Devil's Food Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #14)(17)

“Yes, but …”

Grandma Knudson held up her hand. “Before you say it, I know he could be remembering it wrong, but when you add it to all the other things, it makes me even more uneasy.”

“I can understand that.”

“Can you really?” Grandma Knudson raised her eyes to Hannah’s. “You don’t think I’m seeing a bear in the woods when it’s only an odd-shaped tree trunk?”

“No. Now that I know what you know about the teenage Matthew, I’m uneasy, too.”

“Then you’ll place the phone calls to set my mind at ease?”

“Of course I will.”

“Oh, good!” Grandma Knudson pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Hannah. “Here’s the number of Concordia Theological Seminary. That’s where Matthew said he teaches. His secretary’s name is Corrine. He mentioned that when we talked about his chocolate allergy, and I wrote it down afterward. The number’s long distance, and I’ll pay you for the call.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m just as curious as you are. I’ll try to call Corrine later today. If I can’t reach her, I’ll call again in the morning.” Hannah reached out to pat Grandma Knudson’s hand. “Try not to worry. I’ll have answers to all of your questions by noon tomorrow.”

Grandma Knudson smiled for the first time since she’d walked into the kitchen. “Thank you, Hannah. I really appreciate it. I know I could have made those calls myself, but I was afraid he’d overhear me. If that man really is Matthew, he’d be hurt that I was suspicious of him. And if he’s not Matthew, he’s up to something and I don’t want him to guess I suspect him.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Hannah said, closing her steno pad and standing up. “I’m going to pack up those muffins, and then I’ll check with Lisa to see if Herb’s here with your ride home.”





CARROT-OATMEAL MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 375, rack in the middle position.

1 and 1/3 cups flour (just scoop it up and level it off with a table knife)





1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned dry oatmeal (I used Quaker Quick—1 Minute)





1 Tablespoon baking powder





? teaspoon baking soda





1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used half cinnamon and half cardamom)





? cup brown sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)





? cup finely shredded carrots (pack them down when you measure them)





? cup raisins (I used golden raisins)





? cup milk





1 beaten egg (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)





? cup melted salted butter***





1 teaspoon vanilla extract





*** - One-third cup of salted butter is approximately ? of a stick. Just cut a quarter of a stick off the end and melt the big part. It might turn out to be slightly more than 1/3 cup, but that doesn’t seem to hurt a thing in this wonderful recipe.

Grease or spray with Pam (or another nonstick cooking spray) the cups of a 12-cup muffin pan. Set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and oatmeal.

Sprinkle the baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon on top. Mix them in thoroughly.

Stir in the brown sugar. Mix until everything is blended.

Shred the carrots if you haven’t already done so. A fine shred is best. You want them to cook in the time it takes the muffins to bake and turn golden brown and delicious.

Add the shredded carrots and the raisins to your bowl. Mix them in thoroughly.

In a separate small bowl, combine the milk, beaten egg, melted butter, and vanilla. Give it a good stir so that everything is well combined.

Dump the contents of the small bowl into the larger bowl. Gently stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened and no dry “pockets” remain.

Fill the prepared muffin cups ? full.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. (Of course it’s not really clean—that’s just what they say in the cookbooks. It just means that when you pull the toothpick out, it doesn’t have uncooked batter sticking to it.)

Set the muffin pan on a cold burner or a wire rack for 10 minutes. This cooling process is necessary because if you try to take the muffins out of the muffin cups now, they may break in pieces, and you certainly don’t want that!

When the muffins have cooled for 10 minutes, slide the blade of a knife around each muffin’s edge and gently pry them out. Once the muffins are out of the cups, you can try to cool them completely on a wire rack, but I’m betting that several will disappear before they’re cool.

Yield: 12 truly excellent muffins

Hannah’s Note: Mother really likes these even though there’s no chocolate in the recipe. Believe me, this is high praise!





Chapter Six

Hannah glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was a quarter to ten the next morning, and Andrea had been on the phone for forty-five minutes. Although she’d been all ears, Hannah hadn’t learned much by listening to her sister’s end of the conversation. She still didn’t know whether Reverend Matthew was who he claimed to be. Hannah had done some research on chocolate allergies and found that it was possible to “outgrow” them. It all had to do with avoiding chocolate for so long that your body didn’t react when you tried it again. This could have happened with Reverend Matthew, just as he claimed.