Apple Turnover Murder

“Oh, no!” Hannah said, feeling sorry for the jilted student.

“They’d both enrolled in his Intro to Poetry class, and Kyle convinced himself that it was just a passing thing and she’d come around as soon as she saw that he still loved her. The first day of class rolled around, and Kyle managed to sit next to her, but she wouldn’t even speak to him. That was the way things went for the first week of class. Kyle kept trying, and she kept refusing to have anything to do with him. He said he had to watch her flirting with Ramsey and that it was really hard to take.”

“I can imagine that! Poor Kyle.”

“And then Professor Ramsey started singling her out for things, keeping her after class, and inviting her to visit his home campus at Macalester. Kyle could tell she was falling completely under his spell, and he just couldn’t stand to watch it any longer.”

“So he started skipping classes, even when there were tests?” Hannah guessed.

“That’s about the size of it. Once he realized that Professor Ramsey was returning his girlfriend’s overtures, he stopped going to class altogether. It was just too painful to watch them interact. He would have dropped the class, but it was too late to drop, so he just took the failing grade.”

“That’s really sad.”

“I know.” Norman gave another little sigh. “He was very stoic about it. And he was also very convincing.”

“Convincing?”

“He convinced me that he still loved his girlfriend and he was hoping to get her back now that Professor Ramsey was dead.”

“Did he tell you the name of his girlfriend?”

“No. I asked, but he didn’t want to say. And I didn’t think I’d better push it or he’d clam up and stop answering my questions.”

Hannah was silent for minute, digesting all that she’d learned. “He’s certainly got a motive, especially if he thinks he can get his girlfriend back now that his rival’s dead. What about Wednesday night? Does he have an alibi?”

“Yes, and it’s a good one. There’s no way Kyle could have killed Professor Ramsey since he was hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime. He flew out to Arizona State University on Wednesday morning to watch his sister graduate, and his parents were with him. They were all having dinner at T. Cooks at the Royal Palms Hotel when Professor Ramsey was killed.”

COTTAGE CHEESE COOKIES

DO NOT preheat oven—This dough needs to chill in the refrigerator overnight.

2 cups softened butter***

(4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)

1 and ? cups brown sugar

(pack it down in the measuring cup)

2 cups white

(granulated)

sugar

4 large beaten eggs

(just whip them up in a glass with a fork)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

? teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

(that’s 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)

2 cups cottage cheese

(one-pound container) (I used small curd)

1 cup chopped pecans

(you can use walnuts or any other nut, if you prefer)

1 cup cocoa powder

(I used Hershey’s)

5 and ? cups all-purpose flour

(don’t sift—just scoop it up with the measuring cup and level it off with a knife)

——————

approximately 1 cup powdered

(confectioner’s)

sugar for rolling dough balls

***That’s room temperature butter, unless you’re working in an unheated kitchen in Minnesota in the winter.

Hannah’s 1^stNote: If you have an electric mixer, use it. This recipe makes about 12 dozen cookies and your arm may get tired. You can also cut the recipe in half if you like.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter with the brown sugar and the white sugar. Beat them together until they’re light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and mix until they’re thoroughly incorporated. If you’re using an electric mixer, you don’t have to whip them up in a glass first. You can just add them one by one, mixing after each egg is added.

Mix in the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until they’re completely mixed in.

Pour in the vanilla extract. Stir it in thoroughly.

Stir in the cottage cheese. Keep mixing until it’s thoroughly incorporated.

Mix in the chopped pecans. (Marge says you can also add raisins, if you like.)

Add the cocoa powder in quarter-cup increments (don’t worry about measuring accurately—just add it in 4 parts). Mix it in after every quarter-cup. Cocoa powder is very difficult to clean up, so don’t add it all at once or it will poof out the sides of your bowl and make a real mess.

Add the flour in half-cup increments. (It can also make a mess if it poofs out the sides of your bowl.) Mix after each addition.

Give the bowl a final stir, cover it with plastic wrap, and stick it in the refrigerator to chill overnight.

When you’re ready to bake:

Preheat the oven to 350 F., rack in the middle position.

Spray cookie sheets with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. You can also use parchment paper if you prefer.

Roll small balls of dough about one-inch in diameter. Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place them on the cookie sheets, 12 to a standard-size sheet. Press them down slightly when you position them so that they won’t roll off on the way to the oven.

Hannah’s ^2ndNote: When Lisa and I bake these cookies at The Cookie Jar, we use white, granulated sugar for rolling instead of powdered sugar. That way we don’t confuse them with our Black And White Cookies.

Bake the Cottage Cheese Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes. They’ll spread out all by themselves. Leave them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hannah’s 3^rdNote: Put on a pot of coffee while the first pans of Cottage Cheese Cookies are baking. And check the refrigerator to make sure you’ve got plenty of icy cold milk for the kids. Everybody’s going to gobble these up and ask for more.

Yield: 12 dozen (depending on cookie size, of course) yummy and addictive cookies that everyone in the family will enjoy.