While your oven is preheating, prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper.
Once your cookie sheets have been prepared, measure out ? cup white granulated sugar and place it in a shallow bowl. You’ll use this to coat your cookies.
With impeccably clean hands, shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. (If your cookie dough is sticky, coat your fingers with sugar and then try to shape the balls.)
Roll the dough balls in the bowl of white granulated sugar to coat them. Work with only one cookie dough ball at a time.
Place the coated cookie dough balls on your prepared cookie sheets, 12 balls to a standard-size sheet.
Press the dough balls down slightly so that they won’t roll off on the way to the oven.
Bake Crunchy Chewy White Chocolate Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes or until they are nicely browned. (Mine took 14 minutes.)
Take the cookies out of the oven and place them on wire racks or cold stove burners.
Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 1 minute and then remove them to a wire rack to finish cooling. (If you used parchment paper to line your cookie sheets, you can simply pull it off the sheet and onto the wire rack, cookies and all.)
Yield: 5 to 7 dozen tasty cookies, depending on cookie size.
Chapter Twenty
“Please stop here, Norman,” Hannah said as they approached the visitor parking lot in front of the condo clubhouse. “Mother wants to hold her book launch party here and I have to run in for a second to check out the seating.”
“No problem.” Norman pulled into the spot closest to the clubhouse and got out of the car. “I’ll go with you, Hannah.”
Hannah almost told him that she was perfectly capable of checking out the seating by herself, but before she could form the words, she thought better of it. Norman was protecting her and, if she admitted the truth, she was very grateful to have someone looking out for her. Her encounters with Ross, both in person and on the phone, had left her severely rattled. It made her feel much safer to have someone accompany her inside the large building that would probably be deserted at this hour.
“Thanks, Norman,” she said as he walked around the car and opened the door for her. “I’m glad you’re coming with me. It’s dark this time of night and having you with me makes me feel safer.”
The moment the words had left her mouth, Hannah was happy that she’d voiced them. Norman looked very pleased by her comment. They walked together to the front door of the building.
“It’s locked,” Norman said, trying the door.
“Yes, it’s supposed to be. Our door keys fit this lock and it’s kept locked. The only way visitors can use the clubhouse is if they’re accompanied by a resident with a key.”
The light switch was just inside the door on the right and Hannah flicked it on. The big, overhead banks of can lights came on and the central room was bathed in bright light.
“This is nice, Hannah,” Norman said, gazing around at the octagonal tables that converted into card tables with holders for cards or poker chips on eight sides.
“Ten tables, eight chairs at each,” Hannah said, doing a mental count. “This room, just the way it is, seats eighty people.”
“Is that big enough for your mother’s book launch?” Norman asked her.
“I think so, but there should be extra stack chairs downstairs in the gym. Let’s go down and check it out, Norman.”
Hannah led the way to the wide staircase that led down to the gym. “Here’s where they keep the exercise equipment,” she told Norman as he followed her into the cavernous room. “There’s a sauna down here that no one ever uses and all these machines.”
Norman walked over to look at the exercise equipment. “This is like the one they advertise on television,” he said, pointing to a machine that looked like a combination bicycle, treadmill, and weight-lifting apparatus. “It’s supposed to give you a complete workout in eleven minutes.”
“Really?” Hannah walked over to look at the machine. “Do you think it works?”
Norman shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe, if you follow the manufacturer’s instructions.” He picked up the manual that was hanging from a chain on the handle. “It sounds pretty complicated to me.”
“I wonder how much extra that cost us in our homeowner’s fees,” Hannah mused, patting the leather seat. “Whatever it was, I don’t think it was worth it. From the dust I can see on the seat, it looks like no one ever tried to use it.”
“Perhaps they didn’t want to get all sweaty and then have to walk home in the cold,” Norman suggested.
“But they can shower right here,” Hannah gestured toward two doors on the far wall, one marked MEN and the other marked WOMEN. “We have showers right down here.”
“Does anyone ever use those?” Norman walked over and opened the door to the men’s shower room. He stepped inside and a moment later, he came out carrying a large towel. “Someone used the shower today. This towel is still damp.”
Hannah walked over to examine the towel. “This belongs to Gala Cruise Line,” she told him. “It says so right on the bottom in big blue letters. And there’s a picture of a cruise ship on it. Somebody went on a cruise on a ship called the Expedition and took one of their beach towels home with them.”
“That happens all the time. People who stay in hotels take towels and washcloths home with them. I used to know someone who owned a motel and he said that it’s one of the reasons room rates are so high. They have to continually replace the towels and sometimes, even the blankets.”
“But that’s stealing!” Hannah said with a frown. “Those things belong to the hotel or, in this case, the cruise line. I’d never do something like that.”
“Neither would I, but lots of people do. What do you want me to do with this beach towel?”
Hannah shrugged. “Leave it here, I guess. I wouldn’t know how to return it. And even if I did, it’s a little frayed on the edges and they probably wouldn’t want it back.”
Norman returned the towel to the shower room and when he came back, he walked over to look at the stack of extra chairs in the corner of the exercise room. He counted them and then he turned back to Hannah “There are another twenty-three chairs here, Hannah.”
“Good. That means we’ll have seating for over a hundred if Mother uses the extra chairs. That should be plenty for one of her book launch parties.”
They walked across the tiled floor and Hannah led the way up the staircase. “I’ll tell Mother about this tomorrow. And then I’ll call the president of the homeowner’s committee to see if I can rent the clubhouse for the date Mother wants.”
Norman opened the outer door and held it for Hannah as she turned off the bright overhead lights. They were about to leave when Hannah grabbed his arm.
“Wait a second, Norman. There’s something on one of the card tables that doesn’t belong there.” She walked over to see what it was and began to frown. “It’s a pair of binoculars! I wonder why someone needed those.”
Norman shrugged. “Birdwatching?” he suggested.
“Maybe. We do have a birdwatchers’ club that meets here. I’d better leave these here, too. They look expensive and I’m sure they’ll be missed.”
Hannah used her key to lock the clubhouse door behind them. Once that was accomplished, they headed back toward Norman’s car.
“It’s going to be cold tonight,” Norman said. “That breeze is icy. Do you want me to drive to the garage and park there? Then we won’t have as far to walk.”
“No, I’m okay,” Hannah told him. “It’s only one building away and we can go across the planter to get there. Mike’s probably parked his cruiser in my spot anyway, and I’ll leave the extra space open for Michelle.”