Plum Pudding Murder Bundle with Candy Cane Murder & Sugar Cookie Murder
Page 87
Dump the peppers into the brownie batter and stir them around.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake according to the package directions.
Mike likes these with milk. Bill would rather cut a big square and top it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Lonnie likes his with plain coffee (and that makes me think that he might be the right guy for Michelle.)
Rhubarb Bar Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position
A note from Hannah: This recipe, or a very close variant, was contributed by over a dozen Lake Eden women. They also contributed recipes for rhubarb pie, rhubarb bread, rhubarb cookies, rhubarb jam, rhubarb tarts, rhubarb cakes, and rhubarb sauce. We decided, in an emergency session of the cookbook committee, to include only one rhubarb recipe, since the cookbook will be distributed nationally and, believe it or not, there are some areas of the country where rhubarb doesn’t grow! Since so many Lake Eden ladies like this recipe, we chose it.
1 cup flour (no need to sift)
½ cup white (granulated) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup softened butter (1 stick, ¼ pound)
1 beaten egg (just whip it up in a glass with…)
1 Tablespoon milk
2 cups peeled finely diced rhubarb
1 small package (3-ounce) strawberry Jell-O (regular, not sugar-free)
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour (no need to sift)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup softened butter (½ stick, 1/8 pound)
Mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Cut in the softened butter (mix in small amounts with a fork) until the mixture is crumbly. Whip up the egg in a glass with the milk. Add the mixture to your work bowl and stir until it’s thoroughly incorporated. (You can also do this in the food processor with chilled butter cut in pieces and the steel blade.)
Spray a 9-inch by 9-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. (You can use an 8x8 pan, but it will be very full.)
Spread the mixture out in the bottom of the pan and press it down slightly with a spatula (or your hands.)
Sprinkle the diced rhubarb over the top and sprinkle the Jell-O powder over that.
Put the cup of sugar, half-cup of flour, and cinnamon in your work bowl. Mix together and cut in the softened butter (mix in small amounts with a fork) until the resulting mixture is crumbly. (You can also do this in the food processor with chilled butter cut in pieces and the steel blade.)
Scatter the crumb mixture over the top of the pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes, or until the rhubarb has cooked through and the topping is nice and brown.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack. When the cookie bars are thoroughly cool, cut them into brownie-sized pieces.
If you like them sweeter, dust them with powdered sugar.
These can be served warm, room temperature, or chilled.
Desserts: Other Sweet Treats
Candied Pecans From Lois
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position
Sally Laughlin’s mother, Francine, got this recipe from her friend Lois Melin.
2 pounds pecan halves
2 egg whites
dash of salt
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
½ cup melted butter (1 stick, ¼ pound)
Spray two 9-inch by 13-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Divide pecans and put half in one pan, half in the other. Toast them at 325 degrees F., for 5 minutes.
Beat the two egg whites with the dash of salt until stiff but not dry. Fold in the sugar and then the toasted pecan halves.
Pour half of the melted butter in one pan and half in the other. Divide the nut mixture and put half in each pan. Fold the mixture into the melted butter with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Bake at 325 degrees F., uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir.
Bake another 10 minutes. Stir.
Bake an additional 10 minutes. Stir.
Remove pans from the oven and spread the contents out on wax paper. Let cool slightly, and then separate. Cool completely.
Sally puts these in little tins and gives them as Christmas presents. They’re so good, you won’t be able to resist them.
Chocolate Fruit Platter
This recipe is from Bonnie Surma, who says this is about as fancy (and easy) as she ever gets when it comes to desserts.
2 cups (16-ounce package) chocolate chips
Dried fruit (apricots, peaches, dates, figs, and pears work best)
Melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler and stir them until smooth.
Spread the fruit out on cookie sheets lined with wax paper.
Dip the fruit into the chocolate, coating half of the piece. Once dipped, place the fruit on the waxed paper. (Pears look best if you dip the bottom half.)
Once all the fruit is dipped, refrigerate the cookie sheets for at least an hour. Take them out 30 minutes before you’re ready to serve. (The chocolate is tastier if it’s not too cold.) When it’s time to serve, arrange the fruit on a platter and serve with strong coffee for an elegant dessert.
Bonnie says to tell you that you can dip fresh strawberries in chocolate by this method. If you buy strawberries with the stems on, you can dip the whole berry. Otherwise, just pierce the top half of the berry with a toothpick and dip the bottom half.
Mother reports that Bonnie made a lovely platter for the Lake Eden Regency Romance Readers group last summer. It had strawberries dipped in milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and white chocolate.
Beverages
English Eggnog
This recipe was contributed by Winthrop Harrington II. Even though Winthrop isn’t from Lake Eden, Mother is so it’s in.
1 dozen eggs
¼ cup white sugar
1 quart whole milk
1 pint Half & Half (light cream)
1 pint whipping cream
2 cups brandy (or rum, or whiskey of your choice)
Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside.
Beat the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the egg whites. Set the mixture aside.
