Free Holy Guacamole! by NANCY FAIRBANKS Page A

murder? Don’t you even want to know the man’s name?”
    “Okay,” Guevara replied sarcastically. “What’s his name?”
    “I don’t know,” said Barbara. “Carolyn, what’s his name?”
    Like Dolly, I hated to rat on a professor, even if he had been carrying a dangerous-looking hammer. I hesitated, and Olive said, “His name’s Brandon Collins. He’s a geology professor, an’ he wouldn’t hurt a flea. He leads our amateur rock-huntin’ hikes into the Franklins. A lovely man. He can’t be blamed for bein’ a little bit upset now an’ then when his wife is a silly twit like Melanie.”
    “Brandon Collins,” grumbled Guevara, writing it down. “He with the university?” Three of us nodded glumly. “Any other suspects?”
    No one answered, so Vivian said sharply, “It’s your job to find suspects, not ours. We came to see that you do it.”
    “I know how to do my job, lady,” Guevara retorted. “I just gotta be left to get on with it.”
    “Then do so, sergeant. And I must say, I don’t like your attitude. Doesn’t our El Paso training academy teach officers to be courteous to the tax-paying public?”
    Tortilla Soup
    One of my favorite soups is tortilla soup, and one of my favorite places in El Paso to eat it is the Magic Pan in Placitas Santa Fe, a colorful shopping center full of boutiques where you can buy interesting things or just window shop. Owner-chef Annette Lawrence provided this recipe.
    • Cut 2 white corn tortillas in ¼-inch x 2-inch strips. Deep-fry strips in vegetable oil until crisp and set aside.
    • Place 3 boneless chicken breasts in 4 ½ cups boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Boil 10 minutes; remove from pot to cool, and dice when breasts can be handled. Reserve broth.
    • In a medium-sized pot, sauté 1 ½ cups peeled, chopped white onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil until onions are translucent.
    • Puree 2 canned chipotle peppers with sauce (more if you like your soup very spicy) in 1 cup of reserved chicken broth.
    • Add puree and rest of reserved chicken broth to sautéed onions.
    • Add 1 cup chopped tomatoes (seeds and juice removed), diced chicken, and ½ cup chopped cilantro.
    • Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes. Test for seasoning.
    • Ladle into four bowls, add tortilla strips, sprinkle with 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, and top with 1 peeled, sliced avocado (optional unless you’re making tlapeno soup). Serves four.
    Carolyn Blue, “Have Fork, Will Travel,”
Burlington Daily Register.

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    Sources of Information

Luz
    Y ou’d think with all the frigging medication I take, I wouldn’t have to resort to smelly creams, but there I was, middle of the afternoon, hadn’t done anything but walk the dog and surf the web, and my knee was swollen and aching, so I was rubbing in some damn goop made from jalapeno chiles, hoping to get a little relief.
    Of course, I shouldn’t have cut back on the shots, but the stuff costs a frigging fortune, and I was doing so well, I thought I could afford to take fewer. Now I’d have to go out bounty hunting again, catch myself someone with a big reward on his head, that or sell the condo, or end up a cripple like the first time.
    “Get away, Smack. You know and I know that I’m not rubbing cocaine into my knee, and you’re not getting a reward for finding capsaicin cream.” The dog hung her head and sank down beside my chair.
    Given the circumstances, I wasn’t in a very good mood when the phone rang and that asshole Guevara wanted to know what I thought I was doing screwing with his case by talking to the newspaper and siccing a bunch of dumb women on him when he had work to do. “Not like I get to sit around the house, watching TV and living off my retirement,” he snarled.
    “Up yours, Guevara,” I replied, but I had to wonder who the dumb women were who’d come to visit him. Maybe the same one who came to visit me. She was the only person who’d shown any