Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook

by Joanne Fluke

  “So I don’t even get to taste your Lemon Softies?” Earl asked, looking mournful.

  “Of course you do. There’s an extra dozen in the bottom of my suitcase. If you’re really nice to me, I’ll give you the key when we get home.”

  Once coffee had been poured and the extra pies and cheesecake had been served, Earl cleared his throat. “I don’t want to make you nervous, but it’s nasty out there. The snow’s coming down really hard, the wind’s picked up to over forty miles an hour, and the last weather report I heard said that with the wind chill factored in, it was already minus thirty-two.”

  Hannah shrugged. “That’s not too bad. It sounds like Minnesota in December.”

  “Or January,” Mike added.

  Mayor Bascomb laughed. “February and March, too. And then there’s that blizzard we had in May of seventy-five.”

  There were murmurs of agreement. Everyone knew how unpredictable the winter weather could be.

  “Earl’s going to follow Hannah home in the tow truck before he takes us out to the hospital,” Carrie told Delores.

  Earl gave a nod. “That’s right. Old Lake Road is a little iffy right now.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Hannah protested. “You’re going to get a lot of calls and I can make it on my own. My truck’s pretty heavy and it’ll plow through almost anything.”

  Earl thought about that for a moment and then he shrugged. “Okay. You can have it your way, but I want you to call me if you get stuck.”

  “Do you have your cell phone with you?” Norman asked.

  Hannah gave him an exasperated look, even though she knew he was just looking out for her. “Yes, I’ve got my cell phone. It’s in my purse.”

  “But is it charged?” Andrea asked the follow-up question. Everyone here knew that Hannah was more than a bit forgetful about charging her cell phone.

  “Of course it’s charged! I put it in the charger just last. ..” Hannah stopped speaking and frowned. “I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I’m sure it’s fine.”

  “Get it out right now and check it,” Delores ordered in her best motherly tone. “I don’t want to spend the whole night worrying about whether you’re freezing in a ditch somewhere.”

  With a speed borne of desperation, Hannah thought back to the last time she’d charged her cell phone. It was a weekend. She was fairly sure of that. She just hoped that it was last weekend. This was getting embarrassing, especially since she was almost positive that she could make it home just fine.

  “I’ll call you the minute I get home,” she compromised.

  “That’s not good enough,” Mike said. “This is a really heavy snow and some of the phone lines in your area are bound to go down. You might get home just fine, but you couldn’t call your mother. And then she’d worry. Just get your cell phone and turn it on to see if it’s charged.”

  Hannah hurried to the kitchen, found her cell phone in her saddlebag-sized shoulder bag, and took it back out to the table. “Here it is,” she announced, pressing the button to turn it on. But even though she waited for several seconds, absolutely nothing happened.

  “Yes?” Andrea asked, noticing the unhappy expression on her older sister’s face.

  “It’s just taking awhile. It’ll come on any second.”

  “You probably forgot to charge it again,” Delores said with a sigh that could be heard all the way to the kitchen, where Lisa was packing up the leftovers from the luncheon. “You’re always forgetting to charge it, Hannah. And Andrea even got you an extra charger for work so you could plug it in at The Cookie Jar.”

  Before Hannah could marshal a defense to her mother’s accusation, Andrea reached over and took Hannah’s cell phone. “It shouldn’t take this long to come on.” She turned to Delores. “But don’t worry, Mother. Some cell phone batteries have a reserve, and Bill taught me how to check for that. Hannah might have enough reserve left to make one call.”

  There was complete silence as Andrea pressed a couple of buttons. Several moments later, she turned to Hannah and shook her head. “It’s toast, Hannah. I checked the battery reserve and even that’s depleted. You’re totally out of juice.”

  “Honestly, Hannah!” Delores sighed loudly again. “It must be more than a week since you charged it. I know you’re busy and these little things take time, but you really. . .”

