Jack Loves Callie Tender (A Southern Cousins Mystery prequel, companion guide and cookbook)

by Webb, Peggy

  1 stick butter 1 banana

  4 eggs 1 box powdered sugar

  8 oz. cream cheese 1 ½ t. vanilla

  1 stick butter

  Mix cake mix, 1 egg and butter. Press into a buttered 9 x 13 “ cake pan.

  Mix 3 eggs, cream cheese, butter, peanut butter and mashed banana until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread over the cake mixture.

  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes. The middle of the cake will be loose when removed from the oven.

  Top with Cool Whip if you like.

  Pink Cadillac Strawberry Cake

  Note from Elvis:

  This recipe is from Wilma White, another amazing fan and one of the driving forces of the Tupelo Elvis Fan Club. In fact, it was Miss Wilma whose energy and hard work made the Elvis car tag a reality. Enjoy this confection and be prepared to loosen your belt a couple of notches.

  Cake:

  1 box of yellow cake mix ½ cup of water

  3 T. self-rising flour 1 box strawberry Jell-O

  ½ c. fresh strawberries ½ c. oil

  (maybe substitute frozen) 4 eggs, beaten

  Glaze:

  1 box confectioners sugar ½ c. strawberries

  1 stick butter, melted

  Blend all cake ingredients and bake in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

  For the glaze, mix confectioners sugar with melted butter. Add ½ c. of strawberries. Spread on warm cake.

  Lovie’s Easy Coconut Cake

  Note from Elvis: This is one of the author’s favorite cake recipes. Easy and delicious. It was a staple at her house when her children were growing up. And it always got rave reviews when company came.

  2 c. sour cream

  2 c. sugar

  2 c. frozen coconut

  1 box of yellow cake mix

  Combine sour cream, sugar and frozen coconut. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, prepare the cake according to directions. Bake in two round cake pans. Split the layers in the middle so you have four layers. Let the layers cool and then spread the icing between the four layers and on the top. Don’t attempt to spread around the sides.

  Keep this cake refrigerated. The longer it sits, the more the layers will absorb the filling and the better the cake will be.

  Lovie’s Mound Cake

  Note from Elvis: This recipe came from Shirley Reed Gillentine who had a unique connection to yours truly in my other life as a future icon growing up in poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi. To help make ends meet, Gladys Presley worked as a domestic for Shirley’s mama, Miss Grace, when I was just a baby. Miss Grace had her own little baby boy at that time, Arthur Roy (who later became the author’s brother-in-law). I would sleep in the crib with Arthur Roy while my mama worked. Afterward, Miss Grace would put a record on the Victrola and everybody would gather around while my mama danced and sang. Folks around these parts say that’s where I got my talent.

  Cake:

  1 pkg. Duncan Hines yellow cake mix ½ c. oil

  1 3 oz. pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix 1 ¼ c. water

  3 eggs 1 t. vanilla

  Mix well and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven in 4 small cake pans till done.

  Coconut Filling:

  30 large marshmallows 1 c. milk

  14 oz. pkg. coconut 1 t. vanilla

  1 c. sugar

  Mix marshmallows, milk and sugar and cook over low heat until marshmallows are melted. Add coconut and vanilla. Cool and spread between cake layers.

  Chocolate Icing:

  2 c. sugar 1 stick butter

  ¼ c. cocoa 1 t. vanilla

  ¼ c. white syrup ¼ c. milk

  Mix cocoa and sugar. Add milk and syrup. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to bring mixture to a hard boil. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Add butter and allow to cool. Add vanilla. Beat until icing begins to thicken and then spread on top of the coconut filling and over the sides of the cake.

  Note from Elvis:

  Enjoy all of Lovie’s luscious desserts and look for more of her great recipes in the back of the fifth Southern Cousins Mystery, Elvis and the Blue Christmas Corpse. As always, you’ll also get plenty of juicy tidbits from yours truly.

  Now, go pour yourself a cup of hot tea, cut yourself a slice of cake and settle into your favorite chair with a Southern Cousins Mystery, starring yours truly!

