Cream Puff Murder (5 page)

Lisa looked a bit dumbfounded at this news. “But…are you sure you want me to handle the pricing and everything?”

“Better you than me. I’m not very good at it, and I know it. But before you leave the kitchen for the rarefied air of high finance, do me a favor, will you?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Bake a Chocolate Chip Mega Cookie for Sue Plotnik. She’s been depressed lately, and Phil wants us to cheer her up. And that reminds me, do we have any extra Oatmeal Raisin Crisps we can package up for Janice Cox at Kiddie Korner? I need to go see her today.” Hannah stopped speaking and began to frown. “Let me rethink that. Maybe I shouldn’t give so many cookies away.”

“Wrong. You should give extra cookies away. Everybody knows we don’t sell day-old, and giving them away goes under the promotion category. I’ll check with Stan to make sure I’m right, but if I keep track of fair price for day-old cookies, we can deduct it from our taxes.”

“I’ve never done that before!”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t do it now. I’ll bet you never even thought to mention it to Stan.”

Hannah gave a little shrug. “You’re right. I don’t think I mentioned it. I just assumed that…”

“Never assume,” Lisa interrupted her. “Assumption is the mother of a compound word I’m not going to say. Just let me keep track and see if we can use the deduction.”

“Okay,” Hannah said, giving her partner a smile. It was going to be a lot more fun letting someone else handle the finances.

“Why do you have to see Janice? Andrea’s not thinking about putting Bethie in preschool this early, is she?”

“No, Grandma McCann is still living in, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she stayed for a couple more years.”

Lisa got out one of the stainless steel mixing bowls and began to round up ingredients for Sue’s cookie. “Herb ran into her at the Red Owl the other day, and she said she really likes living in town, especially now that it’s winter. She told him that wintering on a farm is hard when your family’s grown up and moved away, and you’re all alone out in the country.”

“I can understand that! My grandparents lived on Grandma McCann’s road, and sometimes it took almost a week to get it plowed. They were stuck there, come whatever, and if there’s a really bad winter storm, the phone lines go down.”

“Then you’d be stuck in a house all alone with no way to get out and no phone you could use to call for help. That’s really scary!”

“You bet it is, but that’s not the worst of it.”

“Really? What’s worse than that?”

“No cable and no satellite dish. The cable company doesn’t run out that far, and her farm is down in a low spot, so a dish won’t work without building an expensive tower. Andrea told me that Grandma McCann just loves the movies on the romance channel, and the only place she can get the romance channel is at Andrea and Bill’s house.”

CHOCOLATE CHIP MEGA COOKIES

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

2 cups white (granulated) sugar

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces, ½ pound)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

1 teaspoon molasses

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped walnuts (or any other nut you prefer—nuts are optional)

2 cups chocolate chips (a 12-ounce package)

2 ½ cups flour (not sifted—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)

Hannah’s 1st Note: You can mix these cookies by hand or use an electric mixer on slow speed.

Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the softened butter and vanilla extract, and stir until the resulting mixture is light and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Mix in the teaspoon of molasses. (To measure molasses or any other sticky liquid, spray your measuring spoon or cup with Pam or another nonstick spray before you measure.) Stir until the mixture in your bowl is a uniform color.

Add the salt and the baking soda, and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated.

Hannah’s 2 nd Note: You have alternatives if your family doesn’t like or can’t eat the chopped nuts. You can use a cup of finely shredded coconut in place of the nuts, or a cup of rolled oats, or a cup of crushed breakfast cereal (measure after crushing), or even a cup of chopped dried fruit like raisins or apricots.

Add the nuts or their alternative and stir them in. Then add half of the chocolate chips and half of the flour. (You don’t have to be exact—the object is to add the flour and the chocolate chips in two parts so they won’t glob up when you stir them in.) Stir until the chips and flour are thoroughly incorporated.

Add the rest of the chips and the rest of the flour. Mix thoroughly. Let the dough rest while you prepare the pans.

