The Secret Ingredient

by George Edward Stanley

  Katie Lynn shrugged. “Well, I know it’s not ketchup or pickle juice.” She glanced up at the kitchen clock. “If we want cookies for breakfast, we’ll just have to take a chance.”

  Katie Lynn put a tablespoon of mayonnaise in the cookie dough. While she mixed it in, Tina greased the cookie sheet with a little vegetable shortening.

  Then Katie Lynn scooped up six tablespoons of the dough and dropped them onto the cookie sheet. She put on an oven mitt and placed the cookie sheet on a rack in the oven.

  Tina set the timer for fourteen minutes.

  When it went off, Katie Lynn took the cookies out of the oven. She used a spatula to lift them off the sheet and put them on a platter.

  “We have enough dough for about three more batches,” said Tina.

  Katie Lynn clapped her hands. “Let’s go to it!”

  After all of the cookies were baked, Katie Lynn called out, “Mom! Dad! It’s time for breakfast.” She poured four glasses of milk and set a platter of cookies in the center of the table.

  “These cookies are amazing!” her father said, taking a bite. “They taste just like your grandmother’s.”

  Mrs. Cooke took a bite of cookie and closed her eyes. “I agree one hundred percent, dear.”

  Katie Lynn hoped her parents weren’t just being nice.

  “Our turn!” said Tina.

  Katie Lynn didn’t care if her mouth was full. “These are as good as Grandma’s, Dad! It’s a good thing we had the right secret ingredient!”

  Outside, a car honked.

  “Oh, no! That’s my parents! I better get dressed!” Tina cried. “I almost forgot. We’re going to Chesterfield’s for lunch.”

  “Take some of the cookies with you,” Katie Lynn said. “They’re probably better than any dessert at Chesterfield’s.”

  As Tina ran out the front door, Katie Lynn handed her a bag of cookies.

  “I’ll call you later!” Tina shouted over her shoulder.

  Katie Lynn watched Tina and her family drive away. She wished that she and her parents were going to Chesterfield’s for lunch, too. They had the best hamburgers in town.

  When Katie Lynn returned to the kitchen, she found her parents still sitting at the kitchen table. But now the cookie platter was empty.

  “What happened?” Katie Lynn cried.

  Her parents looked embarrassed.

  “We ate them,” her mother admitted.

  “They were just so delicious, we couldn’t help ourselves,” her father added.

  Katie Lynn beamed. She’d never felt so proud of herself.

  She went back up to her room and lay down on the bed. She reached over to turn on the radio and snuggled with her stuffed animals.

  She was drifting off to sleep when the telephone rang.

  “I’ll get it!” Katie Lynn shouted, hoping it was her grandmother. She ran down the hall and grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”

  “Is this the Katie Lynn Cookie Company?” a strange voice asked.

  What? Was this some kind of joke? “Is that you, Tina?”

  “No. This is Jason Chesterfield. I’m the owner of Chesterfield’s Restaurant. I’d like to put in an order for cookies. Is there someone there who can help me?”

  Katie Lynn had to sit down before she could answer. “Uh, well, yes, I guess that’s me.”

  Real Money

  Tina burst into Katie Lynn’s room. “Did Mr. Chesterfield call?”

  “I can’t believe you! He wants six dozen cookies by tomorrow morning!”

  Tina gasped. “Really? Did he tell you he’s going to pay us?”

  “You bet!” said Katie Lynn. “Now we can pay for our trip to Florida!”

  “All right!” Tina cried.

  Katie Lynn gave her friend a big smile. “It’ll take a long time to bake all those cookies. You’ll just have to sleep over again.”

  They ran to the living room to tell Katie Lynn’s parents.

  “It was all my idea,” Tina claimed. “I told Mr. Chesterfield that we had a cookie company. The Katie Lynn Cookie Company,” Tina added.

  Katie Lynn felt her face turning red.

  “Well, that’s very exciting, but it’s a lot of work, too,” Mr. Cooke added. “And another thing … you’ll need money to run a company.”

