by Barbara Ross
Wyatt was still talking, walking us through the rest of the drawings. Quentin asked some technical questions and occasionally asked Wyatt why she’d chosen to do this or that. The design would need refinement, but overall I had to admit, it was darn near perfect.
“I’m so glad you all like it.” Wyatt beamed at the three of us. “We have a long way to go, a lot of detail and decisions, a lot of logistics and legalities, but this is a good start.”
“Wyatt’s going to have more than your project to bring her to town,” Quentin said.
“Really?” Mom raised an eyebrow. Wyatt’s ex-fiancé was still in the harbor, but he and his yacht were expected to leave for warmer climates soon, as would Quentin.
“I’m doing a project on Rosehill Road,” Wyatt said.
“Not Herrickson House!” It came out louder than I intended.
It had become clear Betty Reynolds would inherit the estate, but changing the mansion was the last thing Lou would have wanted.
“No,” Wyatt said. “Not Herrickson House. Spencer Cottage. Betty Reynolds and her family plan to move into Herrickson House as soon as they’re allowed. Ida Fischer is going to live there, too, back in her old rooms. The Spencer Family Trust is selling the cottage to pay the taxes on the rest of the estate. Vera French is buying it. We’re remodeling top to bottom.” Wyatt was clearly pleased.
“That’s wonderful,” Mom said.
“And, Betty’s selling the beach and the parking lot to the town for a dollar,” Quentin added. “It’s all arranged.”
I doubted it was. There were bound to be plenty of contentious Town Meetings about the cost of keeping up the parking lot and the potential liability caused by the unguarded ocean. But it would work out in the end. The beach was too important to the town.
My mother put her arm around me and squeezed. “Lou would have been so happy.”
From outside the windows the Jacquie II’s whistle sounded. Our dinner guests were arriving in minutes. It was time to get back to work.
RECIPES
Livvie’s Linguini with Clam Sauce
In Steamed Open, Livvie makes the linguini with clam sauce for the family meal—the meal the employees eat between lunch and dinner service. In reality, it is a recipe from my husband’s Italian family, served at their Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes every year.
Ingredients
4 6.5-ounce cans chopped clams
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 anchovies from a tin, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced, divided
teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley, divided
1 cup panko style bread crumbs
1 package (16 oz.) linguini
salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Mix half the garlic and half the parsley with the breadcrumbs. Stir in 1 T of olive oil. Toast in a small frying pan until lightly browned. Set aside.
Prepare the linguini in boiling salted water. Cook for 7 minutes before draining. The linguini will still be undercooked. Don’t worry, it will finish cooking in the sauce.
Gently heat the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Add the anchovies and red pepper flakes, if using, and stir until anchovies have nearly melted.
Add the remaining garlic and cook for two minutes longer, being careful to not burn the garlic. Add the cans of clams including their broth. Increase heat and bring to a boil.
Add the cooked pasta. Lower heat and cook until pasta is al dente. Stir in the parsley. Add salt and pepper, if desired.
Serve pasta and pass the breadcrumbs to sprinkle on top.
Serves 4-6
Peg’s Famous Clam Dip
Ida Fischer’s sister Peg may claim credit for this dip recipe in the book, but this is my husband Bill Carito’s famous clam dip, his most requested dish whenever we ask hosts, “What can we bring?”
Ingredients
4 6.5-ounce cans minced clams, drained, reserving liquid
1 clove garlic
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
2 Tablespoons chopped chives
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons reserved clam liquid, plus more as desired
½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Start food processor and drop garlic clove through tube. Process until finely chopped.
Remove processor cover and add cream cheese, chives, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, clam liquid, and salt. Process 10-20 seconds until well combined. Turn out into a bowl.
Fold in clams and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Just before serving, remove from refrigerator and stir, adding more clam juice, if necessary, to desired consistency.
Serve with potato chips and/or corn chips.
Clam Potato Casserole
Julia characterized this hearty comfort meal as a “deconstructed clam chowder,” and it is. At the Snowden Family Clambake this meal can be made entirely from clambake ingredients, but in this version, we’ve adapted it for home use.
Ingredients
4 potatoes, baked
3 6.5-ounce cans minced clams, drained, with
¼ cup liquid reserved
4 ounces butter, melted
4 ounces heavy cream
4 ounces thick cut bacon, chopped and cooked
until crisp
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
cup snipped chives for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Peel the potatoes and cut into ¼ inch cubes. Put in bowl. Stir in clams, reserved clam liquid, butter, cream, bacon, and scallions.
Turn out into 2-quart casserole dish.
Top with shredded cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Top with chives.
