Catch Me

   


I have read a few really good mysteries recently.  Catch Me was the latest from author Lisa Gardner.  It is her most recent book in the series with Boston's top police detective, D. D. Warren.

In this book D.D.is confronted by a woman, Charlene Grant,  asking D. D. to investigate her murder.  As she is currently very much alive, D. D. is intrigued.  It seems her two best friends from childhood trio were each murdered on January 21 a year apart and that date is fast approaching.  Charlie has prepared the best she can by taking self defense and learning to shoot a gun, but she wants someone to investigate in case she is killed despite her precautions.


When walking through a not so nice section of Boston, Charlie noted, "  Turned out, even snow was ugly in housing projects.....In this section of town, snow became just another form of litter.  Gray, sandy, riddled with yellow pools of dog piss and bristling with discarded straws, Big Gulp lids, cigarette butts.  You didn't look at this kind of snow and think of Christmas lights, cheerful hearth fires, or mugs of hot cocoa.  You walked by these piles and figured even Mother Nature was an unforgiving bitch."

D. D. is just back from maternity leave, which is changing the way she works and her outlook.  It is also exhausting her after sleepless nights and no caffeine because she was pregnant and then nursing.  Now she gives in and has a cup.  "At which point she took the first sip.  She both tasted and heard the caffeine hit her bloodstream, a powerful jolt that made her want to sigh and inhale and start the whole process all over again.  So she did."

I love a good line. Or three.

As with most police departments she is also working on another case, this one involving a couple of murdered pedophiles. Charlie's story doesn't always ring true and the two cases start to run together.  Is she a victim or a predator?  What is the truth?

I like the way the cases run together and you can't figure out the "whodunit" part in the first few chapters.  Another book I recommend to you.

Edna Mae Pancakes My Way

Earlier I posted a recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook.  In it she has a recipe for sour cream pancakes from her husband's grandmother, Edna Mae.  It only has a bit of flour and they are very good with a bit of a sour bite.  Just delicious.

   


Back when the kids were little (and even now when they visit) I would make banana pancakes by smashing up a ripe banana or two into the Bisquick batter.  An easy and delicious breakfast.  Especially if you make faces in the pancakes with chocolate chips!  I wondered whether bananas would taste good in Edna Mae's recipe for sour cream pancakes.

You can scroll down to find the earlier directions for the original recipe.  I will repeat the ingredients here and add fruit so I can pretend I am eating healthily.

   
   
Sour Cream Pancakes with Bananas...oh, and Strawberries!

1 cup sour cream
7 (yes, only 7) Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 mashed banana
1 cup sliced strawberries
butter
syrup

Heat a griddle over medium low heat.

Slice the strawberries and set aside in a small bowl.

   

Use a fork and smash a ripe banana in a large bowl until kind of mushy.  Add the eggs and whip them around with the same fork.  Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix it in.  Keep using the fork.

Just dump all the dry ingredients ( flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) on top of the mixture and give them a good mix. You made need a bigger spoon at this point.  It is okay to have lumps.  Don't over mix.

   

Place a pat of butter on the griddle and when it is melted pour about 1/4 cup of the batter on top of the melted butter.  When the top starts to turn dry around the edges, about 1 1/2 minutes, flip it over.  Cook the other side and prepare to plate.  I like the griddle because you can cook enough for one person at a time.  Serve with a sprinkling of sliced strawberries and the syrup of your choice.

This recipe made enough for 3 people.  I left out the chocolate chip faces, no kids to spoil, but feel free to indulge!

Poison Flower

   

Thomas Perry writes a series about Jane Whitefield.  She helps people to disappear. “I’m a guide . . . I show people how to go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is." Suppose your ex is a cop.  And he has made it clear he is going to kill you.  And the other cops don't believe you.  What would you do? She will help get them new identification and get lost somewhere.  She teaches them to change the way they live and work.  She shows them how to disappear.

Jane doesn't advertise or have a web page.  Someone who knows what she does has to tell the potential runner how to find her. She doesn't charge for her services and frequently fronts the money for desperate people.  Most of the time the runners will pay her back at some vague future time.  When they are settled and earning money and safe, money finds its way to Jane. 

Each of the last few books have seemed to be the last in the series.  After all, she got married and agreed to stop her dangerous calling.  But when desperate people have nowhere to turn, she feels compelled to help out.

In this book, Jane helps James Shelby escape from court where he has been unjustly convicted in the murder of his wife.  The actual murderer set Shelby up so that no one would suspect him.  The rest of the book is a whirlwind of Jane trying to get him safe and then trying to figure who really did it.  That part is assisted by the fact that the murderer is sending people after them the whole time.  So they have to evade the cops and the murderers. 

