A Catered Thanksgiving (25 page)

S
ean looked at Bernie and Libby. They were sitting in the living room of their flat with his friend Clyde, drinking 100 percent Kona coffee from a press pot and eating the ginger cookies and lemon bars that Bernie and Libby had made the day before. It had been two days since the Field house debacle, and Sean was still filled with gratitude every time he looked at his daughters.

“She's crazy,” Bernie said, referring to Melissa.

Clyde inclined his head. “Maybe. Or maybe she's just pretending. I guess that's for the psych guys to tell us.”

“I don't believe in multiple personalities,” Libby said.

“Well, one of her killed three people,” Sean noted.

“Do we know that for a fact?” Bernie asked.

Clyde took a sip of his coffee and another bite of his lemon bar. “That's what she said, and I don't think there's any reason to doubt her confession. She said…okay, El Huron said…that she killed her dad to get back at him for killing her mom and she killed Geoff and Roberto because they got in the way.”

“And she was going to kill everyone else, including us?” Bernie asked.

Clyde shrugged. “That was the general idea. She needed the money. She had a lot of bad debts with some very not nice people. It turns out the artwork was heavily insured.”

“So it might not have been about vengeance, after all,” Libby said.

“No.” Clyde took another sip of coffee. “It might have been about good old-fashioned moola, and this whole other person she made up is just a convenient excuse. Or not.”

Sean leaned back in his chair. There really was no place like home. “She's the classic bad seed,” Sean said to Bernie and Libby. “And she would have killed a lot more people if you two hadn't stopped her.”

Bernie nibbled around the edge of her ginger cookie. It was slightly overbaked along the edges and a little bit underbaked in the center, which was the way she liked them. “Where did you find Roberto's body?” she asked.

Clyde pressed his thumb down on the crumbs from the lemon bar and conveyed them to his mouth. “Out behind the bunker. I have to say she'd done a good job of burying him.”

Libby put another spoonful of sugar in her cup and stirred it. She watched the brown liquid swirling around. “So he was dead before we got there?”

“He was dead for two weeks, near as we can tell.”

“INS never picked him up?” Libby asked.

Clyde shook his head. “I don't think they got the chance.”

“And Melissa called the INS on Alma, not Monty,” Bernie said.

Clyde nodded. “That's what their records show.”

“But everyone thought it was Monty,” Bernie said.

“Because that's what Melissa told everybody—in confidence, of course,” Clyde said.

Libby took another nibble of her cookie. “So Melissa set everything up from the get-go. She made it appear that she was Roberto…”

“Because if he were around, he would be the natural one to blame,” Bernie said, finishing her sister's sentence for her.

“And she wrote and planted the letter in Alma's drawer,” Clyde said.

“So Roberto wasn't Monty's son?” Bernie asked.

Clyde shook his head. “Nope.”

“And the ferret?” Libby asked.

“We located Alma,” Clyde said. “According to her, the ferret was real. But she died a natural death.”

“Poor lady,” Sean said. “Losing your kid.” He was silent for a moment. “I can't even imagine.” He reached for another lemon bar. Of all the things his daughters baked, these were his favorite. Except maybe for their apple pies. And brownies. And chocolate chip cookies. He was unbelievably lucky.

“What about Monty's will?” Libby asked. “Who gets everything?”

Clyde reached over and snagged another lemon bar. “Evidently, he left everything to some distant cousin in the UK. The brothers are talking about challenging the will, so it's going to be tied up for years.”

“And most of the money will go to the lawyers,” Sean observed.

Clyde bobbed his head. “Exactly.”

Everyone sat there for a moment, listening to the reassuring hum of business being conducted downstairs. It was Libby who broke the silence.

“I've decided we're going to have a late Thanksgiving this year,” she announced. “On this coming Saturday. At four.” She turned to Clyde. “It would be nice if you and the missus could come.” She was going to invite Brandon and Marvin and Ines, as well. That would make eight. Eight was a good number for a dinner party.

Clyde grinned. “It would be my pleasure.” He loved to eat, and the food at the Simmons' house was his favorite thing to eat. It was always good, and there was always plenty of it.

“Because,” Libby continued, “we have a lot to be thankful for.”

“Amen to that,” Bernie and Sean said at the same time.

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays with a canonical menu. Everyone has turkey and stuffing and gravy and sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and pie. But, to paraphrase an expression, as with so many things, the devil is in the details. The following recipes are loved variations on some of these themes.

Corn-Bread Stuffing

This recipe is the one I have used for years. It is adapted from one of Craig Claiborne's recipes and is enough for a twelve-to-fifteen-pound turkey.

Crumble corn bread into a large mixing bowl. Toast bread cubes in 375ºF oven, and when brown, add to corn bread. Heat half the butter in a large skillet and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir over moderate heat for twenty minutes. Add remaining butter and stir until it melts. You can either stuff the turkey with this, or put it in a baking dish, dot it with butter, and bake it for an hour in a preheated 350ºF oven.

 

Lois Renthal's Stuffing

This is another variation on stuffing.

Place nuts on a baking dish and bake until crisp. Let cool. Dice mushrooms. Cut chicken livers into small pieces. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add onions and garlic. Add mushrooms when onions are wilted. Cook until mushrooms give up their liquid and it has evaporated. Add liver, thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cook until liver changes color. Add sausage meat, breaking up pieces with a spoon. Add eggs and bread crumbs and blend. Chop nuts and add. Cover and cook over low heat until sausage is done.

 

You can also eliminate the bread crumbs, and increase the liver and the mushrooms.

 

Pecan Pie

This recipe for Steen's Southern Pecan Pie comes from my good friend and neighbor Sarah Saulson and can be found in the pamphlet
The Story of Steen's Syrup and Its Famous Recipes.

Melt butter, add flour and cornstarch, and stir until smooth. Then add Steen's Syrup and sugar and boil for 3 minutes. Cool. Add beaten eggs, nuts, and vanilla, blending well. Pour into pan lined with unbaked pastry. Bake in hot oven (450º) 10 minutes; then reduce to 350º and bake 30 to 35 minutes.

 

 

This recipe has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It's a Pesach recipe, but I'm throwing it in because it's so simple and good. Thanks to Kate Rosenthal for this one.

Beat the eggs thoroughly. Dip and cover matzoh in egg. Place in Pyrex baking dish. Layer with pats of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Bake in a slow oven (275º) for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!