Along the Cane River: Books 1-5 in the Inspirational Cane River Romance Series
Page 98
“I love you, too, Andy McBride.”
Acknowledgements
I’d like to give special thanks to people who generously offered their expertise in several areas. As always, all errors are my own. To Susan Spears who took my four youngest for a long weekend and allowed me to have a mini writer’s retreat. (Don’t worry. I’ll forget all about that fishhook incident sometime in 2045.) To Dennis Carmichael for insight into good suits and the best tasty ethnic dishes. To my daughters, Isabel and Ana, for being the beta readers who never gave up, helping me bring this book to completion. Special thanks for catching that bizarre line about Roxie’s father being made from the best gumbo. I think I might have been sleeping when I wrote that. To Jacob for being so eager to read any of my new work and for laughing in all the right places. That was great for my ego. And to all my children for reminding me that running around the park, carving pumpkins, making fresh butter, watching yeast “have a party”, and pressing apples for cider makes for a very good life. Without you, I would never take the time to see all the small experiences that make up this big, beautiful world.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading the fourth book in my Cane River Romance series. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
I fell in love with Roxie from the moment I realized she needed to spend a lot of her time in a big cupcake costume. It wasn’t the costume I loved, but the fact she was enduring humiliation and near heatstroke on behalf of her grandmother. I have wonderful memories of my own grandma, a woman of uncommon kindness and talent, and I know just what Roxie was feeling as she sees her beloved Mamere in the first stages of Alzheimer’s. I pray that we’re very close to a cure to this terrible disease.
Roxie and Andy seem like opposites much of the time, but they both carry deep loyalty for their families. Andy’s decision to bring his handicapped brother to Natchitoches, and Roxie’s decision to stay in the tiny town for the sake of her grandmother are based in a love few people would understand. But that’s why they’re perfect for each other.
If you enjoyed this story, be sure to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. I love visiting with readers on my author page of Mary Jane Hathaway, or on my blog at The Things That Last!
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Jane Hathaway is an award-nominated writer of Christian fiction and a home schooling mom of six young children who rarely wear shoes. She holds degrees in Linguistics and Religious Studies from the University of Oregon and lives with her habanero-eating husband, Crusberto, who is her polar opposite in all things except faith. They've learned to speak in short-hand code and look forward to the day they can actually finish a sentence. In the meantime, she thanks God for the laughter and abundance of hugs that fill her day as she plots her next book. She also writes under the pen name of Virginia Carmichael.
OTHER TITLES by Mary Jane Hathaway
Austen Takes the South Series
Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits
Emma, Mr. Knightley and Chili-Slaw Dogs
Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin’ Cornbread
Leaving Liberty
Cane River Romance Series
The Pepper in the Gumbo Book One
These Sheltering Walls Book Two
Only Through Love Book Three
A Star to Steer By Book Four
The Boundless Deep Book Five
Until Winter Comes Again Book Six
Arcadia Valley Romance Series
Romance Grows in Arcadia Valley (Boxed Collection of Six Inspirational Novellas)
Summer’s Glory (Arcadia Book One)
OTHER TITLES by Virginia Carmichael
Colors of Faith Series (historical Christian romance)
All The Blue of Heaven
Purple Like the West
Denver Homeless Mission Series
Season of Joy
Season of Hope
A Home for her Family
Sea Fever by John Masefield
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
Novels, illustrators, poetry, and poets which play a role in this story:
Roxie Sunshine Hardy is trained in Classical Studies which is the study of the languages, literature, laws, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other material culture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome; especially during Classical Antiquity (ca. BCE 600 – AD 600). Greek and Roman literature is a big part of this field. Although a classics major can be applied many ways, Roxie spends a lot of her free time working on translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey by the epic poet, Homer. I could have had Roxie spend her hours translating Cicero’s philosophy or Pliny the Elder’s Encyclopedia but I didn’t think that would have lent itself as well to a story about a long journey home.
Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, which Andy and Roxie discuss at their first meeting. The poets (George MacDonald, Alexander Pope, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dante Alighieri, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sara Teasdale, Christina Rossetti, e.e. cummings and Percy Bysshe Shelley) are some of my favorites. I return to them again and again throughout the year, marking the seasons with treasured lines.
Aurora’s shirts reference The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes, 1984 by George Orwell, Animal Farm by George Orwell, A Crazed Girl by Yeats, Frank McCourt, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe, Ferdinand The Bull, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, I Carry Your Heart by e.e.cummings.
Louisiana Creole glossary
According to the last census, a quarter of a million people speak French in the home in Louisiana. Most of these speakers use Cajun French, Louisiana Creole, or Creole French. These dialects are similar, but distinct. The Creole people of the Natchitoches region speak Louisiana Creole and that is the dialect that appears in the story.
Sha = dear, sweetie
Merci (spelled a variety of ways) = thank you
Misye = monsieur, sir
Manzelle = mademoiselle, miss
Bonswe = good evening
Donne moi un p'tit bec = give me a kiss
Mais = well
Mamere= grandma
Recipes
Chicken Sauce Piquant
Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts cut up bite size
1 cup oil
1 cup onion chopped
1 small bell pepper chopped
1 cup flour
1 can 15 oz tomato sauce
1 can Rotel tomatoes w/chilies
3 cloves minced garlic
8 cups water
Tony Chachere seasoning to taste or you can use allspice
1 bunch green onions chopped, about 2 cups
2 - 8 ounce jars mushrooms
Preparation:
Brown chicken lightly in oil in large Dutch oven. Cast iron works best. J
Remove chicken from pan. Cook the onion, onion tops, an green pepper until soft in remaining oil from the chicken.
Remove, leaving the oil. Add flour, cook slowly until brown, stirring constantly. A nice dark brown roux is perfect, but don’t let it burn or you’ll have to start over. Add the tomato sauce, mashed Rotel tomatoes, minced garlic, cooked vegeta
bles, chicken and seasoning.
Slowly add water, dissolving flour mixture to desired consistency. It’s better a little thick, not runny. Bring to a boil, lower the temperature and simmer 2 hours or more.
Serve over cooked white rice and enjoy!
Root Beer Doughnuts
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup root beer
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ tsp root beer concentrate
For Icing
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ TBS root beer
¼ tsp root beer concentrate
Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease donut pans. Some people have nifty electric doughnut makers, but I don’t so we just used some doughnut pans we found at Walmart.
In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg and sugar. Then add root beer, oil and root beer concentrate, mixing until thoroughly combined. Gently stir in the flour mixture, mixing well until there are no lumps.
You can make these normal size or mini. If using mini-donut pans: Carefully fill each donut indentation ¾ full. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Transfer donuts to a cooling rack and cool completely.
In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, root beer and root beer concentrate. Glaze should be runny. Add additional root beer as necessary. I liked mine nice and strong so I added more flavoring.
Place wax paper under a wire rack to collect any drippings for easy cleanup. Really. You want to do this. I forgot on the first batch and it was a mess! Dip the top of each donut into the icing, transfer to the wire rack and let sit until icing has set, or as long as you can stand to wait. Serve immediately; donuts are best served fresh but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Enjoy!!
Gumbo
This recipe takes a lot of time, stirring, and watching the pot. But it’s absolutely worth it. If you’ve never had home-made gumbo, you’ve just never had gumbo!
Ingredients
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup bacon drippings
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery, about three stalks
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound good sausage, like Andouille sausage, sliced
• 3 quarts beef stock
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce or to taste (I usually cut this to one tablespoon, because I’m a weenie)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend (see below for a homemade blend)
• 5 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole stewed tomatoes
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoons gumbo file powder (you can order this online)
• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings (I know we already have bacon drippings, but this is for another step. Yay for lard! Seriously, you can substitute olive oil.)
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen cut okra, thawed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 pound crabmeat
• 3 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons gumbo file powder
Creole seasoning
There are lots of recipes for Creole seasoning but I like this one from Emeril Lagasse. I adjusted it a little because I like more garlic powder!
