Cream Puff Murder (Hannah Swensen, #11)(20)

“I thought so. But you know how young guys are. They think with their…uh…libido and not with their brain.”

“Right.” Hannah removed the sausage from the oven, cut it into serving-size pieces and paired it with the six small potato pancakes she’d fried for Mike. Once she’d grabbed the coffee carafe to pour more into his mug, she headed out to the coffee table to deliver his dinner.

“That sure smells good,” Mike commented, staring down at the plate Hannah placed before him. “What kind of sausage is that?”

“Polish. I got it from Florence, and she said it’s handmade at a tiny sausage factory near Red Wing. And those are potato pancakes. Help yourself to sour cream, or applesauce, or both.”

“Thanks, Hannah.” Mike clearly wanted to dig in, but he looked up at her instead. “What are you having?”

“Chicken breast and salad, but don’t worry about me. I’ve got all night to eat. Just start and I’ll fry you up another batch.”

“Okay,” Mike said, forking a piece of sausage and popping it into his mouth. “You’re the best, you know? Sometimes I wish you’d taken me up on that marriage proposal. Then I could eat like this every night.”

That was the reason he’d asked her to marry him? Hannah’s eyebrows approached lift velocity. But she wasn’t being fair, and she curbed her impulse to make a sharp retort as she headed off to the kitchen to fry up another batch.





LAZY POTATO PANCAKES

3? cups frozen hash brown potatoes

2 eggs (2 extra large or 3 small)

1/4 cup grated onion (or 1/2 teaspoon onion powder)

1 teaspoon season salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 Tablespoons cracker crumbs (matzo meal or flour will also work)

1/8 cup butter (1/4 stick, 1 ounce) for frying

1/8 cup good olive oil for frying



Toppings for the Table:

sour cream

applesauce

cherry sauce***

blueberry sauce***

apricot sauce***



Hannah’s 1st Note: Great-Grandma Elsa used to make these in a cast iron frying pan she called a spider. She peeled and grated her own potatoes and put them in a bowl of cold water, salt, and lemon juice so they wouldn’t turn brown. I added the word “lazy” to the title of her recipe because when I’m in a hurry, I use frozen hash browns.



Place the frozen hash browns in the bowl of a food processor. Use the steel blade, and process with an on-and-off motion until the potatoes are finely chopped. (If you don’t have a food processor, you don’t have to go out and buy one to make these. Just lay your frozen potatoes out on a cutting board in single layers, and chop them up into much smaller pieces with a chef’s knife.)



Leave the potatoes in the food processor (or on the counter) while you…



Crack the eggs into a large bowl and beat them with a fork or a wire whip until they’re fluffy.



Stir in the grated onion (or the onion powder if you decided to use that), and the salt and pepper.



Mix in the cracker crumbs.



Let the mixture sit on the counter for at least two minutes to give the crumbs time to swell as they soak up the liquid.



If you used a food processor, dump the potatoes on a cutting board. (If you used a chef’s knife, they’re already there.) Blot them with a paper towel to get rid of any moisture. Then add them to the mixture in the bowl, and stir them in.



If the mixture in your bowl looks watery, add another Tablespoon of cracker crumbs to thicken it. Wait for the cracker crumbs to swell up, and then stir again. If it’s still too watery, add another Tablespoon of cracker crumbs. The resulting mixture should be thick, like cottage cheese.



Place the 1/4 stick of butter and the 1/8 cup of olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan. (This may be overkill, but I spray the frying pan with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray before I add the butter and olive oil.) Turn the burner on medium-high heat.



Once the oil and butter are hot, use a quarter-cup measure to drop in the batter. Don’t try to get all of the batter out of the measuring cup. Your goal is to make 1/8 cup pancakes, and if you don’t scrape out the batter, that’s approximately what you’ll get.



Keep the pancakes about two inches apart, and cover the bottom of the frying pan with them. Flatten them very slightly with a spatula so the potatoes spread out and don’t hump up in the middle.



Fry the pancakes until they’re lightly browned on the bottom. That should take 2 to 3 minutes. You can tell by lifting one up with a spatula and peeking, but if it’s not brown and you have to do it again, choose another pancake to lift.



Once the bottoms of the pancakes are brown, flip them over with your spatula and fry them another 2 to 3 minutes, or until the other side is brown.



Lift out the pancakes and drain them on paper towels. Serve hot off the stove if you can, or keep the pancakes warm by placing them in a pan in a warm oven (the lowest temperature that your oven will go) in single layers between sheets of aluminum foil.



Serve with your choice of sour cream, applesauce, cherry sauce, blueberry sauce, or apricot sauce.