A Purrfect Romance (20 page)

B
ridey’s wedding dress was a replica of the one worn by her Grandmother Caroline. They had copied it from the faded, cracked photo they’d found among Henrietta’s papers. Flowers were woven through her hair, and a soft veil fell gracefully from the band that circled her head. Her bouquet was an armful of calla lilies, tied with a broad ribbon of white satin, and as she walked down the aisle, an aura of grace and loveliness surrounded her.

For the rest of his life, Mack would remember—and always with a catch in his throat—how beautiful she looked that day.

Gerald Kinski gave her away, and he was as proud as any father as he walked her down the aisle.

Marge, whose wedding gift was a gorgeous crystal bowl from Lobmeyr, was striking in a simple suit of pale green linen, with only a small cluster of pearls in her dark hair.

Doug Braye and Art Kohler were there, too, looking as satisfied as a couple of well-fed tigers. Their gift, an exquisite sterling-silver coffee service from Tiffany, cost the firm a fortune, but nothing was too good for their best client, and anyway, their books would show it as a business expense, to be taken as a tax deduction.

Bridey’s Grandma Berrigan was there, beaming proudly at the beautiful bride, and all the cousins and aunts and uncles were there, too. They were still a little awestruck at the incredible—the miraculous—good fortune that had come into her life, what with her sudden and practically inconceivable great wealth, the publication of her book and the appearance of her picture in
Lady Fair
. Grandma Berrigan carried the magazine everywhere with her, in case she ran into someone who, by some chance, hadn’t seen it.

Present also was Gilbert Forsgren, the referee who had presided over the hearing at which it was determined that Bridey was indeed Henrietta’s first cousin once removed, which was, of course, better than a first cousin twice removed. With him, also, was His Honor Vincent Mallory, the judge who had ruled, in a separate proceeding, that a natural heir had been found and, under the terms of Henrietta’s will, the entire estate should therefore pass to Bridey, free of all claims and impediments. Of course, their invitations had not been sent until after they’d made their rulings, so as to avoid any hint of impropriety or any suggestion of an effort to influence their decisions.

The two men arrived together, bearing a joint wedding gift, the most recent edition of Greenwood’s
The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy
, updated to include the latest computer techniques.

But the special guests of honor were Silk and Satin, who rested on a white pillow on the front pew of the church, wearing festive white silk bows around their necks. Silk’s babies, born only three weeks earlier, were of course too young to attend and remained at home, where they slept through the whole ceremony in their nest, which Bridey had fashioned out of the “magical” storage box that had contained the Merrill box, Henrietta’s manuscript, the photos and all the documents that had revealed the connection between her and Henrietta Willey.

The wedding reception was held in the huge living room of apartment 12A, following the church ceremony. Bridey had planned the menu, from canapés to after-dinner mints, and, though she’d entrusted the food preparation to caterers, she’d insisted on making the wedding cake herself. She even agreed to allow Marge’s best photographers to move discreetly among the guests, capturing wonderful pictures of the food, the clothes, the setting, even Silk and Satin and the kittens, to be published in
Lady Fair
’s next issue, along with recipes and text by Bridey herself.

Amid the music, the marvelous food and the general merrymaking, it was soon the kittens’ turn to be the center of admiring attention, as one guest after another came into the cats’ room off the kitchen to ooh and aah over the antics of the darling babies, each one an intriguing mix of blue-gray and midnight black. Silk stayed close to them, being careful that everyone kept a safe distance, while Satin retired to his own bed, waiting for all the racket to be done with.

Only Mrs. Maudsley, sipping coolly at her martini, found something to complain about.

“And now,” she whispered to her husband, lifting her chin toward a beaming Mack, who had his arm around a glowing Bridey, “I suppose they’ll be having a mob of kids, and the whole twelfth floor will be a gaggle of noisy children and animals.” She sipped again at her martini. “What would the old girl have thought of that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Harold said. He glanced up at the portrait. “I get the feeling she’d be okay with it.”

Indeed Henrietta was smiling down from her portrait as though it pleased her, now that everything had come out right, to see that once again her home was the scene of the perfect party. The guests were enjoying themselves, the food was perfect and the champagne flowed lavishly. And when Max the doorman and Tom the elevator operator dropped by to offer their best wishes on the merger of 12A and 12B, each of them was given a piece of cake and a glass of champagne.

Yes indeed. The old girl seemed to be happy about the whole thing.

Szekely Goulash
(from Hungary)

Maria Molnar and her husband, Gabor, run a little restaurant in Bridey’s hometown, on Wren’s Road in Warrentown, just off Route 9. Bridey had summer jobs in the restaurant while she was in high school, and it was in Maria’s kitchen that Bridey discovered Hungarian cuisine, a wondrous mixture of Magyar, Turkish, Transylvanian and—from the days of Empire—Austrian.