You will use two and only two pans for this recipe. (They’re called “mega” cookies for a reason!) Use two 9-inch or 10-inch pie pans—glass, metal, or disposable, it really doesn’t matter. If you must, you can use three 8-inch pie pans, but the cookies will be much thinner and you’ll have to reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.

Line your pie pans with a big square of aluminum foil, pressing the foil down to conform to the bottom and sides of the pie pan and leaving the four corners sticking up. (You’ll use them later to remove the cookies from the pie plates.)

Once the pie pans are lined on the inside, spray the foil with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Divide your cookie dough in half (or thirds if you used three 8-inch pie pans.) Form each half into a large ball. Place the balls in the center of your pie pans and smush them down with your impeccably clean hands. Continue to flatten the dough balls until they’re spread all the way out to the sides of the pan, and the tops are fairly smooth.

Bake the “mega” cookies at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes (35 minutes if you made three cookies instead of two.) Test for doneness by using a time-honored method devised by Hannah’s Grandma Swensen. Press the back of a spoon down on the center of the cookie. If it sinks in and comes out gooey and squishy, the cookies need more baking. Try them again after 5 minutes. If it leaves only a slight indentation, your cookies are done.

Remove your cookies from the oven and cool them in their pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Then grasp two diagonal corners, lift the cookies out of their pans and continue to cool them on the wire racks until they reach room temperature.

When the cookies are thoroughly cool, carefully peel off the foil. They’re wonderful just as they are, but you can add to the enjoyment by decorating them if you wish.

Lisa uses a pastry bag to make little stars around the edge of her cookies, and then she personalizes them with a name written across the center. If you’re like me and you prefer not to use a pastry bag, you can buy little tubes of frosting in the grocery store and write a message and a name with them in your choice of frosting color.

H annah was in the kitchen refilling the large cookie jars they kept behind the counter in the coffee shop to display the day’s wares. She’d just put the lid back on the Raisin Drops when Lisa pushed open the swinging door that separated the coffee shop from the kitchen. “Mike’s here,” she announced. “Do you want me to send him back here?”

“Sure.” Hannah watched as Lisa crossed the floor and picked up two of the full cookie jars to take to the coffee shop. From day one, Lisa saw what needed to be done, and she did it without being asked. It was only one of the many characteristics that made her such a perfect partner.

Once Lisa was gone, Hannah took off the food service gloves she wore to handle cookies and reached up to smooth her hair. She knew it wouldn’t do much good. She could feel her unruly curls popping back up again the moment she removed her hand.

“Hi, Hannah.” Mike Kingston came in as if he owned the place, but Hannah didn’t mind. His self-confidence and assertiveness were two of the things she liked best about him. Of course she also liked his rugged good looks and the way he made her heart pound against her rib cage whenever he walked into the room. His towering height was impressive too. Hannah wasn’t petite and at over five feet, eight inches tall, she appreciated a man she could look up to, a man who made her feel dainty and feminine. This was a rare treat for the daughter Delores claimed was a throwback to her rotund paternal grandmother, not exactly petite either, but the best farmwife, cook, and baker that Hannah had ever known.

“I heard you went out to Heavenly Bodies this morning,” Mike said by way of a greeting as he seated himself on a stool at the workstation.

Hannah was so surprised she almost dropped the mug of coffee she’d just poured for him. How did Mike know that? She was about to ask him how he’d heard when she glanced at the clock. It was ten forty-five, and Andrea had most certainly called Bill at work the moment she’d gotten home from the gym. And since Mike had a meeting with Bill every morning to go over the night’s crime reports, what Hannah had come to think of as her secret exercise regime was no longer a secret at all.

“I suppose everyone in town knows,” Hannah said, delivering Mike’s coffee and two of his favorite Twin Chocolate Delights on a napkin.

“Maybe not everybody. Stan Kramer and his wife are on vacation, and I think Irma York’s off visiting her cousin in Brainerd.”

“Thanks a lot.” Hannah tried not to show how amused she was. There were times when Mike was really pretty funny.

“So what if people know you’re working out at Heavenly Bodies? That’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of. I’m proud of you for trying to get in shape.”