  “If I can stay in your guest room, we can use my cell phone on the way home,” Michelle interrupted what was sure to be a lecture from their mother. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, turned it on, and glanced at the display. “There’s no problem with mine. It’s fully charged.”

  “You know you’re always welcome to stay with me,” Hannah said. giving her youngest sister a grateful smile.

  Michelle leaned close, so that no one could overhear. “I figured I’d better do something fast. Mother looked loaded for bear.”

  “Thanks, Michelle.”

  “Not a problem. it was payback for Bruno.”

  “Our dog?”

  “That’s right. It’s for the time I brushed Bruno’s teeth with Mother’s toothbrush, and you went out to buy her a new one before she got home.”

  Hannah glanced at her watch as they climbed the covered steps to her second-story condo. “That took us an hour and twenty minutes!”

  “I know,” Michelle answered from two steps below. “It took three times longer than it should have.”

  “That’s because I was driving slowly and being really careful. And we still ended up in the ditch!”

  “Blame that on the visibility. I don’t think it was more than a foot or so, and you couldn’t see the edge of the road. We’re just lucky Eddy Eilers came along to pull us out.”

  Hannah waited until Michelle reached the landing. “Do you want to catch, or shall I?”

  “You catch. I’ll open the door.”

  Hannah stabilized her stance as Michelle inserted the key in the lock. Her feet were apart, one slightly ahead of the other so that she wouldn’t fall backwards.

  “Here goes,” Michelle warned, opening the door, and a nanosecond later, an orange and white, twenty-three-pound cat hurtled into Hannah’s waiting arms.

  “Hi, Moishe. I’m glad to see you, too.” Hannah followed Michelle inside and placed her cat on his favorite perch on the back of the couch. “What have you been doing while I’ve been... Oh, no! Not again!”

  “It looks like it snowed in here,” Michelle said, quite unnecessarily, since the entire living room carpet was covered in small white Styrofoam beads.

  Hannah sighed. “He got the beanbag again. It’s my fault.”

  “Why is it your fault?”

  “Because I listened to the weather on KCOW this morning. and I forgot to put the beanbag away. Moishe always gets nervous when the snow rattles against the living room window.”

  “So he tears apart the beanbag?”

  “Right. I really ought to get rid of it anyway. It’s so sixties.”

  “Maybe, but it’s retro.” Michelle turned to look at the fake green leather sack crumpled in a heap on the rug. “Are you going to fix it?”

  “I have to. If I don’t put it back together, Moishe might destroy something else the next time we get a winter storm.”

  “Point taken. Do you want me to get a broom and start sweeping up the beads?”

  “Just use the vacuum. I put in a new bag the last time I used it. I’ll get out the sewing kit.”

  Michelle gestured toward the window where the snow was blowing so hard against the pane, it sounded like a roll on a snare drum. “Are you sure we shouldn’t wait for a while? It’s still really bad out there.”

  “It’ll be fine. Moishe only does it when he’s alone and it starts getting nasty outside. It probably has to do with what he had to go through before he ended up here.”

  “Lucky cat,” Michelle said, pausing to give Moishe a scratch under the chin as she went down the hall to get out the vacuum. “You’d really be in trouble if your
mommy didn’t love you so much.”

  “So why did we bake when we already have two sets of twelve dozen cookies?” Michelle asked, pulling a pan of Candy Bar Bar Cookies out of the upper oven and stepping aside so that Hannah could remove her Strawberry Custard Squares.

  “Because we needed to,” Hannah answered, crossing to the coffee pot to pour herself another cup.

  “Okay. I’ll buy that. What’s next?”

  “You mean baking?”

  “Or cooking. Whatever. You know we always have a kitchenfest every time I come home from college and stay with you.”

  “And that’s one of the reasons I love it.” Hannah smiled at her youngest sister. “We could make candy, or cookies, or cakes, or. . .”

  Both sisters turned toward the door as the doorbell rang.