In a large, deep pan or Dutch oven:

• Heat the oil (or butter), then add the diced onion and simmer gently till soft and golden.
  
• Sprinkle the paprika generously over the onion, stir all together and continue simmering for a couple of minutes.
  
• Stir the tomato puree and the caraway seeds well through the onion and simmer for another minute.
  
• Add the bay leaf.
  
• Add the pork, mix well with the onion and tomato mixture, add the beer and, if needed, enough water to cover all.
  
• Cover and simmer gently till the pork is almost done, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  
• Squeeze the sauerkraut very dry, stir it well into the mixture, cover all and continue to simmer gently, 15 minutes or until the pork is done.
  
• Taste, add salt if needed and stir.
  
• Add the sour cream on top, cover, turn off the heat and let all sit for a few minutes till the sour cream is warm. (Or, if you prefer, turn the mixture onto a serving platter and then top it with the cold sour cream.)
  

Serve with flat noodles or dumplings.

Doro Wat
(Ethiopian Chicken)

When Bridey was in sixth grade, she did a geography report on Ethiopia. Her best friend’s big sister, Beany Norquist, from across the street, was in the Peace Corps in East Africa, and she sent back this recipe to Bridey, along with a packet of berbere spices, the recipe for injera and instructions on how to use it to scoop up the stew—but only with her right hand!

In a large, deep pan or Dutch oven:

• Heat the butter, then add the diced onion and simmer gently till soft and golden.
  
• Stir the berbere into the onions together with ½ cup of water and simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
  
• Stir tomato paste into the onions together with another ¾ cup of water (or light beer), and simmer for another 30 minutes. (Stir frequently to avoid burning the pot.)
  
• Add the cut-up chicken, cover and let all cook together over very low fire for about 1 hour or until the chicken is soft. Stir frequently.
  
• During the last 10 minutes of the cooking, add the hard-boiled eggs. Make shallow slits in the egg whites to allow the juice to seep in.
  

The sauce should be rather thick; if it is too thin, allow some of the water to cook off.

And mop up the sauce with Ethiopia’s crêpelike bread, injera
.
(See recipe for injera on page 189.)

Note: The berbere is a mixture of chili, coriander, cloves, cardamom, ajowan, allspice, black pepper, nigella, fenugreek seed, cinnamon and ginger.

Berbere spices used in Ethiopian cooking, such as ajowan and nigella seeds, are available online from Amazon and from Zamouri Spices, Kalustyan’s Spices and Sweets and Nirmala’s Kitchen.

Injera
(Ethiopian crêpes)

• To make the batter: In a large mixing bowl, stir together the two flours, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the club soda or beer and stir until smooth. Add vinegar and stir.
  
• Heat a large skillet over medium heat. With a paper towel, wipe the skillet with cooking oil.
  
• Pour batter into the pan in a small circle.
  
• Swirl the batter around till it makes a thin pancake (up to 9 inches).
  
• After one minute, use a large spatula to flip the injera over and cook one more minute.
  
• Remove from the pan and stack up on a plate. The pancakes will soften as they cool.
  
• Serve with the Doro wat. Tear the injera in pieces and use the pieces to pick up the Doro wat.
  

Chili con Carne
(Grandma Berrigan’s version, feeds many)

Every year, at Halloween, the fall evenings were nippy in Warrentown, and the trick-or-treaters had to wear coats and mittens over their costumes. Grandma Berrigan would make up a big pot of chili and the kids would stop by on Bridey’s front porch so her grandmother could warm them up with a bowl of hot chili handed out through the kitchen window. Her recipe required a lot of work, so she made it only once a year, but it was so good and so festive and so easy to spoon up, even with mittens on, it was well worth it.

Bridey likes to cook from scratch. But she’s learned that some dishes are improved by a mix of fresh and canned ingredients. Her version of Grandma Berrigan’s chili, for example, combines dry beans and canned, and also adds some canned chili to the pot.

Her recipe is very flexible and can be easily modified to suit any taste. Purists shouldn’t object to the bottled ketchup. It works extremely well.

• Start with 1½ pounds of dry beans. Bridey doesn’t mind the work, so she cooks several varieties: perhaps some pinto, some black (
  frijoles negros
  ), some small red (
  frijoles rojos pequeños
  ), a total equal to 1½ pounds, each to be cooked separately because they might require a different cooking time.
  
• In separate pots (if you’re using more than one variety) soak overnight each variety of beans in cold water, according to the directions on the package.
  