  Elvis has left the building.

  o0o

  Companion Guide to the Southern Cousins Mystery Series

  Elvis and the Dearly Departed (Book One)

  Copyright 2008

  Available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and large print editions

  Callie Valentine Jones spends her days in her little beauty shop, Hair.Net, fixing up the hairdos of the glitterati of Mooreville, Mississippi (population 650) and her evenings at Uncle Charlie’s funeral home, Eternal Rest, prettying up the dead. When the corpse of local, prominent physician, Dr. Leonard Laton, suddenly goes missing, Callie and her 190-pound bombshell cousin Lovie set out in hot pursuit of the recently embalmed, last seen bound for Vegas by way of downtown Tupelo.

  If they don’t get the good doctor back into the empty casket before anybody knows he’s gone, Eternal Rest will be ruined. Not to mention Lovie’s Luscious Eats (Lovie caters the funeral receptions) and Everlasting Monuments, a company run by Callie’s mom, Ruby Nell Valentine, who is fond of catchy tombstone phrases such as “Trumpet player, Leroy Smith, caught the last jazz train to heaven where he’s now tooting his own horn.”

  Even Callie’s dog Elvis goes into full sleuthing mode to find the missing doctor’s corpse. He may be nothin’ but a hound dog, but he knows a mystery when he smells one. But keeping his human mom from wandering off the trail isn’t easy when she’s back in the arms of her on-again, off-again ex, Jack Jones. Not to mention the angry mourners squabbling over the estate of the late doctor inside the not-so-restful halls of Eternal Rest. Or the French Poodle named Ann Margret who is sniffing around for a hunk of Elvis burning love…

  In Vegas, Callie and Lovie hit the jackpot when they locate Bubbles Malone, former showgirl who was last seen flaunting her considerable assets in front of Dr. Laton’s relatives at Eternal Rest. But things get complicated when Bubbles decides to join the doctor in the afterlife. With the poisonous Laton family tree providing plenty of rotten suspects, Callie’s determined to crack the case – with a whole lotta sleuthing from Elvis and cousin Lovie and a little help from that irresistible hunk who used to be her husband.

  How Callie gets the corpse back and has a killer singing “Jailhouse Rock” in time for her next haircutting appointment, makes for laugh-out-loud fun.

  Elvis and the Grateful Dead (Book Two)

  Copyright 2009

  Available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and large print editions

  Every year a hip-shaking herd of Elvis impersonators descends on the King’s birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi, for the annual Elvis festival. Usually, the main attractions are lots of sequined jumpsuits and even more of Elvis’ hit songs, but this year something much more deadly has the town all shook up…

  When the first Elvis impersonator is found slumped over his piano, a heart attack seems the likely suspect. But when a second keels over mid-swagger at Callie Valentine Jones’s party, suspicious minds begin to wonder if something foul is afoot. Because everybody knows two dead Elvis impersonators add up to only one thing: murder.

  As it turns out, Callie’s cousin Lovie, who has had more lovers than the King had hit records, is the prime suspect. Currently she’s planning to play house with the hunk from book one, Rocky Malone. But in twist that had Lovie saying words that will curl her cousin’s hair, Rocky is playing hard to get.

  Callie knows her cousin is innocent, but to prove it, she and Lovie will have to find the real killer. Could it be Texas Elvis, who has sworn to out-swivel his rivals? Maybe the female Elvis from Au
stralia, with the fake sideburns? Or one of the endlessly bickering officers of the Elvis fan club?

  It’s a mystery fit for a King. With a little help from Callie’s talented hound dog Elvis, and her hunk-a-burnin’ love, almost ex-husband Jack, she’s determined to unmask the real murderer. But she and cousin Lovie have to shake, rattle and roll. The killer’s on the move and their chance may be now or never.

  Elvis and the Memphis Mambo Murders (Book Three)

  Copyright 2010

  Available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and large print editions

  A lovable basset hound who’s convinced he’s the King reincarnated. A blonde bombshell mooning the lobby of the ritziest hotel in the South. And a murder witnessed by a parade of fame-hungry ducks? Something’s afoul alright, and it’s definitely a case for the Southern Cousins…

  Callie Valentine Jones and her cousin Lovie really have their work cut out for them this time. Callie mama, Ruby Nell has gone and entered herself – and her hunk-a-geriatric-love dance partner – in a Memphis mambo contest, hoping to shake, rattle and roll her way to stardom. And if the past if any indication, she’ll need at least two chaperones.

