Truth Without the Trimmings Read online

  The phone rang. Amanda grabbed it. “Hi, Ms. Barlow!”

  Molly rolled her eyes. “Not again,” she muttered. This made the seventh call they’d received from her since they’d taken the job.

  “Oh, yes, we’re in excellent shape with the menu,” Amanda said to her. “Here’s what I think we should serve. For appetizers, we’ll have baked brie two ways—one with mustard and one with apples and honey—hummus and baba ghanouj with warm pita bread, stuffed mushrooms, warm artichoke dip, and scallops wrapped in bacon.”

  Molly’s jaw dropped. She had no idea Amanda had even been listening to her.

  “Yes, sure,” she went on. “The main dishes will be roast turkey, marinated portobello mushrooms over egg fettuccine, cold wild rice salad with dried cranberries, chef salad, and green beans with toasted almonds.” She grabbed Molly’s notebook off the table and glanced at the page. “So that gives us seven dishes without meat, six dishes without dairy, and five dishes without meat or dairy.” Amanda paused to take a deep breath.

  “Desserts? Oh, of course. We’ll have lots of different holiday cookies, minted grapefruit salad, and apple crisp. It will all be very festive, I promise! Thanks, Ms. Barlow. Bye.” Amanda hung up the phone. “Let’s hope that will be the last phone call from Ms. Barlow—for a few days, at least!”

  “Wow, Manda! I guess you were paying attention after all,” Molly said. “All that food sounds so good! I wish we could eat it right now.”

  “I have been listening to you, even though it doesn’t seem that way,” Amanda said. “Half of my brain has been listening, but half of it is thinking about something else.”

  “Connor’s party, right?”

  Amanda nodded.

  “Forget about it,” Molly said bluntly. “There’s no way you can go. You’re the one who told Ms. Barlow we’d do this catering thing. Remember?”

  Amanda nodded. “By the way, she just told me that this party is going to be fancy, so we’ll have to dress up. At least we won’t have to all wear matching black and white outfits like Mom mentioned!”

  “It’s fancy? Oh, no! That’s terrible!” Molly whined. “What am I going to wear?”

  Amanda smiled. “We’ll just have to go shopping and get some fancy clothes!” she said. This idea brightened her mood.

  “Who has money to shop for new clothes at this time of year?” Molly retorted. “Come upstairs with me and look in the closet. Maybe we can dig up something from last Christmas. I can’t believe this. I think this should be the last job we do for Ms. Barlow. This party is such a hassle, it makes me sick.”

  “Be right there,” Amanda called as Molly left the kitchen. Molly’s words had inspired her. Then an idea hit her.

  I got it! she said to herself. I’ll pretend to be sick!

  The plan was so simple, yet so brilliant. She’d work the party until seven or eight o’clock. Then she’d suddenly be struck ill—maybe get a bad headache or a really sore throat. Ms. Barlow had said she was a good actress. She could probably act sick without too much trouble. Amanda had had strep throat last winter, and she still remembered how awful she had felt.

  This is awesome! she thought. Everything’s gonna work out now!

  Then Amanda squirmed uneasily in her chair. She had to admit that this wasn’t exactly a nice thing to do to Molly and her friends. It wasn’t right to leave them behind to clean up while she went off to have fun at a party.

  But she would make it up to them. It would be fair as long as she did more than her share in the beginning. She’d get there early and set up everything before the rest arrived. That way it would be totally fair if she left early. Besides, she’d gotten them the job in the first place, and now they were all going to make a ton of money. She deserved a little something extra for that!

  Absolutely, she decided. I’m gonna do it!

  Suddenly, Molly appeared in the kitchen door dressed in crumpled black velvet pants and a wrinkled white ruffled shirt. “How about this?”

  Amanda was startled out of her thoughts. “Huh?” She eyed Molly critically. “Molls, did you even look in the mirror?” she asked with a sigh.

  “What do you mean?” Molly asked.

  “Didn’t you wear that outfit for the holiday chorus show last year?”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “Look down at your ankles.”

  Molly gazed down. “Okay, so the pants have gotten a little short. Mom can probably let out the hems.”

  “I don’t think so. Those pants are really short, Molls,” Amanda disagreed. “And that shirt looks like it’s been wadded up at the bottom of your closet for nearly a year.”