Beat the egg yolks until light-colored and fluffy. Mix in the sugar, milk, Half & Half, and brandy. Fold into the cream/egg white mixture.
At this point, the eggnog can be refrigerated in a tightly covered pitcher for up to 12 hours.
To serve, stir the pitcher and then pour the eggnog into glass cups, if you have them. Dust the tops with freshly grated nutmeg, or cinnamon.
This is English Eggnog and it’s not as sweet as American Eggnog. Taste it after you’ve made it. If your family would like it sweeter add more sugar to taste.
To make the non-alcoholic version, add 2 additional cups of milk and 2 teaspoons of rum extract or vanilla extract.
Dimpled Duchess
Bertie Straub contributed this recipe. She told me she serves these drinks when her best customers stay late for a “hen party” at the Cut ’n Curl. Mother says she certainly wouldn’t swear this on a stack of Bibles, but there’s a rumor going around that one too many Dimpled Duchess could be responsible for Donna Lempke’s bright orange hair.)
Use a blender to make these drinks. For each person served you will need:
1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) amaretto liqueur
4 ounces (½ cup) strawberry ice cream
Zoop up the ice cream and the liqueur in the blender and pour into a fancy stemmed glass.
Bertie says to make certain that anyone who’s had more than two Dimpled Duchesses gets a ride home with someone who hasn’t.
Extras (that didn’t fit anywhere else)
Mrs. Knudson’s Season Salt
Priscilla Knudson says to tell you that she got tired of buying the expensive “Seasoned Salt” and “Seasoning Salt” that Florence sells at the Red Owl Grocery and she started making her own. She says it’s just as good as the s
tore-bought kind, even better when you consider that you probably have all the ingredients in your spice drawer anyway, and then it costs you nothing to make it.
½ cup table salt
1 Tablespoon celery salt
1 Tablespoon garlic salt
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon ground oregano
Place the ingredients in a blender and blend for a few seconds. Store in a tightly-covered container (like the one you saved from the last time you spent money for the store-bought kind.)
You really don’t need a blender to make this, so don’t run out and buy one if you don’t have one. Mrs. Knudson says to tell you that she just puts everything in a one-quart canning jar and rolls it around on the kitchen counter until it’s mixed.
Yield: ¾ cup Season Salt
Werner Herman’s Catfish Bait
***NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION***
Jack Herman, Werner’s son, contributed this recipe. Lisa says to warn you not to let anyone make this in your kitchen. Do it outside in a bowl that you can throw away. And for heaven’s sake, keep it outside! Don’t ever let anyone talk you into putting it into your refrigerator!
1 pound chopped liver (not the type you use for an appetizer, but just any old kind of liver chopped up really fine.)
1 small can very smelly cat food
1 small package Jell-O powder (Jack says to tell you they like any flavor except grape—Lisa says Jack doesn’t like grape Jell-O either.)
fat from 6 strips of bacon, fried crisp (You can eat the bacon)
2 cups melted Velveeta cheese (the original flavor)
Chop the liver, sprinkle the Jell-O over it, mix in the smelly cat food, and add the bacon fat. Drizzle the melted cheese over everything and stir to coat.
Marinate (Lisa suggested another word) for a week in a cool place. (NOT your refrigerator—use a cooler in the woodshed or outside on the back porch.)
Yield: Makes all the bait you need to catch enough catfish for the annual Lion’s Club fish fry.
Baking Conversion Chart
These conversions are approximate, but they’ll work just fine for Hannah Swensen’s recipes.
Note: Hannah’s rectangular sheet cake pan, 9 inches by 13 inches, is approximately 23 centimeters by 32.5 centimeters.
With The Cookie Jar, Hannah Swensen has a mouthwatering monopoly on the bakery business of Lake Eden, Minnesota. But when a rival store opens, tensions begin to bubble….
As she sits in her nearly empty store on Groundhog Day, Hannah can only hope that spring is just around the corner—and that the popularity of the new Magnolia Blossom Bakery is just a passing fad. The southern hospitality of Lake Eden’s two Georgia transplants, Shawna Lee and Vanessa Quinn, is grating on Hannah’s nerves—and cutting into her profits.
At least Hannah has her business partner Lisa’s wedding to look forward to. She’s turned one of Lisa’s favorite childhood treats into a spectacular Wedding Cookie Cake. But Hannah starts to steam when she finds out that Shawna Lee has finagled an invitation to the reception—and is bringing the Magnolia Blossom Bakery’s Southern Peach Cobbler for the dessert table.
Hannah doesn’t like having the Georgia Peach in the mix, especially when both Shawna Lee and Hannah’s sometime-boyfriend, Detective Mike Kingston, are no-shows to the wedding. Hannah has suspected that Mike is interested in more than Shawna Lee’s baking abilities. So when she sees lights on at the Magnolia Blossom Bakery after the reception, she investigates—and finds Shawna Lee shot to death.
