Mixing Meals and Mysteries
September 17, 2026
September on my social calendar is filled with family events. We have several birthdays to celebrate, along with Rosh Hashanah. This holiday observes the Jewish New Year through special prayers and a meal with traditional foods. Our weekends this month volley from one happy occasion to the next and always include a special brunch or dinner.
It’s also Magical Dining Month in Orlando. Many local restaurants participate in this promotional event. For $40 or $60, you’ll enjoy a three-course meal. It’s a great way to try a new restaurant or eat out at a place that’s normally too pricey.
In addition, the fall season brings us Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. This year’s food studio offerings all sound wonderful, although I can only try about four dishes before I’m full. I’ll have to make several visits, but not until the weather cools. I am already drooling in anticipation of the delights to tempt my palate.
It seems most social events revolve around food. Aren’t you always meeting friends for lunch?
The same is true for cozy mysteries, where scenes often take place in a café, bakery, family restaurant, or local festival with food booths. But the sleuth doesn’t engage in idle chatter at these events. Usually, she joins friends for coffee to discuss the latest suspects, meets an informant who reveals important information, or enjoys a romantic dinner with a potential love interest. And if she owns the venue, she’ll have customers stop by all the time to gossip.
Your sleuth may even spot a person of interest meeting someone he’s supposed to be avoiding.
Cozy settings, clues, and coffee go hand-in-hand.
TRIMMED TO DEATH is one of my books that combines a cozy setting with culinary mayhem. Hairstylist Marla Vail is a contestant in a bake-off contest at a local farm festival. She’s waiting to hear if her coconut fudge pie is a winner when she discovers another entrant planted face-down in the strawberry field. Who has trimmed short the life of food magazine editor, Francine Dodger?
This story is for you if you like culinary mysteries, clever characters, cooking contests and fall shenanigans.
Grab your copy HERE.
Meanwhile, where do you meet your friends? Do you go out to eat or share some other activity?
Want to know more about our author Nancy J Cohen? Visit her WEBSITE.
While you’re here, enter our September contest. We’re giving away two cozy mysteries to one winner. The contest runs from Sept. 1-22, so don’t delay. Enter HERE.
Posted in Let's Talk, with Nancy J. Cohen • Tags: Festivals, Let's Talk, Mixing Meals and Mysteries, Nancy J Cohen, Trimmed to Death | 6 Comments
Nancy, sounds like a fun month for you. So far, I’ve been spending September mostly not leaving my AC. It’s been hotter than it was in August! I’ve never before experienced so many high 90s and triple digit days in a single summer. Add the humidity, and the real-feel becomes brutal.
This hasn’t been a totally fun month, but I’d rather focus on the good stuff. It’s hot as ever here, too, so no parks for me until the weather cools.
Hi Nancy, I’ve also been staying indoors near the AC. This morning, though, it finally dropped below 80 overnight, so we’re hopeful the heat is finally starting to subside.
I’m not holding my breath for the first real cold front but it sure would be nice to have a morning in the 70s.
I usually meet my friends for lunch every once in awhile. We don’t live close to each other, so we usually make plans to meet at a restaurant that is half way for all of us.
That sounds like a fun day. Then you can linger over lunch.