• Drain, rinse and cover (plus two inches) with cold water, each in its own pot. Simmer gently till almost done, about 30 minutes. Ideally, all the cooking water will be absorbed.
  
• Remove and combine all beans in a single bowl.
  
• In a large pot, over a medium to low heat, brown the pound of ground beef, mashing the meat with a fork to make it grainy.
  
• Remove the ground beef to a plate.
  
• In the big pot, brown the sausage in the juices of the ground beef.
  
• Remove the sausage and add it to the plate with the ground beef.
  
• In the big pot, brown the beef chunks.
  
• Remove the beef and add to the plate with the ground beef and sausage.
  
• In the big pot, add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the onions until they begin to brown.
  
• When the onions are half-cooked, add the minced garlic.
  
• When onions begin to brown, sprinkle the paprika over the garlic and onion mixture and stir well.
  
• Add marjoram (or thyme), black pepper and cumin.
  
• Stir the tomato paste into the mixture.
  
• Reduce the heat to low. Add all the meats and the bowl of beans, mix well and cook covered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
  
• Add the canned beans, canned chili and cilantro, and mix well.
  
• Continue cooking five more minutes.
  
• Stir in the ketchup gradually, and keep tasting as you add.
  
• Stir in the masa harina.
  
• Add red pepper flakes to taste (the amount of bite is optional).
  
• Continue cooking till the meat chunks are soft and the beans are cooked through, maybe 45 minutes. But keep checking.
  
• Add diced green pepper and sliced red onion.
  
• Simmer ten more minutes. Add salt to taste.
  
• Top with the shredded cheese, stirring the cheese lightly into the surface of the chili.
  
• Simmer just a minute or two, to let the cheese melt a little into the chili.
  

And serve—to loud acclaim!

Swedish Beef with capers, beets and egg yolks
(Biff a la Lindström)

Parties at the Norquist home across the street always featured a magnificent smörgåsbord—a fabulous buffet array of Swedish delicacies—and Mrs. Norquist loved to have the children cook with her. Bridey and Mrs. Norquist’s youngest daughter, Pia, were only four years old and already best friends, and both girls loved to cook “like grown-ups.” Bridey remembers the day Mrs. Norquist pulled a couple of tall chairs over to the kitchen counter and taught the little girls how to mash and form the mixture that makes this delicious version of little Scandinavian hamburgers. Bridey felt so special, being allowed to prepare treats for the guests, and still believes this affectionate and homey environment was the beginning of her love of good cooking.

• Mix the beef and mashed potatoes thoroughly together.
  
• Beat the egg yolks and cream together lightly.
  
• Stir the egg and cream mixture gradually into the beef and potatoes till well combined.
  
• Add beets, onions and capers and mix well.
  
• Season to taste with salt and white pepper (or sweet paprika).
  
• Form into small, flat cakes and brown quickly in butter.
  
• Place on a hot platter, garnished with sprigs of parsley.
  

Serve with fried potatoes (Swedish style, fried with a little sugar).

Beef Bourguignon
(so French, so very French!)

Bridey knows that great cuisine comes from every corner of the earth, but she is convinced the French have something special. As she told Mack, you can’t have good cooking without something from France. One of her dreams is to someday spend many weeks wandering all over France, learning how that “something special” is achieved. Her recipe for beef bourguignon is one version; she knows there are others.

• Preheat oven to 425°.
  
• In a casserole (not glass!) or Dutch oven, on the stovetop, brown the bacon lightly.
  
• Remove the bacon to a plate.
  
• Pat the beef dry with a paper towel.
  
• In the hot oil and bacon fat, brown the beef.
  
• Remove the beef to the plate with the bacon.
  
• Sauté onion lightly in the mixed oil and bacon fat.
  
• When the onion is transparent, add the garlic and continue sautéing until onion is lightly browned.
  
• Add all meat and mix together.
  
• Sprinkle salt, pepper and flour over the meat and onion and toss thoroughly.
  
• To coat and brown the meat, place the casserole in the oven and heat for 4 minutes.
  
• Remove, stir all, scrape any brown bits loose from the casserole and stir into the meat. Return to oven for 4 more minutes.
  
• Turn oven heat down to 325°.
  
• Into 3 cups of a strong red wine, stir tomato paste, ¼ teaspoon marjoram, ¼ teaspoon thyme, 1 bay leaf, mix well and pour over meat. If more liquid is needed, add beef bouillon or beef stock to just cover the meat.
  
• Bring to a simmer on the stovetop, then cover and return to the oven to simmer slowly 3 to 4 hours, or until beef is tender.
  

(Optional: flambé a small glass of cognac or brandy and add to the meat just before serving.)

Serve with small buttered potatoes.