I love being introduced to new authors and new series and was delighted to have the chance to read SOMETHING FOUL AT SWEETWATER by Sandra Bretting. Set in Louisiana, Sandra brings Southern charm via her protagonist, Missy Dubois. Missy runs a hat shop, Crowning Glory, catering to brides and wedding parties. I loved hearing Missy’s “voice” right off the bat. She’s chatty, uses Southern colloquialisms that had me laughing out loud at times, and she is a tiny bit self-deprecating, making her instantly likable. Missy’s best friend, Ambrose “Bo” Jackson, provides a nice balance to Missy and is owner of Allure Couture, designing bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses. They make a good team and there is definitely chemistry happening in their relationship but it doesn’t detract from the mystery. The author paints strong descriptive scenes bringing the sights, sounds, and smells of the humid bayou to life.
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Weaving murder, superstitions, voodoo queens, and bridezillas into the story, Sandra pulls you in for an entertaining read. She provides plenty of suspects to keep you guessing and turning pages to find out what happens next. Even though this is the second book in the Missy DuBois Mystery series, it is easily read as a standalone.
Even though there aren’t any recipes included with the book, Sandra Bretting has provided Missy DuBois’s Sweet-Milk Biscuits recipe for me to share. Buttery, fluffy, and oh so delicious, these biscuits are easy to mix up for a quick breakfast or snack. The one thing that struck me as the biscuits were baking is that the comforting aroma instantly transported me to my childhood, reminding me of biscuits my Texan dad baked for us on weekends. He wasn’t a cook but did like to make breakfast. Even though I don’t have his recipe, and he has been gone many years, these biscuits are so similar to what I remember and they made a treasured childhood memory more special.
From the Publisher
Louisiana hat maker Miss DuBois is making a name for herself veiling Southern brides-to-be with her sophisticated designs. She’s also gaining a reputation for unveiling murderers . . .
Missy is shocked when she sees the asking price for the Sweetwater mansion . . . in a good way. With business thriving at Crowning Glory, it would be nice to set up shop surrounded by alabaster columns and gleaming mahogany. The Southern connections only deepen when it turns out the real estate agent is Mellette Babineaux, a college classmate and sorority sister. But when Missy drags her best friend Bo along to the mansion for a second look, they barely make it past the live oaks before they discover Mellette’s dead body in a shed. Now, for the sake of her college friend, Missy finds herself investigating everyone from a superstitious Cajun caretaker to a Rolls Royce-driving billionaire–and finding that lots of closet space can mean lots of skeletons, too . . .
A huge thank you to Sandra Bretting for providing winner’s choice of either a print copy or an e-book copy of SOMETHING FOUL AT SWEETWATER for one lucky winner! Print limited to U.S. residents only. Contest ends Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST. Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. The winner will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)
Ingredients
- 6 Tbs unsalted butter
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbs baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup fat-free or low-fat buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Cut butter into small pieces. Spread the butter pieces on a plate and (briefly) place in the freezer while you measure out and mix the dry ingredients. The butter should be cold, but not frozen.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Knead the cold butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small crumbs (about the size of a pea).
- Make a hole in the middle of the flour and add buttermilk. Gently stir until the dough is mixed together but still tacky. If it’s too dry, add more buttermilk.
- Pour the mixed dough out onto a floured surface and pat gently into a rectangle.
- Fold the dough on itself, and then pat down to about an inch thick.
- With a 2 ½ inch round biscuit cutter (I cheat and use a Campbells soup can with the top & bottom removed), push down to cut the dough and pull up again.
- Arrange the biscuits on a parchment-lined cookie sheet almost touching each other and bake for 13-16 minutes until browned.
- Slather with butter and enjoy!
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I received a copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
No Southern dish the I cook. I’m in the Midwest.
I always love a new southern mystery!
Being born in the South, I like almost all Southern food. Those biscuits look great! Thanks!
The biscuits look yummy! Always love mysteries from the South!
I liked her first book and am looking forward to this one.
no favorite southern dish.
Yes. We love soup beans and cornbread.
These biscuits sound sooo good, as does the book!
