Guest Post ~ Ink and Intrigue at Ivy Tree Inn by Ellen Butler @dollycas

About Ink and Intrigue at Ivy Tree Inn

Ink and Intrigue at Ivy Tree Inn: An Ariadne Winter Mystery
Historical Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Power to the Pen (October 2, 2024)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 323 pages
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D9ZLTG5D

Stumbling across a dead body could be the making … or breaking of an aspiring reporter.

During 1958, when the workforce is predominantly male, societal norms dictate women should be compliant, fashionable housewives. To Ariadne Winter, the sole tradition she aims to embrace is that of being fashionable. Amidst the ambiance of Ivy Tree Inn, where she’s been dispatched as a writer for Ladies’ Lifestyle Magazine, her focus wavers as she grapples with an interview assignment concerning a Hollywood starlet on the cusp of royal matrimony—an event hailed as the “Wedding of the Century.” While Ariadne dutifully attends to her task, her heart yearns for the pursuit of her collegiate ambition: to be an investigative reporter for a renowned newspaper.

However, fate intervenes when she discovers a dead body and recognizes the opportunity it presents to write her way into the role she desires. Yet, as Ariadne delves deeper into the lives of the inn’s inhabitants, she uncovers a labyrinth of intertwined relationships and long-buried secrets among guests and staff alike, yielding a plethora of suspects. With a murderer on the loose, her magazine deadline looming, and the inn cordoned off by authorities, Ariadne faces a race against time to untangle the web of deceit and solve the murder before she loses more than just her job.

About Ellen Butler

Ellen Butler is the international bestselling author of the Karina Cardinal mystery series. Her experiences working on Capitol Hill and at a medical association in Washington, D.C. inspired the mystery-action series. Multiple books in the series have hit #1 on Amazon bestseller lists in the US and abroad. Book critics call the Karina Cardinal mysteries, “intelligent escapism.” Butler is also the author of the award-winning historical suspense novel, The Brass Compass. The Brass Compass has won multiple awards for historical fiction including: 2022 Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award, 2018 Indie Reader Discovery Award, 2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner. Butler started writing in the romance genre and won the The Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Award 2015 with her novel Planning for Love. Her 12th book Operation Blackbird, a Cold War Spy novel, was published in October 2022 and won a Next Generation Indie Book Award gold medal for historical fiction.

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Guest Post

Dinner at Ivy Tree Inn

Vintage Menu Fair

Ink and Intrigue at Ivy Tree Inn takes place at a lovely Victorian-style home that has been converted into an updated 1958 inn. The guest house serves both breakfast and dinner to patrons. On the first night, our heroine, Ariadne Winter, is offered one of two entrée choices – SPAM Fiesta with a Peach Cup, and Yankee Pot Roast.

Introduced in 1937 by Hormel, SPAM became a staple during WWII and was still a popular dish well into the 1950s. Hormel once stated the original meaning of the name SPAM was “Shoulder of Pork and Ham.” Many witty acronyms for the canned meat have been devised over the years including, “Something Posing as Meat” and “Spare Parts Animal.” Today, the state of Hawaii has the highest per capita consumption of SPAM in the United States, bringing in sales of 7 million cans of SPAM per year.

Ariadne, having had her fill of SPAM during the war, chooses the pot roast. Below is a recipe I found in a vintage cookbook that belonged to my grandmother.

Yankee Pot Roast

2 pounds rump beef in 1 piece
2 tablespoons shortening (or butter)
8 small potatoes, peeled
2 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
4 carrots, quartered lengthwise
1 tablespoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
16 dries apricots
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup Heinz Tomato Ketchup

Heat oven to 325* F. Brown beef in shortening in Dutch oven over medium heat. Arrange vegetables around meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top meat with apricots and mushrooms. Pour Ketchup over top. Cover. Bake 2 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender. Baste occasionally. Add a little water if thinner gravy is desired. Makes 8 servings.

And Then There is SPAM

For those who are a bit more adventurous, I have provided the SPAM Fiesta recipe that could be found on the back of the can circa 1950s. What can you expect? I think the tagline says it all—Savory and Succulent … this broiler-easy combination of pure-pork SPAM and golden cling peaches from California.

SPAM Fiesta with a Peach Cup … bring California sunshine to winter’s meals!

1 whole SPAM
½ cup uncooked rolled oats
½ cup milk
2 Tablespoons catsup
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 can or jar of halved peaches

Combine together. Shape into 6 balls and place into hallows of 6 peach halves. Broil 10-12 minutes about 6 inches from flame.

The fellows at Hormel kindly sum up this extraordinary recipe with: “Extra-good eating because SPAM is the exclusive blend of sweet juicy pork shoulder and mild tender ham.”

Enjoy!

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