  “That’s true. You’ll have to buy more ingredients,” Mrs. Cooke said. “I doubt we have enough ingredients left to make many more cookies.”

  “Oh,” Katie Lynn said sadly.

  “But I’ll be glad to lend you two the money,” her father said. “Of course, you’ll have to pay me back out of the money you earn. That’s the way it’s done in business.”

  “We can do that, can’t we, Tina?”

  Tina nodded enthusiastically.

  Katie Lynn got the recipe back out of the box. It wasn’t so dusty anymore. She made a list of the ingredients they needed. Then Mr. Cooke drove them to the grocery store.

  One by one, the girls found all of the ingredients. By the time they were done, the shopping cart was piled high.

  Mr. Cooke paid for everything. But when they got back home, he handed Katie Lynn the receipt. “This is what you owe me,” he told her.

  Katie Lynn put the receipt in her pocket. “Okay. I’ll pay you when Mr. Chesterfield pays us.” She grabbed Tina’s hand. “Come on! We have six dozen cookies to bake!”

  “That’s a lot of work for two people,” Mrs. Cooke said. “Why don’t you let me help you?”

  Katie Lynn had to come up with an excuse—and fast!

  Suddenly, she remembered how her parents had eaten the first batch of cookies.

  “I know!” she cried. “You and Dad can be in charge of Quality Control!”

  “Quality Control?” her father asked.

  Katie Lynn nodded. “I heard about it on TV. We’ll give you a cookie to eat from each batch we make. You get to decide if they’re good enough to eat.”

  Mrs. Cooke smiled. “Oh, we can do that!”

  Katie Lynn and Tina hurried out of the living room.

  “Way to go!” Tina whispered.

  Katie Lynn grinned and bowed. “Thank you! Thank you!”

  The girls got busy baking cookies. By midnight, they were finally finished.

  Mr. Chesterfield’s cookies went into plastic sandwich bags. The girls made sure the bags were sealed super-tight.

  “It’s quitting time,” said Tina. “I’m falling asleep on my feet.”

  “Sweet dreams about Florida,” Katie Lynn said as they tumbled into bed.

  Tina yawned. “Are we going to fly coach or first class?”

  “I think we should fly first class,” Katie Lynn said. “People who own companies always fly first class.”

  The next morning, Katie Lynn’s father woke them up.

  “What time is it?” Tina groaned.

  “It’s time to take your cookies to Mr. Chesterfield. He just called. He needs them right away.”

  When they arrived at the restaurant, they found Mr. Chesterfield waiting impatiently. The girls rushed over to him with the bags of cookies, and Mr. Chesterfield gave Katie Lynn a check.

  Mr. Chesterfield inhaled the aroma from the cookies. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed. “In two days, I’ll need twelve dozen more.”

  Tina grinned at Katie Lynn and said, “The Katie Lynn Cookie Company is up for the job!” Katie Lynn felt her face getting red again.

  Their next stop was the bank. Mr. Cooke cashed their check and then gave them the money.

  Katie Lynn paid her father for the ingredients. She split the rest of the money with Tina.

  “You’ll need to buy twice as many ingredients this time,” Mr. Cooke said. “You’ll need to spend part of what you’ve earned.”

  Tina frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Katie Lynn whispered.

  “We’ll never save enough money for the trip if we have to spend it all on ingredients.”

  “Yes, we will,” Katie Lynn replied. “Even if it takes us all summer to save u
p!”

  Time Out!

  One day at the bank, Katie Lynn whispered, “I’ve been keeping track, Tina. We have enough money for the trip now. Our hard work has paid off.”

  “Finally!” Tina said. “It’s almost time for school to start and I don’t even have a tan!”

  When they got to her house, Katie Lynn remembered something important. “We have to tell our customers that we’re going on vacation for a week.”

  They called Mr. Chesterfield first. He got very upset. “What do you mean?” he shouted. “My customers won’t eat any of my other desserts! And Doris Goodworthy needs you to cater her next party!”

