Beyond Delicious Cookbook: Recipes & Stories from the Original Ghost Whisperer (America's Haunted Road Trip) - Softcover

Winkowski, Mary Ann; Powers, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 157860429X ISBN 13: 9781578604296

Publisher: Clerisy Press, 2025

Synopsis

Savor this collection of more than 100 recipes, shared with the Ghost Whisperer by the spirits of several great cooks.

We cook because our connection to food is ever-present. We cook for sustenance and joy. For a culinary experience that’s completely unique, the Beyond Delicious Cookbook tickles your tastebuds while making your paranormal senses tingle. It is half cookbook and half ghost story—two ingredients needed to create meals that are tasty and chillingly unforgettable.

Mary Ann Winkowski (aka “The Ghost Whisperer”) has been communicating with earthbound spirits for most of her life, and she learned that our connection with food is not broken after death. In fact, she has received countless recipes from spirits of great cooks who have passed on. Co-written by David Powers, the Beyond Delicious Cookbook features more than 100 of these recipes, each paired with the ghostly tale of how Mary Ann learned about the dish. The book is divided into sections about soups, casseroles, beef, chicken, types of desserts, and more.

As Mary Ann notes, these recipes are the best home-cooked meals you can find because they came from the kitchens of families who prepared and perfected them over a lifetime. The meals are so beloved that the living asked Mary Ann to get them or so meaningful that a spirit asked her to record them for those left behind. The stories that go along with the recipes are often sweet, sometimes spooky, and always transfixing.

Book Features:

• More than 100 recipes passed to Mary Ann from beyond the grave
• Ghost stories that explain where each recipe came from
• Sections that feature main dishes, sides, desserts, and more
• Family favorites that have been handed down from previous generations

About this title

About the Author

Mary Ann Winkowski was born in Cleveland and still lives there with her husband, Ted, and Just Fred, their red-and-white cat. She also has two grown daughters. Born with the ability to see, hear, and talk to earthbound spirits, Mary Ann has helped people all over the world to resolve problems with these spirits and negative energy. A consultant on the CBS television show Ghost Whisperer, she is also the author of When Ghosts Speak; the fiction series The Ghost Files, which includes The Book of Illumination and The Ice Cradle; and As Alive, So Dead with David Powers.

David Powers earned a degree in creative writing from Ohio University. He has since worked as a freelance music critic, as a section editor at an alternative newsweekly, and as a technical writer, creating help files for a leading software developer. His fiction has appeared under the name David Christopher in magazines such as Lost Worlds, The MacGuffin, and England’s Enigmatic Tales. As David Christopher, he also wrote As Alive, So Dead with Mary Ann Winkowski. He went on to launch OH Hellmouth, a fictional accounting of “weird” Ohio presented in a blog format.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Blanche’s Braised Beef Short Ribs

I was invited to a private party by Nancy. It was a potluck luncheon put on by a group of nurses who all worked together, and I was invited to do one of my “ghost chats.” I give these private talks to allow for a more personal interaction with the guests, but I don’t do any kind of collective “ghostbusting” for them. I’d be there all day if I spoke with everyone individually and helped them with their issues! This party was no different—I saw five spirits attached to guests the moment I walked in, and this being the party room of a condo complex, other ghosts came and went throughout the afternoon.

There’s always an exception, of course. Being nurses, Nancy and her friends had a lot of ghost stories to share, and they were a really nice and fun bunch, so I decided it wouldn’t hurt to help with just one ghost, especially because this ghost had caught my eye and I just had to know what her story was. She’d been poring over the potluck dishes all afternoon, tutting at some of them and shaking her head at others. She was about 50 and had come in with one of the guests.

“There are a few ghosts here now,” I admitted to the group. “But there’s one in particular I’d like to know more about.” I caught the ghost’s eye and asked her—privately—if she minded being “outed,” and she rushed right over to me, all smiles.

“Not at all!” she said.

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Blanche,” she said. “They all know me. I died of breast cancer. I was one of the dumb nurses who was always giving everybody else advice, then ignoring it myself. By the time I got myself checked, it was far too late.”

“And what’s with the food?” I wondered. “Why are you turning your nose up at all of it?”

“Oh, it’s just all the same old food these girls always made for our parties,” she said. “Now, ask them why, with all of them who got the recipe from me, no one made braised beef short ribs?”

So I turned my attention back to the group of nurses and explained who it was. They all gasped, then were overjoyed and started sharing stories about Blanche, even though I had just gotten done telling them she was standing right there and could hear every word they were saying! Then I got to the question of the braised short ribs, and everyone got quiet and guilty.

Finally, Nancy spoke up and said that it was true, someone always wanted the recipe when Blanche made it for their potlucks. She admitted that, speaking for herself, she ended up losing the recipe later. A lot of other heads nodded in agreement.

“Will she give it to us again?” Nancy asked. “And this time I promise I won’t lose it!”

Blanche agreed to give them the recipe, but she said that the real reason she’d been hanging around “the girls” was to make sure they didn’t make the same mistake as her, and that they followed their own advice to their patients and got regular checkups and all that. It was an easy deal for them to make, and I think Blanche crossed over happy at having passed on a very important message.

Blanche’s Braised Beef Short Ribs

1 cup salad oil
4 pounds beef short ribs
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 cup red wine
Beef broth, if needed
Prepared horseradish sauce

Heat oil in an iron skillet. Season ribs with salt and pepper, and roll in flour. Place in hot oil and brown on all sides. Remove ribs and keep warm until needed. Into the same skillet, add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, cloves, and thyme. Saute until vegetables are soft, then add tomatoes and simmer about 10 minutes. Return the ribs to the sauce; add wine, cover, and cook in a 350-degree oven until tender, about 1-1/4 hours. If sauce becomes too dry, add some beef broth. Place ribs on a serving platter. Season sauce and strain over ribs. Serve with horseradish sauce.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clerisy Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157860429X
• ISBN 13: 9781578604296
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224