They laughed. It felt good to laugh with friends. And they drank. Tori had a feeling there’d be more of that in her future, too.
Anissa chugged her drink and then crushed the cup in her hand. “I’m going to christen your Dumpster with its first piece of trash, and then I’m going to grab some gloves and a mask and we are going to start cleaning house.”
“Oh, thank you. But don’t you have any jobs today?”
“I cleared my schedule so I could help a friend.”
“Me, too,” Noreen said.
“Make that three,” Tori agreed. “After all, what are friends for?”
Kathy’s Cutout Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract*
1 1/3 cups shortening
4 slightly beaten eggs
5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
Mix all the ingredients together until they form a ball. Place the dough in a plastic bag or covered bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a floured board, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Cut out shapes with the cookie cutters of your choice. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to brown. Cool on wire racks.
When thoroughly cooled, frost. If you wish to add colored sugars, do so before you bake the dough.
Yield: varies depending on the size of the cookie cutters.
* Feel free to substitute any flavored extract—they all work equally well.
Icing
4 cups confectioner’s sugar (sifted, then measured)
3 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Colored sugar crystals, sprinkles, and/or decors
Combine the confectioner’s sugar, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Stir until the icing is well blended, smooth, and spreadable, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if too thick or more sugar by tablespoonfuls if too thin. Using a small icing spatula or table knife, spread a thin layer of icing atop each cookie. If using colored sugar crystals, sprinkle over cookies before icing sets.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The immensely popular Booktown Mystery series is what put Lorraine Bartlett’s pen name Lorna Barrett on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it’s her talent—whether writing as Lorna, or L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett—that keeps her there. This multi-published, Agatha-nominated author pens the exciting Jeff Resnick Mysteries as well as the acclaimed Victoria Square Mystery series, Tales of Telenia adventure-fantasy saga, and now the Lotus Bay Mysteries, and has many short stories and novellas to her name(s). Check out the descriptions and links to all her works, and sign up for her emailed newsletter here: http://www.LLBartlett.com
You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Tumblr.
If you enjoyed With Baited Breath, please consider reviewing it on your favorite online review site. Thank you!
Also by Lorraine Bartlett
The Victoria Square Mysteries
A Crafty Killing
The Walled Flower
One Hot Murder
Recipes To Die For: A Victoria Square Cookbook
The Tales of Telenia (Adventure-Fantasy)
Threshold
Journey
Short Stories
Love & Murder: A Collection of Short Stories
Panty Raid: A Tori Cannon-Kathy Grant Mini Mystery
We’re So Sorry, Uncle Albert
Blue Christmas
An Unconditional Love
Love Heals
Writing as L.L. Bartlett
The Jeff Resnick Mysteries
Murder on the Mind
Dead In Red
Room at the Inn
Cheated by Death
Bound By Suggestion
Dark Waters
Short Stories
Evolution: Jeff Resnick’s Backstory (a collection of short stories)
When The Spirit Moves You
Bah! Humbug
Cold Case the inspiration for the novel Bound By Suggestion
Spooked!
Abused: A Daughter’s Story
Writing as Lorna Barrett
The Booktown Mysteries
Murder Is Binding
Bookmarked For Death
Bookplate Special
Chapter & Hearse
Sentenced To Death
Murder On The Half Shelf
Not The Killing Type
Book Clubbed
A Fatal Chapter