Wedding Cake Murder (10 page)

Serve the stew in bowls with a basket of hot crusty bread or Michelle’s Spicy Cheesy Corn Muffins as an accompaniment.

Yield: 6 to 8 large servings, unless you invite Mike. Then you’d better prepare a second crockpot.

CHEESY CHILI CORN MUFFINS

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

enough packages of corn muffin mix to make 18 muffins
(Michelle used 3 packages of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, the kind that makes 6 to 8 muffins per package—each package weighed 8.5 ounces.)

2 large eggs, beaten
(just whip them up in a glass with a fork
)

14.15 ounce net weight can of creamed corn
(Michelle used Libby’s Cream Style Sweet Corn)

10 and ¾-ounce net weight can of
condensed
cheddar cheese soup
(Michelle used Campbell’s)

one 4-ounce net weight can of diced green chilies
(Michelle used Ortega Diced Green Chilies)

8 ounces shredded cheese to sprinkle on top of your muffins before baking
(Michelle used Kraft Mexican Style Four Cheese mixture
of
shredded cheeses—if you can’t find that, a mixture of Monterey Jack and Cheddar will do just fine)

Prepare your muffin pans by spraying the inside of the cups with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with double cupcake papers. You will need 2 regular-size muffin
(cupcake)
pans with 12 cups in each, or 2 jumbo muffin pans with 6 cups in each.

Pour the dry muffin mix into a large mixing bowl.

Add the beaten eggs, but let them sit on top of the muffin mix.

Add the creamed corn on top of the eggs, but again, don’t mix it in.

Add the condensed cheddar cheese soup on top of the creamed corn. Don’t mix quite yet.

Drain the can of diced green chilies and put them on top of the cheese soup.

Mix all the ingredients together. Continue to stir until everything is thoroughly incorporated.

Hannah’s 1
^st
note: There will be some lumps in the muffin batter from the chilies and the corn. That’s perfectly fine. Just make sure there are no dry spots of muffin mix that haven’t been stirred into the batter.

Using a large spoon, fill the muffin cups three-quarters full.

Hannah’s 2
^nd
note: If you’re using the jumbo muffin cups, divide the batter equally to fill the 12 large cups. They may be a little more than three-quarters full, but that’s all right. If you’re using the regular-size muffin cups, you may not have enough batter to fill all the cups in both pans three-quarters full. That’s okay. Just take out the cupcake papers in the empty cups so that you can save them for future use.

Once your batter is in the muffin cups, sprinkle the tops of the cups with shredded cheese. This will melt and turn golden as you bake your Cheesy Chili Corn Muffins.

Bake the muffins at 375 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes if you’re using the regular-size muffin pans, and 30 to 35 minutes if you’re using the jumbo muffin pans.

When the time is up for the size of muffins you made, test your muffins with a cake tester, long toothpick, or thin wooden skewer by plunging it into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean with no muffin batter clinging to it, your muffins are done. If it still has sticky batter on the tester, toothpick, or skewer, return your pans to the oven for additional 5-minute increments until they test done.

Remove your muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin pans on wire racks or on cold stove burners for at least 10 minutes. Then turn the muffins out of the pans and cool them right side up on wire racks until they feel warm, not hot. Then line a basket with a napkin and place them inside to serve them.

Serve your muffins with plenty of soft butter. They’re delicious!

Yield: Approximately 18 regular-size muffins or 12 jumbo muffins.

Michelle’s Note: Despite the fact that Mike was there the night I first made these, there were two muffins left
over. Hannah and I stored them in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator and heated them in the microwave to have for a snack. If there had been more leftover muffins, we would have sealed them in a freezer bag and frozen them to accompany another meal.

Chapter Seven

M
ike and Lonnie left shortly after Ross and Norman. Once they were gone, Hannah and Michelle cleared the table, rinsed and stacked the dishes in the dishwasher, and tidied up the kitchen. When they were through, Hannah poured a glass of white wine. “Do you want a glass of wine?” she called out to Michelle.

“No, thanks. I’m going to turn in for the night. I want to get up early and try another recipe. Aunt Nancy gave me an idea today, and we’ll have it for breakfast.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not going to tell you because it doesn’t have a name yet. It’s just an idea.”

“What’s in it?”

“You’ll find out in the morning. I’m just hoping it’ll work.”

Hannah smiled as she headed for her customary spot on the couch. The moment she sat down, Moishe jumped down from his perch on the back of the couch and settled in her lap.

“I thought you’d deserted me,” Hannah said, scratching him behind the ears. “You spent the whole night begging scraps from the guys. If you keep that up, you’ll have to go on a diet again.”

“Rrrowwww!”

The yowl was definitely irate. Hannah knew him well enough to recognize the difference between contented and alarmed. He was looking up at her with wide, startled eyes, and Hannah gave him another pet to reassure him. “Just kidding,” she said. “You’re okay. And if you’re not okay now, you will be when I go off to the Food Channel competition and you go to stay with Norman and Cuddles.”

Hearing the name of Norman’s cat, Moishe’s favorite kitty friend, gave Moishe an expression that Hannah interpreted as a kitty smile. Moishe purred very loudly, and settled back down in her lap. Norman had offered to keep Moishe while she was in New York, even before Hannah had thought to ask him.