  Doris Goodworthy? Katie Lynn thought. The Mayor of Bakersville!

  “Of course, you could just let me have your recipe,” Mr. Chesterfield went on, “and we could bake them right here at the restaurant. That way, you don’t have to go on baking day and night when you get back.”

  Katie Lynn blinked in surprise. “We could never just give you the recipe, Mr. Chesterfield.”

  “No way!” Tina shouted into the phone. “It’s a Katie Lynn Cookie Company secret!”

  “Oh, I wasn’t suggesting that you give it to me. I’d be more than happy to pay for it.”

  Tina looked as if she was about to faint.

  Katie Lynn took a deep breath. “We will be open for business when we get back.”

  After she hung up the phone, Katie Lynn felt horrible. “We’re letting down all of our clients.”

  “It’s our own fault,” Tina said. “We bit off more than we could chew.”

  “We only started selling them to pay for our trip,” Katie Lynn said. “I’m sorry Mr. Chesterfield is mad at us, but I want to see Grandma!”

  “Then that’s what we’re going to do,” Tina declared.

  “Let’s tell my parents first,” Katie Lynn suggested.

  They found Mrs. Cooke in the living room.

  “Mom, Tina and I made enough money selling cookies for us to go to Florida,” Katie Lynn said.

  Her mother looked up. “Us? Just you and me? Oh, Katie Lynn! That’s wonderful.” She stood up. “Grandma will be so happy to see us! I can’t believe we get to go to Florida after all!”

  Katie Lynn gulped. She leaned over and whispered to Tina, “I think we have to talk.”

  “When I said us, I meant you and me,” Katie Lynn said when they reached her room. “Mom thought I was talking about me and her. What am I going to do? You saw her yourself. She was so excited. There’s no way I could go without her now.”

  Tina sniffed. “You and your mom should be the ones to go to Florida. It was fun baking together. We can always go during Christmas vacation if we work hard this fall.”

  Katie Lynn felt her eyes fill with tears. “You’d do that for me?” she said.

  Tina smiled. “Of course I would. You’re my best friend. You always will be, no matter what.”

  After Tina left, Katie Lynn filled the tub for a bubble bath. Something was bothering her. She didn’t feel good about her talk with Tina.

  Tina had spent the whole summer baking cookies. She’d worked hard—and now she deserved a vacation.

  Katie Lynn sighed. Why was life so complicated?

  She climbed in the tub and sank into the bubbles. “If Mom and I go see Grandma, then Tina is stuck here. If Tina and I go to Florida, Mom will have to stay home. How can I see Grandma and still make everybody happy?”

  It came to her while she was putting on her pajamas. The perfect solution. And she wouldn’t have to use Tina’s money, either!

  Grandma’s Big Surprise

  “Why are you baking cookies so early in the morning, Katie Lynn?” her mother asked as she turned on the coffeemaker. “You should still be in bed.”

  “I don’t have time to sleep, Mom,” Katie Lynn said. “Tina’s baby-sitting Gerald this morning, so it’ll take me twice as long to get the orders done without her.”

  Mrs. Cooke gave Katie Lynn a big hug. “I can hardly wait to go to Florida.” Then she poured two cups of coffee and left the kitchen.

  The doorbell rang just as the oven timer dinged. Katie Lynn heard her mother opening the front door. She grabbed an oven mitt and took the cookies out of the oven.

  Suddenly, her mother screamed, “Mother!”

  Katie Lynn ran into the living room and shouted, “Surprise, Mom! I used the money to fly Grandma here to see us!”

  “Oh, Katie Lynn!” her mother said, clapping her hands. “You’re so thoughtful!”

  Mr. Cooke had come downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

  “Breakfast is served!” announced Katie Lynn. She placed a pitcher of milk and a platter of freshly baked cookies on the table.

  When her parents went upstairs to get dressed, Katie Lynn joined her grandmother in the kitchen.

  “We did it, didn’t we, Grandma?” Katie Lynn said.

  “We certainly did.” Her grandmother picked up a cookie and started nibbling on it. “Katie Lynn, these are much better than mine. What’s your secret ingredient?”

