everal of my heroines have loved cooking, and one of them was Rachel Amos, heroine of The Sentence. I thought about what I’d have Rachel cook and decided that spaghetti was something a young woman would probably know about. In fact, one of the first things I cooked when I was younger was spaghetti. Rachel is proud of her culinary skills, and in this excerpt she gets into hot water because of it. First a blurb, then the excerpt.
Blurb:
How could he do it! How could her father bring the guy who burned the church into their home for six months? Yeah, it was an accident and her dad’s a minister, but if he wanted to help this man why didn’t he go to the prison to do it? Spoiled and slightly judgmental, Rachel has almost as much to learn as their unwilling guest.
Excerpt:
“What about you?” Clint asked, his face filled with curiosity. “Do you like to cook?”
Rachel preened and knew it. She was proud of her culinary skills. “I do okay,” she assured him.
“Oh, yeah?” Challenge lit Clint’s eyes. “Cook something for me and prove it.”
“You don’t think I can?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Rachel scowled. “No, but you hinted at it.”
Clint just stood there with a faint smile on his handsome face, so Rachel picked up the gauntlet he had thrown down. “Okay, I will. I’ll cook dinner for you tomorrow night.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Had she totally lost her mind? Why had she done that? She didn’t have to prove anything to Clint Hayes. Well, it was too late to cancel now. If she didn’t cook the stupid dinner for him, he’d think she couldn’t.
She stormed back to the house where she belonged and slammed the door behind her. “Goodness,” her mother exclaimed. “What’s got you in such a snit?”
“Clint!”
Mrs. Amos turned to Rachel and set her coffee down. “What did he do?”
“He manipulated me into cooking dinner for him tomorrow night.”
A faint smile crossed her mother’s face. “And how did he do that in such a short time?”
“He insinuated I don’t know how to cook.”
Mrs. Amos took a seat at the kitchen table. “Sit down with me, Rachel.”
Rachel pulled a chair out and joined her mother. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Honey, you be careful with Clint.”
Rachel’s mother has cause for concern. Burning down the church was an accident, but Clint only did it because he was drunk at the time and threw a cigarette where he shouldn’t have. His prior occupation was nothing to brag of either. He worked at a private club with a bad reputation in the town.
Now about that spaghetti. Here’s the recipe I had in mind when Rachel made her spaghetti. Try if if you like. It really is good.
3 or 4 stalks celery chopped but not too fine
1 stick butter
1 lb ground round or hamburger
4 cloves fresh garlic
½ bottle Worcestershire sauce (big bottle)
2 can tomato soup
1 can tomato paste (small can)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can mushroom soup
1 small can sliced mushrooms drained
½ bottle garlic powder
3 cloves fresh garlic, not three whole heads
2 large onions chopped but not too fine
1 bell pepper chopped but not too fine
Fry the celery, onions, fresh garlic and bell pepper together with butter until tender. Add steak, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and cook to gray color. Add tomato soup, sauce, paste, and mushroom soup. Last add mushrooms. Let cook on low 15-30 minutes. This sauce tastes better if you give the flavors time to blend. It can be frozen which is good because it makes a lot.
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