“Is she thinking about going to work at Stan Kramer’s accounting firm?”
“I doubt it. Mother and Carrie gave her a big raise. And she loves going out to auctions and estate sales. If Luanne worked for Stan, she’d be stuck in an office all day.”
Lisa glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall. “If you’re planning to go to the Red Owl, maybe you’d better go now. We still have forty-five minutes before we open.”
“Good idea.” Hannah stood up, carried her coffee mug to the sink, and went to grab her parka. “I’ll be back before we open,” she promised as she slipped on her boots and went out the door.
It was cold outside and Hannah pulled up the hood of her parka and slipped her hands into the fur-lined gloves that Norman had given her for Christmas. She’d walk to Florence’s grocery store. It was only a block away. As she hurried down the alley, passed the back of Claire’s dress shop, Beau Monde Fashions, and crossed the street at Third and Main, she was smiling. It was good to be out walking again after three days of confinement in the condo. The air was frosty and it smelled fresh and clean, the sun cast golden sparkles on the snow, and the icicles hanging from the branches of the big pine in the middle of the block glistened like they were made of melted diamonds.
There wasn’t a soul on the street. Most of the businesses didn’t open until nine, and it was too early for shoppers. Florence’s Red Owl Grocery was open though. She always opened early so that she could stock the shelves with the food items that had come in during the night. Her regular supplier had a key to the office in the back, and he stacked the crates and boxes in there. It would have been folly to leave them on the loading dock. Produce would have frozen and turned brown during the winter nights, canned goods would have frozen and broken open, and liquids would have popped their tops and formed a frozen frosting of dish soap, or beer, or soda on the tops of bottles and cans.
The front door of the Red Owl was still locked, but Hannah knocked loudly. Florence appeared at the end of the canned soup and meat aisle and smiled as she saw Hannah standing there.
“Hannah!” Florence greeted her as she unlocked the door. “Come in! Where’s your cookie truck?”
“At The Cookie Jar. I walked here.”
“Pretty cold, isn’t it?”
“It’s not so bad now that the winds have died down. Have you unpacked your produce yet, Florence?”
“Just did it. What did you need, Hannah?”
Hannah crossed her fingers even though it was difficult to do in the bulky, fur-lined gloves. “Seedless grapes,” she said.
“You’re in luck. I just got a shipment of fruit from Venezuela. Do you want red fire grapes? Or green grapes?”
“Both please.”
Florence led the way to the produce section and pointed to the grapes. “They look good, don’t they?”
“They sure do. I’m so glad you have them, Florence. I need them for a recipe I’m making at The Cookie Jar.”
Florence looked puzzled. “I didn’t know you could bake with grapes!”
“I don’t know if you can, or you can’t, but I’m not going to bake with them.”
“But you bake so much, Hannah.” Florence looked confused. “What kind of recipe is it, then?”
“Frozen Sugared Grapes.”
“I didn’t know you could freeze grapes!”
“Neither did I until an old friend of mine from college sent me this recipe. She included it in the Christmas card she sent to me.”
“And you’re going to try them out on your customers at The Cookie Jar?”
“Not exactly. Mother’s having Stephanie Bascomb over this afternoon and I promised to bring something interesting to have with their coffee.”
“Coffee for Stephanie Bascomb?” Florence began to grin. “Whatever it is, your recipe had better have champagne in it. Stephanie’s crazy about champagne. I should know. I order it by the case for her.”
“I know and this recipe does call for champagne. It also has vodka.”
“That sounds interesting. And it’s certainly something that Stephanie would like. She definitely has a sweet tooth, especially when she’s enjoying the cocktail hour. Every time I get in a shipment of imported chocolates, I call Stephanie so that she can buy what she wants before I put it on the shelf. Will you bring me a couple of those frozen grapes on your way to your mother’s place? They sound interesting and I want to try them.”
“Of course I will. It sounds like they pack a wallop, though. You might be better off if you stick them in the freezer and wait until you get home to try them.”
“Really?” Florence looked interested. “How do you make them, Hannah?”
“You marinate the grapes in champagne and vodka for an hour. Then you take them out and roll them in white sugar. You put them on a baking sheet, freeze them for several hours until they’re hard, slip them in a freezer bag to save on freezer space, and get them out right before you serve them so that they’re still frozen when people eat them.”
Florence began to smile. “They’d be great for a New Year’s Eve party. You wouldn’t have to serve as much liquor. You’d save a ton of money and people could just eat the grapes and celebrate.”
CHOCOLATE MINT COOKIES
DO NOT preheat oven yet. This dough must chill before baking.
1 and ? cups salted butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, ? pound)
2 cups cocoa powder (unsweetened – I used Hershey’s)
2 cups brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
3 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
3 cups flour (not sifted – pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (? of an 11 or 12-ounce bag)
? cup white granulated sugar in a small bowl (for later)
1 large bag Mini York Peppermint Patties (for later)
Hannah’s 1st Note: This recipe is easiest if you use an electric mixer, but it can also be mixed by hand.
Place the 3 sticks of salted butter in a microwave-safe container. (I used a quart Pyrex measuring cup with a spout.)
Heat the butter on HIGH for 1 minute. Let it sit in the microwave for an additional minute and stir it with a heat-resistant spatula to see if it has melted. If it hasn’t, heat it on HIGH for another 20 seconds, let it sit for 20 seconds, and stir it again. Repeat in 20-second intervals until your butter is melted.
Pour the melted butter in the bottom of a mixing bowl.
Add the cocoa powder and mix it in.
Mix in the 2 cups of brown sugar. Make sure the brown sugar is completly incorporated.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: If your brown sugar has hard lumps in it, remove the lumps, then add more brown sugar until you have a full 2 cups.
Add the baking soda and salt to your mixing bowl. Mix until they are completely combined.
Add the vanilla extract and the mint extract. Mix them in thoroughly.
Feel the sides of the mixing bowl. If the contents are so hot that it might cook the eggs if you add them now, let everything cool to slightly above room temperature.
If you haven’t yet beaten the eggs, put them in a glass and whip them up until they are completely blended. (I still use a fork from my silverware bowl to do this the way my great-grandmother Elsa used to do.)
Add the beaten eggs to your mixing bowl. Mix them in thoroughly.
Add the flour to your mixing bowl in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you’re using an electric mixer and you add all the flour at once, it will poof out all over your counter and floor when you turn on the mixer.
Once the flour has been thoroughly incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a butter spatula and take the bowl out of the mixer.
Set the bowl on your counter and give it another stir.
Add the cup of mini chocolate chips and stir them in by hand. Make sure they’re evenly distributed.