in the cup when you measure it)

teaspoon salt

teaspoon baking soda

teaspoon cream of tartar

2 Tablespoons white (granulated) sugar

1 egg

1 cup whole milk

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Mix it all up together.

In a separate small bowl (I used a 2-cup measuring cup), whisk the egg with the milk until it"s nice and smooth.

Dump the milk and egg mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and stir until there are no lumps. (The resulting batter is about twice as thick as pancake batter.) Cover your bowl with plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour. (Two hours is okay, but no longer than that.) Hannah"s 2nd Note: You can use a heavy pan on the stove to deep-fry these sinful treats as long as you have a reliable deep-frying thermometer. If you do this, you"ll have to keep a sharp eye on the temperature of the oil. It should remain at a fairly constant 375 degrees F. A deep fryer that regulates its own temperature is really preferable, but you don"t have to run right out and buy one just to try this recipe. If you use a deep fryer, DO NOT use the basket. The battered candy bars will stick to it and you"ll never get them loose.

Prepare for deep-frying by heating your oil to 375 degrees F.

Prepare a cooling and draining surface by setting a metal rack over a pan lined with paper towels.

Hannah"s 3rd Note: You will fry these candy bars one at a time and serve them the same way. That"s to keep them from sticking together in the hot oil. You"ll probably find that eager dessert eaters will line up in the kitchen to receive their treats.

Take out a candy bar, unwrap it, and dip it in the chilled batter. Make sure it"s completely covered by the batter. Slide it gently into the hot oil with your batter-covered fingers (or with two forks) and fry it for approximately two and a half minutes, (2 and minutes), or until nicely browned. Use a slotted metal spoon, or a pair of tongs to remove the candy bar from the hot oil.

Set the candy bar on the rack to drain and leave it there for at least 1 minute to cool. Then transfer it to a dessert dish or plate and serve.

Hannah"s 4th Note: If you want to be fancy, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the top of the candy bar.

When all the candy bars have been fried and eaten, you may have batter left over. If you do, dump it into a plastic bag, cut off bottom corner, and squeeze the batter into the hot oil in a circular pattern. If you haven"t guessed by this time, you"re making funnel cake. Once the funnel cake is nicely browned, remove it from the oil with a slotted metal spoon, set it on the rack to drain, and then sprinkle it with powdered sugar. Yum!

WARNING: NEVER LEAVE HOT OIL OR FAT UNATTENDED!!!.

There was the sound of voices upstairs in the community center lobby, and Lisa began to smile. "Here come the men. Herb said they"d be here before the party broke up."

The first one down the stairs was Mike Kingston, one of the most eligible bachelors in Lake Eden and a man that Hannah dated on a semi-regular basis. He was the chief detective at the Winnetka County Sheriff"s Department. Mike came straight over to Hannah to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Why are you wearing your uniform?" Hannah asked him, admiring the way he looked in his smartly styled uniform of maroon and gold, Minnesota"s state colors.

"Mayor Bas...o...b..and I are picking up the cookies to take out to the Children"s Home. Some of the kids are afraid of law enforcement, and that"s understandable. If they"re in the Home because their parents are in jail, they think something bad is going to happen when they see a uniform, especially the little kids."

"But when a cop in a uniform arrives with boxes of cookies for them, that changes the equation?" Hannah asked.

"That"s what I"m hoping." Mike stepped back and gave the ladies a little salute. "Good afternoon, ladies." And then he turned back to Hannah again. "Is there any coffee left?"

"I figured you"d be here any minute, so I just put on a second pot."

"Count me in for a cup," Mayor Bas...o...b..said, arriving at the table with Lisa"s husband, who had stopped to give Lisa a little hug.

"I"ll have a cup too," Norman Rhodes, the town dentist, chimed in. "Hannah makes the best coffee around."

"Thank you," Hannah responded, avoiding his eyes. Seeing Norman was uncomfortable these days. There was too much history between them, and the situation had changed with the man who"d once asked her to marry him.

"Look what Hannah gave us for Christmas," Carrie pointed to the binder of recipes on the table. "All Hannah"s recipes are inside and she made one for each of us."

"They"re not all my recipes," Hannah pointed out. "I"ve got more at home on my bookshelf that I haven"t entered in the computer. And they"re not all mine. Some of these recipes are from family, friends, neighbors, and people who don"t even live in Lake Eden."

"When will we get the rest?" Edna asked.

"As soon as I get time to type them into the computer so I can print them out. Don"t hold your breath. That could take a while."

"I"ll do it," Andrea offered. "Tracey can read them to me and I can type them up."

"Thanks, Andrea. That sounds good to me." Hannah gave her a smile and then she turned to the men. "Sit down and join us."

That was Lisa"s cue to help Hannah pa.s.s out cups of coffee. The men always joined them for the last half-hour or so, and it wouldn"t be a party without them.

"Too bad we were such greedy piggies when it came to dessert," Delores said, gesturing toward the nearly empty cheesecake platter and the pie plate where only crumbs remained. That comment caused the ladies to smile. Everyone knew that Hannah and Lisa always baked an extra dessert for the men.

"Don"t tell me we"re out of luck today!" Earl, Carrie"s new husband, teased. "Carrie wouldn"t let me taste a single one of her Lemon Softies. She packaged them up this morning and locked them in her suitcase. And, even worse, she hid the key."

"That"s because they would have been gone in no time at all," Carrie told him. And then she turned to the other ladies. "Earl"s crazy about lemon. I baked Hannah"s Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies for him on Tuesday morning, and they were gone by Tuesday night."

"So I don"t even get to taste your Lemon Softies?" Earl asked, looking mournful.

"Of course you do. There"s an extra dozen in the bottom of my suitcase. If you"re really nice to me, I"ll give you the key when we get home."

