by J. J. Cook
I shook my head in what I hoped was an imperceptible movement.
“What?” Marsh picked up on it. “Are you two plotting something? Don’t forget this gun could go either way.”
And that’s where he made his mistake.
He swung his body with the movement of the gun toward Chef Art and completely away from me. The knife Chef Art had tried so hard to get me to notice was too far away for me to easily pick up. I would’ve had to lunge for it across Marsh.
Chef Art’s cane was closer. I grabbed it as Marsh was swinging back toward me, the gun pointed toward the open food window. I used it to rap his gun hand as hard as I could.
In that moment of surprise, he dropped the gun and roared out his pain, putting his hand to his mouth.
“Oww! What are you doing, Zoe?”
I dropped to the floor and yelled for Chef Art to do the same. It took him what seemed like forever to get down there beside me. Marsh was still standing, nursing his hurt hand.
“Put the gun down, Detective Marsh.” Patti stood in the open doorway with another uniformed officer.
Two more officers appeared in the food window. All of their guns were trained on Marsh.
He slowly raised his arms. “I don’t have a gun. And I think Zoe broke my hand.”
– – – – – – –
The uniformed officers led Marsh away. Patti took the gun from my hand and smiled at me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. A little shook up, but I’ll survive.”
“Good. I’m gonna need a statement from you about this.” She glanced at Chef Art and Ollie. “Both of you, too.”
“But not yet,” Chef Art said. “We haven’t lost the race yet.”
“I’ll leave you to get back to work.” Patti put the gun into a plastic bag. “We’ll talk when this is over.”
“Thanks for rescuing us,” I said before I turned back to three ruined biscuit bowls in the deep fryer.
“It looked to me like you had the whole thing in hand,” she said. “Good luck, Zoe.”
Chef Art stayed with us in the Biscuit Bowl until a real producer’s assistant came by to tell us that Shut Up and Eat had already sold their quota. Ollie put his head down on the order window. Chef Art rolled his eyes and mumbled a lot.
We stopped working and went out to the stage with Bobbie, Delia, and Uncle Saul.
Chef Art complained about the circumstances and told everyone what had happened to us. “You can’t expect someone to win a race with a killer threatening their lives. I demand a redo. I am a sponsor.”
But nothing he said made any difference. In fact, Patrick Ferris joked that he wished they’d thought of putting a stranger with a gun in each food truck for one of the challenges. He was only sorry there was no video footage of Marsh holding a gun on me.
I just realized—there was no sign of Allison. I’d been too involved with everything else going on to notice that she never came back. I complained about that since it violated the direct words of the challenge.
“She didn’t come back to me, either,” Bobbie argued. “It’s not like she was any help. When I catch that girl, we’re gonna have words, believe me.”
The sponsors and producers talked it over and decided that even though Bobbie’s daughter had left, technically, I had help from Chef Art and Marsh, which could’ve been a violation of the challenge, too. They didn’t care that Marsh had held us hostage.
In the end, the big check went to Bobbie Shields of Shut Up and Eat. She cried and wailed on stage, telling everyone about the money she was going to use to put her daughter through college.
I stood on the street with Ollie, Uncle Saul, and Delia. We were all holding hands and trying not to cry—at least I was trying not to cry.
“There’s still the Caribbean cruise,” Delia reminded me.
Like I could leave my business long enough to do something like that at this stage.
We’d tried as hard as we could, and made it through some difficult circumstances. I was happy for Bobbie, in a way, even though Ollie told me I was crazy.
So that was the interview I gave as the loser of the Mobile challenge.
It was embarrassing that I’d lost the challenge at home. I knew I’d hear about it for months to come. No matter. I knew Monday morning I would get up early and go out in the Biscuit Bowl to keep working toward my dream.
That was good enough for me.
– – – – – – –
Miguel was released from the hospital on Saturday morning. The police were done with his Mercedes, so I called Cole and he took me to the impound lot to pick up the car.
Crème Brûlée was difficult that morning, probably still trying to get over the trauma of the race. He didn’t want to eat and kept rolling around on the bed when I tried to get him up.
That didn’t stop me from spending a few extra minutes getting dressed up and coaxing my curls into doing what I wanted them to do. I wore a short white skirt and white and red striped top that looked great on me. I used a little extra eye makeup and wore a pair of white heels.
I looked at myself in the mirror at the diner and approved. I was hoping, if Miguel felt well enough, that we could have lunch out—alone together. We could always do dinner later.
It took forever to get him released from the hospital. We sat around and talked about everything that had happened.
“I know it didn’t end up the way you wanted.” He held my hand. “But I hope you don’t regret it.”
“Not at all. I’m sorry about what happened to you, but I hope you don’t regret it.”
He kissed me. “Not at all.”
Finally, the nurse came in with his release papers. He had to endure the trip to the front door in a wheelchair, but he’d already told me that he wanted to have lunch.
My heart was fluttering in anticipation of a tiny little booth at my favorite café, Lavender Blue. The food was very good there, and I knew the manager would give us a quiet place off by ourselves.
“I like your car,” I told him as he got into the passenger side. “It’s older, but it’s classy.”
“Are you equating me with my car?” He smiled.
“No. It may only be that I’d like any car right now. The Biscuit Bowl can be uncooperative sometimes.”
“What did you have in mind for lunch?”
“I really love Lavender Blue. Would that be okay with you?”
“Sure. It may sound corny, but as long as we’re together. You know what I mean?”
I knew my face was a little pink at his words. I didn’t care. Pink looked good on me. I squeezed his hand and headed across town for the café.
When we got there, there was a big sign in the window that said Closed. I didn’t know why it was there. The café was always open on Saturday.
