Cooking Camp Disaster

by Carolyn Keene

  Nancy thought for a moment. “So . . . did you maybe mix up the salt and sugar labels on George’s jars? By accident?”

  Rosemary shook her head. “Definitely not! I double-checked those labels right after I put them on.” She added, “Chef Giorgio had to leave early today to run errands. He asked me to close up. Please, please don’t tell him I was in here pretending to decorate cakes! He’d be so mad at me, even though I didn’t do anything wrong. He’s the meanest boss ever!”

  Nancy, George, and Bess exchanged a glance. Nancy wondered: Was Rosemary telling the truth? Or was her story a fancy, complicated cover-up?

  • • •

  “Yum! Pass the guacamole, please!” Bess said.

  “I love make-your-own-taco night!” George chimed in.

  “Me too!” Nancy agreed.

  It was Wednesday night. The girls had spent an hour at the mall with Hannah, shopping. Now they were at the Drews’ house having tacos with Hannah and Nancy’s father, Carson Drew.

  “So Hannah tells me the Clue Crew is working on a new mystery,” Carson said to Nancy and her friends. “Can you talk about it? Or is it top secret?”

  “We can tell you about it, Daddy,” Nancy said with a smile.

  “As long as you promise you won’t tell anyone else,” Bess added.

  Carson crossed his heart. “I promise!”

  Nancy proceeded to fill her father in on the details of the case. Carson was a lawyer, and he sometimes gave the Clue Crew advice on their detective work.

  When Nancy was finished, Carson looked thoughtful. “Hmm. Sounds like you girls have a real puzzle on your hands,” he mused.

  “We do!” Bess said. She bit into her taco.

  “So do you believe Chef Giorgio’s assistant, Rosemary?” Carson asked. “Was she just pretending to decorate the cake? Or was she actually about to sabotage it?” He added, “ ‘Sabotage’ is another word for ‘mess up.’ ”

  “We’re not sure yet,” Nancy replied, scooping some salsa onto her plate. “We only have two more days to solve the mystery. Friday is the last day of camp—and it’s the big banquet, too! You’re coming to that, right, Daddy? And Hannah?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Pumpkin Pie,” Carson said.

  “Neither would I. And I know you girls will crack this case. You always do,” Hannah told them.

  • • •

  After dinner Nancy, George, and Bess went up to Nancy’s room. Nancy wanted to update their lists of suspects and clues.

  George turned on Nancy’s computer. Nancy got her detective notebook out of her desk drawer. Bess plopped down on Nancy’s bed to pet Chocolate Chip, who was busily chewing one of Nancy’s slippers.

  “So I think we should add Rosemary to our suspect list,” Nancy began.

  “Definitely! I mean, she might have been telling the truth. But she might have been lying, too,” George said.

  George leaned over the keyboard and began typing. Nancy opened her notebook to the “suspects” page and added Rosemary to the list. She also updated a few other things:

  SUSPECTS

  Jeremy: He wants to win the Best Chef prize. He went to the bathroom for a few minutes while everyone was outside picking herbs. So he had time to put red pepper flakes on the pizzas.

  He bragged and said he was definitely going to win Best Chef. Plus, he bragged that if he cheated, the Clue Crew would never find out.

  Dev and Dylan: They like to pull pranks and break rules. BUT they were outside picking herbs. So they didn’t have time to put red pepper flakes on the pizzas. They almost pulled another prank, though—the volcano cake!

  Chloe: The bottle of red pepper flakes was in her backpack. BUT she was outside picking herbs the whole time too.

  Rosemary: We caught her maybe messing up Talisha’s cake. She said she was just pretending to decorate it, though. Chef Giorgio is kind of mean to her. Maybe she wants to get revenge and cause trouble for his camp?

  Nancy read over what she’d written. And read it a second time. And a third time. Their suspect list was getting very long.

  She felt like she was overlooking something—something obvious. What could it be?

  “Chloe!” Nancy said suddenly. “Bess, remember what you said yesterday? About how someone might have put the red pepper flakes bottle in her backpack?”

  Bess nodded. “Uh-huh.”