  Ruby Nell’s best friend, Fayrene, is the first to volunteer, and Callie is not about to let her mama set out to Memphis without her. Lovie insists on going along for the ride, and Elvis is not about to miss the opportunity to revisit his old home, Graceland. The Valentine gang and Fayrene set out to the grand old Peabody Hotel.

  But someone at the competition is determined to step on a lot of blue suede shoes. First, a dancer does a swan diver from the top of the hotel. Then Callie finds an overdressed diva floating in a famous fountain. A murdered is on the loose in Memphis, and he’s got a whole lot of killing to do.

  With help from Jack, the almost-ex Callie can’t get out of her mind, the cousins don disguises and track a killer all the way to Graceland. Things get complicated when Uncle Charlie reveals Jack’s true profession. They heat up even more when the dancer-hating maniac sets his sights on Ruby Nell. The cousins need a little less conversation and lot more action if they want their family waltzing home in one piece.

  Elvis and the Tropical Double Trouble (Book Four)

  Copyright 2011

  Available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and large print editions

  It’s two times the turmoil for mayhem magnet Callie, her curvaceous cousin Lovie, and Elvis, the King reincarnated as nothin’ but a hound dog. This time they’re finding a lot more than relics on an archeological dig that could be their ruin.

  Forced to choose between one man who wants to marry her and another who already did, Callie Valentine Jones can’t think of a better way to check out of her personal Heartbreak Hotel than to get way, way out of town. So when Lovie invites the whole Valentine clan to visit her brainy new beau’s worksite near Cozumel, Callie packs up her crooning basset hound and heads straight for the airport.

  But the moment they arrive at the dig, Elvis sniffs out T-R-O-U-B-L-E in the form of a skeleton too fresh to be part of the research and too dead to spell anything but homicide. Ruby Nell and Fayrene blame ghost and gods, but Callie knows the guilty party is all too human – and for once, she’s determined not to get involved.

  But when Lovie and Elvis go missing, Callie jumps knee-deep into trouble. It’s now or never if she wants to save her cousin and her canine from someone who’s always got murder on his mind.

  Meanwhile, the kidnap victims land in more hot water than they imagined, and the killer sets his sights on Callie. Ruby Nell and Fayrene try to save the day with sacrifices and native dances under a full moon, but it’s Callie’s sexy ex who lights a fire under the killer – not to mention undecided wife.

  Even Uncle Charlie brings his skills as an ex Company man to bear on finding a killer, but the Valentine gang will have to join forces if they want to get Lovie and Elvis back and unmask a killer with something deadly to hide.

  Elvis and the Blue Christmas Corpse (Book Five)

  Copyright 2012

  Available in hardcover, paperback and eBook editions

  Somebody’s ringing slay bells and Callie, her bodacious cousin Lovie, and the basset hound who believes he’s the King reincarnated must go on the hunt for a killer who’s anything but jolly.

  It may be Christmas in Tupelo, but there’s precious little peace in the valley for the Valentine gang. Callie’s not-quite-ex Jack is trussed up like a holiday turkey, recovering from a shattered leg at Callie’s house, where things are heating up between them faster than Lovie’s barbecue grill.

  Cousin Lovie’s on the rebound, looking for love in all the wrong stockings. And Elvis the basset hound is out for revenge on the Lhasa Apso who’s been singing “Merry Christmas, Baby” to his sweet French poodle.

  Everyone finally gets into the spirit when Uncle Charlie is pressed into service as Santa at the weekend charity event in the mall. But Yuletide cheer turns to Yuletide fear after a killer marks Uncle Charlie “Return to Sender” and tries to zap him back to the North Pole. For good measure, the killer who is determined to give everybody a “Blue Christmas” sends Rudolph to the big reindeer pen in the sky.