Everyone in town knew The Cookie Jar was losing business to the Magnolia Bakery—a fact that puts Hannah at the top of the initial list of suspects. But with a little help from her friends, Hannah’s determined to prove that she wasn’t the only one who had an axe to grind with the Quinn sisters. Somebody wasn’t fooled by the Georgia Peaches and their sweet-as-pie act—and now it’s up to Hannah to track down whoever had the right ingredients to whip up a murder….
Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek at
PEACH COBBLER MURDER
coming in paperback in February 2006!
Hannah glanced at the clock. She’d unloaded her cookie truck in only ten minutes. The earliest that Norman could arrive was five minutes from now and that was probably optimistic. She went back to her favorite table, but she couldn’t seem to relax. There was something about the bright lights glaring in the interior of the Magnolia Blossom Bakery that made her nervous.
Perhaps there’d been a robbery. The moment the idea occurred to Hannah, her imagination was off and running. If the robbery had happened during the day, the robber might not have realized that all the lights were on. At this very moment, the cash drawer could be open and the Magnolia Blossom Bakery could be minus the day’s receipts. A good citizen of Lake Eden, one who could put aside petty jealousy and hold the welfare of a neighboring business paramount, would check to make sure the cash register at the Magnolia Blossom Bakery was intact.
Hannah groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was put on her boots and her coat, and walk across the street to make sure no burglar had invaded her competitor’s bakery. But basic decency demanded she do so, and she liked to think of herself as a basically decent person. Hannah stuffed her still-aching feet into her boots and slipped into her parka coat, zipping it up all the way. She scrawled a note to Norman: Across the street at Shawna Lee’s—maybe a burglary? and taped it to the outside of the back door. And then she hurried around the side of her building to see if there was a problem with the Magnolia Blossom Bakery.
The wind had teeth, and shards of ice pelted Hannah’s face as she left the protection of her building. She turned up the collar of her parka coat and held her hand up to shield her eyes as she dashed across Main Street. She ducked under the pseudo-Jeffersonian portico of Lake Eden Realty and peered in the plate glass window of her cobbler challenger.
Andrea’s description hadn’t done the Magnolia Blossom Bakery justice. It was gorgeous and Hannah would be the first to admit it. The magnolia tree mural the Minneapolis artist had painted was spectacular, all the tables and chairs matched, and everything was new and shiny. The color scheme was incredibly appealing and everything Hannah saw fit in perfectly. The homemade decorations at The Cookie Jar couldn’t hold a candle to the decorator embellishments at Shawna Lee and Vanessa’s Bakery.
Hannah sighed. She didn’t like feeling second-rate, even in the category of decorations. Comforting herself with knowledge that at least her baked goods were better, she took another, less envious and more appraising look, and came to the conclusion that absolutely nothing was out of place. The cash register drawer was pushed in, there were no signs of vandalism, and everything looked ready and set to go for business in the morning. But something about the bright lights really bothered her, and she felt she should check further. Even though there wasn’t much petty crime in Lake Eden, it was possible that a group of teenagers had waited until Shawna Lee had left and then broken in to steal whatever pastry they could find in the kitchen. The lights were on in there, too. She could see them blazing through the diamond-shaped window in the swinging door.
Hannah wished that Norman were with her, but no cars had driven past and he was probably still doing what they not so jokingly called “mother duty.” She didn’t relish going inside to check out someone else’s kitchen, but she couldn’t just stand here and do nothing. She tried the front door, hoping it would save her a trip around to the back, but it was locked securely. If pastry bandits were to blame for turning on the lights, they must have entered and left by the back door.
“Shawna Lee?” Hannah called out, knocking loudly on the front door. When that didn’t work, she balled up her fists and hammered loudly, doing her best to wake anyone who might be sleeping upstairs. No one was home. She was certain of it. Only the dead could sleep through the racket she’d made. Hannah pushed that
very unwelcome thought aside and decided she’d have to go around to the back.
Keeping a sharp eye out for broken or pried windows, or any other signs of unauthorized access, Hannah walked around the side of the building. Everything looked secure, but a glance in the kitchen window made her frown. There was a colorful pink and green box on the counter and the label read, Betty Jo’s Frozen Peach Cobbler, a division of Macon Foods. Shawna Lee had claimed that her Southern Peach Cobbler was made from an old family recipe. Maybe that was true, but it was Betty Jo’s family recipe, not Shawna Lee’s.
Hannah’s gaze moved toward the ovens and what she saw made her frown deepen. A pan of peach cobbler was upended next to the open oven door. It was a mess, a jumble of sliced peaches and biscuit topping strewn over a puddle of sticky juice on the white tile floor. Had Shawna Lee simply dropped the pan as she was taking it from the oven? Or was there a more sinister reason for the baking disaster?
A glance at the other kitchen window gave Hannah an unwelcome answer to her question. There were two round holes in the glass, and each hole was surrounded by a spider web of cracks. She was no expert, but they looked like a couple of bullet holes to her!
Hannah swallowed hard as she pressed her nose against the glass and held her breath so it wouldn’t fog up. Was that a shoe she saw peeking out from behind the work counter?