The most frequent request I get from you ‘maniacs is for the recipe for Kate’s fry bread. So here you go — and a couple bonus recipes.
Photo is me eating king crab in Nome. Eat your hearts out.
Fry Bread Recipe
Make one batch of white bread. Try the classic on the Fleishmann Yeast website here.
Let rise, form into balls, flatten. Fry in hot grease until golden brown on both sides.
Serve plain, or sprinkled with granulated or powdered sugar, spread with nagoonberry jam, or pretty much any way you want.
Best made and eaten in a loud, laughing crowd.
Baked Steak Recipe
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll steak (Kate’s favorite cut is a New York) in olive oil and powdered or granulated garlic, salt, and whatever crushed dried herb you like (Kate’s favorite is thyme).
Kate bakes hers for an hour because she likes her steak well done. The oil and herbs make a nice crust.
Emaa’s Cocoa Recipe
Fill a mug half full of evaporated milk. Add three heaping teaspoons of Nestle’s Quik. Add boiling water. Stir only until lumpy. Drink in between dunking hot buttered toast.
65 Comments
I absolutely love your Kate Shugak books. I have now shared my collection with at least 6 other friends, who now are looking forward to more new books from you.
It is interesting to read these books and recognize both the Yukon and Alaska in the stories seeing as how I’m a transplant from the East Coast.
Keep up the great writing!!
Yes, ma’am, and thanks, Lorraine!
Dana, My husband and I started reading your books this past summer, and we injoy them very much. We really enjoy the Kate Shugak series and we are going to try the fried bread. We live in Southwestern Ontario Ca. Keep on writing. Marilyn
Thanks, Marilyn! You’ll love the fry bread. Bet it’d go good with some Canadian maple syrup.
Hi Dana - I’ve been reading the Kate series since we met, at the FBN club - last night, remember? “The Plague is my hobby” (?) That was me,scaring you about your water supply. Nice dinner conversation on my part. I’m learning so much about Alaska in your books that I shall be eternally grateful. I’m still “new” - here only since ‘97 - how long until I’m considered. . .oh never mind, I think I know. I started telling my sister in Newfoundland, Canada about you and she, like so many others already knew, and has enjoyed many of your tales as well - she works in the library system there and says you have many fans in Newfoundland. If you’d like to contact me directly I have some more exciting info about plagues past and present to share, with an important Alaskan connection. Now I need to stop typing and get back to Kate. cheers, MJ
I do remember, MJ, and thanks!
For those who feel like you just stumbled into the middle of an ongoing conversation, you’re right–MJ and I and her husband (both local musicans) sat together at the Very Last Party held at the Fly By Night Club (sob) on September 9th. A great dancing and singing and drinking time was had by all.
Hi Dana; Kate has me making bread again. I couldn’t stand to hear about fry-bread any longer. Where I’m from those little cakes of heaven are called Toutons. So popular to this day you can find “Touton Dough” in grocery stores - ready to hit the pan! I’m wondering what kind of flour Kate would be using. She may now bring home a 50-lb sack from Costco, but what about years ago? Or does she (they) use whole-wheat? I know a homesteader (in Bird Creek) who manages to grow (and grind!)her own wheat. Would Emaa or Kate ever have done such a thing? And what about sour dough starter instead of Fleishmann’s yeast? My apologies if these questions have already been asked and answered. . . one more thing: it is a delight to me that Kate is almost as big a coffee fan as I am. I wish everyone had access to Kaladi Bros., don’t you? Thanks for all the wonderful stories - keep going girl!
Thank you, M.J.!
Kate’s just mastering the boule, so I don’t know when she’ll get around to using sourdough. Sourdough can be a very proprietary thing, starter is literally handed down from generation to generation and there is sourdough in Alaska that started in the Klondike. When Kate gets into sourdough it will be most likely because someone gives her some very pedigreed starter.
And you’re right, she goes for the fifty pound sacks from Costco.
As far as coffee is concerned, watch the website for the upcoming store, which will feature a special Kate Shugak coffee from Captain’s Coffee in Homer, Alaska. I drink Tsunami Blend and it is great, strong enough to stand up to half and half and very tasty.
Dana,
Sorry to have missed you in Phoenix. In February I will be at the ASU Writers Conference and will see Diana Gabaldon. I am a teacher who once taught in bush Alaska. I am working on my own literary memoir of that time.
