"When Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is invited by Doreen Briggs, one of Charleston's most prominent hostesses, to a "Rat Tea," she is understandably intrigued. As servers dressed in rodent costumes and wearing white gloves offer elegant finger sandwiches and fine teas, Theo learns these parties date back to early twentieth-century Charleston to promote better public health.
But this party goes from odd to chaotic when a fire starts at one of the tables and Doreen's entrepreneur husband suddenly goes into convulsions and drops dead. Has his favorite orange pekoe tea been poisoned? Theo smells a rat. And as she reviews the guest list for suspects, she soon finds herself drawn into in a dangerous game of cat and mouse..."
In addition to a good plot with a clever twist, there is all the the scrumptious tea shop food, including recipes at the back of the book. I picked the one calling for a cup of chopped, cooked chicken. I frequently roast a whole chicken and then need to find ways to use the left-overs without getting into a boring rut. So, we have Quickie-Not-So-Picky Chicken Tetrazzini.
First off, we do the Mise en place, which I've found is indispensable, especially for the "Quickie" part to work. Though my picture only shows the vegetable portion of it. Here's the tasty recipe, courtesy of Laura Childs from Pekoe Most Poison.
A pretty simple, and easy recipe. Luckily, I had everything, only substituted red and orange sweet peppers for the green bell.
A great week night supper, using your cooked, left-over chicken. I'll be sharing this with the group at Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking event, and with Heather on her April edition of the Foodie Reads Challenge. Check out good book and eating suggestions there.
8 comments:
Chickens sold whole in markets here seem to be bigger than they used to be -- instead of 3 or 4 pounds they are 5 and up. So you are right --- we need more leftover chicken recipes! Tetrazzini is a good idea. It looks Italian but I think it was actually an Italian-American invention.
best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Yum, definitely a nice way to use up leftover chicken. The book sounds good too. :)
Sounds like a fun cozy and I like the idea of using a recipe from the book. I agree, it looks like an easy and tasty dish.
I liked this series when we read one for Cook the Books but never managed to go back and read the others. I think I need to put them back on my TBR. ;-) Looks like and easy and tasty recipe too.
I've got my first cozy out of the library but haven't started it yet. Cheers
You had me at quickie! Our family version of this dish takes a bit of time, especially if you stew the chicken. I remember Theodosia from one of the CTB reads. Would like to revisit that tea shop. Happy Easter!
I want to try this one. If it's quick that works for me while I am still working. It looks very good.
We are chicken tetrazzini fans so I am up to trying a different version.
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