The Body in the Basement (37 page)

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Authors: Katherine Hall Page

BOOK: The Body in the Basement
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Lilies of the valley—they grew in dense clusters on the edges of the cemetery. A British friend of Pix's had once told her it used to be considered very bad luck in her country to plant a bed of lilies of the valley, that the person who did would be the next to die.
But it was not the person who sowed who perished. Rebecca had given Addie the plant poison in every way imaginable. She'd brewed her sister-in-law's tea from the deadly roots and added the water in which she'd placed the cut leaves to Addie's juice. She'd even, she confessed to Earl, pushed Addie's tiny quilting needles into the berries, hoping she might mortally prick herself. One or all had worked.
And the quilt was no coincidence: End of Day. Rebecca had made it herself years ago, hiding it away when Addie had criticized the handiwork—hidden away, but not forgotten.
Had she wanted to be caught? If she hadn't wrapped Addie in the quilt to try to link her crime with the other, no autopsy would have been done on someone Addie's age. And the autopsy, like so many others, had not been able to pick up this natural poison. It mimicked heart failure. A failure of the heart—Addie's. Rebecca's.
Pix lay back down again. It felt good. Peaceful. The only noise was the raucous cries of the gulls and, if she listened very hard, the sound of her own blood pulsing. Slow, steady—reliable. She sighed. Another epitaph? But the reliable part wasn't so bad. They were reliable women: her mother, her daughter, and Pix herself. So different—and so
alike. She was looking forward to spending the rest of the summer in their company.
Maybe she'd get to the attic.
Maybe not.
The Body in the Cast
The Body in the Vestibule
The Body in the Bouillon
The Body in the Kelp
The Body in the Belfry
by Faith Sibley Fairchild and Friends
A WORK IN PROGRESS
PIX ROWE MILLER'S FAMILY FISH CHOWDER
6-7 slices of bacon, 1/4" thick
3 cups diced yellow onions
5-6 medium potatoes, peeled
1 lb. haddock
1 lb. cod
2 cans (3 cups) evaporated milk
1 cup whole milk
salt
freshly ground pepper
Fry the bacon, remove from the pan, and place on a paper towel. Saute the onions in the bacon fat and set the pan aside.
Cut the potatoes in half the long way, then into 1/4" slices. Put them in a nonreactive pot large enough for the chowder. Cover the potatoes with water and boil until tender. Be careful not to put in too much water or the chowder will be soupy. While the potatoes are cooking, cut the fish into generous bite-sized pieces. When the potatoes are ready, add the fish to the pot, cover and simmer until the fish flakes.
When the fish is done, crumble the bacon and add it to the pot along with the onions and any grease in the pan, the
evaporated and whole milks. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, and turn the heat down. Simmer for five minutes and add salt and pepper to taste.
Chowder invariably tastes better when made a day ahead.
 
The word “chowder” comes from the French, “la chaudière,” a very large copper pot. Several centuries ago, French coastal villages would celebrate the safe return of their fishing fleets with a feast. The main course was a fish stew made in la chaudière into which each fisherman would toss part of his catch. “Chaudiere” became “chowder” as the tradition made its way across the Atlantic to Canada and Down East. Chowders have continued to be just as idiosyncratic as these long ago concoctions. Pix does not even want to hear about the Manhattan version, but others of us are more open. The Rowe recipe may be happily modified in all sorts of ways.
The chowder is still quite delectable with olive oil instead of bacon fat. You may also use salt pork. Two kinds of fish make for a more interesting chowder, but these can be any combination of the following: haddock, cod, pollack, monkfish, and hake. Finally there is the question of garnishes: dill, chopped parsley, oyster crackers, butter are all good. And Faith and Pix's friend on Sanpere, Jane Weiss, swears by her chowder to which she adds curry spices!
LOUISE FRAZIER'S SOUTHERN CORN BREAD
1 1/2 cups stone ground corn
meal
3 tbsps. flour
2 tbsps. sugar
3 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, well beaten
4 tbsps. dripping
Preheat the oven to 350°. Combine the dry ingredients and stir in the wet. Pour the mixture into a lightly buttered 8”
square pan and bake for 40 minutes, checking after 30. This is a dense, chewy cornbread and serves 6-8. Again, substitutions can be made: skim buttermilk, Egg Beaters, and butter substitutes for the dripping and to grease the pan. Do try to find stone ground cornmeal, though. It gives the cornbread a wonderful flavor and texture. The batter may also be fried in a large pan on top of the stove, flipping it over so both sides are crunchy.
FAITH'S EMERGENCY SEWING CIRCLE SPREADS: CHUTNEY CHEESE AND CHÈVRE WITH HERBS
Chutney Cheese:
8 ounces plain cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup chutney
Cream the chutney and cheese together by hand. Do not use a food processor or blender otherwise you end up with cheese sauce. Pix used her own green tomato chutney, which is a spicy combination of the tomatoes, onions, raisins, and walnuts. All and any varieties of chutney work well.
Chevre with Herbs:
4 ounces plain cream cheese, room temperature
4-5 ounces chevre (100% goat's milk cheese)
Herbs to taste
Herbed chevre is readily available in most markets and cheese shops. Pix likes to keep things simple and buys the herbed variety. Combine the cheeses by hand. The cream cheese makes the combination easier to spread. If you are using your own herbs, rosemary, tarragon, and summer savory are good choices, alone or in combination.
 