Jane is captured by them and tortured to get information about where Shelby is going.  Jane is Native American, a Seneca,  and uses the stories of how braves would stay back and fight off groups of  enemy warriors to give his own people time to escape to help her withstand the pain.  Many times this meant being caught and tortured and it was a sign of bravery to be stoic under the torture.

In the course of investigating Jane, they discover there are many people who want to know where she has put past runners.  They are willing to pay a lot to torture the information out of her so they can finish what they started.

Jane escapes and the race is on.  The book is non-stop action and I couldn't put the book down.  I highly recommend this series.  I suggest you start with the first one and read them in order.  This book references past books and while it isn't necessary to read them in order, I always prefer to do that.  There are many places online to find books in order by any author.  I suggest you go right now and get started!

A Belated Valentine's Day

This is the first year since we met we were not together  for Valentine's Day.  Valentine's Day is also the anniversary of our engagement mumble, mumble years ago.  OK.  I will tell you.  It was 33 years ago.  Sheesh.  That makes me sound old.  Just so you know, I was a child bride,  practically in my infancy.

When I was an actual child, we had peacocks.  At first we had one and his name was Prince.  My father would catch him from time to time and trim one of his wings.  This would keep him from flying away. It did not prevent him from flying up into tree branches for nesting purposes.

At one point someone must have decided he was lonely and the chickens weren't cutting it.  So we got a peahen.  Then she laid eggs and we had a flock of peachicks.  During this time his wing feathers grew back and he started flying through the neighborhood until he found a rival peacock from somewhere.  They would go from rooftop to rooftop in a huge territorial fight.  More wing trimming.  One terrible night Prince flew into the street and got hit by a car.

All of us kids stood in the dark, crying around the hole my father had dug for his grave.  Dad pulled the last of his tail feathers out with a horrible ripping  sound.  These feathers joined the others we had been collecting over the years in a large vase in our house.  The last pieces of Prince.

But we still had peahen and peachicks.  My father had lost patience with them.  Partly because the cry of a peacock sounds like a woman screaming "Help!".  At one point one of the neighbors had called the police to let them know we had a woman screaming for help in our yard.  My parents weren't home and it was quite an ordeal to convince them we weren't torturing women in the backyard.

Dad sent the lot of them to the Arcadia Arboretum where they joined some existing peacocks.  You may have never heard of the Arboretum, but you have seen parts of it.  The opening sequence of Fantasy Island was filmed there.  Parts of some Tarzan movies were filmed there.  Even parts of two of the Jurassic Park movies were filmed there.  And now , generations later, descendants of Prince live there.  If you are ever in the area, I strongly suggest you go for a visit.  It's a wonderful place.

This whole story just goes to show you that I love peacocks.  I love peacock feathers, although I can't keep any in a house with cats.  They love them, too.  And not in a good way.  In a "let's rip it to shreds" way.

So when  we celebrated a wee belated Valentine's Day by giving a few gifts we had saved for Lee's return, look what I got!

   

A beautiful Peacock teapot.

   

And a two tiered server.  Now I have to have a peacock inspired tea party!  I am currently taking reservations!

   

A Sad Weekend

I haven't posted anything for quite some time.  It has been a difficult time here.  Lee got a call from his sister telling him his father was in the hospital and not expected to live.  He flew to Montana to be there.  His father passed away a few days later and then his uncle died about 12 hours after that.  I picture them both at the Pearly Gates, saying, "What are YOU doing here?"

Thee was no warning or notice, so I couldn't go with Lee.  And really, I think he and his sister did a great job of handling everything without my being there.  Plus, it is hard to find cat and dog and horse sitters without any notice.  So I stayed here and painted.  And painted.  I used about 13 gallons of paint.  I only have inside the hall closets and the stairwell to do.  The stairwell will need some sort of scaffolding to reach the top.  Lee can rig something up when I get back.

I have to go to California tomorrow for my mother's 90th birthday.  I am taking her younger sister.  Waaaay younger.  Right, Suzy???  She had a knee replacement last year ( I think she hurt it on a zip-line of all things) and I am traveling with her to make sure she can get around the airports.  And to  make sure she doesn't bring her gun with her.  There are people coming from other parts of the country so I have to go.  Plus, 90!  Quite a milestone and I want to be there.

But it saddens me to leave so soon after Lee gets back.  It was hard on both of us to be apart for this last week and now it is my time to leave.  Thing can only look up from here.

Candied Ginger...and Ginger Ale

There is a kind of cookie that Lee really likes and we haven't found it in any stores, lately.  It is a German cookie called Lebkuchen.  I thought I would make him a batch. After all, it is almost Valentine's Day, and it's not as though he likes jewelry or flowers. Then I discovered there are many different recipes.  I picked a few likely ones and examined the ingredients.  One of them is candied ginger.  That is hard to find around here.  They have it in tiny spice jars and it is expensive.  So before I make the cookies, I gotta make the candied ginger.

