Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(57)

Crumble the hamburger and brown it over medium heat in a large frying pan, stirring it around with a metal spatula and breaking it up into pieces as it fries. This should take about 15 or 20 minutes.

When the hamburger is nice and brown, put a bowl under a colander so that you can save about 1/3 cup of fat to use with the onions. Dump the hamburger into the colander to drain it.

Put the drained hamburger into the prepared baking pan.

Pour the 1/3 cup of hamburger grease back into the frying pan.

Peel the onions and slice them into 1/8 inch thick slices. (When you do this they may fall apart in rings and that’s perfectly okay.)

Place the onion slices in the frying pan, but don’t turn on the heat quite yet.

Dice the celery. Add it to the onion slices in the frying pan.

Cut open the green bell pepper and take out the seeds, the stem, and the tough white membranes. Chop the remaining pepper into bite-sized pieces. Once that’s done, add them to the onions and celery in your frying pan.

Cook the aromatic vegetables (that’s what they call them on the Food Channel) over medium heat until they’re tender when pierced with a fork.

Drain them in the same colander you used for the hamburger, and then mix them up with the hamburger in your baking pan.

Add some salt to your boiling water on the stove. Then dump in the noodles, stir them around, let the water come back to a boil, and then turn down the heat a bit so the pot doesn’t boil over. Set your timer for whatever it says on the noodle package directions and cook the noodles, stirring every minute or so to make sure they don’t stick together.

Drain the cooked noodles in the same colander you’ve been using all along, add them to your baking pan, and mix them up with everything else.

Add the diced tomatoes, juice and all, to your baking pan. Wait to stir. You don’t want to mush your noodles by stirring too much.

Open and drain the cans of water chestnuts and mushroom pieces in the colander that’s still sitting in the sink.

Dump the water chestnuts and mushrooms on top of the tomatoes in your baking pan.

Sprinkle the cumin over the top of your casserole.

Sprinkle the chili powder on top of the cumin. (Gary says to tell you that if your chili powder has been sitting around for as long as theirs has, it’s a good idea to buy fresh.)

Sprinkle on the salt and grind the pepper on top of that.

Now is the time to mix it all up. This might not be easy if the baking pan’s too full to stir with a spoon. If that’s happened, just wash your hands thoroughly and dive in with your fingers to mix everything up. When you’re through, pat the casserole so it’s nice and even on top, and call it a day.

Wash your hands again, and then cover the baking pan with a single thickness of foil.

Bake at 325 degrees F. for 60 minutes, or until you peek under the foil and see that it’s hot and bubbling.

Remove the pan from the oven. Remove the foil slowly and carefully to avoid burning yourself with the steam that may roll out. Set the foil on the counter to use again in a few minutes.

Sprinkle the 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese over the top and return the baking pan to the oven. Bake it, uncovered, for another 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.

Cover the pan again with that foil you saved, and let your casserole sit on a cold burner or rack to set up for at least 10 minutes, and then serve and enjoy!

Hannah’s 1stNote: Sally says to tell you that she made 4 pans of this for a luncheon meeting. There were 25 people and she had one whole pan left over.

Hannah’s 2ndNote: Gary says to tell you that they didn’t serve seconds, though.

Yield: Judging from the above notes, I’d guess that one pan of Wanmansita Casserole would serve 8 to 10 people, especially if you served fresh buttered rolls and a nice mixed green salad on the side.





Chapter Nineteen


Norman gave a resigned sigh as he perched rather precariously on the top of Hannah’s cookie truck. They were parked next to the chain link fence that surrounded Cyril Murphy’s impound lot. Any cars that the city of Lake Eden, the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department, or the Minnesota Highway Patrol impounded were stored here. Hannah and Norman had driven here right after she’d unmolded Andrea’s Jell-O, put it on a platter, and returned it to the refrigerator. Michelle had promised to remove the Wanmansita Casseroles from the oven when they’d finished baking, and to carry them to the dinner buffet. That meant Hannah was free to pursue the linen jacket lead they’d uncovered, and Norman had agreed to help her.

Hannah glanced at her watch. They had exactly one hour before dinner would be served, and they had to locate Gus Klein’s Jaguar, look to see if the jacket was there, and drive back out to the lake in time to join everyone for Jack Herman’s birthday party.

“I still think this is breaking and entering,” Norman said as he began to climb up the chain-link fence.

“No, it’s not. It might be entering, but there’s no breaking involved. Go ahead, Norman. You said you could do it.”

“I can. I’m just not sure I want to. Do you know for a fact that Cyril doesn’t keep guard dogs inside?”

“I do.” Hannah shaded her eyes with her hand as she stared up at Norman. He had reached the top of the chain link and was just about to climb over. “Cyril bought two guard dogs when he opened the impound lot, but he ended up taking them both home for pets.”