Yield: enough filling for 12 to 18 cream puffs, 8 servings of dessert pudding, or a chocolate pie.

Chapter Ten

Never had a cat looked so innocent. Hannah stood next to the Kitty Valet and met Moishe’s guileless gaze. “I know your new feeder is lots of fun, but please don’t eat all your kitty crunchies while I’m at work today. Save some for tonight, and maybe even tomorrow. The instructions say that it stores enough food for three days. And that’s for a family with two cats! I know you love to eat, Moishe, but you’re going to get sick if you keep on emptying the whole thing every time I leave.”

He was purring! Her cat was purring! Hannah sighed deeply and gave up lecturing. Chances were that Moishe didn’t understand a word she was saying. And even if he did, he’d ignore her advice the second the door closed behind her.

“Okay, I’m gone,” she said to the cat, who probably wasn’t listening anyway. “I’ll be home around six, and I want to see some food left in that bowl.”

As she walked down the covered staircase to the parking garage, Hannah was frowning. She was worried about Moishe. He’d always been a big eater, but last night when she’d come home from work, she’d found the Kitty Valet that contained his food completely empty.

Even though her feline friend hadn’t been sprawled on his back on the rug groaning, Hannah had still called his vet. It just couldn’t be good for Moishe to eat that much food! But once she’d answered several questions that Dr. Bob had asked about Moishe’s behavior, he’d assured her that once the novelty of unlimited food without human intervention had worn off, Moishe’s eating habits would return to normal.

It was cold this morning, five below zero according to Jake and Kelly on KCOW Radio, and Hannah wished she’d asked Andrea to pick her up. Her sister’s Volvo had heated seats, a welcome luxury in the Minnesota winter. She wondered, idly, how much it would cost to install them in her cookie truck but decided it would probably be several times more than she could afford.

The radio helped her to keep her mind off the cold. Hannah listened to one more pseudo news item on The News at O’Dark-Thirty, something about a pet horse who came inside the farmhouse whenever he smelled cookies baking. That didn’t sound so unusual to Hannah, especially if the cookies were carrot cookies. And thinking about carrot cookies reminded her that she’d promised to bake Terry’s Carrot Cake Cookies for Grandma Knudson, who was trying to convince her grandson, the reverend, that they were an excellent way for him to get his vegetables.