Cinnamon Roll Murder hsm-16

by Joanne Fluke

  Shelby shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe. The guy at the phone store told me this phone had a pretty good camera.”

  “Can you e-mail this photo to me?” Andrea asked.

  “I think so, but I’m not sure how to do it. The phone store guy said I could send people photos right from my phone.”

  “Do you mind if I try?” Andrea asked.

  “Knock yourself out!” Shelby gave a little laugh. “I’ll go get your drinks while you try. If my phone rings, just don’t answer it. They’ll leave a message and I’ll get it on my break.”

  Hannah watched as Andrea did things she didn’t understand to Shelby’s phone. It was a much fancier model than the one she owned, but she wasn’t a bit envious. All she really wanted to do was make calls and answer calls. Any other tricky features would just get in the way.

  “Got it!” Andrea said, looking up with a grin. “I sent it to my e-mail at home, and then I sent it to my phone. Do you want me to send it to your phone?”

  “You can’t.”

  “Sure I can.”

  “No, you can’t. My phone’s just a phone. It doesn’t do anything else.”

  Andrea rolled her eyes. “You’re in the Stone Age, Hannah. You really should replace it with a newer model.”

  “Why? It works just fine the way it is as long as I remember to charge it.”

  “But really, Hannah. There are newer models that do so much more.”

  “I’m sure there are, but I finally figured out this phone and I don’t want to switch.”

  “All right. Fine. Stay behind the times. I bet you still have a typewriter somewhere in your closet.”

  Hannah had a clear mental picture of the portable Olivetti she’d used to type her college term papers. It was perfectly good, and she kept it in a cabinet in her laundry room.

  “Well? Do you still have a typewriter in your closet?”

  “No,” Hannah said quite truthfully. “I don’t.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that! Maybe there’s hope for you yet.” Andrea glanced down at Shelby’s phone again. “Do you want to know what date Shelby saw this unrecognizable woman with Buddy?”

  “Yes. That’s very important. We’ll ask her when she comes back.”

  “We don’t need to ask her. I know.”

  “You’re psychic?”

  “No, I’m smart. And I’m in step with the new technology. The photos are grouped in her phone by date. All I had to do was access the date menu to find out it was taken on the second Saturday in February.”

  “Sally and Dick were here!”

  “What?”

  “I asked Sally when she hired Cinnamon Roll Six to headline her jazz festival and she said it was right after the show on the second Saturday in February.”

  Andrea tapped the screen of Shelby’s phone. “So Sally or Dick might have seen this woman?”

  “It’s possible. We can go out to the Inn and ask.”

  “There’s something else we can do first. We can ask Norman if he can enlarge this photo, or sharpen it, or do something so that we can recognize the woman.”

  “I’m not sure that Norman can do that.”

  “Why not? He’s always helped you with photographs before.”

  “I know, but ... I’m not sure Doctor Bev will let him help us.”

  “You’re not sure, so you’re not going to ask?” Andrea looked incredulous. “What happened to the woman who was going to fight for Norman? Did she turn back into a doormat when I wasn’t looking?”

  Hannah sighed deeply. “No, she didn’t. I didn’t. I’ll call him myself and tell him we need his help.”

  Shelby came up to their table carrying a tray with two tall glass cups. “One raspberry latte, and one chocolate and apricot latte,” she announced placing them on the table. Then she turned to Andrea. “Did you manage to send that picture?”

  “Yes. Don’t erase it though, just in case. Okay?”

  “Okay. I wouldn’t erase it anyway. It’s the last picture of Buddy I’ve got.” Shelby’s lip quivered and she blinked several times. Then she took a deep breath and set two small plates in front of them. “We started serving the appetizers, so I brought you some. This is Nancy’s Piggy Chicken. Nancy’s the owner’s wife and it’s made from her recipe.”

  “Piggy Chicken?” Hannah looked down at her plate. The aroma wafting up to her was heavenly. “It looks like rouladen.”

  “What’s that?” Shelby looked puzzled.