I found out that when you make the candied ginger, the leftover syrup makes a dandy ginger ale.  And you can save any sugar that fell off the candied ginger and use that.  Three items from one recipe.  I'm in!

Candied Ginger

1 pound of ginger root
2 cups sugar
2 cups water

   

I know.  Easy right?  Well it is obvious you never peeled ginger.  Some people recommend using a spoon.  I used a combination of a knife and a vegetable peeler. 

   

You need to slice the ginger very thinly, about 1/8 inch thick.  I used a mandolin, but I couldn't use the handle so I was VERY careful.  When the ginger became too small to hold safely, I used the knife.  Some small chunks are also going to be good as I need to chop the candied ginger for the cookies, anyway.

   

Place the sugar, water in a heavy pot.  I ended up with about 2 cups of sliced ginger and I added that to the pot, also.  Heat it up over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Reduce to a slow simmer.  I cooked mine for about an hour, stirring now and then. ( In about 20 minutes the whole house will be infused with the smell of sweet ginger.)  You want to reduce the volume by half.

   


I used a slotted spoon to remove all the ginger pieces.  I put them on a plate that I had covered with sugar.  Sprinkle more sugar on top. 

   
Stir to coat and then remove to a rack for drying.  I left them to dry for a few hours.  You may need longer depending on the humidity.  Maybe even overnight.  Place the finished candy in air tight containers.

   

Ginger is good for nausea.  And usually safe for pregnant women...or any men who happen to become pregnant.  I'm not genderist, you know!  It is VERY spicy, though, so be careful and try a little piece first!  It would be good in stir fry and chopped up on salads.  I wonder if it would be good in oatmeal?  And we know it is good in cookies!

   

Pour the now cooled ginger syrup through a strainer to get all the bits you missed with the slotted spoon.  I poured mine into a couple of 1 pint Ball jars.  Now for the ginger ale.

Ginger Ale

2 or 3 Tablespoons ginger syrup
soda water
lime wedges

optional mint and rum

   

I just added in the rum part! But is sounds good, right? I used 3 Tablespoons and it was too sweet for me.  So start with 1 or 2 and adjust to taste.  I put my syrup in the refrigerator and it became very thick, almost like Karo syrup.  It dissolved quickly in the soda water though.  The lime made a nice touch and added some tartness. 

   

I think I still prefer the commercially made ginger ale, but maybe that is because I am used to it.  I'll keep trying to get it right.  Can't just throw away the syrup!

   

Speaking of that, I saved the sugar that fell off the ginger pieces and put it in a sugar bowl.  One recipe suggested it for teas and on cereal.  I put some in my tea and it boiled up in a fizzy sort of way and then quickly settled down.  I didn't taste much ginger, but then I didn't waste the sugar either!

Raisins in Gin

I have heard that eating a few raisins in gin every morning is supposed to help with arthritis.  My finger joints are tender and swollen these days so I am going to try it out.  Painting isn't helping.  I woke up with most of my fingers tingling.  The others were numb.  It hurts to make a fist.

   

I went to the local ABC store, because for some reason the state of Virginia prefers to sell alcohol rather than letting grocery stores do that.  The very helpful state of Virginia employee there directed me to the pricier version of gin.  I was going to buy a small bottle of generic gin.  He convinced me that the more expensive version has more juniper berries and therefore was more efficacious.  I wonder if he is on commission?

   

I came home and put the raisins in a Ball jar and covered it with gin.  This morning I fished out 6 raisins.  At this point I should point out that I am not particularly fond of raisins.  If raisins are called for in a recipe, I generally use Craisins.  But as Craisins haven't been touted as having arthritis fighting properties, I had to go with raisins. 

I also am not fond of gin.  I find it worse than drinking Nyquil, mouthwash  or maybe kerosene.  I have no clue why people would drink a martini when there are so many tastier ways of getting your alcohol.

   

I decided to try to choke them down in the middle of my breakfast.  And by breakfast, I mean a giant cup of coffee (or two) and an Atkins bar.  Oh, and some Crystal Light to swallow my morning vitamins. You can't START your breakfast with gin, after all, and I needed a few bites more of the bar to take the taste away.

They tasted really bad.  I hate gin.  It didn't matter about the raisins, because I couldn't taste them.  I had six and I will have six more tomorrow and the day after that.  I will work my way through the whole jar and then reevaluate.  I hope they work, so my hands don't hurt and the swelling goes away.  I hope they don't work so I don't have to keep eating them.