Friday, September 28, 2007

Coca-Cola


When I told my youngest daughter Joanna that I was going to be writing a fourth baking mystery and I was thinking about setting it at the Texas coast, she just looked over at me and said, “So you’re going to cook flounder in Coke now.”

I do like Coke. I did not originate the two recipes in the first and third books. I did, however, make a few changes. The ham with cola in the third book THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE KILLER, which won’t be released until Oct. 2008, came from my brother Bruce. He lives down the street from us and I swear when he has his smoker going, the smells will drive you crazy. He cooked several briskets for my dad’s birthday party and it was some of the best brisket that I have ever had. You guessed it, he used Coke. The Coke roast in A PEACH OF A MURDER was a variation on my mother’s roast and I believe she discovered it from my father’s mother. Mama Kate was a wonderful woman and the best grandmother a person could have. She lived on a 200-300 acre farm in an old white farm house and of course there were no air conditioners. I don’t even remember any fans. What I do remember when we’d come up from a long hot day of either playing or working, she’d give us a cold frosty Coke. She would put the glass bottles in the freezer just long enough for them to get slushy. There was nothing better. To this day a good cold Coca-Cola will send me back to those childhood days and I swear I can hear her singing those gospel songs.

The only problem with Coca-Cola is James is allergic to it so we don’t have it very often in foods. If you want to see James drunk, don’t give him beer, just put Coca-Cola in his food.

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