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
Directions
1. Whisk the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippings together in a large, heavy saucepan (like cast iron) over medium-low heat until it’s smooth. This is your roux and it’s the basis of much of Creole cooking. Whisk constantly, until it turns to a rich, mahogany brown color. This takes about twenty minutes and if you don’t watch, it will burn. I always set one of my kids on this step so I can keep chopping ingredients. After it browns, take it from the heat and keep whisking until it’s cooled or it will burn even after you’ve removed it from the stove. The joy of cast iron pans!
2. Finely chop the celery, onion, green bell pepper, and garlic. Stir the vegetables and sausage into the roux. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and cook until vegetables are translucent and tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Set to the side.
3. Bring the beef stock to a boil in a large soup pot. Make sure you have enough room for what you’re going to add in, so a nice tall pot will do. Slowly whisk the roux mixture into the boiling water. Mix in the sugar, salt, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Lower the heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for one hour. Mix in 2 teaspoons of file gumbo powder about half way through that hour.
4. Melt the 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings (or olive oil) in your pan. Cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add the okra to the gumbo, leaving the drippings in the pan. Mix in the crabmeat, shrimp, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer until flavors have blended, about another hour. Stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder about ten minutes before serving. Enjoy!
The Boundless Deep
by
Mary Jane Hathaway
All rights reserved. © 2016 by Gumbo Books and Mary Jane Hathaway
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Find me on facebook at Mary Jane Hathaway and on my blog at The Things That Last www.virginiacarmichael.blogspot.com
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Dear Reader,
Crossing the Bar
BIOGRAPHY
OTHER TITLES by Mary Jane Hathaway
OTHER TITLES by Virginia Carmichael
Novels, illustrators, poetry, and poets which play a role in this story:
Louisiana Creole glossary
Recipes
Calas Rice Fritters
Ruby’s Pineapple Cheese Salad
Chapter One
“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Rose Black slipped the strap of her leather satchel across her body and jogged the last half a block to By the Book. She regretted leaving the car in a large public lot at the end of the riverfront but she’d been afraid of being caught in a vicious circle of traffic, searching for a parking spot like a soap bubble in dirty dishwater circling the drain. Although the wide sidewalk was peppered with shoppers, the brickwork street was clear of traffic and there were more than a few empty parking places. Of course, arriving on foot was better than pulling up in her five hundred dollar, forty-year-old Craig’s List special. First impressions mattered
, but the battered hot pink Pinto made the wrong kind of impression.
Rose slowed to a walk, taking the measure of the place. The little bookstore was nestled in the middle of the Natchitoches Historic District, flanked on both sides by similar buildings, all several stories tall and tastefully decorated with lace ironwork railings along the balconies. She took in the large ceramic pots of red-orange geraniums, spotless front windows, and bright blue wooden trim around the store. Across the street, the sloping green grass banks looked like an inviting place to sit. She wondered if anyone ever stopped to watch Cane River Lake flow lazily on its way south, down past Magnolia Plantation Home, past Monett’s Ferry, and on toward that really old little church, the name of which escaped her.
Probably not. Maybe they were just like her, running and running, trying to catch up with a life they thought was exciting and fun, but was actually giving them a pre-ulcerous stomach condition.
Because she’d been overly cautious with her parking, Rose only had a few minutes to look around before the interview, relying on split-second assessments instead of really getting a feel for the place. The realization made her palms sweat with anxiety. She needed this job, needed it so badly that ‘need’ probably wasn’t the right word for her particular kind of desperation. Her financial situation was best described as a cross between a hot mess and a dumpster fire.
Pausing to calm her nerves, Rose glanced at her reflection in the long glass door.
Mama yanking on the straps of her shiniest shoes. “Hurry, Rosie! That curly hair of yours is a curse! Cost me half an hour. I should just cut it all off.”
She puts her hands to the ribbons in her hair, feeling sadness push out hot tears. She doesn’t want to be bald.