Serves 6
Vee’s Raspberry Muffins
Vee Snugg serves a steady stream of baked goods to the guests at the Snuggles Inn, each one more delicious than the last. These muffins are a particular favorite of Julia’s, because they feature one of her favorite fruits.
Ingredients
¼ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
2½ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup crushed raspberries
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg and add the milk.
In a third bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Gradually alternate adding the dry ingredients and then the milk and egg to the creamed butter and sugar.
Stir in the crushed raspberries.
Bake in greased muffin tins for 20 to 25 minutes.
Makes a dozen standard-sized muffins.
Ma’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake
This recipe is from a book of handwritten cards given to me by my grandmother the Christmas before she died. It is delicious and smells wonderful as it bakes.
Ingredients
For the cake
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick of butter, softened (1 quarter pound)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ pint sour cream
For the “topping”
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Using a mixer, mix the ingredients for the cake until smooth and integrated.
Using your fingers, mix the “topping” ingredients.
Pour one half of the cake mixture int
o a greased tube pan. Sprinkle one half of the “topping” over it. Pour in the rest of the cake mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the “topping” over the top.
Bake for 35 minutes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several of the previous Maine Clambake Mysteries have looked at the star of the clambake show—the Maine lobster. That is especially true of the third book, Musseled Out, which is about the lobstering life. But what about the clam, who gives the bake its name? The clam appears in two of the dishes served at the Snowden Family Clambake. The quahog, or hard shell clam is featured in the chowder that is served as the first course. This book focuses on the soft shells, called “steamers,” which are cooked in the shell along with the lobsters and served as a part of the main course.
Clamming for soft shells can be a fun and rewarding pastime on a vacation day, or it can be a backbreaking commercial labor. Either way, in Maine, it is done by hand, with tools that have been used for over a century. For those who want to try it firsthand, clamming is free at several Maine state beaches. You can only take a peck, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
For clam facts, I relied on The Compleat Clammer, by Christopher R. Reaske (Burford Books), which is about clamming on Shelter Island, New York, but is quite widely applicable.
For the ins and outs of oceanfront property ownership in Maine, I consulted Public Shoreline Access in Maine: A Citizens Guide to Ocean and Coastal Law, third edition, produced by the Maine Sea Grant College Program, Maine Coastal Program/Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, and Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. The history of the Maine shoreline is complicated and much litigated, so I appreciated this straightforward publication.
For those who have lived in or visited the Boothbay Harbor region, the story of the ghost of Herrickson Point Light will seem “eerily” familiar. For my research, I consulted Ghosts of the Boothbay Region by Greg Latimer (Haunted America). Of course, I changed the story to fit my characters and my timeline, and added some embellishments of my own.
Fellow Maine mystery author Brenda Buchanan provided enough baseline information to get me going on the inheritance part of the plot. The folks in the Registry of Probate in Wiscasset, Maine, were enormously helpful. All mistakes, intended and inadvertent, are my own.
Emily Gozzi’s mom won naming rights at a charity auction and Emily provided the name “Willis Orsolini.” I’m not sure what you expected, Emily, but I hope I did you proud.
My great and good friend Jon Anton suggested the title Steamed Open. He passed away as I finished the manuscript, so he never got to see it in print, but I will always be grateful and will never forget.
I’d like to thank the Wicked Cozy Authors, to whom this book is dedicated. We’ve blogged together for five years, but our mutual support society has been so much more than that. I honestly don’t believe I could have done it without you, Jessie Crockett (Jessica Ellicott), Sherry Harris, J.A. Hennrikus (Julia Henry), Edith Maxwell (Maddie Day), and Liz Mugavero (Cate Conte). (All my friends are like drag queens—they all have two names.) An extra special shout out to Sherry Harris, who reviewed this manuscript while meeting the exact same deadline for the seventh book in her Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries.
I’d like to also acknowledge my fellow Maine Crime Writers who have been so supportive of me, especially now that I’ve moved to Maine full-time.
Thank you to my editor at Kensington, John Scognamiglio, also Karen Auerbach, Robin Cook and the folks in production, and Ben Perini, who has done the wonderful Maine Clambake covers. Thank you also to my agent, the fabulous John Talbot.
Finally, to my family, who put up with me writing blogs throughout the holidays to support the publication of Stowed Away, missing my granddaughter’s birthday three years in a row to attend an annual conference, being in “book jail” and useless for any work or fun around the house, and generally dragging them to book events, conferences, and on research trips. Special thanks to my husband, Bill, for the clam recipes. Thank you, Bill Carito; Robert, Sunny, and Viola Carito; and Kate and Luke Do-nius. You all make it possible to do what I do.
