January 14, 2022 King cake opportunity! If you live in my neighborhood, that is. It finally warmed up enough yesterday to get in our regular morning walk, and we discovered that the cute store, Wicks NOLA Candle Company, that's been building out on the corner of Magazine and St. Mary, has finally opened. We met the proprietress, and she invited us to her grand opening King Cake Extravaganza this Saturday afternoon from noon until 3:00. She's going to have various King Cakes on hand to sample, some champagne, and o ...Continue Reading

January 7, 2022 Happy New Year! The year started off with temps in the low 80s, but promptly dropped to true gumbo weather by Monday, and I spent the entire day making a pot of the best chicken and sausage gumbo I've ever made. I wrote it down as I went, and will include the recipe in the March/April print edition. It's an all-day affair, but the end result is well worth it.  Enjoy the recipes below, stay safe and healthy, and, as always, let me know what's on your mind.  Best regards, Susan ...Continue Reading

December 30, 2021 Kiss your significant other on the stroke of midnight, otherwise, risk a year of bickering. Start the year off with a full pantry and make sure you have lots of money in your wallet to ensure plenty and prosperity. Make sure the first person to cross your threshold in the new year is a tall, dark, handsome male, ideally bearing small gifts such as bread, salt, coal, and silver; make sure he leaves by a different door. Accomplish some small task related to your work — not too much, though, because over ...Continue Reading

December 10, 2021 Greetings! this is your last chance to order gift subscriptions to Louisiana Kitchen & Culture for all the food lovers on your list; it's an inexpensive gift that keeps giving all year. If you order now, we'll send out copies of the Holiday Food Guide this weekend, with a personalized gift card. It goes in a first class envelope and will arrive in plenty of time for planning Christmas, New Year, and other holiday feasts, one week until Christmas, y'all; I'm counting down the days. & ...Continue Reading

December 10, 2021 Tis the season! Now is the time to order gift subscriptions to Louisiana Kitchen & Culture to all the food lovers on your list; it's an inexpensive gift that keeps giving all year. If you order now, we'll send out copies of the Holiday Food Guide next week, with a personalized gift card. It goes in a first class envelope and will arrive in plenty of time for planning Christmas, New Year, and other holiday feasts. Two weeks until Christmas, y'all; I'm counting down the days.  &n ...Continue Reading

December 3, 2021 Thanksgiving was the best I've had in years—the food was great, and the company was even better. We had four people at the table who'd never had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal before. After dinner, my 6½ feet tall nephew tipped over on the couch and mumbled, "I'll never eat again." If all goes as planned, we'll head to the west coast to celebrate Christmas with Jim's family; I'm sure my great-nephews have shot up a foot in the two years since I've seen them! My sister-i ...Continue Reading

November 20, 2021 Thanksgiving is here!  If, like me, you don't have your menu quite set yet, I have compiled a list of suggestions here. My key ingredient to a tasty Thanksgiving dinner is a basic turkey stock. It simmers on the stove all night, and we wake up to a house already filled with the aromas of Thanksgiving. I use it to flavor everything from green beans to the turkey gravy, and of course to baste the turkey. If there's any left over, I use it as the base to simm ...Continue Reading

November 12, 2021 Thanksgiving is two weeks from today and I'm gearing up for a crowd. We have a family conference call scheduled to make sure everyone gets all their favorites; macaroni and cheese is at the top of my list. My brother is making a ham, and I'm in charge of the roast turkey; I think I'll go with a dry brine this year, as I've had such good success dry brining chicken lately. In addition to family members I've invited a couple who are new to the US; she is from Thailand, and he is from the Netherlan ...Continue Reading

November 5, 2021 The weather is great; South Louisiana is going to smell like gumbo this weekend, for sure. I might splurge on a pot of it myself, chicken and smoked sausage so I can share it with my friend who has a very unfortunate shellfish allergy. Here's my recipe, made in my Instant Pot; it's still an all-day project, though, unless you have home made chicken stock in your freezer. But it's well worth the time; leftovers freeze beautifully, perfect for a simple dinner on a busy night when you don't have ...Continue Reading

October 29, 2021 Brisk! I love it. We finally had a cool front move through and it looks like it's going to stick around for a while. So I'm all up in cozy food mode for the next few days. Plus, my family just finalized plans for Thanksgiving this year; I'm hosting, my sister is flying in, my brother and his clan are coming, the Netherlands/Thai neighbor couple are coming for their first-ever American Thanksgiving... Last year it was pandemic, the previous year we went to my friend Debbie's house in Brea ...Continue Reading