A Central Park Walking Tour with author Cleo Coyle

Pop Quiz: Where was the above photo taken?

A. New Hampshire

B. Vermont

C. Central Park

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

 series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

Okay, so my post title gave it away, but could you have guessed otherwise? Central park is landscape magic. It makes an entire city disappear. And when the city is New York, that's saying something.

Join me and my husband, Marc, as we take a scenic walk through Central Park. This wasn't just any stroll. It was location research for our bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery Once Upon a Grind.

If you've read our book, then you may recognize some of the landmarks and settings we used from the park: Belvedere Castle, the Ramble, Oak Bridge, and more...

Click here or on the cover above
to learn about Once Upon a Grind.

So here we go. I hope you enjoy this virtual trip to our nation's first major landscaped public park (videos included). To read the rest of this post, scroll down, or click here...

How to Make Fun, Fizzy #DairyFree Coffee Milkshakes and Old-Fashioned New York Egg Creams by Cleo Coyle

To celebrate National Coffee Milkshake Day, I'm sharing an "old school" New York soda fountain milkshake known as an egg cream. For those of you who are new to this refreshingly fizzy drink, the traditional New York egg cream was first made with a mix of chocolate syrup, milk, and carbonated water. 

You read that right. There is neither egg

nor cream in a New York egg cream.

Many stories exist about its origin, but food historians generally believe the drink is a simplified (and more affordable) version of a soda fountain beverage from the late 1800s that did use eggs and cream along with chocolate syrup and carbonated water.

Click for Cleo's free recipe PDF.

At one point, the cream was replaced with milk and the egg eliminated. By the 1920s, this simplified version was served throughout New York City. Vanilla egg creams arrived in the 1950s along with (yes) coffee flavored ones... 

To download the recipe now as a free PDF, click here. 

To continue reading my blog post, click here or on the "Read more" link below, and...

Drink with joy! 

~ Cleo

A Central Park Walking Tour with author Cleo Coyle

Pop Quiz: Where was the above photo taken?

A. New Hampshire

B. Vermont

C. Central Park

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

 series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

Okay, so my post title gave it away, but could you have guessed otherwise? Central park is landscape magic. It makes an entire city disappear. And when the city is New York, that's saying something.

Join me and my husband, Marc, as we take a scenic walk through Central Park. This wasn't just any stroll. It was location research for our bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery Once Upon a Grind.

If you've read our book, then you may recognize some of the landmarks and settings we used from the park: Belvedere Castle, the Ramble, Oak Bridge, and more...

Click here or on the cover above
to learn about Once Upon a Grind.

So here we go. I hope you enjoy this virtual trip to our nation's first major landscaped public park (videos included). To read the rest of this post, scroll down, or click here...

Leave the gun, take the cannoli! Cleo Coyle takes you to New York’s Vendy Awards

Cupcake Crew's "Cousin Vinny" Cupcake:
vanilla chocolate chip cake, topped with cannoli
frosting and rolled in bits of fried cannoli shell.
Mama mia, she was good!

Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

I'll start with dessert. That's what my husband and I did when we attended the 7th Annual Vendy Awards on New York's Governors Island, and it is my pleasure to take you there with this post. 

Yes, this was also a research trip! The Vendy's and several of its food trucks inspired several elements in our recent bestselling culinary mystery A Brew to a Kill, in which our amateur sleuth investigates an attempted murder in the competitive world of the food truck business. 

To learn more,
click here.

So what are the Vendy's? A cook-off that honors the best street chefs of New York. Members of the public pay one price and eat all we like for five hours at 22 different food vendor tucks and carts. (These are the finalists who were nominated by their customers.) 

At the end of the day, we attendees loosen our belts a notch and then vote, along with the judges, and the Vendy Cups are awarded in several categories, including the Dessert Cup...