Chocolate Cream Pie Murder

by Joanne Fluke

  Bake your Brie at 375 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until the bread dough balls have turned a nice golden brown.

  Let your French Baked Brie With Bread Knots cool in the pans for 5 minutes. Then remove them using a large flat metal spatula and place them on a serving platter.

  Yield: 2 delicious appetizers that will serve 8 to 10 guests.

  CHICKEN IN CABERNET SAUCE

  Made in a 4-quart slow cooker—must cook 7 hours or longer.

  1 bottle good cabernet or burgundy (both are full- bodied red wines)

  ½ pound thick-sliced bacon (see Hannah’s 1st Note below)

  3 stalks celery, chopped into ½-inch slices

  1 large sweet onion peeled and cut into quarter-inch slices (I used Vidalia)

  10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

  ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

  3 shallots, peeled and quartered

  20 small fresh carrot nuggets

  12-ounce package frozen pearl onions

  1 pound fresh white mushrooms

  2 minced garlic cloves (see Hannah’s Substitution List below)

  2 cups chicken broth

  3 Tablespoons tomato paste (I used Hunt’s)

  5 fresh thyme sprigs (see Hannah’s Substitution List below)

  5 fresh rosemary sprigs, chopped (see Hannah’s Substitution List below)

  3 fresh basil leaves (see Hannah’s Substitution List below)

  2 packages chicken gravy mix (the kind that makes

  1 cup gravy per package)

  4 Tablespoons (2 ounces, ½ stick) salted butter

  Hannah’s Substitution List: There are shortcuts you can take, even to this simple recipe, to reduce the preparation time. I’ve tried all of these and they work.

  For the half-pound of thick bacon, you can use a half-cup of cooked chopped bacon (I used Hormel). Just be careful to buy REAL bacon, not the bacon bits that are made of non-meat products.

  For the pound of fresh white mushrooms, you can use 4 four-ounce cans of button mushrooms, but you must drain them before adding them to the crock.

  For the minced garlic cloves, you can use a teaspoon of jarred minced garlic.

  For the spices, rather than buying fresh thyme sprigs, fresh rosemary sprigs, and fresh basil leaves, you can use 1 teaspoon of powered thyme, ½ teaspoon of powdered rosemary, and 1 teaspoon of dried basil leaves.

  Spray the inside of the crock of your slow cooker with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. (This will make it easier for you to wash later.)

  Measure the contents of your bottle of cabernet by pouring it into a measuring cup. You are going to reduce the wine to half of its present volume.

  Pour the wine into a saucepan and place it on the stovetop. Heat the wine on MEDIUM HIGH until it reaches a boil.

  Turn the heat down to MEDIUM, making sure that the wine still maintains a gentle boil.

  Set your timer for 15 minutes. It should take the wine approximately that long to reduce by half.

  Place the uncooked bacon on a cutting board and dice it with a knife.

  Place the diced, uncooked bacon in a microwave-safe bowl.

  Heat the bacon on HIGH for 2 minutes. Leave it in the microwave and let it sit for 2 minutes.

  Check the bacon to see if it’s cooked through. The bacon fat should be liquid and the diced bacon should look like bacon bits.

  If your bacon needs more cooking, heat it in the microwave on HIGH for increments of 1 minute, followed by another minute of standing time. Do this until the bacon is crisp and the fat has liquefied.

  Use a slotted spoon to take out the bacon and place it in a small bowl on the counter. You will add it to your Crock-Pot later.

  Hannah’s 1st Note: If you like to fry your breakfast eggs in bacon fat, pour the fat in a container with a cover and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t care to save it, pour it into a disposable cup and place it in the garbage.

  When 15 minutes have passed, pour the contents of your saucepan into the same measuring cup you used earlier. If it is reduced by half of its original volume, it’s ready. If not, pour it back into the saucepan and continue to gently boil it until it is.

  Place the celery slices in the bottom of your crock.

  Lay the sweet onion slices over the celery.

  Arrange the chicken thighs on top of the onion slices.

  Sprinkle HALF of the black pepper over the chicken.

  Arrange the shallots on top of the peppered chicken.

  Place the carrot nuggets on top of the shallots.

  Sprinkle on the contents of the frozen pearl onion package.

  If the white mushrooms are large, cut them in half and arrange them on top of the pearl onions.

  Sprinkle on the minced garlic.

  Remember the bacon bits you cooked? Sprinkle them over the minced garlic.

  Sprinkle the rest of the black pepper over the top of the bacon bits.

  Add the 2 cups of chicken broth to the reduced wine in your saucepan.

  Stir in the 3 Tablespoons of tomato paste.

  If you are using fresh herbs, tie the thyme sprigs, rosemary sprigs, and basil leaves in a square of cheesecloth. You will want to remove them from the finished dish before you serve it. Alternatively, you can put everything into a tea ball, affix the lid, and remove that when your meal is ready to eat.

  Hannah’s 2nd Note: If you are using powdered thyme, powdered rosemary, and dried basil leaves, simply sprinkle them all into the saucepan and stir them in.

