“And you shocked the pants off everybody in Lake Eden,” Michelle finished.
“Michelle!” Delores turned to give her the glance that all three of her daughters called Mother’s icy glare of death.
“Well, she did,” Michelle defended herself. “Nobody in Lake Eden ever thought she’d make up her mind. You know that, Mother.”
Delores didn’t bother to reply, but the flush on her cheeks, coming through under her makeup, was answer enough for Hannah.
“Back to the recipes,” Lisa said, rescuing all of them from a difficult discussion. “What do you think Hannah should bake first, Aunt Nancy?”
“Patience, Lisa. I need more information from Hannah before I can answer that. Who are the judges, Hannah?”
“There are five of them.” Hannah looked down at her notebook. “Jeremy Zales is the first one. He won some kind of prestigious award.”
“The Golden Knife,” Aunt Nancy said. “It’s almost as important as the James Beard Award.”
“Another judge is La Vonna Brach.”
“She writes cookbooks,” Aunt Nancy informed her. “They’re the kind of little paperbacks you can find at grocery store checkout counters, and they’re extremely popular. She’s written over a hundred. It says so on the front cover.”
“Are they any good?” Andrea asked her.
“Surprisingly, yes. Sometimes those little books are worthless, but I’ve followed some of her recipes and they work perfectly. I’ve been collecting her cookbooks for at least five years and I have two shelves of them in the bedroom. Heiti says I’d better stop collecting before I run out of wall space.”
Lisa frowned slightly. “Haiti? Like the country?”
“That’s how it’s pronounced, but it’s spelled differently. Heiti is an Estonian name. That’s where his ancestors come from.”
“But who is this Heiti?”
“He’s a friend I met at church and he’s building my bookshelves. Heiti’s a fine carpenter. You’ll have to come over to see them. He also restores classic cars and he’s promised to fix the old Thunderbird in my garage.”
“He lives around here?” Lisa looked a bit nervous about her aunt’s friend.
“He does now. He moved here from Connecticut.” Aunt Nancy addressed Hannah, and it was obvious that she wanted to change the subject. “Who’s the third judge, Hannah?”
“The third judge is Helene Stone.”
“I’ve never heard of her,” Aunt Nancy said, turning to Michelle. “Can you find out more about her on that phone of yours?”
“I’m already Googling her.” There was a brief pause, and then Michelle read the information on her screen. “Helene Stone is a well-known purveyor of gourmet ingredients. She has a small store in New York that carries exotic spices and imported vegetables and fruits.”
“Who’s the fourth judge?” Delores asked.
Hannah referred to her notebook again. “Christian Parker.”
“I know who he is!” Andrea said with a smile. “He has his own show on the Food Channel. He seems very nice, Hannah.”
“You watch the Food Channel?” Hannah tried not to look as shocked as she felt. To put it nicely, Andrea was culinarily challenged. The closest she came to preparing a gourmet meal was when she made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“Yes, I do watch the Food Channel. It’s Tracey’s favorite channel, and she loves Christian Parker’s show. We watch every weekday when she gets home from school. It’s our private mother-daughter alone time.”
Hannah knew she shouldn’t ask, but she had to know. “Have you learned anything about cooking?”
“Yes!” Andrea pointed to the foil-covered platter in the center of the counter. “That’s where I got the idea for my newest whippersnapper cookies.”
“Christian Parker made whippersnappers?” Delores asked.
“No, but what he said about chips made me want to try some whippersnappers that way.”
“He’s an excellent chef,” Aunt Nancy said. “What did he say about chips?”
“He said to mix and match them in cookies. His example was peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips, milk chocolate chips, and dark chocolate chips. Would you like to taste my Chips Galore Whippersnapper Cookies? I brought some with me.”
“We would!” Delores answered for all of them, and Hannah was glad. So far, Andrea had only made one type of cookie, but everyone, including her husband, hoped that her experimentation with baking would spread out to include additional successful culinary efforts.
Lisa jumped up to fill their cups and fetch fresh napkins. Even though they’d already had two of Hannah’s Molasses Crackles, there was always room to taste one more cookie.
“These are just great, Andrea,” Hannah said after her first bite. “You chopped the chips up in little pieces.”
“That was Christian Parker’s idea. He said that if the chips are in smaller pieces, you get different flavors of chips in each bite.”