 
Use both spreads to stuff snow or sugar snap peas, spread on cucumber or zucchini rounds, sweetmeal biscuits, water biscuits, or slightly toasted miniature bagels. The chutney spread makes a tasty sandwich when combined with smoked turkey or Virginia ham or by itself on date and nut or buckwheat walnut bread.
BAINBRIDGE BUTTERSCOTCH SHORTBREAD
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup finely chopped
walnuts or pecans
Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together and set aside. Cream the butter until soft and gradually add the sugar. Add the flour mixture a little at a time and mix well. Refrigerate for one hour.
Divide the dough in half and keep one portion in the refrigerator while rolling out the other to approximately 1/4" thickness. (The dough gets soft quickly.) Sprinkle the dough with the nuts and gently press them in with the rolling pin. Cut into 1 1/2" squares. Pix uses a paper pattern as she is hopeless at estimating things like this, unlike Faith. Prick with a fork and place the squares on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Bake until golden brown, approximately 15 minutes in a preheated 350° oven. Makes 6 dozen squares. This is a devastatingly rich, crumbly cookie.
FAITH FAIRCHILD'S MAINE BLUEBERRY TARTE
Pastry:
 
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. sugar
a pinch of salt
12 tbsps. unsalted butter
3 tbsps. ice water
 
 
 
Filling:
 
3 cups blueberries
4 tbsps. sugar
2 tbsps. flour
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Put the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse once. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Pulse again until the mixture resembles coarsely ground cornmeal. (You may also cut the butter into the flour mixture with two knives or a pastry cutter.)
Add the ice water through the feeder tube with the motor running and briefly process until a ball is formed. Wrap the dough in wax paper and refrigerate for 1/2 hour. Faith makes ice water by adding a few cubes to a glass of water before she starts making the dough.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and line a 10” fluted tarte pan—the kind with the bottom that comes out. Prick the bottom of the dough-lined pan with a fork.
Combine 2 tbsps. of flour with 2 tbsps. of sugar and dust the bottom.
Add the lemon juice to the fruit and spread evenly over the dough. Sprinkle 2 tbsps. of sugar on the top and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the middle of a preheated 375° oven for 40 minutes, or until the edges turn slightly brown. Let cool for ten minutes and remove from the pan to a serving plate.
Tastes best warm or at room temperature. Serves 10. This recipe is also delicious with other summer fruits. Caution: do not use frozen blueberries or you will have a soggy mess. Pix knows.
There are cooks—and cooks. Pix represents one school; Faith another. I fall somewhere in between. As with the recipes in
The Body in the Cast
, these can be made successfully by cooks of all natures. Substitutions have been suggested in some cases and certainly feel free to experiment. I'm told I make great chili, but since I put different things in each time depending on what's to hand, I may never develop a recipe for it.
A relative once told me that anyone who could read could cook, a notion I heartily endorse. Cookbooks are always in the stack of books next to my bed (along with mysteries). Crime and food go together well. Occasionally a passion for one will lead to the other—as in Faith's and my case. There's nothing we enjoy more than sitting in the backyard with a plate of Bainbridge Shortbread and a cup of tea … or a glass of wine and a stack of crackers and Chutney Cheese or … being transported to whatever world a favorite mystery author has chosen this time. I hope you will join us.

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