Noble Pursuits (35 page)
“I’ll get you for that!”
The other diners enjoyed observing the bride and groom as they bantered and teased. Grace indulged in a little discreet flirting with her husband, while Nolan simply enjoyed her. The dinner was delicious, and afterward, Nolan led his bride slowly up the long driveway to the Stafford House Inn.
Several hours later, Grace gently folded her gown. As she laid it in the suitcase, Nolan came across the room to finger the sleeve. “That fabric is beautiful, so soft and silky. That seamstress has my gratitude.”
“What for? A huge bill and a dress I could have made if I hadn’t been so lazy?”
Nolan tipped Grace’s chin and winked at her. “Nope. For saving my bride’s sanity!”
Thoughtfully, Nolan observed as Grace zipped the suitcase shut and set it aside. “Grace, I hope our daughter wears that dress—or maybe our son’s wife will want to— like Grandmother Jackson did. It’ll take an incredible woman to fill your shoes, though.”
Before Grace could absorb the compliment, she quipped mischievously, “It’ll take an incredibly
big
woman to fill this dress!”
What Nolan whispered to Grace that evening, no one but he and Grace knows, but when they arrived home from two weeks in bonny Scotland, a new Grace walked beside her husband. She held her head just a little higher and spoke with a tad more gentleness and confidence. Everyone in their lives agreed; Grace Burke wore marriage very well.
The End
Hungarian Coffee Cake
In a glass bowl, mix one package of yeast with 1/4 cup very warm water and a pinch of sugar.
Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk
3-4 cups of flour
Set aside for later:
2 cups sugar
1/4-1/2 cup of cinnamon
1-2 sticks of butter
Heat milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan until butter is completely melted. Beat egg and add to the mixture. Let cool to very warm rather than ‘hot’ and add yeast mixture (assuming it has bubbled) to this. Beat egg and add to the mixture. Stir in 3-4 cups of flour. Add flour until the dough is just barely not sticky. Knead well. Place in greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise.
Take an angel food cake pan with a
removable center
and grease well. Melt butter, mix cinnamon and sugar to taste... generally is best if slightly too cinnamony.
Use a biscuit cutter or a lid to a large cinnamon container for cutting circles. Flour the surface of your baking area, and when the dough has doubled, punch down, and roll out to about 1/4” thick or so. Try to handle the dough as little as possible once you’ve rolled it. Cut circles by dipping in flour when necessary.
Dip each circle in the butter, and then into the cinnamon/sugar mixture and start layering from the outside in. Alternate brick-style. Do not pack the layers but rather lay the circles against the previous layer. When you get to the middle, tuck extras to fill the circle without packing it. Layer leftover circles standing up in a mini loaf pan and bake with the rest of the coffee cake removing as soon as the tops are golden brown.
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. When the layered pan has risen to “plump,” place on a cookie sheet and in a hot oven; bake for 25-45 minutes (seems to depend upon the oven.)
It is done when the tops of the ‘cake’ is golden brown from baking, not from cinnamon. Let cool for 5 minutes, and then remove the center of the pan and place on a plate.
Icing
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 TBS soft butter
1/2 tsp vanilla flavoring
3-4 TBS milk
Mix well and adjust milk for your preference in drizzling.
Drizzle with icing over the top, down the sides, and for holidays, add maraschino cherry halves for a festive look.
We prefer ours hot from the oven or, if served later, wrapped well in aluminum foil while hot to ‘sweat’ a bit.
If you enjoyed
Noble Pursuits
, be sure to read
Argosy Junction.
Argosy Jct. Montana
Pop. 13,223
Lane~ Five years after her family broke ties with The Brethren, the cult-like church still has firm ties wrapped around her heart and soul. The more she rejects them, the Lord, and anyone who claims a relationship with Christ, the more she realizes how empty life can be.
Matt~ Fresh from the inner city, Matt arrives in Argosy Jct. ready to explore the Montana countryside. He’s prepared for anything but sheep, cults, and a rancher’s daughter with a chip on her shoulder.
Not until she saves Matt from assault by sheep does Lane begin to understand that Christianity is a relationship rather than a checklist to godliness. Before he met Lane, Matt never understood how damaging the body of Christ can be to its own.
Join them as they explore Montana, Rockland, and the possibility of a merge between two very different worlds.
Argosy Junction is the second book in the Rockland Chronicles– a series of loosely connected books where each story stands alone unless otherwise noted.
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