  Sprinkle in ONE packet of gravy mix and stir it in.

  Pour the contents of the saucepan over the ingredients in your crock.

  Cut the cold butter into several pieces and arrange them on top of your crock.

  Put the lid on your Crock-Pot, plug it in, and turn it on LOW heat. Your Chicken in Cabernet Sauce will be ready in 7 hours, but it will hold for several more hours if your guests are late.

  Check the progress of your meal 20 minutes before you’re ready to serve. If the sauce that had formed is too thin, add the second packet of gravy mix, stir it in, and put on the lid again. Then turn the Crock-Pot on HIGH and let it cook for an additional 20 minutes.

  Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you invite Mike for dinner, be sure to put Slap Ya Mama hot sauce on the table for him.

  Yield: A delectable dinner for 5 to 6 guests. It can serve 8 if you also offer a green salad and hot, crusty bread.

  Chapter Five

  When Hannah woke up the next morning, she felt oddly content. It was nice to have Michelle and the guys in the condo. She’d been anticipating being by herself for three or four days and although the prospect certainly didn’t frighten her, it was nice to have company when you knew you were snowed in and couldn’t get out because of the weather.

  She flicked on the light, glanced at the alarm clock, and realized that it was almost seven in the morning. She’d slept for a lot longer than she usually did, especially on Sunday nights. It was great knowing that she didn’t have to go to work in the morning, and the prospect of relaxing all day on a Monday with people she liked was wonderfully appealing.

  Her neck was unusually stiff and Hannah rubbed it. Then she glanced at the other side of her bed and realized that Moishe had given Cuddles his pillow and he’d stolen hers in the middle of the night. She thought fleetingly of telling him he was bad for taking her pillow, but the two cats looked so angelic sprawled out on their matching pillows, she just didn’t have the heart to complain.

  Hannah was just pulling on her slippers when she realized that there was a delicious scent in the air. It took her a moment to identify it, but when she did, she began to smile. Peaches. And the scent of peaches was probably what had awakened her in the first place.

  “Michelle must be baking something with peaches,” she said to the sleeping cats. “I’m going to take a quick shower, get dressed, and go see what Michelle has in the oven.”

  Moishe opened one eye when he heard her voice. He gave a soft, rather kittenish
mew and began to stretch. Again, Hannah was amazed at how long her pet was when he stretched. He was lying on her pillow lengthwise and even though it was a king-size pillow, his head extended over one side and his back legs extended over the other side. He stretched for several seconds and then he sat up and reached out with one paw to rouse Cuddles.

  Cuddles opened her eyes, stretched in a smaller version of Moishe’s stretch, and sat up. Then both cats swiveled their heads to watch Hannah as she headed for the master bathroom to take her morning shower.

  When Hannah came back into her bedroom, ten minutes later, the cats had deserted her and there was a new scent in the air, the scent of coffee brewing. This caused her to make short work of dressing and within five additional minutes, she was heading toward the kitchen for her morning wake-up cup of the beverage that her father had always called Swedish Plasma.

  She could hear the shower running as she passed the guest bathroom and Hannah knew that at least one of the men was awake. A few steps later, quietly tiptoeing past the two occupied sleeping bags in the living room, she entered the kitchen.

  Just as she’d expected, Moishe and Cuddles were parked in front of their food bowls. Their heads were down, almost buried in whatever Michelle had fed them with their Kitty Kibble, and they didn’t even look up to see who had come in.

  Hannah began to smile. As usual, Michelle had accomplished all of the chores that Hannah would have had to do if Hannah were alone. Her youngest sister simply pitched in and didn’t even expect any thanks for doing it.

  Michelle was on the other side of the kitchen, removing something from the oven. It smelled so delicious that it made Hannah’s mouth begin to water. She stood there watching as her youngest sister carried a baking sheet with the aromatic treat to a wire rack she’d placed on the counter, and then Michelle went back to the oven for a second baking sheet.

  “Good morning, Michelle,” Hannah said once Michelle’s precious cargo had been stowed on the wire racks. “Whatever that is, it smells absolutely wonderful!”

  “Good morning, Hannah. I baked Peach Scones. It’s a new recipe and it seemed like the perfect time to try it.”

  “If the scent is any indication, it’s a great recipe.”

  “I hope so.” Michelle turned and hurried to the coffeepot. “Sit down, Hannah, and I’ll bring you a cup of coffee. And before you think to ask me, the scones have to cool for five to ten minutes.”

  “I vote for five,” Hannah told her, pulling out a chair at her kitchen table and sitting down in her favorite spot. “I don’t think I can wait any longer than that.”

  “Neither could Heiti. Aunt Nancy said that she made them for breakfast one morning and he almost burned his mouth by tasting them too soon.”

  “Too bad we don’t have a little table outside. They’d cool faster out there.”

  “And if they didn’t blow away in the wind gusts we’re having this morning, they’d be covered with snow in no time flat.”

  “It’s bad outside?”