I must get ahold of your books!
I was looking for your fry bread recipe and could not find it on your blog.
Thanks,
Renee
Me, too!
As for the fry bread recipe, it’s right at the top of this page.
It also pops up if you use the Search box at the bottom of the right hand column.
Hi Dana,
I really enjoy your Kate Shugak series and am sorry that I have only 3 more to read and will then have to wait for your next thriller. Also enjoyed the Liam Campbell books. I hope you will write more of them too. I assume that A Cold Day for Murder was the first book in the Kate series. I guess she had already been attacked and had her throat slashed when you wrote it? I wasn’t sure if that was in one of your first books. Anyway, the characters are great and as I spent a few years in the “bush” in British Columbia in the 1970s, I can relate to the beauty and way of life that you describe. Brings back memories. Keep writing!
It’s wonderful!
Kay Vanstone
You assume correctly, Kay. The story of how Kate got the scar is only ever told by Jack to Gamble in A Cold Day for Murder. Delighted to hear you’re enjoying the work, and thanks!
I feel like I would like to have you for a neighbor. Love your Kate Shugack books. They are are a refreshing difference from the mundane. I’m a dog lover and think I would like to meet Mutt. I have a very hard time finding your books, I live in a rural area, have to travel about 50 miles to Borders, and they don’t have them all. But I will keep trying.
What a nice compliment, Louise, thank you!
In re finding the books, don’t forget your local public library. If they don’t have them on the shelves, they can get them through Interlibrary Loan. I do that a lot, I live in a small town with a small library, too. It costs $2 a book in postage and it takes a while, but they always find what I want eventually. Gotta love librarians.
Your Kate Shugak series is great. It makes Montana sound pretty tame, but I guess your have your big cities too. I’ve read and enjoyed a huge number of mysteries with all kinds of sleuths, but what makes Kate special to me is that my mother went to Chemawa too.
Thanks, Ruth.
Hi, I just finished “A Taint in the Blood” and loved every page. But I don’t understand how Kate was grabbed in the back yard with Mutt out there in the tent with the boys. She is too good a guard dog to have allowed two men in the yard to wait for Kate. Just did not make sense to me.
I believe Mutt was out to dinner when Kate was kidnapped, and looked suitably embarassed when Jack showed up.
But I could be wrong about that. Been a while since I wrote the book.
Dear Ms. Stabenow,
Am writing to you in the Deep Freeze from the Deep South (Atlanta) to tell you that I have never been so involved in a story as I am in Kate’s life. A friend who lives on Tybee Island, Georgia (mentioned in one of the Kate books) told me about them and I went to Barnes & Noble and bought the first 13 prior to the last two in the series being published. I’m finishing up A GRAVE DENIED and will then find the next two.
I think you are an incredibly gifted writer and I particularly enjoy the technique you employ of mentioning a character or an event but giving no further details until, later, in another book down the line, all of a sudden we find out a whole lot more about that person or that incident. As to your character delineation, I feel as if I know all the people in Kate’s life for you so clearly draw a word picture of them. And how I wish I could visit beautiful Alaska after seeing it through your words.
The books are addictive, however, and my house is filthy and phone calls go unreturned, etc., when I’m reading about Kate.
All that being said, I must tell you that I was rip-roaring mad at you a couple of weeks back when I read HUNTER’S MOON because you killed Jack and broke my heart. I sat sobbing while my car was being serviced reading and re-reading the pages having to do with his death. The description of his death was beautiful but I’m still wounded and I’m not quite sure I’ll ever recover. They were perfect together…complemented each other so. I felt that my heart was ripped out along with Kate’s.
If Mutt had not survived, I might not have either!
So, many thanks for your talent and for the pleasurable hours you have provided with it.
Sincerely, Linda Vinal
I love your Kate Shugach series! I found all of them on Amazon and have been reading them in order. If you are ever coming to Minnesota I’d love to arrange a speaking lunch for you at a small wondeful book store I know
Thank you, Linda, for the incredible compliments. You humble me.
And thanks, Kathy, I’ll hold you to it!
Hello Dana: Thank you for the Kate Shugach books. Just read A Taint in the Blood. The rich always the same never enough. Jim the State Bull as we call them in Colorado is funny and goes good with Kate. Kate is a twin of my little sister, except she blonde and likes to drink.
The reason I like your books, Kate likes to eat and and thats not too bad. Looking forward to the next Kate book.
