by Becky Clark
“What are they?”
“Those cumin cupcakes everyone liked so much.”
Quinn smiled at her. “Of course.”
While Georgeanne made more coffee and filled pitchers of iced tea and lemonade, Quinn arranged the red, white, and blue cupcakes on a platter. She started a pattern, then purposely picked up a white one and replaced it with a blue, then a red one next to another red one. When she finished, the platter was as randomized as she could make it. She lifted it, then set it back down immediately. Was this a patterned arrangement too? Was purposely placing cupcakes in random order the same as obsessively marching them in line by staggered color? Or was she beginning to loosen the grip of one of her compulsions? This was unfamiliar territory, but she felt like she had some breathing room. At least for now. Quinn stared at the platter, then shrugged. These were questions for Mary-Louise Lovely next week.
She carried out the tray and Georgeanne followed with the drinks. Loma asked about the flavors after she grabbed a red one and a white one. Rico declined cupcakes, but accepted a cup of coffee from Georgeanne. Dan licked the frosting off a blue cupcake before breaking it in half and taking a big bite.
“So, Rico,” Quinn asked with a playful grin. “Do you still wish I hadn’t helped with your investigation?”
“If I ever say that again, you have permission to throttle me.”
“And seeing what she did to Patterson, you know she can too!” Loma said.
“I don’t doubt it. I remember all the bruises she gave me when we trained together.”
Quinn nodded. “I cleaned your clock more than once.”
“That you did.” Rico tilted his head, assessing her. “People underestimate you, Quinn Carr.”
“At their peril,” Loma added loudly.
“At their peril,” Rico echoed.
Quinn got all squishy at the praise and deflected the compliment. “People undertip me too.”
Everyone ate and drank and chatted about the recent events.
Jake finished his cumin cupcake, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, and stood. Quinn expected him to drop it into the trash. Instead he walked to the front window, took down the Help Wanted sign, and threw it away.
RECIPES
Georgeanne’s Pretzel Pancakes
Makes about 13
3C white whole wheat flour
2T baking powder
1T sugar
1tspn salt
2C water
1/2 C unsweetened applesauce (those lunchbox cups are perfect for this)
3 eggs
maybe a squidge of vanilla if you like
small pretzel twists (buy a big bag, someone will eat whatever you don’t use)
Mix the dry ingredients first, then add the wet ingredients. Or do it the other way around. It all gets mixed up eventually.
Heat some oil in a skillet until a drip of water sizzles. Pour a scant 1/3 C of batter for each pancake. Take your pretzel twists and arrange them in the batter of each pancake, as many as you like, hanging over the edges or completely hidden. Or both!
It’s time to turn your pancakes when the bubbles disappear. Flip and cook the other side.
Top these with whatever sounds good. I only use caramel sauce on mine. Here’s how I make that:
1C sugar
1/2 C whipping cream
2T butter
In a small saucepan, mix sugar with 1/4C water. Stir it real good over medium-high heat, then let it heat without stirring for 10 or 15 minutes. It should be caramel colored by then.
While that’s happening, warm your cream a bit on the stove or in the microwave. Whisk it slowly into the caramel for a couple of minutes until it’s smooth. Take it off the heat and add the butter to melt in it. So good!
Here are some things Quinn and Dan like on their pretzel pancakes:
more pretzels held in place with whipped cream
maple syrup
sliced strawberries
1T chocolate syrup + 1/2T balsamic vinegar
flavored yogurt
peanut butter and maple syrup
honey mixed with a little mustard (it is a pretzel, after all!)
Enjoy! I’d love to know what you put on yours! Send an email and photo to [email protected]
Georgeanne’s Redneck Ravioli
(aka Comfort Squares)
Makes more than a few, less than a lot
Basically, these are stuffed pillows of comfort foods, which are different for everyone, so adapt to your comfort level … pun intended.
You’ll need a piecrust, store-bought or homemade. Roll it out thin and then cut it into 2-inch squares, or use a cookie cutter about that size. It doesn’t need to be square, but then you’ll have to call these something different. You might have a small juice glass about 2-inches across. I just checked my cabinet and I do, so you probably do too.
Cut out as many as you can, but you’ll need an even number. Press the scraps together and roll out again, as many times as you need to. Your number of squares will depend on how thinly you roll them out.
Cover a cookie sheet with foil or parchment if you don’t want to wash the cookie sheet afterward.
Now, you get to decide on your fillings. You can make them all the same or make each one different. Here’s where you make this recipe your own. The only mistake you can make with these is to fill them too full, because then it oozes out and makes a mess. A delicious mess, especially if the cheese gets crispy, but a mess nonetheless.
Here at the Carr house, when Quinn is upset she goes for anything cheesy. I like the sweet stuff, and Dan likes everything, so I always make a variety. When Quinn was little, she used to love using a can of squirt cheese to decorate the tops of hers.
These are some combinations we like:
mashed potatoes, chocolate pudding, and cheddar cheese
peanut butter, cheddar cheese, and chocolate pudding
cream cheese and jelly
hummus and black olives
mandarin orange slices (canned, drained) and chocolate pudding
chocolate pudding and cream cheese
cream cheese and green olives
cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and hummus
peanut butter and dill pickle chips
just cheddar cheese
peanut butter and jelly
peanut butter, banana, and bacon bits
cheddar cheese and black olives
I could go on, but I think one of my piano students is waiting for me. Just know you can’t go wrong with your favorite flavors. And remember not to yuck somebody’s yum. If we all liked the same thing, you’d be married to Dan too!
