'm want to do with this cookbook, there were no sinister ingredients in these. Instead of cutting up a chicken and using the pieces we just used chicken breasts we cut up into smaller pieces. So with chicken breasts - boneless - the cook time is a little quicker. The potatoes are to be cooked in a foil packet over hot coals but the oven works just fine as well and we cooked them at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes. I would definitely make these two recipes again. The chicken was tender and moist, the potatoes very savory.

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Drew Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #126

If you were going to immortalize in glue on the book's cover any ripped up part of this dust jacket for The Bungalow Mystery, you just can't leave out this fashion tear down. But enough about the couch.....

Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge - Pasta Sauce

Nancy Drew Fans are doing the Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge over at Facebook at the Nancy Drew Book Fans Group - join the group and participate! 

Let's get to the bottom of the mystery of whether or not the Nancy Drew Cookbook recipes are good recipes! Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to select at least one recipe from the cookbook - feel free to make more than one however, and then share your findings - a review. Take pictures! You can also share at Twitter @nancydrewfans or Instagram @nancydrewsleuths and #nancydrewcookbook

I made the infamous Italian Salsa Di Pomidoro (Tomato Sauce) recipe on page 138. It is a very simple pasta sauce. Very easy to make. 4 rating, 4 or 5 when I souped it up a little 😉 I fixed mine with a little Cheese Tortellini for lunch which I picture below and then later for dinner served with some sausage and spaghetti pictured last--the recipe called for spaghetti. 

 

The taste was good, but I used some fabulous San Marzano tomatoes and they are so good. I also puréed it all in a blender. Would make again. Nancy’s tip is to add oil to cooking water for pasta so it won’t stick - you can, but sometimes the sauce adheres better to the pasta if you don’t do that. I am always tweaking recipes but this wasn’t bad as is for the most part. I make my own sauce and sometimes use garlic too plus basil and fresh basil is always yummy. I often make my sauce without tomato paste and just purée the tomatoes and use some tomato sauce, so really this is a simple recipe you can enhance to suit your tastes. As always check the flavor of the sauce as it simmers and adjust the seasoning to suit you plus the acidity of the tomatoes is counteracted by the sugar, so don’t skip that ingredient. Always adjust as needed by tasting as you cook.  Here's the page with the ingredients - the actual first printing of the cookbook, left out the tomatoes in the ingredients list.

 

 

Easy way to dice an onion - and fast is to slice it several ways with your knife before the final top to bottom cut - don't cut off the root end so that way it stays together while you dice it up to the edge of the root.

 

 

The recipe called for cutting up the tomatoes, but I just put all my ingredients in the blender and pureed it all. If you wanted a chunkier sauce you could cut them up. I used a 28oz can of tomatoes instead of the 16oz, wanted to make a little extra, so adjusted seasonings for that extra amount.

After sauteing your onions (I used about half the onion only) in olive oil, you add the sauce and then simmer - recipe says 45 minutes, I did mine about 15 minutes while the tortellini cooked. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top if you like and some fresh or dried oregano and/or basil.

 

 

Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase Clip & Pic

A new clip out from Warner Brothers for the Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase movie out March 15 in theaters. Also a new photo released - shown above - the action scene is - (L-R) Nancy (Sophia Lillis) and her best gal pals George (Zoë Renee) and Bess (Mackenzie Graham) gather to make a plan. Photo Credit: ©Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

 

Nancy Drew Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #125

The Secret of the Old Clock is not hidden under the back cover! It's in the Crowley Clock! Which you'll find in the back of the robbers' truck. You'll probably have to dig a little for it and you might rip your skirt, but that's the least of your first world problems.....

Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase - Nancy Drew Movie Scenes

Warner Brothers has released 3 images from the upcoming Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase movie debuting in theaters on March 15. In the photos, here's the action scenes:

Nancy Drew 1: (r to l) In "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase," Nancy (Sophia Lillis, second from right) is aided in her youthful sleuthing by her pals (L-R) Helen (Laura Slade Wiggins), George (Zoë Renee) and Bess (Mackenzie Graham).

Nancy Drew 2: In "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase," Nancy's extracurricular sleuthing gets her in trouble with the law -- and sentenced to custodial duties as community service. In this scene, Nancy (Sophia Lillis) and her friend Helen (Laura Slade Wiggins) are confronted by Sheriff Marchbanks (Jay DeVon Johnson).

