cup shredded Asiago cheese*** (or blue cheese, Havarti, etc.)
2 large eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
1 cup sour cream (8 ounces)
½ cup milk****
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese for a topping (use real Parmesan cheese – it’s so much better than the type in the green foil can.)
FIRST STEP
Use a medium-size mixing bowl to combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir them all up together. Cut in the salted butter just as you would for piecrust dough.
Hannah’s Note: If you have a food processor, you can use it for the first step. Cut ½ cup COLD salted butter into 8 chunks. Layer them with the dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. Process with the steel blade until the mixture has the texture of cornmeal. Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl and proceed to the second step.
SECOND STEP
Stir in the shredded cheddar cheese and the shredded Asiago cheese. Then add the beaten eggs and the sour cream in that order. Mix everything all up together.
Add the milk and stir until everything is thoroughly combined.
THIRD STEP
Drop the biscuits by soup spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet, 12 large biscuits to a sheet. (Prudence uses an ungreased baking sheet, Lisa bakes hers on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, and I spray my cookie sheet with Pam—everyone’s biscuits turn out just fine.)
Once the biscuits are on the baking sheet, you can wet your fingers and shape them if you like. (I leave mine slightly irregular so everyone knows they’re homemade.)
Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese on the top of each biscuit.
Bake the biscuits at 425 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they’re golden brown on top.
Cool the biscuits for at least five minutes on the cookie sheet, and then remove them with a spatula. Serve them in a towel-lined basket so they stay warm.
Yield: Makes 12 large cheesy biscuits that everyone will love!
Hannah’s Note: When I make these for Mother, she takes home one of the leftovers for breakfast. The next morning, she splits it, toasts and butters it, and eats it with her scrambled eggs.
Lisa’s Note: Herb loves to take these to work. I spread them with mayo and mustard and put a nice thick slice of ham in the middle. He says they make the best ham sandwich he’s ever tasted.
Chapter Four
“This hot fudge sauce is incredible!” Norman spooned up the last of his ice cream and gave a satisfied sigh. “It’s the kind of dessert I dream about.”
“Me, too. Would you like another cake? The recipe makes six.”
Norman considered it for a brief moment and then he nodded. “I think I can handle one more.”
Hannah made a quick trip to the kitchen to upend another of the individual cakes on Norman’s dessert plate. She pulled the top apart with two forks, a technique she’d learned from serving soufflés, let the fudge sauce pool in the center of the plate, and then dropped in a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
“You can have a little bit of my ice cream this time,” she heard Norman say. The next sound she heard was a plaintive meow and it was clear he was talking to Moishe.
“This is good with coffee ice cream, too,” she said as she carried the plate into the living room and handed it to Norman. “More coffee?”
“I’d love some. Your coffee is the best…” Norman stopped speaking as the doorbell rang. “Are you expecting anyone?”
“No, and I know it’s not Mother.”
“How do you know that?”
Hannah gestured toward Moishe. “His fur’s not standing on end and it always does when Mother’s at the door.”
“So you don’t know who it is?”
“No, I have no idea.”
“Then you’d better let me get it.”
Hannah bit back a grin as Norman went to the door and looked out the peephole. She lived in a fairly secure complex, burglaries and home invasions were unusual on nights this cold, and she was perfectly capable of grabbing the decorative hand-painted rolling pin that hung by the side of her door and wailing away at anyone who tried to enter her home without her permission.
“Who is it?” Norman called out after squinting through the peephole, and Hannah understood why he had to ask that question. Anyone who stood directly in front of her door was back lighted by the powerful security light on the outside post, plunging the visitor’s features into deep shadows and rendering them totally unrecognizable.
“It’s Mike!” a voice floated through the crack under the door. “Let me in, will you? It’s cold out here.”
Norman chuckled and turned to Hannah. “Shall I let him in?” he asked in an even louder voice that Mike would be sure to hear. “Or shall we keep all the Hot Fudge Sundae Cakes to ourselves?”
There was a moment of silence and then Mike asked, “Did you say Hot Fudge Sundae Cakes!?”
Hannah laughed. “Let him in, Norman. I’ll go dish up another one for him.”
As Hannah turned another helping onto one of the dessert plates Delores had given her for Christmas, she heard Norman greet Mike. Even though both of them were dating her, the two men were friends. Occasionally jealousy reared its head, but they got past it. As long as she steadfastly refused to choose one over the other, the three of them remained friends.
“Thanks for letting me in,” Hannah heard Mike say from the living room.
“I had to let you in. You’re the law.”
“That’s true. So what’s this about Hot Fudge Sundae Cake?”
“It’s like a hot fudge sundae inside of a cake,” Norman explained. “You’re going to love it.”
At that moment Hannah came out of the kitchen with the dessert plate for Mike and two cups of coffee, one for Norman and the other for Mike. “Here you go,” she said, setting the dessert plate and one coffee in front of Mike, and handing Norman his refill. “Go ahead and eat. It’s better if it’s hot.”
Mike dipped his spoon in the pool of sauce and excavated a bit of cake and ice cream. He popped it in his mouth and gave a sound that resembled one of Moishe’s happiest purrs. Then he plunged his spoon down for another bite.
“You like it?” Hannah asked him.
“You bet! Thanks, Hannah. I’ve been running all day and I didn’t have a chance to eat.”
“How about a meatloaf sandwich?” Hannah offered. “It’s leftover meatloaf and I can heat it up like a hamburger on a cheesy biscuit.”
Mike mumbled something that Hannah interpreted as assent and she went back to the kitchen to heat a slice of meatloaf in the microwave. She halved a biscuit, spread it with mayonnaise and dotted the bottom with a few slices of the bread and butter pickles that Lisa had given her. “Ketchup?” she called out.
“Yes, and mustard if you’ve got it,” Mike replied.
As she put on the condiments, Hannah heard Mike’s spoon scrape against the bottom of his dessert plate. She slid on the slice of meatloaf, topped it with the lid of the biscuit, carried in the plate, and exchanged it for Mike’s dessert plate, which was scraped so clean she knew he was half-starved.
“Hi, Big Guy,” Hannah heard him say to Moishe as she carried the