So, once you have an even number of piecrust squares, plop a heaping teaspoon or so of filling in the center of one. If you use more, you’ll have trouble pinching the edges closed. Cover it with another square, then using a fork, press the edges together, forming your pillow of delight. Place on the cookie sheet. Brush both sides with melted butter if you like, and sprinkle with salt, or cinnamon sugar, or nothing, or something I haven’t thought of yet.
Bake at 400° for 10–12 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Let them cool if you can, but I won’t judge you when you can’t help yourself and start popping these in your mouth. Goodness knows that’s what Quinn, Dan, and I do!
I’d love to know what filling you created! Send an email and photo to [email protected]
Enjoy!
Acknowledgments
I find writing the acknowledgments for a book more difficult than actually writing the book. It’s an almost impossible task to single out the people who have helped me get this book into bookstores. Everyone I’ve ever met in this industry has offered help in ways large and small, whether they knew it or not, going back to the late 1990s, wh
en I dipped a terrified toe in the publishing water. The sheer number of people who saved me from drowning is overwhelming and humbling. Too many people are left out of this official thank you, but I’ve not forgotten your generosity.
It never fails to amaze me when readers pick up my book, read it, then tell me they liked it. I wouldn’t get to do this without readers in my corner, so you, dear readers, keep being awesome.
Jill Marsal, agent extraordinaire, is always right there with a prompt and complete answer to even my dumbest questions. And she’s so polite, she never even hints that they’re dumb! She knows everyone and everything and I’m thrilled to be in her orbit.
This is my first time working with Norma Perez-Hernandez at Kensington. I liked her from the minute we chatted on the phone and she said nice things about my writing. She truly knows the way to a writer’s heart. She also knows the ways to make a book better and I’m grateful for her guidance on Puzzling Ink.
My nephew Michael, newly promoted to detective, has finally learned to answer all of my over-the-top what-if questions with what could happen in the wild world of fiction instead of what would happen in the boring world of police work. I love that he doesn’t even flinch anymore when I text him things like, “So…there’s someone tied up in the basement…” I’d be lost without his police expertise. Any mistakes are mine alone, usually because I’ve decided what would really happen is simply too boring so I snazz it up, much to his chagrin.
Huge thanks to Kathy and Cody for sharing with me the realities of living with OCD. No amount of research could take the place of your insights. I’m honored you trusted me.
Once again, my beta readers worked their magic for me. In this case, Leslie Karst, MB Partlow, and Jessica Cornwell offered excellent advice and so fast it made my head spin. Thanks for your discerning and constructive eyeballs on my work. I couldn’t do this without you.
Writers often work in a vacuum, staring at our computers, or out the window, or at that hangnail for far too long to be healthy. So I’m eternally grateful to my husband Wes, my kids Jessie, Adam, and Jeff, and friends near and far for figuring out ways to pry me away from my work and into the real world on occasion, even if it’s just long enough to text me something goofy. You guys are the best.
My Chicks on the Case cohorts—Ellen Byron, Vickie Fee, Leslie Karst, Cynthia Kuhn, Lisa Q. Mathews, and Kathleen Valenti—excellent writers and storytellers, all. You raise the level of my writing because I study yours. I love that I can always depend on you for a laugh or a dose of perspective, whichever I might need. I adore you women.
I also adore the members of my Facebook group, Becky’s Book Buddies. Thank you for playing in my sandbox with me.
Christina Iverson deserves kudos for her calm and gentle suggestions to help me wrangle my crossword grid when it really doesn’t want to be wrangled. Who knew a few black squares could render me so bumfuzzled?
I hope I haven’t, but I suspect I’ve missed acknowledging some of my crossword puzzle testers, but it’s more a lack of organization on my part than a lack of gratitude. I started teaching myself how to make puzzles over the last few years, when the idea for this series was just a nebulous flicker. The what-if turned into a maybe-I-can and Chris Reese, Kelli Mahan, Jann Barber, Claudia Rouge, Kristin Schadler, Mary Fraser, Tammy Barker, Katherine Munro, Audrey Natale, Vanessa Blair, Robin Nolet, Claire Fishback, Cathy Stratman, and Bob Clark gave me the thumbs-up on the puzzles, reassuring me not only that I could, but that I did. Their help has been invaluable.
If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering, Why crosswords, anyway? Well, that’s easy. My dad is why crosswords. He solved crosswords for as long as I can remember, but I came to it a bit later. Dad wasn’t one to gush, but I knew he was proud when I hit certain milestones in my life: graduated from college, published my first book, finally quit putting beans in my chili. But I think the thing that delighted him most was when I started solving crosswords in ink. The true measure of a quality person, in his book. I wish he could have seen this. The whole darn thing’s in ink!
Meet Becky Clark
A highly functioning chocoholic, Becky Clark is the seventh of eight kids, which explains both her insatiable need for attention and her atrocious table manners. She likes to read funny books so it felt natural to write them, too. She published her first novel in 2001, and is a sought-after speaker.
Visit her at www.beckyclarkbooks.com.