  “Or night lunch,” Hannah said, guessing who was there. “It’s either Mike or Norman. And whichever one’s there, he’s bound to be hungry.”

  “I’ll put on the coffee. You get the door,” Michelle said, heading for the nearly depleted coffee maker on the counter. “And then, if it’s okay, I’m going straight to bed.”

  “It’s fine,” Hannah said, walking toward the door. When she opened it, two ambulatory snowmen were standing on the landing.

  “Good heavens!” Hannah exclaimed.

  “It’s brutal out there!” Mike commented, brushing the snow off his parka before he stepped in.

  “We walked here from the gate,” Norman told her, also brushing off the snow before he entered her living room. “Everything’s shut down. We won’t be able to get out until morning.”

  Until morning. The words echoed in Hannah’s ears as she took their parkas and hung them in the laundry room to dry off. Why had they driven all the way out here anyway? Delores wasn’t worried. Michelle had called her the second they pulled into the garage.

  “We were worried about you,’ Mike said, answering Hannah’s unspoken question. “I couldn’t get through to your mother at the hospital to see if you’d called her. The lines were down. So Norman hitched a ride with me and we drove out here.”

  “Thanks for checking up on us,” Michelle said, coming out of the kitchen, “but we already called Mother and told her we were okay.”

  Norman looked slightly apologetic. “Oh. We’ll. . . we weren’t sure, so we. . .”

  “As you can see, everything’s fine,” Hannah said, gesturing her sister off to bed.

  “Sorry about this,” Norman said, “but we’re going to have to stay with you.”

  “Of course,” Hannah responded immediately, her answer practically dictated by proper Minnesota winter etiquette.

  Mike gave her one of his devilish grins. “But you’ve got only one bedroom left. You don’t expect both of us to stay up all night, do you?”

  Hannah took a deep breath. No way was she falling for that hackneyed line! “Sure I do! I’ll stay up with you, and I’ll even make a night lunch. We’ve got cookies, and bars, and some chicken salad left over from the luncheon that I’ll make into sandwiches. We can play cards until the sun comes up. That should be fun.”

  Both men exchanged glances, and Hannah noticed that they didn’t look happy.

  “Are we playing for money?” Norman asked her.

  “No. We’re playing for points.”

  “But that’s no fun,” Mike objected. “We should play for something worthwhile, something great, something both of us . . . I mean, all three of us want.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Hannah asked him.

  “Oh, I don’t know. What do you think, Norman?”

  Norman looked embarrassed, and Hannah guessed that he’d been coached by Mike.

  “Norman?” Mike prodded.

  “Oh. Well. It’s been a long day. Maybe we should play for a comfortable place to sleep.”

  “Great idea, Norman!” Mike turned back to Hannah. “How about it, Hannah?”

  “Sounds good to me. I agree.”

  “You agree?” Mike asked, looking stunned.

  “You do?” The same stunned expression was mirrored on Norman’s face.

  Hannah gave a little shrug. “It’s fine with me. I’ll bunk in with Michelle and the winner gets my bed. It’s nice and comfortable and you get to cuddle with Moishe. And the loser gets my softest sleeping bag on the couch.”

  “Told you,” Norman said under his breath, nudging Mike.

  “Yeah,” Mike responded.

  “How about night lunch?” Hannah asked them. “Are you hungry?”

  “I am,” Mike said.

  “Me, too,” Norman answered her. “Mike can get out the card table and get everything all set up. I’ll throw catnip mice for the Big Guy to keep him out of the way.”

  “Good idea,” Hannah said, turning at the kitchen doorway with a smile. Norman had just moved over to pet Moishe and she could hear him purring all the way across the room. “Don’t let him near the cards. He likes to chew on them.”

  There was a thump as the catnip mouse sailed down the hallway with Moishe in hot pursuit. As she went off to the kitchen to make their night lunch, Hannah wondered how simple life would be for someone who didn’t have two men who both wanted to play cards for her bed.