  Determined to find out who’s decking the mall with Christmas corpses, Elvis and the Valentines fill up their sleigh with suspects. Could it be the cookie lady who puts more than sugar into her Christmas goodie? The deranged vet who vows to barbecue Santa? Or the former Sweet Potato Queen who’s stalking Charlie in her spare time?

  To unmask a devil in disguise, the Valentine gang turns to Uncle Charlie’s assistant over at Eternal Rest, Bobby Huckabee of the mismatched eyes, who claims his blue one is psychic. But even with Bobby’s skills, can the Valentine gang catch the holiday killer in time to turn their blue Christmas white?

  New cover look! Coming soon!

  Elvis and the Bridegroom Stiffs (Book Six)

  Copyright 2013

  Currently available in digital only

  With the killer who hates Christmas behind bars and love in the air for Mooreville’s glitterati, the Valentine gang has turned their thoughts from murder to weddings…until the bridegrooms start turning up dead.

  Jack has put the star on Callie’s tree, but can he put a star in her heart, permanently? He’d like to join Mooreville’s glitterati in a holiday wedding, but Callie’s too busy to think about her own love life. She’s installing a sauna at the beauty shop in time for the New Year, plus she’s neck-deep in fixing up hairdos for the holiday wedding parties….until she finds the first groom, Jim Boy Sloan, dead on the floor of Hair. Net with her haircutting scissors plunged into his neck. To make matters worse, another bridegroom turns up dead at Callie’s wash and rinse sinks.

  With Callie as the prime suspect, the Valentine gang goes into full sleuth mode. Is the murderer one of the many women heartbroken that Jim Boy was on the way to the altar with Trixie Moffett? Could it be Trixie’s long-time lover and the man everybody thought she would marry – Roy Jessup over at Mooreville Feed and Seed? Or what about the mother of the bride who stood right in Gas, Grits and Guts to announce she would cut off Jim Boy’s balls if he fooled around on Trixie?

  With Callie rocking around the clock to prove herself innocent of murder and Jack playing for keeps, it takes a dog like Elvis to catch a killer and keep all the Valentines safe in time to ring in the New Year.

  Coming in February, 2014!

  Elvis and the Deadly Love Letters (7)

  Copyright 2014

  Available in digital

  Lovie has more lovers than Elvis has fleas! When her ex-boyfriends discover the sexiest caterer in Mississippi is about to reveal her national treasure to the sexiest archeologist since Harrison Ford in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” they start sending love letters designed to kill. Will Lovie be next? Or can Callie and her canine sleuth extraordinaire catch a killer in time for everybody to cozy up with a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.

  This short story will be available February, 2014 in the boxed set, My Evil Valentine
, by Peggy Webb and various authors.

  Southern Cousins Mysteries

  Cast of Characters

  Callie Valentine Jones – Owner of Hair.Net, the best little beauty shop in Mooreville, Mississippi, Callie also fixes up the hair of the dead over at Eternal Rest, her Uncle Charlie’s funeral home. She’s still in love with her almost-ex and is crazy about her cousin Lovie and her dog, Elvis. Callie collects shoes and stray animals, and she’s a soft touch for anybody who needs a hand or a loan, especially her mama.

  Lovie Valentine – Owner of Lovie’s Luscious Eats, Lovie is a caterer for all occasions, including those over at Eternal Rest, her daddy’s funeral home. Lovie is her own best customer, a 190-pound bombshell who has had more lovers than Elvis has fleas. She is not only Callie’s cousin, but her best friend and partner-in-crime. The cousins create more mayhem than the law allows with their amateur sleuthing. All Callie’s dog to the mix, and the trio gets into more laugh-aloud situations than Elvis had hit records.

  Elvis Valentine Jones – A basset hound extraordinaire and the reincarnation of the famous King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis claims Jack and Callie as his human parents. He has mismatched ears that hear everything, a big memory of his glory days as a singing legend, and a big mission: seeing after his human parents. He earns his weight in PupPeroni by keeping Callie happy and making sure Jack put his dirty socks in the washer before they are declared a hazard to health. Did I mention that he’s also a sleuthing dog with a nose for trouble?