The Ugly Duckling turn Beautiful Swan makes for a great classic fairy tale. But life isn't always fair, pretty, or easy. The world tells us, "You're special if you have beauty, brains, talents and toys." God tells us, "You are special because I made you and I love you just the way you are!" Let Gumbo's journey be our journey. May his encounter with the Master Farmer be one that we will hear intently, love deeply, and live fully. A portion of the proceeds of this book helps to support the life-changing work of the If You Really Knew Me Movement, a non-profit organization dedicated to breaking down walls that divide, promoting acceptance toward others, bullying intervention, and fostering hope for a better future. Together we can make a real difference!
A sprightly, deeply personal narrative about how gumbo—for 250 years a Cajun and Creole secret—has become one of the world’s most beloved dishes. Ask any self-respecting Louisianan who makes the best gumbo and the answer is universal: “Momma.” The product of a melting pot of culinary influences, gumbo, in fact, reflects the diversity of the people who cooked it up: French aristocrats, West Africans in bondage, Cajun refugees, German settlers, Native Americans—all had a hand in the pot. What is it about gumbo that continues to delight and nourish so many? And what explains its spread around the world? A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often began with a chicken chased down in the yard. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn’t a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother’s side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries. In Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, Wells does just that. He spends time with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged. Gumbo Life, rendered in Wells’ affable prose, makes clear that gumbo is more than simply a delicious dish: it’s an attitude, a way of seeing the world. For all who read its pages, this is a tasty culinary memoir—to be enjoyed and shared like a simmering pot of gumbo.
“Makes you want to spend a week—immediately—in New Orleans.” —Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal A cocktail is more than a segue to dinner when it’s a Sazerac, an anise-laced drink of rye whiskey and bitters indigenous to New Orleans. For Wisconsin native Sara Roahen, a Sazerac is also a fine accompaniment to raw oysters, a looking glass into the cocktail culture of her own family—and one more way to gain a foothold in her beloved adopted city. Roahen’s stories of personal discovery introduce readers to New Orleans’ well-known signatures—gumbo, po-boys, red beans and rice—and its lesser-known gems: the pho of its Vietnamese immigrants, the braciolone of its Sicilians, and the ya-ka-mein of its street culture. By eating and cooking her way through a place as unique and unexpected as its infamous turducken, Roahen finds a home. And then Katrina. With humor, poignancy, and hope, she conjures up a city that reveled in its food traditions before the storm—and in many ways has been saved by them since.
One person's love affair with duck hunting, and all things that go with the sport: guns, dogs, decoys, duck conservation and photography. Near the banks of the Missouri River in northwest Missouri is where Jay Gore spent much of the first 18 years of his life. At age 10, he hunted small game in woodlots on family farms. Millions of ducks and geese that used the Missouri River as a corridor for migration provided many opportunities to hone his waterfowling skills. Pursuing these waterfowl gave Mr. Gore the spark to pursue a career in wildlife management. He obtained BS (1963) and MS (1965) degrees at South Dakota State University and the University of Maine respectively. He was a senior waterfowl biologist for six years with the Tennessee Fish and Game Commission. He had a 30-year career with three Federal agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USDA Forest Service.
A Century in the North Peace recounts the life and times of an ordinary but remarkable woman, Anne Callison. Together with her husband John Callison, she lived a 20th century of incredible change in the North Peace River District of British Columbia, Canada. Her tale?from immigration, remote farming, traplines, and trading to the coming of the Alaska Highway and running motels, volunteering and giving back to the community?is told against the backdrop of the history of the region and its peoples, both settler and Indigenous. Alive to history, the book also sets eyes on the future and the challenges to come.
"Much like John T. Edge's Southern Belly in conception but with a more focused regional scope, this book gets at the culture and foodways of the Mississippi Delta through lively descriptions of the region's restaurants, following a geographical path chapter by chapter from Memphis to Vicksburg. Introductions to each chapter as well as box features bring out historical and social context, highlighting famous deltans like Mose Allison and Jim Henson as well as interesting regional topics like "the Fighting Okra" or the annual spaghetti gravy cookoff. Puckett has included ca. 65 recipes, each with a connection to one of the restaurants or featured individuals (Memphis Barbecue Pizza, for example. as favored by Elvis.) Photographs by Langdon Clay illuminate diners, restaurant settings, streetscapes, and shots of Delta life"--
From the colonial era to the present, Marcie Cohen Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates with delight and detail how southern Jews reinvented culinary traditions as they adapted to the customs, landscape, and racial codes of the American South. Richly illustrated, this culinary tour of the historic Jewish South is an evocative mixture of history and foodways, including more than thirty recipes to try at home.
A rooster vows he will not end up in the Mardi Gras community gumbo and warns the animals throughout Acadiana so they too can stay out of the pot. Includes recipe for Gumbo Z'herbes.
Featuring more than 100 luscious recipes, this southern cookbook is filled with romantic suggestions designed to make any meal an intimate celebration.
