Titus Ray Thriller Recipes with Short Stories Read online

  Titus Ray Thriller Recipes with Short Stories

  A Bonus Feature of the Titus Ray Thriller Series

  by Luana Ehrlich

  Text copyright © 2016 Luana Ehrlich

  All Rights Reserved

  Visit my website: www.LuanaEhrlich.com

  View Book Trailers of Titus Ray Thrillers on YouTube.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To my mother, Mary Lee Pollock, a truly great cook, whose desire to please her family with mouth-watering recipes was only exceeded by her love for her husband and for each of her children and grandchildren.

  Table of Contents

  ABOUT TITUS RAY RECIPES

  Barbeque Brisket

  Titus Ray’s Famous Chili

  Baked Lasagna

  Chicken Tetrazzini

  Broccoli Cheese Casserole

  Sweet Scalloped Corn

  Featherbed Rolls

  Texas Baked Beans

  Dark Chocolate Cake

  Perfect Pitcher of Lemonade

  WHO IS TITUS RAY?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A NOTE TO MY READERS

  AN EXCERPT FROM ONE STEP BACK

  Chapter 1

  ABOUT TITUS RAY RECIPES

  If you’re a fan of Titus Ray Thrillers, you know CIA intelligence officer, Titus Ray, loves to cook. In the first book in the series, One Night in Tehran, Titus talks about his love of cooking and describes growing up in a home where he and his sister, Carla, learned to cook by spending time in the kitchen with their mother. More often than not, her recipes were those handed down by her Polish mother.

  Despite that, the recipes in this book are not Titus Ray’s family recipes.

  Instead, they’re the result of Titus’ own creativity, plus the circumstances he encounters while working for the CIA, where he’s required to spend long hours inside a safe house with a bunch of other operatives while being engaged in an active ongoing operation.

  In this type of atmosphere, Titus has managed to create some of his best recipes.

  Here are those recipes and the stories behind them.

  Enjoy!

  The Story Behind Titus Ray’s

  Barbeque Brisket

  My operations officer, Douglas Carlton, the head of the Middle East desk at the CIA, sent Danny Jarrar and me to Norman, Oklahoma shortly after al-Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist group, attacked the United States on 9/11. Our mission was to check out the connection between the 9/11 hijackers and the University of Oklahoma.

  Jarrar and I had been in Oklahoma once before in 1995 following the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Then, we’d been part of a three-man team the FBI had requested be sent to Oklahoma to investigate a Middle Eastern man seen with the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, before he parked his Ryder truck full of explosives in front of the Murrah Building. When the bomb had gone off, 168 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded.

  Six years later, when the Agency learned some of the 9/11 terrorists had been enrolled at the Airmen Flight School, an aeronautical training school affiliated with the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, Carlton decided to send Danny and me back to Oklahoma.

  In Norman, Danny and I lived in an apartment close to the campus, and Danny used his own Arabic heritage—his father was from Lebanon—to make friends with some of the Muslim students at OU. I stayed in the shadows and ran him as my asset.

  During the two months Danny and I were living in Norman, I discovered how difficult it was for me to adjust to a “normal” American lifestyle. I felt as uncomfortable attending a football game or shopping at a Wal-Mart as I’m sure a suburban factory worker would have felt had he been placed in Cairo, Egypt for two months.

  One day, Danny returned to the apartment and told me he’d been invited to a tailgating party. It was supposed to happen the following Saturday before OU played its biggest rival, Oklahoma State University.

  “I was told the guy who arranged for Moussaoui to travel to Minnesota plans to be there,” Danny said. “I promised to bring enough barbeque for everyone.”

  Zacarias Moussaoui, a Moroccan student identified as the twentieth hijacker, had been arrested before September 11, 2001, but his Al-Qaeda handler, Hussein al-Atlas, had disappeared. The CIA considered al-Atlas a high-value target, and the FBI had him on their most wanted list.

  To put it mildly, I was surprised to hear this information. I said, “Hussein al-Atlas will be tailgating in Norman on Saturday?”

  “That’s what I was told. Did you hear me when I said I have to bring enough barbeque for everyone?”

  I nodded. “So, here’s our operational plan: I’ll make the barbeque for Hussein, and you arrest him.”

  Operation BQ Hussein turned out to be a huge success; the brisket was tender, and the terrorist was led away in handcuffs.

  (You can read more about the time I spent in Norman, Oklahoma, including how I met Nikki Saxon, a beautiful local detective, in Book I in the Titus Ray Thriller Series, One Night in Tehran. You can also read about the time I cooked my barbeque brisket during Operation Peaceful Retrieval in Book IV, Four Months in Cuba.)

  * * * *

  Titus Ray’s Barbeque Brisket

  Better Known as Operation BQ Hussein

  6-8 pounds beef brisket

  2 jars apricot preserves (18 oz)

  2 bottles chili sauce (12 oz)

  1 bottle barbeque sauce (20 oz)

  2 cups water

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Mix all the liquid ingredients together in a slow cooker or a crock pot. Add the beef brisket and cook for 8 hours on high until tender.