Corn bread with southern fried chicken. When I was in Tenn in the early 60’s, got to talking with a black lady at a diner. She was on the stool next to me. I asked about cornbread (and it’s texture) to go with the calico bean soup to the waitress and the gal next to me turned & said she had never found a cornbread like her granmama used to make. She mentioned her granny’s cake like cornbread being melt in your mouth. The cook was listening from the kitchen, he came out and mentioned that he had a problem with really great cornbread. He said the one he used was good. But it was not as good as he would like. She told him her grannies recipe which included the use of sour cream. He asked if we would wait and give it a try and hurrying back to the kitchen he gave her variation a try. She was right. It was scrumptious. It was fluffy, moist and with real cream butter, heavenly.
Forgot to mention. She stressed the proper way to “open” a biscuit was to use the fork all the way around. Poking the tines in deep and lifting apart. Not tearing. Not cutting in half with a knife.
Love all kinds of Southern food. But I was raised in the South and still live in a southern state. I’m partial to desserts – banana pudding, sweet potato pie, banana fritters, apple jacks, etc. Thanks for a chance to win a print copy of your book.
No I have never really eaten any southern food but am looking forward to my husband making your recipe. I love it when cozies have recipes as i like to hear about it in the book then i read it to my husband and he right away wants to see the recipe. He is in a cooking mode now as he is laid off till April and I am disabled so he always does or majorly helps me in the kitchen, I like when he takes over but he makes a mess and gets frustrated sometimes that is the results of a good cook he is.
Grits!
I love Southern food but don’t have a favorite recipe.
Sweet potato pie and biscuits and gravy are two of my favorite southern foods.
My beloved MIL
iwho cooked so different from how I was raised , taught me how to cook things to keep her son happy. I must say she liked a lot of the Italian and California food I cooked.
I love biscuits and gravy.
I used to ask my mother to make “her” fried chicken for my birthday dinner. It took some years before I realized that what I really wanted was biscuits with gravy made with the yummy bits left in the pan from making the chicken!
Thanks for a great post. Now I am really hungry for biscuits. Thank you for the chance to win & start reading this series.
I love Chicken fried steak with gravy and fried okra. Add some cornbread an an iced tea and thsts a southern meal to me.
I love Southern foods, especially fried chicken and biscuits. Also catfish and hush puppies. I really enjoy reading Southern mysteries, I have this one on my TBR list. Cant wait to read.
I love Jambalaya! I don’t get to eat it often. But when we had a restaurant in town called Southern Brass, we would go and eat jambalaya and corn bread and listen to some great jazz. They even had a drink called an Orleans Blush…I think it had everything in it that made your cheeks turn red…
I went to UGA and learned to make grits, collard greens, and black Eyed peas!
My favorites are fresh vegetables from the garden prepared in the southern way, corn on the cob, cucumbers in onion and vinegar, fried green tomatoes, baked sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes creamed up with milk and butter.
I have to say that I love to make biscuits of different kinds.
My mom was born in the South and I enjoy fried (baked too) okra and grits.
Love to cook fried chicken, soup beans and cornbread. And love to win a print copy of Something Foul At Sweetwater. Thank you for the chance.
Originally from New Mexico, I don’t know of any particularly Southern dishes I make. However, some of my ancestors did come from Georgia and other parts of the South, so perhaps some of the things I have made are Southern.
This biscuit recipe reminds me a lot of the one my mother made. However, she would grease a round metal biscuit pan, then wipe the top of the biscuit in the grease, turn it over, and then all the biscuits would be touching. The tops would brown beautifully.
Canned biscuits just aren’t the same.
donna (dot) durnell (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
no favorite southern dish i cook. like to eat biscuits and gravy.
Love to make fried chicken, green beans and potatoes.
Love the biscuit recipe
Although a Jersey Girl originally I love to try new recipes
I love fried okra with a splash of hot sauce!
I love sweet tea! Cornbread… Anything yummy, not too spicy, and not too fattening.. Well…
Fried chicken for sure.
We love pinto beans, cornbread and fried potatoes
Thanks Kim for the intro to a new-to-me author! This book sounds like so much fun! I was raised eating German and German/American dishes in the Midwest so I’m not real familiar with true Southern cooking. Hubs likes the Mexican dishes. I always feel so “international” when I cook our favorite foods. Thanks for a chance to win!
Sounds like a good read! Thanks for this opportunity. All of the food faves sound good!
The book and the recipe look incredible. Thanks for the chance to win.