Allen
Please post the full recipe for the fresh tomato sauce Kate serves over penne pasta in Deeper Sleep. Thank you! (You were pretty clear about the directions for the French onion soup. That’ll have to wait til I slowly ease the kids into liking onions.)
Some ‘maniac remind me to do this when I get home.
I’m a big fan of Kate and Mutt and all their doings.
Great job !
Question, tho’… have been driving myself nuts looking for movie info, because last year I thought I read there was going to be a film, there was an actress all picked out and an expected release date,and then…, and then,…
nothing!
did I miss it?
looking forward to further adventures and am trying the audio version of “deeper sleep”…
Toni
The movie never got past the talking stages. I’ll shoulder the blame here, I wouldn’t sign anything that would let them shoot it anywhere but Alaska, and Hollywood wants to shoot either on a studio back lot in LA or in Vancouver. Nope. Sorry!
There should be no stand-ins for Alaska, and you are right to expect them to honor that!
Come to think of it, what ELSE would they want to change!
Better to not go there…
Toni
A friend of mine took a trip to Alaska with her husband. She wanted to read some books by an Alaskan author. She has since shared them with me.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your wonderful Kate Shugak Novels. Your characters are vibrant. I find myself totally caught up in the stories, locations, plots and characters. Your writing allows the reader to believe that these are real people and real places. I feel so sad when characters like Emaa died or Jack was murdered. Your novels have allowed me to mentally leave my home in Ohio and experience the world of Kate Shugak as you have created it. Thank you for the hours of entertainment. Keep up the great work. Carol
I heard Roger Ebert say once that the true test of any good film was how well it sucked you into its world. Same goes for novels, and you’re telling me that’s what I’m doing. Thank you so much, Carol. What a compliment!
Hi, I am a fan from a small country town in Victoria, Australia. My friends and I have been reading your books since the beginning (mystery). I work in a Library in Tallangatta and the Kate and Liam books are well read in our system ( it involves 12 libraries throughout North East Victoria. We had teachers from Anchorage on exchange here in 1998 and our little Gunnar was born here. The Nelsons made a return visit to Australia three Christmas’s ago and it sure was great to see them (they left one of your books for us). We had told them that we had read a few of your books through the library but were unable to find them in local bookshops. Keep writing and entertaining us. Bye from Australia.
I love these kinds of stories, Denise, or all except the part where you can’t find my books. I’m not published in Australia so I’m thrilled that you’ve got the books in your library system, and that people are reading and enjoying them. Thanks for writing to let me know!
Hi, have now finished every novel and am hoping to be around for the next one. Am sitting here with ribs and mushroom soup to try your recipe for my grandson and realize I can’t remember what else was added or your method. Tried to find it in the search bar but could not. Please, please send it to me. Many thanks from my grandson and I.
Meg
Since my son & family have moved to Wasilla from Iowa, I have started to read your book. They have helped me know a little about AK. You mention Blazo boxes in your stories and I don’t know what they were. Could you help. We were lucky to visit the Fly-By-Night Club last summer. What a fun place. But now I see Mr.Whitekeys is writing a column for Alaska Magazine.
Just returned from a trip to Anchorage where I was introduced to your books. Am up to A Grave Denied and must say it is such fun when I recognize a place you mention, such as Gwennies and the Downtown Deli and other places. I keep remembering our trip each book I read. Keep up the Shugak series, Kate is remarkable.
Thanks, Connie, I will!
Aloha & howzit!
Greetings from Kona.
Soooo looking forward to my first Alaska visit next month! And as my daughter attends school there in Anchorage, I’ll be attending Bouchercon while she’s in class. Lucky me! Hope to meet & greet you at the conference.
I’ve just discovered your Kate a couple of weeks ago and I hope to have ferreted out all of your books and happily devoured each & every one by the time I arrive. Gotta love Miz Kate’s attitude! You’re awesome.
All the best.
Rebecca
I recently and accidentally discovered your Kate Shugat books. They are some of the best I have ever read. Your descriptions of characters and locations makes your reader part of the story. I am right there with Kate and Mutt. I do a lot of reading on the train during my commute back and forth to work. You make me laugh and cry out loud and all my friends want to know what I am reading becaue I really get into the story. Please keep writing the Kate books. I love her new relationship with Jim. They make a great team. Please keep up the series. I never want it to end. Thank you, Teri
Thanks so much, Rebecca and Teri. It’s great to hear how much you’re enjoying the series. Want to know a secret? Me, too.