  Serves 8-10 people, including a terrorist—until he’s arrested.

  The Story Behind

  Titus Ray’s Famous Chili

  The first time I made this chili was when I was living in an apartment in Beirut with two other operatives. The recipe isn’t original with me. It was given to me by Gladys Carlton, the wife of my operations officer, Douglas Carlton, the head of the Middle East desk at the CIA.

  A few months before Gladys passed away, Carlton asked me to drop by his townhouse in McLean, Virginia following an all-day debriefing session. I thought his invitation meant he had some urgent intel to share with me, or that he wanted to brief me about an upcoming operation.

  But, when I arrived, there were two formal place settings at the dining room table with steaming bowls of chili at each of them.

  He said, “Gladys made up a batch of chili this weekend. Believe me, there’s nothing like it. I tell her it’s the nectar of the gods.”

  After eating just one bowlful, there was little doubt in my mind Gladys’ chili was a winner. When I told Carlton, his face lit up, and he said he’d tell Gladys I agreed with him about her culinary expertise.

  “Don’t bother asking her for her recipe, though. It’s one of her closely guarded secrets.”

  He’d laughed when he’d said secrets, as if Gladys having secrets was particularly amusing.

  That’s when I realized he had no urgent intel to share with me, nor did he want to talk about my upcoming operation.

  Apparently, he simply didn’t want to spend the evening alone.

  Unlike me.

  A few days later, inside my Agency mail box, I found a pink envelope. It contained a note from Gladys written on a single sheet of rose-scented paper.

  The note read, “Than
ks for being a friend to him.”

  The only other item inside the envelope was a recipe card with Gladys’ chili recipe on it.

  Like any good spy, after memorizing the secret formula, I immediately destroyed the evidence.

  Years later, in a safe house in Damascus, I told Carlton the origin of my chili recipe.

  (You can read about his reaction in Book III of the Titus Ray Thriller Series, Three Weeks in Washington.)

  * * * *

  Titus Ray’s Famous Chili Recipe

  1 medium onion, chopped

  2 pounds ground beef

  2 cans Ranch Style Beans (15 oz)

  1 can green chilies (4.5 oz)

  2 cans Mexican-style diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)

  2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz)

  1 can whole kernel corn (15.25 oz)

  1 package taco seasoning dry mix

  1 package dry ranch dressing mix

  1-2 tsp. chili powder

  Brown onion and ground beef together in a Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours. This recipe can also be placed in a crock pot or a slow cooler and simmered for 6-8 hours on the lowest setting.

  Garnish with grated cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

  Serves 6-8 people or three starving CIA operatives.

  The Story Behind Titus Ray’s

  Baked Lasagna

  My mother, Sharon, was a high school science teacher. She taught at the same school for thirty years. She would get up before dawn, grade a ton of papers, do a load of laundry, and put together a casserole for dinner, all before heading out to class. Often, she would be frying meat, cooking pasta, or filling up a yellow crock pot, while I was eating my bowl of oatmeal.

  Some days, the smell of my yet-to-be-eaten evening meal lingered on my clothes all day. For some reason, that didn’t bother me. There were times when I even found it comforting.

  I especially felt that way about her baked lasagna.

  I never thought about making lasagna myself until I found myself all alone in a safe house in Managua, Nicaragua. Perhaps, from a psychological standpoint, I was looking for a little comfort that day.

  I was fresh out of the CIA’s training school at Camp Peary then, and my Agency handler was Toby Bledsoe, a guy who had at least ten years of experience in covert ops. Like a young teenager relating to a parent, I didn’t appreciate his expertise. In fact, I thought I knew everything, and Bledsoe knew nothing.

  Bledsoe and I were on the ground in Nicaragua trying to get support for the Contras, the rebels fighting the Sandinista regime. This was back in 1990, and the Nicaraguan operation was one of my earliest missions.

  When I struck up a friendship with a Sandinista general—against Bledsoe’s explicit orders—I quickly realized I had a lot to learn. In the end, my foolishness nearly got both of us killed, and we ended up losing one of our assets.

  On the day that happened, Bledsoe and I had to seek refuge in a CIA safe house.

  When he’d finished lecturing me about the mistakes I’d made and threatening me with dismissal from the Agency, he ordered me to remain at the house, while he went out to meet with one of the Contra leaders. Once he was gone, I headed straight for the kitchen and started making up a batch of my mother’s lasagna.

  By the time Bledsoe got back, the aroma of the pasta dish had permeated the whole house, and I was feeling less pessimistic about my employment at the Agency.

  When I told Bledsoe I’d made lasagna, I felt sure the smile on his face meant he’d decided to forgive me.

  While he may have forgiven me, he still asked the Agency to transfer me to Barranquilla, Colombia, where I spent the next two years trying to stay one step ahead of a couple of drug kingpins.

