Dial m for meat loaf, p.25
Dial M for Meat Loaf,
p.25
After taking a sip of tea, Sophie’s thoughts turned to Nathan Buckridge. His dining room at Chez Sophia was finally under construction and he was busily at work with a commercial kitchen designer. She’d driven out one afternoon in late October to see the plans. Nathan was bouncing off walls he was so excited. She was happy for him. He wanted her to come back the following day to look at carpet samples, but she said she couldn’t. He didn’t press her and she was glad. Nathan had been a huge question mark tossed in the path of an otherwise happy marriage. But a few days ago, a new, more ominous threat had turned up. At this moment, all Sophie wanted was to spend the rest of her life with her husband. She wanted a long life with him, but that was up in the air right now.
Three days ago, while Bram had been doing his afternoon radio program, he’d begun to experience chest pains. As soon as the paramedics had been summoned, there’d been a mad scramble at the station to find someone to fill in for him. Sophie had been called and had met him at the emergency room entrance. The paramedics had already started him on oxygen and an IV in the ambulance. She’s been so glad he was awake and able to talk that she’d burst into tears—not particularly helpful. Once he was stabilized, an emergency room doctor had come in to ask him some questions. Had he ever experienced chest pain before? Did he take any medications? Had a member of his family ever had a heart attack? Sophie was stunned to learn that Bram’s father had suffered a heart attack in his early fifties, and that his uncle, his father’s brother, had died of a heart attack when he was fifty-two. Bram had turned fifty-two in September. No wonder he didn’t want to celebrate his birthday this year. If only Sophie had known. It explained so much about his recent actions. That’s why he’d been trying so hard to get into shape. The physical he’d been given back in August hadn’t suggested anything was wrong, but based on his family history, he must have had a premonition.
Bram was still sweating and in pain when they finally wheeled him off to do an EKG. Sophie spent the next hour in the waiting room, pacing in front of the window. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening. Finally, a different doctor, a man named Stoebel, came out to talk to her. He explained that they’d found blockages in two of her husband’s major arteries and were prepping him for bypass surgery. Bram would be given a general anesthetic and wouldn’t be awake during the procedure. The surgery would take anywhere from two to six hours. A bypass graft would be performed to reroute blood flow around the blockages. Dr. Stoebel felt that Bram would do just fine, but he wasn’t offering certainties.
There had been no time for a second opinion. No time to check out Dr. Stoebel’s medical references. Sophie had called her son, and he and his partner, John, had arrived just as the surgery began. Together, they waited.
That was three days ago. Bram had come through the surgery like a trooper. For the first twenty-four hours, his condition had been monitored closely in the cardiac intensive care unit. Because of a breathing tube, Bram couldn’t talk, but his eyes spoke eloquently. He was scared, but incredibly happy to be alive. Yesterday, the tube was removed and he’d been allowed to sit up in bed. When he coughed, he used a pillow to cover the incision and lessen the pain.
And today, the third day after the operation, his nurse had helped him to get up. He moved slowly around the room for a few minutes, then sat in the chair and watched a little TV. He was so tired when he got back into bed that he’d been asleep ever since.
Hearing Bram stir, Sophie set her knitting down and went to make sure he was okay.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he said, seeing her face loom over him.
With her diminutive height, Sophie rarely had the chance to loom over anyone, so this was a rare occasion.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Like I got hit by a truck.” His voice was still raspy and sore from the breathing tube. “But happy to be here.”
She touched his face tenderly. “Dr. Stoebel was in a while ago. He says you’re doing better than expected.”
“That’s me. An overachiever to the bitter end.”
“This isn’t the end, sweetheart. You’re doing so well. You’ll be home soon.”
“We’ll see.” He coughed, then winced.
She took hold of his hand. “Bram? Why didn’t you tell me about your father’s heart attack? I thought he died of lung cancer.”
“He did.”