We took a cruise thru the inside passage this May to celebrate our 50th anniversary. I am a history buff and have fallen in love with everything Alaskan.
I have read and hugely enjoyed the Kate Shugak series and have been trying to find which books talk about Kate getting her throat cut.Also about the gift of the baby Mutt and the story of Kate’s cabin being burned and the park rats building her a new home.
Thank you so much for giving me so much joy.
Dana, thank you for writing such a wonderful series of Kate and Liam. I have read, listened and own all your books. I was just wondering about the change in actors from Margurite Gavin to the new lady who read for Iris Johansen….kinda an odd personality change in characters. Any insight would be much appreciated, and thank you again for writing such wonderful books. Dave
Dana, back in the early ’90s, I bought and read and loved a certain science fiction trilogy (I think you know what I mean). I still have, and read, them. A couple years ago, I was given a mystery novel called “Play With Fire” that I thought was fantastic. I proceeded to buy the previous and subsequent novels in that series, as well as the four Liam Campbell novels. In my brain somewhere, the message “Where do I know her name from?” kept blinking on my lil grey voice mail. Today I visited your site for the first time, and lo and behold…serendipity or stupidity…you decide. Thanks for the years of entertainment!
Joe
I’m always delighted when someone mentions my sf. There is a short story called “No Place Like Home” in an anthology called Space Colonies, too, that I am very proud of. Someday, when I’m independently wealthy and can write anything I want, I’ll write more sf. Thanks, Joe!
I was just reading Hunter’s Moon, got to page 260, and to my utter disbelief, the rest of the pages are missing!!! Can you believe it? I am spitting nails. So now I don’t know if Jack survived or not. Surely, he wasn’t killed off. If anyone can fill me in on how this ends, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. I can’t wait to go into town in the morning for my next Kate adventure…..there goes housework undone for another few days!!
Thanks so much, Kathy
Nobody tell her. Kathy, go find another copy of the book!
Right Dana- don’t anybody tell Kathy- she has to read it for herself. Hunter’s Moon is one of my very favorites!
I have just discovered YOU. I am
reading “A GRAVE DENIED” and it is
excellent reading.
I hope you have discovered my brother, Bob’s restaurant in Girdwood, THE DOUBLE MUSKY INN”.
I read 4 or 5 books a week and look forward to more of yours.
Thank you.
You bet I know the Double Musky, the best pepper steak in the known universe! In fact, I took my agent to dinner there when he was here for Bouchercon in September, and he loved it.
The best compliments I get are from Alaskans who say I get it right. Thanks, Bill.
My husband Maury and first I discovered your Kate books after our trip to Alaska this summer for my niece’s wedding. Our hosts in Fairbanks were the groom’s uncle, Sam Demientieff and his wife Mary. What a please to see his name used for one of your characters. Love your books, we can hardly put them down, we learn so much about Alaska too!!!
Dana,
I presently live near Salem, Oregon (and Chemawa), after having lived 17 1/2 years in Alaska. I am a retired Anchorage Police Officer (retired in 1996)and can identify with many of your stories, places, people, police agencies, DAs, etc. I thoroughly enjoy reading your Kate Shugak series. When I finish one, I immediately feel a void and can’t wait for my next Shugak fix. After reading each book, I give it to my next door neighbor, who is also hooked on your books. As other people have noted, you make your characters so vivid and real that one thinks about them as real people and want to know what they are up to next. Also, I still have Alaskan blood in my veins. Your novels make me feel so close to my Alaskan roots. Cudos to you, Dana, for your level of excellence in your writings. Would love to meet you some day and share a few crime stories. I plan on making a trip back there next summer. In the meantime, keep ‘em coming. Becky
I’m honored, Becky, as you’re my worst fear: an educated reader. Praise from a police officer is praise indeed. And I would love to hear your stories, there is nothing so valuable to a writer as original source material. Not to mention which, cops always tell the best stories. I’ll look forward to it!
Dana are you going to do anymore Kate shugach mysteriesm hope you do and I like Liam cambell as well.Please eply if you can thanks
Your Fan
Carmen
Indeed I am, Carmen, I’m finishing up the next Kate Shugak novel right now. There will be an excerpt posted on the website on March 11 on the Whisper to the Blood page. Click on the Kate Shugak series on the upper right.
