“Well, it worked. And I’m not at all mad at you,” Hannah declared, taking another sip of her coffee. “Room service is a wonderful thing, isn’t it, Andrea?”
“I’ll say!” Andrea agreed, biting into one of the doughnuts that Rosa had brought them for their breakfast treat.
“I’ll be awake in a couple of minutes and we can go to work,” Hannah said, draining her coffee cup and getting up to pour herself more. “I’m almost awake and I showered last night, so all I have to do is climb into some clothes and put on my shoes.”
“Take your time,” Andrea told her. “I’m going to run down to the kitchen in a minute to mix up more Chocolate Peanut Butter Whippersnapper Cookies. I’m really glad that Lily, and Mike, and Sally liked them last night.”
“Don’t forget me.” Hannah added herself to the list. “I liked them, too. They’re going to be a huge hit with the fishermen, Andrea.”
“Good!” Andrea looked very pleased. “Is Lily going to come down to the breakfast buffet?”
“I’m not sure. Mike called Wally last night and he was supposed to drive in this afternoon. I’m not sure if he’ll get here in time for happy hour. I heard Mike tell him that Sonny was dead.”
“Did Mike say that Sonny was murdered?” Andrea asked.
“Mike said he’s keeping that fact under wraps for now and if we’re lucky, Sonny’s killer will say something incriminating.”
“Very smart. I hope it works, Hannah. It kind of creeps me out to know that we’re serving the buffets to a killer.”
When Andrea left for the kitchen, Hannah stayed in the room for a while. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, did what she could to tame her unruly red curls, and dressed in the clothes she’d chosen for the day. Then she sat at the desk, had another cup of Sally’s excellent coffee, and, a bit reluctantly, left the room to walk to the kitchen.
“I’m here,” she announced, pushing open the door. “It smells absolutely wonderful in here!”
“That’s Andrea’s cookies,” Sally told her. “I can’t believe you worked for hours last night, finishing the baking, Hannah.”
“I needed to calm down and baking always helps,” Hannah told her, walking over to look at the recipe that was on the surface of the stainless steel work station.
“Apricot, Coconut, and Milk Chocolate Bar Cookies?” Hannah asked, looking down at the recipe. “Is this recipe yours, Sally?”
“No, it’s Andrea’s,” Sally replied, smiling at Andrea. “She brought it in this morning and asked me what I thought of it. I told her we’d try them for the lunch buffet.”
Hannah turned to look at Andrea, who was blushing slightly. “I hope you don’t mind, Hannah, but I adapted your recipe for Multiple Choice Bar Cookies and came up with this one. I haven’t tried it yet, so I don’t know if it works, but Sally says she wants to try it.”
Hannah just stared at her sister for a moment and then she began to smile. “I think that’s fantastic!” she said.
“But . . .” Andrea looked slightly guilty. “It’s your recipe and I messed with it.”
“So what? There are only a finite number of recipes, Andrea. New recipes come from taking what you learned from the recipes that work and adapting them to make new recipes.”
“But . . . isn’t that almost like cheating?”
“Not really,” Hannah said with a smile. “Baking involves chemistry, Andrea.”
“But I flunked chemistry!” Andrea said, sitting down at the table. “I don’t know anything about chemistry. I couldn’t even memorize the whole periodic table of the elements!”
“Don’t feel alone,” Sally said. “How about you, Hannah?”
“I made it, but not by much. I memorized some of it, but only enough to get by. And only the elements I thought I needed for the final test. The point I’m trying to make is that there are these basic recipes that you almost have to follow if you want a certain outcome. There’s one for soft cookies, one for crisp cookies, one for pies, and right on down the list. It’s really a matter of knowing how many dry ingredients to use, how many wet ingredients to use, and what kind of leavening you need if you need any at all.”
“I know about leavening,” Andrea said quickly. “That’s what makes something rise.”
Sally nodded. “You’re right, Andrea.”
“Yes, but that’s all I know.”
“That’s okay,” Hannah agreed. “The type of leavening depends on which outcome you want. If you want something light and airy, you have to have a certain blend of ingredients. And if you want something moist and heavy, you need an entirely different blend of ingredients.”
Andrea looked confused. “But how do you know which ones to use?”
“I’m out of my depth,” Sally said, getting up from her chair. “You two sisters carry on. I’m the cook, not the baker. I’m going to go check on my other kitchen staff to make sure the prep work is getting done.”
“See you later,” Hannah said, picking up her coffee cup and taking another sip. “You won’t know what kind of leavening to use without studying it, Andrea. It’s complicated, unless you’re like our Great-Grandma Elsa. I think she probably learned to bake before she even learned to walk, and when she read the ingredients in a recipe, she just figured it out.”
Andrea smiled. “I was younger, but I remember her, Hannah. She used to make wonderful cookies!”
“And pies, and cakes, and everything in-between. I have all her recipes, and sometimes I’ll look for one I remember and adapt that one to the ingredients that I want to use. It sounds to me like that’s what you did with the Apricot, Coconut, and Milk Chocolate Bar Cookie recipe, Andrea.”
“You mean because I adapted it from one of your recipes?”
“Exactly. And I don’t really remember, but I may have adapted my recipe from one that Great-Grandma Elsa used.”
“That’s . . . I’m not sure of the word, but it’s almost like we’re keeping Great-Grandma’s memory alive.”
“That’s a lovely thought, Andrea, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you were right. She’s probably looking down at both of us right now and saying something like . . .”
“I liked my recipe better,” Andrea interrupted Hannah’s thought. “She used to get mad when somebody took one of her recipes and changed it around.”
“I remember, but she also was good about sharing her recipes.” Hannah reached down for her shoes and began to put them on. “Did you learn anything important from the contestants in the bar last night?”
“You bet I did!” Andrea declared, and she looked very excited. “I learned that Joe Dietz and his son-in-law, Mark, are here for the fishing tournament.”
“Really! I thought Joe’s daughter and her husband were stationed in Germany.”
“They are, but Mark had to come back to the States for two weeks of training.”
“And Darla and the kids aren’t here?”
Andrea shook her head. “Darla didn’t want to pull the kids out of school, so they stayed on the base. Mark’s only here for one more week, but he heard about the fishing competition and talked Joe into signing up as a contestant.”
“That makes sense. Joe loves to fish.”