When I am Dead, My Dearest: A Hunter Jones Mystery
Page 21
The Long Lie
By Hill Roland.
CHAPTER 1: 1885
Sophie was shivering when the graveside service was finally over. There was a cold wind and she didn’t want to be there. She had not been consoled by the preacher’s flowery words.
She was sick of them all – tired of everyone’s behaving as if the sorrow belonged to them instead of her.
None of them, she thought angrily. None of them had loved Mama as much as she did, and none of them would ever love her the way Mama had.
Her father noticed that his daughter was standing alone, shivering, expressionless, not shedding a tear. He took her gloved hand and whispered, “We must thank people for coming.”
Even though she was 12, Sophie responded like a child. She broke free and ran, following a crooked path between the tombstones, past the church, through the streets of Merchantsville, all the way home and up the stairs to her mother’s bedroom.
Sally and Annie were already cleaning it out. They had the bed stripped and the windows open to the cold air. Sophie went to her mother’s trunk at end of the bed to find the portfolio, the battered old portfolio, tied with ribbons.
It was gone.
“If you’re looking for your mother’s papers, your father has them,” Sally said gently. “He said he would put them away for safekeeping.”
In the next room Sophie’s new baby brother began to fret and then to wail.
“He’s had his milk. I don’t know why he won’t settle down,” Annie said.
“He wants to be rocked to sleep,” Sophie said, “He wants a story. I’ll tell him one of Mama’s.”
THE END
RECIPES FROM MAGNOLIA COUNTY
MISS ROSE TYNDALE’S WHIPPED CREAM BISCUITS
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place top rack above the middle of the oven, but not too close to the top. Put on your apron. Locate your biscuit cutter.
Ingredients for 12 biscuits.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch (1/4 tsp. salt)
1 cup chilled whipping cream
Using an electric mixer, whip the cream until thickened. Mix other ingredients in a bowl and fold in whipped cream. When well-mixed, scrape dough onto a floured bread board. Shape it into a ball and then flatten it by patting down with well-floured hands. It should be about 3/4 inch thick. Using floured biscuit cutter, cut 10-12 biscuits and place them on an ungreased baking sheet.
Make sure your oven is preheated to 425 degrees before placing pan in oven. Bake for 11 minutes.
(Simpler version: Use 2 cups self-rising flour, and do not add baking powder and salt. Many great Southern cooks use self-rising flour. Some also shape the biscuits by hand, which is fine if you can do it without handling the dough too much.)
HILLIARD HOUSE CHEESE GRITS
Butter the inside of your slow cooker, or use spray shortening.
Grate 12 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese
In a large bowl measure 1 ½ cup regular grits (not instant!), 4 cups water, and 4 cups milk. Mix water, milk, cheese, grits and 2 teaspoons salt and stir well. Pour into slow cooker and cook on low overnight (or at least 8 hours)
Sprinkle with additional grated cheese and paprika before serving.
(Note: If your slow cooker takes a long time to get heated up, you can heat the grits mixture in a sauce pan before pouring it in.)
HUNTER JONES’ REAL PIE CRUST
This is way easier than you think but you must have a pastry cutter to do this right! Also, pay attention to having the water and the butter cold. Start by pouring 1/ 4 cup water into a measuring cup and adding a few ice cubes to get the water cold.
For each crust use:
1 stick cold unsalted butter.
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, mixed with 1 /4 teaspoon salt
Cut the butter into 8 slices and then cut the slices in half. Add to the flour and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. You are not “blending”, but cutting. Continue to cut until the flour and butter mixture looks like corn meal. Remove ice cubes from water and check the measure. Pour out some if necessary to get 1/ 4 cup. Add to butter/flour mixture and stir together quickly shaping it into a ball. Place the ball on plastic wrap and wrap it up securely. Place in refrigerator until ready to use. (This can be an hour or the next day)
If you are making a two crust pie, double the recipe.
For a one crust pie, when ready to use roll out the dough on a lightly floured board to about 12 inches across, and place it in a 9 inch pie plate. Use a fork dipped in ice water to press down the edges. Also prick the bottom of the crust a few times. You can use kitchen shears to trim off any ragged edges, but keep in mind that the crust will shrink slightly as it bakes. Follow the baking instructions for the pie recipe you are using. (If the recipe such as a Lemon Meringue Pie calls for a baked crust before you put the filling in, bake it 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
For a two crust pie, such as apple, cherry or mincemeat, follow the instructions above, then roll out the top crust and place it over the filled bottom crust. Use a fork dipped in ice water to press the crusts together, and make vents on top crust.
MAMA RENE’S BANANA PUDDING
Don’t tell anybody, but Mama Rene uses a shortcut here, just because she learned a long time ago that the packaged pudding mix works fine if you are sure NOT to use the instant kind. Get the kind that has to be cooked.
The important things that make this different from your Instant Easy Kind are (1) the fact that it is baked, with the heat bringing out a wonderful flavor from the bananas, and (2) the fact that has a meringue, which is just plain better than some of that whipped topping stuff.
Ready?
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5 bananas – just yellow, not green or overripe
1 box Vanilla Wafers (Use as many as you need)
1 large package Vanilla Pudding Mix. This should be the one you cook with four cups of milk, not two.
4 cups milk.
Whites from 3 large eggs. (In an absolutely dry bowl, at room temperature, and there had better not be even a speck of egg yolk in the whites or they won’t beat right.)
3/ 4 cup granulated sugar.
Use a 1-1/ 2 quart glass baking dish.
Cook the vanilla pudding according to the package instructions, stirring steadily and scraping up from the bottom. When it has reached a boil and thickened, set it aside.
Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites until the meringue forms stiff peaks. Add the sugar and beat once or twice more.
Peel and slice the bananas. Layer the bananas, the vanilla wafers and the pudding, ending with a thin layer of pudding. Spread the meringue over the top, making sure it reaches the edges of the baking dish.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE
HUNTER JONES MYSTERY SERIES
Deep South Dead
Death Over the Dam
Table of Contents
WHEN I AM DEAD, MY DEAREST
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
EPILOGUE
Recipes from Magnolia County
Other books in the Hunter Jones Mystery Series