  Katie Lynn hesitated. “Mayonnaise,” she said finally. “What’s yours?”

  “Cream cheese,” her grandmother replied. “But I think I like mayonnaise better.” She gave Katie Lynn a pat on the shoulder. “No wonder your company is doing so well.”

  “That’s the problem,” Katie Lynn said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know what to do, Grandma. I don’t think Tina and I can do all of this baking once we start school. Our customers really count on us.”

  “Hmm. That is a problem. Speaking of problems, I have one, too.”

  “What is it, Grandma? Is everything okay?”

  “The truth is, I’m really not very happy in Florida. I miss you and your parents so much. What would you think if I moved in here and helped you with your cookie company?”

  “Oh, Grandma! That would be so incredible!”

  “I know we’d have great fun, but I worry about how your parents would feel.”

  Mrs. Cooke stuck her head in the door. “Your dad and I will be right back.”

  “Just a second,” said Katie Lynn. “Mom and Dad, someone you know very well wants to come live with us. She’s very unhappy where she is right now.”

  “Tina wants to move in with us?” her mother exclaimed.

  “No, Mom! I’m not talking about Tina,” Katie Lynn said. “I’m talking about Grandma.”

  “Grandma!” her parents cried.

  “If I lived here, I could bake cookies while Katie Lynn and Tina are in school,” her grandmother said. “It’d bring in some extra money, and we’d all get to be together.”

  Mr. Cooke looked pale.

  “Mom, I think we should …” Mrs. Cooke began.

  Just then, Tina rushed into the kitchen. “Please tell me that we have to bake cookies today!” she said. “If we do, I can stay instead of having to baby-sit.”

  “We do have to bake cookies,” Katie Lynn said.

  “Phew,” Tina sighed.

  “We also need to have a company meeting,” Katie Lynn added.

  Tina hopped up on the counter. “What’s up?”

  “I’d like to introduce you to my grandmother. She’s going to move in and help us bake cookies,” Katie Lynn said.

  “All right!” Tina cried.

  Mr. Cooke headed out of the room. “I think I’ll mow the lawn,” he said with a grin. “No need for me to attend company meetings.”

  Mrs. Cooke sat down at the table. “Since we’re in charge of Quality Control, I’d better stay.”

  Katie Lynn saw her grandmother raise an eyebrow. “It’s a long story, Grandma,” she whispered, stifling a giggle. “We’ll tell you all about it at our next sleepover!”

  “I need to start dinner,” Mrs. Cooke announced.

  “Oh, Kathy! We can’t leave the kitchen now,” said Grandma. “We have one more batch of cookies to bake.”

  “There’s no need to leave the kitchen,” said
Mrs. Cooke. “We can all work in here together. It’ll be fun.”

  Katie Lynn didn’t think it would be fun at all, but she didn’t say a word. How long would it take her mother to drop the French chef act?

  Mrs. Cooke began to prepare the snails for cooking. Katie Lynn tried not to look at her future dinner.

  Suddenly, Grandma screamed, “There’s a snail in my cookie dough!”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  G. E. STANLEY has written over fifty books for young people, several of them award winners. He and his wife, Gwen, live in Lawton, Oklahoma. They have two sons, James and Charles, and a Labrador retriever named Daisy.

  “When I’m not writing books for young people, I’m in our kitchen baking cookies for my family,” says G. E. Stanley. “Some of my favorite secret ingredients are carrot juice and mashed potatoes.” Thinking about this gave him the idea for The Secret Ingredient. “I’ve never sold any of my cookies the way Katie Lynn and Tina do. But I’ve certainly given away lots of them for holiday gifts.”

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  LINDA DOCKEY GRAVES grew up in New England, drawing and painting both plants and people. She moved to California, where she received a degree in illustration from San Jose State University. Now Mrs. Graves lives in southeastern Virginia with her husband, two sons, and a menagerie of pets. She has illustrated over twenty books for children, including The Enchanted Gardening Book.