'Violet!'

'Yes Mama?'

'Can you come out here please?'

Violet, who had been colouring in her room with Finn in his Muppet-Babies colouring book, scampered out into the kitchen where she heard her mother calling her. She grinned when she saw Lanie getting out the flour and the onions. 'We're cooking tonight Mama?'

'Yes, baby. Shane wants us to bring a dish and I thought you might like to help me make something.'

'But Chanukah isn't for another...' Violet counted it on her fingers. 'Another couple of weeks, is it?'

'That's right, and tonight we're using Daddy and the boys are our guinea pigs.'

'Oh, good idea, Mama. Boys will eat anything, even dirt!'

Lanie laughed out loud. 'Says who?'

'My friend Sabrina at school. She says her triplet brothers used to eat sand whenever they went to the beach.'

'Okay, yeah, that is gross, my little flower.'

Violet went to the cupboard, got out her frilly pink apron that said 'Cupcake Queen' in sparkling purple letters on the chest. She loved when she and her mama got to make something in the kitchen. They didn't often and a lot of the time when they did it was with Meredeth because she was the best cook ever, so to do it at home with Lanie was something extra special.

'Are we making a dessert Mama or are we making a dinner thing?'

'One of each, baby,' Lanie said absently as she looked at the recipe she'd printed off the Internet. 'We're going to try making latkes for Shane and some vanilla cupcakes with fruit jelly in the middle. Can you get me the small jars of jam out of the cupboard with the cans?'

'You betcha Mama!'

Lanie scanned the recipe as Violet puttered behind her, mumbling to herself. The little girl was so much like her it was a little frightening. Most assumed because of her profession that Lanie forced herself to be more masculine; the truth was the grim aspects of her career made her even more feminine and sweet - she loved her girlie-pampering products and pretty dresses as much as she loved giving a body a post-mortem.

And if she could do that, she could certainly make a potato pancake without ending up in the burn unit.

'Okay, wash and grate potatoes, two cups worth,' she murmured, then looked over at Violet who was stacking the jars of jam on the counter. 'Great, baby, now can you find me the icing sugar?'

'Yes, Mama.'

'Mama? Vi'let where go?' Finn came wandering out, crayon in one hand and his colouring book in the other. 'Whasha doin', gils?'

'Us girls are doing some baking, Finn,' Violet replied. 'You wanna help?'

'No, puh-lease. I gonna col-ah.'

He turned around and went to his own room this time instead of going back to Violet's room, and Violet gave an exaggerated swipe of her brow.

'Whew, that was a close one, Mama! We want to surprise the boys tonight, right?'

'Yes we do.'

'Daddy is a good cook too, though,' Violet continued, plucking the jar of icing sugar off the shelf and setting it on the counter with the jam. 'Maybe he can help us?'

'He is, but he is good at making Italian food. This kind of food, this is where you and I shine, girlfriend.'

'Hee-hee. We are going to really surprise them.' Lanie frowned on the bowl of ingredients before her. 'This doesn't seem right,' she decided, then looked at her hands; they were completely covered in raw eggs and flour since the recipe said to mix her ingredients by hand. 'Violet, my flower, can you get the phone for Mama?'

'Who we gonna call?'

'Ghostbusters! No, we're going to call Meredeth at home, she's speed dial four, baby.'

Violet heard it ring until Meredeth herself picked up. 'Hello?'

'Hi, Meredeth, this is Violet, my mama has a cooking question and her fingers are all gross so I am going to put you on speaker phone.'

'Okay.'

Violet pushed the loudspeaker button and said, 'Meredeth can you hear me?'

'Yes, Violet, I can hear you loud and clear.'

'Cool! Mama, ask your question.'

'Hey, girl,' Lanie laughed with a note of exasperation. 'You have a good latke recipe you're not using for Chanukah this year?'

'Sure, why?'

'Mama thinks the people who wrote the one she found aren't as good as you,' Violet offered helpfully.

'I'll give it to you tomorrow, how's that?'

'Great.'

'We have to go, Meredeth.' Violet moved closer to her mother, slipped her hand in hers. 'We have cupcakes to make!'