Launch Event for the Foodie Anthology, "Cooked to Death Volume Four: Cold Cut Files " Takes Place Sat., May 11

   There is something about food that pulls people together. When you take your first bite of a scrumptious hotdish, it may bring back memories of time spent with grandparents when you were a kid. Baking a cake may remind you of the first thing you did with your spouse as a married couple.

   Food connects us to the past, to places we have visited, and to places we want to go. It also serves as the anchor for a collection of anthologies edited by Minnesota foodie Rhonda Gilliland.

   The fourth book in the Cooked to Death series: Cooked to Death: Volume IV: Cold Cut Files, officially launches on Sat., May 11 at Once Upon A Crime in Minneapolis. Several of the authors will be signing copies at the store between Noon – 2 p.m.

   The book features stories involving food, murder and intrigue written by 19 mystery writers from Minnesota, Ohio, Alabama, Colorado and Washington, D.C. Among the stories told in the book is “Honey Shush,” by Kiersten Hall of Austin, Minn. It is the story of a wife so tired of her husband’s snoring she quiets him for good by putting honey in a recipe.    “Dead Vent” by Christopher Vallen of Woodbury, Minn., is the story of what appears to be a murder at a popular Colombian restaurant in St. Paul; and “Thanksgiving I Do, I Don’t” by Debra Goldstein of Birmingham, Alabama, is the story of a wedding that didn’t happen because of something the bride-to-be put in the corn pudding.