  “What if it was Cristin?” Nancy said excitedly. “Maybe she’s the culprit. And she was just trying to make Chloe look guilty!”

  The Mysterious Fortune Cookie

  “That makes sense,” George said. “The two of them are always fighting.”

  “Like all the time!” Bess agreed.

  “I think we should add Cristin to the suspect list, and take Chloe off,” Nancy suggested.

  “Good idea. And tomorrow, let’s ask Cristin some questions. Maybe we can get her to crack,” Bess said.

  “Crack?” Nancy repeated, confused.

  “That’s detective talk for ‘make her confess,’ ” Bess said, giggling.

  • • •

  But on Thursday, Cristin wasn’t at camp. Chloe told everyone that she was staying home for the day because she had a doctor’s appointment.

  “So now we can’t make Cristin crack,” Bess complained in a low voice to Nancy and George.

  Nancy, George, Bess, and the rest of the campers were preparing their workstations for the day’s project: fortune cookies. Nancy was really psyched about this assignment. She and the others were going to write their own fortunes to put inside the cookies!

  “Maybe she’ll be here tomorrow. And we can still try to make our other suspects, um, crack today,” Nancy said to Bess.

  “Yeah. We still have Evil Jeremy, Dev and Dylan, and Rosemary,” George pointed out.

  “We’re running out of time, though. Tomorrow’s the last day of camp,” Bess said worriedly.

  Talisha leaned over to Nancy and the girls. “Are you guys talking about your mystery? Have you solved it yet?”

  “Um, not yet,” Nancy replied. She wondered why Talisha seemed so interested in their case.

  “Have you thought about doing fingerprint analy . . . analysis? Did I say that right? You could make everyone press their fingertips on an inkpad and then on a piece of paper!” Talisha suggested. “And what about witnesses? Maybe someone here saw or heard something suspipicious . . . I mean, suspicious!”

  “Wow, are you a big mystery fan or what?” Bess asked her curiously.

  Talisha blushed. “Yeah, kind of. I read a lot of mystery books. And I like mystery movies, too.” She added, “I like mysteries almost as much as I like soccer!”

  “Soccer’s awesome,” George agreed.

  “It’s the awesomest! I was supposed to go to soccer camp this summer. But my mom and dad made me do cooking camp instead. They said I needed to try something new.” Talisha made a face.

  “Cooking’s fun too, right?” Bess said.

  Talisha shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know. I’d rather be playing soccer.”

  • • •

  After lunch the campers met back inside the kitchen to snack on their fortune cookies. Before lunch they had all written their own messages on thin slivers of paper and put them into the folded, still-warm cookies. Now they were cool enough to eat.

  Some of the kids traded cookies with each other, including Bess and George. When Bess opened hers, she started laughing. “Ha-ha! ‘You will be a millionaire someday,’ ” she read out loud. “Yay!”

  George opened hers. “ ‘You will rule the universe!’ ” she read, grinning. “Yes!”

  Nancy’s fortune cookie was cooling on a small blue plate. But there was another fortune cookie sitting on her cutting board. It was bigger than hers and kind of lumpy-looking. She wasn’t sure who had given it to her.

  Nancy cracked it open. She gasped when she saw the bizarre message inside:

  Buon Appetito!

  Nancy stared at the strange message. She noticed tha
t it was written in red ink. And there was a weird red smudge at the edge of the paper—a different, slightly lighter shade of red. It looked similar to the smudges that she’d seen on George’s salt and sugar labels.

  Nancy leaned over and showed the message to George and Bess. “What do you think it means?” she whispered.

  “I guess someone really, really wants you—or us—to stop snooping.” George squinted at the red smudge. “It’s kind of shaped like a fingerprint. But it’s kind of blurry, too.”

  Bess pointed to the words. “Why are some of the letters in the message capital letters?”

  Nancy nodded slowly. The letters T, N, and E were capitalized. The rest of the letters were not. “Do you think it’s some sort of code?” she said out loud.

  “Or maybe it’s the word ‘ten,’ mixed up,” George suggested.

  Nancy thought hard. T, N, E. What could those letters stand for? Was it the word “ten” scrambled around, like George said? Or was it something else?