“Then—”
“The heart attack didn’t kill him. My uncle wasn’t so lucky. It seems the Baldric men have a fatal flaw. Not only do their hearts break easily, but they don’t work very well.”
“You mean you’ve been carrying this worry around with you all these years? I wish you’d told me.”
“Why? So you could worry, too?”
“Yes,” she said, squeezing his hand. “We’re a team.”
He searched her eyes for a long moment.
Finally, Sophie said, “You’ll recover from this, honey. You’re going to be better than ever.”
His expression softened. “Frisky and feisty?”
She nodded.
“From your mouth to God’s ears.”
“That’s right,” she said, straightening his bed covers. “After all the time I put in with the Church of the Firstborn, I should get some points.” She was about to adjust the pillow behind his head when he took hold of her sweater.
“I love you,” he said, a heartbreaking urgency in his voice.
“And I love you.”
“A team, right?”
She smiled to cover her tears. “Forever, sweetheart. You and me against the world.”
Pinwheel Meat Loaf
First-prize Winner
1 pound ground beef
½ pound ground pork
1 egg
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup finely chopped onion, divided
2 large celery stalks, chopped (with leaves)
6 ounces Bruder Basil cheese, grated
Ketchup
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, mix together the beef, pork, egg, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and ½ cup of the onion. On a sheet of wax paper, pat the meat loaf mixture into an approximately 13 × 9 × ½-inch rectangle.
Spread the celery and the remaining onion over the flattened meat mixture; then cover that with the cheese, making sure to keep the filling one inch in from the edges. Starting with the wide end, roll the meat up, tucking in the sides.
Place roll seam-side down on a baking sheet, cover with ketchup, and bake until done, approximately 1 hour. Let loaf stand for 10 minutes before slicing.
Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and green salad.
Thanksgiving Meat Loaf
Second-prize Winner
1 ¼ pounds ground lean turkey
2 eggs
1 cup crushed packaged dry herb stuffing (Pepperidge
Farm Herb Stuffing is great)
½ teaspoon salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon light olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
½ cup whole cranberry sauce
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, mix the turkey, eggs, dry stuffing, salt and pepper together. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet and sauté onion and celery until lighly browned. Add the vegetables to the meat mixture.
Pack the meat into a 9 × 5–inch loaf pan.
In a small bowl mix together the cranberry sauce and horseradish; spread this over the top of the loaf.
Bake for about 1 hour, until the loaf is firm and the top is caramelized and brown, or until a quick-read meat thermometer registers an interior temperature of 160°F.
Let the loaf stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with twice-baked sweet potatoes and fresh steamed broccoli.
Cora Runbeck’s No-Nonsense Meat Loaf
Third-prize Winner
1 pound ground beef
½ pound ground pork
2 eggs
½ cup bread crumbs
½ cup oats
½ cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
Pinch of allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon dry thyme
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons light olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 large celery rib, diced
1 pat of butter
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup chopped parsley (flat Italian is best)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, ground pork, eggs, bread crumbs, oats, ketchup, salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, mustard, thyme, and milk, and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet and sauté the onion, celery, and carrot until tender. Add the vegetables to the meat mixture.
In the same pan, melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms with the Worcestershire sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms to the meat mixture, and mix in the parsley.
Pat meat into a 9 × 5-inch loaf pan and bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Serve with home-grown corn, fresh spuds, and a big glass of milk.
By Ellen Hart
Published by Ballantine Books:
The Jane Lawless mysteries:
HALLOWED MURDER
VITAL LIES
STAGE FRIGHT
A KILLING CURE
A SMALL SACRIFICE
FAINT PRAISE
ROBBER’S WINE
The Sophie Greenway mysteries:
THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MURDER
FOR EVERY EVIL
THE OLDEST SIN
MURDER IN THE AIR
SLICE AND DICE
DIAL M FOR MEAT LOAF
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A Fawcett Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2001 by Ellen Hart
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
All of the characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-41504-2
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Ellen Hart, Dial M for Meat Loaf