I’ll be writing another Liam novel next, but I have to find a publisher for the Liam novels before you’ll be able to read it.
In the meantime, I’m posting excerpts from another novel I’m writing, Silk and Song. Again, look on the menu at upper right. Enjoy, and thanks!
Hi from the DC suburbs - Cold places fascinate me, for some reason. I wish I could afford to stay at the Ice Hotel. Therefore, I can’t believe I only recently discovered your Shugak novels. They’re too good to be unknown to me that long! I’ve been able to romp through 12 of them so far, in order, which is always the most fun.
It’s nice to watch how your writing has matured, even with that explosive start, and what risks you take with each new one. Glad to see Michael Connelly likes Kate too.
Last year I got very involved in watching Deadliest Catch, and when I read the Kate Shugak novel about crabbing, everything was exactly the same. Did you actually get to go fishing with them, or do you just have a good informant?
Keep ‘em coming, please! In the meantime, I’ll read your other novels when I get my hands on them.
Dot in Maryland
I’ve never been crabbing myself but I was raised in a commercial fishing town, and my mother was a deckhand on a salmon tender for five years. Delighted to hear you’re enjoying the books, Dot, and thank you!
Hi Dana - I just wanted to let you know that while i was pregnant with TWINS last summer, I read ALL FIFTEEN Kate Shugak books - my poor five year old! Anyhow, now that they are six months old and I can see straight again, I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful family of characters - I feel as if I know them intimately. Your books (Blindfold Game included) made an uncomfortable time pass faster! I have “Prepared for Rage” in hand and can’t wait to dive on in!
Abby
(From NH, but now live in Oklahoma City!)
Thank you so much, Abby!
Hello Dana,
Greetings from Scottsdale, AZ! I missed your appearance at the Poisoned Pen (Next time!). However, Barbara was good enough to list all your Kate Shugak mysteries in her newsletter. I was looking for a new series to start, so… . Anyway, I really don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said except to tell you I am trying to keep all my work caught up so I can enjoy the next Kate book without guilt.
No guilt, only guilty pleasures, and I’m delighted to be one of them!
About too much or too little sex in your books, Dana: I’d keep it the way it is. Please don’t write for your audience, write the way you like it. You will never please everyone 100% anyway.
Yep, I’m hooked on Alaska and Shugak now. I love the attitude of self-reliance to the point where I attempted a vegetable garden here in Pittsburgh, PA. But, I’ve always been fascinated with the American Frontier, having come from Europe (I’m a Cancelled Czech…)
Thans for your writing,
Kate Pavelle
While in Colorado two months before my sister and I took our first trip to Alaska I met the owner of a bookstore who maintained traveling was enhanced if you read novels about the area. She recommended your Kate Shugak books for our upcoming trip. I emailed my sister who ordered all of the series before I even got back to Southern California, and had read them all and passed them on to me before our trip!
The books are wonderful and made the Alaska experience so much more real. It was delightful to be on the train passing Turnagain Arm at the same time Kate was there in the book I was reading.
I have been home 3 days and I am still devouring the books as fast as I can. I can’t get enough of Kate’s story and the beautiful way you convey the spirit of Alaska and its people.
Thanks so much, Phyllis!
OK I have a question about canning salmon. Lots of people seem to can their own catch. Is there a standard recipe or a preferred method? We usually get a good catch of walleye and sauger from our local streams, and it doesn’t freeze really well - it’s also not as fatty, and we cut off the fatty parts anyway to minimize pollutant exposure. I was thinking of canning some of it in jars (I do jams so I am not afraid of the process, safety being foremost on my mind, of course.)
Thanks,
Kate Pavelle
My friend, Don, does the catching and then the canning in my garage. In exchange, I get a tithe. He brines the salmon for less than an hour using canning and pickling salt and water, and then we pack the salmon in half-pound flats and cook them in a pressure cooker. We used jars last year but we like the cans better. For one thing, they’re easier and lighter to mail.
I have just finished re-reading your Kate Shugack series. They are even better the second time!!! I was thrilled to see you have a new one due out this winter. Kate is so real to me. And all the other characters too. Old Sam and the Aunties, I just loose myself in your books, they make me laugh out loud, and cry like I lost my best friend. Thank you so much! Keep up the good work!!!
Wow! Thanks very much for the compliments, Sarah, hope I (and Kate) never let you down.
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