“I think Norman missed you the past couple of weeks,” Hannah said. “What do you think?”

“Rrrow!”

“That’s right. I’m glad you agree with me. You get two days to play with Cuddles and both of you can sleep in front of the fireplace in his bedroom.”

“Rrrow!”

Hannah smiled. She knew full well that Cuddles and Moishe didn’t sleep in front of the fireplace. They slept on feather pillows in Norman’s bed. Norman had told her that.

Since Michelle had already gone to bed and Hannah didn’t know how to access the show they’d recorded, she settled for watching the Food Channel live. They were showing a chef Hannah didn’t recognize, and he was preparing shrimp scampi. Hannah watched intently. She’d never made shrimp scampi, and Ross might like it. He’d told her he loved anything with pasta, and he’d raved about how good her Fettuccine Porcini was when she’d made it for him.

Hannah turned up the volume so that she could hear the chef. She still couldn’t hear the directions, and she turned it up even further. It took her a minute to realize that the reason she had to have the volume so high was because the cat on her lap was purring so loudly.

She glanced down at Moishe to find that he was staring intently at the screen, ears perked forward and tail twitching in excitement as the chef deveined the jumbo shrimp.

“So you like this episode, do you, Moishe?”

Moishe didn’t turn his head to look up at her. He just kept watching the shrimp in the chef’s hand and purring so hard, she could see his ears vibrate.

“Next we put the cleaned shrimp into the pan on the stovetop,” the chef said, tumbling them in and picking up the sauté pan to shake it. As he did, the camera zoomed in on the prepared pasta and the sauce that was in a separate pan on the stove.

“Rrrrowww!” Moishe yowled, and Hannah could hear the outrage in his voice. He jumped down from her lap, headed directly to the television set, and leapt to the top of it.

“Moishe! What are you doing up there?” Hannah asked, not expecting an answer, but Moishe yowled again, this time a yowl that sounded plaintive.

“Relax. They’ll show the shrimp again,” Hannah told him. “Jump down and you can watch it from my lap.”

But it seemed that her cat had other ideas, because he inched forward and draped himself over the front of the television set, hanging over with his head and his front legs so that he could look down at the screen.

Hannah stared at him and then she gave an amused chuckle. She’d seen Moishe do something like that only once before. The incident had taken place several years ago, when her cable company had previewed a new channel for dogs and cats. She’d turned to the channel and left it on to see if it amused Moishe. When she’d come home from work, she’d found him draped over the top of the television set, exactly the way he was now, batting at the screen. The picture on the screen had been a close-up of a large fish tank, and it had been perfectly obvious that Moishe had been trying to catch the fish.

“Are you going to try to snag one of those shrimp when they show them again?” Hannah asked him. He just lifted his head to look at her, gave her a glance that she was sure meant
Don’t bother me, lady!
and lowered his head so he could go back to watching the screen again.

Hannah wished that Ross were here so that she could show him what Moishe was doing, and at that very second, there was a soft knock at her door. She rushed to answer it, pulled open the door, and saw Ross standing there.

“Come in, but don’t say a word,” she whispered. “Just follow me to the couch and watch Moishe. He’s about to attack the television set.”

Ross looked every bit as surprised as a man could look, but he did exactly as she asked. He followed her to the couch, sat down quietly, and grinned as he saw Moishe draped over the top.

The chef on the screen was shaking the sauté pan with the shrimp again. As they watched, all three of them, he picked it up and carried it over to the dish with the pasta. Obviously, he’d combined the sauce with the pasta and tossed it while Hannah had answered the door. Now he was ready to finalize the dish by adding the shrimp to the pasta.

Moishe leaned over the screen so far, Hannah was afraid that her cat would fall to the floor. But he didn’t, and that made her wonder if the scratches on the top of her television set were from previous shows that had excited him so much, he’d dug in his claws.

“Watch this,” she whispered and glanced at Ross’s face. He was grinning, and she could feel the couch shaking from his silent laughter.

When the first shrimp tumbled from the edge of the pan, Moishe gave a yowl and batted at it. The rest of the shrimp followed, and Moishe’s paw moved so fast it looked as if he might punch a hole through the glass.

“I’ve never seen a cat do that!” Ross said, clearly shocked. “I don’t know why he doesn’t fall. He’s leaning over so far that . . .”

“Uh-oh!” Hannah exclaimed, watching in fear as Moishe began to slip. She was just jumping up from the couch when it happened. Moishe took a nosedive from the top of the television console, but somehow he managed to twist his body so that he landed on his feet.

“Moishe! Did you hurt yourself?” Hannah gasped.

Moishe turned toward her with a startled expression that quickly turned to something she interpreted as nonchalant. Then he began to wash his face as if he’d planned the whole thing to amuse her.

“I think he’s trying to tell you he’s fine,” Ross commented, pulling her back down on the couch. “And I also think he’s trying to tell you that he’s a little embarrassed by the fall.”

Moishe glanced up at Ross, gave a welcoming yowl that Hannah thought could have meant,
You’re right, but don’t tell her
, and began to wash his face again.

“Looks like I got here just in time,” Ross said, taking Hannah into his arms. “I need to talk to you, Cookie.”