  The letters actually seemed familiar to her. She wasn’t sure why. She had seen them before, in exactly that order . . .

  Her gaze fell on the backpacks hanging up across the room. They were labeled with the campers’ names and initials: DK, Dylan Wong, Jeremy, Chloe O., TNE . . .

  TNE!

  Nancy whirled around to face the workstation on her right. Talisha Nadine Eggers. TNE.

  “Talisha! You left me this fortune cookie, didn’t you? And you’re the one the Clue Crew has been looking for!” Nancy said, surprised.

  Talisha glanced up from washing out a bowl she had used to make the fortune-cookie batter. She had a big, happy smile on her face. “Uh-huh. Yay, you finally caught me! And now you can turn me in to Chef Giorgio!” she said eagerly.

  “You’re the one who messed up my peppermint brownies?” George cried out.

  Talisha nodded. “Uh-huh. I’m really, really sorry! The three of you walked away for a minute to get something in the refrigerator. So I switched the salt and sugar labels really superfast, when no one was looking. Then I put strawberry jam on my fingers and left my fingerprints on the labels, so the Clue Crew would catch me right away!” She frowned. “Except, uh, you didn’t.”

  “Wow. And did you mess up everyone’s pizzas too?” Bess asked her.

  “Yup! I even put the bottle of red pepper flakes right here in the middle of my cutting board! That way, I figured you would definitely catch me. But then it disappeared!” Talisha pointed to Chloe, who was on the other side of the kitchen munching on a fortune cookie. “I think that maybe her sister Cristin took it and put it into her backpack. To get her into trouble or whatever.”

  Nancy gazed at Chloe. That made sense, and was pretty much what Nancy, George, and Bess had guessed, anyway.

  But the rest of Talisha’s confession made zero sense.

  “I don’t get it,” Nancy said to Talisha. “Why did you try so hard to get caught? I mean, Chef Giorgio would have made you leave the camp!”

  “But that’s what I wanted!” Talisha insisted. “I never wanted to go to cooking camp. I wanted to go to soccer camp! I came up with my plan on Monday. Remember? When those boys Dev and Dylan did that blender thing? And Chef Giorgio told them they would get kicked out if they kept breaking the rules? Plus, you guys told me about your Clue Crew club? I figured I could break the rules too, and you’d catch me and turn me in to Chef Giorgio!”

  “That’s a crazy plan!” George said.

  “Yeah, but it almost worked,” Bess pointed out.

  “Why did you give me this fortune-cookie message and tell me to stop snooping?” Nancy asked Talisha. “Tomorrow’s the last day of camp. It’s too late to switch camps now, isn’t it?”

  “I thought it was. I was going to give up on my plan after the peppermint brownies and the pizza. But then last night Mom and Dad told me they were going to sign me up for another week of cooking camp, next week. I had to do something!” Talisha said.

  “I understand why you wanted to go to soccer camp so badly, but you almost ruined cooking camp for everyone else this week,” George pointed out.

  Talisha hung her head. “Yeah. I know. I feel really badly about that. Maybe there’s something I can do to make it up to all of you guys?”

  • • •

  “Mmm, this is delicious. What do you call it?” Carson asked Nancy.

  “I call it the Clue Crew Calzone. It has cheese and sausage in it, plus a mystery ingredient!” Nancy said with a grin.

  Hannah chuckled. “I guess you can’t give me the recipe, then. It’s top secret!”

  It was Friday at lunchtime. The Kid Kuisine dining hall was filled with dozens of people: the nine campers, their parents, and other guests. The kids were serving everyone lunch with Rosemary’s help. Chef Giorgio was at the door, greeting people as they came in.

  Nancy, George, Bess, and the other campers had spent the morning cooking a gourmet feast. The menu included not-spicy pizza and also calzone, which was kind of like a folded-over pizza. For dessert, there were peppermint brownies—with no extra salt.

  Talisha was serving pizza and calzone to her mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Eggers. Nancy was glad the mystery was finally solved. Talisha had told Chef Giorgio everything, and her parents, too. This morning Talisha had updated Nancy, George, and Bess, saying that her parents weren’t going to make her come back to the second session of cooking camp, but that she wouldn’t be able to go to soccer camp, either. Maybe later in the summer, after she’d spent a few weeks helping out at home and making up for what she’d done. In the meantime Talisha had baked cupcakes at home and brought them in for everyone, to say “I’m sorry” for what she’d done.