  “Okay, well, maybe it has…” Molly admitted with a sheepish grin. “Maybe Mom can iron it. Or I can bring it to the cleaners or something.”

  Amanda patted her twin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll find you something to wear.”

  Molly sighed. “Fashion just isn’t my thing.”

  “Well, I’ll go find something for you. You are my size, after all!” Amanda said with a grin as she left the kitchen table.

  Molly sat at the table and began to think about how bad Amanda must feel about missing Connor’s party. Manda’s being really great about it, though, she thought. She’s not complaining that much or pouting or anything. Molly grabbed an apple and got up to wash it. Suddenly she had another one of her great ideas. I know! We’ll have our own party! It’ll be a blast! Amanda won’t mind missing Connor’s party if she has another party to look forward to!

  Amanda returned to the kitchen holding her kneelength black satin skirt with the flounce at the hem, and a green-and-white flowered blouse. “Here, Molls, you can borrow my skirt. And with this green top, and maybe a green barrette and a necklace, you’ll look really pretty and Christmasy. This outfit looks really good on me,” she said. “And if it looks good on me, it’ll look good on you!”

  “I guess that’s true,” Molly said, with a little laugh. They were identical twins, after all! “But can I borrow some pants instead?”

  “Molls, the skirt will look really nice,” Amanda persisted with a little pout.

  “Fine, Manda. Hey, listen, I just had a brilliant idea! Let’s have a New Year’s Eve sleepover! I know you’re bummed about missing Connor’s party, so this’ll be a good substitute!”

  “That is a good idea!” Amanda agreed. “It’ll be really fun!” She started feeling a little queasy about her plan to skip out on the end of the Barlow job. Now Molly was trying really hard to plan something special for her, and she was planning to ditch Dish in the middle of their biggest job ever.

  “I knew you’d think that! I’ll go ask Mom and Dad. They just have to say yes!” Molly said as she rushed up the stairs to her parent’s bedroom.

  Yeah, it will be fun, but it won’t be a substitute for Connor’s party, Amanda thought. She bit her lip.

  Molly ran back down the stairs again. “Mom and Dad said yes!” she cried. “I know—let’s go think of some good foods we can serve for a…Chef Girls’-style New Year’s Day brunch!”

  “Okay!” Amanda said, but her mind was still on Connor’s party.

  “Maybe we could find something more interesting than pulleys,” Shawn suggested. She was at the school library along with Angie and three other girls from the cheerleading team—Stephanie Fisher, Jessica Silvia, and Ashley Brothers. Shawn sat at a long table in the Research section, staring at a printout of the computer search she’d just done on pulleys.

  “What’s wrong with pulleys?” asked Angie.

  Angie didn’t wait for Shawn to reply. Instead, she turned to Stephanie. “Who do you think is hotter, Justin McElroy or Chris Ratner?” she asked, comparing Justin McElroy with another boy in their grade.

  “Oh, most definitely Chris,” answered Stephanie.

  “Are you nuts?” cried Jessica. “Justin is way hotter!”

  “I think so, too,” Angie said.

  “Justin is your hottie now, huh?” Stephanie teased Angie.

&nbs
p; Angie smiled slyly. “So, what if he is?”

  Shawn just sighed. Do these girls think about anything beside boys? I should so be with the Chef Girls right now! Why in the world did I tell Angie I’d work with her and the cheerleaders? This project is going to be a disaster.

  “Okay, girls, tell me this. Why on earth is Daria McHenry going out with Josh Cruse?” asked Angie.

  Shawn didn’t even know the couple Angie was talking about. “Don’t you think we should be working on our project?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s okay, you go ahead,” Jessica said to her. She turned to Angie. “Josh and Daria are perfect for each other. Wait, wait, you will never believe this. Did you hear what happened with them?”

  “Yeah, didn’t Josh flirt with someone else?” Ashley said.

  “Uh-huh! And guess who he flirted with?” Angie jumped in.

  “Who cares?” Shawn muttered under her breath as she flipped through a few pages in her science textbook.

  “Who?” Ashley, Stephanie, and Jessica asked in unison.

  Angie looked around, as if to make sure no one who shouldn’t be hearing this was around. “Abby Ragonia!” she said slowly.

  Everyone—except Shawn—gasped. The librarian looked at the girls and frowned, making a loud Shush! noise with her finger pressed to her lips. Shawn, embarrassed, sank lower in her seat.

