Stir well and chill in the refrigerator. Lucy garnishes her drinks with a stalk of tender celery and two large green olives and a wedge of lemon skewered on a toothpick. She never uses ice because it dilutes, resulting in a weak, rather disgusting looking Bloody Mary. It is better not to drink too many of these before you fire up the grill and begin cooking.
LUCY’S FRIENDLY GRILLE
Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper, to taste. Whip until frothy. Heat up the grill. Scarpetta avoids propane gas, preferring charcoal for reasons of safety and flavor. Pour egg mixture into a simple cake pan lightly coated with oil or whatever serves the same purpose. Place the pan, strips of thick bacon, and English muffins on an upper rack of the grill. Cover with the lid to smoke. You will have to rearrange and turn the bacon fairly often, as the
grease will drip and flame (adding to the flavor if you don’t let matters get out of hand). Cook until obviously done. Remove and pat bacon free of grease. Serve immediately.
After eating, clean up right away because later you won’t feel like it. Keep the fire going, and perhaps the snow will begin to stick and neighborhood children will come out to play. You can watch them through the window and remember when you were that age and praying there would be no school the next day. Hopefully, you have friends over, too. Tell them they can’t go anywhere because of the weather. Talk all day. Share stories and dreams, and keep the cold away.
Lucy’s friends decided they were snowed in and it would be wise to stay over. It was a perfect night indeed for one of Scarpetta’s soups. She keeps a good supply in her freezer, because it is her efficient tendency to cook great vats of soup at once. Lucy scanned freezer shelves of containers precisely labeled and properly sealed.
“You guys hungry?” she called out to her buddies.
Stretched out in the great room, made sleepy by the fire, they were in the midst of recounting embarrassing moments they had endured during their new agent days at their respective law enforcement academies.
“Starved!”
“Shit, you can’t be. You’ve been eating all day.”
“I have not.”
“Then where did all the Triscuits go? And the Vermont cheddar? And the peanuts?”
“Anyway, like I was saying, here I was firing away on the range, cartridge cases flying everywhere, and one of them goes down the front of my shirt. And you know how hot they are.”
“Ouch!”
“I started jumping around, trying to shake it out.”
“Not a good thing when you’ve got a loaded gun in your hand.”
“How ‘bout something light with chicken?” Lucy called out.
That was fine with everyone.
SCARPETTA’S WHOLESOME CHICKEN SOUP
Drip several teaspoons of extra, extra virgin olive oil into a pot that is big enough to accommodate the volume of soup you wish to make. Scarpetta
tends to use pots that hold at least sixteen quarts. Place skinless, boneless chicken breasts on a cutting board. Do not use wooden cutting boards because they are more difficult to clean and can harbor salmonella and its mutants. She prefers ceramic or hard plastic. Dice chicken with a very sharp knife, keeping fingers well out of the way of the blade.
Turn burner on medium. Drop chicken into the pot to brown. Next, dice the mildest onions you can find. She always uses Vidalia onions when they are available, but she does not overwhelm this delicate soup with them. Other vegetables that usually go into this healthy dish include celery, carrots, fresh sliced mushrooms, red bell peppers, and chopped fresh spinach. Next, pour in at least four cans of fat free chicken broth.
Season with a generous number of bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Allow to simmer for several hours, tasting now and then to fine-tune the seasoning. Scarpetta often adds a splash
or two of sherry, and typically serves the soup in deep earthenware bowls. Homemade sourdough or multigrain bread is a nice companion to this meal. If you wish to make the soup heartier, you can add rice or risotto, or her favorite, conchiglie.