Iron Sinking by Jerusha Jones

Author:Jerusha Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: clean and wholesome, clean mystery, clean romance, cozy mystery, small town, funny mystery, organized crime, female protagonist, food mystery, heist, kidnapping, food, police, oregon, pacific northwest, washington
Publisher: Jerusha Jones
Published: 2018-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

That police business I’d half-heartedly tried to divert my father’s interest from? Oh, who am I kidding? Nothing I could’ve said would have thwarted his intentions. However, time, perhaps, could.

Because that police business? Well, sometimes it moves dishearteningly slowly. Painfully slowly. Microscopically slowly. If you know what I mean.

I suffered days of antsy, fidgeting, excruciating impatience and near-boredom. The only thing keeping me sane was a bit of mindless marketing work for other clients and planning our stupendous, end-of-season supper club finale.

Willow and I were calling it that, even though it wasn’t quite true. As our schedules and the weather allowed over the fall and winter, we would definitely hold pop-up supper clubs as ripe and delicious local ingredients became available. No question about it. Cooking and sharing the resulting food with others was so deeply ingrained in Willow’s and my systems that I don’t think we could live without it anymore.

And while I might not ever explicitly say so to Willow, I tremendously enjoy her company in the kitchen. The sass and melodrama not so much, but the company, most assuredly. And despite the muttered theatrical complaints, she’s proven that she can remain calm and efficient under pressure.

So it was with bittersweet relief—of both the personal and professional variety—that I found myself elbow-to-elbow with Willow in my galley kitchen on Friday afternoon. We were sorting and washing our way through three baskets’ worth of experimental vegetables from our friends Denby and Nash Fraser of Heritage Farms and trying to decide what to do with them. Sometimes the best cooking is really an exercise in creative problem solving.

“I don’t even know what this is,” Willow announced, holding up a light green bulbous knob that had trimmed stalks growing out of it in odd places. Frankly, it looked a lot like the herbaceous version of a human heart with little aorta stems—like an impersonal and oddly colored illustration you’d see in an anatomy textbook.

“Kohlrabi.”

“Cooked or raw?” In profile, her chin receded even further as she screwed up her face and scrutinized the questionable blob.

“Let’s do raw in this case. But you can start peeling it. The outside layer is far too tough to chew.”

“If you say so.”

“Look at this.” I brandished a stalk that featured mini kale flowerets growing on it the way Brussels sprouts do. But far cuter and less, well, sulfuric. In general, I’m not a fan of the cruciferous vegetables, but little lettuce-like clumps with red-tinged deep-green leaves? I can deal with that. “Salad fixings. Let’s add paper-thin slices of the kohlrabi, pickled red onions, Castelvetrano olives and shaved Parmesan. Then we can sling a spicy dressing all over it.”

Willow nodded slowly. “Good color combo. I’m digging it.” But then her nose did a double-take in the wrinkling department. “Something smells...briney.”

“It’s the pork shoulder roasts.” I pointed to a pair of Crock Pots at the far end of the counter, the contents of which were simmering festively. “I doused them in chardonnay and threw in a bunch of rosemary and caramelized garlic for good measure.

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