Foods,
Fools
and a
Dead Psychic
Maria Grazia Swan
Free Italian recipe for Hot Chocolate
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Copyright © 2018 Maria Grazia Swan
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All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the US Copyright Law.
Foods, Fools and a Dead Psychic is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author and publisher.
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Cover Design by Mariah Sinclair
Formatting by Debora Lewis
Table of Contents
Low Fat Banana Bread
Gluten Free Recipe
Monica’s 3 Minute No Bake Desert
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
More books by Maria Grazia Swan
About the Author
Remembering
little no name girl
so loved–so missed
RIP
LOW FAT BANANA BREAD
Heat oven to 350 degrees F
Coat a 9”x5”x3”baking pan with a light coat of non-stick cooking spray
1 ¾ cups of unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup mashed ripe bananas, approximately 2-3 medium
Sift flour, baking powder, soda and salt together and set aside.
With an electric mixer on medium speed mix applesauce and sugar until well blended, and then add eggs until mixture is light and fluffy.
With the electric mixer at low speed or by hand to be sure you don’t over beat, fold in flour mixture, alternating with mashed bananas until smooth.
Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake 1 hour or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Do not overbake. You can cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan or you can let it cool an hour and slice directly from the pan.
FOR GLUTEN FREE RECIPE.
If you want a gluten free recipe you can substitute the regular flour with gluten free flour and if you want to avoid binders, bake banana muffins instead of banana bread. Makes one dozen muffins. Use baking cups to avoid using grease for the muffin pan.
Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.
MONICA’S 3 MINUTE NO-BAKE DESSERT
Frozen organic silver dollar pancakes
Nutella
Canned whipped cream
Place 2 silver dollar pancakes on a microwave safe dish. Approximately 25 calories per pancake.
Microwave for 15 seconds or until just warm.
Spread 1/3 teaspoon Nutella (approximately 25 calories) on each pancake with butter knife, squeeze a tablespoon whipped cream on each pancake (approximately 15 calories).
Total calories for each complete pancake is about 65 calories. And it’s good for you... Enjoy.
ONE
FIVE O’CLOCK AND Desert Homes Realty exuded the quietness of day’s end. I grabbed the chance to find my boss, Sunny Novak, alone in her office and seek her advice regarding Aunt Brenda. Sunny and Brenda had been close friends for so long I couldn’t think of a more qualified person to diagnose my aunt’s sudden obsession with food.
I slipped into one of the chairs opposite Sunny’s desk and explained, “I blame it on her incident — you know — after the hospital emergency. It’s like she traded one obsession for another. She lost her lover but found solace in eating.” God, I hated revisiting such a painful event. Even if the overdose was accidental, it had distorted Brenda’s personality. Gluttony didn’t become someone getting big bucks to tell wealthy, retired folks, how to eat healthy, gourmet meals.
“Life changer.” Sunny shook her head, one of her brunette curls falling over her forehead. “Think about it Monica. Twenty years. Gone. Her youth and then some, for that bastard who dropped her without so much as goodbye and then married some Barbie-looking kid half his age.”
She slammed the stack of papers on her desk with way too much enthusiasm. Was this hitting close to home? Sunny had just started covering the gray in her lush hair and it couldn’t be easy having a sexy twenty-one year old blonde daughter prancing around the office on a show-up-as-you-please basis.
Voices filtered in from the lobby. I hadn’t heard the door chime, and apparently neither had Sunny. She frowned then glanced at me. I shrugged, stepped toward the glass wall dividing her private space from the rest of the office area and tried to see who would show up at such a late hour. Whoever it was certainly couldn’t expect a tour of available houses for sale. Not after five o’clock and without an appointment. Plus, I was the only licensed realtor still there. My boss worked exclusively with her regular high rollers. The only other soul left in the building was Kassandra who didn’t have a real estate license. She took care of the phone, the greetings and other office duties.
Two people stood a few steps outside Sunny’s office busily talking to Kassandra. A couple? It was hard to tell because they had their backs to me. Kassandra seemed flustered. Why? Size, spunk and youth were on her side. I quickened my pace.
“Hello,” I said, apparently catching them off guard.
The walk-in couple turned at the same time and stared at me like I’d grown a horn on my forehead.
“They’re cops, detectives,” Kassandra spit out in a hurry as if to get rid of the bad taste the statement left on her lips. “Something happened to Miss Fortune,” she added, in a softer tone.
I moved closer to the front lobby. “Miss Fortune? Who’s she? A client?” I could feel the detectives’ visual assessments volleying between Kassandra and me. And there was nothing playful in the volleying.
“No, not a client. She’s — was — the psychic from Tucson? Don’t you remember?”
“Oh, yeah, the séance? Yeah I remember. That’s when you — uh — lost your...” I stopped. What was I saying? Did I just get Kassandra in trouble?
“She lost