  The event seemed to be a big success. The food was yummy. Dev and Dylan were behaving and not pulling any pranks. Chloe and Cristin weren’t arguing, even though Nancy had confronted Cristin earlier about the bottle of red pepper flakes. Cristin had admitted to her and Chloe that she’d planted it in Chloe’s backpack. Chloe had forgiven Cristin only after Cristin promised to give Chloe one of her City Girls dolls.

  Even Rosemary seemed to be happier. That morning she had told Nancy, George, and Bess that Chef Giorgio had apologized to her last night for being so mean to her all the time. He had explained to her that the chef business was very tough and he was just trying to prepare her for what lay ahead.

  “Excuse me! May I have your attention?”

  Chef Giorgio was standing at a microphone near the doorway. “First of all, I want to thank all of you for being here today. I hope you’re enjoying the children’s magnifico food! Buon appetito!” he said loudly.

  Everyone cheered.

  “Second of all, I want to announce the winner of our Best Chef contest. This award goes to the camper who made the most successful recipes this week. The prize is a gift certificate for two at the Double Dip ice cream shop. And the prize goes to . . .” Chef Giorgio paused dramatically.

  Nancy glanced around the room. Jeremy was smiling confidently at George and pointing to himself, like he was going to win. George was smiling confidently back at him and pointing to herself, like she was going to win.

  “It’s a tie! Our winners are Jeremy Kline and Little Giorgio!” said Chef Giorgio. “That’s my nickname for George Fayne,” he added.

  Everyone clapped. George looked shocked. So did Jeremy.

  “Wow, lucky you! You get to go to the Double Dip with Jeremy!” Nancy teased George.

  “Yeah, you’re going to be best friends now,” Bess joked.

  “Um . . . uh . . .” George shrugged and laughed.

  Nancy and Bess laughed too. Then the three friends sat down with their parents and Hannah and dug into some Clue Crew Calzones.

  Mystery solved!

  LET’S MAKE SOME BARK!

  No, not the kind of bark that comes from trees! LOL! Nancy, George, and Bess love to make peppermint bark for dessert or a yummy afternoon snack. You can make peppermint bark at home too, with the help of a parent or other grown-up.<
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  Here are the ingredients you will need:

  1 pound milk chocolate (either bars or chips)

  24 hard peppermint candies or mini candy canes

  Cooking spray

  You will also need the following equipment and supplies:

  A 9×12-inch cookie sheet

  Wax paper or parchment paper

  A large microwavable bowl (for the chocolate)

  A large Ziploc bag

  A hammer or rolling pin

  Now just follow these simple steps:

  Spray cooking spray onto the cookie sheet. Then line the cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper or parchment paper. Make sure the paper hangs slightly over the long sides of the cookie sheet.

  Ask a grown-up to help you melt the chocolate. Put the chocolate in a large microwavable bowl and microwave on medium for thirty seconds. Stir and check to see if it’s melted; if not, repeat for another thirty seconds. Keep repeating this step until the chocolate is melted. Take the bowl out of the microwave and allow the chocolate to cool slightly. (OPTION: You can also melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove. Ask a grown-up to help you do this.)

  Pour the melted chocolate onto the cookie sheet. Spread evenly with a spatula or wooden spoon.

  Put the peppermint candies or mini candy canes in the Ziploc bag and seal. Ask a grown-up to help you smash the candies into little pieces with a hammer or rolling pin.

  Spread the smashed-up candies on top of the melted chocolate.

  Refrigerate for an hour or until the chocolate is hard.

  Once the peppermint bark is hard, you can peel off the paper and break the bark up into uneven pieces.

  VARIATIONS: You can experiment with different toppings for your bark. Try s’mores bark (put mini marshmallows and broken-up graham cracker pieces on top instead of peppermint candies or candy canes). Or try nuts ’n’ berries bark (put different kinds of nuts and dried cranberries or raisins on top). Or any other kind of bark you can think of!