what is a butter knife steak?
Enquiring minds wanna know… Ah. You know, I love schtick mysteries, like the quilting mysteries, or the alphabet mysteries. When I began writing May Day, the first in the Murder-by-Month series (my original schtick—a murder a month), I knew it was going to be set in Battle Lake, Minnesota. Next, I toyed with the idea of turning it into a cooking mystery series, like Diane Mott Davidson’s. However, a little research soon revealed that all Minnesotan food is white, and usually it’s just a vehicle for cream of mushroom soup or Cool Whip. Not the stuff of which a cooking series is made. I felt defeated, and then decided to make fun of that reality by having Mira James, the protagonist, write a “Real Minnesota” recipe column for the local newspaper. I find the basic idea for the recipes by Googling stuff life “weird Minnesota food,” or “things I wouldn’t eat.” Then, I morph them to make them my own. A butterknife steak is one that is so tender, so juicy, so delicately cooked that it can be