  BAKING CONVERSION CHART

  These conversions are approximate, but they’ll work just fine for Hannah Swensen’s recipes.

  VOLUME:

  U.S. Metric

  ½ teaspoon 2 milliliters

  1 teaspoon 5 milliliters

  1 Tablespoon 15 milliliters

  ¼ cup 50 milliliters

  cup 75 milliliters

  ½ cup 125 milliliters

  ¾ cup 175 milliliters

  1 cup ¼ liter

  WEIGHT:

  U.S. Metric

  1 ounce 28 grams

  1 pound 454 grams

  OVEN TEMPERATURE:

  Degrees Fahrenheit (Regulo) Gas Mark Degrees Centigrade British

  325 degrees F. 165 degrees C. 3

  350 degrees F. 175 degrees C. 4

  375 degrees F. 190 degrees C. 5

  Note: Hannah’s rectangular sheet cake pan, 9-inches by 13-inches, is approximately 23 centimeters by 32.5 centimeters.

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2011 by H. L. Swensen, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931656

  ISBN: 978-0-7582-7400-7

  Notes

  1

  Hellmann’s Mayonnaise is also known as Best Foods Mayonnaise in some parts of the country.

  2

  I’ve also used pistachios.

  3

  Since this recipe is not cooked, you can use sugar-free vanilla pudding mix if you wish.

  4

  Use a good grade of champagne. It doesn’t have to be awfully expensive, but do choose a medium-priced brand that has a good reputation. I used Korbel.

  5

  I used Martinelli. If you can’t find that where you live, use sparkling apple juice and add raspberry concentrate, raspberry juice, or raspberry syrup until the resulting cocktail is a pretty pink color.

  6

  If you don’t have sherry, dry white wine will work just fine. Dry vermouth is also an option. If you don’t want to use liquor of any type, you can simply add another ¼ cup milk.

  7

  If you can’t find salted sunflower nuts, use chopped salted cashews, or even crushed potato chips.

  8

  If the cheese selection at your grocery store is limited, just use shredded Monterrey Jack for the first cheese, and shredded sharp cheddar for the second cheese to melt on top of the Fritos. If you can’t find Monterrey Jack, u
se mozzarella or Swiss.

  9

  Check the weight on your can of salmon. It should weigh between 7 ounces and 8 ounces – red salmon is best, but pink will do.

  10

  If you use regular hamburger instead of lean, you’d better buy 2 and ½ or 3 pounds, because there’s a lot of fat that’ll cook off. If you buy extra lean hamburger, it probably won’t have enough fat and you’ll have to add some.

  **** Don’t worry about the ounces on the water chestnuts – anything from 4 ounces to 8 ounces will do.

  11

  If you think your eggs might be too small or too large, you can easily check them by mixing them up in a measuring cup. Four eggs should measure approximately one cup. If yours don’t, adjust by adding more egg or pouring some out.

  12

  Orange zest is finely grated orange peel – only the orange part, not the white part.

  *** Lemon zest is finely grated lemon peel – only the yellow part, not the white part.

  13

  Marge says that when she makes these biscuits for Herb, she uses fresh herbs from her kitchen window herb garden. If you want to do it Marge’s way, use 2 Tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley, 1 Tablespoon finely minced fresh sage, 1 Tablespoon finely minced fresh thyme, and 1 teaspoon minced fresh basil.

  14

  You can use fresh and peel and slice your own, or you can buy them already sliced and prepared in the ready-to-eat section at your produce counter, or you can use canned peaches.

  15

  If you don’t have lemon zest, DO NOT substitute lime zest, especially from regular limes – it can be very bitter, and the little flecks of green aren’t very appetizing.

  16

  Key limes are difficult to find. If your store doesn’t have them, look for frozen key lime juice. If you can’t find that, just buy regular limes and juice those.