  “Hey, did you guys know that the ancient Egyptians used double pulleys to lift the heavy blocks that made up the pyramids?” Shawn asked, trying to change the subject. She had just read that in her textbook.

  Ashley sighed and then grinned. “Like, isn’t that new boy, Ashire, from Egypt? He is sooo cute!”

  “You think everyone is cute!” Stephanie put in.

  “So?” Ashley said.

  “People—the project?” said Shawn, feeling frustrated.

  “Oh, that can wait,” said Jessica.

  “No, it can’t! It’s due soon!” Shawn cried. “This is the third time we’ve met and we still haven’t gotten anything done!”

  “You’ll have time, don’t worry,” said Ashley.

  “Yeah, you’re a brain.” Stephanie added.

  “But it’s a group project!” Shawn practically yelled.

  “Don’t worry,” Angie assured her. “You’re a big part of our group. We couldn’t do this without you.” She turned back to the other girls. “Listen to this! Sara Shimkin told me the most unbelievable thing about Julie Bowen!”

  Shawn sighed again. She felt like crying. It was obvious to her that no one in her group was going to help on this project. There was so much work to be done, Shawn had no idea how she could ever get it done all by herself.

  Late Sunday morning, Amanda, Molly, Natasha, and Peichi met in the Moores’ kitchen to work on their science project. The twins’ mom walked in and saw them sitting around the table, looking stumped. “No ideas?” she asked.

  “We want to do something with cooking,” Molly told her. “But so far we can’t come up with anything.”

  “I once heard a chef on TV say something like, ‘Cooking is an art. Baking is a science,’ ” Mom told them. “Why don’t you do something on baking?”

  Molly jumped up, knocking her chair back behind her. “Yeast!” she cried.

  “Yeast?” Amanda asked.

  “Yes, the way breads and cakes rise,” Molly said.

  “Except that it’s baking powder, not yeast, that makes cakes rise,” Mom interrupted. “Yeast is for making bread rise.”

  “Cool!” Peichi said. “Doesn’t that have something to do with fermentation?”

  “I saw something about it in this book,” Natasha recalled. She quickly paged through one of the three science books she’d brought. “Here it is,” she said, and began to read. “Fermentation is considered one of the earliest forms of biotechnology because a living organism—either a bacterium, a mold, or a yeast—is used to cause a chemical reaction in a food. Around 4000 B.C., Egyptians discovered how to bake leavened bread using yeast.”

  “What’s leavened bread?” Peichi asked.

  “It’s bread that rises,” Natasha said. “Unleavened bread is flat like matzo. It doesn’t have any yeast in it.”

  “This sounds good,” Peichi said. “We can have a great science project and taste some yummy cakes and breads while we work on it.”

  “Too bad Shawn isn’t here,” Amanda said. “She’d like this project since she lo-o-o-ves cakes.”

  “Actually, Amanda, I think that’s you,” Molly said, poking her sister in the side.

  “Okay,” Natasha said. “Let’s split up the project. We can each do a different part.”

  “Great idea! I’ll be in charge of testing the cake recipes!” Amanda joked. The girls laughed. “Seriously, though,” she continued. “What if we work in pairs? One pair can work on bread and yeast, and the other can work on cake and baking powder. Then we can all bake bread and cake here the day before the science fair.”

  “Good stuff,” said Natasha. “But I’d really like to work on the cake part!”

  “Me too!” exclaimed Amanda. “Molly and Peichi, is that okay with you guys?”

  “Sure, whatever! That sounds fine!” Peichi said with a laugh.

  “Great,” said Molly. “As long as you save some cake for Peichi and me!” Molly changed the subject. “Hey, I was thinking that if everything goes well with our project today, maybe we can get some things ready for the Barlow party this afternoon. If we make all the cookie dough today, we can keep it in the freezer, and that will be one less thing we have to worry about next Saturday.”

  Natasha nodded. “That’s really smart. I still can’t get over how much food we have to make. It’s, like, overwhelming .”

  “Yeah,” Amanda agreed. “But when we cook next Saturday, we can divide it up like we’re doing for the science project. I don’t think it will be as bad as it seems right now.”

  chapter 8

  Peichi, Natasha, and Shawn arrived at the Moores’ house about 9:00 in the morning on Saturday, the day of Ms. Barlow’s party. Each girl had brought a change of clothes for serving food at the party, and the apron she’d received from Park Terrace Cookware at the end of their summer cooking class.