  “It’s meat that’s been pounded thin and rolled up with some kind of filling inside. Then it’s baked, or fried.”

  “That sounds a lot like this.”

  “Is the piggy part of Piggy Chicken the bacon that’s wrapped around the outside?” Andrea asked her.

  “That’s right. And the chicken part is chicken tenders pounded flat in the kitchen. I watched the cook make them once. The stuff inside is cream cheese and chives. He spreads the cream cheese on the chicken, and snips the chives off with scissors over the top. Then he rolls them up with a strip of bacon, sticks in a toothpick, and bakes them in the oven. I think Tom, he’s the owner, is going to ask the cook if he can make them bigger so we can serve them for dinner.”

  Hannah just couldn’t take it anymore. She cut off a piece and put it in her mouth. The Piggy Chicken had been baked to perfection. The bacon was crispy, the chicken was tender and the cream cheese and chive filling just melted in her mouth. “These are really great!” she said, already planning out how to make them at home.

  “There’s another one they make sometimes called Piggy Moo.”

  “Beef instead of chicken?” Hannah guessed.

  “That’s right. And we’ve got another appetizer coming up soon,” Shelby said, obviously pleased that Hannah liked their first one. “I’ll bring it as soon as they plate it. It’s Janet’s Texas Jalapeno Pimento Cheese. She’s Tom’s daughter, and she lives in Dallas. It comes with crackers and a little knife, and everybody loves it.”

  “I’ll bet they do,” Hannah said. “I can hardly wait to taste it. Is it fiery hot?”

  “It’s not that hot. They’re pickled jalapenos and that takes away some of the heat. The cheese part helps, too. We do sell a lot of drinks after people eat it, though.”

  Hannah grinned, but she didn’t say anything. She knew a bit about restaurant sales, and she’d been told that there was more profit to be made on the drinks than there was on the food. It seemed that Tom, the owner of Club Nineteen, was a good businessman.

  “I’ll be back,” Shelby said, picking up her tray and preparing to leave.

  “Just a second,” Hannah stopped her. “Please don’t tell the owner, or anyone else for that matter, that Buddy’s dead. My sister and I would like to tell him ourselves.”

  “Sure thing,” Shelby said. “I don’t want to talk about it anyway. Maybe we never would have gotten together the way I wanted us to, but just thinking about Buddy being gone makes me too sad for words.”

  PIGGY CHICKEN

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: This recipe is from my friend, Nancy Sapir. Nancy’s family just loves Piggy Chicken. Nancy wrote “Sooo good!” on the bottom of her recipe. This recipe may sound complicated, but it’s not. Once you do it you’ll laugh at how delicious and easy it is. (And it looks gorgeous and very difficult, as if you spent all day working in the kitchen—don’t tell ANYONE you didn’t! It’s Nancy’s secret ... right?)

  1 to 1 and ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken ten- ders

  8 ounces cream cheese (NOT whipped, NOT low fat—use the brick type of cream cheese, not the plastic tub) ( I used an 8-ounce box of Philadel- phia Cream Cheese.)

  cup (2 Tablespoons) dried chopped chives

  cup dried minced onions (optional)

  salt

  freshly ground pepper

  1 pound regular-sliced bacon (Don’t use microwave bacon or thick-sliced bacon. The thick-sliced bacon may not get crisp, and
the microwave bacon may get too crisp since it’s been pre- cooked.)

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: I added the minced dried onions to Nancy’s recipe because the whole Swensen clan likes onions. Since I was the one who added it, I made it optional.

  Lay each skinless, boneless chicken tender between two sheets of plastic wrap and place them on a cutting board or a bread board on the counter. Use a meat hammer to pound them as flat as you can get them without creating holes. If you pound on the undersides, instead of on the tops, they’re less apt to fall apart.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you don’t have a meat hammer, you can smack the chicken tenders flat with a rolling pin. (I saw that on the Food Channel.) You can also use a thin board on top of the plastic wrap covered chicken tender and hit the board all over with a hammer. You can even do what I did and hit the plastic wrapped chicken tender with a rubber mallet. And here’s some marriage-saving advice: If you choose this last option, don’t tell your husband that you used his rubber mallet!