Once coffee had been poured and the extra pies and cheesecake had been served, Earl cleared his throat. "I don"t want to make you nervous, but it"s nasty out there. The snow"s coming down really hard, the wind"s picked up to over forty miles an hour, and the last weather report I heard said that with the wind chill factored in, it was already minus thirty-two."

Hannah shrugged. "That"s not too bad. It sounds like Minnesota in December."

"Or January," Mike added.

Mayor Bas...o...b..laughed. "February and March, too. And then there"s that blizzard we had in May of seventy-five."

There were murmurs of agreement. Everyone knew how unpredictable the winter weather could be.

"Earl"s going to follow Hannah home in the tow truck before he takes us out to the hospital," Carrie told Delores.

Earl gave a nod. "That"s right. Old Lake Road is a little iffy right now."

"You don"t have to do that," Hannah protested. "You"re going to get a lot of calls and I can make it on my own. My truck"s pretty heavy and it"ll plow through almost anything."

Earl thought about that for a moment and then he shrugged. "Okay. You can have it your way, but I want you to call me if you get stuck."

"Do you have your cell phone with you?" Norman asked.

Hannah gave him an exasperated look, even though she knew he was just looking out for her. "Yes, I"ve got my cell phone. It"s in my purse."

"But is it charged?" Andrea asked the follow-up question. Everyone here knew that Hannah was more than a bit forgetful about charging her cell phone.

"Of course it"s charged! I put it in the charger just last. .." Hannah stopped speaking and frowned. "I don"t remember exactly when it was, but I"m sure it"s fine."

"Get it out right now and check it," Delores ordered in her best motherly tone. "I don"t want to spend the whole night worrying about whether you"re freezing in a ditch somewhere."

With a speed borne of desperation, Hannah thought back to the last time she"d charged her cell phone. It was a weekend. She was fairly sure of that. She just hoped that it was last weekend. This was getting embarra.s.sing, especially since she was almost positive that she could make it home just fine.

"I"ll call you the minute I get home," she compromised.

"That"s not good enough," Mike said. "This is a really heavy snow and some of the phone lines in your area are bound to go down. You might get home just fine, but you couldn"t call your mother. And then she"d worry. Just get your cell phone and turn it on to see if it"s charged."

Hannah hurried to the kitchen, found her cell phone in her saddlebag-sized shoulder bag, and took it back out to the table. "Here it is," she announced, pressing the b.u.t.ton to turn it on. But even though she waited for several seconds, absolutely nothing happened.

"Yes?" Andrea asked, noticing the unhappy expression on her older sister"s face.

"It"s just taking awhile. It"ll come on any second."

"You probably forgot to charge it again," Delores said with a sigh that could be heard all the way to the kitchen, where Lisa was packing up the leftovers from the luncheon. "You"re always forgetting to charge it, Hannah. And Andrea even got you an extra charger for work so you could plug it in at The Cookie Jar."

Before Hannah could marshal a defense to her mother"s accusation, Andrea reached over and took Hannah"s cell phone. "It shouldn"t take this long to come on." She turned to Delores. "But don"t worry, Mother. Some cell phone batteries have a reserve, and Bill taught me how to check for that. Hannah might have enough reserve left to make one call."

There was complete silence as Andrea pressed a couple of b.u.t.tons. Several moments later, she turned to Hannah and shook her head. "It"s toast, Hannah. I checked the battery reserve and even that"s depleted. You"re totally out of juice."

"Honestly, Hannah!" Delores sighed loudly again. "It must be more than a week since you charged it. I know you"re busy and these little things take time, but you really. . ."

"If I can stay in your guest room, we can use my cell phone on the way home," Mich.e.l.le interrupted what was sure to be a lecture from their mother. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, turned it on, and glanced at the display. "There"s no problem with mine. It"s fully charged."

"You know you"re always welcome to stay with me," Hannah said. giving her youngest sister a grateful smile.

Mich.e.l.le leaned close, so that no one could overhear. "I figured I"d better do something fast. Mother looked loaded for bear."

"Thanks, Mich.e.l.le."

"Not a problem. it was payback for Bruno."

"Our dog?"

"That"s right. It"s for the time I brushed Bruno"s teeth with Mother"s toothbrush, and you went out to buy her a new one before she got home."

Hannah glanced at her watch as they climbed the covered steps to her second-story condo. "That took us an hour and twenty minutes!"

"I know," Mich.e.l.le answered from two steps below. "It took three times longer than it should have."

"That"s because I was driving slowly and being really careful. And we still ended up in the ditch!"

"Blame that on the visibility. I don"t think it was more than a foot or so, and you couldn"t see the edge of the road. We"re just lucky Eddy Eilers came along to pull us out."

Hannah waited until Mich.e.l.le reached the landing. "Do you want to catch, or shall I?"

"You catch. I"ll open the door."

Hannah stabilized her stance as Mich.e.l.le inserted the key in the lock. Her feet were apart, one slightly ahead of the other so that she wouldn"t fall backwards.

"Here goes," Mich.e.l.le warned, opening the door, and a nanosecond later, an orange and white, twenty-three-pound cat hurtled into Hannah"s waiting arms.

"Hi, Moishe. I"m glad to see you, too." Hannah followed Mich.e.l.le inside and placed her cat on his favorite perch on the back of the couch. "What have you been doing while I"ve been... Oh, no! Not again!"

"It looks like it snowed in here," Mich.e.l.le said, quite unnecessarily, since the entire living room carpet was covered in small white Styrofoam beads.

Hannah sighed. "He got the beanbag again. It"s my fault."

"Why is it your fault?"

"Because I listened to the weather on KCOW this morning. and I forgot to put the beanbag away. Moishe always gets nervous when the snow rattles against the living room window."

"So he tears apart the beanbag?"