  (You can read more about Toby Bledsoe, including what happened when I met up with him again in 2015 in San José, Costa Rica, in Two Days in Caracas, Book II of the Titus Ray Thriller Series.)

  * * * *

  Titus Ray’s Baked Lasagna

  1 large onion, chopped

  2 cloves garlic, chopped

  ½ cup salad oil

  2 pounds ground beef

  2 cans tomato paste (12 oz)

  2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)

  ½ cup water

  ½ cup parsley

  1 tbsp. sugar

  1 tsp. basil

  ½ tsp. pepper

  2 tsp. Italian seasonings

  Sauté onion and garlic in salad oil. Add ground beef and brown. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1-3 hours.

  1 lb. Lasagna noodles, cooked as directed on box

  1 tbsp. salad oil

  2 lbs. cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

  1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated or sliced

  1 cup Parmesan cheese

  Oil a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Create two layers assembled as follows: lasagna noodles, meat sauce, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes to set layers. Cut in squares.

  Feeds 6-8 people. But, it doesn’t soften up an angry CIA field officer.

  The Story Behind Titus Ray’s

  Chicken Tetrazzini

  The night I added roast chicken to some leftover spaghetti and called it chicken tetrazzini was the night another CIA operative and I were stuck in an apartment in Mosul, Iraq doing surveillance on a couple of Iraqis across the street.

  The two men were suspected of being members of an insurgent group known as Ansar Al-Sunna. The terrorist group had claimed responsibility for a recent suicide bombing at Forward Operating Base Marez, and my partner and I were responsible for gathering intel on their movements.

  We’d been watching the Iraqis for over a week, and our food supplies had dwindled down to some leftover roast chicken, pasta, cheese, and a few spices. My partner, an American print journalist who had recently joined the Agency, was verbose about his opinions, passionate about his guns, and vocal about his appetite.

  After handing me the binoculars following his two-hour shift at the window, he’d walked over to the refrigerator and looked inside.

  “There’s nothing in here to eat.” he said.

  I trained the binoculars on the Iraqis’ apartment and said, “There’s plenty of food in there.”

  “All I can see is some leftover spaghetti and two pieces of chicken.”

  “Sounds like chicken tetrazzini to me.”

  “If you can make chicken tetrazzini out of these leftovers, I’ll take over your shift.”

  I handed him back the binoculars. “Deal.”

  Later that evening, after finishing off a big plateful of my chicken tetrazzini, my partner received a disturbing phone call from the Agency.

  (You can read what happened next in Book III of the Titus Ray Thriller Series, Three Weeks in Washington.)

  * * * *

  Titus Ray’s Chicken Tetrazzini

  3 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded

  8 ounce package of spaghetti, cooked

  1 jar chopped pimentos (4 oz.)

  1 cup mayonnaise

  1 cup mushrooms, canned or fresh

  2 cups grated cheddar cheese

  Mix all ingredients together, except for 1 cup of the grated cheese. Pour spaghetti mixture into a large greased casserole dish and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

  Serves 4-6 people or provides three meals to two intelligence officers during a surveillance op.

  The Story Behind Titus Ray’s

  Broccoli Cheese Casserole

  In 2013, I entered Iran on a Swiss passport during Operation Torchlight. My cover name was Hammid Salimi, the son of an Iranian watchmaker and a Swiss businesswoman. According to my legend, I was in Tehran to open up a market for my parents’ line of luxury watches and jewelry.

  The contacts I made among the elite in the Iranian regime were to serve as the prime recruiting ground
for a cadre of assets the Ops Center hoped would help fund the Iranian opposition and topple the government. My mission was successful in that during the two years I was there, I was able to recruit six assets.

  However, my mission took on a different focus when I happened to encounter an Iranian nuclear scientist named Amir Madani. Since the Agency’s efforts to obtain information about Iran’s nuclear program had yielded very little in the way of actionable intel, I was given permission to pursue a friendship with Amir.

  To that end, I purchased an apartment in Shemiran, a luxury apartment complex north of Tehran, where Amir lived. After having several casual encounters with him, I invited him to a small dinner party to meet some of my friends. Because I’d seen him buying broccoli at the neighborhood market, I made it a point to add the vegetable to the dinner I was planning. Then, at the last minute, I discovered he loved Velveeta, the processed cheese spread. He’d become a fan after eating a toasted cheese sandwich made out of Velveeta when he had visited London the previous year.

  An American product like Velveeta was only sold on the black market in Tehran, but I managed to purchase a small package a few days before the party, and, on a whim, I decided to put the two ingredients together in a casserole.

  I told my guests the broccoli casserole was a recipe my mother used to make, but when Amir tasted it, he said, “Hammid, I know you’ve been lying to me about who you really are.”

  I tried to remain calm when I heard his accusation. “Why would you say that, Amir?”