  Once you’ve pounded the chicken tenders thin and stacked them (still inside the plastic wrap) on the counter, it’s time to prepare your baking pan.

  Eyeball the pile of pounded chicken tenders. Once you’ve assessed how much space they’ll take, find a shallow pan (or two) that will hold them all with at least one inch between them on all sides. (Nancy says the space between them is very important so that the bacon can get crispy.) Spray this pan (or both pans) with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

  Move one flattened chicken tender to the cutting board or bread board. Take off the top sheet of plastic wrap.

  If your cream cheese isn’t softened, put it in a microwave-safe bowl and heat it on HIGH for 25 seconds. If you can’t stir it smooth at the end of that time, microwave it on HIGH at 20-second intervals until you can stir it smooth.

  Add the chives plus the dried onions if you used them. Mix them into the cream cheese thoroughly.

  Use a rubber spatula or a frosting knife to spread approximately 2 teaspoons of softened cream cheese on the flattened chicken tender.

  Hannah’s 4th Note: Don’t worry about contaminating your cream cheese with raw chicken juice. If there’s any cream cheese left over, you’re going to throw it away rather than risk whatever dire disease you might get from raw chicken. You’re also going to wash the cutting board, the rubber spatula or frosting knife, and the bowl holding the cream cheese very thoroughly. (Washing them in the dishwasher is best.)

  Sprinkle the dried chopped chives with minced dried onions (if you decided to use them).

  Sprinkle the cream cheese mixture with salt and freshly ground pepper.

  Roll up the loaded-with-goodness chicken tender like a jelly roll. Pick it up and move it to the bottom of the cutting board.

  Bring one piece of bacon on the cutting board. Pick up the piece of bacon and wrap it around the chicken roll, trying to angle it so that you cover as much of the chicken tender roll as possible.

  When you’re finished rolling the bacon around the chicken roll, place it in the pan you’ve prepared with at least one end of the bacon under the chicken tender roll. (If you can get both ends under, that’s great. If you can’t, don’t worry about it.)

  Repeat this process until all of the flattened chicken tenders have been rolled and covered with bacon.

  Slip the pan (or pans) into a 375 degree F. preheated oven for 25 minutes. Then turn the oven up to 425 degrees F. for 5 additional minutes, or until the bacon is crisp.

  Serve just the way they are, or with Champagne Mushroom Sauce to pour on top.

  Champagne Mushroom Sauce:

  ½ cup salted butter (1 stick, 4 ounces, ¼ pound)

  1 eight-ounce container sliced fresh button mushrooms (you can also use well-drained canned mushrooms)

  ½ cup domestic champagne (or white wine)

  1 packet (.88-ounce net weight) of brown gravy mix (I used Lawry’s)

  Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove over MEDIUM heat.

  Add the mushrooms and sauté lightly.

  Add the champagne (or white wine) and stir well.

  Sprinkle in the gravy mix. Stir the mixture until it bubbles.

  Cook this mixture, stirring constantly, for one minute.

  Pour the Champagne Mushroom Sauce into a gravy boat, and serve it when you serve the Piggy Chicken.

  Hannah’s Note: If you don’t want to use anything alcoholic, you can use ½ cup of chicken stock as an alternative.

  Jo Fluke’s Note: If I’m serving this for company, I spoon on the mushroom sauce and then sprinkle on chopped parsley.

  JANET’S TEXAS JALAPENO PIMENTO CHEESE

  No need to preheat your oven. This recipe requires chilling, not baking.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: This recipe is from Janet McLeod.