  Molly swung open the door. “Hey! Good morning! I’m so glad you guys are here. Now we can really get going!” she exclaimed. Then she charged back to the kitchen.

  “How can she possibly be so awake this early in the morning?” Shawn grumbled as she yawned.

  “Probably because we’ve been up since before seven!” Amanda replied, coming up behind them. “Mom got up early with us so that we could get the turkey in the oven. It will probably be done by eleven o’clock—it’s already been in there for two hours. That way, the oven will be free in the afternoon to bake the cookies and the pies. Do you want me to hang up your outfits upstairs? So they don’t get all wrinkled?” Amanda asked.

  “Sure, that would be great,” Peichi replied. “Mmm, that turkey smells delicious!”

  Peichi, Shawn, and Natasha gave Amanda their outfits and she took them up to the twins’ room.

  In the kitchen, Mrs. Moore was busy at the sink. “Hi, girls!” she called over her shoulder. “I thought I’d wash all the produce you’re using. That way, you won’t have to stop once you really get cooking!” Next to the sink sat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables—tiny white mushrooms, large brown portobello mushrooms, garlic, onions, an eggplant, celery, some lemons, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, green bell peppers, carrots, and about ten green apples! Mrs. Moore had taken the twins shopping at Choice Foods the night before. It wasn’t Amanda’s favorite way to spend a Friday night, but she agreed with Molly that they would never have time to go to the store and get all the food ready on Saturday.

  “Wow, thanks so much, Mrs. Moore!” Shawn said. “That will be a huge help.” She smiled, and Molly caught her eye and smiled back. Good, Molly thought, it seems like everything will be normal today.

  Amanda returned to the kitchen, rolling up h
er sleeves. “Okay,” she said importantly. “Where should we start? Molly?”

  Molly grabbed a crumpled piece of paper that was sitting on the counter. “This is the food we’ll get completely ready here: the artichoke dip, the hummus and baba ghanouj, the green beans, the chef salad, the wild rice, and the turkey. And the desserts. At Ms. Barlow’s, we’ll bake the scallops, the stuffed mushrooms, and the baked brie.”

  “Wait a minute,” interrupted Peichi. “Did you ask Ms. Barlow if we could use her oven?”

  The twins nodded. “She said it wouldn’t be a problem,” Amanda added.

  “So, what I was thinking,” continued Molly, “was that we could start with the appetizers. Then we’ll split up, and have some people working on desserts, and some of us working on the main courses. Natasha, do you want to do the hummus and baba ghanouj? Since those are your recipes?”

  “Sure,” Natasha said.

  “Great. Shawn, how about you? Do you want to do the artichoke dip? Or the stuffed mushrooms?”

  “I’ll do the artichoke dip,” Shawn said as she reached for the jars of artichoke hearts.

  “Okay. Peichi? How about you?” Molly asked.

  “Oh, I’ll do the stuffed mushrooms!” Peichi exclaimed. “I love anything with stuffing!” The girls laughed.

  “So that just leaves Amanda and me,” Molly said, turning to her twin. “Do you want—”

  “I’ll do the baked brie,” Amanda said quickly. “Both of them.”

  Molly sighed. “I guess that leaves me with the scallops,” she said. “Gross.” Molly hated touching raw fish.

  “Don’t worry, Molls. I’ll help with the scallops,” Amanda offered. She put on a new CD she had bought a couple days earlier. “Okay, let’s get started!”

  There was a lot of noise in the kitchen, but not much talking, as everyone got to work. Natasha pricked the eggplant with a long, sharp fork, and then put it in the oven. “If you don’t prick some holes in the eggplant before you bake it, it explodes!” she said with a giggle. “Just like baked potatoes!” While the eggplant was roasting along with the turkey, Natasha made the hummus in Mrs. Moore’s food processor. She used chick peas, garlic, lemon juice, salt, tahini (a puree of sesame seeds), and a little bit of water. Then she turned on the food processor, and the sharp blade mixed everything together. While the hummus was mixing, Natasha got out the bags of pita bread the twins had bought the night before. Using a sharp knife, she carefully cut the pita bread into neat triangles, and then sealed them in some bags so they wouldn’t get stale.