Our Guest, Liz Lipperman

Let’s welcome Liz Lipperman, the author of LIVER LET DIE, which is the first book in her new Clueless Cook Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime.

Tell us all about your new book, Liz...






First of all, thanks to Linda and all the lovely ladies at Killer Hobbies for allowing me to hang out with them today. Before I get started I want to mention that I have one copy of LIVER LET DIE to give away, thanks to Berkley. To enter, leave a comment with a valid email address. This is open to US only (publisher’s request.) Linda will pick the winner. Since this is a blog about killers and hobbies, I thought I'd talk about both, but in order to do that, I have to give you a little blurb about LIVER LET DIE, the first book of my Clueless Cook Mystery series which debuted October 4. Here it is.



Jordan McAllister, a wannabe sports reporter who follows her boyfriend to Dallas, gets dumped, and ends up in a small Texas town where she lands a job writing personals. When she’s offered an opportunity to fill in for the culinary reporter who's rehabbing a broken hip, she jumps on it, thinking it’s one step closer to writing that sports column she wants so badly. The problem is she was raised in West Texas, the only girl with three brothers who needed her outside every day to even up the sides for football games, and although she can throw a razor-sharp touchdown pass from 50 yards, she can’t cook her way out of a box of macaroni and cheese

Her first assignment is reviewing the new steakhouse in town where she inadvertently orders foie gras (fatty duck liver) that ends up untouched and shoved into a borrowed purse. Back home she discovers that she has ruined her friends beautiful handbag, but that's nothing compared to finding her waiter from the steakhouse murdered outside her door along with her name and number in his pockets. Now she’s the prime suspect as well as the main course on the murder menu.


I love writing killers—find it fascinating to be in their heads. I particularly love the kind that you least suspect—you know, the one who tips the pregnant waitress an extra twenty bucks or gives his seat to an elderly woman on the subway train. Just when I start to like him, he goes and kills someone. I love being surprised and hate it when I guess who he is too close to the end.

As for hobbies, in a lot of ways I am like Jordan, my protagonist in LIVER LET DIE. She hates all red meat and seafood. Check. She loves all sports. Check. She loves fried bologna sandwiches and Hostess Ho Hos. Check. She can't cook a lick.—Um, not exactly. I was number eight of nine children and grew up eating casseroles. My mother was an awesome cook and the funny thing is, I am the only one of four sisters who cooks and actually enjoys it.

So what does that have to do with the hobby? I love going to restaurants and trying different things. If I like what I'm eating, I take a little in a doggie bag and play around with it until I come up with something just as good or better. The good part is, I go for the shortcuts—cake mixes, bottled spaghetti sauce, packaged mixes, etc. After I doctor them up, they taste really good.

One of the recipes I’ve played with is my Mom’s beef stew. She’d spend hours cooking it and add lots of spices. She passed away before I was old enough to care about cooking, so when I craved it one day, I decided to try to capture that same tasty dish. I started off with a package of beef stew seasoning mix and went from there. My sisters think my beef stew is as good or better than our Mom’s And I can promise it is a whole lot easier to make. Here it is. Make it on a cold winter day and enjoy.

LIZ’S TASTES JUST LIKE MOM’S EASY BEEF STEW

1 ½ lbs. Beef stew meat with all the fat removed and cut into small pieces
Flour mixed with 2 Tbsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1 can Tomato paste
¼ cup ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pkg. Lawry’s or McCormicks beef stew mix
6 cups water
5-6 potatoes cut into bite size pieces
1 bag baby carrots

Dredge beef stew meat in seasoned flour. (Easiest way to do this is to put about ½ cup flour with the Lawry’s into a brown paper sack. Put the meat into the bag, several pieces at a time and shake.) Brown on both sides in hot oil in a Dutch oven. Add water, tomato paste, ketchup, 2 pkg. Beef stew mix and salt and pepper. You can add more ketchup if necessary. (My Mom used to save all her empty ketchup bottles and add water to really clean them out?) Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add vegetables and again bring it to a boil. Cover and simmer this until vegetables are tender. (approximately 30-45 minutes.)

And one more thing. I am having a fantastic contest to celebrate the release of LIVER LET DIE, and the first place winner will receive a Pandigital Kitchen Technology Center with an HD TV, a digital recipe file, a digital photo album and internet access. Go to my website-- www.lizlipperman.com –for details.