  8 ounces (that’s a half pound) mild cheddar cheese, shredded

  16 ounces (that’s a whole pound) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

  8-ounce package softened cream cheese (the brick kind, not the whipped kind) (I used Philadelphia Cream Cheese in the rectangular silver package.)

  two 7-ounce jars of diced pimento, drained

  12-ounce jar roasted red bell peppers, drained

  ¼ cup (4 Tablespoons) mayonnaise (I used Hellman’s)

  2 Tablespoons ( cup) Worcestershire sauce (I used Lea & Perrins)

  ½ cup pickled jalapeno pepper slices

  basket of assorted crackers, your choice

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: Janet says that a home-size food processor won’t hold all the cheeses at once, so you’ll have to process them in 3 batches.

  Place one-third of the shredded mild cheddar cheese, one-third of the shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and one- third of the softened cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor equipped with the steel blade. Process the cheeses for approximately 45 seconds, or until they are the same color and consistency.

  Use a rubber spatula to remove the cheese from the bowl of the food processor and store it in a bowl on the counter. The bowl you choose should have a cover and hold about 5 cups.

  Process the second batch of cheeses. When you’re finished, use the rubber spatula to add it to the first batch you processed.

  Process the third batch of cheese, and add it to the bowl on the counter.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: Don’t worry about washing out the food processor bowl. You’re going to process the rest of the ingredients, but it’s just fine if there’s a little cheese in the bowl.

  Drain the pimentos and place them in the bowl of the food processor.

  Drain the roasted red peppers and place them in the bowl of the food processor.

  Add the mayonnaise and the Worcestershire sauce.

  Drain the pickled jalapeno pepper slices and place them in the bowl of the food processor.

  With the steel blade in place, process the ingredients with an on-and-off motion 6 to 8 times, or until everything has been chopped into small pieces.

  Use the rubber spatula to scrape the final ingredients from the bowl of the food processor. Stir them into the bowl with the cheeses, and mix until they’re evenly distributed.

  Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. This will keep in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, but no longer.

  Serve in a pretty bowl with knives for each person to use for spreading it on crackers.

  Yield: This recipe will serve at least 6 people as an appetizer, but only if Mike Kingston’s not invited. If he is, you’d better make double!

  Hannah’s 4th Note: This is Mike’s favorite snack. I made it for him to take to a Winnetka County Sheriff’s Detectives meeting, and everyone raved about it.

  Chapter Twenty

  “So what now?” Andrea asked as they drove away from Club Nineteen. “We didn’t get anything important from the owner or his assistant.”

  “I know. All we got was a repeat that Buddy was talented on keyboards, and a real ladies’ man.”

  “So? What do we do next?”

  �
�I guess we go back home,” Hannah said, holding her head in her hands. She felt adrift in a choppy sea without a lifeboat or any other means of support. “But first could we stop off for chocolate?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Andrea said, taking a sharp left off the highway and heading for the nearest ice cream place. “Let’s get a gigantic mud slide. My mouth’s still on fire from the Texas Jalapeno Pimento Cheese.”

  “What’s a mud slide?”

  “It’s a hot fudge sundae with caramel sauce and chopped pecans over mounds of coffee ice cream.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Hannah said, unbuckling her seatbelt as they pulled into a parking spot in front of Dreamery Creamery, a chain of ice cream parlors that dotted the highway.

  “Hi,” a cheery voice greeted them as they pushed open the door, and Hannah turned to see a pretty girl in a pink and white apron behind the cash register. “Would you like something to go, or would you like to be seated?”

  “We’d like to be seated,” Andrea said.

  “Where is everybody?” Hannah asked, as the girl led them to a pink vinyl-covered booth. “Every time I’ve been in one of your shops, it’s been packed with customers.”

  “It’s the weather. People think it’s still too cold to go out for ice cream. Just as soon as the weather warms up a little, they’ll be back. Right now our business is mostly for hot chocolate and coffee to go.”

  “But you still make mud slides, don’t you?” Andrea asked.

  “Yes. Is that what you two want? A mud slide with two spoons?”

  “She’ll have a mud slide with coffee ice cream and one spoon,” Hannah said, pointing to Andrea. “And I’ll have a mud slide with chocolate ice cream and one spoon. We’ve had a rough day. We need lots of chocolate.”