Spring/Summer 2022
Irene’s back in town!
Irene is obsessed. And Henny’s life is a mess.
Irene has flown to Chicago from France in her preferred high style – a private jet belonging to her longtime, on again-off again-on again amour, the handsome but mysterious billionaire Chance Charpentier. The reason for the trip? Her infamous “voices” have told her that something is horribly amiss with a person dear to her. When she arrives she learns that a death notice for Florence Sherman, her sometime friend, previous neighbor, and member of an historic Chicago family, has been published in the Chicago Tribune. When she calls Florence’s daughter, Irene’s “voices”-inspired suspicions are confirmed by the strange way Alice, the daughter, and the son-in-law are handling the death. And once Irene discovers her friend’s body is missing, the diva chef refuses to leave Chicago until she solves the mysterious disappearance. But, as long as Irene is in Chicago, Henny’s successful “From My Mother’s Kitchen” TV cooking show, and her precious time with Patrick, husband of her dreams, are seriously compromised by Irene’s insistence that finding Florence trumps any other concerns. So Henny struggles to balance Irene’s demands with the rest of her life and to find Florence, dead or alive, so Irene will go back to France.
Irene’s certainty that the past holds the key to Florence’s disappearance brings in a bit of Chicago history, and food references season the text. An appendix of recipes from both Irene and Henny’s mom is attached.
Finding Florence is now available in paperback and ebook on Amazon. But Irene’s adventures aren’t over either. Watch for her to land in Texas next.
My new project
I’m moving from fictional chefs to a real life one and will work this summer on a creative non-fiction book about Helen Corbitt, doyenne of food service at Neiman Marcus. When one editor said she didn’t think a cook at an upscale department store deserved a whole book, I wanted to shout, “You don’t know Helen!” But moving right along, I found an editor whose curiosity is piqued. If all goes as planned, Texas Tech University Press will publish Tastemaker: Helen Corbitt, Neiman Marcus, and America’s Changing Foodways. No pub date yet and the title is tentative, but I like it. The manuscript right now is but a mass of notes in my files. Sorting them out will be fun. And I’ll probably get some good food out of trying recipes.
Born in a small mining community in upstate New York, Helen spent her early years as a therapeutic and administrative dietitian in hospitals, but by her mid-thirties she was bored and looking around for a new adventure. Jobs were scarce in those post-Depression, pre-World War II days, but she received an offer from the University of Texas to teach in Austin. She roared, “Who the hell wants to go to Texas?” but she packed her bags.
Stanley Marcus began to court her as early as 1949, offering her generous terms as food supervisor at his downtown Dallas store, but it was 1955 before she called him and queried, “When do you want me, Stanley? While in charge of food at all Neiman’s stores from 1955 to her retirement in 1969, Corbitt put Neiman’s on America’s food map. She cooked for such celebrities as Maria Callas and the Duke of Windsor, supervised the food for the store’s annual Fortnight celebrations of various countries, designed the menu for an upscale spa, and even taught businessmen to cook. A feisty redhead intimidated by no one, she inspired countless stories. And I hope to tell them all.
An easy summer supper for you
Years ago I knew a woman who fixed lemon spaghetti—she confessed that one night, with company coming for supper, she had no money for groceries and simply used what she had in her pantry. The result was spaghetti with lemon butter. Over the years I’ve changed and adapted the recipe, and it’s now a family favorite.
Green noodles
- 1 16-0z. pkg. spinach egg noodles
- 1 stick butter
- 1 large clove garlic, minced or microplaned
- 8 oz. mushrooms, sliced (I always buy whole and slice them myself)
- 4 scallions, chopped
- 1 can quartered artichoke hearts
- 1 ice-cube size piece of pesto, thawed or 1 Tbsp.
- Juice of one lemon
- Grated fresh Parmesan
Cook and drain noodles. Melt butter in the skillet. Sauté the mushrooms, scallions, and garlic in the butter. Stir in artichoke hearts. Add pesto and lemon juice to taste—I like lots; the mushrooms soak up the lemon and are delicious. Add noodles and toss to coat. Top with Parmesan. Serve with baguette slices, and you’ve got supper!
Want more recipes that my family enjoys, along with a bit of history of my four kids and me? Check out my cookbook/memoir, Cooking My Way through Life with Kids and Books (Stars of Texas Series) (Amazon.com). Warning: cute baby chef ahead!
Some of my favorite authors had new books out recently. I grabbed Evil Woman by Julie Mulhern the minute it came out. It’s the fourteenth in the Country Club Murders series. Ellison, just back from her honeymoon, never stumbles over a body in this one, but she gets to do some real sleuthing, and she learns a lot about her relationship with her often-difficult mother.
Susan Van Kirk, author of the Endurance series that I much enjoyed, is out with a new series, Art Center Mysteries, and the first has a wonderful title: Death in a Pale Hue. Artist Jill Madison, battered by the art world of Chicago, returns to her small Midwestern hometown to run a new art center. And immediately finds a body in the art center basement, the body of someone she knew. Jill finds herself a suspect, which of course causes her to be anxious to solve the murder. You’ll be surprised by the villain!
On a more serious note, I read Reclamation by Gayle Jessup White, a memoir of her search to find her roots—and her relationship to Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. The genealogy is confusing, but the early sections of the book give a fascinating picture of growing up as a privileged person of color.
And speaking of series, I’ve been re-reading some China Bayles Herbal Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert. China, retired from the law, has an herb shop in the fictional Texas town of Pecan Springs, between Austin and San Antonio. She also has a predilection for trouble—and has found it in twenty-eight books now. Well written, each book often investigates a different business, such as deer hunting, legal and illegal, in Texas, the olive in industry in Texas, or Medicare fraud. If you haven’t read these, pick one up—Albert does a good job of weaving in backstory, so if you pick up the twentieth, you won’t feel like you’ve missed nineteen books.
Yes, that black smudge next to the round table is poor Sophie sweltering under her fur!
In June, my family and I celebrated the hundredth birthday of the Fort Worth house where I lived for twenty-five years, and Jordan, Christian, and Jacob have lived for the five years since I moved to the cottage behind the house. We invited friends—mine and theirs—who have “hung out” at the house over the years, so the forty or so people were a nice mix of ages and interests. The weather was pleasant, and people wandered from house to patio and back. A wonderful way to start the summer.
My travel-consultant daughter tells me people are traveling again, and her office is happily busy. I have friends in Croatia right now, others going to Scotland, a friend off in New York for a week, and some planning a month in New Mexico, so I think Jordan’s right—the world is on the move. Not me. I’m staying home to work on the Helen Corbitt project. If I travel, it will be within Texas. The whole family hopes for a get-together this month. There are eighteen of us now that we’ve added a couple of long-term boyfriends to the mix.
How about you? Will travel be part of your summer? Be sure to take lots of books with you. So far the weather promises a perfect summer for beach reads.
In case you haven’t yet met Irene and Henny, I will give a free copy of their first book, Saving Irene, to the first three who send an email through my web page: JudyAlter.com
Happy, safe summer everyone!
—Judy
