Hot Dish
by Connie Brockway
Published by Signet
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
This delightful little flounce of a tale is set mostly in Minnesota, in the small town of Fawn Creek.
Jenn Lind, food and lifestyle media star, has just signed with the AMS channel, an ultra-conservative, family values media conglomerate, and is on the cusp of the financial security and success she has craved since she was cheated out of the Queen Buttercup title 21 years before at the Minnesota State Fair. She did however, get her head sculpted in butter, by the budding sculptor Steve Jaax, who went on to art celebrity stardom. Now her hometown wants her to co-chair the sesquicentennial celebration, along with Jaax, and the butter head, which has been lovingly ensconced in her parent's chest freezer all these years.
Many people turn out to be interested in this lump of carved and decaying frozen butter. Jaax, as he hid a key in it as he was finishing it up; Ripley's Believe it or Not, for their museum. It is the oldest butter sculpture in existence! Several nefarious types are also after it--one because he heard about the hidden key years earlier, and figures that now the key in the sculpture will lead him to something worth a lot of money; and the town goof-offs, who just want to ransom it for money.
The story involves:
-- a snowplow chasing a snowmobile (with the butterhead strapped on the back,),
-- a revelation of the physical kind in a steamy ice fishing shack;
-- several games at the nearby casino where a disguised Jenn uses her family's gambling skills to try to save the day;
-- Jenn making Steve the sculptor lose his mind with her incredible hot dish whipped up out of nothing much at Smelka's restaurant around midnight in the middle of blizzard (or was it the aquavit?).
All this does come out to form a highly amusing romp through the snow. Will Jenn see the error of her ways and dump the nasty AMS contract? Will she see Fawn Creek the same way her parents do, after all these years? Will Jenn and Steve find true love in the snow and pines?
The hot dish recipe is not included, unfortunately, but I imagine it could be recreated, if you happen to have a hot sculptor, a counter top, and some aquavit (a throat-burning alcoholic drink) sitting around.
Armchair Interviews: Does this book sound like fun, or what?
Author's Web site: http://www.conniebrockway.com