- Nancy Drew 3: In "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase," Nancy (Sophia Lillis) and Helen (Laura Slade Wiggins) must investigate the strange goings-on within Helen's aunt's haunted house.

Photo credit: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Series Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #5

This one's for the birds! Just sayin'

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase Movie Poster & Synopsis

The Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase movie poster has been released! Here's a more detailed synopsis of the film:

After the death of his wife, Carson Drew decides to leave Chicago behind and make a fresh start with his daughter in River Heights.  But for 16-year-old Nancy Drew, life in a small town is mighty dull. She longs for excitement, adventure, and the chance to make a difference.  Nancy gets that opportunity when she is asked to help solve the ghostly activity at the Twin Elms mansion.  Can she help explain the creaking footsteps, exploding lightbulbs and the ominous creature?  Is it the handiwork of high-school bully Derek Barnes? Or is it possible that the ghost of original owner Malcolm Colfax is back for revenge? Recruiting her best friends George and Bess, along with local “mean girl” Helen, Nancy Drew is on the case!

For fans of the classic Nancy Drew Hidden Staircase book, you'll recognize a few things from that  - Twin Elms for instance. Some fans may wonder about Helen, who wasn't a mean girl in this book, and Bess and George, who hadn't been introduced yet to the series, but it's an adaptation of this book, so things are going to be based more loosely on the series rather than filmed straight from the book.

Nancy Drew Books: Scary Things Kids (& Adults) Do #124

I think all that praise and adulation from fans for solving all the crimes around River Heights went to Nancy's head! Just sayin'

31 Days of Nancy Drew Wrap Up & Feb Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge

 

31 Days of Nancy Drew Wrap Up & Feb. Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge

A few final thoughts on my 31 days of Nancy Drew postings I made all through January here at this Nancy Drew Blog and at Facebook - whew! Hope you all enjoyed it. Learned something new. Were inspired to collect and motivated to try something new in the Nancy Drew universe! If so, it was time well spent.

I mentioned in an early posting at our Nancy Drew Book Fans Facebook Group, that we should do a Nancy Drew Cookbook Challenge in February! So, I thought we could do that and am posting the info for that below. If anyone is interested in participating, dig out your Nancy Drew Cookbooks and start cooking for good clues. Join our Facebook Group or use Twitter or Instagram to post a review and a picture of the presentation of what you cooked. Use #nancydrewcookbook and copy us at Twitter using @nancydrewfans or Instagram using @nancydrewsleuths - and scroll down for more details.....

As noted before if you ever want to reference these 31 postings I made and all the collecting info, you can use the search box or bookmark this link to all the blogs. You can find most of this information in the various pages at my Nancy Drew website or at my Nancy Drew Pinterest in various board. Perhaps at some point I'll make a PDF printable of the info in the size of The Sleuth.

NANCY DREW COOKBOOK CHALLENGE INFO:

Let's get to the bottom of the mystery of whether or not the Nancy Drew Cookbook recipes are good recipes! Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to select at least one recipe from the cookbook - feel free to make more than one however, and then share your findings - a review. Take pictures!

Choose at least one recipe - you can make more if you're game - and make it. Write up a review and take a picture and post that here in a cookbook thread on Feb. 20th or soon thereafter. What I'll do is on Feb. 20th, I'll pin a Cookbook Challenge thread which will remain near the top of the page with other pinned posts - use the comments of this posting to post a review and photos and we can keep all the cookbook reviews/pics to one thread rather than spread out overtaking the page. If anyone forgets to do this, I'll move your comment/photos to this thread and delete any individual postings.

For your review, try to keep it fairly simple with about a paragraph or two with the pertinent details, no need to re-type the recipe - let us know:

1. Name of recipe and page number

2. Was it easy to make?

3. Give it a 1-5 rating (1 terrible, 5 excellent)

4. How was the taste?

5. Would you make it again?

6. Did your recipe have any extra tips from Nancy and if so, what did you think of those?

7. Would you change anything about the recipe to make it better or leave it as is?

Don't have a cookbook but want to participate? Here's a link to all of them for sale at eBay.

So grab your rolling pins and Silpat baking sheets and get to cooking!