Trying to get in shape. The phrase ricocheted around in Hannah’s mind like a marble in a blender. It was the word trying that bothered her the most. Trying meant that she wasn’t in shape. And it also insinuated that she might not succeed in her attempt to get there. That might not be far from the truth considering her track record for starting an exercise program and then dropping it after a couple of days, but voicing it constituted an insult from the man who’d once asked Hannah to marry him. She was about to object to Mike’s turn of phrase when he popped to his feet like a marionette that had been jerked upright by invisible strings.

“I almost forgot. I’ve got something in the cruiser for you. Hold on just a second and I’ll get it.”

Hannah held on. She held on to her coffee cup and she also held on to her temper. She really shouldn’t be angry with a man who’d brought her a present…unless, of course, the present was also something insulting, like a bathroom scale, or a diet book.

In a very few moments, fewer than it would have taken Hannah to run through the coffee shop, get something out of a parked car, and retrace her steps to the kitchen, Mike was back.

“Here,” he said, thrusting a huge, gift-wrapped package into her arms. “It’s for you and Moishe.”

All traces of Hannah’s earlier pique dissipated. It didn’t matter what the present was. It was sufficient that Mike had thought enough of her pet to get something for Moishe. She supposed that was why Andrea got all dewy-eyed when a guest brought a “little something” for Tracey or Bethie. It was a case of Love me, love my kid. Or in Hannah’s situation, it was Love me, love my cat.

“Thank you, Mike,” Hannah said in a voice that came close to emulating Moishe’s best purr.

“You’re welcome. Open it now and see if you think the Big Guy’ll like it. I got it out at the pet store in the mall.”

The box was wrapped in bright yellow paper with brown animal footprints all over it. It reminded Hannah of the time Moishe had knocked over a bottle of chocolate syrup and decorated her kitchen floor with a similar design. She squelched her urge to pluck the elaborate bow from the top and rip off the paper. She’d found out the hard way that people got upset when they paid extra for gift wrapping and she destroyed it in nanoseconds before their very eyes.

“This is really nice paper,” Hannah said, paying homage to Mike’s thoughtfulness, “and the bow’s nice, too.”

“Forget the wrapping and open it. I’m due back at the station in fifteen minutes.”

Hannah smiled. Mike was a man after her own heart. She pulled off the bow, shredded the paper with one well-placed fingernail, and uncovered the box. It said Kitty Valet in big red letters, and Hannah was still puzzled after she opened the box and drew out two plastic bowls and two see-through cylinders.

“They’re self-feeders,” Mike explained. “One’s for food and the other’s for water. When Moishe eats food from the bowl, it creates a space and the food in the cylinder drops down to fill it. As long as you fill up the cylinders in the morning, Moishe can’t run out of food or water.” Mike stopped and frowned slightly. “At least I don’t think he can.”

“It should work, Mike,” Hannah said, although, if she were a betting person, she’d lay odds on her cat. Moishe had been a found cat, abandoned on the winter streets of Lake Eden. There might not be food tomorrow, so if there was food today, you’d better eat it all. Immediately. If there were a way to empty both the bowl and the feeder tube, Moishe would do it.

“So do you want to go out to dinner tonight? I’m off at five. We could go eat something that’s on your diet. Whatever that is.” Mike was silent for a moment. “What’s on your diet?”

“A six-ounce portion of fish or lean meat, a small garden salad with two tablespoons of dressing, and a smidgeon of carbohydrate that translates to half a dinner roll without butter, a miniscule baked potato with nothing but salt, or one four-inch celery stick dipped in a teaspoon of mustard.”

“What was that last thing?” Mike asked in disbelief.

“One four-inch celery stick dipped in mustard, but I was just kidding.” Hannah shook her head in disgust. “It’s really hard to go out to dinner when I’m trying to get in shape for Mother’s launch party. Why don’t you come over at six, and I’ll cook something that both of us can eat.”

“That sounds great,” he said with a smile, but then his smile faded. “Will dinner have calories?”

“Yours will, mine won’t.”

Mike took a moment to digest that before answering. “Okay then. See you at six at your condo.”