  “The worst I’ve ever seen.” Michelle set Hannah’s coffee mug in front of her and went back to fill hers. Then she sat down in an adjacent chair and sighed. “Just look out the window.”

  Hannah turned to look and began to frown. “The snow’s still coming down in sheets. I can’t even see the building next door and it’s only a few feet away.”

  “I know. After we have some breakfast, I want to see if KCOW-TV is still on the air. They should have the latest news on the blizzard.”

  “I’ll turn it on after we eat.” Hannah opened the refrigerator and looked inside. “What shall we have with the scones? The guys will probably want a bigger breakfast.”

  “That depends on what you have in your refrigerator.”

  “I have some breakfast sausages and several cartons of eggs. And I think there’s a package of shredded cheddar in there.”

  Michelle thought about that for a moment and then she nodded. “I think there’s one on the second shelf, right next to the sliced ham.”

  “Great! Then we could cook the sausages and have scrambled eggs with cheese. And if we wanted to, we could cut up the cooked sausages and add them to the eggs when we scramble them. We could even throw in some chopped onions and add those right before we add the cheese.”

  Michelle looked a bit concerned. “That sounds good, but we’ll need more than one big frying pan. There are five of us at breakfast and all of the men will be hungry.”

  “That’s true, especially Mike. Why don’t we make a baked dish in the oven with all of those ingredients?”

  “I like that idea, but what shall we make?”

  “I’m not sure, but preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. That’s a standard temperature. If we need a hotter oven, we’ll simply increase the temperature.”

  “Will we need both ovens?”

  “No, just the top one. We’ll use a nine-and-a-half by eleven inch cake pan. That should hold enough for all five of us.”

  Michelle hurried to the oven and set it to preheat. Then she came back to the table. “Do you want to taste the scones now?”

  “Yes! Are they cool enough?”

  “I think so.” Michelle went over to pick up a scone and when she turned around, she was smiling. “They’re just right.”

  “Great!” Hannah began to frown as the doorbell rang. “Wait a minute, Michelle. Someone’s at the door.”

  When she got to the door and pulled it open, Hannah gave a welcoming smile. “Marguerite!” she greeted her next-door neighbor. “Come in before you get cold.”

  Marguerite stepped into Hannah’s living room and began to smile as the two cats rushed out of the kitchen to greet her. “Hello, Moishe. Hello, dear Cuddles.” Then she looked up at Hannah. “How wonderful! I think Cuddles remembers me!”

  “I’m sure she does. Come have a cup of coffee with Michelle and me.”

  Once Marguerite had been seated at Hannah’s kitchen table with Cuddles in her lap and a cup of coffee in front of her, they began to discuss the situation with the weather.

  “Do you and Clara have enough food to last through the blizzard?” Hannah asked her.

  “Oh, yes. We went to the Red Owl right after class on Friday night and shopped for the week.”

  “You and Clara are taking a class?” Michelle asked.

  “Yes. It’s so much fun! It gets us out in the community with the other senior citizens in the Encore program.”

  Hannah was puzzled. “Where is this? And what’s the Encore program?”

  “It’s an offering of free classes for senior citizens at the community college. The variety to choose from is amazing. Clara is taking a painting class and she doesn’t appreciate this weather one bit! If it doesn’t clear up soon, she won’t be able to complete her assignment before the next class.”

  “She doesn’t usually paint outside, does she?” Michelle drew the obvious conclusion.

  “No, she paints inside. But her assignment this week is to go outside at various hours of the day and night to take cell phone photos of an object that casts a shadow. They have to use the same object every time and Clara’s already done the morning and afternoon hours. She was going to start on the evening hours yesterday, but the weather didn’t cooperate.”

  “I thought it was a painting class,” Hannah said.

  “It is. Clara says it’s to teach the students the difference the time of day and night make. And also the difference in color between the shadows cast by the sun and shadows cast by the moon.”

  “And now, with the blizzard, Clara can’t go outside to do it,” Michelle concluded.

  “That’s right. The moon’s not casting any shadows that Clara could photograph with all this blowing snow,” Hannah added. “Which object did Clara choose?”

  “That big lone pine tree at the edge of the woods. You know the one, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” Hannah answered. “It’s a majestic tree and I just wish we could see it from our building.”

/>   “So do I.” Marguerite gave a little sigh. “Then Clara wouldn’t have to go out at night and wade through the snow. I just hope they shovel the path that goes around the complex after this storm stops.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Hannah reassured her. “Tell us about your class, Marguerite. What subject are you studying?”

  “I have a poetry class. We’re working on writing poetry and the professor is teaching us about word choice. We bring in the poems we’ve written during the week and he reads them in class. Everyone discusses them and suggests ways that we can improve them.”

  “I’d love to read some of your poems,” Hannah said.

  Marguerite began to smile. “That’s good because I wrote one for you. Our last class was about how to capture the essence of meaning with an elegance of words. Our professor said that if we can find the best word to describe what we mean, we won’t have to use two or three adjectives to convey it.”