“I’m sorry. Something must be wrong.” I knew the owner lived right upstairs. “I’m going to pop up there and see what’s going on.”
Miguel waited in the car. He said he wasn’t sure if he could do the three flights of stairs. I got to the front door of the café and peeked inside the window. The door flew open and loud voices yelled, “Surprise!”
I took a step backward, having had all the surprises I’d wanted for a while. Miguel was out of the car and behind me, urging me inside.
I saw both of my parents there, also Ollie and Delia. Wonderful smells were coming from the kitchen as Chef Art, in his cooking whites, waved to me.
Uncle Saul came to greet me. “We thought we’d put together a little lunch for you since you missed the victory dinner.”
I hugged him, and my friend, Lavender, who’d allowed everyone to hold the lunch in her café.
I thanked everyone for being there, and they toasted me with champagne. I toasted them back, and the party really got started.
Patti was there with Macey
Helms. They were off duty and drinking with the rest of us.
“That was a brave thing you did in the food truck yesterday,” Patti said. “Stupid, but brave.”
“All’s well that ends well,” I quoted. “Did Marsh ever admit to killing Alex? He was confessing up a storm in the food truck.”
“Yes,” Helms said. “He tried to drag Tina into it, but I guess she was smart enough to stay away from him, except for that kiss I saw. Marsh was infatuated with her, which was why he killed Alex. He thought he could still have the money and have her, too. At least until the end when she told him to stay away from her. Then she became a liability as well.”
“So she’s going to testify against him,” Patti said. “You broke Marsh’s hand with that cane, by the way. But he’s claiming police brutality.”
I put my hand over my mouth in surprise. “I broke his hand? I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well considering he’s up for the death penalty, I guess it’s not too big a deal.” Helms saluted me with her champagne. “Sorry you lost the race, though, Zoe.”
“Me, too.” I squeezed Miguel’s hand. “But that’s okay. I still have the Biscuit Bowl.”
They moved away, and Miguel and I circulated through the crowd. Cole was there, too. I had a chance to introduce Miguel to him, and thank Cole again for his help.
“I know this wasn’t what you had in mind,” Miguel said when we had a brief moment alone right before lunch was served.
“True, but we’ll get to that later.”
My cell phone buzzed in my handbag. Miguel excused himself to go to the restroom. I glanced at the text I’d received. It was my invitation to food truck rally during carnival festivities in February. To say I was excited about it would’ve been a terrible understatement.
I held up my glass again, and the room got quiet. “We’re going to the Mardi Gras!”
RECIPES FROM THE BISCUIT BOWL!
We’re so excited about selling our biscuit bowls at carnival! We’ll be working on new recipes, trying everything until then. It’s going to be hard to come up with food as exciting as that event!
Here are some of the recipes from the Sweet Magnolia Food Truck Race!
Spiced Peaches
Spiced peaches were a hit for us during the food truck race. They aren’t hard to make and have a cool, delicious zing!
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
4 three-inch cinnamon sticks
10 peaches, about 2 pounds
1 small square cheesecloth
Mix water and sugar in a heavy saucepan.
Tie allspice and cloves in the cheesecloth. Add this and the cinnamon sticks to the water and sugar.
Cover and boil for 5 minutes.
Peel the peaches while the water and sugar are cooking. After the syrup is done boiling, remove cinnamon sticks and cheesecloth bag. Drop the peaches into boiling syrup, a few at a time.
Simmer peaches until tender, about 5 minutes.
Delicious with vanilla ice cream!
Barbecue Chicken
Uncle Saul doesn’t like to share his recipes, but he’s letting me break the rules for this.
We’ll make the barbecue sauce first.
1½ cups dark brown sugar
1¼ cups tomato sauce
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2½ teaspoons ground mustard
2 teaspoons paprika
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Measure and add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix well. When the sugar has dissolved, everything should be mixed. Set this aside until you’re ready with the chicken.
Shredded or pulled chicken:
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken
3 cups barbecue sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
Trim off any excess fat from the chicken. Place in a pan or slow cooker.
Combine the homemade barbecue sauce with the minced garlic and pour the sauce over the chicken. Cook until the chicken is tender and falling apart.
Remove the chicken and shred with a fork. Return the chicken to the pot and stir. The sauce will thicken up in about 10 minutes.
YUM!
White Icing
This icing is good on biscuit bowls and almost anything else!
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
Mix the confectioners’ sugar, butter, and vanilla together.
Add half the milk to start. Stir in to make a thick glaze. Add more milk by drops to reach the right consistency. You don’t want it to be runny.
Spread or pour immediately over cooled pastries. The icing will form a crust and harden as it cools.
How to Make Biscuit Bowls!
I’m sharing my trade secret here for those of you who can’t get to Mobile and get one from me!
2 cups white flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter or vegetable shortening
1 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it forms coarse balls. Add the buttermilk until the mixture is slightly wet. Turn the dough out on a floured board. Gently roll or pat dough until it is about ½ inch thick. Fold the dough three more times then carefully press down to about 1 inch thick.
Here’s where the normal biscuit recipe changes for biscuit bowls.
Spray vegetable shortening into a muffin tin. Use a cutter to cut circles of dough. Place these circles into the openings in the tin, pressing down the center gently. Bake for about 10 minutes until brown. The biscuit dough will rise around the circle, leaving a well in the middle for the filling.
The biscuits don’t have to be deep-fried right away, but don’t wait more than a few hours. The freshest biscuits will make the best biscuit bowls. If you can’t use them right away, freeze them for later.
To deep-fry, simply drop the biscuits into a deep fryer set on high for 2 minutes. You want them to be crisp but not greasy. Be sure to use good-quality vegetable oil in your deep fryer.
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